Chapter 1670: Chapter sixteen77: Guessed It
“Wait, that girl is surnamed Zhou and she is sixteen this year. You’re giving me a call for the first time today. I remember Qiao Zijin’s husband was called Zhou Zheng back then. The daughter they gave birth to would be sixteen this year as well. However, isn’t that girl called Zhou Ying?”
Qiao Nan was a sensitive person, especially since Ding Jiayi was the kind of person who wouldn’t go to her unless there was something to ask from her. It was already Qiao Nan’s instinct to automatically translate Ding Jiayi into a conspiracy theory once she received her call.
How were there so many coincidences in this world? Both of them were surnamed Zhou and were sixteen this year. Ding Jiayi didn’t contact her for a long time but did so when Er Bao was dating this sixteen-year-old girl surnamed Zhou. She even asked her bluntly if she knew who this girl Er Bao was dating was.
After linking everything together, Qiao Nan thought of a most unlikely answer. Conan Doyle said before: After eliminating all the impossibilities, what is left must be the truth despite how incredible it might sound.
It was also because of this that Qiao Nan would make a bold a.s.sumption that this girl named Zhou Xing was somehow related to Zhou Ying.
Qiao Nan immediately heard clearly the sound of a gla.s.s item in Ding Jiayi’s hands being shattered to the ground due to shock.
Upon hearing this crisp sound, it was no longer necessary for Ding Jiayi to answer as Qiao Nan already had one in mind. “So Zhou Xing is Zhou Ying? How absurd! If Zhou Xing was really Zhou Ying, she would be cousins with my Er Bao. That’s within three generations! She shouldn’t be serious about Er Bao if that was the case. She’s dating Er Bao to take revenge on me? She’s insane. Indeed, she’s Qiao Zijin’s daughter. When she goes crazy, she’s just like Qiao Zijin. How could she use such a matter to seek revenge? Has water entered her brains?!”
Qiao Nan couldn’t help but feel exasperated. To be honest, among the people she had met in her two lifetimes, Zhou Xing was the craziest. When Qiao Zijin became ruthless, it didn’t even compare to Zhou Xing’s behavior now. Was Zhou Xing prepared to throw herself into a fire pit as well? Didn’t that mean something was wrong with her brains?
“No, Xingxing is not a scheming girl. Don’t misunderstand her or be angry. Xingxing is a good child and a pitiful one. You also know that after Zijin’s death, Xingxing lost her mother and was only left with her father, Zhou Zheng. It was a pity that Zhou Zheng remarried his first lover and the two of them even gave birth to a son after that. Zhou Zheng treated the child she brought over from her preceding marriage better than Xingxing, the birth daughter. If not for the old couple in the Zhou family who treated Xingxing well, she wouldn’t have been able to survive in the Zhou family.”
Ding Jiayi felt panicked. She didn’t expect Qiao Nan to have guessed the truth of the matter when she had just made a call and hadn’t even said anything yet. She even guessed that Zhou Ying had changed her name to Zhou Xing. She knew it. It wouldn’t be as easy as what Xingxing had said. How could the Zhai family not have guessed whose daughter Xingxing belonged to?
She knew it. She knew it!
“In this lifetime, only the old couple from the Zhou family treated Xingxing well. However, when Xingxing was thirteen, the old couple from the Zhou family met a car accident and lost their lives. Xingxing’s heartless father immediately rushed over to the house Xingxing was staying and wanted to chase her out. Thankfully, when the old couple from the Zhou family was alive, they had left a will to leave everything from the Zhou family, except the house that Zhou Zheng is currently living in, to Xingxing. Otherwise, how would a thirteen-year-old child like Xingxing be able to survive with a father like that?”
She wasn’t young anymore. Back then, she couldn’t even provide for her daughter, Zijin, let alone a granddaughter now.
Thankfully, the old couple from the Zhou family had left behind quite a huge sum of money. It was sufficient for Xingxing to complete her studies and take away as dowry when she married someone in the future. As long as Xingxing didn’t squander everything that was left behind by the old couple from the Zhou family, she could lead a good life without having to go out and work.
At this time, Ding Jiayi was extremely thankful for the love and care the old couple from the Zhou family had provided Zhou Xing. It was because of their bias to Zhou Xing that she could still live on after their death.
It was also at this time that Ding Jiayi similarly couldn’t help but agree that Qiao Nan had really put in effort to help Qiao Zijin find a partner back then. Regardless of whether Zhou Zheng was a good man, the old couple from the Zhou family was good. Even if Zhou Zheng wasn’t capable, at least, the old couple was.
It was also at this critical moment that Ding Jiayi understood that to her daughter and grandchildren, an understanding and reasonable in-law family was much more important than a reliable son-in-law.
Zhou Zheng couldn’t let Zijin and Xingxing lead a good life. Once Zijin was gone, Zhou Zheng would remarry sooner or later. If it wasn’t to his first lover, it would have been to another woman. With a stepmother, even if Zhou Zheng was any more reliable as a birth father, he would become a stepfather sooner or later.
However, the old couple from the Zhou family was reliable and the situation was very different. She thought of how she herself liked sons and grandsons. However, when the old couple from the Zhou family had a grandson, they still always showered all their love to Zhou Xing. Only Ding Jiayi knew it in her heart how grateful she was to this old couple.
Based on this point alone, she had to acknowledge that Qiao Nan wasn’t all that ruthless to her own family. If it wasn’t for Zijin who had given up leading a good life and ended up having an affair with a man outside, Zhou Zheng would have been managed by the old couple from the Zhou family well and wouldn’t have done anything sorry to Zijin.
She knew that it was Zijin who had betrayed Zhou Zheng first and that Zhou Zheng reconciled with his first love after that. Even when Zhou Zheng’s heart wasn’t on Zijin, he had made sure he was loyal during their marriage. However, Zijin herself didn’t do this. Upon thinking about Qiao Zijin’s death, Ding Jiayi really couldn’t say anything else, especially badmouthing Qiao Nan.
“She’s pitiful? She wants others to be as pitiful as her just because she’s pitiful? Did I cause her to be pitiful? She didn’t know how Qiao Zijin died but you should know. How did you tell Zhou Xing about Qiao Zijin’s matter? Qiao Zijin first positioned herself under my car, then refused to see you and wanted to seek death by rejecting the doctor’s treatment. How is that related to me? On what basis should she seek revenge on my son? If I really want to be calculative, you and Qiao Zijin were the ones who did something wrong to me but I still made arrangements to provide you a prosperous life. Comrade Ding, we have to talk about our conscience as humans. Aren’t both of you too overboard?”
Everyone had a soft spot. Qiao Nan’s soft spot was naturally her three children.