Chapter 1691: Believing Her Son
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
The Zhai family was gathered together to celebrate the Spring Festival together. As such, the atmosphere was great. After giving Qiao Dongliang the cold shoulder for three years, the Zhai family once again invited Qiao Dongliang to celebrate the Spring Festival with them from the fourth year on. They even invited Qiao Dongliang to stay over at their house and only return to his home on the third day of the new year.
He had learned his lesson in the past. Besides, Qiao Zijin had already been gone for eleven years. No matter how much Qiao Dongliang’s heart ached for Qiao Zijin for pa.s.sing away at such a young age, Qiao Zijin had already been gone for eleven years. In these eleven years, he had never allowed the incense on Qiao Zijin’s altar to go out. As for more practical matters, Qiao Dongliang did not do anything. Neither did he dare to do anything.
In these eleven years, Qiao Nan and Qiao Dongliang had established a tacit agreement: never to mention Qiao Zijin or Ding Jiayi.
On New Year’s Eve, Qiao Nan dragged Qiao Dongliang to the study room for a chat because of Er Bao. This was the second time that Qiao Nan had been so serious and somber when talking to Qiao Dongliang after Qiao Zijin’s death. Qiao Dongliang was so scared that he immediately sat up straight in his seat. “Nan Nan, what’s the matter? Don’t tell me that your mom is bothering you again?”
He had thought that Ding Jiayi had been living apart from them for eleven years without any trouble. Ding Jiayi was already old and might not have many more years left. She probably would not try to cause trouble now. Or had he guessed wrongly? Could Ding Jiayi be a troublemaker even in her old age?
“This incident has nothing to do with Mom. I’m just keeping you informed. Dad, you should remember that you have another granddaughter apart from the triplets.”
“Do you mean Zijin’s daughter?” Qiao Dongliang only knew about the existence of this granddaughter, but Qiao Dongliang knew nothing about how old she was, how she looked like, whether her academic results were good, or which school she attended. He had not raised that child, so it was only natural that Qiao Dongliang’s feelings toward Zhou Xing were not as deep as his feelings toward Qiao Zijin.
“Yes.” Qiao Nan told Qiao Dongliang about Zhou Xing’s intentions. “At that time, my life wasn’t entirely bad. At least, I was still alive and had the chance to study. But it is true that I did not get to live like other children because of Qiao Zijin. I can forget about how you guys treated me. I even let Qiao Zijin marry into the Zhou family, but she was greedy and dissatisfied with what she had. I think that my conscience is clear toward my family and I have done my duty as a daughter. But my three children owe the Qiao family nothing. If anyone schemes against my three children, I won’t care if the other party is my niece. I’ll deal with her all the same. No one will be able to change my mind. Do you understand, Dad?”
“Yes…” Qiao Dongliang’s face paled. “But as for this matter, even if you decide to be softhearted and not take issue with it, I won’t agree to it either. If we really let Zhou Xing and Er Bao get together, what would happen? Wouldn’t that be incest?” Now that there were fewer children, the relations.h.i.+ps between cousins were not all that different from between siblings. How could they get together?
Leaving aside the Zhai family’s ident.i.ty, even if Nan Nan was married to an ordinary person, he would definitely not allow his granddaughter to get together with his grandson! “I may not be as educated as you, but I know that the law doesn’t allow for such unions. If the two of them get together and have a child, this child won’t be normal. Isn’t this putting someone in danger?”
Endangering yourself was nothing, but it was too much to make the next generation bear the consequences!
“I think that this la.s.s, Zhou Xing, is even crazier than Zijin in the past. I did say that your mom is the kind of person who knows nothing about raising a child. The Zhou family couple is indeed muddleheaded. How could they hand Zhou Xing over to Ding Jiayi? Ding Jiayi is Zhou Xing’s grandmother, and I’m her grandfather. If Zhou Xing had followed me, I would never have allowed Zhou Xing to do such a thing or even have such ridiculous and scary ideas.”
If Zhou Xing dared to have such an idea, he would break Zhou Xing’s leg immediately to prevent Zhou Xing from carrying out her plan.
At that time, he had already felt that Ding Jiayi had raised Zijin wayward. Because he pitied Zijin and felt that he owed Zijin, he had hardened his heart and decided to teach Zijin a lesson. That was why he ended up sending his own daughter off.
If he were to get custody of Zhou Xing, he would never commit the same mistake again with Zhou Xing. Spare the rod, spoil the child. Even if this was not set in stone, it was very often useful. If children were disobedient? Spank. Spank them until they were in pain. He did not believe that Zhou Xing would not repent.
“Why didn’t you tell me about this earlier? If I had known about this, I would have directly gone to her school to find Zhou Xing. Now, Zhou Xing must have gone back to Ping Cheng to spend the new year with Ding Jiayi. If this child continues to live with Ding Jiayi, she will turn into a second Zijin sooner or later. From next year onward, I’ll take charge of Zhou Xing. I’ll take Zhou Xing home during her holidays in the future!”
This time, Qiao Dongliang had really made up his mind.
Qiao Nan was not the least bit surprised at Qiao Dongliang’s strong reaction to this matter. But Qiao Nan had not expected Qiao Dongliang to want to care for Zhou Xing.
She had thought that it would already be very understanding of Qiao Dongliang if he did not blame her for being so ruthless toward Zhou Xing. She had never expected that her father was prepared to be ruthless himself.
For herself and for the sake of the Zhai family, Qiao Nan knew that it would be best for Qiao Dongliang to discipline Zhou Xing strictly. “Alright, Dad. You’ll pay more attention to that child, Zhou Xing. How Zhou Xing turns out in the future will depend on how ruthless you are and whether you’re able to right this wrong.”
Qiao Nan was unsure if Qiao Dongliang would be able to do something that he had not even been able to do with Qiao Zijin and whether he would truly be able to handle this responsibility.
Anyway, she would let her dad take care of the matter first. Only when her dad could no longer do it would she interfere in the matter.
The father-daughter duo finished their discussion before exiting the study room. When they emerged from the room, no one from the Zhai family questioned them about what they had talked about in the room. Because the issue of Zhou Xing was a little sensitive, Qiao Nan had not told Zhai Yaohui or Miao Jing about the matter. She had only informed Zhai Sheng about this earlier on.
As such, Zhai Sheng did not ask about it, but he could guess that the father and daughter had been discussing how to deal with Zhou Xing.
In Zhai Sheng’s eyes, if Zhai Xin could not even handle such a small problem like Zhou Xing and was even confused by Zhou Xing, then he had raised his son for nothing. The problem was that he did not think that his son was such a fool. Besides, his son had grown up seeing his mother. Qiao Zijin was no good egg, so her daughter Zhou Xing was probably not much better.
With a pearl like Nan Nan in front of him, Zhai Xin should be able to see just how crooked Zhou Xing was. Zhai Sheng chuckled. What more was there for him to say? It was always that sentence. He trusted his son.