Chapter 1713: An Argument
It was not that she did not want to carry him. It was that Huihui did not even allow Mother Zhou to touch him. She was always waiting for Mother Zhou to admit her weakness and please her. But Mother Zhou could accept everything, except for someone else’s anger toward her.
She had been tough and strong her whole life. Would she let her daughter-in-law, Huihui, gain a hold of her? She was already of such an old age. She had raised her granddaughter, and she had also raised her own son. It was not as though she had never carried children. She was not losing out on anything.
She was not allowed to carry him? That was just as well. Not only did she save her own strength, but she had also saved herself some trouble.
If she had shared a closer relations.h.i.+p with her grandson, Mother and Father Zhou would definitely spend a significant sum of money on their grandson to give him the best. But their grandson’s mom did not want their grandson to be close to them, so there was nothing they could do either. Apart from their grandson, they still had their granddaughter.
Their grandson had both his father and his mother. On the other hand, their granddaughter had lost her mom, and having a father like hers was as good as not having one at all. Thus, the responsibility of taking care of their granddaughter fell on them.
When her grandson had visited her that day, stole her money, and even called her an old foggy so viciously with that chubby face of his, Mother Zhou felt as though her whole world had collapsed. The child was still so young. What did he know? If no one had taught him anything, he would never have been able to call her by such a name.
There had to be someone calling those two elders by such names behind their backs while in the presence of their grandson.
Thinking about how her son had married someone like that, Mother Zhou did not even want to acknowledge her own son. Now, Mother Zhou decided to simply put all her effort and emotions into raising her granddaughter. Anyway, her son visited her once a month at the very most after getting remarried. He acted as though the elderly couple was already dead. Her son was nowhere as filial and considerate as her granddaughter.
Mother Zhou finally came to her senses and decided to ignore her son’s family in the future. Huihui had already taught her five-year-old son to steal. She no longer wanted her son, less say her grandson. What did her grandson even mean to her? Mother Zhou simply told Zhou Zheng to never allow Zhou Cheng to visit her ever again. They were already advanced in age and could not help him raise children. Besides, Zhou Cheng was a troublemaker who would only cause them pain.
Mother Zhou wanted to protect her granddaughter, but her son had even come down to her granddaughter’s school and even slapped her granddaughter! In that instant, Mother Zhou wanted nothing more than to return that slap that Zhou Zheng had given Zhou Xing. “What rights do you have to hit Xingxing? Just a few days ago, both your dad and I were sick and needed someone to take care of us. But where were you as our son? Xingxing’s just a teenager, but she helped us boil water, fed us our medications, and even helped cook porridge for us. Yet, you have the guts to throw a tantrum at Xingxing! Why? Are you upset that Xingxing treats the both of us well and takes care of us when we’re sick? Are you upset that she didn’t let us die? You ingrate, you’re just hoping that we die early!”
The initial agitation and anger that Mother Zhou had gotten when her grandson had first said those words was all vented out on Zhou Zheng.
Zhou Zheng was Mother Zhou’s son, after all, so she was all too clear about what kind of person Zhou Zheng was. Her son had definitely not been the one to have taught her grandson those things. But wasn’t her grandson her son’s son? Did her son not care about him at all? Wasn’t Huihui her son’s wife? Did her son not know a single thing about what kind of person his lover was and how she was raising their son? Was he blind? His heart was truly too obscured.
As head of the house, Zhou Zheng was such a failure to not know anything about what was going on at home, so all fault lied in Zhou Zheng. Zhou Zheng deserved this beating.
“Of course not, Mom. H-How could I ever? Xingxing is lying and maligning Chengcheng. Chengcheng is such a good kid. He likes you guys so much. How could he possibly call you guys old foggies? It’s Zhou Xing. She must have taught Chengcheng to say that behind your backs. It was Zhou Xing who brought Chengcheng astray. How can you put the blame on Chengcheng?”
Initially, Zhou Zheng was totally unable to accept that his son had called his parents old foggies. After getting beaten by Mother Zhou, Zhou Zhou Zheng suddenly realized that it might have been Zhou Xing who had taught Zhou Cheng all these things.
Zhou Cheng was still young, so he would definitely copy whatever other people taught him. The only person in the whole family who looked down on Zhou Cheng and wanted him to look bad in front of his parents was Zhou Xing. It had to be Zhou Xing who had taught him these things! Why had she turned out so wayward?
“Zhou Xing, were you the one who taught your brother those things? Chengcheng is your biological younger brother! How could you do such things to harm your younger brother? You’ll have retribution for this in the future!”
“Retribution!” Mother Zhou’s eyes were red. To her, her granddaughter was even closer to her than her son was. Whoever cursed her granddaughter in this manner was touching on one of Mother Zhou’s taboos. “Retribution already fell on me and your dad when you married such a woman. She’s made it as though we no longer have a son. Now, she’s even given birth to a grandson just to collect debts from us. If we had known about this, we should never have let you decide on who to get remarried to. I know that that woman hates me and your dad! If I had known about just how poor her character is, I would have used my life to stop her from entering our Zhou family!”
Did she really think that she could be the empress of the Zhou family just because she held her son and grandson firmly in her hands? If so, she could continue daydreaming. She did not want her grandson. Anyone who wanted her son was free to have him too. She did not believe that a woman like this could protect both men and make it big in the future.
That woman should not even dream of taking a single cent from her.
Zhou Zheng had embarra.s.sed Zhou Xing in front of her school. As such, Mother Zhou was not at all worried about airing her family’s dirty laundry out in public and embarra.s.sing Zhou Zheng even further.
From the content of the quarrel between the mother and son, everyone had gotten the gist of what was going on. After Zhou Zheng had gotten remarried, not only did Zhou Xing get a stepmother, but her birth father had also turned into a stepfather! More importantly, even his biological parents had gotten a stepson. Zhou Zheng was entirely biased toward that second wife of his. He could not care less about his daughter or parents.
What a shameless and heartless thing to dare to hit his own child in front of her school!
Everyone looked at Zhou Zheng with disgust. He had both his parents and children to take care of, but Zhou Zheng had thrown aside both his parents and his child for the sake of a woman. This was something a person should not do as a father or a son. He had lost his most basic morality.
Zhou Zheng was embarra.s.sed by the accusing stares of the bystanders. “Mom, I’m sure there’s been some misunderstanding. Chengcheng is a good kid. You’ll realize that one day. I’ll find some other time to explain this to you.”
Unable to withstand the stares, Zhou Zheng walked away covering his face.
Mother Zhou booed at Zhou Zheng before taking Zhou Xing to the hospital. Thankfully, that slap had only caused a nosebleed, and Zhou Xing had not sustained any other serious injuries.