Chapter 1717: Don’t Know
“Mom, no matter how angry you get, you shouldn’t use such words against me. When were you and did even sick? How was I supposed to know about it if you didn’t tell me? You know very well what kind of job I have. I’m quite busy.” He really had no idea when his parents had fallen sick. If he had known, would he really have not come to visit them and take care of them?
He felt very wronged.
“Yes, you’re really busy. Let’s forget about you not being able to visit us. But you’re so busy that you don’t even have time to give your dad and me a call. You said that you didn’t know that your dad and I fell sick. I won’t talk about anything else, but I did call you about this matter. I guess you were in a meeting at that time, so I couldn’t get through to your phone. Afterward, I called your wife, and your wife did pick up the call. But in the end, Xingxing had to apply for three days of sick leave to stay at home to take care of our meals and feed us our medications.”
It was also because of this incident that Father and Mother Zhou completely gave up on their son, feeling that their son was not even as filial as their granddaughter.
When that incident with Zhou Cheng happened, Father and Mother Zhou completely lost hope in the grandson. Since they could not count on their son or grandson, they would not do so. As long as their granddaughter was good to them, that was good enough for them.
“If you don’t believe me, our medical bills and prescriptions are still with the hospital. And I’m sure Xingxing’s teacher still has a record of her applying for sick leave. As for whether or not I did make a call to your home, it’ll be even easier to trace that. You can go to the telecommunications bureau or the mobile carrier to check on it yourself. All right. Just leave. Don’t come back.”
Mother Zhou shooed Zhou Zheng away wearily. Now, the sight of her son no longer brought her joy. Instead, it only angered her, so much so that her stomach hurt.
Knowing that so many people had heard about him being unfilial, Zhou Zheng’s face flushed in embarra.s.sment. His head was so heavy that he could not even lift his head up and could only leave with his head down.
Since Zhou Cheng had not turned up, there was no way of proving the truth. But there was no one who did not understand that Zhou Cheng was indeed a bad kid. Otherwise, there was no way he would not come to prove his own innocence no matter how scared he was. As a male, even if he was only five years old, how was he going to be a man when he grew up if he did not even have the slightest sense of responsibility?
It was obviously true that he had been led astray. But to be led astray by Zhou Xing? That was utter nonsense!
Zhou Zheng had no way of explaining this matter, and he had not even responded to the news of Father and Mother Zhou’s illness. Zhou Zheng had even more so no way of explaining that matter. The neighbors did know a little about Father and Mother Zhou’s illness. In those few days, they had not seen the elderly couple get out of the house to buy necessities. It had been the young Zhou Xing who had done so alone.
At that time, they had found it strange. The school term was still ongoing, so why was Zhou Xing always at home? It turned out that she had been staying at home to take care of her sick grandparents. How could such a good child ever teach Zhou Cheng to say such unfilial things?
Zhou Zheng had lost all dignity and had no choice but to head home. The moment he returned home, Zhou Zheng called his wife into the room. Before long, the two children outside could hear their parents arguing loudly.
In their memories, their father had always treated their mother well and had always listened to their mother. Their mother always had the final say. Their father had never spoken to their mother with his voice raised, let alone argued with her.
Zhou Cheng was still young and did not understand what was going on. But Zhou Mengmeng, who was a year or two older than Zhou Cheng, understood much more than Zhou Cheng. She knew that their family’s situation was because her mom was good at taming her husband. If it was not for her mom’s skills, would it be possible that her stepfather had not even seen his own parents twenty times in five years?
In front of her mom, her stepfather was like a little bunny. That was what made Zhou Mengmeng even more curious about what had happened that the stepfather who had always been a meek and mild bunny had suddenly transformed into a huge and ferocious tiger. She even heard her mom crying and apologizing.
“Sister, why are Dad and Mom fighting? Dad is scaring Mom. Dad is a bad person.” Zhou Cheng stood beside Zhou Mengmeng uneasily, pulling on Zhou Mengmeng’s clothes.
In this family, he was used to his dad listening to his mom, and his mom favoring him. That was why he was the little emperor in the family. Hearing his mom cry after being scolded by his father, Zhou Cheng was frightened.
Zhou Mengmeng patted Zhou Cheng on the shoulder. “Don’t worry. It’s normal for parents to argue in other families. Everything will be fine once they’ve finished arguing.” As long as her younger brother, Zhou Cheng, was around, this family would never fall apart, and she would not need to be a child without a father. Although he was a stepfather, as long as she listened to her mom, her mom would not make her life in this family difficult. It would still be better than Zhou Xing’s at the very least.
Zhou Mengmeng would rather be satisfied with that.
With Zhai Hua’s help, it had not been difficult for Zhai Yu to find out about Zhou Xing’s past. The vivid descriptions in the material that Zhai Yu had gotten hold of gave Zhai Yu the feeling that she was vicariously living in that situation.
Initially, Zhai Yu had hated Zhou Xing because Zhou Xing was Qiao Zijin’s daughter, and she was even so thick-skinned as to seek revenge for her mother by dating Zhai Xin. But after learning about Zhou Xing’s past, added on with the fact that Zhou Xing was repentant and willing to change her ways and not disturb the Zhai family in the future, Zhai Yu could not bring herself to hate Zhou Xing anymore.
It was true that despicable people were sure to have pitiable backstories.
“Mom, it’s really been quite hard on her. She lost her mom, and her dad was just as good as gone. Sigh. If she did not have her grandparents, I think Zhou Xing might not have survived with a stepmother like that.” No matter how unreliable her elder aunt was, she would definitely have treated her biological daughter well.
As long as her elder aunt was around, would her elder aunt allow other women to bully her daughter like that? Even if Zhou Zheng showed up, she was sure that her elder aunt would be able to make so much trouble for Zhou Zheng that he would kneel down in surrender because of her temper.
“Mom, since Zhou Xing has already learned her lesson and apologized to Zhai Xin, shall we just put this matter to rest?” Zhai Yu truly pitied Zhou Xing and felt that Zhou Xing was different from her elder aunt. Zhou Xing was still rational and had morals. Her worldviews were not too corrupted.
Qiao Nan answered Zhai Yu, saying, “When has our family ever taken the initiative to provoke other people?” Even when Qiao Zijin had wronged her, she had never thought of getting revenge on Qiao Zijin’s daughter, Zhou Xing, just because of what she had experienced at Qiao Zijin’s hands.
If Zhou Xing had not come for them and hurt her child in this way to get revenge on her, she could not care less about how Qiao Zijin’s daughter was doing at the moment.