Chapter 1779: Denial
He could not be certain that he would really not touch any other woman except for Qiao Nan if he had really gotten married to Qiao Nan. But what he could be certain of was that he would only do that once in a while as a means of spicing up his relations.h.i.+p with Qiao Nan.
At the thought of Qiao Nan, his impetuous heart could finally calm down. He felt as though only a place with Qiao Nan was a warm and comforting place that enticed him to return. But these were feelings that Qiao Zijin had never been able to provide him with. Perhaps he should never have let his pride get the better of him at that time.
His father was right. One misstep led to a fall down the wrong path.
Even though they were biological sisters, Qiao Zijin was completely different from Qiao Nan. Because of Qiao Zijin, he had missed out on Qiao Nan, causing his life to spiral into a mess, so much so that his life was actually regressing!
“What did Ding Jiayi say?” Father Chen looked at Chen Jun. Father Chen agreed with Chen Jun’s a.s.sessment of Ding Jiayi’s relations.h.i.+p with Qiao Zijin. Ding Jiayi was rather brainless. As such, no matter what she did, she always listened to whatever Qiao Zijin told her to do. She truly thought that her daughter, Qiao Zijin, was extraordinarily intelligent and promising, and thus, she would never go wrong by following Qiao Zijin’s advice. Hence, whatever Ding Jiayi said was sure to be what Qiao Zijin had said. There was no doubt about that. But there were some things that Qiao Zijin felt were inappropriate for her to say. To leave a good impression on others, she pushed all that responsibility to Ding Jiayi, who thus became her spokesperson.
Father Chen had nothing to say about Ding Jiayi deceiving herself like an ostrich because he could not even be bothered to evaluate it.
“She said that our family must take responsibility for Qiao Zijin’s surgery fees and give her a five-thousand yuan monthly living allowance once she’s discharged.” To be honest, this was not a difficult request for the Chen family. They were completely able to afford it.
Before the couple had gotten divorced, Chen Jun had also been giving Qiao Zijin around four to five thousand yuan worth of monthly living allowances. But the problem was that they had not yet been divorced at that time. Now that they were divorced, it did not make any sense for him to support Qiao Zijin as though they were still married!
He thought about how a woman like Qiao Zijin had the guts to cheat on him. If this was not a civilized society, he would have killed Qiao Zijin long ago when he first saw Qiao Zijin lying naked in some other man’s embrace, let alone now that he was expected to support her.
No wonder people always said that the ugly always created more trouble.
At that time, Qiao Zijin had already shown that she had no limits and that there was nothing she dared not do after she had s.n.a.t.c.hed him over from Qiao Nan.
“Nonsense!” Mother Chen was the first to disagree. “Does money grow on trees? She’s asking for a few hundred thousand yuan just like that!” Qiao Zijin was only forty years old. Now, it was not uncommon for people to live to their seventies or eighties. A year’s worth of allowances was sixty thousand yuan. Ten years’ worth would be six hundred thousand yuan. Thirty years’ worth would be a million and eight hundred thousand yuan! With the cost of the surgery, that would add up to almost two million yuan!
How could Qiao Zijin be so ‘capable’ that she could pocket two million yuan from just opening her mouth? “We absolutely cannot agree to her terms. Believe it or not, once we agree to this, she might just ask for a one-time payment. When that time comes, our family will have to fork out at least two million yuan all at once. If we were really to pay her, we’ll be creating trouble for ourselves.”
As government officials, the mention of money would always draw other people’s attention, even if the money was obtained through legal means. When a large sum of money came into the picture, they would become easy targets.
“We have two choices now. One, we can choose to go bankrupt. That is, of course, not without its risks. Two, we can choose to be humiliated.” Father Chen’s expression was not much different from Mother Chen’s. At the mention of his ex-daughter-in-law, Qiao Zijin, Father Chen was utterly disgusted and frustrated. The Chen family had truly acc.u.mulated ten lifetimes worth of bad luck and exhausted it all on getting an ex-daughter-in-law like Qiao Zijin.
When their son got remarried in the future, the elderly couple would have to keep their eyes open to ensure that there would be no second Qiao Zijin in the Chen family. If this happened a few more times, their lives would definitely be shortened.
It was either bankruptcy or humiliation. Faced with such a choice, Chen Jun would much rather go bankrupt than let the whole world know that the wife of the police commissioner of Ping Cheng cheated on his husband! But going bankrupt was not as simple as it seemed. It could very well involve the sensitive topic of corruption.
It was not as though he could choose to go bankrupt as he wished. “So I guess we can only choose to get humiliated?”
“I guess. Juner, be more open-minded about this. Even though not everyone knew about her getting married into our family, we’ve already been humiliated ever since she married into the Chen family. It’s just that not many people knew about this. Now, it’s just that more people will find out about this matter. Just let her have her way. I’ve finally understood that Qiao Zijin is a scoundrel! The nicer you treat her, the more she’ll bully you by putting in unreasonable demands.”
Pitiful? What nonsense!
How could a woman who had cheated on her husband and had been caught red-handed be pitiful? She could not wait for this woman, who had ruined the Chen family’s reputation, to die! Why was she not dead yet?
“All right. We’ll just leave this matter aside and let Qiao Zijin kick up as much fuss as she likes. Your mom is right. We’ve already been humiliated by her. All that’s happening now is that we’re getting even more humiliated. Anyway, I’m not feeling very well. I’m going back to my room to rest for a bit. Don’t bother calling me for dinner later. Just let the auntie bring my dinner into the study room.”
Even he had started to worry that the sight of his grandson would remind him of his grandson’s mom. If that were to happen, he would not even need to eat anything. His anger would fill him.
In an instant, the situation with Qiao Zijin’s son, who had once been treated like a precious gem in the Chen family, became incredibly awkward. Initially, he had been pampered and treated like a little emperor in the Chen family. But because of a mom like Qiao Zijin, he was now out of favor.
Chen Feng naturally felt the change in his grandparents’ att.i.tudes toward him. It was not just his grandpa and grandma. Even when his dad got home from work now, he no longer asked about his son’s day nor fussed over his son. Chen Feng was not young anymore, and he knew whatever he should know.
He knew that his mom had done something wrong against his dad. That was why the two of them had gotten a divorce and his mom had returned to live with his maternal grandma. Recently, his mom had even been in the news, and it was exactly because of this that the Chen family had been utterly embarra.s.sed.
The thought of his cla.s.smates in school asking him about whether that woman on television was his mother and why they looked alike, Chen Feng’s expression darkened. In school, he absolutely denied that that woman was his mom.