From then on, no matter how hard Zhou Zheng tried to contact Father and Mother Zhou, they never answered him. He tried to call them, but his call would never get through. When he visited them, they would never open the door. Were they playing the waiting game? Father and Mother Zhou were trying to publicize what Zhou Cheng had done without any hesitation.
Were they trying to say that the incident was fake and that Zhou Xing had not led Zhou Cheng astray? They even said that Zhou Cheng had been raised up wayward by that woman. If they were capable of doing so, they should just call everyone out so that they could confront each other. Zhou Cheng was just a five-year-old child. There was no problem with telling one or two lies, but there was no way Zhou Cheng could cover up everything so well.
He really wanted to see who had led Zhou Cheng astray.
Zhou Zheng wanted a confrontation so as to prove both his son’s and his own innocence. But when he told Huihui about the matter, Huihui’s expression was strange.
Other people might not have known, but could Huihui be unclear about what she herself had said? She had indeed called her parents-in-law old foggies in front of her son and had also told her son that everything of the Zhou family belonged to her son. Even her parents-in-law’s money was her son’s. She was her son’s mother. Once her son became rich in the future, he had to remember to be filial to her.
When she first learned that her son was almost beaten, Huihui had been too angry and had immediately put the blame on Zhou Xing. She felt that anything bad had to be Zhou Xing’s fault. Zhou Xing had bullied Zhou Cheng simply because he was young and could not speak well. But afterward, Huihui could not help but ask her son about what had happened again.
In front of his mom, Zhou Cheng quickly broke down and told her the truth. It was then that Huihui learned that Zhou Xing indeed had nothing to do with this matter at all. But it could not be too bad if this could further sour the relationship between Zhou Xing and Zhou Zheng. The only thing she worried about was how long her parents-in-law would stay angry at Zhou Cheng for.
The angrier her son made her parents-in-law, the more Zhou Xing would benefit from it and gain more advantages from her parents-in-law.
Right from the start, Huihui had never once imagined that Father and Mother Zhou would hand over their whole lives’ efforts to their granddaughter, Zhou Xing, and leave only a little bit to their son, Zhou Zheng. As for Zhou Cheng, whom she thought should have been the apple of Father and Mother Zhou’s eyes, did not even get a single cent from the Zhou family.
At first, she had thought that there was no way Father and Mother Zhou would stay angry at their grandson and be so petty with a child since Zhou Cheng was their only grandson. Could they really give up their grandson? She did not believe that they would do such a thing. If she let her son stay away from her parents-in-law for a month or two, perhaps her parents-in-law might not only stop being angry but also miss her son!
In the future, her parents-in-law would never make trouble for her son over money, let alone a mere two thousand yuan. As long as her son was happy, there was nothing wrong with him taking it.
But that day had not yet come before she heard Zhou Zheng say that he would bring his son to confront his parents and clear the air. They would get to the bottom of the matter about who had taught Zhou Cheng to call his grandparents old foggies and to steal money.
Huihui could no longer keep up her pretenses. She was clear that no matter how well she trained her son at home, her son was only five years old, after all. He would not be able to hold up against a few rounds of questionings. Then, he would let out everything that should never be known to outsiders.
When that time came, her five-year-old son could claim that he was just an insensible child who had been led astray by adults. But she was already a grown-up. She would lose all dignity and her reputation would be ruined if it were to be made known that she had said such things about her parents-in-law in front of her child. She would be the epitome of a bad daughter-in-law.
After muttering on the phone for a long while, she refused to take Zhou Cheng to Father and Mother Zhou for a confrontation. Zhou Zheng had gotten annoyed now that the conversation had stretched on for half an hour. “Didn’t you say that Chengcheng was led astray by that wretched girl? Even Zhou Xing is not afraid. Why are you still hesitating? Hurry and bring Chengcheng over. If you don’t come over now, all of my parents’ neighbors who’ve heard about this will think that it was not Zhou Xing who led Chengcheng astray. They’ll think that we’re afraid of bringing our son over because of our own guilty conscience. They’ll say that you were the one who said these things and taught Chengcheng to say them too…”
“Wait a minute. Don’t tell me it was really you?”
It was only then that Zhou Zheng finally came to his senses.
If his wife had not done such a thing and was truly innocent, his wife would be more agitated than anyone else. There was no way she would refuse to come over. Suddenly faced with the truth, Zhou Zheng was shocked. “Did you really call my parents old foggies in front of Chengcheng?”
The thought of his wife disrespecting his parents caused Zhou Zheng to be so emotional that his voice broke.
“I… I was just too angry! Chengcheng is already five years old, but your parents have never carried Chengcheng. Neither have they ever given Chengcheng anything good. Take a look at Zhou Xing. She’s gotten so many good things from your parents. Think about how much money your parents have spent on Zhou Xing. All of that money should be Chengcheng’s. I just felt that your parents are being too foolish, giving Chengcheng’s things to other people!”
If they had not spent her son’s precious money on someone else, would she have lost all control and said such things in front of her son? Would her son get to learn such things from her?
“Even so, there’s no need to say such things about them! They’re my parents! And I was still hoping that you would be acknowledged by my parents so that everything would return to what it was before our marriage. That was what you promised me. But look at what you’ve done!” Zhou Zheng had always asked Huihui to teach Chengcheng well so that Chengcheng could help ease the tension between him and his parents. On the account of their grandchild, they might just forgive him for stubbornly choosing to marry his first love.
But who would have known that not only had his son not managed to ease the tension between him and his parents, but his son had even worsened their relationship!
“Let me ask you. Did Zhou Xing tell Chengcheng to take that two thousand yuan? Or do you have something to do with that?” Since Zhou Xing had not taught Chengcheng to call his parents old foggies, it was only natural that Zhou Zheng suspected that Zhou Cheng had not been under Zhou Xing’s influence when he took the two thousand yuan.
“It could have been me…” She had never expected her son to be so daring. Just because she had once said that everything of the Zhou family belonged to him, her son had really taken her father-in-law’s two thousand yuan just because he had seen it. It would have been all right if he had just taken it, but he had been caught red-handed by her father-in-law…
Zhou Zheng immediately hung up the phone. What else could he do if he did not hang up the phone? He had never imagined that all these bad behaviors had nothing to do with Zhou Xing at all. His son had behaved in this manner only because his own mother had influenced him.
But the word had already gone out, saying that Zhou Zheng had a clear conscience and that he was willing to bring his son and wife down for a face-to-face confrontation.
