But he was different. He was Fang Fang’s husband. He was going to stay by Fang Fang’s side for the rest of her life. He was the only one who would always rank Fang Fang first in his heart. He did not believe that he would still have to fight with his son for Fang Fang’s affection after this incident.
Older people were always wiser. Gao Feng was still too inexperienced to challenge him.
As a wife lover, his son was not only just as superficial as clouds but was also the biggest third wheel on earth. It had not been easy for Gao Yan to chance upon such a precious opportunity. How could he call himself a businessman if he did not capitalize on this opportunity?
He had to knock this rascal down, after all. Looking at it from this angle, Gao Yan was rather grateful for the appearance of this young lady.
How would Gao Feng ever imagine that his dad had such ideas? “Dad, don’t toot your own horn. Since when has Mom ever listened to you? I bet Mom must have gone to look for Auntie Qiao again. It’s been so many years, but Mom still has such a good relationship with Auntie Qiao.” At the mention of Qiao Nan, Gao Feng’s tone improved, and his earlier impetuousness disappeared.
Gao Yan hit Gao Feng on his head in jest. “Can you stop trying to expose me? Don’t you know just how many people are trying to suck up to me once I get out of our house? I don’t even let them have that chance. It’s rare to have the right time and place for you to have such an opportunity, but you’re saying such things instead. Are you a fool?”
Gao Yan would never admit to the fact that he had waited for so many years to win against his son, but he would still never surpass Qiao Nan in Fang Fang’s heart.
Losing to a woman… Who would have guessed?
But when Gao Yan thought about Tian Dong and Zhu Baoguo, who were in the same boat as him, Gao Yan immediately calmed down. It was all good as long as he was not the only one in such a plight and suffering losses.
After this conversation, Qiao Nan really felt that she had grown old. It was not just Zhai Xin who had encountered relationship problems. Even Gao Feng, who was only in high school, already had a ‘wife’. Qiao Nan did not even know what to say about these children nowadays. She was really unable to keep up with the pace of these so-called trends.
Among the children in Zhai Yi’s generation, other than her eldest son, Zhai Yi, who worried Qiao Nan the least, there were only Tian Haoran and Zhu Yu who never caused Qiao Nan any worries. In Qiao Nan’s eyes, these two children were no different from the triplets. They were all her children whom she had brought up. Thus, she treated Tian Haoran and Zhu Yu just like how she treated the triplets.
She wondered whether it was because he had been brought up ‘astray’. Tian Haoran was nothing like Zhai Hua and had a soldier’s blood in him. From a young age, he expressed interest and love for the military and military uniform. Perhaps it was because he liked to join in the fun while he was younger and played with his elder brothers’ and sisters’ toys.
When he grew up, Tian Haoran’s results were just as stellar as the triplet’s. He almost swept the first-place ranking in the level. When the time came for Tian Haoran to pick a university, he chose to go to Peking University and became schoolmates with Zhai Yu without any hesitation.
But Qiao Nan knew Tian Haoran’s temper and habits well. She felt that Tsinghua University might suit Tian Haoran better. Whether it was Peking University or Tsinghua University, as long as it helped in a child’s development, Qiao Nan felt that there was no problem in Tian Haoran not picking Peking University.
That was Qiao Nan’s suggestion, and it was the only time she was rejected by Tian Haoran.
Qiao Nan had become somewhat of a political celebrity. With her excellent foreign language skills, she was hired by Peking University as a nominal lecturer and honorary professor of Peking University. Even though Qiao Nan very rarely returned to Peking University to teach, Qiao Nan’s relationship with Peking University was undeniable.
Based on this alone, Tian Haoran refused to listen to anyone’s advice and insisted on going to Peking University. Tian Haoran explained that he would definitely have to go overseas to further his studies in the future because of the major he was going to choose. Thus, there was no need to bother about whether he was going to Peking University or Tsinghua University. Besides, Peking University was such a good school and was excellent in his choice of major too. So why should he not go to Peking University?
Indeed, Tian Haoran became a researcher. He did not like the idea of being a soldier and did not like business, but he really liked doing research and experiments.
Zhu Yu’s choice was much simpler. His father was a chief, and his mom was a famous female general. With such a family background and influence, it would be a waste and just as disappointing as Zhai Yi and Zhai Xin not following in their father’s footsteps if Zhu Yu did not enter the military.
From a young age, Zhu Yu’s physique was much better than an ordinary child’s. When other children used to get sick with flu or fevers, Zhu Yu had never. Especially during the change in seasons or the flu season, Zhu Yu was always the healthiest child that never worried Qiao Nan.
Perhaps it was because he had been brought up by Qiao Nan and had been influenced by Qiao Nan that Zhu Yu was not as foolish as Zhu Baoguo had been when he was younger. The moment he entered the military, he was already extremely sharp both physically and mentally. Zhu Yu’s intelligence had come entirely from his mom, Shi Qing, and was much higher than his father’s. Under Qiao Nan’s guidance, a young Zhu Yu had managed to skip three grades.
Even after skipping grades, once he settled down, Zhu Yu had never fallen out of the top five rankings in his levels during his examinations. What’s more, he would even catch up in the shortest time possible and rank among the top three in his level.
That was why Zhu Yu was about the same age as Gao Feng, but while Gao Feng was still in high school, Zhu Yu had not only finished his college entrance examination but had also been invited to the military based on his extraordinary results.
As for Tian Haoran, he had not inherited his father’s emotional intelligence at all. Instead, he had matured extremely early on and had become a ‘bookworm’. Tian Dong was about 1.9 meters tall, and Tian Haoran had inherited these genes from his father. Moreover, Tian Haoran was fair and clear-skinned and was not a skinny and weak chicken. With all that and his extraordinary academic performance, there was a long line of girls who had a crush on Tian Haoran.
But Tian Haoran had no interest in such things. Apart from performing experiments, he hardly had any interaction with ‘outsiders’. In the face of all these confessions, Tian Haoran would always reply with the same thing. “Thank you for your wrongly-placed love, but I had not counted on having your love. I hope you’ll find someone who’ll love you back.”
These lines had been used a thousand times and had never changed the slightest bit from the time he was in junior high school, all the way until he was in university. Because of this, the boys who had grown up together with Tian Haoran had to respect him for that.
As for Zhu Yu, Qiao Nan had even less reason to worry. There was a saying that when one was in the army for three years, even a sow was considered pretty. Zhu Yu was so outstanding that he had surpassed Zhai Yi and Zhai Xin and had been recruited into the special forces. Other than bloodsucking mosquitoes, he did not even have the chance to see any female animals, let alone sows.
In that case, apart from Zhai Xin, the one that Qiao Nan was more worried about at the moment was Gao Feng.
