The boss had a different opinion. He frowned in disgust, especially after seeing Ding Jiayi shedding streams of tears and mucus.
The lady boss became unhappy. “What did you say? Are you despising me? Are you trying to say that my hair has grown longer but my knowledge has decreased? Tell me. What’s wrong with this woman? Could it be that the daughter who had abandoned her ill sister and her parents who no longer have working ability is correct? You’re the one with a twisted mindset. Isn’t that woman leaving the old and sick in the lurch and watching them die? No matter what, it’s unreasonable for that younger daughter to leave just like that!”
The lady boss harped on this and insisted the boss provide an explanation.
The boss was at his wits’ end. He was just casually replying to his wife’s words. Why were they in a conflict now? “Don’t be anxious. Since you want to listen, I’ll say it. Look at this auntie. She’s not young anymore, right? How old do you think her daughters are? They should have their own families now, right?”
“Of course. Based on her looks, she should already be a grandmother.”
“That’s right. I thought that it was pretty strange. This old woman has been crying for half a day and kept holding on to her younger daughter. Since her elder daughter is sick, where is her son-in-law? If she’s suffering from uremia, she could just change a kidney. Compared to other major surgeries, the cost needed for a kidney transplant should be affordable to the two families. As for the elder son-in-law, she didn’t mention him at all. It’s as if the responsibility of saving the elder daughter is that of the younger daughter alone. Don’t you think that she’s hiding something?”
“Well…” The lady boss couldn’t answer this.
Right. If the wife was sick, shouldn’t the person by her bedside help figure out a solution? Why didn’t he show his face? This wasn’t normal. “Do you think that the elder daughter’s a divorcee?” Wasn’t divorce the only reasonable explanation for all of this?
“Perhaps.” The boss nodded. “Let me ask you again. This old woman is trying to find her daughter, but is there anyone like her who does it this way? She only mentioned her daughter’s name, how she looks like, and how old she is this year. Even if she was a lost child, there should at least be a photo, right? A child’s looks might change after growing up. Her younger daughter is almost forty years old, and her appearance shouldn’t change much. If she was really eager to find her younger daughter, why couldn’t she produce a photo of her?”
“…” The lady boss twitched her lips. “Husband, based on what you’re saying, do you think she’s really trying to find her younger daughter or not?” What her husband said made sense. She couldn’t rebut him. The way this old woman was trying to find her younger daughter was indeed different from ordinary people, and it was full of contradictions.
“How would I know? I feel that she wouldn’t lose out by acting pitiful. In fact, she would be quite successful. Her younger daughter ran away and her elder daughter is sick. The old couple is at the age of retirement and can’t earn much money. This situation made it to the news now. No matter what, there would be a wave of donations coming her way. With money, it doesn’t matter who ran away, let alone the younger daughter. Her situation will no longer be miserable.”
“I see…” The lady boss drank a sip of water and realized that Qiao Nan, who was holding a bottle of soy sauce in her hands, seemed to have been standing there for a long time. “I’m sorry to keep you waiting for so long. I was too engrossed in watching the news. My apologies. Let me check this item out for you. This bottle of soy sauce is eight yuan and twenty cents.”
How embarrassing it was for her to have watched the news and ignored her customers.
Qiao Nan smiled plainly and gave the lady boss ten yuan. The lady boss gave Qiao Nan a change of one yuan and eighty cents.
Qiao Nan had heard the conversation between the couple. She had also seen for herself how Ding Jiayi had put on a pitiful act on TV.
The boss had asked why Ding Jiayi didn’t show a photo of her younger daughter on TV so that everyone could help find her more quickly. Qiao Nan laughed coldly. It wasn’t that Ding Jiayi didn’t want to or was trying to protect her or something. It was because she had never taken photos ever since she graduated from junior high school.
The photos taken during junior high school were either identification photos or graduation photos. Aside from herself having them, Ding Jiayi didn’t even have a small photo of her.
Qiao Nan initially didn’t want to bother with this matter. She had already left Ping Cheng. She didn’t care about Qiao Zijin’s life and death and didn’t want to get involved. It was just that Qiao Nan’s mindset changed after she heard the boss’s words previously.
After thinking about it, Qiao Nan searched for information on that TV station and public commentary on the internet after reaching home. Perhaps Ding Jiayi had been too successful in putting on a pitiful act. A lot of people were discussing this matter on public platforms. Of course, most of these netizens’ remarks were similar to that of the lady boss. They criticized Qiao Nan for having no conscience.
Only a few of them found it strange that the people from the Qiao family only mentioned the two daughters but not the two sons-in-law when it was already reasonable to say that they had reached the age of being mothers.
Of course, this was half-explained in Ping Cheng’s newspaper’s follow-up report. According to the newspapers, due to relationship issues, the ill Qiao Zijin had divorced her husband for less than half a year. Who knew that misfortunes didn’t come alone and Qiao Zijin contracted uremia after that? It was just that Qiao Zijin was stubborn and felt that since she had already divorced her ex-husband, she didn’t want to disturb his life even if something happened to her.
Her child lived with her ex-husband. If she had to ask her ex-husband for money for her illness, she’d rather her own child lead a good life than treat her illness.
To an ordinary person, such words would, without a doubt, make Qiao Zijin seem like a really good mother. Why did good people have short lives?
Looking at all the unpleasant remarks criticizing her and how she had become a ‘bitch’ because of Ding Jiayi’s news, Qiao Nan took a deep breath, suppressed the gloom in her heart, and calmly looked for the relevant personnel so that she could send a message.
It was rare for the TV ratings of Ping Cheng News to be so high. Everyone seemed to increase their involvement in this broadcast news as well. To Ping Cheng TV Station, that was a joyous thing.
For the sake of the ratings, the manager of the TV station said that this piece of news must be followed up on. It was best if they could find this younger sister, who had run away to enjoy life, via the influence of their news broadcast and the power of the masses. If they could get this younger sister to shed tears and repent in front of everyone before having a good ending that also acted as a reminder, there was nothing that could be more successful.
Sensational. It had to be sensational.
“Manager, look. The audience donated this amount of money to the Qiao family.”
