After finding out his true feelings for Qiao Nan, Zhai Sheng was no longer in a hurry to force Qiao Nan back to take care of him. Could it be that the discomfort he had been feeling these past few days had been due to lovesickness? If he truly had such feelings toward Qiao Nan, he could not possibly ask Qiao Nan to take care of him. He would have to take care of Qiao Nan instead.
Zhai Sheng was not a person who relied on his thoughts without putting it into action. With such a thought, Zhai Sheng felt that he should return home and settle some matters. In that way, he would eventually be able to get married to Qiao Nan. Otherwise, such a future would never be realized.
Things had to be done. They were not going to get settled simply by thinking about them.
Qiao Nan nodded and returned to her room. She took off her slippers and covered herself with a blanket before going to sleep. Zhai Sheng left Qiao Nan’s house, closing the door behind him. Right then, Xiao Xu ran out of the car toward Zhai Sheng. “Chief, has Sister Qiao agreed?”
Xiao Xu did not have much hope when asking that. Sister Qiao did not look like someone who needed this job. The moment Sister Zhao had arrived, Sister Qiao left immediately. If it had not been for his mom, Sister Qiao would never have agreed to help them with this favor.
Sister Qiao was really strange indeed. She was still unmarried at this age. Did she not like men? Otherwise, why had she not been moved by the chief who was more masculine than other men? He had caught Sister Zhao stealing glances at the chief from time to time, but she had never crossed the line. She only did her job before handing it over to Xiao Xu to pass it to the chief.
Well, people were very strange indeed. Earlier on, Xiao Xu had been afraid that Qiao Nan would take a fancy to Zhai Sheng because of her single status. Now, he was confused about how Qiao Nan had such poor judgment when it came to men. She had not even been moved in the slightest bit by such a good catch. It was as though Qiao Nan liked women instead of men.
“There’s no hurry. We’ll resolve this matter soon.” Now that he had changed his mindset toward the matter, it was only natural that Qiao Nan’s position and status would change as well once she returned to his side. “Send me back.”
“All right, chief.” From the chief’s expression, it seemed that his mood had improved. Why did it feel like he knew less about the chief nowadays?
After returning to the Zhai family’s old villa, Zhai Sheng immediately made a call to Zhai Yaohui. Whether or not they had a good relationship, Zhai Sheng had always respected the existence of Zhai Yaohui and Miao Jing. “Hello, it’s me.”
“Wow, it’s rare that you’re taking the initiative to call me.” Zhai Yaohui wanted to ask if the sun would rise from the west tomorrow. He had thought that he would never receive a call from Zhai Sheng up until the day he died.
It was not that Zhai Yaohui was pessimistic, but there was nothing Zhai Yaohui was not open to now that he was already advanced in age. When he was younger, he had been too full of himself and had paid too little attention to his family. As such, Zhai Yaohui did feel a little guilty. The way he saw it, both his children’s marriages had been failures.
His son had gotten a divorce, and although his daughter had not, she might as well have done so. But his daughter was stubborn and refused to give in, and chose to endure the hardships the marriage brought instead. They did not even mind and had paved the way for their daughter to get a divorce, but there was nothing they could do since Zhai Hua herself disagreed.
He had to repay his debts. When he was younger, he had never cared about his children. Now that they were both grown up, he could not care for them and neither could he control them. The one whom he had managed to control ended up in a divorce, while the one he could not control chose to persist to the very end, all the while knowing that it was wrong. At the thought of his children’s situation, there were times when neither Zhai Yaohui nor Miao Jing could sleep well at night.
Their children were all grown up and it was only right for them to let go and let their children lead their own lives. But they felt guilty, after all. Seeing their children lead unhappy lives meant that they themselves could not feel happy either. He had had a successful career and had not let the people or nation down, much less his departed parents. The only people whom he had let down in his life were his two children.
Now that he was old, he had to repay the debts he had owed since his youth. Both he and Miao Miao were now unable to enjoy their golden years and instead spent their time worrying about their children. Zhai Yaohui regretted having been so conceited in his youth. He had let Miao Miao suffer and have so much resentment toward Qi Minlan, and even his son had been dragged down too.
Now, Qi Minlan had lost all face in front of Zhai Yaohui, and Zhai Yaohui almost treated her as an enemy. He knew that Qi Minlan was quite intelligent. But no one was perfect. Qi Minlan was scheming and could be as scheming as a traitor!
Seeing that his son had called, Zhai Yaohui, who never showed any sign of being afraid even in battles, was obviously shaken. “Is anything the matter that you’re calling today? Do you need your mom to listen to this?” Their son and daughter did not have a very good relationship with them, but the children still shared a relatively closer bond with their mom.
“No, I’ll just tell you.” Zhai Yaohui no longer displayed that youthful vigor and was instead prudent and careful when speaking to his son. It was not that Zhai Sheng had not noticed it, but he had tried to convince his father in the past to no avail. “I might as well tell you. My mom will surely listen to what you say.” In his whole life, his mom listened to no one else but his dad.
As long as he got a definitive answer from his dad, he would simply let his dad inform his mom about this.
“Fine, what’s the matter? Is it about your illness?” That could not be. Miao Miao had just spoken to Zhai Sheng’s doctor yesterday. He had said that Zhai Sheng’s leg was recuperating well and that there was no problem at all.
Zhai Sheng remained silent for a moment before saying, “I’ve said that it’s impossible between Qiu Chenxi and me. If I remain unmarried for the rest of my life, will you force me to get closer to Qiu Chenxi?” Zhai Sheng understood his parents’ persistence.
At that time, he had agreed to marry Qiu Chenxi not because he felt anything toward Qiu Chenxi, but because his parents approved of him being together with Qiu Chenxi. Under the influence of both their parents, he had not interacted with any other women except for Qiu Chenxi. As such, he had no other choice in marriage partners apart from Qiu Chenxi. That had led to a misunderstanding.
“No, we won’t.” Zhai Yaohui only felt that his mouth tasted exceptionally bitter as he said those words. Did his son really intend on staying single and not getting remarried?
“You’re unhappy?” Zhai Sheng could tell at once. “What if I tell you that I’ll get remarried without you guys forcing me to do so? But will you guys be picky about the partner I get married to?”
