Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Besides, Qiao Nan had been away for such a long time. The news had been going on for just as long. Ding Jiayi did not believe that Qiao Nan had no way of watching the news or that she knew nothing about the Qiao family’s situation. Even after learning of their situation, Qiao Nan had not appeared. Neither had she called them, nor wired money over to them. It was obvious that their daughter had heartlessly left the elderly couple for dead.
Ding Jiayi knew that she would never be able to repurchase the Qiao family’s small courtyard if they were to sell it now that they were without Qiao Nan’s help. They were old and were naturally not as open-minded as they had been in the past.
Ding Jiayi wanted a house and a place she could assuredly return to. Thus, she would never agree to sell the Qiao family’s small courtyard.
Since Ding Jiayi insisted on her way, Qiao Dongliang could not do anything to stop her. Qiao Dongliang might have been unable to stop Ding Jiayi, but he had not been so vicious as to spill the entire Qiao family’s situation to the television crew, asking them not to conduct a donation drive.
He had initially thought that this matter would not blow up. The donors would donate within their means, and they would not force anyone to donate to them. Besides, apart from the fact that they had not mentioned their house, everything the television station had broadcasted about the Qiao family was a hundred percent true!
As such, Qiao Dongliang chose to turn a blind eye to Ding Jiayi’s and Qiao Zijin’s nonsense. But Qiao Dongliang had never expected that his one moment of indulgence would turn him into a street mouse despised by everyone. Now, he had to endure mockery and criticism even while doing a grocery run.
Qiao Dongliang dared say that he had lived an upright life his whole life. But now that he was old, he was labeled as a scammer! As a grown man in his sixties, Qiao Dongliang was humiliated and ridiculed in front of so many people! He almost had the urge to hide his head within his own trousers!
There was no way he was going to buy groceries in peace!
Without a moment of hesitation, Qiao Dongliang ran away with his face covered.
Those people scolding him were all saying, “Oh, how did your family manage to do that? How did you guys buy a house without any money? We’re peasants who have a little money but no house. How much are you going to donate to us?”
After being bombarded by such questions, Qiao Dongliang once again regretted his decision to compromise and give in to Ding Jiayi and Qiao Zijin. Now, not only had they not been able to receive a single cent of donations, but they had also gotten themselves into deep trouble. Their family was out of money and could no longer afford to let Qiao Zijin remain in the hospital.
So they did not want to sell the house? That was fine! Then, Zijin would just have to come home from the hospital and wait for her death.
Qiao Dongliang was infuriated at his daughter, Qiao Zijin. He felt that Qiao Zijin and Ding Jiayi had completely ruined his reputation. They had never listened to his advice. In fact, after creating such a huge mess, they had no way of cleaning it up and were counting on him to clean up after them!
He had not even been capable of doing so when he was younger, so it went without saying that he had no such ability at this age. Since Ding Jiayi and Qiao Zijin wanted to kick up such a huge fuss, he would not care about them in the future. They could do as they pleased.
Not only had he heard such comments while purchasing groceries but he had also heard them in the quad when he ran into his neighbors or acquaintances. In the short span of just a few days, Qiao Dongliang’s image had transformed from an honest and loyal man to that of a scammer whom everyone was scolding. Qiao Dongliang was utterly humiliated.
There was no other choice. Thus, Qiao Dongliang packed up his belongings and moved out of the Qiao family’s small courtyard. When he moved out, he brought the property deed along with him. In the past, Qiao Nan had constantly made sacrifices for the family but had never felt sorry for herself. As such, there was no reason for Qiao Dongliang to feel sorry for Qiao Nan either.
Now that Qiao Nan had finally started to think about herself a little more, he had no way of touching that house under Qiao Zijin’s name. After all, Qiao Zijin was a single woman who had gotten divorced. If he did not leave even this house to Qiao Zijin, he would really be pushing her into a corner.
Qiao Dongliang felt that the only thing he could do for Qiao Nan was to hand the Qiao family’s small courtyard over to Qiao Nan. As for the fact that the Qiao family’s small courtyard had been repurchased with Qiao Nan’s money, Qiao Dongliang conveniently chose to ignore it.
They had bought the house using Qiao Nan’s money, but he was now saying that he was seeking justice for Qiao Nan by returning her the house that had been bought with her own money. The Qiao family was probably the only people who could have such an idea.
Knowing that his son had fallen for such a lady, Zhai Yaohui was conflicted. From the news, he could tell that Qiao Nan had given her all for the Qiao family up until the day she left. As a child, she had treated her family so well and had been oppressed by her own family for such a long time before she had finally decided to fight back and leave with everything. From that, Zhai Yaohui was sure that Qiao Nan was not a bad person. In fact, she was probably the kind of person who was too softhearted and would simply silently endure bullying.
He would not have to worry about his new daughter-in-law treating his son poorly or that she did not care enough about his son. But he had to worry about the Qiao family creating trouble for Zhai Sheng if he were to marry Qiao Nan.
No matter how he looked at it, the Qiao family did not seem to know their limits. In fact, what the Qiao family was best at was taking advantage of others. His son would have never-ending problems if he were to have anything to do with such people. “Are you sure that you won’t change your mind even now that you know about Qiao Nan’s situation?”
Life was never perfect.
“Yes.” Zhai Sheng looked at Zhai Yaohui. “I know what you’re worried about. But from my interactions with Qiao Nan, I don’t think she’s someone who doesn’t know how to say no or someone who will foolishly sacrifice for others. Whatever the news mentioned… I guess she was just young and insensible and thus did not know better to think more about herself. But everyone grows up eventually. I think Qiao Nan is now grown up and could finally think it through.”
If Qiao Nan had not grown up, she would never have left with all the money without uttering a single word to her family, causing the Qiao family to use such an extreme method of going on television to find her. “Dad, don’t you think it’s weird that the news had been so skewed earlier on? But all of a sudden, they came out with a piece of news that exposed all of the Qiao family’s assets. The television crew had been able to investigate so clearly in such a short period of time. Do you think this was accidental, or did someone do this on purpose?”
Zhai Sheng had nothing but time now. Some things could deceive ordinary people, but they could never deceive Zhai Sheng if he put his mind to it.
