The more hesitant Qiao Nan was in spilling the beans, the more anxious Zhai Hua got. “What’s the matter? I’m getting goose bumps from seeing you in such a dilemma. Is the sky going to fall?”
Qiao Nan had to resist the urge to reply to Zhai Hua, saying that it was pretty much the same. If what she was about to say was true, wouldn’t the sky be falling in Zhai Hua’s world?
“I heard Jiajia say that her dad treats his nephew, Wei Wei, very well. Jiajia has always felt that her dad always treats that child better than her, his biological daughter. Sister Zhai Hua, is that only Jiajia’s illusion?”
“…” Zhai Hua’s expression turned cold. How should she put it? She did not really want to discuss the Wei family’s matters with Qiao Nan. That was a domestic disgrace that Zhai Hua herself did not want to face. Qiao Nan had not yet married into the Zhai family. As such, Zhai Hua thought that it was rather embarrassing for her to talk to Qiao Nan about how she had gotten into an argument with the Zhai family over her marriage to Wei De at that time and about how the Wei family was treating her daughter poorly.
However, very quickly, Zhai Hua’s expression changed and her stiff shoulders drooped. “I’ve never been willing to talk about this topic. If I mention it, I’ll lose all dignity in front of my family. But if I don’t, I’d feel bad for Jiajia. He always says that Wei Wei’s a fatherless child and that Wei Wei has suffered a lot and has been ridiculed because of that. If even he doesn’t treat Wei Wei well as his only uncle, there’ll be no one else who will treat Wei Wei well. But Jiajia only has one father too!”
If Wei De had not neglected Jiajia because of his care toward Wei Wei, she would never have mentioned a thing about this. But now, Wei De placed more emphasis on Wei Wei than Jiajia. That was crossing the line.
“My mother-in-law favors males over females, and because Wei Wei has the Wei family’s name, and is a boy, my mother-in-law is biased toward him, even though we don’t know who his father really is. I feel really bad for Jiajia because of this. Qiao Nan, if you look for a husband in the future, you must take note of this. Our family is pretty good in this aspect, and such a thing would never happen. Most importantly, my mom likes granddaughters more than grandsons. Just look at how well my mom is toward Jiajia.”
Probably, Zhai Hua had finally had some self-awareness of her identity as an elder sister, feeling that Zhai Sheng had finally met the right person at his age. As his elder sister, she had to help Zhai Sheng boost his image and that of the family in front of Qiao Nan.
Qiao Nan was slightly stunned, thinking that Zhai Hua had veered off the main topic. As such, Qiao Nan had to guide Zhai Hua back to their initial conversation. “Sister Zhai Hua, I actually think that favoring males over females is not that much of a problem when compared to the problem I found. I’ve found something wrong with the family portrait in Jiajia’s phone. I’ll say again that I’m not entirely sure of it. Perhaps I’m just too sensitive or have been watching too much television.”
“What’s the problem?” Was the problem so serious that favoring males over females was no longer a problem?
“Take a look at this.” Qiao Nan took a picture out of her pocket.
Looking at the photo in Qiao Nan’s hands, Zhai Hua raised her eyebrow in surprise. “You developed it?”
“Yes, Jiajia sent the photo to me, and I asked Xiao Xu to help me develop it. Sister Zhai Hua, please don’t mind me interfering in this matter.”
“Of course not.” It was just a photo. Once Qiao Nan married into the family, they would have to have another photo taken with Qiao Nan inside. “What’s wrong with this photo?”
Qiao Nan took a deep breath as she pointed to Wei Wei, who was standing beside Wei De in the photo. “Sister Zhai Hua, don’t you think that Wei Wei resembles Wei De?” Not just a little. There was at least a thirty to forty percentage of similarity between the two.
In her dream, she had pointed this suspicion out while Wei Wei was still young and had not fully developed. At that time, Wei Wei had only resembled Wei De slightly. Now that Wei Wei was all grown up and a teenager, his facial features and smile did indeed resemble Wei De. They looked exactly like a father-and-son pair.
“Isn’t it normal for them to look similar? They’re an uncle and nephew, after all.” Zhai Hua did not take Qiao Nan’s words to heart.
Qiao Nan said agitatedly, “But Jiajia said that her aunt was adopted by the Wei family and was not the Wei family’s biological daughter. It’s only right for nephews to resemble their uncles if their parents are siblings, right?”
Wei Xiaomei was not even the Wei family’s child, so was it not strange that her child, Wei Wei, resembled his uncle?
At that time, Wei De had put in a tremendous amount of effort in chasing Zhai Hua, whereas Wei Xiaomei had her reasons to get closer to Wei De.
Zhai Hua resented her parents for favoring males over females. She hated that her parents treated Zhai Sheng better than they treated her. But Wei De had proved to her that this did not happen in the Wei family with Wei Xiaomei’s existence.
The Wei family already had a son, Wei De, but had pitied Wei Xiaomei, who had been abandoned by her family. As such, they had taken Wei Xiaomei in and raised her as their own. Later on, when Wei Xiaomei grew up and got cheated on by a man, she had given birth to a child out of wedlock. Even then, the Wei family had not abandoned Wei Xiaomei, and they had even helped her raise her child.
Any other family would have simply found a random family for Wei Xiaomei to marry into, given her situation. But their family had not done so because they knew that there would be no one who could match up to their standards and would be willing to marry a single mother.
Instead of letting Wei Xiaomei marry someone, it would be like throwing her into a pit.
They had raised Wei Xiaomei, after all, and were thus unwilling to see Wei Xiaomei suffer. They would much rather Wei Xiaomei stay single for the rest of her life since she already had a son, Wei Wei, after all. Even if she remained unmarried for the rest of her life, she would still have a son to provide for her in her old age.
Initially, Zhai Hua had felt rather uneasy when she had first heard about this. She felt that Wei Xiaomei’s situation would never have occurred in a typical family. But Wei De had managed to convince Zhai Hua otherwise. From his words, the Wei family was portrayed in an extremely positive light, where there was no way that they favored males over females. After all, they had treated an adopted daughter so well. Was this not the kind of family Zhai Hua had been looking for?
In the past, no one had ever brought up the issue of Wei Wei resembling Wei De to Zhai Hua. Even though Zhai Hua knew that Wei Xiaomei had been adopted, the Wei family truly treated Wei Xiaomei and her son extremely well. It was to the extent that Zhai Hua often forgot about the truth of the situation.
But now that Qiao Nan mentioned it, Zhai Hua had taken it for granted and had even brushed Qiao Nan off with an excuse that sounded rather reasonable.
“This. This…” At the mention of Wei Xiaomei being adopted, Zhai Hua was stunned. “That’s probably because Wei Wei grew up around Wei De. That’s why he looks a little like Wei De.” Didn’t they say that children would always take after the people who raised them?
