Then, she would have a house, a car, and money. Why would she need to find a man to get married to? She might as well find a young and handsome guy to date instead!
Just thinking about a life like that made Qiao Zijin over the moon.
Qiao Dongliang had not overheard the conversation between the mother and daughter, but he knew clearly just how capable Qiao Zijin was. As such, something must have gone wrong for Qiao Zijin to have passed the written examination. This meant that Ding Jiayi had not simply been bragging when she said that she would be able to solve the problem. Ding Jiayi had actually succeeded!
It went without saying that Ding Jiayi’s success definitely had to do with Qiao Nan. Qiao Dongliang whipped out his phone anxiously and made a call to Qiao Nan to explain the situation. “Nan Nan, hurry and get Zhai Sheng to check what’s going on. Otherwise, you and Zhai Sheng might get into trouble!”
Yes, Qiao Dongliang had always thought that he would no longer have to worry about Qiao Nan now that she was married to Zhai Sheng. The divorced and jobless Qiao Zijin was the one he would have to worry about. Of course, there was nothing better than having his younger daughter giving his elder daughter a hand.
Qiao Dongliang had wanted to ask Zhai Sheng for help to secure Qiao Zijin a job in the civil service. Although they all shared the same goals, there was a huge difference in their methods.
Qiao Dongliang could only rest assured if Zhai Sheng was the one handling the matter. Qiao Dongliang believed that nothing would go wrong as long as Zhai Sheng was the one arranging everything. These people were sophisticated and would never let anyone find any fault with them.
Although Qiao Dongliang believed in Zhai Sheng’s ability, it did not mean that he believed in Ding Jiayi’s. Even though she had succeeded, Qiao Dongliang was still worried that Ding Jiayi’s crude methods would leave chink in her armor that people would be able to catch in the future. Then, not only would Qiao Zijin lose her chance of becoming a civil servant, but the Zhai family might even be implicated, affecting Nan Nan’s marriage.
He hoped that both his daughters would have good lives in the future, not for both of them to live poorly. He had no intention of sacrificing one of his daughters for the other. It was only good if both of them were well.
Once there were any conflicts in his daughter’s interests, he would definitely choose Qiao Nan. If not for anything else, Qiao Dongliang simply felt that he owed Qiao Nan too much for the first forty years of her life. Qiao Zijin, the elder sister, owed Qiao Nan a lot as well.
As such, it was only natural to prioritize Qiao Nan’s interests if there were to be a conflict.
“Dad, don’t worry. I already knew about it. I’ll tell Brother Zhai about that. If you hear anything at home, you can just send me a text message.” After she hung up the call, Qiao Nan’s expression was somber. She had not expected Ding Jiayi to succeed. How was that possible?
Besides, on the day of her wedding, her dad had already mentioned this. Brother Zhai had even said that he had already assigned people to keep a watch on this. Since Brother Zhai’s subordinates were already taking care of this matter, how could Ding Jiayi have succeeded in the end? “Brother Zhai, come here. I have something to discuss with you alone.”
The confused Qiao Nan pulled Zhai Sheng into the room and sat him down in front of her.
Zhai Sheng raised his eyebrow. “What’s the matter? Why do you look so serious? Why do we have to talk here?” He could not stop his mind from drifting to a certain place now that he was in an enclosed space with Nan Nan.
“Brother Zhai, Qiao Zijin passed the written examination and was shortlisted for the interview round of civil service examination.”
Upon hearing that, Zhai Sheng was taken aback too. “Are you sure that Qiao Zijin doesn’t have the ability to get so far on her own?” He did not have any understanding of his sister-in-law. The only thing he knew was that the Qiao family had sacrificed Qiao Nan to let Qiao Zijin enter university. Typically, university graduates were still worth something.
Qiao Nan sneered. “I don’t mean to look down on Qiao Zijin, but ever since she was in high school, the Qiao family had been using money to get her through school. Rather than saying that Qiao Zijin was studying, it would be more accurate to say that the Qiao family bought Qiao Zijin a degree to package her as a university graduate. If Qiao Zijin was just a little smarter, I might not even be so angry about all the sacrifices I’ve made all these years.”
She had wanted to study so badly, but the Qiao family had snatched that opportunity away from her. On the other hand, Qiao Zijin took her hard-earned money and squandered it, not retaining any knowledge at all.
What infuriated Qiao Nan was how she had been forced to drop out of school while she had been in junior high school. To completely deprive her of any chances of continuing her education, Ding Jiayi had sold all of her junior high school textbooks with Qiao Zijin’s encouragement.
Then, Qiao Zijin went to high school.
Seeing Qiao Zijin bringing back so many books every school term, Qiao Nan had been so envious. She had always wanted to borrow those books to read. While Qiao Zijin was studying, Ding Jiayi had told Qiao Nan that Qiao Zijin was the only educated person in their family and their family’s only hope. As such, Qiao Zijin’s books were especially precious. No one else in the family could touch her books for fear of damaging them. How then would she be able to study?
Qiao Nan herself was an educated person, and her junior high school textbooks were in such pristine conditions from the day they were issued up until the day they had been sold. As such, there was no way she would spoil or ruin Qiao Zijin’s books.
But Qiao Nan had no choice but to agree after Ding Jiayi said so. Qiao Nan said that she would not borrow Qiao Zijin’s books while she was still using them, but she then asked if she could borrow them once Qiao Zijin finished her high school examinations or no longer used them?
When Qiao Nan had asked about that, Qiao Zijin and Ding Jiayi had readily agreed. However, when Qiao Zijin finally finished her high school examinations, Qiao Nan rushed home eagerly, wanting to receive Qiao Zijin’s books, only to find that Ding Jiayi had sold them off. Ding Jiayi had claimed that Qiao Zijin had had too many books and that they were taking up too much space at home. Instead of letting them pile up at home, she had gotten rid of them and had even gotten some money back in return!
The situation remained the same way even after Qiao Zijin entered university.
Qiao Zijin’s textbooks were bought using her wages, yet Qiao Zijin treated her textbooks like rubbish and was not even willing to give Qiao Nan a chance to study. The first few times that had happened, Qiao Nan had believed that it had been Ding Jiayi who had sold the textbooks. After all, Qiao Zijin was still young and could not make a decision for Ding Jiayi. After all, Ding Jiayi was the one who called the shots in the Qiao family.
