Chapter 395: A Daughter That Was Sought After by Many Families
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
“Something to do with me? What did Uncle Yang tell you?” Qiao Nan raised her brows. Why did Uncle Yang and her father talk about her without an apparent reason?
“Hahaha…” Qiao Dongliang laughed as he patted his thigh. “Don’t Uncle Yang have a son? When your Uncle Yang came to our house and helped us move our belongings that day, you left a good impression on him. He only told me today that he even wished for you to be his daughter-in-law at that time!”
If there was an outstanding daughter in the family, every household would yearn for their son to ask for her hand in marriage.
Qiao Dongliang truly understood what this meant with Qiao Nan as his daughter.
Previously, it was the Zhou family. Now, it was his colleague. As the party that was being ‘begged at’, Qiao Dongliang only had one word to describe the feeling in his heart: overjoyed.
“…” So, her father was so happy because of this matter.
Qiao Dongliang drank some water. “But your Uncle Yang gave up very soon after. He wishes to carry a grandchild soon and can’t wait that long. I’ve met that daughter-in-law of his. She can’t really be compared to you but she’s indeed above-average.”
Qiao Nan poured another cup of water for Qiao Dongliang. “Dad, you’re so happy just because of this?”
“Ah…” Qiao Dongliang gave a sigh. “Not that I wished to only know it at this age, but now that I think of it, it’s actually much better to give birth to a daughter than a son. Given the situation of our family, if either you or your sister were a son, I wouldn’t know what to use to let him marry a wife. You don’t know how much your Uncle Yang spent for the sake of this daughter-in-law.”
He gave birth to two daughters. In the future, others would beg him at his doorsteps. He would not need to do so.
It was not easy to have a son nowadays. Money was needed for marrying a wife and many other things.
Qiao Dongliang only had two daughters. Hence, he never tried to understand this aspect of such a matter. However, when he chatted with Uncle Yang today, he found out that having a son was actually a heavy burden to shoulder.
The youngsters nowadays preferred not to stay together with their parents, wishing to have a home of their own. As parents, they would naturally fork out some money for the couple to buy a house.
Old Yang was so anxious for his son to marry a daughter-in-law because he was afraid that he would need to fork out more money if his son married later.
With Old Yang’s son as a comparison, Qiao Dongliang could not help thinking about the time when he married Ding Jiayi.
During that time, it was truly hard for them to be together. There was no formal ceremony at all. They casually invited a few people to a meal and act as witnesses, and had that considered as their marriage.
At that time, the custom of the three popular and must-have items for marriage already existed.
Ding Jiayi fell out with her family. Hence, Qiao Dongliang did not give the Ding family much. He had picked up a wife for free. Of course, Qiao Dongliang did not give any betrothal gift, and neither did Ding Jiayi bring any dowry to the Qiao family.
Qiao Nan sat down and smiled. “Dad, don’t make it sound easy. If you raise a son, you need to spend a lot of money for him to marry a wife in the future. Nevertheless, the burden of raising a daughter is not any less. Don’t forget that you need a dowry for a lady to be married. Putting me aside, how much do you think my sister wants before she will agree?”
Qiao Zijin had good foresight. Before the property prices rose, she exploited Qiao Nan through their mother to bring a suite apartment as dowry to the Chen family.
The Chen family only required Qiao Zijin’s dowry not to be too shabby when Chen Jun married her so that the Chen family would not lose face. As for what Qiao Zijin brought to the Chen family, they did not even bother about it. It had been with Qiao Zijin all along.
Qiao Zijin not only wanted a house but also savings and television as her dowry.
Fortunately, when Qiao Zijin married Chen Jun, it was not at the start of the millennial year.
After the 2000s, China’s economy had developed and everyone’s standard of living had increased greatly. Regardless, not every household had a car with four wheels at that time. It was unlike in the 2010s where every household owned a car; some even had more than two cars.
Hence, when Qiao Zijin married Chen Jun in the 2000s, the only request that she did not put forth to the Qiao family as dowry was a car with four wheels.
In short, Qiao Zijin was not so easy to deal with.
At the mention of Qiao Zijin, Qiao Dongliang’s expression changed. “Did your sister mention to you before how much dowry she wants when she gets married?”
At the mention of Qiao Zijin’s character, Qiao Dongliang really could not tell her expectations. But in normal times, Qiao Zijin’s expectations of clothing and food were definitely quite high. To put it bluntly, she was the type of person who knew how to enjoy materialistic things in life and would not shortchange herself.
“My sister and I are not on such good terms, but I heard her mention to Mom before that she will definitely marry someone who has a good family background. Otherwise, she will rather not marry. My sister is the type who is concerned about face. If she really finds such a family, is it possible that she won’t bring more dowries over, and let the in-law family look down on her?”
“…” Qiao Dongliang was silent for a while. This time, he did not refute Qiao Nan’s words because he already knew that Qiao Zijin was truly this kind of person.
What Qiao Nan had described definitely came from Qiao Zijin’s mouth.
In other words, the man that Qiao Zijin was going to find was the total opposite of him.
Holding the cup in his hands, Qiao Dongliang smiled coldly. “No matter how high your sister’s expectation is, after I’m separated with your mom for two years, we should already be divorced. Your sister belongs to your mom. Even if she raises her expectations, it doesn’t have anything to do with me. All of these will be your mom’s problems.”
At the thought of the words that Old Yang told him today, Qiao Dongliang’s heart had become more at ease.
Old Yang was right. If Zijin truly treated him as her father and wished to care about and be filial to him, then it was fine for him to spend more effort and energy on Zijin.
On the contrary, if Zijin did not need this father at all, why did he need to be so keen on being given cold shoulders by his elder daughter?
Qiao Dongliang could not help but admit that based on the current situation, he was not a father that Qiao Zijin needed. Most likely, in Qiao Zijin’s heart, the concern that he had for her was unnecessary. She might even feel annoyed with it.
At the thought of the way Qiao Zijin fawned on Wang Yang during the meal that he had with the Zhu family before the Lunar New Year, Qiao Dongliang took a deep breath.
He felt that Wang Yang was a big swindler and Zijin would definitely suffer a setback due to Wang Yang. However, in the eyes of Zijin, Wang Yang was most probably the gold mine that she had long been looking for. How could she bear to give this up?
Even Old Yang knew that one man’s meat was another’s poison. If he still could not understand it, he would have lived his life in vain.
Upon hearing these words, Qiao Nan hesitated for a while. “Dad, have you really sorted out your thoughts or did you sort it out just for the time being?” Soon after, he would suffer a relapse just as he did in the past and would wholeheartedly be concerned for Qiao Zijin again. He might even make things difficult for Qiao Nan.
“I didn’t sort out my thoughts completely, but I’m not doing so just for the time being. Your sister’s temperament resembles that of your mom.”