1064 Don’t Benefit Others If You Don’t Like To
His father would have a wife by his side. There was also his elder daughter whom he always had high regard for. Very soon after, he might even have an elder son-in-law who would be filial to him.
As such, she would not need to worry for her father even if she had fewer and fewer opportunities to return to Ping Cheng. She would not need to be afraid that her father would feel lonely, have no one keeping him company, or fall sick without anyone’s knowledge.
Wasn’t such a situation also considered a form of liberation for Qiao Nan?
With such a win-win situation for everyone, Qiao Nan did not have any reason or motivation to stop it from happening. “Dad, still the same words. You just have to lead a good life. I don’t have any opinion.”
Instead of stopping him, Qiao Nan was very agreeable. At that instance, Qiao Dongliang did not know whether he should feel happy or sad. “Nan Nan, is it because you are going to marry Zhai Sheng soon and some things don’t matter anymore?”
Qiao Nan could tell the pain and resentment in Qiao Dongliang’s tone. She was both angry and amused. “Dad, when Brother Zhai and I are still dating, you have also asked me whether you should divorce Mom. How did I respond then?”
When she did not have Brother Zhai and the Zhai family as backings, did she agree to it when her father spoke about getting a divorce?
In the same way, she had advised her father to consider carefully and not to divorce for her sake. Most importantly, he had to lead a good life of his own.
Anyway, she was a daughter. There was no need to wait for the time of her marriage. As long as she could get into college, she would be able to lead a life of her own thereafter. At most, she would just tough it out for about two to three years.
Her father’s blame was akin to kicking someone to the curb when they’ve outlived their usefulness. Qiao Nan really could not accept it.
Qiao Dongliang’s expression was sullen. “Nan Nan, do you think that I am behaving very much like your mom now? That I am finding fault without a reason?”
Qiao Dongliang also knew that his mindset had not been very healthy recently. A few days ago, especially when he suddenly thought of the problem of the dowry, he was so distracted that he had a sleepless night.
Qiao Nan took the celery into the kitchen to wash. “Dad, there is a kind of psychological illness in this world called gamophobia. Dad, are you suffering from depression woes before your daughter is getting married?”
“Is there such a mental illness?” Qiao Dongliang was self-reflecting. He seemed to be having such a condition.
“Yes, it’s true. If you don’t believe it, I will buy you a book next year for you to read.” Qiao Nan calmed down. She was coaxing Qiao Dongliang as if he was a child.
Qiao Nan continued to tell herself that she probably did not have much chance to coax her father in the future, even if she was willing to.
She would make use of the time available now to coax him more when she still could.
Although her father definitely did not divorce her mother because of her, her father also did many things for her. She acknowledged his love for her.
Qiao Dongliang waved his hands. “No need. As long as such a condition truly exists.”
“Dad, I will stir-fry the celery now, okay?” After chopping a few times, Qiao Nan finished cutting the washed celery. Naturally, she did not mind the additional work of stir-frying it.
No matter how sad Qiao Nan was, she had to persist on having a good Lunar New Year. This was possibly the last year that would be more harmonious for the father-daughter pair.
“No need. I will stir-fry them.” Qiao Nan wanted to have a good time during the last Lunar New Year that they would be spending together. Similarly, Qiao Dongliang also wanted to leave some good memories for his younger daughter.
Even if Qiao Nan did not speak about it, Qiao Dongliang had also harbored some thoughts. After all, he had never fully let go of Qiao Zijin.
Of course, it would be best for Qiao Dongliang if Qiao Nan was willing to talk about it.
After this topic of conversation ended, the father-daughter pair maintained the chemistry between them. Neither mentioned the names of Ding Jiayi and Qiao Zijin again. The pair was bustling as they started preparing for the reunion dinner in the small kitchen.
The father-daughter pair carried out all the tasks together. Although there were only two people present this year, the atmosphere was not considered cold. It was quite good.
The father-daughter pair sat and had a meal together. They also watched the spring television show and waited for the countdown.
The moment the clock ticked when it was midnight, sounds of loud popping firecrackers could be heard from inside and outside the television.
“Happy Lunar New Year, Dad.”
“Happy Lunar New Year, Nan Nan.”
After the father-daughter pair greeted each other, they then returned to their respective rooms to sleep.
The difference was that Qiao Nan did not fall asleep very quickly, but Qiao Dongliang did.
True enough, when she heard a familiar sound, Qiao Nan opened her windows and let Brother Zhai in. “Brother Zhai, aren’t you spending the night at home?”
After Zhai Sheng entered the house, he felt much warmer instantly. “It’s not necessary.” He was someone with a wife now. Of course, he had to sleep with his wife during the Lunar New Year.
As someone who already had an immediate family, Zhai Sheng was not willing to sleep alone like Zhai Hua and Old Master Zhai. He was not so foolish.
“Have you eaten?” When she heard Zhai Sheng climbing the wall in such a bold and righteous manner, Qiao Nan chuckled.
“Yes.” When he was replying to Qiao Nan, Zhai Sheng had already removed all his clothes. There were only his boxer shorts left on his body. He had also lifted Qiao Nan’s blanket and wriggled in. “This blanket is new?”
It was not that Zhai Sheng could not bear to let Qiao Nan buy a new blanket. On the contrary, Qiao Nan would always reject him whenever he wanted to buy something for her. Qiao Nan would tell him that there was no need to buy new ones since the items in the house were still quite good.
If they were not going to replace the old ones, it would be meaningless to buy new ones as they would just be sitting there without any use.
It was rare that Qiao Nan had gotten a new blanket. Naturally, Zhai Sheng discovered it immediately.
“The blanket is not the only new thing. All the items on the bed are new.” Qiao Nan wriggled into Zhai Sheng’s arms. Her arms wrapped tightly on Zhai Sheng’s stiff arms. “On the day before the eve of Lunar New Year, they came and slept in my room. That’s why I changed everything. I have also thrown away the clothing that Qiao Zijin took and wore.”
Zhai Sheng reached out his hands. One of them was below Qiao Nan’s neck while the other was around her waist.
This action alone plastered their two bodies together without any gap.
One was the hard yang and the other was the soft yin. It was like a picture of the Eight Trigrams[1]. The combination was perfect.
“If you have changed them, so be it. Put the old ones aside.” Hugging the nice-smelling and soft woman in his arms, Zhai Sheng sighed comfortably. “You may mind but some others may not. Perhaps they can continue to use them next time.”
“What I feel depressed about is whether these new things will benefit those few people.” Qiao Nan pinched the flesh on Zhai Sheng’s arms and said sullenly, “I am going to be married soon and I didn’t use these things for more than one month. I am petty. I don’t like to benefit others.”
Zhai Sheng kissed Qiao Nan’s lips. She was pouting so much that one could hang a bottle on it. “If you really want to, you can simply move all these items to the Zhai family. You should know that the Zhai family will be moving to the capital, right? But that house in the quad still belongs to us. You can store your things there.”
The Zhai family did not lack any house for Nan Nan to store her belongings. “These are our own things. There is no reason to benefit others if you don’t like to. We will bring them back. Don’t be unhappy.”
[1] Eight Trigrams is a tripartite structure consisting of eight symbols used in Taoist cosmology to represent the fundamental principles of reality. It is seen as a range of eight interrelated concepts. Each consists of three lines; each line either ‘broken’ or ‘unbroken’, respectively representing yin or yang.