Chapter 1585: All Ready
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
“It’s settled then. This time, we’ll go on a holiday as a family of seven!” San Bao jumped around in joy. Well, bad things happened often, but there would always be something to be happy about. Her mom was right. One could not always think negatively and had to look on the bright side of things too. “Mom, let’s hurry and get ready. Won’t we be leaving tomorrow? Should we book plane tickets?”
“I’ll book the plane tickets.” Zhai Sheng took over this task.
Miao Jing patted her thigh. “Great, you settle the tickets. I’ll pack our luggage with Nan Nan.” It was still rather warm in October, so other than a few sets of clothes, they had to pack a few more things for the three children, such as flu medicine, just in case.
Miao Jing and Qiao Nan had never thought of relying on the two men in the house to do something like packing their luggage. Thus, the responsibility of doing so fell on them.
While folding clothes to pack into their luggage, Qiao Nan hesitated for a moment. “My dad…” By that, she did not mean her father-in-law Zhai Yaohui, but her biological father, Qiao Dongliang.
Qiao Dongliang had been looking forward to the seven-day National Day holiday because the three children would be home, and he would finally be able to spend some time with his grandchildren.
In the past, even if Qiao Nan did not mention it, she had always counted Qiao Dongliang as part of their ‘family’ due to the three children’s filial piety. But they had recently found out from their paternal grandmother that such a good grandfather had made a horrible mistake in the past and treated their mother so badly. The three children had not had enough time to calm down and smooth out their thoughts and emotions. If they did not smooth it out, there would be resentment in their hearts forever.
Many children enter their teenage rebellion period after entering junior high school. The three children were just unable to handle their complex feelings in a mature manner and thus threw a small tantrum by ignoring their grandpa, Qiao Dongliang. In comparison to other children, the three children saved their parents a lot of worries.
But even if the three children refused to mention him, Qiao Nan could not do the same.
Miao Jing did not stop midway through what she was doing. She had already known that Qiao Nan was a softhearted child. Qiao Dongliang’s actions had not been as outrageous as Ding Jiayi’s or Qiao Zijin’s. Hence, she was not at all surprised that Nan Nan would mention Qiao Dongliang. “I’ve spoken to Zhai Sheng and asked him to purchase an extra ticket. Hurry and make a call to your dad. Tell him to pack some clothes. He doesn’t need to bring anything else. We’ll have more than enough.”
Well, due to Ding Jiayi’s and Qiao Zijin’s shameless actions, Miao Jing’s feelings toward Qiao Dongliang, which had already been mixed to begin with, became even more complicated.
One was Qiao Dongliang’s wife, and the other was his elder daughter.
These two heartless women had such a close relationship with Qiao Dongliang. As such, Qiao Dongliang had to take responsibility for their brazen and shameless actions. It was because Qiao Dongliang had not reined in his wife and child that Ding Jiayi and Qiao Zijin had grown into what they were today.
But they all lived in the same house under the same roof. Qiao Dongliang had not been influenced by these two people and taken part in taking down Qiao Nan. Instead, he clearly had his own limits. With such a contrast, Miao Jing’s resentment toward Qiao Dongliang lessened.
There was no choice since there was no top-notch stuff in the Qiao family. Only one was relatively better!
Qiao Dongliang, who only looked good when comparing with the others of the Qiao family, was a coward. But at least, he was still useful. Miao Jing herself could not leave her grandchildren. She understood the importance of the three children to Qiao Dongliang, as well as how much he loved them. If they were all to go on a holiday but leave Qiao Dongliang out, he was sure to feel lonely.
But most importantly, Miao Jing had done her calculations.
There was really no saving Ding Jiayi and Qiao Zijin. But if the whole Zhai family were to go on a holiday and leave Qiao Dongliang behind alone, in these seven days, Qiao Zijin might find Qiao Dongliang and beg for mercy, even bringing Ding Jiayi along. Then, the three of them might band together even closer than before and conspire to take Nan Nan down. If that were to happen, Nan Nan would be too pitiful.
People’s emotions were fragile, and so were people’s hearts.
Anyway, she would never leave such an opportunity for Qiao Zijin and Ding Jiayi to take advantage of, so as to prevent them from pulling Qiao Dongliang over to their side again. For Nan Nan’s sake, she would rather just fork out more money and bring Qiao Dongliang along with them on their holiday. That would let Qiao Dongliang realize that the only one who was good to him in the Qiao family was Nan Nan alone.
She had to help Nan Nan hold on to their ‘ally’, Qiao Dongliang, firmly.
To give up small profits to make larger ones—Miao Jing understood this principle. She would not ruin her larger plan just because of a moment of anger. If one failed to contain their anger at this moment, they would ruin the overall plan in the long run.
“Thanks, Mom.” Hearing Miao Jing’s words made Qiao Nan sigh in relief. She had not expected that her mother-in-law had already thought about this and had even asked Zhai Sheng to prepare her father’s ticket without her even having said a thing. “I’ll call my dad now.” Qiao Nan did not dawdle as she worried that Qiao Dongliang would have no time to get ready.
Qiao Dongliang had been rather surprised to receive this phone call. Seeing Qiao Zijin kicking up a fuss every day, he knew that Qiao Zijin was doing it just to harm Qiao Nan. But other than publicly declaring that he had disowned Qiao Zijin as his daughter, he had done nothing, mainly because he did not know what to do. Every time he saw a news report regarding Qiao Zijin, Qiao Dongliang felt deeply apologetic toward Qiao Nan. This guilt built up so much so that Qiao Dongliang was too ashamed to even take the initiative to contact Qiao Nan.
As much as Qiao Dongliang missed the three children, he dared not approach the Zhai family.
When he saw that the call was from Qiao Nan, Qiao Dongliang had been afraid that Qiao Nan was calling to scold him. But it turned out to be such a pleasant surprise! Qiao Dongliang almost suspected that he was hallucinating. “You’re bringing me on a holiday? Me?”
“That’s right. Brother Zhai has already purchased your plane ticket. It’s for tomorrow. So hurry and pack a few sets of clothes. We’ll prepare the rest. I’ll get Brother Zhai to pick you up tomorrow morning, and we’ll set off together from the Zhai family’s house. Is that all right?”
“No, there’s no need.” Qiao Dongliang’s voice was shaky, and his eyes expressed his surprise. “That’ll be too troublesome. The capital is so busy, especially with so many cars around. I’ll hail a cab myself and meet you at the Zhai family’s house. There’s no need to trouble Zhai Sheng to come over specially to pick me up. I’ll go pack my clothes now.”
Yesterday, he had still been sad about how he would not be able to see the three children over these seven days of the National Day holiday. But the next moment, Qiao Dongliang was being lifted from hell to heaven. He was as happy as a lark and could not wait to finish packing at the fastest possible speed.
“All right, go pack your clothes. We’re still not done. You should know that there are quite a lot of things to prepare when going on holiday with three children.” She could tell that Qiao Dongliang was overjoyed, but Qiao Nan did not have anything much to say.