Chapter 1697: All of Them Have Grown Old
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Qiao Nan did not let Zhai Yu off easily. What had to be asked had to be asked. “I think you don’t want me to wake up to check on your room tonight, right? How about I install an electric meter in your room? I’ll check it before I go to bed and check it again when I wake up the next morning.”
“Mom, my good mother, you’re exaggerating! You’ve already taught me well with love. How can I commit these wrongs knowingly? I was really good last night and went to bed at ten o’clock. I’m serious!” Zhai Yu felt aggrieved. If she got caught, she would have to return to being a child and sleeping beside her mother! How would she still dare to make such a mistake again?
Actually, she rather enjoyed sleeping together with her mom when she was younger. But her biological father was simply too mean. He said that he wanted to develop their independence and thus made them sleep on their own beds. If she were to sleep together with her mom now, her dad would definitely cause trouble for her once he returned. This was her dad, her biological father, no less!
With such a jealous father, Zhai Yu had no choice but to listen to Qiao Nan and promise that this would never happen again. She swore to go to bed by ten o’clock and not stay up late into the night. It was only then that Qiao Nan gave up the idea of supervising Zhai Yu.
Qiao Nan eyed Zhai Yu suspiciously. “I’ll believe you for now. But if I ever catch up again, you know what will happen. Besides, you have to restrain yourself in this area when you go back to school. Don’t forget what’s most important while you’re in school.” She would accept relaxing from time to time, but she would take matters into her own hands if her daughter was overly engrossed in it.
“For sure.” Oh, dear, her mother had only caught her just this once, but she was already bringing up the matter at the dinner table. If she were to make her mom get upset about this matter again, her dad would come after her the next time. If that protective dad of hers were to make a move, she would only be in a worse-off state than now.
At times, Zhai Yu was confused. Her dad treated her well when she was younger. Didn’t everyone say that daughters were their father’s lovers from a previous lifetime? But that was absolutely not the case in their family!
She was not like her father’s lover from a previous lifetime. Instead, she was much more like a love rival from her father’s previous two lifetimes. When she was with Da Bao and Er Bao, her dad would still take care of her. But in front of her mom, nothing could compare to her mom.
Her dad treated anything or anyone who upset or angered her mom like an enemy that he needed to wipe out with full force. As such, there were two women that one could not afford to offend in the family. One was her grandma, and the other was her birth mom. That was because the emperor dowager and the emperor in the family placed great importance on these two people.
It was already considered quite good that the adults in their family did not leave the three of them to fend for themselves.
“Yes.” Zhai Yu begged for mercy, so Qiao Nan finally let it go. She had only caught her daughter in the act once, after all. Of course, Qiao Nan never woke up in the middle of the night to get a glass of water from then on.
“San Bao, eat more to nourish your eyes.” While Qiao Nan was disciplining her daughter, Qiao Dongliang could not bear to see his granddaughter being scolded, but neither did he dare to cut in and protect her. But once Qiao Nan finished disciplining her child, Qiao Dongliang would always use actions like taking food for his grandchildren to comfort them. “San Bao, your mom is right. You’re so pretty. You won’t look good if you have to wear glasses because of your poor eyesight in the future. Your mom’s eyesight has been good ever since she was young. She didn’t even like to watch the television. Young people nowadays are always either glued to the television or computers. Many young children who have just started going to school are already wearing glasses that are bigger than their own faces!”
Every time he witnessed this, Qiao Dongliang was glad that not a single one of his grandchildren was like this. If they really wanted to join the military, having good eyesight was crucial.
These children who started wearing glasses from a young age had no affinity with the military. These children could lead such lives, but not the children of the Zhai family.
“Thanks, grandpa.” Zhai Yu had no intention of rejecting the pile of green vegetables in her bowl. On a winter day like that, vegetables were great. When the weather got cold, the prices of vegetables were even higher than that of meat. Thus, Zhai Yu ate it heartily.
Zhai Yu did not need to control her appetite just because she was a young lady. Since it was New Year’s Eve, she would eat as much as she wanted. Of course, Zhai Yi and Zhai Xin would only eat even more than their younger sister, Zhai Yu.
Now that Zhai Yaohui was in his old age, his appetite was not as voracious as when he was younger, but it was still better than Qiao Nan’s and Miao Jing’s. After eating one and a half bowls of rice, he put down his bowl, saying that it was best not to eat too much. Otherwise, he would be too full to fall asleep that night.
There was no change in Zhai Sheng’s appetite. He was at his peak, an ‘old man’ of almost fifty, but his spirit and vigor was much better than that of a young man of twenty or thirty. As such, getting sufficient energy to maintain such a good mental and physical state was crucial.
Zhai Sheng and his sons unanimously became the incarnates of rice buckets. Even though Qiao Nan and Miao Jing had prepared a whole table full of dishes, the father and son trio swept the whole table clean.
Most of the time, as long as the father and son trio were around, Qiao Nan and Miao Jing never worried about having leftovers, wasting food, or that the food would no longer be nutritious when reheated. After a meal, they could cook completely new dishes without needing to reheat leftovers. This was much healthier. Since they had been a family for so many years, Miao Jing and Qiao Nan had always taken this into consideration when preparing the dishes. It was with the knowledge of how much Zhai Sheng and his sons could eat that they prepared this whole table’s worth of food for New Year’s Eve.
“Wow, Da Bao and Er Bao are eating so well.” Seeing her two grandsons repeatedly refilling their bowls with rice made Miao Jing let out a wide smile. The sight of her grandchildren eating well made Miao Jing even happier than eating an extra bowl of rice herself. “It’s unfortunate that you guys will be spending less time at home in the future. After today, I’ll be a year older. I don’t know how long more I’ll be able to cook for the two of you. Maybe it won’t be long before I’ll get too old to even cook.” Miao Jing sighed emotionally.
Her health was good sometimes and bad at other times. It was only slightly better than her mother-in-law’s health when she had still been alive, but far worse than a typical healthy old person’s. Miao Jing could not be sure when her condition would improve. If this continued, she might not even have the strength to cook for her grandchildren even if she wanted to in a few years’ time.
Looking at the silver strands of hair sprouting out from between Miao Jing’s black head of hair, the triplets were beginning to feel upset. The three children had realized long ago that it was not only their grandparents who were beginning to grow more white hair. Their parents were not spared from it either.