Chapter 1819: Fresh Start
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Just as they had said, a rival suitor had indeed shown up in Qingshui Town just two days after the Zhai couple had arrived, and he had headed straight for Qiao Nan’s rented apartment.
Given the Qiao family’s abilities, they would never have been able to find out where Qiao Nan had moved to. But as for certain people, especially government officials, they definitely had the means of doing so if they really wanted to.
Standing in front of Qiao Nan’s door, Chen Jun was a little hesitant. He was unsure of how Qiao Nan would react upon seeing him. After the two had broken up, his ex-girlfriend had become his sister-in-law. All these years, Chen Jun had never forgotten about Qiao Nan and had always been concerned about Qiao Nan’s situation.
Qiao Nan had always thought that Ding Jiayi had never wanted Qiao Nan to get married, in case she had her own children after getting married. That would mean that whatever money she earned would go into raising her children and that Ding Jiayi would never be able to get any money from Qiao Nan to support Qiao Zijin. As such, she had ruined Qiao Nan’s blind dates one after the other. Every time she found a prospect, Ding Jiayi would always scare the other party away. She even scolded the matchmakers so harshly that they no longer dared to help Qiao Nan out.
In fact, Ding Jiayi had considered Chen Jun’s encouragement and bewitchment.
Chen Jun had gotten married to Qiao Zijin and even had a son with her, namely Chen Feng, but Chen Jun still led a colorful life outside and had gotten to know many other women. But out of all these women, the only one Chen Jun had not been able to let go of was Qiao Nan alone.
Men were all like that, especially men like Chen Jun, who was simply even worse by nature. He had countless affairs and fanned the flames to encourage his mother-in-law to prevent his sister-in-law from getting married. Although Qiao Nan was already forty, she was still as single as the day she had broken up with him and had never had any contact with other men. Qiao Nan had a special place in Chen Jun’s heart.
Now, the reputation of all three members of the Qiao family had been ruined. Thankfully, Qiao Zijin had not dragged the Chen family into this matter and made him a joke in front of the public. This was something the Chen family felt rather grateful for.
Following that, Mother Chen had asked Chen Jun what kind of woman he would look for. After all, Chen Feng was still young. Chen Jun might be a grown man, but he also needed someone to take care of him. So Chen Jun had to find a second wife. But he had better not find another troublemaker like Qiao Zijin.
If Chen Jun had anyone in mind, they would take their time to observe that person carefully. There was no way they were going to fall into another pit now that they had finally climbed out of one called Qiao Zijin. It did not matter how evil or cunning those women Chen Jun played with were. Given Chen Jun’s capabilities and status, he could afford to do so. But a woman he wanted to marry had to be someone who would lead a simple and honest life. That was Mother Chen’s only requirement.
Hearing that his mom was asking him to get remarried, the image of Qiao Nan in Chen Jun’s mind only got clearer as time went by. After some time, he could no longer resist it and simply asked for his parents’ opinion about getting remarried to Qiao Nan.
Mother and Father Chen’s disapproval resounded loudly. Why? It was not that Qiao Nan was not good enough. In fact, Qiao Nan was an excellent choice for marriage. The problem was that Qiao Nan was Qiao Zijin’s younger sister! At that time, Chen Jun had only gotten to know Qiao Zijin because of Qiao Nan, and he had married Qiao Zijin only because he had gotten her pregnant.
None of them had forgotten about what had happened at that time, so was it possible for Qiao Nan to have forgotten about it? Even if the Chen family was not afraid of being mocked about how Chen Jun’s first marriage had been to the elder sister while his second marriage was to the younger sister, they did not think that Qiao Nan would be able to gladly accept Chen Jun’s proposal and marry into the Chen family because of what had happened in the past.
The elderly couple felt that it was simply impossible.
Yes, it was true that the Chen family had a good background. Chen Jun had inherited his father’s position, was handsome and dashing, and was at his peak now. The problem was that they had felt Qiao Nan’s sadness when Qiao Zijin had forced Qiao Nan to back off because of her pregnancy at that time, but Qiao Nan had never tried to cling to Chen Jun.
After Chen Jun got married to Qiao Zijin, Qiao Nan had never visited the Chen family. When Chen Jun visited the Qiao family from time to time, not only would Qiao Nan never take the initiative to approach Chen Jun, but she would not even glance at Chen Jun. It was as though Chen Jun was invisible. Unless Ding Jiayi assigned any chores to her, Qiao Nan would be wherever everyone else was.
Father Chen knew that his son had probably gone to meet Qiao Nan alone while he was gone. Now that his son was grown up, Father Chen did not have much say in his son’s actions. Besides, his son was quite intelligent. As such, Father Chen had full confidence that his son would be able to resolve any differences between Qiao Zijin and Qiao Nan if he were to get together with Qiao Nan.
Moreover, Qiao Nan was extremely mild-tempered. Even if she were truly to get together with Chen Jun, she would never fight with Qiao Zijin like other mistresses did, relying on their children to gain affection from their husbands or making a fuss to gain attention.
But he had never expected that Qiao Nan could be so stubborn if she really wanted to, even though she had always been so softhearted toward the Qiao family. In front of the Qiao family, Qiao Nan was so foolish that it was pitiful. But in front of Chen Jun, Qiao Nan was not at all muddleheaded. Qiao Nan chose to stick to the crowd at all times, giving Chen Jun no chance to speak to her alone or to confess to her.
Of course, it was not entirely impossible for Chen Jun to get back together with Qiao Nan behind the Qiao family’s backs.
Based on this whole incident, Father Chen did not think that Qiao Nan would be willing to reconcile with her ex, Chen Jun. But if the two were really to get back together, there would be an advantage to that. He would never need to worry about his grandson, Chen Feng, being abused or neglected by his stepmother. No matter whose child Chen Feng was, or whether he was Qiao Zijin’s son, Qiao Nan would never be so heartless.
Because of his parents’ analysis, Chen Jun could only hold in his own thoughts.
But things quickly took a turn. The Chen family had always been living in Ping Cheng and had risen to the top ranks in Ping Cheng. If they wanted to further their careers, they would have to move out of Ping Cheng. Coincidentally, there had been such an opportunity! Wang Yang had remembered the top figure, Chen Jun, and had decided to give Chen Jun this chance.
With Chen Jun’s promotion, he could very well leave Ping Cheng with his whole family to a new city. At this time, Chen Jun once again thought about getting back with Qiao Nan. In the past, Father and Mother Chen had disagreed with this idea because they thought that it was well-known that Qiao Nan was Qiao Zijin’s younger sister and had once been Chen Jun’s sister-in-law.
It would not reflect well on the Chen family if word were to spread about Chen Jun marrying Qiao Nan after having gotten a divorce from Qiao Zijin.
But if the Chen family were to move to an entirely new location and Chen Jun were to become an official in a brand-new city, no one would be any wiser about the situation between him and Qiao Nan. That could be a fresh start for him!