Chapter 1993: Afraid
In the event that Qiao Dongliang wasn’t treated in time due to lack of money and he ended up losing his life, that mother-daughter pair would only think that Nan Nan was the one who caused Qiao Dongliang his death as she valued money more than Qiao Dongliang’s life.
This was the first time Zhai Sheng truly felt that the family Qiao Nan used to live with was a problematic one. Upon thinking that Qiao Nan didn’t go astray even after having grown up in such an environment, Zhai Sheng was really thankful.
“If you’re tired, take a rest first. I’ll call you when we’re home.” Once they got in the car, Zhai Sheng asked Qiao Nan to rest. Really, even if nothing happened today, having to deal with the Qiao family alone was enough to make Qiao Nan physically and mentally exhausted.
Qiao Nan laughed bitterly. “It’s fine. I’m used to it.” Due to Brother Zhai’s presence today, Ding Jiayi only asked her to fork out money. If Brother Zhai wasn’t around, her mom’s usual ways would be to first force her to fork out money that far exceeded the cost of her dad’s hospitalization. Then, she would poke her head and scold her for being useless and lacking a conscience as she arrived so late after her dad was hospitalized. Otherwise, she would say that her wings had hardened and that she no longer cared about her parents’ life and death.
If not for her not taking good care of her dad, would her dad have to be hospitalized, undergo an operation, and suffer so much physically? In short, she had to fork out the money. All the mistakes were committed by her.
At least, they only took half of her money today and she didn’t get a scolding. To Qiao Nan, this was already a fairly good treatment.
The more Qiao Nan said this, the more Zhai Sheng felt heartache.
Zhai Sheng was still feeling miserable. Ding Jiayi and Qiao Zijin, the mother-daughter pair who had a good relationship, were arguing. “Mom, you’re really letting Qiao Nan go just like that?” Qiao Zijin was shocked. Zhai Sheng was right in front of them. Why didn’t her mom say all those nice words that she had said before? In front of Zhai Sheng, she was as timid as a quail.
“What else can I do?!” Ding Jiayi replied unpleasantly. “Can I control Qiao Nan or the Zhai family’s son?”
“Why not? Doesn’t he want to marry Qiao Nan? That means he’s your son-in-law, which is equivalent to half of your son. He will address you as mom and you can control your son. Why can’t you control him?” Zhai Sheng had to listen to her mom’s words as well.
After being nagged at by her daughter, Ding Jiayi became furious and said, “Qiao Nan’s already forty-years-old. If someone like Zhai Sheng is willing to marry Qiao Nan, I should be very thankful that my daughter could be married off and that someone is willing to have her. Back when you were young, you married Chen Jun while being pregnant with Feng Feng. Since when did Chen Jun treat me as his mom and listen to my words?”
A son-in-law was half a son and thus, he should be listening to her words?
Ding Jiayi had two daughters. She became a grandmother and had a son-in-law early. However, she never experienced the joy of this before. Every time Chen Jun came to the Qiao family, he was like a master to be served. She was deeply afraid that if she didn’t treat Chen Jun, the son-in-law, well, her daughter’s life would be made difficult by the Chen family.
Her son-in-law was the Qiao family’s number one VIP!
To put on airs in front of her son-in-law? Sorry, she hadn’t tried this before and she hadn’t learned it even now. Furthermore, that man she faced today wasn’t her son-in-law yet. She didn’t have the confidence to put on airs as a mother-in-law.
One should not hit a person in the face or expose their shortcomings. Both mother and daughter had committed this taboo. Animosity filled the atmosphere. “Oh, now that you have Zhai Sheng as a son-in-law, you’re complaining that the Chen Jun I married to in the past isn’t good enough? You’re bringing up old scores now? Heh. I thought only Dad looked down on me, the elder daughter, because Qiao Nan’s about to marry Zhai Sheng. After so much fuss, you’re just like Dad. You really deserve to be husband and wife.”
Ding Jiayi’s face turned pale when she heard her daughter’s unceremonious words. “How can you say this? Don’t forget that I’m your mom. After hitting your birth dad, you’re lecturing me, your birth mom?”
When Zhai Sheng was around previously, Ding Jiayi was especially worried that Qiao Nan would ask how Qiao Dongliang became injured. She couldn’t possibly tell Qiao Nan that when she and Qiao Zijin were conspiring to destroy the Zhai family’s impression of Qiao Nan, they got into an argument with Qiao Dongliang after he overheard their words, and Qiao Dongliang fell after being pushed by his birth daughter, Qiao Zijin, right?
Until now, Ding Jiayi wasn’t willing to accept this truth.
Qiao Dongliang was old and in poor health. This meant that she was in a similar situation. Through Qiao Dongliang’s situation, Ding Jiayi couldn’t help but worry about herself. If she and her elder daughter got into a dispute because of something, would her elder daughter push her like how she did to Old Qiao?
She thought of how Qiao Zijin refused to fork out the money when they first entered the hospital and insisted on waiting for Qiao Nan to arrive so that they would split the cost and not benefit Qiao Nan in any way. Before Qiao Nan left, she also said that she would split the cost with Qiao Zijin. It was obvious that Qiao Zijin had forgotten about her own persistence before Qiao Nan’s arrival as she was very dissatisfied with having to split the cost.
Speaking of Qiao Dongliang’s injuries, Qiao Zijin felt a little guilty. “Mom, don’t make it sound so serious. You know that I’m filial to you and dad. How could I lay a hand on you? That time was an accident. I didn’t want this to happen either.” She knew that she couldn’t afford to lay a hand on the elderly.
She wasn’t the kind of person who complained that she had too much money in her hands and thus deliberately injured the elderly in the family to spend the money on hospitalization bills instead. If there was really a serious illness, the money in her hands wouldn’t be sufficient at all.
Ding Jiayi sighed. Now that things had become like this, Ding Jiayi didn’t know if she should be angry with Qiao Zijin or herself. “Before Qiao Nan arrived, you insisted that Old Qiao was the father of both you and Qiao Nan. There was no reason for you to fork out the money and benefit that unfilial Qiao Nan. Now that Qiao Nan has already forked out fifty thousand yuan, I shan’t say anything else. Transfer fifty thousand yuan to me immediately. I still have to take care of your dad. If we have finished spending all the money and your dad hasn’t recovered yet, I’ll get money from both you and Qiao Nan again. Both of you should split the cost.”
Since there was already a start, there was no reason to go back. Since they agreed on splitting the cost, then that should be done from the beginning to the end.
After being exposed by Qiao Zijin, the angry Ding Jiayi couldn’t care about doting on her elder daughter anymore. She knew that Qiao Zijin wasn’t willing to fork out money when Qiao Dongliang was hospitalized today. If she had to be hospitalized one day, based on Old Qiao’s temper, he would definitely not be able to get money from Zijin. Did that mean that once she was sick, Zijin would completely ignore her life and death and run far away?
As she thought about this, not only did Ding Jiayi feel cold, but she also felt terrified. She became a different person.