Chapter 2457: Moved Away (1)
Having finally sent the three children off to school, Qiao Nan received a phone call from Qiao Zijin the moment she reached home. “Qiao Nan, where did Mom go? I’m warning you that the Zhai family can only do that much even if they are powerful. I don’t like Mom either, but she was the one who gave birth to us. If you dare to… I’ll definitely report you to the police!”
Qiao Zijin, who had returned to the Qiao family’s courtyard to take her clothes, realized that not only was there no one at home, but it even seemed dusty.
Thinking about how Ding Jiayi couldn’t have gone out in the morning, she had waited the whole morning to discuss the matter of her living allowance with Ding Jiayi.
Qiao Zijin guessed that Chen Feng had all of the money that the Chen family gave him.
Chen Feng didn’t have much contact with the Chen family, but ever since Chen Feng returned to Ping Cheng with her, he never seemed to lack any money. He would spend on whatever he had to. In fact, it even seemed like he was richer than his mom.
Within a couple of days, Qiao Zijin started to wonder if the Chen family had already given Chen Feng money for him to settle his own affairs.
As the Chen family’s only grandson, the Chen family had really given all of their assets to Chen Feng in advance. Qiao Zijin thought that it was only right for her son to inherit the Chen family’s assets.
But Chen Feng was just like the Chen family. Even after getting the money, he refused to even mention it to his own mom. Because of this, Qiao Zijin was a little upset.
Chen Feng lived in the school dormitory and only returned home once every fortnight.
Chen Feng was Qiao Zijin’s son. Since he was still underage and had no earning power, it was only logical for Qiao Zijin to give Chen Feng money to spend. But in reality, Qiao Zijin had been waiting to live a comfortable life by spending the Chen family’s money.
But Chen Feng was in cahoots with the Chen family, bringing Qiao Zijin’s plans to an end.
The two days in a fortnight when Chen Feng was at home, he would even go to the market to get ingredients and whip up a simple meal.
Chen Feng’s culinary skills were not amazing, but they were still better than Qiao Zijin’s.
Qiao Zijin lived comfortably in those two days, but there were twelve other days in a fortnight that her son wasn’t home. Qiao Zijin couldn’t possibly starve for twelve days just for those two days’ worth of food.
This led to a series of problems arising.
How was Qiao Zijin supposed to settle her meals while Chen Feng wasn’t around? If she were to hire someone, it would cost money. Buying the ingredients would cost her money too.
Money, money, money. This word loomed over Qiao Zijin.
While battling against Ding Jiayi, Qiao Zijin emerged as the winner most of the time.
In the end, Ding Jiayi could only hold it in and tolerate it so that she wouldn’t fall ill and be hospitalized again despite knowing that Qiao Zijin was taking advantage of her. After all, Qiao Nan was the one paying for all of their expenses.
If they were to analyze it, apart from expending more energy, Qiao Zijin was still leeching off Qiao Nan.
Ding Jiayi’s only victory was that Qiao Zijin had learned to wash clothes under her insistence, even though she had not learned to cook.
After realizing that her meals would be a challenge after deciding to live with her son, Chen Feng, Qiao Zijin decided to return to the Qiao family’s courtyard and have a discussion with Ding Jiayi about how they would split Qiao Nan’s living allowance.
Qiao Zijin knew that Qiao Nan gave Ding Jiayi quite a substantial amount of living allowance and had even increased it recently.
She had expressed shamelessly that half of that living allowance was hers. Since she no longer lived in the Qiao family’s courtyard, it wasn’t right for Ding Jiayi to hold on to the money. She should have full control of that sum instead.
Before coming, Qiao Zijin had already thought of how to convince Ding Jiayi to fork out even more money for her.
After all, she was younger and had more expenses than Ding Jiayi.
Ding Jiayi was a single elderly person. There was no way she would spend much on herself. It was much better to hand the leftover money to her so that she could spend it on some nice clothes. Perhaps, she would even meet a new boyfriend who would be a loving stepfather to Chen Feng.
But as she neared the Qiao family’s courtyard, Qiao Zijin suddenly changed her mind.
She knew nothing about cooking and was not willing to learn.
Women grew old quickly because they cooked often and faced smoke and oil.
She hadn’t found her second husband yet, so she had to protect her face and hands. So, what was the point of her mom handing half of the living allowance to her? It wasn’t even enough to call takeaway every day. Once the money was gone, she would have to starve or eat into her own savings.
If Qiao Zijin was willing to spend her own money, would she even need to be so calculative toward Qiao Nan and Ding Jiayi?
The mention of money was what hurt Qiao Zijin the most. To her, everything revolved around one thing: money.
Thinking about how she would have to do things she wasn’t willing to do after taking the money, she realized that she would much rather forgo it.
Then, what was she supposed to do?
She had a plan.
After all, her son only returned once every two weeks. While her son was around, she would definitely have all three meals with her son. But when her son was back in school, she could return to the Qiao family’s house. After dinner, she could return to her son’s home to sleep.
Even though it would cost her money to take public transport, Qiao Zijin had gotten herself a bus card. A trip on the bus would cost only one yuan. A return trip would cost two yuan at most.
As compared to the money she would spend on cooking or buying takeaway, two yuan was nothing. She could afford it with the interest from her money sitting in the bank. Two yuan was a measly sum compared to the dozens of yuan she would spend otherwise.
What Qiao Zijin was even prouder about was that she knew that Ding Jiayi was alone with no one to accompany her after she had left to live with her son. That meant that Ding Jiayi probably didn’t even have anyone to talk to.
It was just as well. She would be able to chat with her mom and accompany her in case she got too lonely.
She wasn’t going home just for the free meals. It was to accompany her mother so that her mother wouldn’t fall ill with no one around her.
Having thought of such a perfect solution and excuse, Qiao Zijin could only praise herself for being too smart. At critical times like this, she could still rely on her brains to live.
Who would have known that Qiao Zijin would be utterly shocked by the empty Qiao family’s courtyard?