Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
No matter how he compared them, his grandsons could not match up to his granddaughter. Among his three grandchildren, only San Bao was on his side.
At this time, Zhai Yaohui felt thankful that Qiao Nan had not only given birth to sons but also a daughter. If their family had only grandsons who would swindle his wife away from him, he would really lead a miserable life as an old man.
He was still upset about this when Zhai Yu took a newspaper over and said, “Grandpa, shall I read the news to you for a bit?”
Zhai Yaohui was now advanced in age and was farsighted, but his temper was far worse than when he was younger, and he refused to wear glasses. He felt that it was incredibly uncomfortable at his nose bridge once he wore glasses. But Zhai Yaohui had already cultivated the habit of reading several newspapers daily to stay abreast of national matters.
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If he did not wear glasses, he would not be able to see the small words in the newspaper. But if he wore glasses, he would feel uncomfortable and throw a tantrum. For this, Qiao Nan had invested much thought and effort into this. Knowing that it was inconvenient for Zhai Yaohui to go out and that he was unwilling to go out, she decided to choose quite a number of frames for Zhai Yaohui to try on.
She would then see which pair fit Zhai Yaohui the best and then bring Zhai Yaohui to that particular shop to get a pair of glasses fitted for him. Unfortunately, her efforts all went down the drain when Zhai Yaohui refused to agree to a single frame that Qiao Nan had picked out. In the end, the only result was Qiao Nan being exhausted from all this effort.
Seeing how Zhai Yaohui tortured Qiao Nan, Miao Jing went up in a rage. If he did not want to wear glasses, then there was no need to make a pair for him. Anyway, the one who felt uncomfortable while reading the newspaper was not Nan Nan, but Zhai Yaohui himself. If Zhai Yaohui would rather deal with this discomfort than wear glasses, no one else should have to worry about this on Zhai Yaohui’s behalf and think of a solution for him.
She felt that Zhai Yaohui’s temper and tantrum was getting too out of hand as he aged. Thankfully, Qiao Nan was patient and did not see Zhai Yaohui as an evil father-in-law. Even after spending a whole day busy with her own work, she was still willing to be tortured by Zhai Yaohui in this manner
Miao Jing directly reprimanded Zhai Yaohui, saying that Zhai Yaohui should try doing this with someone else’s daughter-in-law and see who would even bother with him!
After that lecture, Zhai Yaohui could only give in and rest his case. In the end, the good-natured Qiao Nan told Zhai Yaohui not to wear glasses if he did not want to. She was typically busy with work, but she could still take some time out, of around half an hour, in the mornings and evenings to read the newspaper to her father-in-law.
It was only his eyes that did not work well. There was nothing wrong with his ears. Since he could not read, he could listen instead.
It was only with Qiao Nan’s solution that peace was restored in the family.
Typically, it was Qiao Nan’s job to read the newspaper to Zhai Yaohui. But now that the three children were back to celebrate the new year, Zhai Yu, who had returned the earliest, naturally took over her mother’s job to read the newspaper to her grandpa, Zhai Yaohui.
When Zhai Yu took over the job, the amount of time Zhai Yaohui could listen to the newspaper being read increased tremendously. It was as though he was reading the newspaper himself and was only satisfied when he finished flipping through the whole newspaper.
“All right, let’s read the newspaper.” The moment his granddaughter took the initiative to say so, the discomfort Zhai Yaohui felt in his heart immediately disappeared with no trace. Miao Miao had her two grandsons to coax her, while he had his granddaughter. No wonder people always said that girls were like heartwarming little jackets. San Bao was her grandpa’s little jacket!
Upon seeing that the three children had dealt with Zhai Yaohui and Miao Jing, the auntie secretly let out a sigh of relief. Compared to other employers, the Zhai family did indeed have a better temper. Even though the family enjoyed a high status, they treated her well and humanely.
If she did not know better, she might even have mistaken her employer’s family as an ordinary family. Their tempers were simply too good.
But things were always relative. No matter how good an employer was, they would always have times when they would throw a tantrum. What made her feel thankful was that her employers had never let their anger out of her even when they were in a bad mood. Typically, it was Qiao Nan who dealt with the two elders.
It was rare to see a daughter-in-law who got along so well with her parents-in-law.
Now that her employer’s three children were home, the elderly couple was being coaxed into a good mood every day, and they never lost the temper. The three children had been brought up well by her employer, Qiao Nan. No matter how much the two elders fussed, the younger ones never made a big deal out of it. This was only because Qiao Nan had set a good example for them. Which other daughters-in-law could be so caring toward their parents-in-law?
Zhai Sheng spent less time at home as compared to other men, and neither was he home every day. If anything cropped up at home, Qiao Nan was the one to handle it all alone. The auntie felt that it was truly not easy for Qiao Nan to be dealing with all these.
But in the face of such a situation, Qiao Nan had still managed to arrange everything properly and let her elders live comfortably. It was no wonder that the atmosphere in the Zhai family was different from other family’s. It was exceptionally good. It was truly her good fortune to be able to work for the Zhai family.
In the auntie’s heart, she had secretly assigned a title for Qiao Nan: a good Chinese daughter-in-law.
She also had a son. When her son grew older in the future, she would have to find a daughter-in-law with a temper like her employer’s, even if she could not find a daughter-in-law who could match up to her employer. A girl who had nothing in common with her employer was definitely unacceptable. She was afraid that she would have to tolerate her daughter-in-law’s temper and have no one to look after her in her old age even after sacrificing her whole life for her family.
Qiao Nan had no idea that the auntie had so many of such ideas. This auntie was younger than Qiao Nan, and Qiao Nan asked the young auntie to address her as Sister Qiao.
“All right, it’s the Lunar New Year’s Eve today. You’d better hurry home and spend time with your family before it gets dark. Your son is still young. He’ll probably cry if he doesn’t get to see you.” It was almost seven o’clock, so Qiao Nan instructed the auntie to take off her apron and head home to her family.
As for everything else at home, there would not be any major problems with her around.
“I’ll take my leave first, Sister Qiao.” The auntie was rather happy. She had already done everything she could. Initially, she had already been starting to panic, wondering when she would be able to go home to spend time with her son. Now that her employer had said so, the auntie knew that she could really return home now.
“Yes, hurry on home.” Qiao Nan placed the apron that the auntie had taken off back into its position and handed the auntie a red packet. “It’s been hard on you this year. I’ll have to trouble you to continue taking care of us next year. Happy New Year! Take this to buy some sweets for your son.”
It was not the first time the auntie received a red packet from Qiao Nan. The amount of money in the red packet was not so much that it was frightening, but neither was it a small sum. It was almost two months’ worth of her salary!
It was quite a considerable sum for a red packet!