Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
A parent would always pay more attention to the child that he hoped would go further in life, and he would give more help and resources to that child. On the contrary, he would completely lose the reins on the other child who would then be deemed to be useless.
So would this still be counted as raising a child?
Shi Peng had just mentioned this in passing to Shi Qing, who had sneered upon hearing it. If it was not for the fact that Old Shi was already gone and she had to respect the dead, Shi Qing really wanted to say something: A person forgets about the evils of the world and thinks only of good things nearing death. The problem was that whatever her grandpa had said was utter nonsense.
After Old Master Shi passed away, Shi Qing lost all contact with her aunt, Qi Minlan. As for Qiu Chenxi, whom Shi Qing could never get along with, Shi Qing kept her distance from her even more. “Oh, I guess my dad could not care less about her. That’s why she’s come to find me for help?”
Zhu Baoguo looked at his wife, who was still as stubborn as ever, with a doting but helpless gaze. “Aren’t you just spouting nonsense? You should know best what kind of person Qiu Chenxi is. If she isn’t at her wit’s end, do you think she would have humbled herself to ask for your help? Qiu Chenxi has never been good at anything, but she’s always been more prideful than anyone else.”
Thankfully for Zhu Baoguo, his wife was unlike Qiu Chenxi.
It had been more than a decade since that incident, and his own son had already entered university. Zhu Baoguo had already let go of whatever had happened while he was younger. Now, Zhu Baoguo treated Qiao Nan as his relative and even saw her as his biological younger sister. Since Qiao Nan was his sister, it was only natural that Zhai Sheng was his brother-in-law.
Since he was young, his elders had always forced him to address Zhai Sheng as ‘elder brother’. Now, Zhai Sheng had become his younger brother-in-law! Zhu Baoguo could not help but exclaim that it was awesome to have a younger sister like Qiao Nan. Because of her, he had become Zhai Sheng’s elder brother!
“Humph.” Shi Qing snorted. “If she’s so unwilling, she might as well not come. It’s not as though I’m dying to see her.” The sight of Qiu Chenxi evoked memories of how insensible she had been as a child and how she had always been bullied by Qiu Chenxi.
Qiu Chenxi was truly a troublesome relative. In fact, Shi Qing had other relatives who were kind and had only good intentions. These relatives were none other than the family of Shi Qing’s maternal grandma, the Feng family.
After Feng Cheng had Shi Peng’s company, she did not care as much about her family. But the Feng family was still the same as before and always asked Feng Cheng to ‘discuss and resolve’ their problems. Feng Cheng had little choice since she was Shi Peng’s wife and Shi Qing’s mom.
As long as they persuaded Feng Cheng, Feng Cheng would deal with her husband and her daughter. Then, the Feng family would have two powerful connections on their side.
Feng Cheng also hoped that her husband and daughter would have good relationships with her own family. If her daughter and husband made good progress and helped her family out, it would be a mutually beneficial situation in the future, and everyone could go even further. That would be the best possible scenario.
But Shi Peng reasoned it out with Feng Cheng. They had been in the capital for such a long time. Logically speaking, it should be the Shi family who should be unstable and the one who should seek help from the Feng family. In reality, the father and daughter had struggled for years to establish themselves in the capital. During that period, the father and daughter had never gone to the Feng family for help. On the contrary, the Feng family constantly called the Shi family to ask them for favors.
Beginnings were always the toughest. The Shi family had been able to get through even the most difficult part, which was the beginning. But why was it that the Feng family, who had always been living in the capital, had so many problems? Why couldn’t they solve a single one of their problems but always had to ask for the Shi family’s help?
Of course it was good for everyone to grow together and help each other out, but the Feng family could not expect to receive help without giving any help, right?
In the end, the Shi family might get so caught up with helping the Feng family up that they themselves might collapse!
It was only natural that a woman would think differently before and after marriage. Besides, Feng Cheng shared a good relationship with Shi Peng and had a daughter like Shi Qing. In the past, when she had seen her parents-in-law favor Qiu Chenxi and ignore her daughter, Feng Cheng had been heartbroken.
Now, her family was trying to sacrifice her husband’s and daughter’s interests so as to benefit themselves. It would have been all right if this was just a one-off matter. But because it happened so frequently, it was not just Shi Peng and Shi Qing who were upset. Feng Cheng herself was upset and felt that they were trying to drag her down.
Had it been a petty man in this situation, they would have gotten into a fight long ago. Feng Cheng knew that the Feng family had never helped them the slightest bit ever since their family of three moved to the capital. Based on this alone, the Feng family was being extremely unreasonable.
After chatting with Shi Peng, Feng Cheng, who was already angry, decided to wash her hands off her family’s affairs. She was not going to care about them anymore. Anyway, their eventual goal was always her husband and daughter every time they called to discuss a matter with her. She was like the middle man. She did not intend to live such an exhausting life.
After coming to her senses and getting rid of the burden that was the Feng family, Feng Cheng’s life got much easier. Now that she had finally come to this realization, Shi Peng and Shi Qing were beneficiaries of it too.
Shi Qing thought that it was rather funny that Qiu Chenxi had come to visit her today. Shi Qing did not even care about her grandma. What made Qiu Chenxi think that she would care about Qiu Chenxi’s affair? Did Qiu Chenxi really think that she had such a good relationship with her? Or did she have too much free time on hand?
“All right, don’t get upset. If you don’t want to help her, just take a leaf out of your dad’s book and refuse to meet her.” Zhu Baoguo was not at all affected by this. After all, he had no contact with Qiu Chenxi. There was nothing wrong with not meeting someone he was unfamiliar with.
If he got angry every time someone came to ask for help, both he and his dad would have died long ago.
“That’s right. I’m not going to meet her!” Shi Qing slammed the table. “She’s treating me as her second choice and she’s afraid that I’ll get upset at her. Ha! What is she? Does she think I have so much free time? If I really have that much free time to get angry at her, I might as well read a few more resumes of those new recruits.” Getting angry at Qiu Chenxi would only waste her time and energy.
Now that she was being refused again at the Zhu family’s door, Qiu Chenxi’s expression darkened. Ma Ji’s face darkened and he took a deep breath. “All right, let’s go. I don’t think we’ll be able to change anything.”
When he had first gotten married to Qiu Chenxi, he had already been rather hesitant. He wondered if he had married the right woman. Of course, in the years following that, Ma Ji had gotten his fair share of benefits and advantages because of his wife, Qiu Chenxi.