Chapter 1614: Caught Red-Handed

Translator:

Atlas Studios

Editor:

Atlas Studios

“Dad is useless and can’t do anything for Zijin. You’ve been sisters with Zijin for more than thirty years. Are you willing to let Zijin be bullied like this even after her death?”

“Hehehe…” Qiao Nan had not even had a chance to say anything before Da Bao, who had heard the conversation, laughed. Smiling grimly, Da Bao ran to Qiao Nan’s side and grabbed Qiao Nan’s hand tightly. Only by doing this was he able to control the burning fire within him and not say cruel words to the miserable old man, Qiao Dongliang, who had just lost a daughter.

Da Bao could not understand why kind people were so easily bullied. His mom was the victim and had been hurt countless times. Was his grandfather even humane? His mom had never said that Zhou Zheng would lead a nice and perfect life by doing so. Did his grandfather think that his mom had not been hurt enough? With all his calculations, he even spoke such words to his mom…

Why did his mother have to take on all the hurt? And why did his mother have to do everything? Was this what his mother deserved! Aargh!

“Why did you come, Da Bao?” Upon seeing Da Bao, Qiao Dongliang’s fatherly heart caused him to rein in his temper. After all, Qiao Dongliang sincerely loved the three triplets from the bottom of his heart. He had never felt so much toward even Qiao Zijin. Naturally, he would not bully Qiao Nan in front of the three children, even if he was Qiao Nan’s birth father.

“Our school’s sports festival.” Da Bao’s tone was extremely cold. After meeting his grandmother’s entire family, Da Bao realized that there were two sides to a person. Everyone in his maternal grandmother’s family was like that, even the grandfather who had always treated them well.

In the short span of just a few days, Da Bao clearly recognized that his mom was the only one who was being bullied by everyone else in that family of four. She was at the bottom of the food chain, the one who was always eaten by others. Da Bao could not help but think about how his mom had been bullied all those years ago in the Qiao family when she had not yet made a name for herself.

Ever since Da Bao had found out that his mom had not had an easy life in the Qiao family, Da Bao had constantly been trying to find a way to cajole Miao Jing into telling him about the details of Qiao Nan’s life in the Qiao family. Thankfully, Miao Jing was able to resist it and only said that it had not been easy indeed. But she had never once spilled the details.

But Da Bao had found another way. He had gotten it out of Xiao Bao.

Xiao Bao was the Tian family’s little emperor, and the elders of the Tian family adored him terribly. No matter how obedient Xiao Bao was, or how many people favored him, he would still inevitably have some small problems. Once, Xiao Bao tore his book. Zhai Hua learned about this matter and did not want Xiao Bao to cultivate this into a habit. Thus, she scolded him.

Xiao Bao said that he had finished reading the book and no longer wanted it, so his solution was to tear it.

Zhai Hua reprimanded Xiao Bao directly. “Don’t you love your aunt the most? Don’t you know that your aunt loves books the most? Now, you’re even tearing them apart? When your aunt was young and wanted to study, she couldn’t even keep her own textbooks. All the textbooks that she had finished using were sold by her mother. Your aunt was so desperate that she cried and spent a lot of money to purchase other people’s second-hand books from the garbage station just to continue studying. You’d better learn from your aunt and take good care of your books. Stop tearing them. Do you understand?”

Indeed, using Qiao Nan as a role model was a successful way of disciplining Xiao Bao.

Xiao Bao got rid of this bad habit of tearing his books, and he even tearfully told Da Bao that they should not tear books apart either. Otherwise, his aunt would be mad.

Da Bao himself was someone who liked to study, so there was no doubt he knew that he had to keep all his old textbooks before graduating to the next stage. That was because all the knowledge in these old books would be useful when taking the graduation examination.

The three children no longer kept their elementary school textbooks, but once they entered junior high school, Qiao Nan tirelessly kept every single one of their junior high textbooks for the three children after they had finished using them in school, without throwing even one textbook away.

Thinking of Qiao Nan’s mom selling the books that Qiao Nan had kept for herself, Da Bao was so furious that he could not even maintain that stony cold face that resembled his father’s.

At the same time, what made Da Bao most resentful was the difference in Qiao Dongliang’s behavior today. Qiao Dongliang was the head of the Qiao family. Why had he not cared when his own wife mistreated his daughter? Why had he allowed it to happen and just let Qiao Nan get bullied like that? Just thinking about this, Da Bao experienced what it meant by being so angry that it hurt the liver.

Hearing could never be as shocking as experiencing it for oneself. When Qiao Zijin died, his grandfather wanted to be a good father and wanted to get revenge for his elder daughter. But did that mean that he could just take advantage of his younger daughter without any limits? Whom did his mom owe?!

Then, he thought about how well Qiao Nan had treated Qiao Dongliang in the past few years. She had specially arranged for Qiao Dongliang to move from Ping Cheng to the capital, had arranged accommodation for him, given him a monthly living allowance, and had even brought the triplets to visit him regularly. If it was not for the sudden appearance of his ‘maternal grandmother’ and ‘elder aunt’, they would never have realized how their grandfather had mistreated their mom in the past. Yet, their mom was still treating their grandfather so well!

The division between right and wrong was clear in a child’s world. If it was not black, then it was white. They did not know that apart from black and white, there was also the existence of gray areas in the grown-up world.

Thus, Da Bao could not accept that Qiao Dongliang did not treat Qiao Nan well and even went overboard at times. In the face of such a father, why did Qiao Nan still do her best to support Qiao Dongliang? He thought about all those news articles he had seen whereby the elderly had devoted all their efforts to their children. But when their children finally made a name for themselves, not a single one of them cared about their parents and instead left their parents to die.

By contrast, Da Bao felt that his mother was too kind. It was exactly because she was too softhearted that she was being taken advantage of.

“Oh, sports festival.” Qiao Dongliang could feel that Da Bao’s gaze toward him had changed. With that, Qiao Dongliang felt so miserable that he did not even know what to do. “Da Bao, are you angry at grandpa?”

Da Bao chuckled. “Grandpa, we’re doing fine. Why did you suddenly ask that? Why don’t you tell me if you’ve done anything to make me angry?”

Er Bao’s and San Bao’s expressions were similarly bad. Because of Qiao Zijin and Ding Jiayi, the relations.h.i.+p between the three children and Qiao Dongliang had suddenly gotten a lot more complex. But because Qiao Nan was here, the children had still come.

Or in other words, Qiao Dongliang’s luck was not very good. It was only when he had finished dealing with Qiao Zijin’s funeral matters and enshrined Qiao Zijin’s photo in his home that he had mentioned Qiao Zijin to Qiao Nan for the first time, hinting that Qiao Nan should seek justice for Qiao Zijin, who had already pa.s.sed away, and make life difficult for the Zhou family.