Chapter 1801: Baffled

That young lady’s life was already so miserable. She had never done anything wrong in her life, and yet, she had been bullied so extensively. There was no need for outsiders like them to add to this young lady’s troubles. This young lady’s life was even more miserable than his own!

At least, he had met his savior, the chief, at the lowest point in his life. After he retired from the military, the chief had made a suggestion and had even lent him money to start his own company. Qiao Nan had no such savior in her life to pull her up at her lowest.

“Young lady…” Zhai Sheng’s reaction was a little strange at the mention of these two words. “She is indeed still a young lady.” And a young lady nearing the age of forty at that.

When he had first heard that Qiao Nan was single, Zhai Sheng’s first thought was that Qiao Nan was just like himself and had gotten married but then gotten divorced years ago. That was why he had felt at ease. But now that he knew that Qiao Nan had never been married, Zhai Sheng could not understand why, but he felt joy in his heart.

“Isn’t that right? With a family like this, she would never have the chance to change her status of a young lady even if she wanted to!” Sun Guohong felt that it was unfair to Qiao Nan. He was thankful that he could make his own decisions as a man.

At least, after learning of the kind of person his younger brother was, he had safely held all his earnings in his own hands and had not let his mom or brother take advantage of him any longer. But Qiao Nan was different. Even after knowing what kind of people her family was, Qiao Nan had still been oppressed and squeezed dry for so many years. She was almost forty years old, but she did not even have a boyfriend, let alone a partner for marriage.

The only time she had ever dated in her life, she had almost walked into a church and gotten married. But everything had been ruined by her own biological mother and sister. ‘Pitiful’ was insufficient to describe her situation.

“The news has been talking about their family of four lately. Chief, you might not have watched the news. That’s why you haven’t seen how ugly her mom is. Before everyone knew about their family’s situation, she had been sobbing and acting pitiful. She had even painted a horrible portrait of the Qiao family. Now, everyone knows that the Qiao family not only has a house but even has two apartments. But they still claimed that they’re poor and have no money for treatment, and they even begged others for donations. Knowing that they wouldn’t be able to get those donations, that crazy woman went on a rage and called everyone around her all sorts of nasty things!”

The more Sun Guohong saw, the more empathetic he felt toward Qiao Nan. He finally understood why Qiao Nan had decided not to stay in Ping Cheng and had instead moved to such a rural town like Qingshui Town.

If she did not move away, Qiao Nan would never be able to lead a good life with her family around. It was only by distancing herself from her family would Qiao Nan be able to start a new life afresh. Forty was not a young age. If she did not start a new life for herself, Qiao Nan’s whole life would truly be a tragedy.

“I saw it.” Sun Guohong’s information was rather detailed, but he had not been able to show Zhai Sheng the clips from the news. However, Sun Guohong had managed to include newspaper clippings and articles from magazines for Zhai Sheng to see. “You said that this is Qiao Nan’s first time in Qingshui Town. Are you sure?”

“Yes, don’t worry, chief. This is absolutely reliable.”

“From your impression, do you think it’s possible that the situation of the Zhai family’s old villa could have been leaked?” Since this was Qiao Nan’s first time in Qingshui Town, she must not have been to the Zhai family’s old villa in the past. If that was the case, wasn’t Qiao Nan’s behavior even more worthy of consideration and attention?

“How could that be?” Sun Guohong shook his head. “When the Zhai family’s old villa was being rebuilt, Old Meng personally found someone to do it, and he was the one who personally oversaw the rebuilding. There’s no way it could have been leaked.” Old Meng had not been in such a dire situation as he had, but he had similarly been unable to continue in the army after getting injured during a mission.

In the end, with the chief’s help, Old Meng set up an architecture team and started constructing houses. No one had expected that the property market in China would be such a booming industry and that the property prices would rise so dramatically. Of course, Old Meng’s team in the construction industry earned a hefty sum from that.

It was rare that the chief finally had something for him to do. As such, he gave his all and did everything to the best of his abilities to help the chief. Knowing the special position the chief was in, they all sealed their mouths shut about the Zhai family, the Zhai family’s house included. They had never leaked a single thing regarding the Zhai family.

Only Old Meng and his workers knew about the internal structure of the Zhai family’s old villa. Even he himself did not know which room was which without anyone guiding him, let alone outsiders. “Chief, is there anything wrong?” The chief kept asking whether anyone else knew about the internal structure of the Zhai family’s old villa. Could it be that someone had found out about it?

“No, there’s nothing much.” The strange thing was that Qiao Nan had behaved quite abnormally. But Zhai Sheng did not tell Sun Guohong about this situation. “All right, now that you’ve given me all the doc.u.ments, you can leave. I heard that your business is booming lately. I won’t stand in the way of you getting rich.” Zhai Sheng had been rather happy that Sun Guohong had pushed aside all other orders to help him settle this matter.

The soldier that he had raised was no ingrate.

Sun Guohong pulled on the corners of his lips, feeling as though he was being thrown aside now that he had served his purpose. “Chief, you’re so realistic. Do you know that I had to fly over from the capital just to hand this over to you? Can I claim the cost of my return airfare?”

“Of course!” Zhai Sheng, who was now in a jovial mood, knew that Sun Guohong was simply joking with him, but he still asked seriously, “How much did you spend on those two tickets? I’ll transfer the money over to you. I won’t shortchange you of that!” After all, Sun Guohong’s service fees were much more expensive than the cost of those two tickets.

“I’m kidding, chief.” Sun Guohong became a little awkward.

Zhai Sheng laughed. “Do you think I was being serious or was I joking?”

“…” Sun Guohong did not give in. “Chief, don’t joke around with me. My heart can’t take that kind of stress. Chief, you should rest well since you’re recuperating. You’re so fierce. Do you think there is anyone in this world who isn’t afraid of you?” If his memory served him well, the parents of the chief could not handle him either.

If not for the fact that he could not have biological children, he would not have adopted a child. But the chief was different. The chief could still have his own biological children. He was practically an old man, yet still refused to get remarried, much less talk about having a child.

At times, Sun Guohong truly could not understand Zhai Sheng. He wondered what Zhai Sheng was being persistent about and what he was avoiding.