Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

  Initially, although Ding Jiayi was not right, Qiao Dongliang felt that Qiao Nan’s words about hoping that she was not Ding Jiayi’s daughter were too harsh and heartless.

  However, after hearing what Qiao Nan said, Qiao Dongliang’s lips were as though they sealed with glue. He could not open his mouth to defend Ding Jiayi.

  The matter regarding Qiao Nan’s fever happened not more than two months ago.

  Qiao Dongliang could still remember how Qiao Nan retrieved the fever medicine, that had not expired, from the waste bin.

  That day, his wife insisted that she had given the younger daughter the fever medicine. But thereafter, she said the medicine was gone, expired and thrown away.

  Did his wife really give the younger daughter the fever medicine?

  Did they really finish the fever medicine?

  Or had the fever medicine expired?

  No, not at all.

  The more his wife tried to cover up, the matter regarding the passbook – the wife insisted that the younger daughter quit school to work. Was she really doing this for the sake of the younger daughter or did she have an ulterior motive, would Qiao Dongliang not know?

  The more Qiao Nan said, the more awkward Qiao Dongliang’s face looked. He breathed and snorted heavily.

  “Dad, there is one matter that I have been keeping from you. I thought that was my hallucination, I too hoped that I was too sick to remember it correctly. The night that I was having fever, wasn’t it raining heavily? I remembered that I had clearly closed the windows to prevent the rain from coming into the room, I clearly recalled that I was covered with my blanket when I slept. In the middle of the night, I vaguely felt that someone entered my room and walked to the windows. When I awoke in the morning, I had a fever, half the blanket was not only at the end of the bed, but also on the floor. Even the windows were opened. Dad, Mom really dotes on me!”

  Qiao Dongliang was shaken and his whole body shivered. He looked at his younger daughter with disbelief. “Nan Nan, you, is what you said all true?”

  “You’re talking nonsense!” Ding Jiayi’s eyes were red, and her face was even redder. She was angered by Qiao Nan. “You’re a heartless thing, when did I enter your room and open your windows?”

  Apparently after she woke up that day, Zijin told her that Qiao Nan’s condition did not seem right – her face was flushed and she looked uncomfortable. She only knew that Qiao Nan was having a fever after she entered Qiao Nan’s room and touched her forehead.

  “You, how can you malign me, I, I, I am your real mother!”

  “Old Qiao, we lived in the same room, you think about it. Did I wake up in the middle of the night that day?” Ding Jiayi was afraid that Qiao Dongliang would believe Qiao Nan’s “lies”. She quickly asked Qiao Dongliang to search his memory.

  This had happened almost two months ago. Qiao Dongliang could not remember so clearly.

  Qiao Dongliang was in the army and a light sleeper. Usually, when Ding Jiayi woke at night to use the restroom or do other things, Qiao Dongliang would certainly be aware. But this happened too long ago, so Qiao Dongliang did not have much recollection.

  As Qiao Dongliang looked like he was wracking his brains to recollect this, Ding Jiayi nearly fainted with anger. “I didn’t do it, I didn’t do it. Your health is poor but you think that I opened the windows at night. That room of yours, am I happy to go in? Furthermore, I have to wake up in the middle of the night to do so? If I had really planned for this, I would not have left only half a tablet of fever medicine at home – to let you find it?”

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  Ding Jiayi’s inappropriate words made everyone embarrassed and speechless. Qiao Dongliang did not know how to react.

  The wife’s words had indirectly admitted that she had intentionally discarded the medicine, and the purpose was to let the younger daughter recover slowly so that she would miss the enrollment deadline.

  Regardless of whether the window was opened by his wife, the plot of quitting school and working was certainly her wife’s doing.

  She had spent all the family savings for the elder daughter, yet she wanted the younger one to make up for this wrongdoing.

  Facing this, Qiao Dongliang was too ashamed to tell Qiao Nan that Ding Jiayi, her mother, could not possibly not love her.

  As for what Qiao Nan had said, this type of maternal love – who dares to want it?

  “Mom, Mom, forget it. Didn’t Nan Nan say, she probably remembered wrongly. Perhaps Nan Nan was already feverish at that time and mistook her dreams for real. No matter what, Nan Nan was sick at that time. You you, you try to put yourself in her shoes.” Qiao Zijin, who saw the anger of Ding Jiayi rising, held on to Ding Jiayi and did not want her to continue arguing with Qiao Nan.

  When Qiao Zijin said this, Qiao Nan opened her eyes and stared at Qiao Zijin.

  At this time, Qiao Zijin appeared to be sincere in persuading Ding Jiayi to stop making trouble – was that not strange?

  Qiao Zijin was never kind to her.

  After being pushed to the edge by Qiao Nan, Qiao Zijin guiltily turned sideways and hid behind Ding Jiayi.

  After which Qiao Zijin realized that the action would betray her. Lifting her waist, she stood out with a stiff face. “Nan Nan, why are you looking at me like this?”

  “What do you think?” Qiao Nan laughed, them she took a long breath.

  Till now, she had actually thought too lightly of Qiao Zijin.

  In the previous life, after Qiao Zijin committed adultery, she blamed her divorce entirely on Qiao Nan. When she knew she had uremia and needed a kidney, she wanted Qiao Nan’s.

  Such a heartless woman, she had actually revealed her fox’s tail at this time.

  That night, it was true that someone had entered her room. Not only had the person opened her windows, but they had also pulled away her blanket.

  However, that someone was not Ding Jiayi, it was Qiao Zijin!

  “Dad, I can only say that I am certain that someone came into my room that night. If all of you think that I am dreaming, then continue to do so. Anyway, I didn’t even have water to drink when I was feverish. My mother and sister were happily eating watermelon. They even treated fever medicine as expired ones by discarding them, insisting that I had eaten them. With this, you said my Mom loves me, it’s not surprising that I have that kind of dreams.”

  Qiao Nan let out a huge sigh, she was badly shaken.

  Having said this, Qiao Nan did not wish to say anything else. She returned silently to her bedroom.

  The weekend that students always looked forward to had just begun, but Qiao Nan felt that she could not live through it.

  Was she really a child of the Qiao family?

  How she wished she could choose not to be!

  Qiao Nan words were more formidable than 100 slaps, it stunned the rest of the three people on the spot simultaneously and set them thinking.

  “Fight, fight, fight. Argue from day till night. Are you happy now, Nan Nan has become like that, is your heart at ease? I told Nan Nan that you love her, when I think of it now, I feel my face flushed with embarrassment. You have wasted all our family savings and tarnished the relationship with Nan Nan, are you satisfied now? I have said, from now onwards, you take care of Zijin’s matters and I’ll take care of Nan Nan’s. If you dare to treat Nan Nan like this again, always shouting and threatening her to find a job to tidy up your mess, let me tell you, we won’t have a life anymore!”

  After numerous shocks and provocations, Qiao Dongliang could not smile even when he looked at Qiao Zijin who had been quite obedient and sensible all this while.

  He knew. Was the elder daughter not the source of all these matters?

  “Zijin, let me ask you. Was it yours and Mom’s idea to study in The High School Affiliated to Renmin University of China?”

  Qiao Zijin did not expect that she would leave such a big loophole. That night, before she opened the windows, she had clearly called Nan Nan a few times and even pushed Nan Nan’s shoulders to ensure that Nan Nan was sleeping like a log. She then daringly opened the windows and removed the blanket from Qiao Nan’s body.

  She had not expected that Qiao Nan was actually pretending to be asleep.

  “I……” Suddenly being questioned by Qiao Dongliang, Qiao Zijin was scared out of her wits. She stuttered for a long while and did not manage to respond to the question.

  “Why are you shouting, didn’t you just say, I will take care of Zijin’s matters and you will take care of Qiao Nan’s. This matter, you don’t need to ask anymore.” Ding Jiayi’s face was serious. “But I don’t want you to misunderstand Zijin. This matter was decided by me.”

  But the elder daughter mentioned it first.

  The elder daughter said that if she could get into a better high school, it would be easier to be admitted to a good university.

  “Fine.” Qiao Dongliang laughed. But this laugh gave Ding Jiayi and Qiao Zijin’s goose pimples. “Except for the school fees which we can negotiate, from now onwards, you take care of Zijin’s living expenses alone. Anyway, the savings in the family have all been spent, whether you want to find a job, that’s up to you. You spent 5000 yuan because of Zijin, both are my daughters, it’s not fair to let Nan Nan suffer because of this. So, my money, other than giving it to Nan Nan for living expenses, I will be saving it for her too.”

  After he finished, Qiao Dongliang went back to his room again. He shut the door loudly with a slam.

  Ding Jiayi sadly slapped her thighs. “It has come to this, how is she going to live?”

  If Old Qiao really was not going to care for Zijin anymore, if Ding Jiayi was going to find a job, how was Zijin going to survive?

  Ding Jiayi knew that Qiao Dongliang was serious this time. Even if he still cared about Qiao Zijin, he would not treat Qiao Zijin the same as before.

  The elder daughter was raised by her, Ding Jiayi knew that Qiao Zijin would not be able to endure this type of life. For the sake of her elder daughter, she must find a job.

  Ding Jiayi did not expect that after fighting for a few months, finally, not only did Qiao Nan not quit school, but also Ding Jiayi, who had been a housewife for 15 years, had to return to society and take a nine to five job. There would not be a moment of leisure.

  The Qiao family had such a bad fight, all four family members were in terrible moods.

  Ding Jiayi was washing the dishes at the same time and crying. She was not in the mood to eat, but Qiao Dongliang had to go to work tomorrow, so regardless of whether Qiao Dongliang would eat, she had to prepare the food.

  “I really owe it to that pair of father and daughter in my previous life.”

  The two of them argued with her till they were red in the face and treated her like enemy, but she still had to wait on and feed the two of them. She must have sinned a lot.

  “Mom, I’ll help you.” Qiao Zijin, who never did housework, for the first time, did not pay lip service. She rolled up her sleeves and started helping. “Mom, is Dad really going to care only about Nan Nan, and not bother about me anymore?” Having said that, Qiao Zijin’s eyes were red.

  She was clearly supposed to be her parent’s favorite child.

  When she saw that her elder daughter had come, Ding Jiayi sniffed and wiped the corner of her eyes with her sleeves. “You don’t need to worry about this matter. But Zijin, regarding Qiao Nan’s fever, did you do it?