After Director Shi left the army, his routine had also been disrupted. At the sight of the situation, Qiao Nan frowned and looked at Shi

  Qing.

  If Shi Qing did not keep a tighter watch on Director Shi, his health would only become poorer.

  Qiao Nan’s worries were, in fact, the greatest fear of Shi Qing at this point in time.

  Despite having hesitated about it before, Shi Qing was now determined to carry out the plan of the three-minute phone calls.

  Her father was already behaving this way in front of her. In that case, when no one was watching him during his normal working time, it would most probably be worse. “Dad, did you eat properly when you’re working recently? Qiao Nan suffers from some ailments during summertime and has thus become skinnier. But why do I feel that you have also lost weight during this period?”

  “.……” At the sight of his daughter’s hands touching his arms, he looked embarrassed. “Imagination. It’s just your imagination!” He then took back his hand quickly to prevent his daughter from touching him.

  “Imagination? It’s easy to confirm. We’ll know after some weighing.” Qiao Nan smiled and added a stab at Shi Peng.

  Neither Shi Qing nor Shi Peng could prove whether the latter had lost weight with their words. Only the weighing scale could do so.

  Shi Peng really had no other ways to deal with these two children. He could only look helplessly at Qiao Dongliang, hoping that Qiao Dongliang could put in some good words for him.

  Qiao Dongliang buried his face into the bowl of rice, expressing that he did not have the capability to help.

  In his house, Nan Nan was basically the head of the family. Even he, as the father, had to listen to Nan Nan.

  As for the Shi family, it seemed that Shi Qing was also the head of the family. Director Shi also had to listen to his daughter.

  Initially, Qiao Dongliang doubted if he was being too much to let his daughter run the household. Nevertheless, with Shi Peng as a living example right before him, Qiao Dongliang did not feel burdened by this thought anymore.

  This was the case even for a senior leader. As a small employee, he felt that he was not abnormal to do the same.

  \r \r \r

  With the two pairs of eyes of the two little housekeepers staring at him, Shi Peng had no choice but to slow down when having his meal. He even had to strictly follow Qiao Nan’s request of chewing thoroughly and swallowing slowly before he could pass their ‘quality inspection’. He was released only after he received the approval of the two little housekeepers.

  “Right, Shi Qing, accompany me to the bank tomorrow,” Qiao Nan said as she put down her bowl of rice.

  “Why are we going to the bank?”

  “When we go to the bank, it’s either to deposit or withdraw money. Can there be a third reason for it?”

  “Yes, borrow money!” Shi Qing lifted her chin complacently.

  “Isn’t borrowing money also considered a form of withdrawing money?” Qiao Nan laughed. So thick-skinned and big-hearted to dare to show off such little tricks.

  “Deposit money?” After thinking, Qiao Dongliang put down his utensils, turned, and walked into his bedroom. He then took out a stack of money and passed it to Qiao Nan. “Since you’re going to deposit money, deposit these too.”

  “These……” Qiao Nan was a little surprised. These should be the money that her father had saved up over the past two years. He could leave it for Qiao Zijin. Why did he pass it to her?

  “Save it. Save it directly in your bank account. When you need it for your studies in the future, you can withdraw them yourself. You have grown up. You have the ability to control and allocate the money. I feel quite assured to give you the money.”

  Qiao Dongliang spoke frankly.

  He felt quite assured to give the money to Qiao Nan. In other words, if he were to continue to keep the money with him, he might feel more worried instead.

  Qiao Zijin was Qiao Dongliang’s daughter. However, it was already mid-August and there was still no news from Qiao Zijin. Qiao Dongliang was concerned but also angry at the same time.

  Anyway, if Ding Jiayi and Zijin were that capable, they would be able to get money without him, the head of the family.

  Previously, all his twenty years of earnings had been spent on Zijin. Now, there was nothing wrong with handing what he earned to Nan Nan.

  As time passed, the concerns and worries that Qiao Dongliang had for Qiao Zijin had almost turned into anger.

  Both Qiao Zijin and Ding Jiayi had never mentioned to him where their current residence was.

  It was fine that Ding Jiayi did not do so. The couple had not seen each other for almost two years. However, Qiao Zijin had come back a few times and the duration of the stay was not considered short. However, she also did not mention where they were staying.

  Qiao Dongliang was afraid that, if he took the initiative to ask, Qiao Zijin would feel smug and go overboard again. Hence, he had been enduring his urge.

  One did not tell and the other did not ask.

  The family had been separated for one and a half years. Qiao Dongliang still did not know where his wife and elder daughter were staying at during this period of time.

  At the thought of this, Qiao Dongliang was furious.

  As they approached August, Qiao Dongliang’s fury had accumulated to a certain extent. Today, when he heard that Qiao Nan would be depositing money in the bank tomorrow, Qiao Dongliang simply took out all the money that he had saved for Qiao Zijin for her college admission and gave them to Qiao Nan. He did not save a single cent for Qiao Zijin.

  When she saw that Qiao Nan was still in a daze, Shi Qing swiftly grabbed that stack of cash from Qiao Dongliang’s hands over. “Uncle Qiao, thank you. You’re so good to Qiao Nan. You’re really such a good father. Qiao Nan, hold this. Didn’t you always tell me that it was not good to decline an elder’s request? I really didn’t expect that Uncle Qiao had earned you so much tuition fees within two years. He’s good. Qiao Nan, you’re really blessed to have such a great father.”

  If Uncle Qiao were to give this sum of money to that elder sister of Qiao Nan, then how much money could Uncle Qiao fork out to let Qiao Nan attend college in one year’s time?

  He said he would not bother about Qiao Zijin but he eventually did. He even sacrificed Qiao Nan’s interests.

  No wonder.

  Previously, she had found it strange that Qiao Nan would ask for such a high fee before she would agree to provide tuition to the neighbors’ children, as Qiao Nan was not a materialistic person.

  Initially, she purely believed that Qiao Nan purposely raised the fees as she was not willing to provide tuition and wanted the parents to back out on their own accord. No one expected the parents to be so determined.

  At this moment, Shi Qing had a realization.

  It was not that Qiao Nan did not have such intentions. Another important reason was that Qiao Nan was short of money.

  She had long guessed that Uncle Qiao would definitely save up all his earnings over the past year for Qiao Zijin’s urgent use first so that Qiao Zijin could register for college and settle one year of school fees before making further plans.

  Although it would be tough, with the one year buffer, Qiao Zijin and Ding Jiayi should be able to settle the college fees for the subsequent two years as long as they were not lazy and could think of ways.

  In comparison, Qiao Nan, who could only receive one year of earnings from Uncle Qiao then, would have a greater shortfall for her tuition fees in the coming year.

  If Qiao Nan did not find ways early to save up for the shortfall, could Qiao Nan still attend college one year later?

  The appearance of this sum of money made Shi Qing both happy and angry.

  If not for the fact that Qiao Zijin had not come home or given Qiao Dongliang any news, Qiao Dongliang would have left this sum of money for Qiao Zijin. Qiao Nan would then have to suffer one year later.

  The happy thing was that this sum of money eventually belonged to Qiao Nan and was not taken away by Qiao Zijin.