Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

  “After Zijin left us, I think that there’s no need for the two of us to have any contact anymore. Do you really have to torture Nan Nan until she dies too before you’ll be happy?”

  Was it not enough that Ding Jiayi had already ruined the life of one of his daughters? Now, did she have her eyes set on Nan Nan to force her to her death too?

  In the face of Qiao Dongliang’s relentless criticism from the other end of the phone call, Ding Jiayi was extremely calm. Even her breath was normal. “Have you finished? If you’ve said your piece, it’s my turn. I called you to tell you one thing. I’m going back to Ping Cheng to stay in the Qiao family house. You can tell Qiao Nan to stop paying the rent on my apartment from now on.”

  When Ding Jiayi hung up the call, Qiao Dongliang was baffled. “Is Ding Jiayi for real? Or did she say those things just to please me?”

  Even if he doubted the authenticity of what Ding Jiayi had just said, Qiao Dongliang responsibly conveyed Ding Jiayi’s intentions to Qiao Nan after receiving Ding Jiayi’s call. “Nan Nan, what do you think your mom means by this? Do you think she’s being serious, or is she trying to play tricks on us? Don’t worry. I’ll go and figure out what’s going on, so you shouldn’t go. Now that Zijin is gone, I’m not sure if she’s still normal after being so shaken up.”

  If Ding Jiayi had really gone insane due to Zijin’s death and wanted to pin the blame on Nan Nan and fight it out with her, Nan Nan would definitely be at a disadvantage. She was no match for Ding Jiayi. “Give me your mom’s address. I’ll take a look. If she has really moved away, you can just stop paying the rent. Remember not to appear in front of your mom. I’m afraid even I won’t be able to handle your mom once she starts throwing a tantrum.”

  “.……” Qiao Nan pursed her lips. “All right, then. Thank you for making the trip down.”

  \r \r \r

  Suddenly hearing that Ding Jiayi wanted to move away from the capital and had even taken the initiative to revert to receiving only a thousand yuan of living allowance every month, Qiao Nan felt that this could not have been Ding Jiayi’s words either. Ding Jiayi was the kind of person who would take all five thousand yuan from Qiao Nan if Qiao Nan earned five thousand yuan a month.

  Now, Ding Jiayi had taken the initiative to ask for her increased living allowance to be lowered once again. What kind of joke was this? Was this really Ding Jiayi?

  Even though Qiao Zijin had lost her life after intentionally jumping in front of Qiao Nan’s car and refusing to let the doctors conduct a surgery on her, Qiao Nan did not put it beyond Ding Jiayi to blame the whole incident on Qiao Nan.

  With that thought, Qiao Nan knew that it was entirely possible that Ding Jiayi was trying to fight it out with her over Qiao Zijin’s death.

  “It’s not hard at all.” Now that he had finally reconnected with Qiao Nan after much difficulty, Qiao Dongliang was overjoyed. There was no way he would think that such a trivial matter would be hard on him. “Nan Nan, you should still be working at this time. I won’t bother you anymore. I’ll help you keep a lookout on your mom’s matter.”

  After hanging up the call, the frown on Qiao Dongliang’s face eased considerably, and he set off for the address that Qiao Nan had given him with light steps.

  When Qiao Dongliang arrived, he happened to see Ding Jiayi come downstairs, carrying only a bag.

  Upon seeing this scene, Ding Jiayi’s neighbors asked out of curiosity, “Sister Ding, are you going somewhere to visit your relatives? Or are you going to find your useless daughter?”

  After living in their neighborhood for so long, they had never seen Ding Jiayi interact with anyone, nor had they ever seen any relatives visit Ding Jiayi at home. They had only heard Ding Jiayi say that she had an extraordinarily capable daughter who was working in the capital. It was this daughter who was taking care of all of her living expenses.

  So when they saw Ding Jiayi carrying a bag of things, they all thought that Ding Jiayi was going to visit her relatives.

  In these few months that they had not met, Ding Jiayi had grown much more haggard. Qiao Dongliang was sure that Ding Jiayi had lost a considerable amount of weight ever since they last met at Qiao Zijin’s funeral. Most importantly, Ding Jiayi’s hair had grown much whiter. In the past, she had more black hair than white hair. Now, it was as though she had a whole head of white hair.

  Ding Jiayi smiled reluctantly, only tugging at the corners of her lips to force a smile out. “I’m not going to visit my relatives. I’m thinking of moving back to my hometown. I’m already so old, and I can’t be of any help to my children. I’m just a burden to her now. Now that I’m old, it’s best that I return to my roots.”

  She thought about how her days staying in the Qiao family’s small courtyard had been the best days of her life. Zijin had been born there and had grown up there.

  She would be much happier returning to the Qiao family’s small courtyard. It would not be like living in the capital. Although her house in the capital was big, and neither did she need to worry about her expenses, it was cold and she did not recognize anyone around here.

  Most importantly, Zhou Ying was in Ping Cheng.

  Now that Zijin was gone, she could not let anyone bully her granddaughter, Zhou Ying. She would look after Zhou Ying on Qiao Zijin’s behalf. If the Zhou family treated Zhou Ying badly just because Qiao Zijin was no longer around, she was willing to throw aside her dignity and beg Qiao Nan to seek justice for Zhou Ying from the Zhou family.

  “Going back home?” Everyone was taken aback. Everyone knew that Ding Jiayi’s younger daughter was truly capable. No one else was like Ding Jiayi and could simply stay at home without working but still enjoy a life without having to worry about their expenses.

  Ding Jiayi was living such a good life in the capital, but she wanted to go home! She must be crazy!

  “Goodbye.” Ding Jiayi did not bother to explain anything to her neighbors. Her greetings were just out of courtesy. She did not mean to see any of these neighbors ever again.

  Seeing how Ding Jiayi was so casual about leaving, many of her neighbors were bewildered. “What do you mean? Are you giving up such a good life to go home? Have you gone mad? Don’t elders these days lead good lives wherever their children are at? What do you mean by going home alone?”

  “Why do you care so much? It’s got nothing to do with us. Let’s go.”

  Qiao Dongliang remained hidden in a corner like a peeping tom from the start until the end. Regardless, he was unable to rest easy and decided to hail a cab to follow behind Ding Jiayi. Only after seeing that Ding Jiayi had indeed bought a ticket back to Ping Cheng and had boarded the train did he believe that Ding Jiayi had not been lying when she said that she was going back home.

  As Ding Jiayi’s husband, Qiao Dongliang could not understand what Ding Jiayi was trying to do.

  But at least, Ding Jiayi would not cause any more trouble for Qiao Nan now that she had finally left the capital.