Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

  Not to mention, this was her father’s fault in the first place for spending too little time with her mom. Zhai Yu could not help but think that their dad had spent more time with the three of them when they were younger than he had with their mom.

  The summer vacation lasted for two months, and the winter break for one. Two times a year, for seven days, the three of them would always follow their dad to the military. So did their dad spend even a quarter of a year with their mom? Probably not.

  Upon hearing Zhai Yu’s words, the atmosphere at the Zhai family’s table suddenly became icy cold. Zhai Yu had only spoken the truth, so they could not say that she was wrong. But Zhai Sheng could not do as Zhai Yu had said.

  Amongst them, Qiao Dongliang’s feelings were the most complex. In this life, he felt the sorriest toward his two daughters. There was no way he could ever make it up to his elder daughter, Qiao Zijin, and no one could say if he would ever have a next lifetime. As for his younger daughter who was still alive and well, Qiao Dongliang did not have the ability to make it up to her even if he wanted to.

  Conversely, as a father, he had never been able to do anything for her younger daughter even until his three grandchildren had all grown up. From the time she was in high school, the house they had stayed in was all thanks to his younger daughter. He had not needed to spend a single cent. When his younger daughter went to university, she not only won scholarships, but she even got married to Zhai Sheng.

  Thus, he had nothing to do with his younger daughter’s expenses. All that fell on the Zhai family.

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  Once his daughter was capable, he had not even been able to do anything for her before she started working and was even able to provide for him! Now that he heard that his son-in-law had not been able to spend much time with his daughter, causing the responsibility of caring for both families to fall on his daughter’s shoulders, Qiao Dongliang very much wanted to stand in Qiao Nan’s shoes to lecture Zhai Sheng so that he would cherish Qiao Nan.

  But Qiao Dongliang did not dare to do so. If he was really to compare, even though his son-in-law spent little time by Nan Nan’s side, Zhai Sheng treated Nan Nan much better than he did as a biological father.

  In that case, he had no right to reprimand Zhai Sheng as a father-in-law.

  It would be even more awkward for Zhai Yaohui and Miao Jing since the one being lectured was their own son. If their son made any mistakes, it was naturally because they had not raised their son well. If they really wanted to talk about it, the couple would then feel that they were being wronged. Zhai Sheng was doing well, after all. At least, he was doing much better than Old Zhai himself.

  The men in the Zhai family were all soldiers, so the women who married into the Zhai family could only accept their fates.

  Just as Zhai Yu made the atmosphere stiff, leaving everyone in an awkward position and speechless, only Qiao Nan was the calmest. Her expression revealed that she understood exactly what Zhai Yu meant. “I’ve already said that it’s not easy for you to have a break from school. It’s all right for you to give yourself a break from reading textbooks and read some other books for leisure from time to time, but you shouldn’t get too engrossed in them either. Don’t you know that you should strike a balance between work and rest? It’s because I’ve been looking out for you that you don’t have myopia. Now that you’re able to make decisions for yourself, are you going to ruin your eyesight? Tell me. What time did you stop reading novels before going to bed last night?”

  Qiao Nan was drunk. She herself did not have any time to read those novels, but she had never opposed her daughter acquainting herself with these new things. Her daughter had always been obedient, but why did she have such poor self-control now?

  The first time Qiao Nan realized that her daughter had developed such a bad habit was three days earlier. Perhaps it was because she had drunk too much water before sleeping that Qiao Nan was awoken at around half past one in the morning.

  After going to the washroom, it was easy for her throat to become dry and itchy if she stayed in a heated area. Since Qiao Nan had already finished the glass of water that she had placed by her bedside, she had no other choice but to put on her clothes and head downstairs to get some water.

  When she passed by Zhai Yu’s room, Qiao Nan realized that there was light coming from under Zhai Yu’s door. Qiao Nan thought it was weird that the light in her daughter’s room was still on. Could it be that her daughter had gotten up to use the washroom and needed to get a drink too? Qiao Nan knocked on the door, wanting to check on her daughter. However, even after knocking a few times, there was no answer from within.

  After about a minute, Qiao Nan frowned and entered her daughter’s room without her daughter’s permission. It was then that Qiao Nan realized that her daughter had not woken up in the middle of the night. In fact, she had not even gone to bed!

  Zhai Yu had been thrown into the military by her dad since she was young to be trained alongside Zhai Yi and Zhai Xin. The three children had the habit of folding their blankets into dried-tofu shape no matter where they were. When Qiao Nan walked into the room, the blanket on Zhai Yu’s bed was properly folded into the shape of a square, with no signs of having been used.

  Not only so, but the garbage can beside Zhai Yu was even filled with tissue paper that it overflowed onto the floor. After Qiao Nan entered, she could clearly hear San Bao sniffling as though she was crying. Sure enough, Zhai Yu picked up a piece of tissue paper to wipe her face. Without even lowering her head, she tossed the used piece of tissue paper toward the already overflowing garbage can.

  That was how Zhai Yu was caught reading web novels by Qiao Nan, and she was the kind to read until two to three o’clock in the morning! Qiao Nan finally understood why the auntie asked if Zhai Yu was exhausting herself at school. Because when she was back home this time, she always woke up just in time for lunch.

  It would be a wonder if she was able to wake up in the morning after reading web novels late into the night.

  After hearing Zhai Yu being overcome with emotions today, and then linking back to Zhai Yu crying until the waste paper basket was full, there was nothing her mother did not understand. This silly girl had been reading some kind of novels lately, was suddenly overcome with emotions in the moment, and had let them all out through her situation.

  The moment Qiao Nan finished her sentence, the Zhai family grew even quieter.

  Especially Zhai Yi and Zhai Xin, who looked at Zhai Yu incredulously, with a stare that was enough to pierce a few holes in Zhai Yu’s forehead. When he met Zhou Xing, Zhai Yi wondered more than once whether this young lady had been reading too many novels so much so that she was able to do something as crazy as getting into a relationship with Zhai Xin.

  But he had never expected that this situation would occur in his family, and to his very rational and logical biological younger sister, no less! How could Zhai Yi and Zhai Xin accept this shocking news out of the blue? “Novels…… Are they really that interesting and impactful?” Look. They were able to make even San Bao emotional! San Bao was no longer the same San Bao of the past.

  Zhai Yu, who had been exposed, was utterly embarrassed and stared straight back at Zhai Yi and Zhai Xin. “Isn’t what I said the truth?” It was true that they did have a little impact on her, but just a little bit. She did indeed think that her mom had a hard life and was aggrieved.

  The difference was that she was never this emotional in the past. She knew that her father placed great importance on the military and the state, so she tried her best to understand his decision. But her emotions got the better of her, and the words that came out of her mouth were just that little bit different from usual, as though she had lost all control.

  “What time did you go to bed last night?”