After learning about the truth, Qiao Dongliang felt that he had many things to consider. If he continued being so muddleheaded, the next person who would be unable to survive would not be Ding Jiayi but himself.

  The situation had already progressed to this stage, but Ding Jiayi was still scolding Qiao Nan to be a heartless and wretched girl! To this, Qiao Dongliang was extremely depressed and heartbroken. With his capabilities, it was true that he could not compare to Nan Nan at all in terms of raising such a huge sum of money in a short period of time to let his elder daughter undergo surgery.

  No matter how much hatred he felt or how angry he was, Qiao Dongliang could not stand by and watch his own daughter die. “As for Zijin, it’s not entirely a lost cause. But you’d better tell Zijin about Nan Nan so that Zijin won’t be waiting helplessly. If there comes a time that the hospital really has a kidney donor available, hurry and reserve the kidney and let Zijin undergo surgery. Money is nothing compared to a life, after all.”

  “You’re right. Money isn’t as important as a person’s life, but the problem is that without money, do you think that the hospital will be willing to donate the kidney to us and conduct Zijin’s surgery for free?” Ding Jiayi was infuriated. Was money not important? Money was crucial in life! If one wanted to live, everything had to do with money! But the worst part was that Qiao Nan had taken with her all of the family’s money and income with her! “Old Qiao, tell me honestly. Where is Qiao Nan? Do you really not know? If you know anything about it, hurry and get her back and get her to bring the money back! Old Qiao, we really can’t delay Zijin’s surgery any longer. If we delay it any longer, we won’t have a daughter anymore.”

  Ding Jiayi had been Qiao Nan’s mother for almost forty years, so she truly felt that Qiao Nan was not the kind to heartlessly abandon the three of them. Ding Jiayi was also clear that her thoughts toward Qiao Nan were often different from what she had always said about Qiao Nan.

  It was not just Qiao Dongliang. Even Ding Jiayi felt that if anything were to happen in their family, only Qiao Nan was the most reliable in their family of four. Even if Qiao Zijin had not gotten divorced from Chen Jun, the first person Ding Jiayi would think of if anything happened in the family would be Qiao Nan, and not that capable son-in-law of hers, Chen Jun.

  \r \r \r

  Firstly, it was undoubtedly to help Qiao Zijin save some face. If the Qiao family had too many troubles, it was inevitable that Qiao Zijin would be unable to lift her head up in front of her in-laws. Secondly, Ding Jiayi knew that Qiao Nan was the only one who would give her all and wholeheartedly work to resolve any of the Qiao family’s problems without even caring about her personal well-being.

  Seeing that Qiao Zijin’s surgery could not be delayed any further, Ding Jiayi had only one thing in mind, which was to find Qiao Nan as soon as possible to take up this responsibility. That way, both she and Qiao Dongliang could simply sit by peacefully and wait for Qiao Nan to take care of everything. All she and Qiao Dongliang would need to do would be to take care of Qiao Zijin.

  “Ha.” Qiao Dongliang sneered. “I’m sure you know how good you are as a mom. You’re not a good mom and neither am I a good dad. All your praises are for Zijin but all your scoldings are left only for Nan Nan. Now that Nan Nan’s gone, you’re blaming her for not being open-minded enough to let me know about her whereabouts. Is she not afraid that I’ll be biased toward Zijin and pester her once I know about her whereabouts? I’m telling you. Whether or not Zijin’s surgery is successful, it’s a fact that we have lost a daughter.”

  With Qiao Nan’s departure, Qiao Dongliang felt that Qiao Nan would never return to care for him, Ding Jiayi, or Qiao Zijin ever again.

  “No. That won’t happen……” If Qiao Nan really gave up on her and the family, then that would really spell the end for the family. “You’re spouting nonsense. She’s not so heartless to watch us perish. She’s just throwing a tantrum and scaring us. She’ll be back to take care of this family and give us money like how she used to in the past.”

  “It’s just you who’s going on about whether Nan Nan’s heartless or not. You can say as much as you want. You can do whatever you want with regards to Zijin. I’m really going to bed.” The more Ding Jiayi said things like that, the more exhausted Qiao Dongliang felt. Since she knew in her heart that Nan Nan was the better child, why did she always say such nasty things and do such mean things all the time? Did she really have to harden her heart to her child like that?

  The mentally exhausted Qiao Dongliang, who now had to worry about his own future, returned to his room with a hunched back.

  They had not cherished her while she was around. Now that they had lost her, the Qiao family was thrown into a mess and their future was so bleak that there was not a single ray of hope.

  In the Qiao family, Qiao Nan had always been the single source of support and the pillar of the Qiao family.

  “Miss, are you here in Qingshui to visit someone or for a holiday?” Seeing Qiao Nan’s joy, the driver asked curiously. Qiao Nan could not care less about how the Qiao family was doing at the moment. After leaving Ping Cheng and the Qiao family, she was faced with green grass and clear waters, and she felt as though the fog had finally cleared and there was only sunshine in her life now.

  Qiao Nan retracted her smile and there was a moment of confusion in her eyes. Actually, she herself wanted to know whether she was here in Qingshui Town as a guest or as a tourist. “I guess…… I’m returning home?” Returning to the home of her dreams.

  Qingshui Town was actually the hometown of Old Master Zhai and where Old Master Zhai had gotten married to grandma to form a family and where they had given birth to Zhai Yaohui. In her dream, it was because she had gotten married to Zhai Sheng that she knew that the Zhai family’s hometown was not Ping Cheng but Qingshui Town. As such, the Zhai family had an ancestral home in Qingshui Town.

  When Qiao Nan left Ping Cheng and had no idea where to head to, Qingshui Town suddenly came to mind.

  In her dream, Qiao Nan had only visited Qingshui Town once to bury Old Master Zhai together with grandma after he had passed on. But a dream was only a dream, after all. Only after sitting on the bus headed toward Qingshui Town did Qiao Nan let out a bitter laugh. In reality, she had nothing to do with the Zhai family at all, so she had no idea about whether the Zhai family’s hometown was truly in Qingshui Town.

  Perhaps this was just something that she had made up in her dream, and it was not real at all. But when she saw that the scenery in Qingshui Town was just as beautiful as it had been in her dream and was away from the hustle and bustle of the city, Qiao Nan could not help but feel good about this.

  But with the driver’s question, Qiao Nan’s mood dipped once again. Lately, she had been feeling as though she was no longer able to differentiate between reality and her dream world. After leaving Ping Cheng, she had foolishly headed for Zhai Sheng’s hometown, Qingshui Town.

  Based on her dream, Zhai Sheng should be in the capital furthering his career at this moment. She wondered if the woman by Zhai Sheng’s side now was Qiu Chenxi. Wait a minute. Did Qiu Chenxi really exist? Did she have anything to do with the Zhai family?

  Qiao Nan shook her head vigorously, trying to throw all this nonsense from her dream out of her head.