Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

  She threw such a huge tantrum that she was reluctant to even address Ding Jiayi as mom, so as to prove to Ding Jiayi that she was very serious this time.

  But just a week later, Qiao Zijin could no longer swallow takeaway food any longer. No matter how delicious it was, eating takeaway three times a day made for twenty-one meals a week. People often said that a lot of oil and seasoning went into takeaway food and it was detrimental to the body. Besides, having takeaway for all three meals a day for a whole week cost her quite a significant sum.

  Thinking about the money she had spent on takeaway alone this week, Qiao Zijin was a little appalled. A meal cost at least fifty yuan, even going up to a hundred over yuan at times. As such, she spent no less than two hundred yuan every day on her meals alone. In a mere week’s time, she had already spent a thousand six hundred yuan!

  There were a little over four weeks in a month, and with the way she was spending, she would have to spend almost six to seven thousand yuan on takeaways alone every month!

  If she were to find a job now, it would already be very good if she were to be able to find a job paying her four to five thousand yuan a month. But what would she do about her other expenses if she spent six to seven thousand yuan on her meals alone? Besides, she had not yet found a job with a salary of four to five thousand yuan. This meant that she had only expenses with no income……

  Even if she did have more than a million yuan, she could not possibly spend all of that on takeaways! What would she do for the rest of her life, then? What would she do about her rich and interesting life?

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  Qiao Zijin was much more willing to spend her money on makeup rather than on food. If not for the fact that Qiao Zijin rarely went out to nightclubs nowadays, her expenses would be even higher.

  But she had done some basic calculations. In a year, she would spend a good seventy thousand yuan on takeaway alone! In ten years, that would be seven hundred thousand, and that did not even take into account inflation! In that way, a sum of 1.5 million yuan would only supply her with twenty years’ worth of takeaway.

  Qiao Zijin was on the verge of a breakdown.

  While she had been married to Chen Jun, Qiao Zijin had never needed to worry about her expenses although she had not been in charge of the finances. But that did not mean that she was unaware of the fact that the family needed to pay for electricity bills, water bills, and utility bills apart from paying for food.

  Now that her parents were still alive, they would still be able to take care of all these bills. But in twenty years’ time, her parents might not be alive while she would definitely still be alive. She could not possibly depend on Qiao Nan to pay for her utility bills. No. There was no way Qiao Nan would care about her. That wretched girl, Qiao Nan, had an evil heart. No matter how well she lived her own life, she would never take pity on her poor sister who was a divorcée.

  Qiao Zijin, who never ever used her brains otherwise, had no other choice but to give in to Ding Jiayi this time, no matter how arrogant she had been in the past. “Mom, it’s been a week. Are you still angry at me? Mom, don’t be angry at me. If you’re really upset, you can scold me or even hit me. It’s bad for your health to be angry all the time. Mom……”

  Ding Jiayi retracted her hand from Qiao Zijin’s hold. “Your calculator was rather loud just now. My elder daughter is rich indeed. You wanted me to use the ten thousand yuan that you gave me last time to pay for your expenses for an entire year. No, you wanted me to pay for the entire family’s expenses. I’m guessing you finally understand that your week’s worth of takeaways cost you more than a tenth of the sum you gave me.”

  She had to take care of a family of three with a budget of only a thousand yuan a month. In a week alone, Zijin had spent a thousand six hundred yuan on takeaways! Of course, there was no way Ding Jiayi’s anger would subside upon finding out about this information. On the contrary, her anger toward Qiao Zijin only grew.

  But Qiao Zijin was to be blamed for being a fool. She had bought a calculator that read out the calculations. Knowing that Qiao Zijin was doing her sums, Ding Jiayi had turned down the volume of the television out of curiosity. Then, she had heard the sum of a thousand six hundred and thirty yuan and fifty cents being read out in a mechanical voice.

  Qiao Zijin stiffened. “Mom, that’s different. I was never one to live in that way since I was young. How could I compare to your ability to scrimp and save? It’s because of you that our family has gotten to where we are now. Otherwise, given my dad’s meager salary, how could our family have survived and raised two children? I even managed to graduate from university! Mom, it’s all due to your hard work. Mom, I really respect you.”

  Qiao Zijin seemed to be saying that Qiao Dongliang was incapable of earning money and it was only because of Ding Jiayi that they had managed to survive on that meager sum of money, even managing to send Qiao Zijin to university.

  Every time this happened, Qiao Zijin would always praise Ding Jiayi’s abilities. That was why Qiao Zijin could spit out such praises so smoothly and glibly.

  “Hehehe……” Qiao Dongliang, who had wanted to check on his pickled ginger, happened to hear the conversation. He had unknowingly been ‘arrowed’. “I’m indeed incapable as a father. It’s true that it’s all your mom’s effort that you’ve become the way you are today!”

  With that, Qiao Dongliang put all his soul into checking on his pickled ginger. That was how his elder daughter, whom he had favored his entire life, viewed him. Yes, both Ding Jiayi and he had ‘good fortune’ indeed. They had raised such a good daughter like Qiao Zijin.

  The only thing that comforted Qiao Dongliang was that he had been different from Ding Jiayi and had never asked Qiao Nan to sacrifice her life for Qiao Zijin’s happiness. At the very most, he had simply acted as though he was deaf and mute, allowing Ding Jiayi to take control of the family affairs.

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  At the very least, he still thought of Qiao Nan as his biological daughter and would do anything to protect her interests. Even if he were to lose Qiao Zijin as a daughter now, he would not have any troubles in his old age. It was just that Qiao Dongliang felt extremely guilty relying on Qiao Nan.

  Qiao Nan had left school early to work, and as such, he had only supported Qiao Nan for the first sixteen years of her life. Before Qiao Nan turned twenty, she had been so capable that she had already been earning more than him and had taken over the role as the family’s main breadwinner.

  Nan Nan was only forty and he had not even supported her for seventeen years, yet Nan Nan had already supported him for over two decades. And in the future……

  What could be even more awkward than catching someone else in the act of speaking ill of himself? Qiao Zijin had wanted to appease Ding Jiayi, but she had never thought that she would offend her father, Qiao Dongliang.