Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

  Of course, up until now, Qiao Zijin was still not prepared to do drugs. She hoped that her son would have an unbridled future. For her son’s sake, she had already been willing to divorce Chen Jun. So, there was no way she was going to let Chen Feng have a drug addict as a mother. If she were to be sent to a rehabilitation center, her son would be utterly embarrassed. Then, it wouldn’t be that easy for him to inherit Chen Jun’s position in the future.

  As for gambling, she would not touch it for the time being either.

  But that would depend on Ding Jiayi’s performance as a mother in the future.

  She had already given her mother a chance. If they came to a compromise, they would both live well. But if her mom were to go overboard, she could do so too.

  Ding Jiayi had no idea what was going through Qiao Zijin’s mind, but the moment she saw Qiao Zijin’s gaze toward her, Ding Jiayi couldn’t help but shiver. Qiao Nan was the best example right in front of them.

  Having been constantly lectured by Qiao Dongliang in the time that Qiao Zijin had been away, Ding Jiayi hadn’t remained entirely unmoved or unchanged. Under Qiao Dongliang’s brainwashing and influence, Ding Jiayi had gradually realized that every time she sucked Qiao Nan dry, Qiao Zijin couldn’t be left out of the picture. She couldn’t deny that every single cent that she squeezed out of Qiao Nan always went to Qiao Zijin.

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  It seemed that she would only think of getting money from Qiao Nan whenever Qiao Zijin asked her to do something. Even in Qiao Nan’s second year of junior high school, it had been her elder daughter, Qiao Zijin, who had said that she was going to high school and it would be expensive to put her through school. In the future, it would be even more expensive when she went to university. Her dad’s low salary would probably be just enough to cover her school fees, whereas there was still Qiao Nan, who was only one grade below her.

  It was already hard enough to put one child through school. Her dad would definitely not be able to afford to pay for both his daughters’ school fees. It would be better for her to stop studying and to find a job instead. Since Qiao Nan was younger than her, she would let Qiao Nan continue with her studies. However, Qiao Nan was in a grade below her. That would mean that their family would have to fork out an additional year’s worth of school fees.

  But that didn’t matter to her. As an elder sister, it was only right for her to work hard. An additional year’s worth of school fees meant nothing. What she cared about was wasting the five thousand yuan fees that she had just paid. Initially, she had thought of graduating from university as soon as possible so that she would be able to earn some money to pay her parents back.

  But if she were to stop at high school, she would probably not be able to find such a well-paying job. Even so, she was willing to sacrifice her own interests for the sake of the family. She believed that as long as Qiao Nan knew of the family’s difficulties, she would share the same idea and be willing to do the same thing.

  Even if Qiao Nan was unwilling to do so, it wouldn’t matter since she was the elder sister. She would just let Qiao Nan have her way.

  After hearing how sensible and thoughtful Qiao Zijin was, Ding Jiayi naturally stood on Qiao Zijin’s side. When she had used five thousand yuan to buy Qiao Zijin’s way into The High School Affiliated to Renmin University of China, Ding Jiayi had felt her heart bleeding even though Qiao Zijin was her favorite daughter.

  It was five thousand yuan! That was almost all of the Qiao family’s savings at that time. Ding Jiayi couldn’t bear to see the money go to waste. Because of the five thousand yuan, she couldn’t afford to let Qiao Zijin drop out of school and let Qiao Nan continue instead.

  Besides, Qiao Zijin was in a higher grade than Qiao Nan. Allowing Qiao Nan to continue studying would mean paying another year’s worth of school fees. She had heard that university fees were exorbitant, and neither were the high school fees cheap. Given their family’s situation, it would definitely be better if they could save on a year’s worth of fees.

  Ding Jiayi had always favored Qiao Zijin to begin with. Seeing how sensible Qiao Zijin was, Ding Jiayi immediately cut in and said that there was nothing wrong with Qiao Nan making this sacrifice for her sister and for the family. Since they had to make such a sacrifice, it was better for it to be the one who would lose the least, and the one who made the least contribution to the family.

  It would only be a waste of the family’s money for Qiao Nan to continue with her studies. On the other hand, if they were to let Qiao Nan drop out of school to work, not only would they save money, but they would even have extra income. That would make a significant difference to their family’s finances.

  Years later, Ding Jiayi no longer remembered why she had insisted on Qiao Nan dropping out of school, even going to the extent of selling all of Qiao Nan’s textbooks and not leaving a single of Qiao Zijin’s unused books.

  But every time Qiao Dongliang mentioned it, Ding Jiayi’s memories gradually filled her mind yet again.

  Initially, this had been Ding Jiayi’s reason for making Qiao Nan drop out of school. Afterward… Because Qiao Nan had said that she wanted to enrich herself by reading and self-studying, Qiao Zijin had told Ding Jiayi that it was possible that Qiao Nan wanted to return to school. If that was the case, were they supposed to allow Qiao Nan to return to school now that their family was doing slightly better?

  After hearing Qiao Zijin’s words, Ding Jiayi had taken action immediately. Returning to school? What a joke! Reading all those books had given Qiao Nan such a ridiculous idea!

  Qiao Zijin was the only university graduate in their family, and their family’s situation had finally improved after such a long time. If their family were to have another student to support, would the rest of them still be able to survive? As part of the family, why didn’t Qiao Nan strive to lessen their burden? Contrarily, she was even intending on increasing their burden! That was unforgivable!

  As such, Ding Jiayi had simply sold off all the books that Qiao Zijin no longer needed, depriving Qiao Nan of any chance of reading them. Since she could no longer read them, Qiao Nan would probably know to keep her place.

  As these memories returned one by one, Ding Jiayi started to fear her ‘beloved daughter’, Qiao Zijin. Qiao Zijin had been the one who instigated her to do all those things to Qiao Nan. In other words, she had been manipulated by her most beloved daughter, and in the end, she was the one who had become known as the evilest one in the family. She was seen as the one who had been hurting Qiao Nan all this while.

  The only thing that comforted Ding Jiayi after she remembered all these things was that Qiao Nan was no fool. Under normal circumstances, a person in Qiao Nan’s place would definitely hold the most resentment toward Ding Jiayi. Obviously, Qiao Nan was not only academically smart, but she was also not that foolish when it came to interpersonal relationships. She hated Ding Jiayi, but she didn’t hate Qiao Zijin any less.

  In that way, neither of them had been able to escape that fate, at the very least.

  Having figured out how intelligent and frightening her daughter, Qiao Zijin, was, Ding Jiayi had started having her reservations about doting on Qiao Zijin.