It was her educational methods that had caused Zijin to turn into the person she was today. But she believed that there would come a day she would guide Zijin back onto the right path as long as Zijin still had feelings toward her.

  After opening her eyes, Ding Jiayi wished that she had remained in a coma. No one had been by her side. Qiao Zijin was not there, and neither was Qiao Nan. Because of that, Ding Jiayi had been terribly upset.

  Qiao Dongliang had always said that she had raised their children wrongly and had led Qiao Zijin astray. It was Qiao Nan, who had been neglected by her, who had grown up well based on her own abilities. Ding Jiayi was aggrieved the moment that she awoke. Grown up well? Her mom had been hospitalized and she was not even going to visit her mom to take care of her! How could such an unfilial child have grown up well? In that case, what would children be like if they had been led astray?

  As such, Zijin’s bad temper had nothing to do with her. She couldn’t have brought Zijin astray. She had never even taught Qiao Nan anything, and yet, Qiao Nan was a bad child too. All she could say was that both Qiao Zijin and Qiao Nan were not good seedlings to begin with. There was no way they could have grown up to be any good.

  The more Ding Jiayi thought about it, the more she felt that the problem lay with the Qiao family and that she had nothing to do with it. It was not that Qiao Dongliang was bad, but Qiao Dongliang hadn’t appeared out of the blue. Perhaps, something had gone wrong in the generation of Qiao Zijin and Qiao Nan’s grandparents, and there had been particularly disobedient people in that generation.

  \r \r \r

  Qiao Zijin made herself at home and sat down, even taking a dragon fruit from the fruit basket and peeling it for herself. “What am I here for? My mom’s sick. As the only daughter by her side, it’s only right that I come to visit her and see if she needs my help. Mom, Qiao Nan should have transferred money to you, right? You’d better manage it well. Who doesn’t love money in this world? Be careful that someone might try to snatch it away from you. We’re a family and you’re my mom. If you need anything, feel free to ask me for help. I have the obligation to help you, after all.”

  Instead of handing her money over to outsiders, it would be safer to get her daughter to manage her money.

  She couldn’t deny that she was trying to take advantage of the situation. Anyway, Qiao Nan was loaded and wouldn’t care less about such a small sum of money. Besides, her mom was hospitalized and didn’t have anywhere else to spend her money. Even if she wanted to eat anything, she couldn’t possibly go out to buy them herself. It was just as well. She could run such errands for her mom.

  To put it bluntly, she was willing to bet that others would definitely try to take advantage of her mom if her mom trusted someone else to run these errands for her. Since such a situation was unavoidable, it would be better for her mom to let her take advantage instead. No matter what, she was her mom’s daughter. Even if she pocketed the money, it would still be the Qiao family’s. It was better for her to spend the money than let someone else spend it instead.

  She believed that her mom would understand such a simple principle.

  Besides, Qiao Zijin and Ding Jiayi had been the happiest when they had managed to extort money from Qiao Nan in the past. Now, the mother and daughter could take this opportunity to spend Qiao Nan’s money again. She had already said that Qiao Nan didn’t lack money. It was a rare opportunity that she and her mom had to treasure.

  After all, no one was sure when her mother would fall sick again. Qiao Nan was stingy and they could not give up this golden opportunity when Qiao Nan was willing to fork out money for them.

  “Mom, don’t you agree? I’ve already thought about it for you. Tell Qiao Nan that the air in China isn’t very good and that your living environment isn’t very good. Because you’re sick, you want to move away and relax. Didn’t I suggest that you take a holiday in Thailand with Dad? We don’t know where Dad is now, but I’m sure that he’s living a much better life than we are because of Qiao Nan. We don’t have to worry about her. Once Qiao Nan transfers you the money, I’ll accompany you to Thailand. What do you think?”

  Qiao Zijin knew that Qiao Nan would continue treating Ding Jiayi exactly how she had treated her in the past if not for her illness as an excuse. Ding Jiayi would simply receive a measly one to two thousand yuan of living allowance every month. Apart from feeding herself, she wouldn’t be able to do much with that sum of money.

  “Mom, it’s really true that the rich rule the world. After getting married to Zhai Sheng, Qiao Nan has never needed to worry about money. Now, she’s even become the master of the Zhu family. It’ll take her a few lifetimes to finish spending all her money. We’re her family. Apart from those few people in the Zhai family, we’re her only kin. Who would she be good to if not us? Anyway, she won’t be able to finish using the money. Don’t you think that Qiao Nan’s stupid if she refuses to give us some money to better our lives?” If possible, she wanted to pry open Qiao Nan’s brain to see what was going on inside.

  In the past, Qiao Nan had been willing to hand over all of her money while she stayed in a small space under the staircase. Now, Qiao Nan only needed to spare her a fraction of her wealth for her life to get better. So, why was Qiao Nan being so stingy? Honestly, she could swear that she would never make trouble for Qiao Nan ever again if she were to spare her that small sum of money. She would even become Qiao Nan’s protector. If her mom dared to bully or provoke Qiao Nan, she would definitely stand on Qiao Nan’s side.

  In that case, Qiao Nan wouldn’t be at a loss giving her that sum of money.

  Qiao Zijin was being rather practical. Could Qiao Nan not guess what Qiao Zijin was thinking? It was exactly because she had been so suppressed for the first half of her life that she had retaliated, and her retaliation was scary indeed.

  Qiao Nan knew very well that she did not lack money, and neither did the Zhai family. Giving Qiao Zijin just a tiny fraction of her money so that she could lead a better life would be good for her too. But Qiao Nan was reluctant to let Qiao Zijin live a comfortable life.

  This was not the past. In the past, Qiao Zijin had always relied on Ding Jiayi to cause trouble for her. Now? Qiao Nan lived in the capital while Ding Jiayi refused to leave Ping Cheng. Besides, Qiao Dongliang, who had always turned a blind eye to their antics, had suddenly changed his attitude. Given all these factors, Ding Jiayi, who had once reigned over the Qiao family, no longer dared to put Qiao Zijin first in everything.

  Ding Jiayi had started to become anxious about her own old age. She did not want to get a divorce from Qiao Dongliang and wished to remain with him.