CHAPTER 270: CHAPTER 203: THE TRUTH GRADUALLY REVEALED

In the kitchen, Cheng Hongli was with Zhao Yuanyuan, serving food and setting chopsticks.

Zhao Yuanyuan secretly nudged her, leaned close to her ear, and said, "Mom, have you noticed that Grandma Jiaojiao is very strange? I’ve seen her several times looking a bit off. I can’t quite describe the feeling."

Cheng Hongli shushed her forcefully. She glared at Zhao Yuanyuan and said in a low voice, "Don’t talk nonsense. Uncle Zhou is a smart person. What doesn’t he understand? Keep quiet."

Zhao Yuanyuan pouted. She just felt Grandma Jiaojiao was different from her own grandmother.

After a while, Cheng Hongli heard a noise and looked out. Seeing them come in, she smiled and greeted Mrs. Zhou, "Aunt, please sit down. Your daughter-in-law has prepared everything, worried that you might find it too hard to eat, and specially made an egg cake for you."

Mrs. Zhou nodded approvingly, smiling at Zhao Yuanyuan, saying, "I’ve seen this girl before, she has quite a good relationship with our Jiao Jiao. Has the little girl come to play with our Jiao Jiao recently? Truly didn’t expect our families to be old friends through Ah Zheng. We really are destined."

Cheng Hongli, beaming, gestured and said happily, "Indeed, it’s destiny. We met Brother Zheng when my husband and I were stationed at the East North Military Zone. At that time, Yuanyuan was as old as I was, and Brother Zheng was quite influential; everyone in the Military Zone knew him. This unexpected reunion made us extremely happy. Thank goodness Brother Zheng returned safely."

"Heaven’s blessings indeed. Seeing him return, my heart is at ease. Our Jiao Jiao often relies on your couple’s care. Even if you hadn’t known Ah Zheng, I would still want him and Shanshan to visit. Now it’s all good, everyone already knows each other. You should treat Ah Zheng as a brother, no need for formalities."

Zhao Dashan cheerfully looked at everyone, pulling out a chair for the old lady to sit, "Aunt, please sit. Brother Zheng is already like a brother to me. I won’t be formal with him. Seeing him buy so much seafood, we all visited without hesitation, already treating this as our own home. Why be formal in one’s own home, right?"

Zhou Xiaozheng saw they were engaged in conversation and headed towards the warehouse.

He looked around and saw Xiao Wu had tidied it up quite neatly. Apart from a few baskets, the rest of the seafood was all placed in large bamboo baskets, and the burlap bags were cleaned and hung outside.

Seeing there wasn’t much he needed to clean up himself, he leaned against the wall, secretly pondering, planning to arrange everything during this holiday, wait till Ping’an’s full-month celebration is done, and leave, he couldn’t delay returning to the team anymore.

Shanshan had only a few days off, he still needed to go to Zhao Chuang Guang for a phone call to Beijing to see if it could be postponed, need to wait until the full month celebration is finished before going back.

Zhang Guoqing entered the yard after getting off the car and heard the laughter coming from the kitchen.

He noticed the warehouse door was open, looked in, and found his father-in-law inside. He paused in his steps, thought for a moment, and decided to go in.

He approached and greeted softly, "Dad, everything is delivered. I gave two yellow croakers to a few elders as a return gift. Zuo Lin’s couple weren’t home, so I let his daughter-in-law receive it. I sent two bamboo baskets to my eldest and second sister, they wanted to give me return gifts, but I didn’t accept, just drove back."

Zhou Xiaozheng looked playfully at the bamboo basket he put down and said, "You gave two fish, and gained a bunch of gifts, still profited. What’s going on with Mrs. Zhou today? I saw the things in the car brought back."

Zhang Guoqing looked at the walnuts, red dates, and some brown sugar in the basket, smiled. Hearing him mention the Zhou family’s matters, he sighed quietly.

What’s meant to come has come.

He gathered his smile, and said seriously, "It’s quite amusing. I drove over, outside the gate the elder and second sister-in-law were chatting, they saw the car and without greeting ran inside.

The old neighbor next door saw that there was no one around, secretly ran over and said to me, yesterday my uncle returned, the whole family hasn’t gone out, today they even let the elder brother-in-law take leave and stay home. I heard this morning grandma was still frowning, looking upset, watching the road outside, probably waiting for you to go back. Later it was the old man who came out to scold before coming in.

The old lady told me not to send things inside, quickly go back. She thought the elder branch gathering was to fight me. I was worried about grandma, so I went in empty-handed and called a few times, but no one appeared.

When I got to the main room, I heard a sound from the bedroom next to grandma’s, I didn’t make a sound and pushed the door open, as soon as I went in, I saw grandpa forcefully holding grandma not letting her get up, grandma was anxious to get up.

It was quite awkward then, grandpa said grandma was sick and needed rest. I saw grandma wearing a coat, wanted to take her to the county hospital for a look and find you.

Grandpa said it’s just a minor problem, lying down will be good, not letting grandma go to the hospital with me. I insisted and brought grandma out.

In the car, grandma said she wouldn’t go to the hospital, probably I could see grandpa wanted her to fake illness. Seeing grandma in good spirits, I just brought her back."

Zhou Xiaozheng listened but wasn’t angry, instead, he laughed and said, "You hurriedly took grandma away, probably angered them. They plan to settle accounts with me. Your grandpa thought we’d go together, let your grandma pretend to be sick, want to first soften then toughen or what? I can deal with them alone, thinking more people will help? I haven’t figured out how to deal with him yet, but he’s already scheming."

Zhang Guoqing worriedly looked at him and advised, "Dad, avoid clashing jade with tiles. Once you go back to Beijing, they won’t be able to find us. Ignore them, just don’t respond. Grandma said in the car to advise you to go back to work early and avoid coming back, they wish to cling to you."

"Hmm, I got it in my mind, after dinner, I’ll keep Mrs. Zhou, I still have things to discuss with her privately." Zhou Xiaozheng originally didn’t plan to confront Mrs. Zhou.

There are many questions buried in his heart. Now they mistreat his daughter and still want to scheme against him. It’s hard to guard against thieves; he’s got to be ruthless to uncover things, else, when Mrs. Zhou leaves, who will tell him the truth?

Zhou Xiaozheng saw his son-in-law looking at him worriedly and consoled, "No worries. Dad will handle it. There are many complexities in the Zhou family you juniors don’t understand. You’ll know in time. You did well today, with Mrs. Zhou coming, lots of things don’t need to be hidden from others, it’s a good chance to ask."

"Let’s go have dinner first." After saying that, he headed towards the kitchen.

Zhang Guoqing had some understanding of it. Probably related to his suspected lineage. But he doubted whether Mrs. Zhou would speak. Before, he might’ve believed Zhou Jiao’s words that Mrs. Zhou loved her dearly. But now perhaps not. Since Zhou Jiao got married, how many times has Mrs. Zhou stepped into his house? True relations will always be there!

Zhou Xiaozheng is now Old Zhou family’s only lifeline. Will Mrs. Zhou abandon such a big tree? Zhou Jiao said Mrs. Zhou couldn’t protect her. Ha... Everyone can act wisely for self-preservation, but who doesn’t protect their own flesh and blood?

Ah, Mrs. Zhou, unless his father-in-law uses tough means or has clues and evidence, might loosen her lips. But what’s the use? Even if the truth comes out, considering Old Man Zhou’s shamelessness, it’d still be gratitude over biological bonds. Why else has his father-in-law not torn it open?

Zhang Guoqing looked worriedly at Zhou Xiaozheng’s back. An orphan, blood ties, that hurdle he crossed before, he truly didn’t want to see his father-in-law wounded in the heart again.