CHAPTER 404: CHAPTER 306: LIN FAMILY AND JIANG JIANGYU

Aunt Lin, like the Zhou Family, was given a break by the old man. Chen Jingru is now busy with three meals a day, preparing food and tidying up the house. This time she saw her sister-in-law come home and not help at all. She didn’t want to fall out with her either, so she just casually responded a few times and told her to go visit the Zhou Family herself.

After lunch, Jiang Jiangyu took advantage of the fact that the men of the family were around and asked when the two sisters-in-law would return to their maiden home. Should they prepare in advance?

Mrs. Lin glanced at her, knowing she wasn’t giving up. She didn’t bother to respond, seeing as a string of grandchildren to discuss marriages for, she had no mood to deal with these matters.

Zhou Jiao looked at the clueless, erratic aunt in front of her and glanced tiredly at Old Mrs. Cheng.

When she just returned home, she never expected Jiang Jiangyu to wait at her house for quite a while. Were their relations so good? Wasn’t she supposed to wait for her mom to be free to go back to her maiden home?

Today, she had been busy visiting several elders with her father, attending to them; now she was exhausted and just wanted to lie down and rest.

Seeing Zhou Xiaozheng leading Zhang Guoqing to the study to avoid Jiang Jiangyu, Zhou Jiao hurriedly served a cup of tea to her. At least she should let the person sit down first. She believed that with the other’s character, they would certainly intrusively barge into the study without any consideration.

Jiang Jiangyu wore a benevolent smile, holding Zhou Jiao’s hands, continuously scrutinizing the fabric of her clothes, and issuing apologies, finding reasons for not fulfilling her elder duties toward Zhou Jiao.

Zhou Jiao smiled at her warmly.

This self-directed and self-acted play was quite something. She hadn’t forgotten that during Ping’an’s first full moon celebration, Lin Lishan had mentioned that gifts would be sent from the Northwest in a few days. As a result, Lin Lishan sent over two large sacks, but she didn’t receive a single thing from the Northwest, let alone the full moon gifts.

Was she trying to deceive her like she did to her mom, Lin Lishan? She really couldn’t understand how someone like this caught Gu Ruyi’s eye. Could it be that this so-called refined maiden, Gu Ruyi, had quite an unusual taste?

Zhou Jiao nodded in agreement with a full smile, occasionally nodding to show her assent.

Seeing her indifferent, Jiang Jiangyu held Zhou Jiao’s hands, patting and touching them frequently, with flowery rhetoric, and praised Zhou Jiao as the world’s most perfect young junior to Old Mrs. Cheng.

Zhou Jiao blushed, using the excuse of serving tea to draw back her hands. At this moment, she suspected she might have been taken advantage of.

Old Mrs. Cheng stifled her laughter and kept nodding.

Zhou Jiao only felt her hands going numb. Holding them didn’t feel right, letting them fall didn’t feel right either, wishing she could wash them until she shed a layer of skin. She held back a breath, made eye contact with Old Mrs. Cheng, and glanced at the clock on the wall.

Old Mrs. Cheng, understanding her concern, blinked knowingly, lest she worried she couldn’t stay till dinner time — making Jiang Jiangyu shamelessly stay.

"Being overly attentive without reason, either a thief or a rogue"—Zhou Jiao knew full well that what the person was after was money. However, regarding the Lin Family, she carried out her father’s directive—cold treatment, cold reception.

Looking at the other, Zhou Jiao really wanted to slap her in the face. Where did she get such a nerve? Really thought that she and her father were easy to bully? Soon... her father would soon appoint a few uncles to Beijing for assistance.

Her godfather Zhao Chuan Guang’s sacrifices over the past ten years went unrecognized. What about the Northwest uncle being transferred to Beijing? And those uncles who had devoted their efforts to her over the past decade? Really thought factual matters could be hidden, and the truth, concealed?

After her praises, Jiang Jiangyu began shifting the topic to her own family’s hardships.

Listening to her talk about having no family savings, worrying about children getting married and settling down, which turned her hair white from worry, Zhou Jiao blinked in confusion and fell silent.

Old Mrs. Cheng, with her witty remarks, managed to shut Jiang Jiangyu up by pressing down with a set of theories on hard work and thrift and finally shifted the conversation to idle talk.

After seeing her off, Zhou Jiao hurriedly ran to wash her hands. Returning to the living room, she saw Zhou Xiaozheng and Zhang Guoqing looking as though they survived a disaster. She gave them a stern look, then burst into laughter herself.

Old Mrs. Cheng shook her head with a smile, "This isn’t a solution. If she comes over again next time, she’ll get straight to the point about borrowing money. You should think of an excuse."

"Our Jiao Jiao knows what’s what." Zhou Xiaozheng assured her. These trivial matters, as soon as Jiao Jiao came home, she managed all of them and even planned out contingency worries.

Zhou Jiao nodded thoughtfully.

An excuse? What excuse would she need?

Money touches people’s hearts! She intentionally let Mrs. Lin know that all the money was in her charge to prevent these schemers from coming to the door. Even started sending money all over to her father’s fallen comrades’ families, just in case.

Moreover, seeing Jiang Jiangyu’s eagerness to come to the door now indicated the amount needed must be substantial. If she sought again, she was going to have a good talk with her about the Northwest uncle.