CHAPTER 101: CHAPTER 101 GRANDMA AND GRANDPA

Regarding the matter of "relinquishing the role of class representative," Zhen Yu had already expected it, and this opportunity to "pull her down" only arose because Teacher Shen did not bother Han Mingyue anymore, which Zhen Yu deliberately left for her.

If Teacher Shen had been persistent yesterday, Zhen Yu wouldn’t have minded going to the teacher’s office to resign and slap her in the face on the spot!

-

The incident of changing the class representative passed quietly.

The students all thought that everything had gone back to normal, but Zhen Yu noticed something unusual from her history homework over the past few days.

There wasn’t a single mark of correction on her notebook; it was returned just as it was handed in.

To this, Zhen Yu commented, "Haha."

-

It was a very ordinary Friday evening when Mrs. Zhen chattered about this and that at the dinner table, and she ended up bringing up the children’s maternal grandparents.

"Xiao Yan~ take your sister to visit your grandma and grandpa tomorrow! It’s been such a long time, you should go and see them~"

Zhen Yan didn’t want to go and silently lowered his head to sneak a look at his sister; Zhen Yu received her brother’s signal, but she didn’t make a peep.

Truth be told, since her rebirth, Zhen Yu had not yet met Mrs. Zhen’s family.

And in these few months at the Zhen Family, so many things had happened; even Mrs. Zhen had divorced, yet not a single relative from her maternal family had come to show concern.

It’s not that Mrs. Zhen was incapable of socializing; at the root of it all, it was the Cheng Family’s customary way of treating her.

Ready to use when available, ready to discard when not.

Zhen Yu’s grandma had six sons and two daughters, and after the youngest daughter died young, Mrs. Zhen became the only girl in the family.

But her grandma favored boys over girls, and even though she was the only daughter, she slaved away for over twenty years in her parents’ home.

The eldest sister, like a mother, raised five younger brothers, handing over all the work points she earned to the family, only to be given a small bundle by Zhen Yu’s grandma in the end, packed with a couple of old clothes, and married off.

Mrs. Zhen was twenty-five when she married Zhen Hailong, and in her era, in the northeast countryside where women generally married between eighteen and twenty, there were very few women who married as late as her.

Simply because there was no one to take care of the young brothers at home, Zhen Yu’s grandma deliberately kept her for six or seven more years.

Zhen Yu remembered, in her previous life, when Mrs. Zhen argued with Mr. Zhen, he always used this matter to stab at Mrs. Zhen’s heart, calling her "bare-sticked," saying she was "cleaned out of her parental home" by her grandma.

Perhaps because the cost of marrying her was so low, Mr. Zhen took her for granted.

Mrs. Zhen was the kind of woman who "babbles all the time but falls silent in arguments;" whenever she couldn’t win against her husband, she would sit alone in the room, crying secretly, muttering to herself.

Thus, Zhen Yan and Zhen Yu, the siblings, learned through her solitary mutterings what life was like for her before she married and how the Cheng Family treated her.

It truly was "a handful of bitter tears, who can understand the taste?"

-

Zhen Yan’s eyes were bulging out, and only then did Zhen Yu speak up, her reply was just a simple "Okay."

"Little sister!" Zhen Yan called out disapprovingly, but Zhen Yu slightly nodded, signaling him to be patient.

Mrs. Zhen finally felt at ease when her daughter agreed.

She couldn’t keep her mouth shut, and when she harbored resentment towards her natal family, she would murmur endlessly, and after talking too much even the children remembered, and unknowingly started to feel estranged from the Cheng Family.

But as their children, the filial duty they ought to fulfill must still be done; she hadn’t visited because of business for a long time, and now that she remembered, she wanted the children to visit on her behalf, yet was worried they would be reluctant.

The children were also bearing the grievances for her; she couldn’t scold them, but only when you have children do you understand your parents’ kindness~ no matter how bad it was, they were still the ones who gave birth to and raised her.

Her brothers were indifferent to the plight of their elderly parents living alone; she couldn’t just ignore them, could she?

-

Mrs. Zhen’s inner turmoil was unknown to her son and daughter, who, after finishing their meal and helping their mother clean up the dishes, both entered the small bedroom.

As soon as they got in, Zhen Yan couldn’t wait to grab his sister’s arm, his face full of dissatisfaction, "Do we really have to go tomorrow?"

Zhen Yu calmly pulled her arm away and sat down at the desk, "Let’s just go and see."

"What’s there to see?!" Zhen Yan also plonked himself down on his chair, fishing out his homework while sarcastically saying, "Not a single good thing!"

"Brother~" Zhen Yu looked at him disapprovingly, "They are our elders, after all. Don’t be like this tomorrow."

"Got it." Zhen Yan reluctantly agreed, his strokes as he wrote becoming noticeably heavier.

He had only written one line when he stopped his pen, gripping it tightly as he bitterly said, "Mom’s divorce, and not a single Cheng had the decency to come see us. Why should we bother visiting them!"

Zhen Yu also paused in her homework. What’s the big deal about a divorce? In her previous life, everybody was dead and yet they still only turned up for the funeral!

She took a deep breath and gripped her pen tightly as well, "Let’s just treat it as a farewell."

"Farewell to what?"

Zhen Yan turned his head in confusion and asked his sister, his thoughts translating in modern slang as ’WTF?’

Zhen Yu didn’t answer him, expressionlessly blinking once before continuing on with her homework—clearly she did not wish to explain.

-

The reason Zhen Yu mentioned a farewell was that their grandma and grandpa were going to be taken to Dayang Tree by their uncle at the end of November.

From Laha Town, if one took the green-skinned train, it would take roughly four to five hours.

In her previous life, Zhen Yu had seen her grandparents at Zhen Yan and Mrs. Zhen’s funeral from afar, but before she could approach, she was dragged away by Ju Zhen.

After that, Zhen Yu never saw any member of the Cheng Family again.

She never visited their doorstep, and the Cheng Family members didn’t come looking for her either.

It wasn’t until the first year of junior high school’s winter vacation that Mr. Zhen told Zhen Yu about her grandparents.

He said that the elders had thought they could see their days out at their second son’s home, but less than a month after arriving in Dayang Tree, grandpa had passed away from a heart attack.

As Mrs. Zhen had passed away not divorced, in the previous life, Zhen Hailong went back for the funeral.

He mentioned that the funeral was held in Dayang Tree, and their uncle had used the occasion to reclaim a lot of the condolence money.

Shortly after grandpa was buried on the hillside, a row erupted among the six siblings because the uncle had embezzled the elders’ savings under the pretext of funeral expenses. They all returned to their respective homes that very same day.

Not long after, grandma was sent back to Laha Town’s Uncle Cheng’s home by the uncle himself.

Grandma had made two trips in two months, lost her life partner and savings, becoming an unwanted sick elderly woman.

Zhen Hailong complained to his daughter that while he was busy running errands in Dayang Tree, not a single person thanked him, nor did any Cheng Family member ask about Zhen Yu.

Zhen Yuxin sneered sarcastically in her heart; if the uncles didn’t ask, did the five aunts? They were all cut from the same cloth.

She had always been forgotten.

-

Early the next day, Zhen Yan and Zhen Yu had breakfast and set out.

Grandma’s house was in the same residential area as Qian Duoduo’s, but it was not too close.

It was a small brick house of just over thirty square meters with a secluded yard.

Zhen Yu led the way with her brother following. It was not until they opened the door that the elderly couple inside were aware of someone’s arrival.

"Who is it?" Grandma asked before starting to cough, "Cough, cough, cough, cough..."