CHAPTER 673: CHAPTER 452: CONFUSED EGG

The second update is here, tomorrow is the New Year’s Eve, will everyone still come to read?

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When Chuxia and Zhou Mikang arrived at Old Master Wan’s home, Old Master Wan and Sister-in-law Yin were having breakfast. Seeing the two come in, Old Master Wan put down his chopsticks, "You’re quite timely, I’ve just finished eating," he said, looking apologetically at Chuxia, "Chuxia, grandpa didn’t make it over yesterday, you’re not mad at grandpa, are you?"

"Grandpa, do you think I’m such a petty person?" Chuxia sized him up and noticed the dark circles under his eyes, a clear sign of a bad night’s sleep, "Grandpa, are you upset again?"

Elder Wan sighed, "I won’t hide it from you, I am indeed upset. How did I end up with such a daughter? Sigh, I don’t know how much I owed her in my past life to have her torment me like this."

"Grandpa..." Chuxia looked at him with concern but didn’t know what to say.

"It’s alright, grandpa is used to it. Every time she visits, I’m bound to get upset, and every time she calls, I get upset, too. But then, if I don’t hear from her at all, I start worrying.

Once you have kids, you’ll understand this feeling. No matter what the child’s temperament is like, as parents, we’ll always worry about them. Sometimes, we might say unpleasant things, but our hearts ache more than the children’s."

Chuxia gently patted Elder Wan’s back, understanding from what he said that the two sides must have parted on bad terms again, saying final, cutting words when they left.

After all, it was Elder Wan’s biological daughter and granddaughter involved; as an outsider, Chuxia had no place to criticize them. All she could do was try her best to make Elder Wan a bit happier.

After thinking it over, she said, "Grandpa, my parents are coming over in a couple of days. Zhou Mikang mentioned waiting until they arrive before leaving, to keep them from worrying. When the time comes, you have to help us with our little deception, okay?"

"Of course, grandpa will surely help you with it." As expected, upon mentioning this, Old Master Wan’s expression visibly relaxed somewhat. He looked at Zhou Mikang, "You’ll be back in another two months, right?"

"Yes." Zhou Mikang nodded, "This time when I return, I’ll begin to wind things down."

"For the common people, peace is better than war, so don’t be emotional."

"Grandpa, I understand." Zhou Mikang respectfully looked at Old Master Wan, "You can rest assured, grandpa. I will absolutely stand firm at my post and attend to my duties, without meddling unnecessarily."

This was akin to indirectly stating his position to Elder Wan; some warmongers were recently petitioning together, and Zhou Mikang had no intention of getting involved.

Hearing this, Elder Wan smiled with relief, "Good, grandpa knew it. You’re a sensible kid. I was pretty confident about you, and now, even more so after hearing what you’ve just said."

What Elder Wan meant was naturally to tell him, "I will inform the relevant people about your situation; rest assured, no matter how far you go, I will be there to cover you."

Zhou Mikang stood up and bowed deeply, "Grandpa, thank you."

Chuxia didn’t understand their cryptic exchange and looked on puzzled, but she didn’t ask any questions.

Old Master Wan smiled at her, "Let Xiaomi explain to you later. Go to work now, don’t be late."

Chuxia stood up, "Grandpa, I’m leaving now. I’ll be back tonight to keep you company; we’re staying over here this evening."

"Sure." Elder Wan agreed readily and patted Zhou Mikang on the shoulder, "Tonight, we’ll have a good chat, just the two of us."

Zhou Mikang eagerly responded, "Yes, tonight I’ll have a good talk with grandpa. Your wisdom can help me a lot and keep me from taking wrong turns."

On the way, Zhou Mikang explained their veiled conversation to Chuxia, and her eyes immediately reddened. Elder Wan usually stayed out of any faction’s idle affairs, but this time, his clear support for the Zhou family was obviously because of her.

She believed this was not her being conceited. Uncertain of how to repay such deep kindness and loyalty, having her parents stay with Elder Wan could comfort him, but they were still not his biological children...

With this in mind, she turned to Zhou Mikang, "Do you know about the situation between Wan Yuqiong and her daughter?"

"What, do you want to play the mediator?" Zhou Mikang immediately understood her intent from her question and rejected the idea, "I don’t mean to dampen your spirits, but you can’t resolve this. If you really care about Elder Wan, stay out of it. The jealousy those two harbor is not ordinary. It’s better not to make things worse; you’d regret it."

"I just feel uneasy..." Chuxia sighed, "You also know what kind of person Grandpa Wan is. With him doing this, I feel especially, especially uneasy. We, our family, owe him far too much."

"If he knew you were thinking this way, he’d definitely be unhappy." Zhou Mikang stopped the car and looked at her seriously, "Chuxia, do you feel a sense of belonging now? I mean..." He paused for a moment, then continued, "Do you feel a sense of belonging to this era? Or to put it bluntly, do you consider yourself a person of this time?"

"I..." Hesitant for a moment, Chuxia looked at him with some uncertainty, "I don’t know. Sometimes I feel that I have accepted this era, that I am a member of it, but then, when I actually come across certain things, I find that there are too many obstacles between myself and this era.

It forces me to walk on eggshells, afraid of causing any trouble that would bring disaster upon my family, but no matter how careful I am, it seems that I still make mistakes.

Just like yesterday, in the era that I came from, that really wasn’t a problem, so I did it without thinking because I consider myself a member of the Zhou family. I don’t want any trouble for the Zhou family, and I felt I was absolutely right in doing what I did.

But then, thinking back on it, I feel incredibly foolish. Even if I managed to explain things away as a doctor, would my uncle genuinely not mind?

I forced him into a corner. If at that time, I hadn’t intervened and let grandma or mom handle it, things wouldn’t have turned out this way. Zhou Mikang, I really regret it.

I must admit to you that I was so eager to show off because I really wanted my family to acknowledge my medical talent and abilities. Now that I think about it, I was really too selfish. I even thought I was absolutely right at the time."

"I could see you’ve been holding something back. You wear your heart on your sleeve, yet you think you’re good at hiding it. When you came out, Grandpa Wan asked me if you had something on your mind.

It wasn’t right for me to go through with my uncle’s issue with Elder Wan, so I told him that there was a little family problem, you helped out, probably overthinking it, and that I would talk to you.

Elder Wan is a smart man. Hearing what I said, he didn’t press further but asked me to talk you through it. He said you are still young and shouldn’t always carry such burdens on yourself.

And before I’d even had a chance to talk to you, you started taking on burdens again. Lin Chuxia, don’t you always feel a sense of urgency? As if you’re afraid of not being able to repay what you owe to others in time. This isn’t good.

You have come to this era, which means you belong to this time. You’ve become a part of my family, and thus a part of the Zhou family. Grandpa Wan acknowledging you as his granddaughter shows that he genuinely likes you, that he wants to help because he believes you’re worth it.

Otherwise, given his age and experience, there is no way he’d abandon his principles just for the sake of acknowledging a goddaughter. If that were the case, he would have had ten or eight granddaughters by now, right?

Live fully in what belongs to you. You owe nothing to anyone. Your happiness is something you fought for yourself, not something given to you out of charity. Marrying into the Zhou family is because I like you.

It’s possible that initially, the Zhou family was kind to you because of me, but now their kindness is entirely earned by you. You don’t need to constantly think about repaying them for it.

You want to be a doctor, and I support you. You’ve known that for a long time, so there’s no need to find ways to make everyone else validate it. Whether they approve or not, it won’t affect your decisions. Remember what I told you, I will make you happy in this lifetime, and I will certainly do it.

You don’t need to do anything you don’t like just to please others. If I can’t even protect you, what good am I, right?"

"What are you trying to tell me?" Chuxia was somewhat confused for a moment, not quite understanding the point of Zhou Mikang’s long explanation.

"You don’t understand what I’m trying to tell you?" Zhou Mikang was exasperated, "Alright then, let me ask you, do you not know what you’ve forced yourself to do?"

After thinking for a while, Chuxia said with some uncertainty, "I don’t think I’ve forced myself."

"You didn’t force yourself to be kind to Yingying?"

"No." Chuxia shook her head quickly, "At first, I genuinely wanted to help grandma, and later, I really felt she was quite pitiable. She lacks a sense of security even more than I do. I have good parents, but she doesn’t."

Alright, talking to the wall, Zhou Mikang had to spell it out even more clearly: "When I’m not here, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. No one will dare to treat you badly. Initially, you were kind to Yingying mainly to please grandma, right?"

Hit the nail on the head, Chuxia felt a mix of annoyance and embarrassment: "Don’t make me sound so utilitarian, okay? I’ve explained it so clearly, why do you still talk about me like this?"

"Okay, okay, it’s my fault for using the wrong words. My point is, you have been too anxious to gain your family’s recognition, taking on tasks regardless of whether they’re within your capabilities. Do you realize how dangerous Yingying’s situation would have been without Jiang Qi and Ma Chao?"

"Ah?" Chuxia looked bewilderedly at Zhou Mikang, "She’s just a five-year-old child, what kind of danger could there be? Moreover, when I took her out, we didn’t encounter any danger, right?"

This girl’s sense of security is too weak... Zhou Mikang rubbed his forehead with a headache. Thankfully, he was coming back soon. Otherwise, how could he ever be at peace? (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to come to Qidian (qidian.com) to cast your recommended votes, monthly votes. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read at m.qidian.com.)