CHAPTER 858: CHAPTER 578: DISCUSSION

After meeting Wang Jun, she settled down to live with my brother, but she was a woman with a particularly strong sense of vanity. Li Kaizhu, who grew up with my brother, used to visit them often, and naturally, so did Li Kaizhu’s wife. Over time, the two families became quite close.

But later, when Li Kaizhu was promoted to Squad Leader, his wife started to show superiority in front of Sun Chunmei, which made Sun Chunmei uncomfortable. She disliked that my brother wasn’t capable enough to give her face or let her live a good life.

With all this fussing, the visits from Li Kaizhu and his wife to my brother’s place became less frequent. Later on, Li Kaizhu was promoted to workshop supervisor, and he basically stopped associating with my brother.

Actually, my brother is quite stubborn by nature. As Sun Chunmei would say, he’s rigid. Sun Chunmei wanted him to plead with Li Kaizhu to change his job role, or perhaps get a small leadership position.

My brother felt that since he and Li Kaizhu grew up together wearing open-crotch pants, lowering himself to ask a favor felt very undignified. So, no matter what Sun Chunmei said, he firmly refused to ask Li Kaizhu for help.

Moreover, not only did he not ask for help, but he also started associating less and less with them. In his own words, since they were doing well, he didn’t feel the need to warm up to someone who wasn’t reciprocating. To put it bluntly, he was acting out of insecurity.

In this way, his relationship with Sun Chunmei grew increasingly distant. Otherwise, when he had a stroke, Sun Chunmei and Wang Jun wouldn’t have just left him in the hospital and ignored him.

Sister-in-law, I’ve never mentioned these things before, not because I don’t trust the family, but because I don’t know how to bring it up. I talked with my big brother a while back, and he said he’s determined not to return to that house, and plans to live with Xiao Ching from now on.

Once Xiao Ching is married, if he can walk again, he’ll continue living with her. If he can’t stand again, he wants me to take him to a nursing home. It’s truly pitiful for someone to end up like this. If I don’t help him, no one else will."

"Don’t worry, I’ll talk to your big brother soon about this. Ask him to make some time to resolve this matter with Shanping after the third day of the New Year."

"Mom, does this matter really need my dad to step in?" Zhou Mikang said with a look of disbelief, "My third uncle can definitely handle this by himself."

Lin Yanqiu paused for a moment before responding, realizing, yes, if even such a trivial matter required Zhou Jingping’s help, what would that make Zhou Shanping look like in Wang Lei’s eyes?

Actually, it’s not that Zhou Shanping lacks capability; it’s just that they always assumed he was the youngest, and loved stepping in for him, which over time led others to underestimate him.

Think about it, if he truly had no skills, how could he manage a shopping center so well?

"Yes, yes, let Shanping accompany you back to your parental home, and this matter will surely get resolved..." Lin Yanqiu said with an awkward smile to Wang Lei, "I really need to change my habit of speaking without thinking. After all, this is a family matter. If Zhou Jingping goes along, others might think the Zhou family is bullying people. Having only Shanping accompany you is different. Everyone knows what that mother and son used to do. Once explained, people will understand you’re not forgetting where you came from just because you married into a good family. Isn’t that right?"

"Sister-in-law, I’m not afraid of what others might say about me..." Wang Lei sighed, "Besides, I only got married so late in life. How many people would have anything nice to say about me?

If I truly cared about reputation to live my life, I wouldn’t have waited until now to get married, and I wouldn’t have had the chance to meet Zhou Shanping and the Zhou family, who made me feel the true warmth of a family.

So you see, Heaven is fair. Where you’ve lost, you gain elsewhere; it just depends on the timing and how you see it.

I know with my abilities, I can’t intimidate Sun Chunmei and Wang Jun. So, I need to rely on my husband’s family. Although Zhou Shanping is my husband, when he acts outside, he represents the entire Zhou family, so I must obtain approval from my parents-in-law, my older brother, my sister-in-law, my second brother, and second sister-in-law before I can let him intervene."

"I have no objections," said Lin Yanqiu.

Liang Xiaohong quickly added, "Neither do I."

"Then there’s no way the three brothers would object. Once we let Mom and Dad know, they’ll definitely support it, too. Sister-in-law, can you rest easy and go to sleep now?"

Seeing it was almost five o’clock, Wang Lei also felt a bit tired and obediently went back to her room.

On the other side, the three brothers were still chatting lively, but Lin Yanqiu forcibly dispersed them and sent each to their rooms.

They needed to get up at seven in the morning to pay New Year visits, which left only about two hours to rest. After returning to her room, Chuxia couldn’t sleep, so she grabbed a book and sat down to read intently.

After Mikang finished washing up, he saw someone reading diligently and lifted her horizontally into bed, "Time to sleep!"

"I’m not sleeping; getting just over an hour of sleep only makes it worse. I’d rather read for a while," Chuxia replied, yawning, "Celebrating the New Year is really tiring."

"Sleep, if you can’t get up, then just sleep a bit longer. You can visit on the second day of the New Year as well," Mikang said.

"Zhou Mikang, you said it," Chuxia grinned wickedly as she burrowed into the quilt, "When the time comes and I don’t get up, don’t blame me for not saving face."

"What’s more important, face or health?" Zhou Mikang tucked her in, "When did I, Zhou Mikang, ever need someone else to save face for me? Just sleep soundly, whenever you wake up is fine. I’d like to see who dares to gossip about me!"

With this reassurance from Squad Leader Tongzi, Chuxia’s already sleepy head drifted into slumber right away... (To be continued. If you like this work, feel free to vote for it on Qidian (qidian.com) with recommendations or monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com to read.)