Seeing that the caller ID showed Tang Yuanxu, Tang's father glanced at his family members in the house, then immediately pressed the speakerphone button to answer. He heard Tang Yuanxu's voice coming from the other end: "Brother, we're at your doorstep. Why is no one home?"

Mr. Tang frowned, glanced at Tang Xiaoxiao, and after seeing her nod, said to the person on the other end of the phone, "Why didn't you even call before you came? It's Xiaoxiao's birthday today. We're at the old house. Come over."

Tang Yuanxu muttered, "Why did they go over there? Can anyone still live in that old house?" Before hanging up the phone, Tang Xiaoxiao could faintly hear a girl's dissatisfied complaint.

She couldn't help but chuckle to herself.

Tang Qianqian has always been spoiled and pampered. Although her second uncle's family is just an ordinary working-class family, they dote on their only daughter like a princess. All the money the couple earns is used to raise their daughter. From a young age, she attends various dance, vocal, and piano classes. The couple saves every penny but is never stingy with their daughter. Although Tang Qianqian did not live a life of luxury, and Tang Yuanxu and his wife certainly did not have the means, she never wore clothes that cost less than a few hundred yuan. Therefore, over the years, the couple has no savings at all.

With the accumulation of wealth, Tang Qianqian has developed a certain air about her. At least from the surface, Tang Qianqian did seem to have more of the pampered air of a city heiress than the Tang sisters, Tang Xiaoxiao and Tang Xinxin.

However, what they displayed most was an arrogant and haughty attitude.

When Tang Xiaoxiao was very young, Tang Yuanxu was still willing to put on a show. Every year during the Spring Festival, he would bring his wife and daughter back to visit his mother. At that time, Tang Qianqian, who was still a little girl, had already shown signs of her true colors. Every time she came back, she would complain about this and that. She complained that the road was difficult to walk on, that there was too much dust, that the town did not have an amusement park, and that the heated kang bed in the Tang family's house was too uncomfortable in winter.

Tang Xiaoxiao took her to a store to buy snacks, and she exclaimed, "Wow, the things here are so cheap! Can we eat this?"

Tang Xiaoxiao, who was just a child at the time, didn't understand her sarcastic remarks and enthusiastically explained that the food here was cheap and delicious.

Looking back, I realize how naive I was. Tang Qianqian is two years younger than me, yet she already understood the subtle nuances of social interaction so early on, while I remained a clueless naiveté until I was in my mid-twenties and reminiscing about my childhood.

It sounds as if Tang Qianqian lives in an international metropolis, which is why she's so unaccustomed to her small county town. But in reality, Cui Hua's home is just in H City, one of the three county-level cities under City A, in an ordinary residential area—a small apartment of less than 60 square meters allocated by Cui Hua's mother's work unit. Because the Cui family only has one daughter, they brought Tang Yuanxu in as a son-in-law.

Decades ago, families without sons were the subject of gossip. Perhaps having heard so much gossip from her neighbors since childhood, Cui Hua developed a very strong personality and always wanted to excel. There was nothing wrong with that, but her ambition wasn't about improving herself; instead, she enjoyed belittling those who were inferior to her.

After marrying Tang Yuanxu, Tang Yuanxu, who had lost his father at a young age and had no choice but to become a live-in son-in-law, was also very sensitive, afraid that others would say he was spineless. The couple's thinking was on the same level, and they were united in their views, so they lived together very well.

Their attitude towards life seriously affected Tang Qianqian.

From a young age, Cui Hua instilled in her the importance of studying hard and developing in multiple areas, increasing her own value while making connections with higher-level people. As for those who were not as good as them, there was no need to pay attention to them or waste her emotions.

In little Tang Qianqian's mind, her uncle, who lived in a small rural town, belonged to the category of those who were not as well off as her family and did not need her to waste her feelings on him.

Because she had looked down on her uncle's family since she was a child, Tang Qianqian was always unwilling to come back, even if she needed their help this time, she felt it was an honor for them.