Because it stirred up childhood memories, Tang Yuanxu felt a rare warmth in his heart and stole a glance at Tang Yuanzhou sitting opposite him.

His older brother always took good care of him. When he was a child, he loved to chase after his older brother. The two brothers were quite a few years apart. He was also thin and small when he was a child, and he was often bullied by the children in the village. Every time, his older brother would chase after a group of naughty kids with a stick to stand up for him.

When did this feeling begin to change?

Was it because my older brother took over my father's job after he passed away, but there was no job assigned to me when it was my turn? Or was it because I always hear gossiping women on the street saying that he was weak and unambitious, and not as capable and responsible as my older brother?

Or perhaps after he married into the Cui family, his wife kept saying, "Although our Cui family has no male heirs, we are not cowards who can be bullied. Since you have married into our family, you should consider yourself a member of the Cui family as well. We want to live a better life than you did in the Tang family."

Anyway, without realizing it, his thoughts slowly began to wander. He felt that his mother was biased. He was almost sixteen when she didn't wait for him to take over his father's job, but instead gave it to his older brother, even though his brother had just been discharged from the army and could have been given a good job even without taking over the job. He felt that his older brother was treacherous, pretending to care for his younger brother while actually taking advantage of him whenever possible. He felt that his mother and older brother were the reason he ended up marrying into their family. If they had supported him properly, he wouldn't be living under their roof...

After the marriage, the eldest brother often came to deliver things, which he regarded as pretense, and that he was just doing those superficial things to create a good image of an elder brother.

The gifts he received were all local specialties, which looked like big bags and small packages but were actually worthless. In his eyes, this was all evidence that his older brother was putting on airs.

After his mother passed away, he felt that since his parents were gone and his family had nothing to do with his elder brother's family, he didn't need to continue associating with that hypocritical and incompetent family of relatives.

In the past two years, he has not thought that he did anything wrong. When a person dies, it's like a lamp going out. Does it matter whether he offers incense or not? Why did his elder brother have to say such hurtful things to him? Since his elder brother is so ruthless to him, then he doesn't need to acknowledge him as his elder brother anymore.

He was somewhat hesitant to visit this time. A person's reputation matters, and he had previously declared that he would never visit again. Now, he was about to contradict himself. He wasn't the shameless type; on the contrary, his pride was stronger than anyone else's.

But his wife's words still echoed in his ears: there was no need to lose money; their daughter's future was the most important thing.

Now that my older brother's family seems to be doing so well, I doubt they would refuse to sponsor their niece's education.

Thinking about these things, Tang Yuanxu's expression relaxed considerably.

Tang Xiaoxiao had no idea that her second uncle had such a rich inner world. She prepared a lot of food, so even though there were now three more people, including Tang Yuanxu's family, she didn't need to do much more. After serving the dishes one by one, she turned off the lights in the villa, lit the candles on the cake, and let Tang Xiaoxiao, the birthday girl, make a wish and blow out the candles before turning on the lights to prepare for dinner.

Xiao Xiao and Qi Qi remained obediently seated at their special little table. Cui Hua and Tang Qianqian, however, paid a lot of attention to the two cats. This mother and daughter's love for pets far exceeded that of ordinary people. They also had a dog at home, a very ordinary Chinese rural dog, which they pampered like a treasure, feeding it better than people. The dog slept in the bed with them at night, so Tang Xiaoxiao didn't find it strange that she gave the two cats such excellent treatment.