As soon as Cheng's mother finished speaking, Jiang Wanqing dropped her chopsticks on the ground before she could even hold them properly, and quickly bent down to pick them up.
"I'll do it."
Cheng Ran frowned, picked up her chopsticks, gave her his clean ones in return, and argued with his mother.
"Mom, do you know what a year means? Wanqing is no ordinary student. She just stood out at an academic conference and won Professor Lin's favor. After a year of silence, all her efforts have been in vain. You are a woman too, you should know how much this affects her. I absolutely cannot agree to her making such a big sacrifice!"
His words were forceful, reasonable, and perfectly expressed Jiang Wanqing's feelings. He truly understood her and considered things from her perspective.
Jiang Wanqing felt a surge of emotion, smiled, and nodded.
"Cheng Ran's words may have flattered me a bit, but as he said, it's impossible for me to take a year off from school to have a baby. Mom, I'm not a fragile child. I know my own body well. You don't need to worry too much about the baby in my belly. As a mother, I want her to be born safely more than anyone else. If I didn't want her, you wouldn't know I'm pregnant."
"So you mean if I don't let you continue your schooling, you'll have an abortion?!"
With a bang, Cheng's mother slammed her hand on the table and stood up. Her face turned from black to pale, then from pale to black, until it was extremely ugly. Her previous kindness and gentle concern had now turned into incomprehension and anger.
"That's not what I meant, you misunderstood, what I meant was..."
"Alright, alright, you don't need to explain anymore. I know what you mean. It's just that there was some unpleasantness between us in the past, and you don't trust me enough. You don't want to have any more dealings with the Cheng family. If you could, you'd be happy if the child in your belly didn't call us grandpa and grandma. I've been meddling. I'm leaving!"
"mom……"
Jiang Wanqing sighed helplessly. She had no intention of escalating the conflict, but she never expected it to develop to this point.
Cheng Ran patted her hand: "You sit down, I'll go talk to them, don't worry."
He wouldn't let him fight in front of his parents, so when Cheng's mother stormed off in a huff, he immediately followed her.
Some people in the residential compound, with their keen ears, heard the commotion inside and craned their necks to peer inside.
Cheng Ran gave them a sharp look, and they all quieted down.
"What are you doing here! You've forgotten your mother after getting married! You don't know what's good for you!"
“Mom, can you please respect us? You always do, and you always impose your ideas on us. Before, you worried that we didn’t want children, and now that we have children, you still want to interfere. Do you think Wanqing and I are deliberately going against you? Isn’t it because you’re meddling too much and trying to interfere with our plans? Wanqing’s abilities are obvious to all. If a child blocks her path to success, I will never have a clear conscience for the rest of my life.”
Instead of trying to appease his mother, he emphasized his thoughts and decisions again, making them clearer and more understandable, as if afraid she wouldn't understand.
"Hmph, that's easy to say. Throughout history, women have always had to return to their families. What's the use of a strong career? Look at your wife, she's being framed every few days. What's the point of her showing her face in public? Does our Cheng family lack her food or clothing? People who don't know better would think we rely on our daughter-in-law to gain face!"
"In the end, you still treat her like an outsider. Since that's the case, we have nothing more to say. You should go back. In the future, either don't come at all, or if you do, please respect us. That's all I have to say. I won't see you off any further."
"You...you unfilial son!"
As Cheng's mother pointed at his retreating figure, she choked with anger, a layer of resentment settling over her heart.
"You've taken my good intentions for granted! You'll regret this!"
She couldn't bring herself to say anything too vicious, so she complained a couple of times and went back to where she came from.
When Cheng Ran returned home, Jiang Wanqing asked him how things went, and he simply said that everything was fine.
"Let her go back and think it over. It's just the two of us living our lives. Don't worry about my parents. Once you've recovered enough, I'll support you going back to school. But you must be realistic about what you can do. Put the factory on hold for a while. Now that things are on track, let Molly and the others practice more. Three heads are better than one, so don't overthink it. Focus on you and the baby right now."
"I know, let's eat."
The conflict between Jiang Wanqing and Cheng's mother was just a minor incident, which she quickly forgot about. After all, the relationship was much more strained when she first came to Beijing, but she got through it. Besides, she was pregnant now and had no worries about her relationship with the Cheng family.
So after resting for a few days, she resumed her normal life rhythm, going back and forth between school, factory, and home.
Cheng Ran was worried about her safety, and since he couldn't pick her up on time every day, he could only give Hong Xing another job, asking him to be Jiang Wanqing's bodyguard, pick her up every afternoon, and if she went to the factory, to safely take her back to her family compound. The pay would be separate.
After learning of her pregnancy, Molly, Shen Huan, Qin Meng, and Yue Shuzhen took the initiative to take on more work. Whenever they had time, they would go to the factory with her to handle the work, and their cooperation was quite tacit.
News always spreads like wildfire at school, and soon Chen Zhong also learned about her pregnancy. He was rushing to inform Jiang Xiu when she already knew from Guo Xueyun.
The Guo family and the Cheng family belong to the same circle after all. Even if their relationship is not good now, there are always other intermediaries to pass on information.
Knowing that Jiang Wanqing was pregnant with Cheng Ran's child, Guo Xueyun's jealousy was deeper than all the resentment she had accumulated over the past twenty years!
"I never thought that what Ye Luo couldn't do, Jiang Wanqing, that bitch did. I thought she was very principled. I heard she didn't plan to get pregnant in college, but now she's broken her principles too. Humph, she still tries to portray herself as so different. How ridiculous!"
Guo Xueyun was so angry that her face was contorted. She spat and insulted Jiang Xiu in her office, wishing she could turn into an invisible knife and fly far away to kill Jiang Wanqing!
"Alright, what's the point of saying all this? It's all nonsense if we can't kill her. The most urgent thing is to help me take down the Ye family. With the Ye family's network of connections as a powerful backer, why should we be afraid of not being able to deal with Jiang Wanqing in the future? Any ability will turn into nothing in the face of absolute power!"
Now that she had more leverage, Jiang Xiu became more composed, but her hatred for Jiang Wanqing only grew stronger. She patted her stomach and groaned.
"Everyone has a child. This child is a help to me, but it may not be so for her. With so many things to do, can she manage? Instead of complaining here, you should think about how to cause her trouble. Maybe one day she will overwork herself and miscarry."
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