Chapter 68: Returning a Favor
The marriage between Zhang Zijun and Zhu Yujiao is quite dramatic.
Zhu Yujiao's grandfather was a soldier and served as a guard for Zhang Zijun's grandfather. During a battle, Zhu Yujiao's grandfather saved Zhang Zijun's life, but he died on the battlefield.
After liberation, the Zhang family helped the Zhu family a lot because of this life-saving grace. In the past few years, Mr. Zhang's health has been getting worse and worse. The Zhu family is very worried, afraid that after Mr. Zhang passes away, their family's gratitude will be cut off.
The Zhu family came up with a plan, which was marriage. Only marriage could bind the Zhu and Zhang families together, and then Zhu Yujiao and Zhang Zijun got married.
Zhang Zijun and Zhu Yujiao were both in their twenties, and the two families had originally planned to get married next year. But the Zhu family never expected Zhang Zijun to call off the engagement at this time.
Because of this incident, the Zhu family has been shrouded in gloom these days.
A few days ago, Zhu Yujiao's mother Lu Hongyun heard Lu Yanping say that Zhang Zijun might have taken a fancy to the girl next door to her store, so she inquired about it carefully.
She also heard about Zhang Zijun's attempt to help Gu Erhui in front of the Industrial and Commercial Bureau. Zhu Yujiao's mother, Lu Hongyun, even went to the Gu family's store to take a look.
Seeing two girls about eighteen or nineteen years old in the store, she didn't know which one was Gu Erhui, but both of them were prettier than her Yujiao.
She couldn't help but grit her teeth, two vixens.
The Zhu family sat together to discuss what to do. They felt that it was very likely that Zhang Zijun had broken off the engagement because of Gu Erhui. After discussing it, they decided to talk to Zhang Zijun's father about it.
But after meeting Zhang Zijun's father, he said with embarrassment: "This marriage was indeed hastily arranged. The two children have been together for such a long time but still haven't developed any feelings for each other, so let's forget about this marriage."
Whoever has a child, they will love. As someone who has experienced this, Zhang's father naturally knows how painful it is to live with someone you don't like. No matter how rebellious or disobedient his son is, he is still his son, and of course he wants him to live a happy life in the future.
The Zhu family didn't expect that Zhang's father also agreed to cancel the engagement. It seemed that the cancellation of the engagement was a foregone conclusion.
Zhu Yujiao learned about the outcome last night and went to Zhang Zijun early this morning to ask for an explanation. The two of them started arguing after a few words, and then there was the incident of Zhu Yujiao slapping Gu Erhui.
After get off work in the afternoon, the Zhu family learned about what Zhu Yujiao had done and sighed again.
The more Lu Hongyun thought about it, the angrier she became. She gritted her teeth and said, "Let's go to Kyoto to find the eldest brother of the Zhang family and ask him to judge the matter. How can this marriage be called off so easily? If it weren't for Jiaojiao's grandfather, would the Zhang family be where they are today? Zhang Zijun can cancel the engagement, but we can let the Zhang family find someone else to marry our Jiaojiao."
Zhu Yujiao's father, Zhu Tianlin, frowned and lit another cigarette for himself. He took a puff and said, "Who do you want the Zhang family to marry Jiaojiao? The Zhang family's eldest son has two sons, each one more outstanding than the other. Would they be willing to let her go?"
When they first proposed a marriage between the two families, they had considered the two eldest sons of the Zhang family, but as soon as they mentioned it, Mr. Zhang refused. So they later decided on the uneducated and eccentric Zhang Zijun.
"What should we do? Mr. Zhang is gone, and our relationship with the Zhang family is getting weaker and weaker." Lu Hongyun felt very sad when he thought about the good marriage that was gone.
"I'm going to find Zijun's father tomorrow and see what he says. The marriage is off, so they have to give some compensation." Zhu Tianlin was calculating on the abacus.
This time, he must get more benefits from the Zhang family so that his position can be promoted. His son will graduate soon and look for a job, so he should ask the Zhang family to arrange a good job for him.
"And that vixen, we can't let her family off." Zhu Yujiao's face was a little distorted.
She believed that Zhang Zijun broke off the engagement with her because of Gu Erhui, and she must not be let off easily.
Zhu Tianlin and Lu Hongyun both hummed in agreement. They couldn't accept this. They had no idea what to do with Zhang Zijun, but couldn't they handle the Gu family, a bunch of peasants?
Zhang Zijun drove into the provincial party committee compound and lay down on the sofa without moving. When he closed his eyes, he saw Gu Erhui's little face with the slap mark, and he couldn't help but touch his own face.
It still hurt a little, and it was definitely red. He stood up and looked in the mirror, but there were only a few pimples on his cheeks, no red marks or anything.
Tsk, he won't admit that he is thick-skinned.
He usually smiles when he sees people and seems to have a very good temper, but who knew he could be so spicy.
He went back to his room and lay down on the bed. When he woke up, his father, Zhang Jingtong, had returned and was reading documents in the study. Staggering over and sitting in front of him, Zhang Zijun asked, "When did you cancel my marriage with Zhu Yujiao?"
Zhang Jingtong was in his forties, wearing glasses and looking elegant. He frowned after hearing what he said. "I'm busy right now. Let's talk in a few days."
"No, let's do it in the next two days. Zhu Yujiao has gone crazy." Zhang Zijun wanted to quickly distance himself from Zhu Yujiao.
"What's going on? Did you guys have another fight? I think that child has a good temper." Zhang Jingtong was usually very busy and didn't see Zhang Yujiao very often. Every time they met, Zhu Yujiao always acted well-behaved. Of course, he didn't have the time to observe whether she was pretending or not.
Zhang Zijun sneered and recounted what Zhu Yujiao had done today. Of course, he didn't mention the slap he'd received from Gu Erhui. Even in front of his father, he had to save face.
"Although her grandfather saved my grandfather's life, the Zhu family has benefited a lot from our family. What? How many generations of them do we have to support?"
Zhang Zijun had been engaged to Zhu Yujiao for two years, and he had considerable contact with the Zhang family. Although the Zhu family members always acted fawningly and obsequiously towards him, he could still see the materialism and greed beneath their fawning facade.
He originally thought that since they were not getting married anyway, the marriage would be arranged and it would not affect her in any way. But after meeting Gu Erhui, he no longer thought so.
In particular, one of the reasons why Gu Erhui disliked him was that he was already engaged, which made him even more unable to tolerate his current marriage.
He was a person of willful disposition, and if he wanted to cancel the engagement, he would do so immediately. However, he did not expect that Zhu Yujiao would go crazy because of this.
"What are you going to do after you break off the engagement?" Zhang Jingtong asked, "Are you going to marry that clothes seller?"
"No," Zhang Zijun said immediately, "that's all Zhu Yujiao's guess. I have nothing to do with her."
Zhang Jingtong frowned even more tightly. "You are not a child anymore. You should stick to principles and have a bottom line when doing things. You don't care about reputation, but female comrades also need reputation."
Zhang Zijun nodded. It was indeed his fault that he did not handle the matter well this time, otherwise Gu Erhui would not have been slapped.
"I understand. Let Secretary Li handle the cancellation of the engagement tomorrow." Zhang Jingtong didn't take the Zhu family seriously yet. They were like those poor relatives. If you were in a good mood and wanted to give them some alms, you could give them some. If you didn't want to, you could just ignore them.
They have long since repaid the life-saving favor.
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