Chapter 786 Children's Words Are Innocent
"I have night sweats and a bit of inflammation. My fever only subsided a little this afternoon. The doctor said I should stay for another day to be observed."
Shen Jingjing couldn't help but laugh self-deprecatingly as she spoke: "My body has always been like this. I don't usually get minor illnesses, but when I do get sick, it's a big one that takes several days to get better. I'm used to it."
Gao Zhan said, "You still need to be more careful. No matter how busy you are, you must take care of your health."
"I know, you go ahead and get busy, Aci will be here later."
Gao Zhan nodded; he had one more round of ward rounds before leaving work.
As soon as Gao Zhan left, Shen Jingjing's phone rang; the old lady had sent a video.
Seeing this, Shen Jingjing looked at Xiaomin and said, "Don't make a sound, your grandma."
Xiaomin visibly tensed up. Shen Jingjing answered the video call, and the background clearly showed a hospital.
The old lady acted as if she hadn't seen anything and said, "Oh dear, I can't control your brother anymore. He insists on going to Longcheng to find Xiaomin."
When she started talking about herself, Xiaomin tensed up and subconsciously began picking at her fingers.
"Didn't I tell him not to come?"
"He's been nagging about it for days, bringing it up every single day. My opposition alone won't make a difference. Your older brother and sister-in-law have already agreed, so who knows when he might run off with you?"
Shen Jingjing stated firmly, "Let me make this clear from the start: even if he comes, I won't have time to deal with him. I have to go to work every day, and I've been so busy lately that I've even gotten sick."
"What are you saying? He's your own brother, going to Longcheng for the first time and being unfamiliar with the place. How can you just ignore him?" the old lady said disapprovingly. "I'm just giving you a heads-up. You should prepare in advance. If he really goes, I'll tell you, and you'll pick him up then."
"I won't answer. If he wants to find Xiaomin, let him go find her himself. I can't even take care of myself, how can I take care of him?" Shen Jingjing wouldn't budge, and once again firmly stated: "You should also give him a heads-up, tell him that he won't see me when he comes to Longcheng, I don't have time or energy to deal with him."
Before the old lady could say anything more, Shen Jingjing hung up the phone.
"Aunt..."
The phone call alone startled Shen Min, and she looked at her aunt with red eyes.
Seeing this, Shen Jingjing quickly reassured her, "It's alright, no one can find you. Longcheng is so big, where would he even begin to look?"
Shen Min nodded, but her heart was pounding uncontrollably.
The old lady on the other end of the line paused, holding her phone, before saying with displeasure, "Huh? Why did you hang up? I wasn't finished speaking!"
"Mom, who are you video chatting with?" Zheng Hong, the second daughter-in-law, happened to enter the room and heard the old lady muttering to herself, so she asked casually.
The old lady said impatiently, "Tell your eldest sister, I'm afraid the second son is really going to Longcheng. I need to talk to your eldest sister about it!"
Zheng Hong was furious about it. Taking advantage of the fact that it was just the two of them in the house, she couldn't help but say, "Mom, we can't let him go. What would he do there?"
"Xiaomin is my eldest brother and sister-in-law's daughter. It's not his place to look for her. He's only after my eldest sister!"
The old woman glared at her: "What are you saying? Didn't I say no? Who listens? He doesn't listen to me!"
"That won't do either." Zheng Hong said seriously, "Let's not even talk about finding Xiaomin. You know your son. If he goes to your older sister's place and makes a scene, how can she expect to be happy?"
"I just lent him some money, you've been really kind of me, why is he so insistent on sticking to me like that?"
Zheng Hong was a reasonable person, but the old lady didn't like hearing these words.
No one can say that his son is not.
"How can you talk to your own man like that? She's his older sister; isn't it her duty to take care of her younger brother?"
"Mom, my eldest sister has already taken good care of us. She went out to work when she was a teenager to support my eldest brother and second brother's education. Is it easy for her? She lent us money this time, so please don't make things difficult for her."
The door to the house was suddenly pushed open, and the eldest brother, Shen Mingming, poked his head in: "What's all the noise about? Come out and eat."
The old lady casually asked, "Has the second son come back?"
"No, let's eat first. He's always elusive and we never know when he'll be back."
Upon hearing this, the old lady looked at Zheng Hong and said, "You should call him right away and tell him to come back for dinner. You don't care that your own husband isn't coming home for dinner, but you have time to worry about other things."
Then he went outside.
Zheng Hong sighed helplessly and followed them out.
On the dinner table, there was a cooked fish and half a plate of leftover stir-fried chicken from yesterday.
The children, one after another, expressed their disdain: "I don't want to eat this chicken."
"I won't eat it either, it's all black."
"I want to eat scrambled eggs."
Shen Mingming glared at him and snapped, "Shut up, all of you! Eat in peace, or get out!"
That's the atmosphere at home lately—it's like a fire that can start at any moment because there are so many upsetting things going on, and with so many upsetting things, there's a lot of complaining and grumbling.
As the head of the family, Shen Mingming was naturally annoyed by hearing this so much.
And all of this was because the family was missing a neglected daughter.
With Shen Min gone, the family almost fell apart!
"Why are you scolding the child?" The old lady felt sorry for her grandson and turned to her eldest daughter-in-law: "Chunyan, Xiaobao wants to eat scrambled eggs, fry one for him."
"Thank you, Grandma." Xiao Bao clapped his hands happily.
The old lady frowned as she looked at the half-eaten plate of dark, scrambled eggs with chicken. "Tsk, this has been sitting around since yesterday and hasn't gotten any smaller. If no one's eating it, we just throw it away. But you can't eat it if it's been in the fridge for too long."
Zheng Hong ate her meal in silence, and upon hearing this, she thought to herself, "That's right, Xiaomin used to eat all these leftovers, but now that Xiaomin is gone, no one is cleaning up the leftovers."
Actually, everyone knows the truth, but it's just that saying it out loud is unpleasant and makes everyone look bad.
As a result, Xiao Bao, being a child, blurted out: "Don't throw it away, Grandma! Let's wait for my sister to come back. My sister loves to eat leftovers."
One sentence silenced everyone at the table.
Shen Mingming glared angrily at her youngest son, feeling utterly ashamed.
He knew it was shameful, but he figured he could pretend he didn't see it and that nothing would happen.
The youngest son just blurted it out.
Xiao Bao is only six years old and is spoiled rotten by his grandmother. He doesn't know right from wrong and just eats fish eyes with chopsticks as if nothing happened.
Seeing this, the old lady sighed, picked up her chopsticks and said, "Eat quickly, Chunyan, put less salt in the scrambled eggs, otherwise Xiaobao will drink too much water if it's too salty, and he'll wet the bed again at night."
The matter was put behind them, and the family resumed their meal as if nothing had happened.
The second son still hadn't come back for dinner. Zheng Hong waited until late into the night before she heard a noise coming from the outer room.
Upon entering the room, he noticed the lights were on, and Zheng Hong was sitting on the bed looking at him. Shen Chengcheng was startled: "Holy crap, you're not asleep?"
Zheng Hong, her face contorted with rage, growled inwardly, "What have you been doing? Gambling again, haven't you?!"
(End of this chapter)
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