Marriage in the 1980s12
The New Year was over, and everyone was doing what they had to do. Zhao Xiuning and his wife, Tao Yuan, and Cheng Sheng returned to the Cheng family, and Zhao Manting also left with her son and grandchildren.
I don’t know if it’s because Cheng Sheng’s restaurant business is so good, which makes many people with some money jealous. They also want to learn from him and open restaurants to make a fortune. So after the Spring Festival, many new restaurants opened, and all kinds of special signature dishes were announced. There are also many foreign restaurants. Stores that people were hesitant to open before, all kinds of fast food such as fried chicken and hamburgers are now available.
Now, not only the Zhao family's restaurant and hotel business has been hit, but many time-honored restaurants and hotels have also been affected. Whether they can survive in the increasingly fierce competition depends not only on the most important thing, that the dishes must be so delicious that customers will linger on them, but also on who is better at running the business than the person who opened the restaurant.
Old Master Zhao and the second branch of the Zhao family were extremely worried. They had already asked someone to investigate. Apart from the restaurants and hotels opened by Cheng Sheng, which had the best business, the other ones with relatively good business were all selling wine from the Xiao family winery.
Seeing this situation was going nowhere, Mr. Zhao, ready to sacrifice his reputation, personally went to Mr. Xiao's house to apologize, begging for forgiveness and asking him to sell the Xiao family winery's wine to Zhao's restaurants and hotels. However, Mr. Xiao refused to see him and told him that he had essentially handed over the Xiao family's business to Cheng Sheng and Tao Yuan. Tao Yuan, pregnant and less able to work, was not involved, so he told him to go directly to Cheng Sheng if he wanted to buy wine.
Old Master Zhao knew very well that if he really went to find Cheng Sheng, he would definitely meet Zhao Xuning, and he would only get Zhao Xuning's ridicule and sarcasm, and he would definitely not get the wine from the Xiao family winery.
Just when the second branch of the Zhao family was at a loss, that night, Zhao Haoyu and Ke Yi drank drugged tea and both fell asleep. Zhao Haoyu was carried out and back again without anyone noticing, and the people in the second branch of the Zhao family were completely unaware.
A few days later, Cheng Sheng went to see Tao Yuan with the test results. He put his hands behind his back and looked at Tao Yuan silently.
"Why are you looking at me? Why don't you say anything?" Tao Yuan asked him in confusion when he saw him standing still.
"I'm going to ask you a question, and you have to tell me the truth."
"Ask ahead." Tao Yuan nodded while eating candied fruit.
"Do you really know how to tell the direction, or are you just kidding me?"
“I really know how to read.”
Cheng Sheng raised his eyebrows.
"But I can only look at it. As for whether it is accurate or not, I am not sure myself." Tao Yuan said with a smile.
Cheng Sheng realized that Tao Yuan was still joking with him. He looked at him helplessly and walked over to sit next to him.
Tao Yuan leaned into his arms, looked up at him and asked, "Are the results out?"
"Take a look for yourself." Cheng Sheng handed him the file bag.
Tao Yuan knew exactly what the result would be, but he still pretended to be very curious and opened it. After reading the result, he pretended to be surprised and excited and said, "I actually guessed it right, hahahaha."
Cheng Sheng couldn't understand how Tao Yuan could tell that Zhao Haoyu couldn't have children. If he said he could tell that Zhao Haoyu had some other problem, he could convince himself, but he had never heard that someone's infertility could be determined by looking at his face.
"I won the bet. If you agree, you'll do something for me. No need to cheat."
"Tell me, what do you want me to promise you?"
"If we have more than one child in the future, one of them must take my surname Xiao."
"It's not a big deal. Our family isn't royal, so we don't really care about surnames. I heard my grandfather didn't take his biological father's surname, but his adoptive father's. This isn't a difficult request. You can propose a more difficult one."
"...I, I'll tell you when I think of it." Tao Yuan made this request because she really couldn't think of any request to make, and she knew she was pregnant with twins, but she didn't expect Cheng Sheng to think this request was too simple.
"Okay." Cheng Sheng stroked Tao Yuan's face and kissed his forehead with his lips. His love for Tao Yuan was so strong that he was willing to give him his life, let alone agree to any of his requests.
"You can take this test result to Dad. He will be very happy when he knows it. He will be happy again during this period." Tao Yuan knew that with the degree of hatred Cheng Sheng's father had for Mr. Zhao and the second wife, this thing would definitely be a heavy blow to Mr. Zhao and the second wife, and would definitely make him happy for a long time.
"Go take a shower first, I'll be back soon." Cheng Sheng left the room with the file bag.
When Zhao Xiuning learned that Zhao Haoyu was infertile, he was indeed very happy. He gloated over the misfortune of Mr. Zhao and the second wife with a clear conscience. Mr. Zhao had used him to exchange Zhao Jianan from the bandits. If he had not escaped from the bandits, the Zhao family would have been extinct because of Zhao Haoyu.
Zhao Xiuning sighed inwardly, this was truly retribution. Even if Zhao Haoyu couldn't have children, the Zhao family wouldn't be truly extinct. However, no matter how many children Tao Yuan had, they wouldn't have the surname Zhao. This alone was enough to devastate Old Master Zhao. Furthermore, Old Master Zhao had been counting on the second wife to inherit everything in the Zhao family. Now that Zhao Haoyu couldn't have children, if the second wife inherited everything, then the Zhao family's wealth wouldn't truly belong to the Zhao family.
Zhao Xiuning is now thinking about what time would be the best to let Mr. Zhao and the people from the second house know about this matter.
…………………………
Tao Yuan's belly grew bigger and bigger, and after a hospital checkup, they were told it was twins. While the family was delighted, they were also worried that carrying two children at once would be too much for Tao Yuan, and that the births would be even harder. However, Tao Yuan, who had given birth many times in previous lives, felt that carrying two children at once would be much easier than having two pregnancies and two births.
Because Tao Yuan's belly was getting bigger and bigger, it was a bit scary. The whole family was very worried, especially Cheng Sheng. He wanted to stay with Tao Yuan all day long and had no time to do anything else. In order to allow Cheng Sheng to spend more time with Tao Yuan, Zhao Xiuning, as a father, had to work harder for a while. Therefore, he had no time to go to the Zhao family to cause trouble or gloat over their misfortune. He had to put the public information about Zhao Haoyu's infertility on hold for the time being and wait until Tao Yuan gave birth to the child.
After word spread that Tao Yuan was pregnant with twins, Ke Yi's life in the Zhao family's second branch became even more difficult. Tao Yuan was about to give birth, but he still hadn't made any progress. Naturally, the Zhao family's second branch was anxious, and out of anxiety, they were all hostile to him. They even said some particularly unpleasant things, saying that it was because he had given birth once before, which had damaged his body, that it was so difficult for him to get pregnant now.
Ke Yi really couldn't stand it anymore, so he went back to the Ke family and cried to his parents. He didn't understand why he couldn't get pregnant. He had clearly gone to the hospital for a check-up, and the doctor said that he was very healthy. Moreover, boys have a physique that makes it easier for them to get pregnant than women, so it wouldn't be difficult for him to get pregnant again.
Zhao Haoyu was also worried because Ke Yi couldn't get pregnant. If Ke Yi moved back to the Ke family, it would be even more impossible for her to get pregnant, so he had to go to the Ke family and take Ke Yi back.
When Tao Yuan was a little over nine months pregnant, she suddenly had a seizure at night. Thinking she'd finally be able to deliver the baby, she woke up Cheng Sheng. Cheng Sheng quickly drove him to the hospital, and the entire Cheng family followed. They also notified Old Man Xiao, and the entire family went to the hospital to wait.
Tao Yuan gave birth to two boys, whose names had already been chosen: the elder was Cheng Jing and the younger was Xiao Yu. Tao Yuan, exhausted after giving birth, fell asleep. Cheng Sheng stayed by his side, staying awake all night. The others stayed home, waiting in the hospital for Tao Yuan to wake up. At daybreak, Zhao Xiuning sent for Old Lady Zhao to come over so she could see her two great-grandchildren.
After getting up early in the morning, Old Mrs. Zhao heard the good news that her two great-grandchildren had been born. She was happy and excited. She took out the red envelopes she had prepared long ago and asked the housekeeper of the main house to distribute them to the servants working in the main house. When the servants saw that the money in the red envelopes was more than their two months' wages, they were all very excited. Then they came together to congratulate Old Mrs. Zhao and watched the happy Old Mrs. Zhao get into the car and leave.
When the servants working in the west yard found out, they were extremely envious and thought that when Zhao Haoyu had a child, they would also be able to get such a big red envelope.
After Mr. Zhao and the people from the second house learned that Tao Yuan had safely given birth to two boys, they all sat in speechless silence. Zhang Shufen's already wrinkled face was twisted with jealousy and sourness. She glanced at Ke Yi, but could only grit her teeth and hold back her anger. Because Mr. Zhao and Zhao Jianan had both told her not to make any more noise or pressure Ke Yi before he got pregnant and gave birth, otherwise he would be even less likely to get pregnant.
Old Master Zhao was in a very complicated mood. Although Cheng Sheng did not have his surname, it did not change the fact that Cheng Sheng was his grandson, and Cheng Sheng's two sons were also his great-grandsons.
Perhaps it was because of his age that he was becoming increasingly fragile psychologically. He was willing to sacrifice Zhao Xiuning to save Zhao Jianan. After Zhao Xiuning gave Cheng Sheng the surname Cheng, he no longer considered Cheng Sheng his own grandson. Now, he wanted very much to see his two great-grandsons and hoped that they would also have the surname Zhao, because that was the bloodline of their Zhao family after all.
A few days later, Tao Yuan returned to the Cheng family to recuperate after giving birth. Zhao Xiuning had already started preparing for the full-month banquet for her two grandsons. Old Mrs. Zhao was reluctant to leave after seeing her great-grandsons, so she simply stayed at the Cheng family for more than half a month before returning to the Zhao family. However, she still came to see Tao Yuan and her two great-grandsons every one or two days.
Old Lady Zhao didn't care whether her two great-grandchildren had the surname Zhao or not. After Zhao Xiuning married Cheng Wei, she began to give her valuables to Cheng Wei for safekeeping. After Cheng Sheng married Tao Yuan, she began to slowly transfer some of the Zhao family's things that belonged to her to the Cheng family, asking Tao Yuan to keep them. In fact, when she said she was keeping them, she was actually giving them to them. Apart from Old Lady Zhao's own things, she only took what she deserved from the Zhao family. The extra things were either handed down from the ancestors of the Zhao family, and she would not take them even if they were given to her. Tao Yuan had a hunch that Old Lady Zhao was already preparing to leave the Zhao family.
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