In the kitchen, Cheng Hongli and Zhao Yuanyuan were serving dishes and arranging chopsticks.
Zhao Yuanyuan secretly nudged her and whispered in her ear, "Mom, have you noticed that Grandma Jiaojiao is a strange person? I've noticed several times that something is wrong with her. I just can't put my finger on it."
Cheng Hongli shushed him vigorously. She glared at Zhao Yuanyuan fiercely and said in a low voice, "Don't talk nonsense. Your Uncle Zhou is a smart man. What doesn't he understand? Just be quiet."
Zhao Yuanyuan curled her lips. She felt that Grandma Jiaojiao was different from her own grandmother.
After a while, Cheng Hongli heard the noise and looked outside. Seeing them come in, she smiled and greeted Old Mrs. Zhou, "Auntie, please sit down quickly. Your wife has prepared everything. She was afraid that you would be too stiff to eat, so she made an egg cake for you."
Mrs. Zhou said yes repeatedly, looked at Zhao Yuanyuan with a smile, and said, "I've seen this girl before. She and our Jiaojiao have a good relationship. Has the little girl come to play with our Jiaojiao recently? I didn't expect that you and your wife are old friends of my Ah Zheng. Our two families are really destined to be together."
Cheng Hongli gestured with a beaming smile and said cheerfully, "It's fate. We knew Zhengge when we were both in the Northeast Military Region. When Yuanyuan and I were the same age, Zhengge was so famous. Everyone in the military region knew him. We are so happy to have met each other unexpectedly this time. Fortunately, Zhengge has returned safely."
"God bless him. Seeing him come back, I feel relieved. Jiaojiao of ours has always been taken care of by you and your wife. Even if you didn't know A Zheng, I would have wanted him and Shan Shan to come visit. Now it's all right, it turns out that everyone knows each other. You guys, just treat A Zheng as a brother, and don't be polite."
Zhao Dashan looked at everyone cheerfully and pulled out a chair for the old lady to sit down. "Auntie, please sit down. Brother Zheng is my brother. I won't be polite to him. As soon as I saw that he bought so much seafood, my whole family came to ask for money. He has already treated this place as his own. Why should I be polite in my own home, don't you think?"
Seeing that they were chatting, Zhou Xiaozheng walked towards the warehouse outside.
I saw that Xiaowu had packed everything neatly. Aside from a few baskets, the remaining seafood was placed in large bamboo baskets, and even the sacks were cleaned and hung outside.
He saw nothing to sort out, so he leaned against the wall, thinking to himself that he would take advantage of this holiday to arrange everything, and leave as soon as the Ping An full moon banquet was set up. He would not be able to return to the team any later.
Shanshan only has a few days of vacation left, and he has to go to Zhao Chuangguang to call Beijing to see if the vacation can be postponed. He must wait until the full moon banquet is over before going back.
After Zhang Guoqing got out of the car and entered the yard, he heard everyone's laughter coming from the kitchen.
He noticed the warehouse door was open, looked inside, and saw his father-in-law was inside. He paused, then decided to go in.
He stepped forward and greeted softly, "Dad, everything is ready. I gave two yellow croakers to a few elders as return gifts. Zuo Lin and his wife weren't home, so I asked his daughter-in-law to keep them. I also gave two bamboo baskets to my eldest and second sisters. They wanted to give me return gifts, but I didn't accept them and drove straight back."
Zhou Xiaozheng looked at the bamboo basket he put down with a playful look and said, "You got two fish and a bunch of gifts, so you're still making a profit. What's wrong with the old lady today? I see that everything in the car has been brought back."
Zhang Guoqing looked at the walnuts, red dates, and brown sugar in the bamboo basket and smiled. Hearing him ask about the Zhou family, he sighed secretly.
What is coming will eventually come.
His smile faded, and he said seriously, "It's a bit ridiculous. I drove over, and my first and second cousins were still chatting at the gate. When they saw the car, they ran inside without even saying hello.
Seeing no one was around, the old lady next door came to tell me secretly that since my uncle came back yesterday, the whole family stayed indoors, and today they even asked my eldest cousin to take leave and stay home. I heard that grandma was still outside the door this morning, frowning and looking at the intersection with a bitter face, probably waiting for you to come back. It was only after the old man came out and scolded her that she went back inside and didn't come out.
The old lady told me not to bring anything in and to return quickly. I guess she thought the whole family had gathered to fight me. I was worried about my grandmother, so I went in empty-handed and called out a few times, but no one came out.
When I arrived at the main room, I heard a noise coming from my grandma's bedroom next door. I pushed the door open without saying a word. As soon as I entered, I saw my grandpa holding my grandma down hard to prevent her from getting up. My grandma was so anxious that she wanted to get up.
It was quite awkward at the time. Grandpa said Grandma was sick and needed to rest. I saw that Grandma was wearing a coat, so I wanted to take her to the county hospital and find you while I was there.
Grandpa said it was a minor illness and that I could just lie down and he wouldn't let me go to the hospital with him. So I rushed over to get out with my grandma.
When we got in the car, grandma said she didn't want to go to the hospital. I guess I could tell grandpa was asking her to pretend to be sick. I saw that grandma looked okay, so I took her back.
Zhou Xiaozheng didn't get angry after hearing this. Instead, he laughed and said, "You grabbed grandma and ran away. They must be furious. They're planning to settle accounts with me. Your grandpa thought we were going together, so he asked your grandma to pretend to be sick. He wanted to use soft tactics first and then hard tactics. I defeated them all by myself, thinking that numbers would be effective. I hadn't figured out how to deal with him yet, and he already had a plan."
Zhang Guoqing looked at him worriedly and advised, "Dad, we don't want to mess with jade. If you go back to Beijing, they won't be able to find us. Just ignore him. Grandma also told us in the car to persuade you to go back to work early. Don't come back unless you have something else to do. They're just waiting to pester you."
"Well, I know what I'm doing. I'll keep the old lady after dinner. I have something to talk to her about in private." Zhou Xiaozheng had no intention of confronting the old lady.
He had many questions lingering in his heart. Now they were abusing his daughter and plotting against him. He had to be ruthless and expose the truth. Otherwise, when the old lady passed away, who would tell him the truth?
Seeing his son-in-law looking at him worriedly, Zhou Xiaozheng comforted him, "It's okay. Dad will take care of it. There are many things in the Zhou family that you young people don't understand. It's very complicated. You will understand later. You did a good job today. When the old lady came, there were many things to do and you didn't have to avoid others. It was a good opportunity to ask."
"Let's go, let's eat first." After saying that, he went out and walked towards the kitchen.
Zhang Guoqing understood roughly what he had heard. It was probably related to his suspicions about his past. But he doubted whether Old Lady Zhou would reveal it. In the past, he might have believed Zhou Jiao's claims that Old Lady Zhou loved her deeply. But now, that wasn't the case. How many times had Old Lady Zhou stepped foot in his house since Zhou Jiao got married? A biological child is always a biological child!
Zhou Xiaozheng is now the Zhou family's only hope. Would the old lady give up such a big tree? Zhou Jiao said the old lady couldn't protect her. Haha... Everyone knows how to protect themselves, and who wouldn't protect their own flesh and blood?
Old lady, unless his father-in-law uses ruthless tactics or has clues and evidence, he might be able to get him to talk. But what good would that do? Even if he knew the truth, with Old Man Zhou's scoundrel nature, he would definitely still pursue the idea that the grace of raising him was greater than the grace of giving birth. Otherwise, why didn't his father-in-law expose it?
Zhang Guoqing looked at Zhou Xiaozheng's back with worry. He had already gone through the hurdle of being an orphan and a blood relative, and he really didn't want to see his father-in-law suffer further.
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