"Commander, you're finally back. You lied to me again!"
Before Zhou Jiao even entered the guesthouse, she saw her father's guards, secretary, and driver rushing out of the gate. Seeing the aggrieved look on the guard Xiao Wang's face, she suppressed a smile.
Being her father's bodyguard was such a chore. It was because he had to meet her father, a leader who loved his freedom and hated being followed around.
"Stop! Who lied to you? Come with me to do some work this afternoon." Zhou Xiaozheng said with a smile in his eyes and a stern face.
As Zhou Xiaozheng left, the guard smiled at everyone and secretly made a face—thinking that if he had a stern face, he would be scared. He had long known that the leader had a cold exterior but a warm heart.
Zhang Guoqing stepped forward, patted him on the shoulder, and whispered, "Brother Wang, you're done. Look at the glass in front!" Seeing that the other party immediately made a sad face, he laughed and pulled Zhou Jiao in.
"Why are you teasing him? Everyone and Dad are worried enough. Comrade Lao Zhou's behavior is unacceptable. You must obey the orders of your superiors and cannot go out alone."
Zhou Xiaozheng immediately turned around and patted Zhou Jiao on the head, "Stop adding fuel to the fire! Go and see Ping An. Be careful when you go out with your aunt and the others this afternoon."
"Yes, Chief!"
"Haha... little rascal!"
In the hall, Old Mrs. Cheng sat alone on a chair, watching them play with a smile on her face.
At this moment, she stood up and said with a smile, "I'm back. I'll be waiting for you to come back for dinner."
"Why are you the only one here?" Zhou Xiaozheng looked around and found that there was no one else except the waiter.
"We left peacefully and wanted to go out and play. They took him to the restaurant first and just left. I was worried you couldn't find us, so I stayed here to wait for you."
The group followed the old lady to the restaurant.
The hotel and the guesthouse were not far away. Not long after they walked, they saw Cheng Ruzhu holding Ping An, the two of them standing at the hotel gate.
Old Lady Cheng hadn't yet told Zhou Xiaozheng about tomorrow's memorial service when she heard Cheng Ruzhu's cries and Ping'an's cries. Being interrupted mid-sentence, she didn't bother to continue the conversation and hurried on.
As soon as Zhou Jiao heard her son's cry, she knew that the child was really anxious. She quickly took a few steps, took the struggling child into her arms, and said with a smile: "Auntie, the child is making a fuss, right?"
"No. We're safe and well-behaved, aren't we? Look, he's smiling. This little guy has had formula twice since we got home, and each time he had a full bottle. I saw he wanted an apple, so I soaked it in boiling water and scraped two spoonfuls out to feed him. I didn't dare give him any more after that. You can feed him the egg custard later."
Zhou Jiao smiled and nodded. She had already fed the baby solid food and formula before leaving the house today. Otherwise, the baby wouldn't be so quiet, only taking two bites, and would have to grab the spoon.
After lunch, the group returned to the guesthouse. Before they reached the room, Ping An was already fast asleep in Zhang Guoqing's arms.
Seeing this, Cheng Ruzhu quickly pulled Zhou Jiao out to the street. She could take a nap anytime, and since it was a rare opportunity to be here, she was eager to go out for a stroll.
Old Lady Cheng was worried, so she left Zhang Guoqing with the child and took the guards with them. She wasn't worried about anything else, but Zhou Jiao's face was too lifelike. It would be bad if they ran into an old acquaintance and scared the elderly person.
Strolling along the streets with the local old ladies, without bothering to ask anyone, made Cheng Ruzhu and Zhou Jiao feel both pain and happiness.
The famous cooked food and dried tofu smelled very fragrant and looked even more delicious, but it was a pity that I couldn’t fill my stomach.
There are many varieties of candied fruits, sweet and sour. Putting one in your mouth is refreshing and makes your mouth water. It’s a pity that you can’t finish them all.
The specialty meat floss was a great seasoning for baby food. All the deliciousness made Zhou Jiao hate the mice that were watching her house. She secretly cursed them to suffer from hunger forever.
After savoring the delicious food, Zhou Jiao couldn't help but turn her head and look back. Seeing the teasing eyes of Mrs. Cheng and her daughter, and listening to their jokes, she felt like she had no desire to live.
Zhou Jiao listlessly followed the old lady and her friends around the mall. Seeing them choosing fabrics, she couldn't bear to watch. She slipped away to the side and angrily selected wool.
Before returning home, the old lady took them to buy some fruit, which finally made her feel better.
The next morning, two cars brought them to the foot of the hill.
Looking from afar, the entire hillside is covered with densely packed tombs of all sizes. This is the ancestral tomb of the Gu family.
The so-called Feng Shui resort with mountains and water still could not avoid the decline of the Gu family.
Old Mrs. Cheng left Cheng Ruzhu in the car to take care of the child. She had lived so long and firmly believed that children had spirits and should not go to such places.
Walking up along the stone path, we arrived at the center - the grave of the Gu family's great-grandfather and great-grandmother.
Old Mrs. Cheng refused everyone's help, and with tears in her eyes, she took Zhou Xiaozheng and Zhou Jiao to place incense, candles, paper money, fruits, snacks and wine one by one.
She knelt down and kowtowed, then began to whisper: The children are back...
Zhou Jiao knelt on the ground, lost in thought. She understood the old lady's feelings perfectly. The two people lying on the ground were her adoptive mother and father, who had raised her and shown her immense kindness.
She was indeed a cold-blooded person, feeling nothing but sadness and grief. She even had the leisure to think about how to persuade the old lady to agree to move the grave.
The old lady took Zhou Xiaozheng and his daughter to burn paper money and weed, as if this was the only way to let the two people in the underground rest in peace.
Zhou Jiao stood up and looked at the graves of all sizes around her. Some of the graves were so overgrown with weeds that no one even visited them during Qingming Festival.
She began to walk to the tombs of the Gu family's ancestors in front of her and kowtowed one by one. For the blood of the Gu family and the property of the Gu family, she also had to kowtow to thank the ancestors of the main house of the family.
Old Cheng looked at Zhou Jiao with relief, then stopped Zhou Xiaozheng from advancing and offered him paper money to burn for the Gu family's ancestors. Unlike his wife, who only paid respects to his father-in-law and mother-in-law, Old Cheng was the head of the Cheng family, personally paying respects to the Gu family's ancestors every year. Now that the Gu family finally had a bloodline, he could finally honor the ancestors of the three families and his father in the afterlife.
After the ceremony, Mrs. Cheng's red and swollen eyes were filled with a smile, and she felt as if a heavy burden had been lifted off her shoulders. She happily asked Zhou Xiaozheng to light a large string of firecrackers.
The sound of "crackling" rang out, and through the smoke of firecrackers, the smiling face looked particularly happy. Perhaps the old lady thought this was a great joy.
Walking down the hillside along the path, Zhou Jiao was overwhelmed by the solemnity and awe of the magnificent tombs, the lush greenery of centuries-old trees, and the lake at the foot of the mountain. Sometimes, being a prophet is not a blessing.
The Gu family affair seemed to have concluded. The secret room, the old house, the memorial service—everything was over. But Zhou Jiao knew that beneath the calm, several pairs of eyes were still fixed on the Gu family's old house. Her grandmother's donation letters shielded the world from the public, but they couldn't stop those who knew the Gu family's inner workings.
Before getting on the car, she gazed deeply at the graves in the distance.
"Don't look anymore, let's go back." Zhang Guoqing squeezed her palm worriedly and said. He sighed secretly, as if everything had gone off track, beyond his expectations.
Zhou Jiao smiled brightly at him. With him by her side, she thought she wasn't afraid. She could talk about the future later.
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