Lin Lishan sighed after hearing this and said, "Come to think of it, I still have to thank my in-laws. This family is really nice. I also want to thank them for always taking care of you."
"Well, my mother-in-law and father-in-law are good people. When I suggested that Xiaowu go home to discuss it with his parents, I didn't expect things to go so smoothly. By then, we had already received the high school acceptance letter. I heard that Xiaowu was at the top of the class. He gave up his studies to marry me, and his parents agreed. So I'm very grateful to them."
Lin Lishan looked at her in surprise. "You mean you received your high school acceptance letter? You graduated early?"
Zhou Jiao looked at her amusedly. "It's not that I graduated early, but Grandpa misled you. Grandpa spends his days at home reading books. How could he not know when I would graduate? As soon as Grandpa said he would pick me up after I graduated from junior high school, I understood."
Lin Lishan cursed softly, thought for a moment, and asked her, "Why didn't you go back to Beijing then? Even with your brain, you would have found your grandfather's address without him. Even if you don't believe your grandfather or your mother, at least you have your own yard and a registered residence in Beijing, isn't that good?"
Zhou Jiao smiled after hearing this, "Mom, you don't think that what I told grandma was true, do you? Grandpa never said a word to me about what he said in the letter, and I didn't even know that he wrote to him. Besides, I've never met you before, so how could I foolishly run to the capital without any way out? What if the small courtyard collapsed after 17 years? What if my household registration was cancelled because no one was there? Besides, I was sure of it, so I told grandma those things.
You always ask me if I hate you or something, but I honestly never have. From childhood to adulthood, there's only one person I hate the most, but it's that one person I can't touch, and even if I hate him, it's useless. So I tell myself not to hate others. It's too tiring, too emotionally draining. Just stay away from him and ignore him.
My grandfather is a complicated person. He uses cold violence against me.
I was already sensible by the time I was three. Whenever he saw his grandchildren bullying me, he'd avoid them, even taking a detour when meeting guests to avoid being noticed. His eldest daughter-in-law cooked for me to avoid me, but he remained calm. When his eldest daughter-in-law hurled indirect insults at me, he sat there, silent, staring intently at me, backing her up. Whenever he saw my grandmother teaching me to memorize texts or recipes, he'd deliberately instruct her to do this or that, or even try to stop her.
I remember my husband and wife were always arguing, so I started learning in secret. With nowhere else to go, I'd run to the small hut in the ancestral hall. My grandmother covered for me, and before I was eight, I'd mastered all of her unique skills. And no one in the Zhou family noticed.
When I was little, my grandfather would sometimes look at me with strange eyes. It wasn't hatred, it was contempt, and it was smugness. I understood the contempt and dislike, but the smugness was beyond me. Even though I was young, I knew it wasn't a good intention.
I understood his expression and knew he was unreliable. I clung to Grandma, trying to please her and follow her closely. When I was little, Grandma was so kind to me. She taught me the Huang family's traditional medical skills and embroidery, saying that I would need them when I grew up. As I grew older, Grandma began to have her guard up. She herself was so sensitive to others' reactions, so how could she protect me?
The atmosphere in the Zhou family was very bad during that period. I suspect that my grandfather actually knew what Huang Zhaodi was thinking, and he was just waiting to see what would happen.
During that time, I was completely on edge. I couldn't sleep soundly at night, constantly finding excuses to take care of Grandma and stay with her. During the day, I didn't dare walk down the side streets, constantly watching Zhou Xue, afraid something might happen. Luckily, she was a fool, and only she could reveal any signs. Whenever the Huang family showed up, I went looking for Xiaowu; with Xiaowu around, no one could touch me. I didn't dare tell Xiaowu, fearing his impatience would overwhelm me and cause trouble. All I wanted was to leave quickly. It was I who hinted at the wedding date.
Grandpa's face remained sullen, and I understood. I ignored him. As long as we were getting along, nothing was a problem. If you don't expect anything, you won't be disappointed. Sure enough, we got married. He reluctantly gave me my dad's compensation and this wardrobe, saying he'd already given me a small yard. Did he really think I was stupid? If he wasn't worried about my ugly wedding, I don't think he'd even be willing to part with the wardrobe. I didn't care. Just being able to leave was good.
In fact, we both knew what was going on, so why was there any need to pretend? In the end, my grandmother secretly gave me a small wooden box and told me not to tell anyone.
I remember everything about that family: eating my food, drinking my drinks, wearing my clothes, ignoring me, being hostile to me, and bullying me. But the one I hated the most was my grandfather. He silently supported them, and I didn't even bat an eyelid at how the eldest wife treated me. I didn't care about them. If I weren't still in the Zhou family, afraid of how it would affect my future, I would have thought of any way to take them down.
But that won't work. As long as I'm not married into the Zhou family, I'll have no future if anything happens to them. People won't think of me as coming from the second wife and will forget that I was raised by the Zhou family.
I have no feelings for the eldest family, so I can ignore them. But why does my grandfather, who took me back from you, treat me like this while using your monthly child support? Who asked him to take me back? Grandma even let it slip that he was the one who insisted on bringing me back. I really hate him.
Lin Lishan gritted her teeth and said angrily, "I knew something must have happened, otherwise you wouldn't have gotten married so early. I really want to tear them apart. How dare they? How dare they treat my daughter like this? Later, how did you know your father was still alive, and you still tried to deal with them? You are so stupid. You should have taken action after you got married. You let them get away with it for more than a year. You can't let them go this time. Don't be soft-hearted."
Zhou Jiao touched her mother's hand. It turned out she had a mother like this: someone who shared her hatred, someone who understood her, someone she could rely on and confide in. She really liked this mother. She was so simple and innocent, without any scheming. Even the knot in her heart over not seeing her in 17 years had melted away with the information she'd gotten from chatting with her mother. She didn't quite believe what Old Man Lin had just said, but she believed what her mother said.
Her mother was different from the Lin family. Even if her mother was really pretending, she would still believe her mother based on the fact that she had been writing letters to her non-stop for six years, sending her money and packages for seventeen years, and looking for her father and waiting for him for the entire seventeen years. She trusted her intuition that her mother did care about her.
The Lin family had ulterior motives, but she wouldn't treat them with hostility, treating them like ordinary relatives. She couldn't be too demanding of people or things; if someone gave her a big apple on the street, she would accept it with gratitude.
What's more, they are just an outsider's family. They gave birth to her mother and have no obligations or responsibilities to her. The Lin family never owes Zhou Jiao anything, just as she can't trust the Lin family.
Her mother was a simple-minded person. She had no intention of telling her mother that, besides the Zhou family, the Lin family wasn't that great either. She just wanted her mother to live in her own world and spend time with her father. She had very low expectations of her mother. Just based on her mother's 17 years of loyalty to her father, this character and affection moved her and made her believe.
Looking at her mother's appearance and family background, she would have no shortage of suitors, but she still remained loyal. That was Zhou Jiao's biological mother, and no one could bully her.
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