The next day.
"Dong Sheng, what are you doing?"
After breakfast, Zhang Hua saw Chen Dongsheng carrying a suitcase in one hand and a bulging travel bag in the other as he walked out of Chen Dongxu's room. At the same time, the caregiver, Xiao Sun, pushed her stepson, Chen Dongxu, closely behind. For a moment, Zhang Hua was a little confused.
"I need to rest for a few more days before returning to my post. Aunt Zhang, you have a lot of social engagements, and my dad is too busy with work to come home often. To avoid Xiaoxu overthinking things, I discussed it with him last night."
The decision was made to send him to the courtyard house, so he could keep his grandparents company and have less time to think about trivial matters, preventing negative emotions from building up and potentially leading him to do something foolish.
"How many social engagements can I possibly have?!"
Zhang Hua looked slightly embarrassed. She said, "Listen to Aunt Zhang, let Xiao Xu stay at home. I can take good care of him. Besides, there's also Xiao Sun. Aunt Zhang assures you, nothing will happen to Xiao Xu."
After a short while, Zhang Hua said again, "Besides, your grandparents are getting old, and your grandmother has never been in good health. If Xiao Xu goes to the courtyard house, and if he gets angry, your grandparents and Xiao Xu themselves might get into trouble."
"Aunt Zhang, are you cursing Xiaoxu and my grandparents?"
Chen Dongsheng's face darkened slightly. He said, "Putting aside the fact that there are people taking care of my grandparents at the courtyard house, Xiao Xu has Xiao Sun by his side. Even if he gets angry, what could possibly happen?"
Looking back at his aggrieved and foolish younger brother, Chen Dongsheng turned his gaze back to Zhang Hua: "Or perhaps, in your heart, Aunt Zhang, Xiao Xu is a scoundrel. He is already unable to walk properly, but does he become even more manic than when he is normal, daring to lay a hand on my grandparents?"
"Don't talk nonsense!"
Zhang Hua looked terrified and said, "I know you've always had a problem with me, but you can't just falsely accuse me like that. I didn't mean it that way. I was just thinking that I watched Xiao Xu grow up and I can take good care of him. There's no need for you to send him to the courtyard house to avoid disturbing your grandparents."
"I'm going to live in a courtyard house. I miss my grandparents. Aunt Zhang, are you trying to stop me?"
Chen Dongxu spoke up, looking at Zhang Hua with extreme dissatisfaction: "At home, you're either out shopping at department stores or chatting with your girlfriends. How are you going to take care of me? How are you going to take good care of me?"
"Don't even mention having Brother Sun around. As the saying goes, even tigers have their moments of weakness. If Brother Sun goes to the bathroom and I happen to want a drink of water, am I supposed to get out of bed and crawl to the kitchen to get a glass of water?"
"Xiao Xu, you..."
Ungrateful wretch! She raised him with such care for over ten years, only to have him turn out to be a complete ingrate!
Instead of speaking up for him, she sided with his bastard brother to make her look bad, despite all the hard work she put into raising him for so many years!
Zhang Hua was particularly angry with Chen Dongxu at this moment, but she seemed to have forgotten that Chen Dongxu had always spent all his money on food, clothing and other necessities, and she, Zhang Hua, had not contributed anything.
How can you say you've raised them with great care for over ten years?
If we're talking about how much effort she put in, she did put in a lot of effort, but the effort she put in was on how to ruin Chen Dongxu!
Not to mention that when she stayed at the Chen family home and insisted on helping her best friend Zhao Su, Chen Changqing's wife who died in childbirth, take care of her child, Chen Dongxu was not a baby who couldn't walk; he was almost three years old at the time.
There's a nanny at home, and an eight-year-old brother to take care of things!
"Aunt Zhang, I didn't upset you, so why are you looking at me with hurt eyes?"
Chen Dongxu looked completely innocent: "I was just telling the truth, saying that I missed my grandparents and wanted to go to the courtyard house to be with them. What's wrong with that? But Aunt Zhang, you insisted on stopping me from going and even cursed me, saying that I would go crazy and hurt my grandparents and myself. Aunt Zhang, do you think I'm a complete madman who's prone to outbursts?"
With reddened eyes, Chen Dongxu, ever the drama queen, looked at Chen Dongxu, pouted, and said, "Big brother, I'm not crazy. Take me away, I need to go find my grandparents right away!"
Sun Hao pushed Chen Dongxu to Chen Dongsheng's side. Chen Dongsheng looked down at his silly younger brother who was addicted to acting and said, "Okay, big brother will take you away now."
Ignoring his stepmother Zhang Hua, Chen Dongsheng called Sun Hao to follow, and they walked forward carrying their suitcases and travel bags.
Hearing the sound of a car starting in the yard, Zhang Hua's face turned very gloomy, feeling that the Chen Dongsheng and Chen Dongxu brothers were her nemesis.
With them around, she'll never be able to turn her life around in the Chen family!
Chen Changqing was going to work at the grassroots level today, so he left home early in the morning. He was unaware of the conversation between Zhang Hua and Chen Dongsheng, and therefore unaware of how Zhang Hua's expression changed after the three of them left.
"Who made my mother-in-law angry?"
A teasing female voice came from the living room doorway. Upon hearing this, Zhang Hua immediately adjusted her expression and looked up at the other person: "You've come here for something?"
Zhang Hua didn't respond, but instead asked a casual question.
“My dear mother-in-law, you really have a short memory. Didn’t we agree the day before yesterday to go to the Friendship Store this afternoon?”
The visitor was the mistress of the Wang family in the same compound, and also the mother-in-law of Chen Shu, the granddaughter of the Chen family.
"Look at my memory."
Zhang Hua feigned self-reproach, lightly patting her forehead, then sighed and gave a bitter smile: "Go ahead, I'm not in the mood today."
"What exactly happened?"
Wen Mei, the name of the Wang family's matriarch and Chen Shu's current mother-in-law, looked at Zhang Hua with a questioning gaze.
"My eldest son sent Xiaoxu to the courtyard house to keep the old man and woman company without even consulting me. How can he not be warm-hearted? I've been doing my best to take care of everyone in this family since they came here."
I've put so much effort into them, brothers, but look what happened! The eldest brother treats me like a thief, and while Xiao Xu is fairly obedient, he completely forgets about me whenever the eldest brother is home. Lately, he's even started calling me Aunt Zhang! What have I gotten out of all these years of dedication?!
Hearing this, Wen Mei also gave a wry smile: "As the saying goes, being a stepmother is hard. But what can we do? We're the stepmothers we are!"
Recalling her stepson's consistent attitude towards her for over a decade, Wen Mei said, "No matter what, your eldest son has never talked back to you in public, but my eldest son..."
Over the years, he's never cared about my feelings. Luckily, I've come to terms with it now and stop holding grudges against him; otherwise, I probably would have been hospitalized long ago.
Zhang Hua didn't respond, but instead asked, "How are Xiao Shu and Jun Chi doing lately?"
"The same old story, always sticking together."
At this point, Wen Mei hesitated for a moment, but finally said, "Mother-in-law, why don't you persuade Xiao Shu? It's not good for her to stay idle at home all the time."
"Isn't Junchi also idle?!"
Zhang Hua said dismissively, "As long as the young couple is happy, your Wang family can afford to support them." Before Wen Mei could react, she changed the subject, saying, "I heard that your Jinheng was transferred out of the capital to work at a factory hospital in a small place. Are you just going to let him do that?"
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