Seeing his mother's tears, Chen Dongze felt a pang of sadness. He offered words of comfort, jokingly saying that he wasn't tired in the countryside.
Zhang Hua didn't believe it, but he didn't say anything more. What he was thinking was that he had to get Chen Changqing to agree to keep Chen Dongze in Beijing after the New Year and not let him go back to Shisong Village, that poor and remote mountain village, to farm.
"Your dad might be back at any time, I think you should eat first."
Zhang Hua was about to get up as he spoke.
"Mom, wait a little longer!"
Chen Dongze raised his hand to stop him, saying, "I haven't been home for a while, and I want to have a meal with my dad."
“You care about your father, but he only cares about his own son. Otherwise, I have mentioned to him more than once that I want to transfer you from the countryside back to the city or send you to join the army, but your father just won’t agree. He says that being in the countryside is a good opportunity for you to train, and that it will only do you good for your future path.”
Zhang Hua's expression was not good: "How can I believe what he said? If there were really benefits, why would everyone around us try their best to prevent their children from going to the countryside?!"
Chen Dongze: "There are quite a few young people of my age from our compound who went to the countryside, but they are scattered all over the country. I think my dad must have said those things for a reason. He doesn't agree to let me go back to the city, he must be thinking about my future."
"I don't think so."
With a slight frown, Zhang Hua said, "Judging from your forced departure to the countryside, I've come to realize that neither your father nor those two old folks consider you part of the family. In their hearts, we, mother and son, are outsiders!"
At this moment, only Zhang Hua and her son Chen Dongze were in the house, so Zhang Hua was not afraid to speak freely and said whatever she thought.
Upon hearing this, Chen Dongze's expression changed almost imperceptibly. He said, "Mom, Dad and Grandpa and Grandma have never mistreated us over the years."
"What do you mean by 'never mistreated us'? Haven't I contributed to this family?"
Zhang Hua disagreed with Chen Dongze's statement, saying, "They provide us with a stable life, and I take care of the whole family's food and drink on a daily basis. This can be considered an equal exchange, and we don't owe them anything."
But then again, after living under the same roof for so many years, even if they didn't treat us like family, they should at least have some affection for us, right? But did they?
If that were true, why would they send you to the countryside?
“You know that Grandpa didn’t initially choose me to go to the countryside.”
Chen Dongze couldn't help but wonder if his mother was pretending to be confused, which made his tone particularly complicated.
Zhang Hua was stunned.
After a long pause, she explained, "I've been too busy to remember." If she had known in advance what decision the old man had made about going to the countryside, she certainly wouldn't have taken any action.
In this respect, she has let her son down; she was too hasty, which led to her son being chosen to go to the countryside!
“Mom, treat each other with sincerity. As long as we treat everyone in this family with sincerity, my dad and grandparents will naturally see and feel it, and then they will treat us with sincerity in return.”
He was brought into this family by his mother and has no blood relation to the Chen family. If his mother is too selfish and only thinks about their own interests, one day, he and others will inevitably be kicked out of the Chen family.
It's good to have a big tree to lean on for shade.
In his view, even if he was not of the Chen family bloodline and not his father's biological child, just because he was surnamed Chen and was his father's stepson, whatever he did in the future would definitely be much smoother with the Chen family as his backing.
Thinking of this, Chen Dongze changed the subject before his mother Zhang Hua could speak, asking, "It's almost the New Year, why are Grandpa and Grandma still moving back to the compound? And Dongxu, he... isn't he disabled? Why isn't he living at home?"
"It's better that those two old folks don't move back in, so I don't have to see their old faces every day."
Zhang Hua had always hoped that the old master and old lady of the Chen family would die soon. However, she realized that the old master and old lady did not like her as their daughter-in-law at all ever since she became Chen Changqing's wife.
Specifically, her attitude towards her was always indifferent, unlike the old lady who would smile whenever she saw her eldest daughter-in-law, and even the old man would ask her a few questions.
What's so good about a hen that doesn't lay eggs?
Yes, she also didn't give birth to any children for the Chen family, but that wasn't because she didn't want to. It was because Chen Changqing was only married to her in name only. Under these circumstances, if she became pregnant, divorce would definitely be the only outcome for her!
In other words, she would even lose the title of Madam Chen the Third!
Well, actually, she was already unable to have children—she damaged her body when she gave birth to her daughter and was told by the doctor that she would have difficulty conceiving again.
But this meant nothing to her.
If Chen Changqing were willing to be her real husband and wife, she could simply use her cunning to fake a pregnancy, then avoid the Chen family when she was about to give birth, and then bring an abandoned baby and say that it was hers.
At that time, besides her, who else would know that the child is not of the Chen family bloodline?
Zhang Hua's idea was beautiful, but reality was incredibly harsh.
Chen Changqing didn't give her the slightest chance to get close, and he would never drink the soup she secretly served him. In short, her nominal husband was always cautious around her, lest she go against her "original intention" when she entered the Chen family and truly solidify her status as the Third Madam of Chen.
Original intention?
Her initial intention in entering the Chen family was nothing more than a trick she played.
—Help her friend Zhao Su, Chen Changqing's wife who died in childbirth, to take care of her infant daughter and young son.
Anyway, she was determined to marry into the Chen family.
On the one hand, they valued the Chen family's background and Chen Changqing himself.
On the other hand, she needs a husband to help her raise her children, specifically the two children left to her by her ex-husband.
Therefore, regardless of Chen Changqing's attitude towards her, she insisted on staying in the Chen family and refusing to leave.
In the end, to stop gossip in the compound, she offered to stay and help her deceased friend take care of his children in exchange for a fake marriage with him. This finally convinced Chen Changqing to agree, and he promised to treat her two children as his own.
The prerequisite is that she must keep her word and take good care of his children.
In fact, Zhang Hua knew very well that what really made Chen Changqing agree was not the gossip in the compound, but the effect of her fabricated story about her friend's last wish and the fact that her friend's two children were too young.
Her so-called last wish was that her friend hoped she could stay in the Chen family and help take care of the children as they grew up.
"Mom! Can't you just talk to me properly?"
Chen Dongze's sudden voice pulled Zhang Hua back to reality.
"How could I not have spoken properly?"
Zhang Hua was puzzled.
"You and my dad are husband and wife, you have to show my grandparents at least some respect!"
Old man?
Old face?
Chen Dongze couldn't understand why his mother was so mean-spirited, using such offensive terms to address the old man and woman in front of him.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
