A compound in Beijing.
At five o'clock in the morning, just as dawn was breaking, Zhou Jin woke up.
However, Zhou Jin did not make a sound.
He lay quietly in bed, watching the morning light outside the window gradually brighten.
It snowed in Beijing last night.
A thin layer of snowflakes drifted down onto the windowsill, gilded with a faint golden edge in the morning light.
So beautiful!
Zhou Jin sighed inwardly, her eyes greedily fixed on the beautiful scenery outside the window.
Zhou Jin knew that she probably didn't have many days left to live.
Lately, his body has felt heavier and heavier each day, while his sleep time has become shorter and shorter. At night, even the slightest noise will wake Zhou Jin up, and then he won't be able to fall back asleep.
Several times, Zhou Jin stayed awake until dawn.
Last night was the best night's sleep Zhou Jin had had in recent days.
The school called Zhou Jin with good news: Zhou Bingchen achieved excellent results in all assessments during the closed training program, ranking first overall.
Zhou Jin was very pleased.
Even though Bingchen didn't grow up by his side, he still grew into an excellent soldier.
As his grandfather, he failed to protect Bingchen back then, causing Bingchen to suffer a lot all these years.
Unfortunately, he didn't have many days left to live.
If he lived longer, he would pass on all his knowledge and experience gained on the battlefield to Bingchen. With Bingchen's intelligence, he might even surpass him and become a new generation of generals in China.
Zhou Jin lay in bed, her mind wandering from one thing to another. Her body felt languid, and she didn't want to move at all.
Time passed little by little.
Around eight o'clock, Zhou Bingchen arrived at the Zhou family home.
Zhou Ruonan opened the door.
Upon seeing Zhou Bingchen, who was dressed in military uniform and looked incredibly handsome, Zhou Ruonan's face fell, and she questioned, "Zhou Bingchen, what brings you here? Don't you have school today?"
"Aunt, I'm on leave today. I need to talk to Grandpa about something." Zhou Bingchen said calmly.
Zhou Bingchen received a notice yesterday that trainees who had completed the closed training were given an early winter break.
The holiday will last until the Lantern Festival next year.
Zhou Bingchen was overjoyed at the time.
If it weren't for the fact that he had arranged to call Zhao Zhenzhu yesterday afternoon, Zhou Bingchen would have loved to buy a train ticket and rush home.
“Tell me what’s wrong! My dad is still sleeping, don’t go upstairs and disturb his rest,” Zhou Ruonan said coldly.
“Aunt, I’m afraid you can’t make the decision,” Zhou Bingchen said, glancing at Zhou Ruonan.
"I can make all the decisions in this family. Speak up!" Zhou Ruonan said arrogantly, her head held high.
Zhou Ruonan felt that Zhou Bingchen had underestimated her, and she was somewhat unhappy.
“Auntie, I’d like to borrow Grandpa’s car for a day,” Zhou Bingchen said.
"Borrowing a car? Zhou Bingchen, you can't be so vain! You borrow Grandpa's car to show off, do you want to make our Zhou family a laughing stock?" Zhou Ruonan scolded with a long face.
“Aunt, I’m not borrowing the car to show off. I’m going to the train station to pick up Pearl and the children.” Zhou Bingchen was getting impatient, and his face darkened.
It snowed in Beijing last night, and the temperature was -6 degrees Celsius this morning.
The temperature in the place where Zhao Zhenzhu and the children lived was still around ten degrees Celsius at this time.
Suddenly going from a warm place to a cold place, Zhou Bingchen was afraid that Zhao Zhenzhu and the children would not be able to adapt. He was even more worried that Zhao Zhenzhu and the children had come to Beijing in a hurry without bringing warm winter clothes and would catch a cold after getting off the train.
After much deliberation, Zhou Bingchen decided to borrow a car from the Zhou family to pick up Zhao Zhenzhu and the others.
Before coming, Zhou Bingchen had considered that Zhou Ruonan might make things difficult for him.
However, compared to the health of Zhao Zhenzhu and the children, Zhou Bingchen didn't care at all about Zhou Ruonan's little difficulties.
"Your wife and children arrived in Beijing today? Weren't they supposed to arrive tomorrow? I haven't even had Zhang Ma tidy up the house yet!" Zhou Ruonan feigned surprise.
Zhang Ma is Zhou Jin's housekeeper; cooking and cleaning are all Zhang Ma's responsibilities.
Zhou Ruonan certainly hadn't forgotten that Zhao Zhenzhu and the others were coming to Beijing today; she had deliberately kept it a secret and hadn't informed Zhang Ma.
Zhou Ruonan didn't want Zhou Bingchen's family to live in her house. She was afraid that if Zhou Jin spent more time with Zhou Bingchen and his family, her affections would shift more towards Zhou Bingchen.
"Aunt, no need to bother, Pearl and I will stay at the guesthouse," Zhou Bingchen said casually.
"When Dad asks why you're not staying at home, don't blame me. You chose to stay at the guesthouse; I didn't kick you out," Zhou Ruonan said happily.
"Auntie, I won't, don't worry. By the way, what about the car?" Zhou Bingchen knew Zhou Ruonan was petty, so he didn't argue with her. However, he was determined to borrow the car today.
"Isn't your wife from the countryside? How come she enjoys life more than a native Beijing heiress? It only takes an hour and a half by bus from the train station to our compound. Does she think that as a high-society wife, she deserves to be chauffeured around by a private car?" Zhou Ruonan said sarcastically.
“Auntie, my wife doesn’t like to enjoy life. She didn’t ask me to pick her up. I only came back to borrow the car because I felt sorry for my wife and children.” Zhou Bingchen’s face darkened. “In this cold weather, why would you take the bus when you have a car? Auntie, don’t blame me for being blunt, but if you don’t like to enjoy life, why have you been having Xiao Guo drive you to and from get off work every day lately? Don’t assume everyone is corrupt just because you’re corrupt.”
Zhou Ruonan said that Zhou Bingchen could ignore it.
However, Zhou Ruonan made a sarcastic remark about Zhao Zhenzhu being greedy for pleasure, which displeased Zhou Bingchen.
This time, Zhao Zhenzhu and the others came to Beijing at Zhou Jin's invitation.
If Zhou Ruonan truly considers herself the head of the Zhou family, then logically and emotionally, she should have taken the initiative to pick them up at the train station, or sent a car to pick up Zhao Zhenzhu and the others, without Zhou Bingchen even having to ask.
Zhou Ruonan made no arrangements.
When Zhou Bingchen came back, he borrowed a car to pick him up, but Zhou Ruonan gave him a long lecture. No wonder Zhou Bingchen couldn't stand her.
Zhou Ruonan has been frequently seen riding in Zhou Jin's car lately, and some people in the compound are already saying behind her back that Zhou Ruonan is "arrogant".
When Zhou Bingchen first entered the room, he was pulled aside by an elder he knew and talked to for a while about Zhou Ruonan's daily commute in Zhou Jin's car.
The elders asked Zhou Bingchen to persuade Zhou Ruonan not to lose sight of the bigger picture for the sake of small gains.
Zhou Bingchen originally didn't want to tell Zhou Ruonan about this directly, but wanted to remind his grandfather to keep an eye on Zhou Ruonan. After all, he was the younger generation.
Since Zhou Ruonan was determined to cause trouble, Zhou Bingchen disregarded her feelings and spoke his mind directly.
Zhou Ruonan choked.
That Zhou Bingchen, he really knows how to talk.
She's an elder, what's wrong with her saying something to Zhao Zhenzhu? Her nephew then gave her a long lecture with a gloomy face.
Her dad has been sick and hasn't left the house lately. The car's just sitting idle anyway. She's her dad's daughter. What's wrong with using his car?
No wonder they grew up in the countryside; they have absolutely no manners.
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