The mother and son chatted for a while, then the eldest lady packed her luggage and came over with her younger sister.
Seeing Qiao Yunqing here, they all stepped forward to greet him. When Qiao Sanniang saw him, she timidly called him father, then stood obediently behind the second lady and refused to speak again.
Qiao Yunqing suddenly realized that she didn't know when the relationship between father and daughter had become so estranged.
Mrs. Qiao Er had not yet noticed the strangeness between her second uncle and her third sister, but asked Qiao Xin excitedly: "Grandma, when are we leaving? Where are we going this time? Can we ride horses?"
"We can go anytime. We are not in a hurry this time. We can ride a horse or take a car. Anhua County is not far from your father. Let's go there together when the time comes."
"That's great, thank you grandma." The second lady shook Qiao Xin's arm happily.
Since the two girls followed Qiao Xin, they have not seen the eldest brother and his wife again. Although they often exchange letters on weekdays, it is not as good as having their parents by their side all the time.
Qiao Xin had also suggested to the eldest and second wives that they go live with their parents.
But the two girls never responded, and Xu was a broad-minded person. She usually focused on her career and husband, and she was completely confident that her mother-in-law would raise her children for her.
In her daily letters to her children, she would ask them to learn from their grandmother. If they could learn even a little bit from their grandmother, it would be better than following her as their mother.
Perhaps it was because of distance that these two children had no complaints about their parents. Qiao Xin could teach as well as Xu did, and even better than Xu.
The eldest and second wives thought that if they were with their parents, they would not be as comfortable as they are now. Their mother wanted to make them look like the noble ladies in Kyoto. They were not allowed to leave the house. After the age of fifteen, they had to go to various banquets to ask which family had a good boy suitable for marriage!
Get married, have children, and be trapped in the inner house for the rest of your life. From then on, all your joys and sorrows revolve around one man.
But their grandmothers would tell them that it is okay to be themselves and that no one dictates what girls should look like.
What kind of woman you want to be is up to you. Don't live your life in the words of others. Being virtuous is for others to see, and it is also a moral kidnapping of women in this world.
At least the girls from the Qiao family don't want to lose themselves because of others, let alone be unable to lift or carry the things they raise.
The world is not yet at peace. Learning some martial arts and money-making skills is far more practical than embroidering a handkerchief or learning a piece of music.
So the grandmother taught them how to manage the shop, train the people around them, teach them horse riding and archery, as well as common sense and survival skills under various conditions...
They learned the life-saving skills that other noble ladies didn't care about! The grandmother took them to see the various aspects of life that other girls couldn't see.
My grandmother said that it is better to not have any use in your lifetime than to wait until a critical moment when you don’t know how to use it!
My grandmother said that there are always more bad people than good people in this world. No matter what time it is, women must learn to protect themselves, take care of themselves first, and then love others in order to live freely.
They feel that they can only be their true selves by being with Qiao Xin. But this does not prevent them from respecting and loving their mother!
Just like that, neither side has the intention to get together, what else can Qiao Xin say?
If we say that Xu's attitude towards the eldest and second wives is the normal mentality of a mother, knowing that her abilities and knowledge are limited, she would send her children to people who can teach them.
But Zhang's attitude towards Sanniang was a bit helpless and angry.
When Zhang gave birth to the third daughter, the Qiao family had just encountered a natural disaster. The family was already so poor that they could barely make ends meet, and then they encountered a drought. And then she got pregnant. Wasn't this adding insult to injury?
This meant that Zhang's nutrition during pregnancy was not guaranteed. Even if she could barely get enough food, everyone still saved some of their own food and left it for her.
But in the end, the third wife was born a month early. Zhang suffered a lot for this, and both the adult and the child were almost lost. It was Qiao Xin who used the only silver bracelet left to her by her father and asked the doctor in the town for help, who brought the woman back from the brink of death.
Seeing that he had suffered so much, but only had a little girl, he felt very unhappy and couldn't get out of it. From then on, he regarded Sanniang as the culprit and didn't even look at her. Qiao Xin and Xu had to feed the child with rice porridge.
I thought Zhang would figure it out slowly, after all, she was a piece of my flesh and blood. But as Sanniang grew up, the paranoia welded in Zhang's mind became even deeper.
Qiao Xin and Qiao Yunqing had tried to persuade him, but he seemed to agree on the surface but continued to do as he pleased behind the scenes.
It is not true that Zhang was not kind to Sanniangzi. She always used Sanniangzi's share to subsidize Sanlang.
After Qiao Xin passed, he corrected her once in person and never showed favoritism again.
As her family's life improved, Zhang did not treat Sanniang harshly in any way, but she was just not close to her, did not care about her, and did not ask many questions.
The third lady was smart since she was young. As she grew older, her mother's attitude towards her became colder. She was not unaware of it.
Fortunately, he had Qiao Yunqing to protect him and Qiao Xin to love him. He went from longing for maternal love to disappointment, and then to relief now.
Now that she was leaving with her grandmother, she no longer cared whether her mother asked about her affairs.
Now that her father was also with her grandmother, Sanniang took the opportunity to tell Qiao Yunqing the news of her departure and asked him to pass the message to her mother.
Only then did Qiao Yunqing realize that his daughter had become so estranged from them.
"You can go and tell your mother yourself!"
The third lady pursed her lips and said, "Mother has to take care of my brother, which is already hard work. If I disturb her at this time, it will only cause her more trouble. It is more appropriate for father to pass it on. Father, don't worry, I will take good care of myself with my grandmother."
Qiao Yunqing felt sad and wanted to ask his daughter to stay, but when he saw her expectant eyes staring at him cautiously, he couldn't say no.
"Don't worry, Sanniang. Your father is reluctant to let you go. But why wouldn't he agree to you following me? Go check the luggage with your two sisters. I'll talk to your father!"
The third lady smiled and nodded: "Okay, grandma!"
When she turned around, Qiao Xin clearly saw that her small body suddenly became limp!
Qiao Xin looked at Qiao Yunqing solemnly: "Don't think that I am an old woman who is meddling in other people's affairs and destroying the relationship between you and your daughter. Your daughter-in-law is stubborn and we have tried to persuade her with both good and bad words, but she won't listen.
You forced Sanniang to stay by your side, but you couldn't watch her all the time, so she had to endure the cold violence of adults at such a young age."
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