Chapitre 13: ‘Studious’
Éditeur: Atlas Studios
"It was only early autumn now, the weather was very hot, everyone was drenched in sweat and smelled terribly. I just praised you for finally understanding the way of things and now you're all muddle-headed again. How could you tell a young lady that she smelled right to her face?"
Zhai Sheng curled one side of his lips in a sarcastic manner. "How did you even manage to get into the army back then? Just because you were all brawn and no brains and could serve as cannon fodder?"
Zhai Hua almost vomited blood. This blood brother of hers really had a sharp tongue!
"Qiao Nan must have bought these books from the thrift shop."
Zhai Sheng had really sharp eyes. Just from the smell of her and her dirty little face, he could tell where Qiao Nan had been before coming to Zhai's house.
Zhai Hua arched her eyebrows.
When Qiao Nan returned with another stack of books, Zhai Hua paid more attention to her instead of her gender.
What she saw was exactly what Zhai Sheng said. With that Zhai Hua finally relaxed and asked, "Why did you go to the thrift shop to get old books?"
And among all the books, you picked Peng Yu's books.
Qiao Nan smiled awkwardly. She could tell Brother Zhai of her family situation, but for no reasons, she just could not bring it herself to reveal it to Brother Zhai's elder sister.
"This is the study desk?" This time round Qiao Nan noticed that the storeroom's light bulb was working, and it was refurbished with a sturdy-looking study desk.
The study desk was sparkling clean and smooth. One could tell that it had been used regularly.
"That belonged to my sister. She seldom stays at home, leaving it with her would only gather more dust." Zhai Sheng mentioned.
"Thank you very much, Sister Zhai." Qiao Nan thanked Zhai Hua from the bottom of her heart. Not only did she has a place to keep her books, but she also had a study desk.
This storeroom was much better compared to Qiao Nan's learning environment at her house.
Qiao Nan rubbed at her eyes quietly. Heavens seemed to be quite nice to her. She was given a chance to have a new lease of life and was lucky enough to run into two kind hearted souls.
Zhai Hua arched her eyebrows and puckered her lips into an "O" shape. She threw a meaningful glance at Zhai Sheng. What was wrong with Xiao Qiao, was she touched to tears?
"Have you brought all the books back?" Zhai Sheng did not respond to Zhai Hua's look. Instead he flipped through the books that Qiao Nan brought back and realized that they were in series, from secondary one to secondary three.
"Yes, I have brought everything back." Qiao Nan said as she felt the pinch. She had painstakingly saved up the money for fifteen years and now she had to spend more than three yuan on these books.
Qiao Nan wondered how much her mother had sold her books for? Did it even amount to three yuan?
"Alright, I will leave this place to you." Zhai Sheng dragged Zhai Hua who did not seem to be leaving alongside with him, leaving no room for argument.
"What is wrong with you?" Zhai Hua beat Zhai Sheng on the back of his hand and said sullenly, "You are so nice to that young lady, offering her your study desk, and let me take the credit for it. I am your blood sister, why aren't you so nice to me?
"By the way, what happened to Xiao Qiao, why did she need to buy books from the thrift shop?"
"What did you think was the reason?" Zhai Sheng looked askance at her; why would she ask when she already knew the answer?
Zhai Hua pulled at the corners of her mouth, "Young brat, is that how you treat your sister?"
Zhai Sheng rolled his eyes at Zhai Hua, not responding to her.
With such an unreliable sister who enjoyed setting him up, if not for his careful nature, he might have been totally screwed up long ago.
Zhai Hua glanced at Qiao Nan who was already studying in the storeroom. She then caught up to Zhai Sheng and stopped making comments regarding Qiao Nan's matter.
With no-one around to bother her, Qiao Nan pored over the books.
Qiao Nan had forgotten a lot of the Mathematics knowledge points. But she had studied them before, so with some reading up of the lessons, she still managed to grasp the concepts fairly fast.
As for Chinese, comprehension was pretty easy, but for those that required memorizing, she would have to do it from scratch.
In the blink of an eye, a day had passed. Qiao Dongliang had came back home from work. The first person that he called out for was his younger daughter.
Ding Jiayi breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed like Qiao Nan had not run off to look for Old Qiao. That wretched girl still had some conscience.
"There is no need to shout anymore, Qiao Nan went out to play, she is not at home." Ding Jiayi told Qiao Dongliang head on as he came in. "She is undoubtedly a young lady, but she craved fun and excitement more so than a young man, spending her time outside every single day. With such behavior, I reckoned that she would not survive secondary three. Did she really think that she could ace her three years of school with her petty tricks?"
Qiao Dongliang had a sip of water, wiped his sweaty face with a wet cloth and looked at Ding Jiayi, "I have made my stand, if Nan Nan would like to continue her studies, I will provide for her no matter what."
"All you say is you will provide, doesn't that require money?" Ding Jiayi was furious.
"Spend money? Can I not afford the money? My salary is not sufficient to pay for Nan Nan's education fees? Qiao Dongliang was boiling with anger. He would provide for the daughter that he had.
Ding Jiayi flushed with anger, "Do you even understand our situation here? Qiao Zijin is in high school now, the expenses are much higher than before, and there's our household expenses as well, everything needs money! If Qiao Nan were to work, the household would have an extra income and incur less expenses, wouldn't that be good?"
Qiao Dongliang pondered and said, "Even if Zijin wanted to enroll in high school and our expenses become higher, at most I could use my monthly pay to cover for all these and not set aside any money for savings. If there's any unforeseen circumstances, we still have some savings, what's there to worry about?"
Qiao Dongliang remembered that they have roughly more than five thousand yuan of savings, not much, but it should be enough for emergency use.
Ding Jiayi turned green with guilt upon hearing Qiao Dongliang mention the savings.
Qiao Dongliang did not notice Ding Jiayi's expression; he was lost in thought, pondering whether he should come up with ways to earn more. He would never know that the five thousand plus yuan of hard earned savings that he spent years sloughing his guts out for, had in fact been used by Ding Jiayi as bribery to get their elder daughter to enroll in high school.
The reason why Ding Jiayi wanted desperately for Qiao Nan to work, was not only because she did not want to provide for Qiao Nan; another reason was that they did not have any savings at all.
A wrinkled purse, a flustered Ding Jiayi.
Ding Jiayi stomped her feet in nervousness. Once riled up, there was nothing one could do to hold Old Qiao back.
Good thing was that Old Qiao said that as long as that wretched girl agreed to quit school, he would not force her. So she would have to work on that wretched girl.
Ding Jiayi thought for a moment, it was an easy feat to stop Qiao Nan from going to school. But what was most difficult would be getting Qiao Nan to quit school of her own accord.
She had no idea what the wretched girl had been into these two days. Though useless she used to be obedient, nowadays she even refused to listen to her and Zijin.
"How about Zijin?" The younger daughter was not at home, the elder daughter was nowhere to be seen as well.
Ding Jiayi raised her chin happily, "Zijin said that she wanted to enter into the college. She did not do well for the middle school examination and wants to revise the knowledge points. Hopefully after she has enrolled in high school, she can catch up on her studies."
"Okay." Qiao Dongliang was pleased that his daughter was studious and would like to strive for excellence. "Make lots of good food for her, and don't think of bullying Qiao Nan behind my back!"
Chapitre 14: Continue Her Studies
Éditeur: Atlas Studios
Qiao Dongliang was full of anger.
His wife passed the younger daughter food with chopsticks, but would ask her to put back the meat. Qiao Dongliang just could not understand why would his wife do such a thing.
Ding Jiayi gritted her teeth, not rebutting what Qiao Dongliang said.
Ding Jiayi still remembered that day when they had a quarrel; Qiao Dongliang had closed the door and stared at her as if he wanted to swallow her up.
Qiao Dongliang's anger remained. Ding Jiayi did not dare do anything to upset him.
"Dad." Qiao Nan knew that Qiao Dongliang must have returned when she reached home.
Qiao Dongliang smiled, "Nan Nan is back, where did you go to play? It's still hot now. You have just recovered from an illness, you must be careful not to go in the sun, do you understand?"
Qiao Nan turned and looked towards Ding Jiayi. It was no doubt her mother who spoke ill of her in front of her father, saying that she has been out for fun.
Ding Jiayi caught Qiao Nan's eye and glared at her, warning her to behave herself.
Ding Jiayi stood behind Qiao Dongliang, so he did not see the warning look that she gave their younger daughter.
Qiao Dongliang patted Qiao Nan's head, her fever has subsided by now and said, "Nan Nan, though your results and foundation are better than your sister, school reopens the day after tomorrow. If you have time, it would be good for you to stay at home to revise just like your sister."
Qiao Nan smiled, "Dad, Mum sold off all our junior high school textbooks. I would like to do some revision, but there's nothing for me to revise from. Middle school examinations will cover secondary one and secondary two content, now I am worried and don't know what to do. Besides, elder sister also does not have her textbooks. I wonder what is she reading in her room?"
"Sold?" Qiao Dongliang was stunned. He could not believe it and turned to look at his wife. "Where have you put Nan Nan's secondary one and secondary two textbooks? Nan Nan takes proper care of her books. Nan Nan mistakenly thinks you have sold them. Hurry up, take out the books now!"
Qiao Dongliang refused to believe that his wife would be so ruthless. He did not want to see the relationship between his wife and younger daughter turn sour.
The elder daughter had just had middle school examinations. His wife kept the textbooks, and insisted that the younger daughter who just started secondary two to revise secondary one and secondary two knowledge points with the elder daughter.
But when it was the younger daughter's turn to sit for the exams, his wife had sold the books. What was this?!
Ding Jiayi turned red. If not for Old Qiao, she would have beaten that younger daughter of hers who was bent on going against her.
"What are you waiting for, return Nan Nan's books to her now!"
"Return her books, what's there to return? I was the one who paid her school fees! Is there any mortar and brick in the house that belong to Qiao Nan?"
Qiao Dongliang drew a deep breath, "You paid her school fees, but did you earn that money? Stop all this nonsense, where are the books?"
"Very well, I stayed at home and worked my guts out for you, keeping busy all day long. Now you are telling me all this money is yours and I have no say at all! Old Qiao, how could you say this, where's your conscience? What about all the efforts I put into this family, aren't they considered contributions at all?"
Ding Jiayi burst into tears.
"Don't try to change the topic. Where are Nan Nan's books?"
Startled by Qiao Dongliang's bellow, Ding Jiayi stopped crying. She could not help but snarl, "Everything is gone, there is nothing left. Since Zijin has graduated, there was no point in keeping the books. So I sold them off. But I sold her books by mistake as well."
"By mistake?" Qiao Dongliang was amused by how Ding Jiayi was lying through her teeth. "Did it really slip your mind, or was it all part of your plan to stop Nan Nan from continuing her studies?"
Anyone could tell from these incidents whether his wife had done so intentionally or not. If Qiao Dongliang could not make out the truth, those years in the army were all for nothing.
No wonder his wife had refused to give Nan Nan medicine for her fever, and had even thrown the medicine away.
Old Ding must have planned for Nan Nan to be so sick that she could not enroll for school!
Old Ding must have harbored this thought of not letting Nan Nan enrol in school for ages. She definitely had not thought of it on the spur of the moment.
To think that when Nan Nan first told him that Old Ding wanted her to quit school, he thought that Nan Nan had misunderstood Old Ding. So after all, it was his daughter who had seen through Old Ding's mind.
Now that everything was out in the open, Ding Jiayi no longer bothered to explain. But she refused to admit that she was in the wrong, "Didn't she always score well? Don't tell me she could not do well in her middle school examination just because she did not have secondary one and secondary two textbooks?"
"Nan Nan, did you hear that, your Mom has agreed to let you continue with secondary three." Qiao Dongliang smiled coldly. He stroked Qiao Nan on the head and picked on Ding Jiayi's words, "Don't worry Nan Nan, even if your Mom does not allow, I am the breadwinner of the family. I will earn the money to let you continue with your studies."
"Thank you, Dad. Thank you, Mom!" Qiao Nan said at the top of her voice.
No matter what, she had finally gotten the opportunity to continue her studies. She would not need to quit school anymore.
Seeing that Ding Jiayi had turned green, Qiao Nan just couldn't help but shout out in joy with a wicked thought in mind, "Dad, Mom has sold all the books, so what is sister reading in her room?"
What was Qiao Zijin so fascinated with? Her father and mother just had a big quarrel, yet she as a good daughter did not turn up at all?
Qiao Dongliang looked towards Ding Jiayi, who stiffened and said, "Zijin told me she wanted to read some books, how would I know what is she reading?"
Ding Jiayi never doubted her beloved elder daughter's words.
"Mom, you have always been ranting about money, complaining that there was not enough to spend. You bought high school books for sister in advance, wasn't that a waste of money?"
"I didn't." Ding Jiayi shook her head.
She had spent all the savings in order to get Zijin into a good high school. How would she have money to buy high school books?
They were stunned by Ding Jiayi's denial.
Flustered, Ding Jiayi walked to Qiao Zijin's room. She knocked at the door lightly and said, "Zijin, Mom is coming in."
Upon knocking the door, Ding Jiayi opened the door without waiting for Qiao Zijin's reply.
Ding Jiayi stepped into Qiao Zijin's room and saw that her elder daughter's face was covered in tears, her eyes clouded with sadness.
Ding Jiayi's heart skipped a beat. Her elder daughter must have felt sorry for her Mom who was caught up in a quarrel with Old Qiao.
Ding Jiayi's heart melted. Her elder daughter was such a dear, she had to give extra love to her. She must think of ways to pave the path for her daughter's future.
"Ha…" Qiao Nan who followed right behind snorted and laughed when she saw the book that Qiao Zijin was holding in her hands. "Sister, so you are reading a novel. Seems like you are so engrossed in your novel, it must have been tiring for you."
The novel that Qiao Zijin was reading was none other than Mou Nainai's novels. Mou Nainai has been known to write novels regarding affairs in a marriage for quite a long period of time.
Qiao Dongliang overheard them and knitted his eyebrows, "You are reading novels, not revising? What is this novel about?"
Cadeaux
-- Cadeau
reçu État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
200+ Classement
Power Stone 
109 Power
stone Vous aimerez peut-être aussi
Commentaire de paragraphe