Chapter 1986: Never Considered

These people had not only taken her for a fool but had even played such a cruel prank on them, wanting the Qiao family to get into even more trouble for them to use as a basis for their chats in their free time.

These neighbors could not deny that they were waiting to watch Ding Jiayi as though they were watching a show, but Ding Jiayi’s words upset them. “Don’t be so mean. We’re just trying to help you. It’s true that Qiao Nan did stay over at the Zhai family’s house for a few days. Quite a few of us saw Qiao Nan getting off the Zhai family’s car with several large bags. The Zhai family treats Qiao Nan extremely well. It’s not just us who know about this. Old Qiao knows about it too. How could you, as a mother, know less about Qiao Nan’s situation than outsiders like us? Don’t tell me that you didn’t even know that Qiao Nan came back?”

But it was normal for her not to know either. As long as Qiao Nan was no fool, she would not be so foolish as to return home and jump into the fiery pit with a mother like Ding Jiayi around.

“…” Ding Jiayi was almost speechless, and she felt utterly humiliated since there was yet another matter that Qiao Dongliang had known but she had not. In the past, the couple had always discussed matters with each other, especially Qiao Dongliang, who had never made any decisions behind Ding Jiayi’s back.

Now, Qiao Dongliang practically treated Ding Jiayi as an outsider. No matter what decision he had to make, he did not even bother letting Ding Jiayi know about the matter, much less discuss it with him.

Ding Jiayi might not have believed everything else, but she had no choice but to believe them once they said that Qiao Dongliang had known that Qiao Nan had stayed in the Zhai family’s house for a few days. After all, she had a perfect example in front of her that was the incident with the property deed. In fact, that incident was not over yet.

Because of the property deed, Ding Jiayi had gotten angry at Qiao Dongliang and had not spoken to Qiao Dongliang in two to three days. Now that this was happening to her too, Ding Jiayi felt so aggrieved that she was on the verge of tears.

Ding Jiayi, whose eyes were all red, unhesitatingly chased all her neighbors out. “Get out, all of you! No matter what, these are all my family’s affairs. I don’t care who you are. You’d better scram!” These outsiders had absolutely no say in her family’s affairs!

Since this was not their house, they had no choice but to leave. They could not afford to stay, in case Ding Jiayi decided to report the matter to the police.

After chasing those nosy neighbors away, Qiao Zijin walked in front of Ding Jiayi, tears filling her face. “Mom, tell me the truth. What does Dad mean by this? The last time, he knew that Qiao Nan was in Qingshui Town but he didn’t tell me about it and even handed the property deed over to her! He knew that both you and I were anxiously looking for Qiao Nan since she stole the money I needed urgently to save my life. Dad even knew that Qiao Nan was back in Ping Cheng and even in this quad. It wouldn’t even have been a hundred meters away for us to look for her. Why didn’t my dad say anything? Why did he hide it from me?”

And it had happened recently!

At her lowest and when she had one foot in the grave, Qiao Nan had gotten to know the Zhai family, and because of this relations.h.i.+p, Qiao Nan was now living such a comfortable life. On the other hand, she had to sell her house to raise enough funds for her surgery.

She could not understand the difference in her dad’s treatment toward her and Qiao Nan since they were both his daughters. It seemed as though Qiao Nan was her dad’s only daughter while she had been picked up from the dumpster. Even if one was biased, they could not be any more biased than her father! Did her father want to see her be sent to jail?

She thought about the damage that the news had done to her while she had been receiving treatment in the hospital. If those people had known about their family’s relations.h.i.+p with the Zhai family, would they have treated her in that manner? Of course not!

Qiao Nan wanted to ruin her, and so did her dad. Why? Why were her relatives all like that?

“Don’t cry. We haven’t confirmed it yet. When your dad comes back, we can clear things up and get your dad to explain the situation to us. It wouldn’t be good for us to malign your dad if those people were just spouting nonsense, right?” Ding Jiayi tried to comfort Qiao Zijin, hoping that these were not true. She truly hoped that Qiao Dongliang had never done anything to wrong her or Qiao Zijin.

Qiao Zijin wept as if trying to dry her tears. “Mom, it’s a disaster. Even you don’t believe what you just said. My dad is so vicious. He knows that Qiao Nan has struck rich, and he can’t be bothered with me since I don’t have a job or a husband and can’t be filial to him. He needs only Qiao Nan as his daughter to enjoy his old age. He’s looking down on me!”

Her dad clearly thought that Qiao Nan was more capable than her and would be better able to take care of him. With such a capable daughter like Qiao Nan, he could very well just kick this useless daughter out, right?

At the thought of this, Qiao Zijin sneered. What kind of biological parents were they? They did not really love her or Qiao Nan. They were simply treating them as tools to support themselves. As pitiful as Qiao Nan was, she was nowhere better.

Qiao Zijin had not stopped crying by the time Qiao Dongliang returned. The moment she saw Qiao Dongliang return, Ding Jiayi ran over anxiously and clutched onto him. “Old Qiao, hurry and explain the situation to Zijin. Just now, a few of our neighbors came over and said that Qiao Nan has been back for a while and living in the Zhai family’s house in the southern courtyard. They even said that you knew all about it. You should have heard the kind of nonsense those people spouted! They said that Zhai Sheng’s getting married, and they even dared to say that the person whom Zhai Sheng is going to marry is Qiao Nan! How could that wretched girl ever have such good fortune? Don’t you think it’s ridiculous?”

It was impossible. Zijin had not been able to marry into the Zhai family, so how could the Zhai family have taken a fancy to someone like Qiao Nan, who was so stingy and ugly? That was a lie that no one would believe!

“Zhai Sheng’s marrying Nan Nan?” Qiao Dongliang was stunned. Qiao Dongliang knew that Qiao Nan had lived with the Zhai family while she was back in Ping Cheng. The problem was that Qiao Dongliang had not known about the extent of Qiao Nan’s relations.h.i.+p with the Zhai family, and neither did he dare to ask about it.

But Qiao Dongliang had never even considered the possibility of Qiao Nan getting together with Zhai Sheng.