Chapter 438

No one knew whose big rooster crowed. It crowed a few times then stopped, as if its throat was blocked.

Liu Ling's mother yawned and said, "I'm going to make breakfast. Go back home after eating. Remember this: live your own life well. There's a saying that goes 'help in an emergency but not in poverty'. Our family is not so poor that we can't afford meals. Don't try to help."

In the past, Liu Ling would have gotten up to help.

But now, her mind was too messy to care about anything else. She lay there, lost in thought about her life and the contradictions in the Liu family that she had learned from her mother.

She seemed to have really made a mistake.

But her intentions were good!

Her thinking was simple. She lost to Su Ying because her family was not wealthy. If her older and second brother had the ability to make money, she would not have been pushed around by Su Ying all the time.

When her sister-in-law wanted to open a tailor shop, she happened to remember her family had two storefronts left and casually offered them to her. But her older sister-in-law did not have plans to open a shop at the time.

She had not slept all night and her mind was still groggy.

Liu Ling's mother called her to come eat breakfast. Her older and second brother's families also got up. After hearing her mother's words last night, Liu Ling realized her feeling that her older sister-in-law had been cold to her recently was not her imagination.

She had even complained about it to her second sister-in-law, who said it was because her older sister-in-law was not happy with work.

Before Liu Ling went back, An Zhiqing came over with things.

Those in the Liu family who had work went to work and those who had school went to school. Liu Ling's father took time off work so her son could help resolve his daughter's family issues.

Liu Ling and her mother were in the yard. Her father called An Zhiqing inside to talk and asked about his life recently, complaining that he hadn't brought his two children over. But he didn't mention their fight. An Zhiqing also didn't bring it up.

After sitting with Liu Ling's father for a while, he went to the yard to find her. Liu Ling's mother gave her a look and quickly left to give them space.

"Let's go home. There's not much space here at your mom's and you can't stay here either. I'm only back for a few days and will leave again soon. We only get together like this twice a year. You don't want to waste the time fighting, right?" An Zhiqing kept his voice very gentle, even though he didn't think he was wrong, or even understand what she had to be angry about.

Now the whole family hated her and no one said she was wrong, so what more did she want?

Liu Ling knew his temper and didn't dare defy him at this time, so just nodded.

Liu Ling's mother hid nearby, relieved with a sigh. Only then did she dare to come out. "Zhiqing, don't leave at noon. Stay and eat lunch here. Call Wenqing and your siblings over too."

An Zhiqing wanted to refuse but then Liu Ling's father said, "Right, stay for lunch. Look, you brought so much stuff this trip. Let's kill that chicken at noon and us men can drink a few."

It would be inappropriate for him to refuse again, so he said, "When I came, Wenqing took my sister to his aunt's. Those two were looking forward to the roast suckling pig they didn't finish last night. Let's not call them for lunch. I'll have them come visit you another time."

"That's fine too. We'll eat our meal and they can come themselves whenever they want since they're grown up now." Liu Ling's mother couldn't help but resent her daughter in her heart. She didn't understand what was worth getting so angry about.

Look how well off they were! She had lived most of her life and never even seen what roast suckling pig looked like!

Her family was not bad off. Her husband and son and daughter-in-law all had income. They could enjoy meat every ten days or half month. But with so many in the family, each person only got a few bites. Still, they were one of the better off families.

There were even poorer people who couldn't eat their fill.

In the afternoon when they got home, An Zhiqing busied himself tidying up the house.

With the elderly family members having moved out, the house suddenly had several empty rooms to clean up.

After hesitating again and again, Liu Ling asked him, "I went to my mom's last night and she scolded me badly. Do you...also think I'm being unreasonable and making trouble over nothing?"

"Everyone has some temper and times when they feel wronged. You can occasionally be upset with me, but we can't fight every day living together... Most importantly, you shouldn't have fought with your parents and younger sister. We're both adults now with our own lives. Everyone's human. If you frown at them all day, who would feel comfortable seeing that? They don't owe us anything."

Too much quarreling was making trouble, but she was finally reflecting on herself, so An Zhiqing didn't want to stimulate her with these words.

"I understand now. I'll change in the future. Don't be angry with me anymore." Liu Ling was just being a bit petty. If it came down to it, she didn't dare actually do anything, and didn't even have the nerve to make a scene.

She knew clearly in her heart that if they really couldn't get along at their age, she would never have a better life than now. But with An Zhiqing's status, he could easily marry a young woman if he left her.

Wasn't An Zhiren a good example? Zheng Suchun was nearly ten years younger than him, sticking to him like glue every day, coaxing and pampering him, not daring to slack off at all, afraid he would leave her. But she had to admire this about Suchun. She could shamelessly coax a man, something Liu Ling could not do.

"It's fine as long as you understand. I'm not blaming you either. Let's handle matters fairly. We should live our own lives and not feel we have to compare with others. There are countless people in this world, and beyond one mountain is a taller one. Even if you compare well with family, you can't compare with those outside. There's no need to do unnecessary things."

"I haven't criticized you yet. Leaving me halfway in the middle of the night. You were heartless too."

"You know it wasn't safe so late. Let's see if you dare throw another tantrum next time." An Zhiqing didn't tell her that he had followed and escorted her to the Liu family's, afraid she would have no sense next time.

From that day onward, although no one said anything more, Zhi Xia and Su Ying both clearly felt Liu Ling had changed.

Of course, this change was for the better.

The past was the past. She was willing to reconcile, so Zhi Xia naturally wouldn't cling to it.

Chen Ye had come back for a period. At sixteen, he had already started working. He was the youngest graduate student researcher at their institute of science and technology, and was a software engineer in machine design research.

Zhi Xia didn't really understand this profession, and it also had some confidentiality so he couldn't talk about it outwardly.

Because time was tight, he only stayed two days before leaving again.

After school started, Wanqing went abroad again as well.

The houses at Hulan Elegant Garden sold extremely quickly. The remaining ten-plus buildings sold out within an hour of release, and all sold for over 700,000 yuan.

She had originally priced them with room to bargain down, but didn't expect such high demand, leading to no one bargaining. It was also proof that there was no shortage of wealthy people in Jincheng now.

Another batch of commercial housing also sold out within half a month of release. The speed of capital return was very noticeable.

Liu Ling had just heard from colleagues about the sale price and popularity of Hulan Elegant Garden houses. A student in her class came from a well-off family, and the child's uncle had bought a house in Hulan Elegant Garden. He had bragged about it to his classmates and she overheard, so passed it on to Liu Ling as gossip.

Then she had been absentminded the whole afternoon, also somewhat dizzy.

If she remembered correctly, this Hulan Elegant Garden was the wealthy district built by Sheng'an Construction that they had bought houses in, priced at 500,000 yuan originally. An Zhiqing had asked her opinion and she thought it wasn't worth it so rejected it.

In less than two months, the price had risen by 200,000 yuan.

Only then did she finally believe the price Zhi Xia had given them was indeed a discounted price for family.

Unfortunately, she was the only one who had not seized this opportunity.