Chapter 355 - 353: Asking for Money

Chapter 355: Chapter 353: Asking for Money

As soon as Zhang Dazhuang finished speaking, Wen Xiu turned to Zhang Wei Qiang and Lin Qin. "You heard him. Your father and I have discussed it, and we’d like to bring Laidi to the city to live with us."

She paused for a moment before continuing, "But we haven’t made a final decision yet. We wanted to ask for your opinion first. If you don’t object, we’ll settle it this way. Of course, if you do object, we won’t blame you. After all, when the family property was divided, we were assigned to live with you. Even though we live separately now, it’s not much different from living all together. If you’re not happy about something, we have to respect your wishes, don’t we?"

The meaning behind her words was clear: in her and Zhang Dazhuang’s eyes, the two of them still carried more weight. So, when she finished, Lin Qin smiled and asked before Zhang Wei Qiang could, "Mom, what would you plan to do with Laidi if we disagreed?"

Wen Xiu replied, "Don’t worry about that, we’ve thought it through. Laidi has to live at her school dormitory on weekdays anyway. She only comes home on weekends and during the winter and summer breaks. We’d buy an apartment for her and hire a trustworthy person to live there. It wouldn’t cost much for them to keep her company and take care of her during breaks, and look after the apartment the rest of the time. At most, we would just visit her occasionally or have her stay with us for a few days now and then. It’s no big deal."

"Mom, I don’t actually object to you wanting Laidi to come live with us. No matter what, she’s your biological granddaughter. And given her current situation, plus the fact that she’s still so young... We’re her aunt and uncle. We’re not so petty that we can’t tolerate having a child stay with us for a few years and insist she live outside."

Lin Qin smiled sweetly. "Besides, she’s a girl, after all. You can hire a trustworthy person to look after her, but that person isn’t family. They’re just an employee. Can you really expect them to genuinely care for the child? Kids her age are in their rebellious phase, always wanting to do the opposite of what adults say. Laidi is timid, true, but after suddenly going through something like this and then living alone, there’s no guarantee her personality won’t change drastically."

"Especially if someone with ulterior motives were to deliberately get close to her and lead her astray—that would be a terrible outcome. And there’s one more thing: having an outsider look after her just doesn’t look right. It’s better to keep the child under our own watch. I imagine Wei Qiang probably thinks so too, right?"

As she spoke, she looked up at Zhang Wei Qiang, raising an eyebrow with a smile.

Zhang Wei Qiang nodded. "Right."

"Since neither of you objects, it’s settled. We’ll bring Laidi to live with us then." Lin Qin’s words left Wen Xiu extremely satisfied. At the same time, she breathed a sigh of relief, and her gaze toward her daughter-in-law grew even more affectionate.

’Lin Qin is genuinely thinking about what’s best for Laidi.’ This once again proved that her eldest daughter-in-law was kind-hearted.

’A kind-hearted daughter-in-law is always better than a cruel one.’

Of course, if she had been unwilling to let Laidi live with them, it wouldn’t have meant she was cruel. That would have been perfectly normal, and Wen Xiu wouldn’t have held any grudge against her for it.

Lin Qin said with a gentle smile, "Alright. A few of us are heading back to the city today. Why don’t I go back and get a room ready for her right away? That way, when you bring her back after the fifteenth, she can move right in." In her heart, she truly didn’t mind Laidi moving to the city. She was just a niece, which would mean preparing a dowry for her in the future. Money was the one thing their family didn’t lack right now. If Laidi was willing to be close to her later on, she wouldn’t mind giving her a little extra.

"Yes, you’re so thoughtful." Wen Xiu was even more pleased. "You don’t need to go to Third’s house in a bit. It wouldn’t be appropriate for you, as his elder brother and sister-in-law, to personally interfere in your younger brother and sister-in-law’s divorce. People could gossip about it later. I think you should get going. I’ll go get you some snacks for the road."

"Mom, there’s no rush," Zhang Wei Qiang said. "We’ll leave after lunch. We can rest a bit and also wait here to see what the situation is when you get back from Third Brother’s house. Otherwise, we’ll be worried the whole way, won’t we?"

"Then stay for lunch before you go. Your father’s cousin’s family knows about this too. Your father and I will go get them and we’ll all go find Third together." Wen Xiu nodded, then called to Zhang Dazhuang, "Old man, let’s go, before Third runs off and disappears. We don’t want him showing up here later to cause another scene."

"Let’s go, then." Zhang Dazhuang nodded, stood up, and was the first one out the door.

Wen Xiu stood up and instructed Lin Qin and Zhang Minzhen, "You two stay here and get a room cleaned up first, so Laidi has a place to stay when she arrives."

"Okay," Lin Qin and Zhang Minzhen replied in unison.

"Should we go watch?" Zhang Kai whispered to Zhang Su and Gu Nuan Nuan, his eyes darting toward Zhang Dazhuang and Wen Xiu, who had already left.

"No. What’s so interesting about watching a shrew make a scene? We can just wait for Grandpa and Grandma to come back and tell us what happened," Gu Nuan Nuan said, rejecting Zhang Kai’s suggestion with a toss of her head.

"Alright, you have a point. If we’re not going, we’re not going. It’s not enough time to go find someone to hang out with anyway. There should be a deck of cards at home. How about the three of us go to your room and play Fight the Landlord?" Zhang Kai suggested.

"No problem," Gu Nuan Nuan agreed with a nod this time.

-- 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

「Zhang Weimin’s House.」

After finishing breakfast, Zhang Weimin wiped his mouth and stood up. "Give me a hundred. I won’t be back for lunch."

"Didn’t I just give you a hundred a few days ago?" Guo Xiuying asked, startled. "Did you lose it all playing cards in just two days?"

"I won. Scored a big hand. But I didn’t actually win much overall. The guys were all clamoring for me to treat them, so I had no choice and ended up spending a lot of my own money," Zhang Weimin said nonchalantly. In reality, he still had over a hundred yuan in his pocket. But he remembered what he had promised this old hag last night—the thing she’d been nagging him about for days. He knew that if he asked for money now, she’d hand it over obediently, no matter how reluctant she was.

He looked impatiently at Guo Xiuying’s wavering expression, then frowned and hurried her. "Hurry up, stop being so wishy-washy. The time we agreed on is almost here. You want me to keep them waiting? Besides, I only play cards around the New Year. What’s the big deal about spending a little money?"

Zhang Weimin pursed his lips. ’How much have I even gotten this New Year? I have to save up almost a whole year’s worth of spending money right now. If I don’t ask for more now, it won’t be this easy to get it later.’ His tone grew even more impatient. "The New Year is all about having fun, isn’t it? Am I supposed to just freeload off others and not even treat them when I win?"