Chapter 356 - 354: A Granddaughter is More Valuable than a Grandson

Chapter 356: Chapter 354: A Granddaughter is More Valuable than a Grandson

"Fine, I’ll go get it."

Guo Xiuying was extremely reluctant, but she remembered she still needed something from him. If she upset Zhang Weimin now, the promise he’d made her last night might vanish into thin air. So, she had no choice but to swallow her anger and agree. After dawdling into the room and coming out with the money, she still couldn’t help but say resentfully, "You’ve already taken plenty for the New Year. It’s been a full three hundred yuan. This is the last time, you hear?"

"Nag, nag, nag." Zhang Weimin snatched the money before muttering and leaving.

He walked to the main gate and came face-to-face with Zhang Dazhuang, Wen Xiu, Chen Shulan, and Zhang Daquan. He froze. "Dad, Mom, Uncle, Aunt, why are you all here together?"

"Perfect timing. We need to talk to you two," Zhang Dazhuang said.

"Dad, what’s this all about? Can’t you just talk to Xiuying? I have plans." Zhang Weimin, thinking about his card game, was reluctant to stay.

"That’s fine. We just came to tell you something. Your mother and I are taking Laidi with us. From now on, she won’t be living with you; she’ll be living with us in the city." Zhang Dazhuang could see his son was in a hurry and knew his so-called "plans" were just a card game, so he nodded and got straight to the point.

"Huh?" Zhang Weimin was stunned. "Why?"

"You have the nerve to ask why?" Wen Xiu’s face flushed with anger. "Hasn’t that woman, Guo Xiuying, told you about her little scheme? Are you really planning to send your own daughter to be ruined by that old bastard Xu Banxian? Don’t you know that old coot is more than ten years older than you?"

"...How... how is that possible... Who did you hear this from?" Zhang Weimin stammered in embarrassment.

"Who did we hear it from? Hmph. If you don’t want people to know, don’t do it in the first place." Wen Xiu was furious. "Now you listen to me. This isn’t happening. No matter the reason, you are not sending her away. The Zhang family can’t afford this disgrace."

"Mom, don’t listen to a bunch of nonsense. How could Xiuying and I send Laidi off to be ruined? That sounds so awful. All we’re doing is sending her to Xu Banxian’s house for a few months, half a year at most. She’ll help them with some laundry and cooking, that’s all. It’s just a formality to make her suffer a bit. But it’s for her brother’s sake, isn’t it?" Zhang Weimin argued defensively.

"Wei Min, don’t tell me you agreed to this?" Chen Shulan looked at Zhang Weimin, heartbroken. "We already know she’s being sent to be a concubine, and you’re still trying to hide it from us? I don’t need to explain what a concubine is, do I? You’re a grown man; you can’t possibly be that ignorant, can you? That’s your own daughter!"

Zhang Weimin refused to accept that, repeating the argument Guo Xiuying had fed him. "Aunt, it’s not like that at all. We’re her parents; would we really harm her? How can you trust rumors? It’s only because Tianci’s illness isn’t getting any better that we were forced to come up with this idea. We need Laidi to suffer a little to resolve Tianci’s sickness, right? And even though we say she has to suffer, we’ve already agreed that they won’t actually make her do much work. It’s just for show."

He said with a look of self-righteousness, "Laidi is the older sister. Her birth chart is suppressing Tianci’s. Otherwise, Tianci wouldn’t have been sick since the day he was born. So, shouldn’t she take on this misfortune for her own little brother?"

"We didn’t come here today to ask for your opinion. We came to tell you we don’t agree. So we’re taking Laidi." Zhang Dazhuang looked at Zhang Weimin with utter disappointment. He couldn’t tell if his son was genuinely ignorant of the truth or just playing dumb. Either way, he didn’t want to argue with him any longer.

"Dad, haven’t we already split the family assets? Since we’ve split, this is our own family’s business. You can’t just stick your nose into everything, can you?" Just then, Guo Xiuying walked out of the house.

"That’s right, you split. Since you’ve split and you feel we have no say in your affairs, then you can get the hell out of this house right now. As I recall, Qiangzi paid to have this house built, and it’s in Qiangzi’s name," Wen Xiu said in an extremely harsh tone, her expression souring the moment she saw Guo Xiuying.

"Mom, can you be reasonable? Didn’t Big Brother already say the house would be ours after thirty years?" Zhang Weimin looked helpless, as if Wen Xiu was the one stirring up trouble.

"Listen to yourself. This is no family matter. This concerns the honor of the entire Zhang Family clan. I’ll make my position clear right now: even if your own parents agreed to this, the clan would not." Seeing Guo Xiuying’s arrogant demeanor, Zhang Daquan stepped forward. "If you insist on sending Laidi away, we will bring her back regardless. Making a scene will do you no good, because if it comes to that, we’ll take the child, and you can’t blame us for being ruthless when we expel you from the clan."

"Third, why do you think your big brother set a thirty-year term back then? Did you conveniently forget the prerequisites that were agreed upon? Now that your wife is saying you’ve split the family, you don’t even bother to tell us about something this major. And when we show up at your door, you have the gall to say it’s none of our business. Fine. In that case, I don’t want you as a son anymore. We’ll publish a notice in the papers and sever our relationship. Then you can go wherever the hell you want. Because you can forget about staying here," Zhang Dazhuang sneered.

Zhang Weimin: "..."

He hesitated for a moment before making a swift decision. "Mom, Dad, you decide. I’m washing my hands of it. Do whatever you want. But if you take her, her scholarship money is still ours, right?"

"We’ll talk about that later. You won’t be short-changed." Wen Xiu’s heart grew cold, hearing that even now, all Zhang Weimin cared about was money. But she couldn’t be bothered to argue over trivial details with him. She turned her fire directly on Guo Xiuying. "What about you? If you agree, we’ll take Laidi right now, and her affairs will no longer be your problem. Of course, if you don’t agree, we’re still taking her. If you can’t accept that, you might as well just divorce Wei Min. I refuse to believe he can’t find someone better without you."

"Mom, Dad, what are you doing? Why are you forcing my hand like this? Isn’t Tianci your grandson too? In your eyes, is a granddaughter really more valuable than a grandson?" Guo Xiuying asked, her eyes red with resentment.

"You know what? You’re absolutely right. In our eyes, our granddaughter *is* more valuable than our grandson. You got a problem with that?" Wen Xiu retorted, completely self-assured. "If you weren’t a black-hearted monster scheming against our granddaughter, would we need to be here forcing you?"