Living with this younger brother-in-law isn’t so bad.
“Class has already started.”
Song Chan whispered a reminder to Zhong Lingyu, but she knew he probably wouldn’t listen.
So she still slightly moved aside to make way for him.
The class representative distributing homework happened to be passing by. Song Chan caught a glimpse of him out of the corner of her eye and hurriedly tried to let him pass, bumping into a pile of books in her haste.
Zhong Lingyu reacted quickly, stabilizing the rickety pile of books, preventing Song Chan’s toes from being crushed by a dictionary.
“Are you alright?”
Zhong Lingyu helped Song Chan organize the books one by one, carefully placing the brick-like dictionary into her drawer.
Song Chan still seemed a little shaken, smiling and shaking her head at Zhong Lingyu.
Zhong Lingyu sat back down, reassured. “Don’t bring this dictionary to school. I’ll get you a scanning pen later.”
Song Chan seemed confused. “What’s a scanning pen?”
Zhong Lingyu confirmed several times that early scanning pens had indeed been invented by this time.”An electronic device for scanning words. Smartphones aren’t allowed at school, but a smart pen should be fine. I happen to have an extra one.”
Earlier, when Song Chan almost had a minor accident, and Zhong Lingyu reached out to steady the dictionary for her, the thought of scolding the two kids had already left his wife-obsessed mind. Now, under Song Chan’s curious and envious gaze, he was even more animated, talking incessantly about these novel gadgets she’d never heard of before, like a silver-tongued saleswoman.
Meanwhile, in the sports equipment room of Luhua Middle School, Zhong Xin and Zhong Cheng huddled behind the shelves, sighing repeatedly.
Zhong Xin: “Brother, aren’t we being a bit too ruthless in what we’re doing?”
Zhong Cheng wiped his glasses, his emotions stable. “Since we’ve done it, let’s not regret it. We’re not from this era; we don’t need to care so much.”
Zhong Xin: “Exactly! It’s all Dad’s fault. If he hadn’t insisted on us commuting, we wouldn’t have had to do something so self-destructive just to leave the dorm.”
Zhong Cheng: “But anyway, we got a satisfactory result. Now the school forces us to commute, so even if he disagrees, he has no choice but to compromise.”
She gave Zhong Cheng a thumbs up: “Brother, sometimes I think you’re really good at setting goals.”
Zhong Cheng wasn’t sure if his sister was praising him or insulting him. He carefully put his glasses back in their case and said without any hesitation, “I inherited it from Dad.”
Zhong Xin crumpled a foam volleyball and got back to the point: “That’s great…” We were finally able to get out of the dormitory and live in a spacious and comfortable house. ”
Zhong Cheng looked at his innocent sister and told her a cruel reality with some sadness, “That house may not be as good as you imagined.”
Zhong Xin: “Huh?”
“Yes, after all, it is just an old community, and the living conditions are very different from the apartments in your mind. There are frequent water and power outages, there are cockroaches and rats in the summer, and the toilets are stinky…”
“No way. Did mom live in a place like this before?”
“Why are you frustrated? It took me a lot of effort to find a place like this. It’s comfortable to live in a big house, but how can I live across the street from my mother? Are you usually too indulgent and picky when you go out? Have you forgotten our purpose?”
“Stop reading it, stop reading it! Do you think your wife will hate you in the future, too?”
Zhong Cheng immediately stopped talking.
There was silence for a while, but in the end, she was very angry. When Zhong Xin wasn’t paying attention, she pinched her cheek. The pain made Zhong Xin scream and slap her randomly.
At that moment, a dark figure slipped out from behind the door.
Zhong Lingyu knew Zhong Xin and Zhong Cheng well and knew where to find them.
He had originally come with the intention of teaching these two troublemakers a lesson, even if it meant being exposed, but he had overheard their plan.
It turned out that Zhong Xin and Zhong Cheng didn’t want to live at school and insisted on commuting so they could move to the apartment opposite Song Chan’s and get closer to her.
It was quite clever, to say the least.
If Zhong Xin and Zhong Cheng had simply stated their true purpose when they asked to commute, Zhong Lingyu would definitely have agreed.
But the problem was, they hadn’t.
It seemed neither father nor son trusted the other.
When did the ship of family affection become so fragile? Zhong Lingyu rubbed his temples in sorrow.
The classroom remained eerily silent.
Seeing that her classmates around her had not only finished all the homework assigned by the teacher, but had even completed several pages of their own extra practice questions, Song Chan felt a surge of panic. She quickly pulled out her practice papers and started working on them under a timer.
Just as she finished a reading passage and looked up at the time, she saw Zhong Lingyu return.
He looked dejected.
Song Chan couldn’t help but ask with concern, “Have you had a proper talk with Zhong Xin and Zhong Cheng?”
Actually, upon hearing that Zhong Xin and Zhong Cheng had been disciplined, Song Chan felt a strange unease. They seemed like such well-behaved children.
Zhong Lingyu was clearly an optimistic father. He didn’t seem overly concerned about Zhong Xin and Zhong Cheng’s concealment. The dejection he displayed was simply because climbing five flights of stairs in the sweltering heat had exhausted him.
But the moment he noticed Song Chan’s worried expression, it was as if some kind of mechanism within Zhong Lingyu had been activated, instantly triggering his “misery mode.”
“The children have grown up; I can’t control them anymore,” Zhong Lingyu said, his gaze fixed blankly on the desk. Song Chan’s heart sank more and more as she listened. “Let’s find another opportunity later. Don’t be too discouraged.”
Song Chan actually felt quite guilty. As the mother, she hadn’t taken care of the child, causing her uncle so much trouble. How could she bear it?
After much thought, she mustered her courage. “Then…what about the child’s father? Does he know about Zhong Xin and Zhong Cheng’s disciplinary actions?”
Wait, she had actually called herself the child’s mother!
Song Chan covered her face in horror.
Zhong Lingyu almost didn’t react after hearing this.
He hesitated for a moment. Although he was glad Song Chan was worried about this matter, he didn’t want her to be too concerned and affect her studies.
“He knows. He’ll come back in a few days to deal with it.”
Song Chan’s shoulders stiffened.
Zhong Lingyu’s comforting words didn’t dispel Song Chan’s concerns; instead, they set her on high alert.
No way, was she really going to meet the child’s father this time?
Her cheeks flushed instantly, and an inexplicable sense of nervousness washed over her again.
Zhong Lingyu leaned closer, her head slightly turned. “Song Chan, you’re sweating. Is the classroom too hot? I’ll ask the air conditioner to turn it on.”
It was evening self-study time, and everyone was engrossed in their studies. The classroom was as quiet as a chicken’s nest, so Zhong Lingyu naturally spoke in a low voice.
Song Chan felt like a tiny insect had crawled into her ear canal.
How awful! Her brother-in-law was seducing her again!
Even more awful, her sister-in-law actually thought her brother-in-law was quite nice.
Her brother-in-law was so gentle and considerate; on the contrary, the rumored father of her child had never even shown his face.
Suddenly, Song Chan’s mind conjured up countless melodramatic scenes from the Republican era: “The eldest son’s wife, married to a rooster to ward off bad luck, faces hardship in the grand mansion; the second son, a wise and gentle man who has returned from studying abroad, is entrusted by his elder brother to care for his sister-in-law, showing her constant protection and tenderness. Over time, they develop feelings for each other, enduring tumultuous relationships, and ultimately, under the persecution of feudal ethics, the sister-in-law drowns herself, the younger brother hangs himself, and the eldest son dies vomiting blood.”
Sister-in-law Song, something’s wrong with you! You absolutely can’t think like this anymore!
Song Chan internally berated herself.
She continued to berate herself until she got home from school.
The old neighborhood was pitch black, so dark you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. As Song Chan and Song Qing reached the alley entrance, a beam of light shone on their faces.
“Here you are!”
It was her mother, Meng Mian, coming out to greet her with a flashlight.
Bathed in the dim light of their flashlights, the mother and her two children carefully made their way home, avoiding the puddles in the stairwell.
“Why is the power out again? Wasn’t it just out a few days ago?”
Song Qing looked distressed.
Meng Mian: “They say it’s because they’re building a plaza up ahead, which consumes a lot of electricity. And these past few days have been peak electricity usage, so we’re probably being rationed.”
Song Qing: “That’s unfair! Why is only our power cut off? I’ve never seen the Jinming residential area have its power cut off! Is it because it’s a high-end community, and we can’t afford to offend them?”
Song Chan: “Let it be cut off, then. Once the plaza is finished, the property prices here will go up.”
As they spoke, they reached the door. Meng Mian was drenched in sweat, struggling to screw the key into the lock, beads of sweat dripping down her face.
Just as she was about to turn it in, a sudden sound startled her, and she failed.
Throughout the door, she could hear voices from the apartment across the hall.
“I seriously suspect you’re bullying the weak and fearing the strong. The Jinming residential area across the street is much closer, so why aren’t you cutting off their calls? The indoor temperature reaches 35 degrees Celsius at night. Without an air conditioning system, how can anyone rest properly? National regulations require teenagers to get at least eight hours of sleep—hello?”
Song Chan, Song Qing, and Meng Mian stared at each other, quietly listening to the sounds inside.
After hearing the person’s calls being hung up on three times, Song Chan heard his breathing seem to deepen, a desperate gamble on his life: “Hello, please connect me to the mayor’s hotline. I want to file a formal complaint…”
“I wonder who it was? Just now at school, they were saying I was spoiled, and now they’re acting like a madman because of a power outage?”
Zhong Xin, who was whispering sarcastically, pushed open the door and saw three people standing motionless in the dark stairwell, their flashlights shining upwards, making their faces appear deathly pale. Zhong Xin was so frightened that her legs went weak, and she almost fainted.
Hearing his sister’s exclamation, Zhong Cheng strode over, his mouth still busy, launching into a stern and logically rigorous accusation against the person on the other end of the phone.
“Is peak-hour electricity rationing really reasonable? Before restricting residential electricity, I suggest you turn off those dazzling neon lights—Grandma?”
Zhong Cheng immediately recognized Meng Mian standing in the doorway and blurted it out involuntarily.
Meng Mian didn’t immediately understand what Zhong Cheng had said until Zhong Xin straightened up from the doorframe, turned on her phone’s flashlight, and carefully shone it on Meng Mian’s face, tracing her features with her eyes.
Meng Mian was startled by Zhong Xin’s perplexing behavior and immediately backed away.
Until Zhong Xin confirmed her answer, she jumped up happily, “It’s Grandma!”
Meng Mian was undoubtedly an extremely loving grandmother, so much so that Zhong Xin and Zhong Cheng were so excited upon seeing her that they forgot the occasion.
However, the usually composed Zhong Cheng quickly regained his composure.
Seeing Meng Mian’s panicked expression, Zhong Cheng explained earnestly, “Hello, Auntie, we’re Song Chan’s classmates. Song Chan showed us your picture before, so we recognized you immediately. ‘Grandma’ is what we call her in our hometown; it means the same as ‘Auntie.'”
Still shaken, Meng Mian looked at Song Chan: “Your classmates?”
Song Chan and Song Qing nodded, “Yes, we know each other.”
Song Chan naturally didn’t want her mother to know such an absurd situation, so she had no choice but to temporarily agree with Zhong Cheng’s excuse.
Song Qing, whose mind was completely occupied with lobster fried noodles, seemed not to have understood anything despite watching the whole thing.
Once things were finally out in the open, Zhong Xin began to whine unabashedly to her grandmother, Meng Mian, “To be honest, we just moved in and were still settling in when the power went out. We don’t know where we’ll sleep tonight. It’s dirty, stuffy, smelly, and there are lots of bugs. Look, my whole body is covered in these tiny red bumps the size of fingernails, waah, they hurt and itch!”
Meng Mian considered herself far from a kind person, even stingy to the point of selfishness.
But today, for some strange reason, Meng Mian heard herself say, “Why don’t you stay in the same room as us?”
Why did she have this urge to pamper her?