On Monday morning, Huan was having breakfast in the dining room when he heard footsteps, so he turned his head to take a look.
His two flower-like daughters, who were dressed exactly the same, were walking into the dining room one after another. He found it to be so refreshing and beautiful, not to mention super eye-catching.
He felt that this Monday morning was really good.
“You got up so early, why don’t you sleep more?” he asked with a smile.
“You have to have a regular work and rest schedule for the day, and can’t stay up late or get up late because of the holiday,” replied Yansheng.
In her previous life, she had a lavish, decadent, and corrupt way of life. She lived a crazy life day and night. At a young age, no matter how expensive the eye creams and essences she used, they could not eliminate the dark color under her eyes, let alone the emptiness in her heart.
She sat down and slapped Heling’s back. “Chest up! Don’t hunch your back.”
Heling wore her new training bra, which was a bit uncomfortable, so she subconsciously held her breasts. After being slapped by her sister, she straightened up.
Huan liked to watch this friendly scene between her daughters and how they took care of each other. He kindly asked Heling, “Is your arm okay now? Let me see.”
Heling didn’t realize that he was talking to her, so she didn’t react. Yansheng pulled up her arm and showed it to their father.
On her thin white arm, there was a purple-red mark. At first glance, Huan could tell that it was pinched. He looked distressed and said annoyingly, “I scolded your mother severely last night. If she dares to pinch you again, come and tell me, and I’ll return it to her!”
Heling only replied, “Oh!”
While they were talking, Zheng arrived and shouted ‘good morning’ to everyone with great energy.
He was dressed in a suit and leather shoes, and he also wore a tie. He was dressed more formally than the boss himself—Huan only wore a polo shirt.
Heling returned his greeting with a ‘good morning’, while Yansheng just nodded at him.
He cursed silently after receiving Yansheng’s coldness, but today was a great day for him to enter the Zhangs’ company, so he just ignored it. He ate breakfast quickly and asked Huan, “Uncle, what time are we going to leave?”
“I usually wait a little later. I will send you there today, so we’ll leave early,” replied Huan.
The corners of Yansheng’s lips twitched obliquely and she told Heling, “Go and bring Shuocheng down here.”
“Okay! He woke up early and must be playing in his room,” replied Heling, then she got up and went upstairs. Her little legs ran fast.
So Huan immediately shouted, “Don’t run when you’ve just eaten.”
By the time Heling grabbed Shuocheng on the collar and pulled him downstairs, Huan had already taken Zheng away. Shuocheng muttered as he sat on a chair with his legs dangling. This little boss was not happy.
“Your sister will have piano lessons later, so you have to do your homework by yourself. I won’t go to the third floor to watch you, as I don’t have that free time,” said Yansheng. “But I will ask your sister to check it out at noon. On Wednesday, your sister and I are going to have afternoon tea and play VR games. If you want to go with us, then you must be well-behaved. Even if you don’t want to go and if you don’t do your homework well, then you won’t have a good end.”
“She’ll use the ferule to whip you!” Heling also took the opportunity to scare him.
So Shuocheng’s neck shrank after listening to his sisters’ words.
The servants, who brought them breakfast, heard their conversation. They told the other servants in the kitchen. They all covered their mouths trying to restrain their laughter. One of them said, “Someone can finally control him now.”
Yansheng said to Heling, “Teacher Yang is very patient. If you have any questions, just ask her.”
When Yansheng gave her piano teacher’s contact information to Huan, which forced him to contact Mrs. Yang personally. When Mrs. Yang heard that he was Yansheng’s parent, she happily agreed, but she also felt a pity that Yansheng refused to continue learning the piano. She kept saying, ‘Yansheng is a very hardworking and self-disciplined child’ to him.
Parents loved to hear teachers praised their children, so Huan kept nodding and agreeing to all her praises. But when Mrs. Yang asked about Heling and how to arrange her time, so it would not collide with her other classes, Huan was speechless. He didn’t know that Heling had other classes as well.
He prevaricated with a few words and then threw this matter to his secretary.
The secretary contacted Yingying, but she was of no help at all because she was only responsible for paying. In the end, the secretary called Heling herself. The child understood her class clearly and informed the secretary her schedule.
Of course, the secretary did not tell Huan that his wife was also an irresponsible fool and only praised his daughter, “Hehe, this child is so sensible.”
Huan was so proud again.
******
Yansheng now closed her door every morning to study.
As soon as the door was closed, she was isolated from all the messy things at their home. This calmed her heart, so she was in a good state. She was now able to regard herself as a middle school graduate in a down-to-earth manner.
In the middle of her studying, she went downstairs to check on Heling, who was taking piano lessons, and to greet Mrs. Yang as well.
Mrs. Yang told Yansheng that she wanted to see and talk to their parents, either their father or their mother.
Yingying hadn’t gotten up yet, so Yansheng told her, “You can just tell it to me and I’ll pass it on later.”
Mrs. Yang knew Yansheng well so she said, “Heling has a lot of fingering errors and she has to correct them slowly.”
Yansheng knew that this was the former teacher’s fault and replied, “It’s okay, don’t worry, just correct it slowly.”
She thought that both Huan and Yingying could not be relied on regarding these little things, so she also told the teacher in the end, “In the future, you can tell me anything about her learning.”
Mrs. Yang was hired by Yansheng’s mother before and taught Yansheng for many years. She knew that their family situation was a bit complicated. Moreover, she had also figured out Huan based on their phone call before. She perceived that Huan was not the kind of parent who would care about his children carefully. As for the other parent, she hadn’t met Heling’s mother yet.
When she heard Yansheng said that, she nodded in agreement. “Okay.”
When Yansheng left, she touched Heling’s head. “Your sister cares about you.”
Heling smiled happily.
Yansheng studied until noon. On the other hand, Heling’s piano lesson was over, so she ran up to check Shuocheng’s homework.
After lunch, Yansheng called her father’s secretary. “On my sister’s birthday, which is on the second of August, my father promised her to go to the amusement park. Please put this in my father’s schedule, so he will not forget it.”
The secretary agreed. After the call ended, he asked Huan about it.
Huan was then reminded. “Oh yeah, I almost forgot it! Hurry up and put it in my schedule. I promised my daughter.”
The secretary smiled and said some flattering words, “Miss Yanyan has grown up a lot. She takes care of her younger sister now.”
Huan was in a good mood when he heard that.
******
Zheng previously complained to Yingying about Huan letting him start as an intern in the company. He felt that it was really unnecessary since they were family. However, he came back by himself in the evening and was in a good mood. “Everyone was polite to me when they heard that I was uncle’s nephew,” he said smugly.
In her previous life, Yansheng ignored him because he was from the Liang family. She really didn’t know that this man had told everyone about his relationship with her father on the first day he joined the company. The corners of her lips twitched when she heard him say that.
Even though she had no experience in managing a company, she knew that her father would not like it.
Unfortunately, Huan went out to socialize and didn’t have dinner at home. But it didn’t matter because if he wanted to know, then he would know it sooner or later.
“You have to be careful and serious at work. You can’t let others bully you there,” said Yingying.
The corners of Yansheng’s lips just twitched, and the corners of her eyes started twitching this time.
From this incapable parent’s general statement, one could figure out why Shuocheng later committed a crime.
“That’s not going to happen!” exclaimed Zheng. “How can I be bullied in our own company? I have to be stupid for that to happen.”
“Anyway, if you do well, this will give me a big face as well.” Yingying was more than satisfied.
No matter what her relationship with her natal family was, when facing the Zhang family, she would not just hug them, but also protect their shortcomings. She was worried that the Zhang family, especially Yansheng, would look down on the Liang family.
During the six months that Zheng lived in the Zhangs’ house in the previous life, Yingying had several conflicts with Yansheng for Zheng’s sake.
Zheng said, “Auntie, you should talk to uncle again. We are family, so why do I have to start as an intern? I am not very demanding. After all, I just graduated and I don’t want to be a director, but I should be a manager at least.”
Yansheng couldn’t bear to listen to them anymore. She put down her chopsticks and said to Heling, “I’m full. Eat well.” Then she got up and left.
Zheng looked at her back as she left. Without her, he didn’t have any qualms when he spoke, so he complained directly, “This stepdaughter of yours doesn’t treat me well.”
Yingying snorted and said, “Who does she treat well anyway? She doesn’t even treat her own father well!”
She also wanted to talk about the fact that Yansheng pressed her on the sofa and strangled her neck before, in which she almost died. But she was too proud to ruin her image in front of her natal family, so she held back and said nothing.
Heling glanced at these two and wanted to say, ‘Sister treats me well’, but after seeing the angry expression on her mother’s face, she lowered her head and endured it without saying anything.
But when Yingying noticed Heling, she suddenly became angry. “There is also this fool! Look at what you are wearing? I bought so many beautiful clothes for you. If you don’t want to wear them, then why do you have to dress like her?! Are you trying to make me angry?!”
As she said that, she habitually stretched out her hand to Heling.
The little girl jolted suddenly and exclaimed, “If you pinch me again, I will tell Dad about it!”
Yingying immediately became stiff.
Last night, she also couldn’t explained why Huan suddenly got angry with her about the little incident of her pinching Heling’s arm. It was not that he hadn’t seen her pinch Heling before, but he suddenly became concerned now.
Recently, her husband was getting annoyed so easily.
Just as how Yansheng perceived it, Huan was really Yingying’s seven inches. Yingying would depend on him for the rest of her life to live a good life, so his words were the same as a holy decree.
When Heling exclaimed, Yingying really didn’t want to pinch her daughter this time because it would leave a purplish mark, and this evidence was too obvious.
But she was so angry that she poked Heling’s forehead aggressively. “You’re that great now, huh? You even dared to report your own mother?! Yesterday, you were the one who told on me causing me to be scolded by your father!”
Heling already knew that it was Yansheng who took the photo of her bruise and sent it to Huan last night. But she was not a villain who would betray her teammates, and she was not stupid either. Her big eyes rolled around and said, “Dad saw it by himself. Look, such a big mark is so conspicuous.”
As she said that, she stretched out her arm. The bruise on it had turned into a purple-red patch now, which was indeed conspicuous. It was also very likely that Huan saw it by himself.
Yingying poked her forehead twice again in anger. “I can still get you!”
“You can’t pinch me anyway!” Children’s intuition was keen. Heling felt Yingying’s weakness, so her courage increased. “If you pinch me again, I’ll go and look for Dad!”
Yingying was going to die of anger at this point. “Who gave birth to you, huh?! You don’t have a conscience! I gave birth to you for nothing!”
In the past, Heling didn’t dare to contradict her mother because no one backed her up. If she tried to go against Yingying, then she would be pinched and beaten for nothing. But it was different now. She had a sister and even her father spoke up for her. So she became more courageous and she was not so afraid of Yingying now. Although Yingying didn’t pinch her, her mother could still slap her, but she didn’t wait to be beaten as foolishly as before. She pushed her bowl forward, got up, and ran away. “If you hit me, I will tell Dad about it as well!”
Yingying was so angry that she said to Zheng bitterly, “Look at that! What’s the use of giving birth to her? She’s an ingrate!”