Chapter 349

The child knew that striving for progress was a good thing. He also could not dampen his confidence.

Failure is not terrible. What is terrible is not having the heart to stand up again.

Zhi Xia patted him on the shoulder to encourage him, "Then go for it, work hard for your goals. If you have any difficulties, you can come to me."

"Okay, thank you Aunt An," Wu Xiaohua said.

At the An family.

Zhou Nan looked at Pei Shuangshuang who approached again, and was simply extremely headaches.

At the beginning, she didn't know what was going on. Ever since the third son came back, this girl had been running over here all the time, ostensibly to keep her company. But as soon as the third son came back, her eyeballs were almost thrown onto the third son.

Over time, Zhou Nan finally figured it out.

But this was not a trivial matter either.

Her daughter was married to Pei Jing. Although Grandpa said he let them handle their own affairs separately and not get entangled, there was still no reason for Pei Shuangshuang to marry the third son.

Otherwise, it would be a mess at home, which would not look proper to outsiders.

Moreover, Zhou Nan really did not like Pei Shuangshuang.

Forget about this girl's spoiled temperament. Just talking about how she made things difficult for her sister-in-law when she was a young lady, and got Guo Momo to have a premature delivery. She was quite ill-mannered.

Plus Wang Yue's troublemaking at the time. If her daughter followed her mother, and brought back such a troublemaker as a daughter-in-law, how could she not be crossing her?

She wouldn't say her children were all exceptionally good. But even in the eyes of outsiders, they were all outstanding. Her three daughters-in-law had some minor flaws, but in general they were still decent.

At least no one dared to make trouble in front of her because of family property or anything. "Shuangshuang, are you on vacation from your company?" Knowing her intention, Zhou Nan asked with a stiff smile.

"Not yet. I still have to wait a few more days before I can take time off," Pei Shuangshuang said. Zhou Nan was picking vegetables with her hands, and Pei Shuangshuang also acted like she wanted to help. "Auntie, are you making lunch? Let me help you."

She was about to get started, but Zhou Nan dodged, "You don't need to help with this. It's just a casual thing for me. But since you haven't gotten time off work yet, you should still have to go to work in the afternoon. It's getting late now. Auntie won't keep you. Hurry back home to eat and then go to work."

Pei Shuangshuang pouted somewhat dejectedly, "Auntie, I don't want to go home. Can I eat at your house? You don't know how my sister-in-law is..."

A series of complaints came pouring out. Zhou Nan secretly rolled her eyes.

If you only listened to Pei Shuangshuang's one-sided account, she did sound quite aggrieved. But Zhou Nan just wanted to gloat.

What was this called again?

That's right.

Villains get their just desserts!

Not a single conniving woman. It's perfect that they've gathered together and can torment each other. Just don't come out and bother others.

Having finally sent Pei Shuangshuang away, Zhou Nan put the picked vegetables into the kitchen, then went to the living room to sit opposite An Jingzhi. "All you do is read this newspaper every day. Can you read patterns or read money out of it?"

As she grew older and the children had all started families, An Jingzhi's temper had also mellowed quite a bit.

Now occasionally, he would even help look after the grandchildren, and no longer had the stubborn attitude towards Zhou Nan like before.

Seeing she was in a bad mood, he put down the newspaper helplessly and said, "What's the matter? The kids aren't home either, they've gone with their mother to visit her mother. Who's bothering you again?"

Currently, it was still Liu Ling who lived with them along with the children, with only the still unmarried third son occasionally coming back. But because he was often on duty at the hospital, most of the time he just slept in the duty room there.

"It's Pei Shuangshuang again. Tell me, what should we do about this? Even when the third son doesn't come home, she still runs over here all the time, as if she's got her eye on me. It really gives me a headache." After speaking, Zhou Nan glared at An Jingzhi, "The third son is also at fault. He refuses to go on blind dates when told to find a partner himself, he doesn't have any ideas either. If he found a partner and settled the matter, Pei Shuangshuang would naturally give up that idea on her own. They bother me day after day without giving me a moment's peace. And you, you don't even try to control your son. Sooner or later I'll be worried to death by you all!"

"It's not like I don't try to control him. He's almost 30, how can I control him his whole life?" An Jingzhi was also helpless. As the children grew up, his authority at home grew lower and lower.

In the past it was only the fourth son who opposed him, now they all opposed him.

If he talked too much, they would simply disappear and he wouldn't even see them. What more could he do?

He couldn't possibly go block people at the hospital every day, could he? Zhou Nan was also becoming more and more difficult with age, and more nagging as well. Over the past two years, his status in the family had sunk lower and lower. Even just sitting here reading a newspaper could draw criticism from her. Life had become unbearable.

"Or I'll go talk to her father. He should be the one to control his own daughter. Her running over to our house all the time really doesn't look right." He remembered Pei Shuangshuang was 24 or 25 this year. When a daughter grew up, it was hard to keep her at home. Keeping her would only breed resentment.

He didn't know what she was thinking, already so old and still without a partner, actually having her eyes on the third son.

Come to think of it, it was the same situation in his own home. When it came to getting them married, it was like getting them enemies.

In the past, the second son had also been tricked by a woman because he didn't listen to him early on and find a partner.

There wasn't anything terribly wrong with Zheng Suchun either. She was just too clingy. As a grown man outside, she would follow him taking tiny steps with the two children in tow.

Actually when he thought about it, who didn't have some flaws?

Liu Ling was petty, but she still had a sense of propriety, so they just turned a blind eye.

At present, Su Ying still seemed decent, but she lived at Grandpa's place, so it was possibly an issue of absence making the heart grow fonder, and not seeing each other's flaws by living together.

An Jingzhi also felt some sympathy for Pei Yong. No matter how capable a man was, if both his children were not raised well, he would only start to bear the bitter fruits in his later years.

But he also had to admit Pei Yong's contributions. Aside from being muddled regarding family matters, he could be called a hero when it came to his country and people.

In this aspect, he was better than himself.

Pei Yong had never known that Pei Shuangshuang would actually like An ZhiXian, and even the reason she had refused to find a partner and get married all these years was because of him.

When he found out, he was also shocked, and at the same time realized this marriage could not happen.

Otherwise, An Jingzhi would not have come to see him today either.

Zhi Xia didn't know any of this, because she was busy with New Year's matters.

On the 28th, Pei JianGuo sent over New Year gifts. Fortunately Pei Jing was also there, so he went to receive them himself.

Zhi Xia had told Sister Zhang she could take the day off on New Year's Day, so there was no need for her to come.

She also had her own family to go home and celebrate a good new year.

But in reality, men could just shrug it off while women still had to bustle around busily. So it was impossible for her to actually relax.

Zhi Xia was discussing with Pei Jing what dishes to prepare for New Year's Eve dinner. After all there were many children who all had quite the appetite, and preparing too little would definitely not be enough.

Just then, PingAn came scrambling in from outside. "Grandpa and Grandma, my grandpa said tomorrow he wants you all to come to our house for New Year's Eve dinner. Grandpa bought lots of meat and vegetables today, chicken, fish, and meat."