Facing her brother’s gaze, Zhen Yu firmly denied, "I have never distrusted you!"
Seeing Zhen Yan still staring unblinkingly at her, Zhen Yu forcefully bit her teeth! Then she turned her eyes towards their mother, and posed a question filled with frustrations from both her past and current lives!
"I just don’t understand! Why do you always consider your son first, yet always leave the ss for to handle? To you, what am I, your daughter, really worth?!"
After hearing his sister’s question, Zhen Yan was taken aback for a mont, then suddenly lowered his head.
Mrs. Zhen, however, held her breath, and said incredulously, "Are you accusing of favoring Zhen Yan?!"
"Isn’t that the truth?" Zhen Yu straightforwardly admitted.
Mrs. Zhen took a deep breath, her voice suddenly beca somber, "Xiao Yu, you know you were a child born in excess of the birth control policy, right?"
Zhen Yu nodded silently upon hearing this.
"Actually, before you, your mother was pregnant with two other children, but back then, violating the birth policy ant fines, so your father and I decided against it. It wasn’t until your brother fell seriously ill that your father felt having only one child was too risky and planned to apply to the workplace to have another one... Unfortunately, the approval for the second child wasn’t granted before you were born! As a result, your father’s salary was reduced by one level, and we were heavily fined."
Zhen Yu was slightly moved; she had not realized there were so many complications before her birth.
"When you were born! Your brother had just passed his second birthday, exactly when children are most clingy! At that ti, your grandma was still alive! But she didn’t want to help take care of you kids! Your maternal grandmother was even less reliable! I had to take care of you two at ho on my maternity leave by myself. There was nobody to help with the confinent, so I had to do all the household chores... It was after giving birth to you that I developed this chronic back pain."
Zhen Yu remained silent, but her expression changed! anwhile, Zhen Yan slowly raised his head, listening.
"You both were too young, and my leave lasted for a year! It was just your father earning a salary to support our family of four, and tis were extrely tight! Whenever I bought sothing nice to eat, like cookies or bread, I would only give a bite to your brother, and save the rest as snacks for you! Your brother was also young; how could he not fuss?! I would tell him, ’Your sister is still small, so let her have so! When she grows up, she’ll understand and cherish you, her older brother’...," Mrs. Zhen couldn’t go on anymore and, unable to hold back, squatted on the floor and wept bitterly.
——
Zhen Yan, a grown man, was now actually brought to tears by his own mother’s words!
"Mom! I rember all that you told when I was a child! Stop talking, I will always be considerate of my little sister!"
Upon hearing her brother’s words, Zhen Yu could no longer hold back her tears.
For her, having lived two lifetis, her childhood in her previous life felt imnsely distant, those long-gone mories had already dissipated like a breeze. Not to ntion the events that happened when she was too young to even rember!
"...Brother!! Can you tell about our childhood?" Zhen Yu’s voice trembled slightly.
Zhen Yan first went over to help their mother sit on the sofa, then he waved his sister over.
"Little sister! Co here! I’ll explain it slowly to you."
"Okay!" Zhen Yu agreed and sat down next to her brother.
"When I was old enough to rember, you were already two or three years old, and mom and dad were working late every day! Sotis they’d co ho around six or seven, other tis it’d be eight or nine! It was just the two of us at ho, and every day when they left, they’d lock the yard gate, so I could only play at ho with you. When we got thirsty or hungry, we’d eat so dry food that was available. It was like this for maybe a year or two... Later, I grew older and always wanted to go outside and play with Fu Yu and the others! But mom wouldn’t let ! She was afraid I’d hurt you by accident or even lose you! Every day I felt like a prisoner, aimlessly figuring things out, until I finally found a small gate in our goose pen that was used by the geese! So, I always sneaked out with you through there! When dad found out, he beat hard! I yelled at mom and dad! All you care about is favoring my sister! Am I just adopted to look after the child?! Ha!"
Towards the end, Zhen Yan suddenly burst into laughter.
Because he actually felt happiness from his childhood mories!
Even getting beaten was part of being a close-knit family!
Not like now, when the family of four is all torn apart...
"What happened next?" Zhen Yu couldn’t help but ask.
Zhen Yan took a deep breath, his gaze distant as he looked at the ground, "Later... I ended up looking after you until you were eight. All the other kids were going to primary school, and I wanted to go too! But our parents wouldn’t let ! I made a fuss! Mom then placated by saying, ’Your sister is still young, just take care of her for one more year.’ I rember being so angry that I ran off and stayed at Fu Yu’s house for three full days! I refused to go ho! Because I felt that mom and dad were too biased towards you, they wouldn’t even let go to school!"
Zhen Yu only knew that her brother started primary school late because of her, but she didn’t expect it was actually her parents who had stopped him! She felt sowhat apologetic and said, "Sorry, brother! I—"
"Hey! What’s there to be sorry about! I was just a kid who didn’t understand anything! What’s the big deal watching over you for another year! Did I ever watch over you too little?!"
"Okay!" Zhen Yu said with tears and a smile, nodding vigorously at Zhen Yan.
Zhen Yan continued, "After we started primary school, our family life should have gotten better. I rember during winter, we would buy baskets of apples and oranges! In sumr, the big water tank in front of the door was never without waterlons and musklons. But, life beca tough for mom..."
Zhen Yu seed to understand, suddenly turning her head to look at her mother!
Mrs. Zhen’s emotions had cald a bit, and seeing her daughter looking at her, she said with two swollen red eyes and a nasal voice, "Look! Actually, it’s not all your dad’s fault. After our life got better, your maternal grandparents clung to us like leeches! Mom was young and naive, easily swayed by your grandma to move everything to her maiden ho! Your dad was enraged and ended up hitting just out of frustration..."
"Mom!" Zhen Yan suddenly interrupted his mother, "Let’s not talk about dad! Let’s talk about you! You’ve cried enough, what exactly do you think inside! What’s the matter with using Xiao Yu as a shield?!"
—
Mrs. Zhen sighed deeply, honestly confessing her act of hiding the truth and lying.
It turned out that originally, Gu’s father had asked Mrs. Zhen to contribute 50,000 yuan to buy a house together, which was actually a test for her!
After the house was purchased, it wasn’t long before he changed his tune! He no longer wanted each family to manage separately, but wanted to truly rge the two families into one, with him taking control of the household registration book!
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