On the night of the 29th, all three of them squeezed onto Shu Yanâs bed. Shu Yanâs bed was 2 meters in width and could comfortably accommodate all three of them.
âMom, can I sleep with you from now on?â
Shu Yan had stopped sleeping with Tianbao since they have moved to their new apartment. She had him sleeping in his own room by himself. He would still, occasionally, when there was thunder storm, brought his little pillow over to sleep with Shu Yan.
âTianbao is a man already. He needs to sleep by himself.â
âTianbao doesnât want to be a man anymore,â said Tianbao, pouting his little lips.
Shu Yan pinched his nose. âDonât you feel ashamed to say that?â
They have been to City Nan for a while now and there had been marked changes with the two children. JingJing had become more outgoing and bolder. Tianbao threw a lot of temper tantrums at the beginning and after he had been taught a few lessons by Shu Yan, he was no longer that unruly child that he once was. He had become closer with Shu Yan and JingJing. His relationship with JingJing had changed a lot from what it was.
The two children had little secrets between them that they wouldnât share with Shu Yan. Shu Yan may seem envious in appearance, but she was glad about it.
JingJing had no interest in visiting their old home at all nor would she voluntarily bring up her grandparents or her father. Tianbao would occasionally bring up his grandparents. As much as Shu Yan didnât like them, she also would not badmouth them in front of the kids. They were, after all, his family and Old Mr. and Mrs. Yeâs love for Tianbao was certainly genuine.
Lingan Township, Ye Zhiqiang brought Li Jiaojiao home for the New Year and old Mrs. Ye was not a fan of Li Jiaojiao.
Old Mrs. Ye had always known about the affair between Ye Zhiqiang and Li Jiaojiao. Back then, she felt very prideful. After all, Li Jiaojiao was a college student with good job security. How could Old Mrs. Ye not be prideful when a girl like that chose to be with her son who has only had junior high school education?
But she also learned that Shu Yan used Li Jiaojiao to divorced her son and forced her son to leave penniless. Not only had he lost his company but Shu Yan had also taken with her her oldest grandson. That was Old Mrs. Yeâs lifeblood. Ye Zhiqiang would never have let that happened had it not been Li Jiaojiao putting ideas into his head.
âYou still havenât found out Shu Yanâs contact information?â said Old Mr. Ye after drawing a puff from his pipe. âShe didnât even come back over the New Year. Where could she had gone with the children? I wonder how our Tianbao is doing right now.â
âWhat do you think could have happened? Sheâs illiterate. Sheâd be lucky not to be scammed. Besides, with her personality, she couldnât have hold out on her own. Whatâs going to happen to Tianbao if she gets married again and have another child?â Thinking about that, Old Mrs. Yeâs eyes reddened again. âOh, mi! My precious. Grandma never let you have one bad moment when you were here. Now you have to suffer. I said to drag her to have her tubes tied back then but you said you wanted another grandson. Whatâs going to happen to Tianbao if she has more kids later on?â Finally, Old Mrs. Ye started grumbling to Old Mr. Ye.
âYou agreed with me at the time too.â Old Mr. Ye wasnât too happy either. Back then, the government was very strict about controlling the number of children a household could have. He even had to paid off the head of the village and the manager of the womanâs organization in order to not have Shu Yanâs tubes tied.
âAlright. Itâs not every day that I come home for the New Year. Can we talk about something else?â Ye Zhiqiang had changed a lot since he had first met Shu Yan. Mainly he wasnât as spry as he was before. He seemed to have aged 10 years.