Sun Jingfei had been very busy these days—busy handling miscellaneous procedures, busy buying bedroom furniture and changing curtains. This noon she’d just lain down to rest when several children in the living room were crying their hearts out. Her head ached terribly. She went out to ask what was wrong.
Thirteen-year-old Sun Jiaxing pointed at seven-year-old Sun Jiarui, saying his younger brother had cried after seeing Ke Yu’s social media post—saying Uncle and Auntie had taken Ke Yu and Yuyi skiing!
Sun Jiarui was crying heartbreakingly. The other even smaller one wasn’t crying but had his head squeezed between the balcony railings, pitifully looking outside. Sun Mother was a bit angry, scolding Sun Jingcheng for being worthless. As she spoke, she scrolled through social media, scrolling again and again, asking them: “Where? Your Ke Yu didn’t post anything?”
Several children crowded over—instantly stirring up a hornet’s nest, crying even more painfully. “He deleted it! He deleted it! He was afraid we’d see it so he deleted it again!”
Sun Mother scolded them, then looked at Sun Jingfei. “The fourth took them skiing?”
“I’m not sure.” Sun Jingfei distanced herself. “I’ve been busy the whole time.”
Sun Mother dialed Sun Jingcheng’s phone while scolding Sun Jingfei: “You siblings are both worthless—acting like this as uncle and aunt. Aren’t these your real nephews? Don’t you ever get sick of being despised?” The call connected and she scolded Sun Jingcheng again, then hung up and had the grandchildren put on clothes and scarves—she’d ride her elderly electric scooter to take them.
“Forget it Mom, I’ll take them.” Sun Jingfei said.
Sun Mother wore her down jacket, ignoring her.
“You don’t even know the way…”
“Can’t I look at navigation?!” Sun Mother glared at her fiercely.
…
Sun Jingfei chased down, saying buying tickets at this hour wasn’t cost-effective. She’d take the children shopping at the mall first, then find time to go skiing later.
Sun Mother ignored her, untying her scarf and going upstairs. These siblings—whenever they came back from business trips their hands were empty, never even buying the children a single candy. Last time when several people ditched them to go eat, Sun Jiarui had cried and called his mother, saying Uncle and Auntie had taken so-and-so to eat hotpot without him. Right then the second daughter-in-law came over and took them to eat.
Thinking about this, she started blaming Zhou Yu again—the fourth didn’t understand but couldn’t she understand? Every time only taking the eldest and third families’ children out—could the second be comfortable with that?
…
Because of this incident, Zhou Yu also forgot she was having a tiff with Sun Jingcheng, casually saying to him: “I said we should bring Jiaxing, and you still weren’t willing.”
“Jiarui doesn’t even have a phone, how could he see my social media?” Ke Yu said with certainty: “It must be Sun Jiaxing who saw it and then instigated Jiarui to make a fuss.”
“We should have brought Jiaxing along. That way Grandma wouldn’t be in a difficult position, and Second Aunt wouldn’t say anything.” Sun Yuyi said worriedly.
“Why would Grandma be in a difficult position?” Ke Yu didn’t understand.
“Of course your grandma would be in a difficult position—she’d worry Second Aunt would overthink it.”
“Tsk, you girls really have so many thoughts.”
“Even if I told you, you wouldn’t understand.” Sun Yuyi said in a mature manner: “Anyway, we should have brought Jiaxing or Jiarui.”
Zhou Yu glanced at her in the rearview mirror, feeling she not only resembled the eldest sister-in-law in features but also spoke in her tone. Unhurried and slow, gentle.
Sun Jingcheng didn’t think this was a big deal—just bring them next time.
Zhou Yu squinted, wanting to doze for a bit. Just as she closed her eyes, she felt someone scratching the back of her hand with claws. She looked at that shameless person—he was concentrating on driving.
She turned her back, too lazy to pay attention to him.
The two in the back seat whispered to each other, slowly starting to debate. Ke Yu asked Sun Jingcheng: “Uncle, tell me, what is an independent person?”
“Not blindly following, having one’s own value judgment. Not what others tell him to do, but understanding what he should do after self-awakening…” As Sun Jingcheng spoke, he fell silent himself.
“Isn’t economic independence important?” Sun Yuyi asked.
“Economic independence is the simplest.” Sun Jingcheng said very lightly: “As long as you want to be independent, just go find work.”
That’s not right. Uncle was wrong, but she was too inexperienced to refute him. She felt true economic independence was the hardest. In the family, aside from Auntie who truly relied on herself, her father, like Second Uncle and Fourth Uncle, all had their first house payments made by Grandpa.
Like her roommates in the dorm—using high-end skincare products bought by their parents, new electronic products, chatting about their families’ multiple properties, yet complaining their parents interfered too much. She used to most disdain this behavior, but these past two days her mindset had undergone a great transformation. Ever since Grandma was going to transfer the apartment to her, she had an irrepressible joy. She was so conflicted—happy on one hand yet despising herself on the other, while having to pretend to be indifferent.
She hated herself like this—vain and hypocritical just like them. Her previous false aloofness was just to protect her so-called “self-esteem”—in reality everyone was the same. Thinking of this, she felt an indescribable sadness. People were really, really so complex.
As evening approached near the clinic, Sun Jingcheng received a call from the second brother. The second brother asked what was going on with Sun Jingfei. He’d just gone to the clinic to pick up the child and saw Ke Yong’s car—Sun Jingfei had blocked him from getting out.
Only after arriving at the clinic and watching Ke Yu go upstairs did Sun Jingcheng give the second brother standing by the curb a look. The two stood far to one side to chat. After chatting for a while, they called the eldest brother, briefly explaining the situation. When their own sister was wronged, the brothers naturally couldn’t sit idly by. Originally the eldest also wanted to come but was persuaded by the second, saying his status would be knowingly breaking the law. He and the fourth would handle it—if anything happened, he’d deal with the aftermath. The three brothers coordinated and arranged to meet Ke Yong.
Upstairs was lively—three children took turns showing off, saying what Auntie had bought them, that she’d taken them to an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet, that tomorrow Dad would also take them skiing… blabbering on and on. Ke Yu was already annoyed, and smelling a stinky foot odor, he said they didn’t bring them to play precisely because they were dirty!
Zhou Yu saw Sun Jiarui sitting on the sofa wiping tears and asked what was wrong. Sun Mother was also annoyed in her heart, saying: “Don’t mind him. I’ve never seen a child who cries this much—he won’t amount to anything when he grows up!” As soon as the words fell, she saw the second sister-in-law come up. She said nothing, just took Sun Jiarui’s hand and went downstairs.
It took Sun Mother a long time to react. She threw down the cleaning cloth—let everyone do whatever they want! Helping with the children only brings a bellyful of anger. Then she criticized Sun Jingfei, scolding her for having no brains—who takes children to an all-you-can-eat buffet? How could they possibly eat their money’s worth back?
Sun Jingfei was in an even worse mood, replying: “I have money, I’ll spend it however I want.”
“Hurry up and move out, I get annoyed just seeing you!” Sun Mother said to her.
“You can close your eyes and not look.”
Mother and daughter went back and forth, neither giving in. Zhou Yu felt awkward and went to Ke Yu’s room to check his homework, also sending Sun Jingcheng a message urging him to come back early.
Sun Jingfei was annoyed seeing Ke Yong; Sun Mother was annoyed that Sun Jingfei hadn’t let Ke Yong come up after seeing him.
“Let her hear if she hears—how big of a deal is it?” Sun Jingfei said.
“Didn’t you see her leave with the child without even a greeting?”
“What did you want her to say?” Sun Jingfei said: “If she said something, you’d feel even worse.”
“Go, go, go—get as far away as you can!” Sun Mother chased her away.
“Second sister-in-law isn’t that petty, it’ll be fine tomorrow.”
“So I’m the petty one?”