Back to the 70s: My Childhood Sweetheart Spoils Me Rotten-Chapter 824 - 826: Defiant

Zhan Jing looked at Zhao Guangran, who appeared lifeless, and was quite surprised.

She kept glancing at Zhao Xuran, hinting to her eldest son to see if he knew anything.

Zhao Gang watched his wife and eldest son communicating silently and felt quite displeased. After all, he was Guangran’s father, so why would they turn to the eldest instead of him whenever their son seemed off?

Since his youngest son was in a bad mood, Zhao Gang, as a good father, felt he should offer some guidance.

Zhao Gang had some understanding of why Zhao Guangran was upset, suspecting it was because Zhuge Zhi handed something good to Zhao Xuran, making him angry.

"Guangran, are you still angry?" Gong Ruini didn’t expect Zhao Guangran to still look unhappy after a night had passed.

Gong Ruini couldn’t understand why he would stay mad for so long over such a minor issue. Could it be that her words were too harsh yesterday?

Feeling frustrated, Gong Ruini glanced at Zhao Xuran. If it wasn’t for his insistence on what she said yesterday, would she have made such a foolish mistake?

Now, seeing how upset Zhao Guangran had become, Gong Ruini naturally didn’t consider apologizing at all.

"I’m not angry." Zhao Guangran didn’t understand why Gong Ruini was asking like that, "I’m just thinking about whether we should open a restaurant."

This guy just wouldn’t give up. Gong Ruini really couldn’t understand why Zhao Guangran was so insistent on opening a restaurant. Was he just envious of the profits?

Zhao Xuran thought that yesterday’s lack of persistence from Zhao Guangran meant he had let the matter go, but he never expected him still to be hung up on it.

Zhao Xuran found himself with a headache, "Do you have a chef?"

"Do you think you can open the restaurant successfully?"

"But..." Zhao Guangran was stubborn in his dissatisfaction, "Can’t I just open a restaurant?"

"You can, but you shouldn’t let money slip away." Zhao Xuran realized that Zhao Guangran was obsessed.

Seeing this, Zhao Xuran decided not to intervene further. The more you try to control him, the angrier he gets. Sometimes it’s better to let him figure it out himself.

"Ni Zi, I’ve prepared some stuff. After breakfast, come over to my place." said Zhao Xuran, picking up his bowl and chopsticks to eat breakfast, ignoring Zhao Guangran’s expression.

Zhao Guangran knew his current actions weren’t good, but he felt helpless. He just felt that if he didn’t let it out, he would feel very uncomfortable.

Gong Ruini didn’t want to tangle with the currently fixated Zhao Guangran any further, "Okay."

Ah, his big brother was ignoring him, and even Ni Zi didn’t care. Zhao Guangran was furious, "I won’t eat."

Zhao Guangran pushed his bowl aside and headed outside.

What was going on? Zhan Jing was stunned. She knew her younger son well, and it was absolutely unlikely for him to skip a meal. If he had overeaten yesterday, it would be normal, but this time it was because he was not in a good mood.

What’s all this about opening or not opening a restaurant?

Zhan Jing turned to Zhao Xuran, who could only helplessly recount Zhao Guangran’s suggestion from yesterday, "I told him it was impossible."

Zhao Xuran took the responsibility upon himself. Gong Ruini hesitated initially but then said, "It’s my fault, Aunt Zhan. I was a bit harsh yesterday."

Harsh? Zhan Jing wasn’t surprised by Zhao Guangran’s proposal, considering her younger son had an eye for profitable opportunities, which always got him enthusiastic.

However, the Xu family’s situation was uniquely complicated. Although Zhan Jing and her family were originally from the South, they had been in Beijing for many years. The so-called Imperial Chef Xu family had long vanished. How would they even know?

It was only yesterday that they gleaned some information from Wan Qiweng’s words and learned about the Xu family’s background. Though Zhan Jing didn’t believe their current wealth compared to the Xu family’s past connections with prominent families, some of which had declined or disappeared.

However, there were still people like Zhuge Zhi and Wan Dajun, who would definitely remember the old friendships. If they ever stood up, it wouldn’t be something they could handle. Even Zhuge Zhi would look down on them.

"Ni Zi, you’re right." said Zhan Jing, hearing Gong Ruini’s words, feeling they were reasonable, "But Guangran’s temper is really getting worse."

Zhan Jing noticed Zhao Guangran’s somewhat volatile emotions but considered that boys can become more temperamental as they grow. However, walking out like that in front of elders was unacceptable.

Zhan Jing looked over at Zhao Gang, signaling that educating the son required his involvement. At that moment, Zhan Jing felt quite relieved. After all, Zhao Gang did mention once that raising sons was his responsibility as a father.

It was to prevent the sons from growing up too effeminate or spoiled.

Back then, Zhan Jing wasn’t entirely convinced, but now she felt very fortunate. All the responsibilities for the sons belonged to Zhao Gang.

As for Zhao Gang, he felt like crying. Had he known that raising sons would be so complicated and troublesome, he would have kept his mouth shut back then.

Looking at his sons, even though he hadn’t intervened much, none of them turned out to be weak. Sigh.

Regardless of how regretful Zhao Gang felt, he had no choice but to handle the matter, "I’ll have a talk with Guangran."

Zhao Gang felt like crying inside. It used to be easy to coax a few kids when they were little, but now he felt completely at a loss. Let alone reasoning with Zhao Guangran, even chatting with people like Wan Qiweng had become difficult.

"It’s not just a talk." They couldn’t just solve everything crudely, and they shouldn’t punish the children excessively, but looking at how opinionated the kids were now, Zhan Jing felt that this time Zhao Guangran needed some proper discipline.

"Ah, you mean..." Zhao Gang felt all sorts of reluctance. Although he was angry with Zhao Guangran’s disobedience and felt pressured, seeing his wife’s fierce demeanor scared him.

"Yes, this time he needs proper discipline." Zhan Jing didn’t care who was present; she just couldn’t hold back anymore. "We all grew up getting disciplined by our parents. Look how we turned out."

"But..." Zhao Gang truly didn’t have the heart to do it. Initially, it was just Zhao Guangran feeling uncomfortable; he probably wouldn’t do it again next time.

"What, you have an opinion?" Zhan Jing glared at Zhao Gang, knowing his claim of being a strict father was false. Beneath it, he was the softest of them all, "Figure it out. What would my mom have done if she was here? Wouldn’t she be furious with Guangran’s behavior?"

If the old lady was present, she might have been driven to anger. "This time, Zhuge Uncle and others aren’t here, but will we always be so lucky?" 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

Zhao Gang was at a loss for words. If that’s how it was, the trouble wasn’t small. "Okay."

There was no way around it; his wife had already spoken up. If he didn’t comply, he’d be the unlucky one.

"Not just okay, but you need to carry it out." Zhan Jing finished the last spoonful of her porridge, "Otherwise, you’ll be punished."

So fierce. It was the first time Gong Ruini had seen Zhan Jing erupt like this at Zhao Gang. All these years of being neighbors, regardless of what happened privately, at least publicly, Zhan Jing had always given Zhao Gang face.

At the same time, it was clear that Zhan Jing was very dissatisfied with Zhao Guangran’s behavior. But this was something Zhao Gang had brought upon himself, so who could he blame?