First update delivered.

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"No way..." Zhou Huakang looked at Chuxia with a serious face. "If I hide in the car and don’t go in, what’s the difference between coming and not coming? My task today is to stay by third sister-in-law’s side and keep her safe, otherwise..." He let out two heh-heh laughs. "Otherwise Third Brother will skin me alive, won’t he?"

"I am definitely going to repeat that to your Third Brother..." Chuxia looked at the little girl sitting beside her with smiling eyes. "Yingying, will you testify for Auntie then?"

"Even without my testimony, Third Uncle would definitely believe Little Aunt..." The little girl clicked her tongue and looked at Zhou Huakang with open sympathy. "Seventh Uncle, you’re done for!"

Zhou Huakang’s face went dark as he looked at the perfectly in-sync big one and small one. "I’m already here, and you treat me like this—isn’t that a bit much? Third sister-in-law, you’ve always been very kind."

"Yes, I am very kind..." Chuxia looked at him with a dead-serious expression. "I didn’t wrong you, so how am I not kind? Or should I understand what you mean as: your Third Brother is super unkind?"

"Third sister-in-law..." Zhou Huakang looked at Chuxia, tongue-tied, not knowing what to say.

"I’m messing with you, look how scared you are..." Chuxia clicked her tongue twice and said, "You’ve always been so outgoing and cheerful, and yet you’re this scared now. That just shows how fierce and unreasonable your Third Brother used to be, huh?"

Zhou Huakang hurriedly said, "He’s not unreasonable, just... more serious. But he’s not that serious anymore. I just... just haven’t managed to turn that corner in my head yet."

Yingying couldn’t help protesting, "Third Uncle isn’t fierce at all, the fierce one is Fifth Uncle."

Zhou Huakang turned back and rubbed her head without saying anything. Zhou Zhongkang had absolutely no patience with children, and since Yingying was Zhou Aiping’s child on top of that, it was even harder for him to feel close to her.

Not just to Yingying—even with him, Zhou Zhongkang had always been cold and distant. Back when the two of them were at the same school, they basically didn’t speak or have contact.

Later, after Zhou Zhongkang got married and moved back into the Zhou family home, their relationship eased up a bit, but it only got to the level of saying hello. After he fell out with Mei Xiaofeng, their relationship went right back to how it was before.

A while ago, they ran into each other face to face at school. He walked up with a big smile to greet him, but the other guy deliberately detoured around him. His speechlessness then was beyond words...

Seeing Zhou Huakang’s mood drop all of a sudden, how could Chuxia not understand why? She thought for a moment and then said, "Don’t dwell on it. He’s just stuck in a blind alley right now; sooner or later he’ll figure it out."

"Hard..." Zhou Huakang sighed. "Third sister-in-law, ever since I’ve known him, he’s been the type who will never admit he’s wrong. Even when he knows he’s the one in the wrong, getting him to apologize is impossible."

"Then all the more reason you don’t need to torment yourself along with him. That’s his personality. You could worry yourself to death and he’d still be the same, so what’s the point?" Chuxia looked at him seriously. "You might think what I’m saying sounds a bit cold, but that’s just how life is. The people who care about you will naturally care about how you feel. The ones who don’t—well, you could die of anger and it’d mean nothing to them. Why should we punish ourselves with someone else’s mistake?"

Zhou Huakang sighed again. "Honestly, I don’t have that much feeling for him. Mainly, I just feel bad for Second Aunt."

"We’re all the same. If it weren’t for Second Aunt, who’d be willing to worry about him like this? But the key problem is, our worrying and getting angry doesn’t help. When you know something is beyond your control, it’s better to just let it be. If one day he can figure things out, that’ll be his luck and his blessing. If he never does..." Chuxia spread her hands. "Then I don’t know what else to say either."

"I’ve already figured it out now. My dad and mom are both no good, so from now on I just won’t think about them anymore..." Yingying looked at Zhou Huakang with a very serious little face. "Seventh Brother, you should learn from me."

Zhou Huakang: "..."

Chuxia felt both amused and heartsore. For such a small child to be this sensible, if you laid it bare, it still came down to a lack of security. Even if everyone treated her well, she would still lack a sense of safety. And this kind of situation would probably last a very, very long time—maybe even a lifetime...

"Yingying’s about to compete, let’s not talk about gloomy stuff anymore..." Zhou Huakang rubbed his face and switched to a cheerful smile. "Come on, sing a song to cheer up..."

"No need to sing, we’re here..." Chuxia pointed outside. "Look, those people standing at the school gate must be the students and teachers going to the competition, right?"

Yingying stood up to look outside, then pointed at a long-haired young woman in the crowd. "Little Aunt, the one with the long braid is Teacher Tian Tian."

Chuxia’s gaze fell on the girl Yingying had mentioned. She looked a bit over 1.6 meters tall, neither fat nor thin, with a sweet face. She wore a gray top and black pants, and on her feet was a pair of little black leather shoes. The bit of skin at her ankles showed a flash of white. For this era, that outfit counted as quite stylish.

The contestants were from first to fifth grade, with three students selected from each grade. There were only eight or nine children standing at the school gate now, so clearly a few hadn’t arrived yet.

Chuxia reached out and rubbed Yingying’s little head. "Don’t be nervous. You have to believe you’re the best. No matter what place you get, as long as you’ve done your best, that’s a victory."

"Mm." The little girl nodded seriously. After Chuxia had been drilling this idea into her these past few days, she no longer cared only about winning and losing the way she did at the beginning.

"Let’s go over to your teacher first..." Chuxia looked her over again, then reached out and gave her a heavy high five. "If you suddenly feel unsure during the competition, just look down at the audience. Your Seventh Uncle and I will definitely be sitting right in the front row."

"Mm." The little girl nodded again, even more seriously.

Zhou Huakang went around to the back, opened the car door, and lifted Yingying down from the car, affectionately smoothing her forehead. "Once the competition’s over, we’ll take you straight to see Grandma. Come on, you can do it!"

"Thank you, Seventh Uncle." The little girl smiled until her eyes narrowed. These days, she’d been really looking forward to seeing Grandma as soon as possible.

After watching her walk off, Zhou Huakang lifted his leg and got into the car, sitting side by side with Chuxia as he let out a sigh. "Actually, Yingying is a really kind kid. Her grandma didn’t treat her all that well before, but now she’s always thinking about that old lady. It’s really not easy."

"Yeah. When we first brought her back, she was so timid, like a frightened little rabbit. The way she looked at everyone was full of wariness. If that old lady had protected her just a little better, there’s no way she would’ve ended up like that.

So, that brings us back to what we were talking about before. Zhou Zhongkang may be an adult, but he’s not as sensible as Yingying. It wasn’t your second uncle and second aunt’s fault that he couldn’t raise his own child back then, but he held it against them for so many years.

It wasn’t easy for that knot to finally come undone, yet his temperament is still gloomy. I thought he’d figured it out already, but in a split second he completely fell back to how he was. Compared like this, Yingying instantly秒杀 him."

"秒杀?" After mulling it over a bit, Zhou Huakang laughed. "Third sister-in-law, that word you used is really spot-on..." He couldn’t help seriously looking Chuxia up and down. "Third sister-in-law, you grew up in such a godforsaken place where not even rabbits shit, and you never had any higher education. How come you’re way ahead of us in so many ways?

A lot of times when I talk to you, I feel like my mind suddenly opens up. Clearly you’re younger than me, so how come? And it’s not just me who thinks so. Big Brother and Second Sister have both said the same kind of thing."

"Because I’m smart..." Chuxia looked at him with a grin. "So, from now on you all have to unite closely around me, and whatever you do, don’t fall behind the team."

"I’d love to always be united around Third sister-in-law. I’m just afraid Third Brother wouldn’t be willing..." Zhou Huakang spread his hands. "I said the same thing when I went and tattled to Third Brother. The way he cares about Third sister-in-law is carved into his bones.

In the past, Third Brother would only come home a few times a year, and every time he was cold, like that to every one of us. I respected him a lot and wanted to get close to him, but I didn’t dare.

Back then I used to think, with a personality like Third Brother’s, whoever ended up living with him would be driven crazy. But I never imagined that once he actually got married, he’d be like this. Heh, looks like there really is always one thing that subdues another..."

"Oh, get lost..." Chuxia cut him off. "I don’t ’subdue’ him at all. He just looks easygoing in front of me, but in reality I really can’t call the shots for him.

Of course, I don’t have a hobby of making decisions for other people either. And I’m pretty open-minded. Whatever it is, we talk it over. Just don’t go making decisions for me without asking.

So sometimes it looks to you all like I’m the unreasonable one and Zhou Mikang is always giving in to me, but that feeling actually comes from our different personalities. It’s not really the way it looks to you."

"No matter what it looks like, it’s still Third Brother giving in to Third sister-in-law..." Zhou Huakang said as he spread his hands. "No matter how Third sister-in-law explains it, that’s what I believe."

"Comrade Zhou..."

The car door was suddenly pulled open. Tian Tian stood in the doorway smiling at Zhou Huakang. "I thought it was you, so I came over to say hi. The students will be entering the venue in a bit. Parents can go in ten minutes after the students enter."

Zhou Huakang looked at her with a calm expression. "We already know that. Teacher Tian, you can go get busy."

Normally, if a girl was treated with that attitude, even if she didn’t blow up right there, she’d at least back off. But this one still kept her sweet smile. "If you know, that’s your business. If I don’t notify you, that’s my problem. And this is...?" Her gaze shifted to Chuxia, and she studied her curiously. "I haven’t seen you before. Are you also a relative of little Xiao Ying?"

She was still smiling on the surface, but her eyes clearly carried a trace of hostility.

She was already more than six months pregnant. Her belly wasn’t exactly huge, but definitely not small either. However, since she was sitting down and wearing a loose military uniform, from Tian Tian’s angle there was no way to see any sign of it.

Apparently, this one had taken her for a love rival. Chuxia just smiled at her. "I’m Yingying’s little aunt by marriage." (To be continued. If you like this work, you’re welcome to go to Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please go to m.qidian.com to read.)