Chapter 44 : When did Zhou Xiaoyan change her personality?

Song Shiwei looked at him with a smile. “No, you’ve done very well and taken great care of your younger siblings! Your father and I are very pleased.”  

Hearing this, Zhou Lin’s face turned even redder. He stole a glance at Zhou Tingyue beside him, then quickly lowered his head.  

Of course, Zhou Tingyue noticed his small actions. He was genuinely pleased that Zhou Lin had stepped up as a big brother and taken good care of his younger siblings during this time.  

He placed his large hand on Zhou Lin’s head and gave it a good rub.  

“Son, well done!”  

Zhou Lin’s eyes lit up instantly, and a smile gradually spread across his face.  

Seeing this, Song Shiwei felt warmth in her heart. It seemed that Zhou Lin had undergone a significant transformation. He was a child who longed for his parents’ recognition.  

No wonder her best friend in her previous life always told her: Good children aren’t raised by scolding but by encouragement!  

Even though she hadn’t deliberately studied parenting, she had come to understand a lot about it.  

Over the next few days, Zhou Tingyue seemed to have made arrangements with his team to lighten his training load. Every morning before leaving, he made breakfast. In the afternoon, he came back early to prepare lunch.  

At night, he returned just after dark.  

Song Shiwei actually felt fine, but he still wouldn’t let her get out of bed.  

“The doctor said you need to rest more and recover properly!”  

Hearing his gentle words, Song Shiwei knew that he still felt guilty about her falling into the water.  

He must have felt that he had let her down.  

If it weren’t for the mischief of the children at home, she wouldn’t have suffered so much. Those children were his responsibility, not hers.  

She gently raised her hand and grasped his large palm.  

“Tingyue, no one is to blame for this. I chose to save that child. This has nothing to do with Zhou Cheng or Zhou Xiaoyan. I made my own decision to jump in. Don’t carry this guilt in your heart.”  

She even felt grateful to Zhou Xiaoyan. If she hadn’t deliberately mentioned that Zhou Cheng was at the beach, she might not have gone there at that time.  

Then, they wouldn’t have seen Xiaojun falling into the water.  

And Xiaojun might have really drowned.  

Now that both of them were safe, this was the best possible outcome.  

She didn’t want Zhou Tingyue or Zhou Cheng to feel burdened by guilt.  

Zhou Tingyue’s gaze softened. He lifted her hand and gently kissed the back of it.  

His Adam’s apple bobbed a few times before he finally spoke. “How did I get so lucky to meet you? How did I have the honor of marrying you? To be honest, I thank God every day for letting me meet you in that state-owned restaurant.”  

Song Shiwei’s eyes grew moist as she recalled that day.  

The one thing she had never regretted since coming into this world was meeting him.  

At first, she had been trying to escape the storyline of this book. But now, she stayed because she truly loved him.  

These past days, he had taken care of her in every possible way cooking, washing clothes, even pouring tea and fetching water.  

He wouldn’t even let her take an extra step to brush her teeth or wash her face, always bringing everything to her in the morning.  

Where else could she find such a good man?  

The two of them chatted for a while, but soon, Zhou Tingyue worried that she would get tired from sitting too long and insisted she lie down to rest.  

Even after being discharged from the hospital, Song Shiwei stayed in bed for another seven or eight days before Zhou Tingyue finally allowed her to get up.  

During this time, Sun Meimei, Wang Chunxiang, and Jian Qiu all came to visit her, bringing gifts like eggs, cuts of meat, and even an old hen from Jian Qiu.  

This made Song Shiwei feel a little embarrassed.  

“Sister-in-law, I’m not here to have a baby. Why are you bringing all this?”  

Sun Meimei took her hand with a heartache expression. “What you did was even more dangerous than giving birth. You almost lost your life! It was pouring rain, and yet you were the only one who dared to jump into the sea!”

Song Shiwei knew that they were all genuinely concerned about her, so she smiled helplessly. “But I couldn’t just stand there and watch that child drown, could I?”  

Sun Meimei sighed. “That’s true!”  

Jian Qiu sat down beside the bed.  

“Yes, a life is a life. How could anyone just stand by and not save him?”  

Wang Chunxiang nodded in agreement. “Exactly! But it also depends on who’s involved. If it were someone like Zhou Xiaoyan, she’d probably just turn around and run away. No one would be saved!”  

Just as she finished speaking, someone walked through the door.  

“Hey! Gossiping behind people’s backs, isn’t that a little risky? What if you twist your tongue?”  

Everyone turned their heads and saw Zhou Xiaoyan approaching with a basket of vegetables.  

Wang Chunxiang wasn’t the least bit intimidated and simply smiled awkwardly.  

“Who would’ve thought you’d show up here? If you hadn’t come, you wouldn’t have heard anything!”  

Zhou Xiaoyan rolled her eyes in frustration but didn’t argue. She knew exactly why she was here today.  

That morning, her husband had repeatedly urged her to visit Song Shiwei. After all, she was partly responsible for Song Shiwei falling into the sea.  

Without bothering to argue with Wang Chunxiang, she simply dumped the basket of vegetables onto the table.  

“I came to see you. I was wrong that day. I shouldn’t have spoken nonsense just to vent my anger and ended up causing you to fall into the sea.”  

Hearing her say this, Song Shiwei and the others were truly shocked.  

Was the sun rising from the west today?  

Since when did Zhou Xiaoyan change her personality? Could she actually apologize now?  

Wang Chunxiang was the first to react. “Hey, what’s going on today? You, Zhou Xiaoyan, actually apologized? Did I hear that right?”  

Sun Meimei chuckled. “You heard it correctly. She really did come to apologize to Weiwei!”  

Jian Qiu snorted. “Now that’s a rare sight!”  

Zhou Xiaoyan’s ears burned as the three of them continued to tease her.  

She was about to snap back, but after thinking it over, she swallowed her anger and held back.  

Song Shiwei didn’t intend to make things difficult for her. Since she had come to apologize, she wouldn’t dwell on it. But she did want to remind her that lying and causing harm could have serious consequences.  

“I accept your apology. I’ll let it go this time. But next time, I hope you’ll think before you speak. If someone else isn’t as lucky as me and actually drowns, you might end up in jail.”  

When Zhou Xiaoyan met Song Shiwei’s sharp gaze, she instinctively shrank back and nodded.  

“Yeah, I get it.”  

Still worried she hadn’t fully grasped the gravity of the situation, Song Shiwei gave her another reminder.  

“Just imagine if your little Bean went missing and someone deliberately gave you the wrong address. Because of that, no one found him in time, and he lost his life. How would you feel?”  

Zhou Xiaoyan pursed her lips, her eyes turning slightly red.  

Sun Weidong had already given her a similar warning. She knew she had nearly caused a huge disaster this time.  

If there was ever a next time, she definitely wouldn’t dare to spread false information again, especially about something as critical as a missing child.  

“Don’t worry. I won’t do it again!”  

With that, she slung the basket over her shoulder and walked away.  

As she left, the other sisters-in-law couldn’t help but make a few comments about her, saying she was stubborn and wouldn’t change her ways.  

But Song Shiwei truly hoped she had learned a lesson from this incident.  

That morning, after having breakfast, Song Shiwei started tending to the small vegetable patch outside her home.  

She planned to till the soil and plant some vegetables so she wouldn’t have to go to the service station every time she wanted fresh produce.  

Besides, autumn had just begun a couple of days ago, and the weather was getting colder, especially in the mornings and evenings. She already needed an extra layer.  

If she didn’t grow enough food now to store for the winter, getting fresh vegetables would be extremely difficult when the cold months arrived.  

As she was working the soil, she suddenly noticed a soldier on duty walking towards her, leading a child around the corner of the alley.