Chapter 9: Ruining His College Dream (1/2)

Zhao Qingfeng’s first reaction was shock.

He recognized these three women very well.

The woman with half-gray hair and a slightly plump figure, angrily pointing towards the upstairs, was his eldest aunt Zhao Xiulian.

The woman in her forties, with lifted corners of her eyes and waist akimbo, cursing loudly, was his second aunt Zhao Xiuli.

And the slightly younger woman, heavily made-up, arms crossed and looking disdainful, was his oldest aunt Zhao Xiuhua.

But…

Why were they making such a scene?

Bad news travels fast.

Despite being relatives, didn’t they fear becoming the laughingstock of others?

The wreath lay on the ground, and the funeral music was so harsh.

What deep grudge did they have against his mother?

“Old Zhao’s family is really something.”

“Right, this is even bigger than what started a month ago. Look at that wreath, tsk tsk tsk.”

“At the end of the day, they are fighting over Old Zhao’s work injury compensation. I heard it’s about to be paid out, a whole fifty thousand yuan. Who wouldn’t be tempted…”

Some insightful people saw through it all.

Fifty thousand yuan in 2001 was no small sum, considering that the price of housing in the county was only around eighteen hundred yuan per square meter.

The funeral music continued.

The curses were relentless.

Each sharp and piercing word stabbed Feng Hongmei’s heart as she wept silently upstairs.

“Everyone look, this Feng Hongmei is a shameless and vile woman!”

“My brother Zhao Changyong died because she was too strict with him, not even allowing him to drink, leading to his long-term depression and fatal fall on the production line!”

“My big brother was foolish. If only he had listened to the family and not married such a stingy woman!”

“She even wanted to kill our grandfather. If we hadn’t taken our grandfather to the nursing home after my brother died, he probably would have died in their house too!”

“Come on, everyone, look at this vicious and ruthless woman upstairs!”

“Feng Hongmei, come down and kneel to apologize, apologize to our deceased brother!”

The shouting quickly attracted even more spectators.

By then,

There were at least three hundred people gathered at the entrance to the beer factory residential complex, if not five hundred.

If what they said was true,

Then,

Feng Hongmei would indeed be a heinous woman.

But Zhao Qingfeng knew.

His mother was not a miser.

She forbade his father from drinking purely for his health.

She had often lamented about the cardiovascular risks revealed during his father’s medical check-ups.

As for the relationship between his father and his aunts,

Zhao Qingfeng had occasionally heard his mother recount some past events.

She said his father was a good-natured man who had suffered a lot from his sisters after getting married.

The root cause was that their grandfather had opposed their free love marriage, but his father had firmly chosen the woman he loved, leading to a big argument.

This caused great embarrassment for the grandfather among his friends who had arranged the marriage.

Since then, the grandfather had become more distant from his father.

He even instigated his favored daughters to gang up against his father.

Speaking of the grandfather,

Zhao Qingfeng still had vivid memories.

He was not kind to him; the canned food and cookies always secretly went to his cousins at his aunts’ homes.

He also remembered learning about ‘bedsores’ in a middle school biology class.

Bedsores seemed inevitable for those who lay in bed for long periods.

But during the years when his grandfather was paralyzed and cared for by his mother, Zhao Qingfeng had observed many times.

There was never a single bedsore on his grandfather’s body throughout those years, indicating the meticulous care he received.

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