CHAPTER 328: CHAPTER 327 GRANDMA CRITICALLY ILL

Time flew by, and it was the beginning of November. The visit from the maternal aunt that Mrs. Zhen and Zhen Yuxin had been eagerly awaiting hadn’t happened as expected. Instead, a phone call came from Aunt Cheng.

"Hello! I’m looking for Cheng Yan’er!" Aunt Cheng’s voice was still as commanding and bossy as ever.

Zhen Yu pondered for half a second, matching the voice with the person from her memories, but she didn’t feel like calling her mother upstairs to answer the phone.

"She’s not here!" Zhen Yu’s tone wasn’t particularly polite. "Is there something you need from her?"

"Who would bother her for no reason!" Aunt Cheng snapped back with no good humor.

"It’s you, Zhen Yu, right? Tell your mother to come back immediately! Her mom is dying!" Before Zhen Yu could respond, Aunt Cheng hung up with a ’click’.

Zhen Yu stood in place for half a minute, then silently went downstairs.

"Mom!" Zhen Yu called out standing in front of the counter.

"Ah? Wait a moment!" Mrs. Zhen quickly acknowledged her daughter and then busied herself with checking out a customer.

Zhen Yu patiently waited where she stood.

Only after the wave of customers had left did Mrs. Zhen lean on the counter and ask, "What’s the matter, Xiao Yu? What do you need from Mom?"

"Mom, don’t get anxious or angry about what I’m about to say!" Zhen Yu gave her mother a word of caution.

Mrs. Zhen’s expression immediately turned serious, sensing something was amiss. "What is it?!"

Could it be that this girl has started dating someone too early?! Caught by the teacher and needing a parent-teacher conference??

While Mrs. Zhen’s thoughts raced, Zhen Yu got straight to the point. "Aunt Cheng just called, she said grandma is in critical condition."

"!" Mrs. Zhen was struck dumb on the spot, it took her quite a while to come back to her senses!

In fact, upon hearing the words ’Aunt Cheng’, she already had a bad feeling.

After all, she knew her children well; if there was nothing amiss, neither of her siblings would ever mention any family relatives!

---

"Mom?" When her mother didn’t respond for a long while, Zhen Yu had to reach out and nudge her.

"Ah?! Ah!" Mrs. Zhen snapped back to reality, blinking frantically for a while and then sniffing.

"Xiao Yu... Mom has to go back!" Mrs. Zhen’s voice was extremely resolute, leaving no room for refusal.

Zhen Yu understood her mother’s feelings at this moment very well.

It was like in her past life, even if she resented her mother for heartlessly abandoning her, she still couldn’t avoid feeling heartbroken when Mrs. Zhen passed away.

Zhen Yu nodded, "I understand, I’ll go back with you!"

Before Mrs. Zhen could speak, Zhen Yu preempted her mother’s worries with a single sentence.

"Tomorrow is Sunday anyway, we’ll have my brother mind the store at home! He’s already a grown man, it’s time for him to learn to take care of himself and the house!"

"Well then! We’ll leave first thing tomorrow morning!" Mrs. Zhen hesitated for merely a moment before making a decisive decision.

"Okay! My brother will be done with his evening study soon, I’ll talk to him when he gets back!"

"Alright! Go upstairs and pack some things, and ask your teachers for a leave of absence too. We might not be able to return the same day! About your brother," Mrs. Zhen hadn’t finished her plan when Zhen Yu interrupted her, "You can return after the funeral is over, I’ll come back alone tomorrow."

"You’ll come back alone? This..." Mrs. Zhen looked extremely conflicted.

Even though she was well aware that her child wasn’t close at all to her own parents, as her daughter had returned home, would she really skip the funeral?

If word of this got out...

No! That’s wrong! If she comes back tomorrow, this will definitely spread!

Her aunts, none sparing with their words, who knows how they might spin this!

---

With this thought, Mrs. Zhen immediately rejected the idea: "No way! You must wait until the funeral is over before you leave with me! Otherwise, you’ll be wearing the big hat of unfilial conduct! Do you even care about your reputation?!"

"I don’t," Zhen Yu calmly uttered these two words.

"You little wretch, what nonsense are you spouting!" Mrs. Zhen, standing behind the counter, tried to knock on her daughter’s forehead but Zhen Yu dodged it. Her voice rose in anger, "Can you just discard your reputation that easily?! What if, in the future, when you’re being matched up for marriage, they hear you’re not filial? What parents would allow their son to marry you?!"

"...Mom, you’re thinking too far ahead," Zhen Yu didn’t want to explain too much. Because the more she explained, the more it would only hurt Mrs. Zhen.

So why bother!

Yet Mrs. Zhen was unrelenting, insisting on forcing Zhen Yu to attend the funeral before leaving! Zhen Yu tried to reason with her, but she just wouldn’t budge!

Zhen Yu bit the corner of her lower lip; it seemed she had no choice but to resort to drastic measures...

"Mom! Do you think that when Dad came last time to discuss the partnership and it fell through, that he would go back and say anything good about me and my brother?"

"!" Mrs. Zhen was stunned for a moment, "You mean to say..."

"Anyway, If my brother and I can’t even show filial piety to our own father, what’s one more with grandma?"

Mrs. Zhen fell silent for a while, then explained stiffly, "Your father’s situation is special, most people would understand,"

"I don’t care if others understand or not! I won’t live in Laha Town again!" Zhen Yu spoke bluntly: "My brother and I are going to attend college. After graduating from college, we would never go back to that small town to find jobs! Not just the small town, even here in Qi City, it’s just a temporary place for us! As for which city we will eventually settle down in, even I don’t know."

---

Mrs. Zhen was left speechless by her daughter’s words.

She really hadn’t expected this! Her daughter, still so young, had already planned out her life for the next several years.

"But, but that’s still your grandma! You..."

Mrs. Zhen still wanted to make one last effort! She wasn’t sure why she felt this way, but she just hoped her daughter would attend the funeral with her.

"Mom! I feel no affection for her, nor any respect! And I certainly don’t want to watch those six uncles tearing into each other at her funeral! So, please, stop forcing me."

Zhen Yu’s tone didn’t fluctuate an iota, heartless! Cold!

That single speech left Mrs. Zhen feeling her heart cool by more than half. She frowned and said, "Xiao Yu, you..." are you too cold-blooded?

Mrs. Zhen didn’t finish her question, but Zhen Yu heard the implication and directly admitted it!

"Yes, I’m cold-blooded! What’s wrong with that?! Aren’t the Zhen Cheng relatives cold-blooded towards us, every single one of them?!"

Mrs. Zhen fell silent, and Zhen Yu added softly, "With virtue, one repays grievance; so, how should one repay virtue?"

Barring the unexpected, Mrs. Zhen still has a long life ahead of her!

So, Zhen Yu also wanted to take this opportunity to make it clear to her mother what kind of person she was!

She was never the sweet and agreeable little girl. Zhen Yu stood outside the counter, waiting for her mother to come to this realization.

Meanwhile, other customers were coming to check out and get on the computers.