“Father—”

“Father, Big Brother was just worried about you…”

Old Master Zhou didn’t want to hear any of it.

He might be retired due to age, but he wasn’t deaf or blind. Zhou Yi used to bounce around the elderly couple’s place several times a week but suddenly hadn’t shown up for two weeks. Old Master Zhou had already sensed something was amiss.

Grandmother Zhou had wondered why Zhou Yi hadn’t visited, but the old master comforted his wife: “She shouldn’t come. It means this girl finally knows how to be ambitious and is working hard.”

While Grandmother Zhou was pleased, the old master couldn’t even fool himself with those words.

A person’s character is mostly set in their twenties. Unless something major happened, Zhou Yi wouldn’t suddenly become ambitious.

Old Master Zhou made some inquiries and learned that his eldest daughter-in-law Jiang Hong had been hospitalized for a long time, and Zhou Yi was having a fierce dispute with the family over a man. The old master was naturally very angry and disappointed, but at his age, having faced many challenges and tests in life, Zhou Yi’s matter wasn’t significant.

Though he said it didn’t matter, she was still his granddaughter. Old Master Zhou made this trip without telling his wife.

Coincidentally, his eldest son Zhou Wenbing was also there, saving him the trouble of finding him.

“Wenbing, tell me exactly what’s going on with Zhou Yi.”

The old master sat imposingly on the sofa, noting that Zhou Wenbing hadn’t slept well.

As Zhou Wenbing was organizing his thoughts, Zhou Guobin felt sympathetic, “Xiaolan, you know this matter from start to finish, why don’t you explain it to Old Master?”

Xia Xiaolan reluctantly set down the tea, “Alright, I’ll explain.”

Given Zhou Guobin’s brotherly love, and that Xia Xiaolan was of the younger generation, the old master wouldn’t get angry with her. She recounted everything from when Zhou Yi first approached her. As Old Master Zhou listened, he nodded:

“You handled this very well. Even before marrying into the Zhou family, if you had intervened directly for Zhou Yi, whether things turned out well or not, you would have been in a difficult position! But you didn’t ignore it either, immediately telling Zhou Cheng about it. I should thank you on Zhou Yi’s behalf for being magnanimous and not disregarding her life and death despite her past foolishness. Zhou Cheng also did the right thing, immediately confining Zhou Yi… The one who failed was your eldest uncle. Zhou Wenbing, if you can’t even control a girl, how can anyone trust you with matters of state?”

The anger finally landed on Zhou Wenbing.

“Grandfather, we can’t blame Uncle for this. Aunt was in the hospital, and Uncle had to run between work and the hospital. Zhou Yi ran away while visiting Aunt at the hospital. Uncle couldn’t have anticipated…”

Since she had already helped this far, might as well go all the way.

Xia Xiaolan’s plea was met with a cold snort from Old Master Zhou: “Don’t worry, I won’t scold him. What’s done is done, there’s no point in arguing about who’s right or wrong now. Xiaolan, tell me, what would you have done in this situation?”

Why was the old master putting all the pressure on Xiaolan?

How could she make decisions about Zhou Yi’s matters?

Zhou Guobin was puzzled, but Zhou Wenbing opened his mouth and then decided not to object. Zhou Wenbing somewhat understood the old master’s thoughts. With Zhou Yi being so foolish, she would need Zhou Cheng’s care in the future, and when Zhou Cheng couldn’t attend to matters, wouldn’t it fall to Xia Xiaolan to handle them?

The old master was using Zhou Yi’s situation to test Xia Xiaolan, to see if her thoughts and handling methods showed the vision worthy of the Zhou family’s eldest daughter-in-law!

Xia Xiaolan realized this too.

She didn’t consider it for too long, nor did she try to say pleasant things to make Old Master Zhou happy. After all, the Zhou family elders already knew what kind of person she was. If they didn’t understand now, could she keep up an act forever?

She probably didn’t meet the standard of a virtuous eldest daughter-in-law, and if it were up to her, she would have done something even more extreme than Zhou Wenbing.

“Since you asked, Grandfather, I’ll share my thoughts. I agree with Zhou Cheng’s decision to confine her, but after catching Zhou Yi, I might have first had a heart-to-heart talk with her, telling her that while I strongly disapproved of the man, I respected her choice. While comforting her, I would have people investigate the man’s background thoroughly. A person’s actions always leave traces; we can’t just take his word for it. We should find witnesses, like his ex-wife and colleagues from his hometown workplace. Once we had a clear picture, we’d present the facts to Zhou Yi, and if she still wouldn’t change her mind…”

Xia Xiaolan paused, and Old Master Zhou gestured for her to continue:

“If she still wouldn’t change her mind, what would you do?”

“…Then I’d let her go! Let her suffer, let her crash and burn, let her regret it herself.”

This wasn’t a solution that Zhou Wenbing and Jiang Hong couldn’t think of.

But Jiang Hong cared about face and wanted to keep everything quiet, fearing ridicule. She would never choose Xia Xiaolan’s approach.

Xia Xiaolan understood this too. She spoke with such certainty because Zhou Yi wasn’t her daughter; Xia Xiaolan could naturally be more rational.

Old Master Zhou nodded, “You’re right. Your eldest uncle’s biggest mistake was letting Zhou Yi escape. Now that she’s in the Yuan family’s hands, we’re at a disadvantage. Your approach of using both soft and hard tactics isn’t suitable for the current situation.”

Could the Zhou family not find someone if they truly wanted to?

Previously, they were afraid of losing face and being laughed at, so Zhou Wenbing couldn’t turn everything upside down searching.

Xia Xiaolan thought for a moment, “If combining soft and hard approaches won’t work, then there are only two paths left. One is to be hard-handed but soft-hearted: find Zhou Yi and deal harshly with the Yuan family, ensuring she and Yuan Han never meet again. She might throw tantrums, cry, or attempt suicide, so we’d have to watch her strictly and never show weakness. The downside is that after a few years, she might either understand or never understand, resenting the elders for destroying her happiness. Even if we find her another match, if she’s stuck in that mindset, she won’t be happy.”

This was Zhou Wenbing’s previous approach, but unfortunately, Zhou Yi had escaped. Now they’d need to find her first to continue this strategy.

Old Master Zhou remained neutral, his satisfaction unclear: “What else?”

Xia Xiaolan steeled herself, “The other approach would be to be soft-handed but hard-hearted. Instead of worrying whether Yuan is suitable, the family could just let them be together and wait for her to hit the wall and turn back. This might take several years and could cause significant emotional damage to Zhou Yi. By the time she wants to return, she might already have children with Yuan Han, and having children would make it even harder to break away from him.”

One approach was to cleanly separate them, willingly letting Zhou Yi resent her family members, but at least protecting her from being hurt by that man.

The other was to let go and allow Zhou Yi to be with Yuan Han. The Zhou family would agree to their relationship but absolutely wouldn’t help Yuan Han advance, and might even deliberately suppress him, letting Zhou Yi see Yuan Han’s true nature sooner.

Why was the second method considered soft-handed but hard-hearted?

If they couldn’t bear to watch Zhou Yi suffer and help her midway through, Yuan Han would win.

They would have to let Yuan Han break first.

Old Master Zhou turned his head, “Wenbing, don’t you have anything to say?”

Zhou Wenbing stood up, “Actually, there’s a third option. We could agree to Zhou Yi and Yuan’s relationship, I could give Zhou Yi a grand wedding, let Yuan happily become the Zhou family’s son-in-law, and then make all his calculations fall through, ensuring he never rises to prominence! As long as our Zhou family remains strong enough, even if he’s dissatisfied, he’ll have to carefully please Zhou Yi for life!”