“Have Wengang come and take them away quickly!”

Xia Xiaolan had just entered when she heard Old Master Zhou’s voice.

Guan Hue’e was trying to persuade him:

“Father, please calm down. The child is thoughtless. If we call her father, won’t he beat Zhou Yi to death?”

Old Master Zhou wasn’t just a little angry, “He can’t even teach his daughter properly, no wonder he’s made so little progress in his work all these years…”

Great, now it had devolved into personal attacks. These words would hurt Zhou Wengang if he heard them.

Guan Hue’e didn’t dare argue with her father-in-law.

Nobody wanted to call Zhou Wengang – why else would they have notified Guan Hue’e to come?

If Zhou Wengang came today, someone might end up dead.

“Grandfather Zhou.”

Xia Xiaolan pretended not to hear their conversation and entered, “Grandmother Zhou isn’t feeling well, may I go see her?”

The old master didn’t show any displeasure toward Xia Xiaolan, just pointed toward the bedroom.

Sigh, a granddaughter-in-law who wasn’t even officially married yet knew how to show concern, while his granddaughter seemed determined to anger him and his wife to death. Old Master Zhou didn’t know what to say.

He shouldn’t have given up teaching Zhou Yi just because he thought she was stupid. Now she was over twenty, too set in her ways to teach.

Growing up in such a family, how could she have zero political sensitivity?

This place – and Zhou Yi seemed determined to let the whole world know she was pregnant.

Was getting pregnant before marriage something to be proud of?

What good would it do Zhou Yi to paint the Zhou family as wealth-obsessed tyrants breaking up true love?

Yuan Han naturally didn’t care about the Zhou family’s image – without such scheming, he feared they wouldn’t agree to the marriage.

But Zhou Yi – she was truly a fool!

The old master felt depressed just thinking about it.

If intelligence could be inherited, whom did Zhou Yi take after?

Xia Xiaolan entered the room quietly. Grandmother Zhou was leaning against the headboard, with bottles of medicine beside her bed. Seeing Xia Xiaolan approach, Grandmother Zhou’s tears wouldn’t stop:

“Zhou Yi is too foolish. What kind of judgment does she have? He may look decent, but his eyes aren’t honest – how could he be a good person!”

This wasn’t prejudice against Yuan Han. The older generation didn’t judge by appearances – no matter how flowery the words, true emotions were written in the eyes.

Grandmother Zhou didn’t buy Zhou Yi’s true love theory at all. She trusted what her ears heard and eyes saw.

Even when buying a pig, you check its pen. Given how the Yuan family came to propose marriage, how could Yuan Han be any good?

The circumstances of his divorce from his previous wife still weren’t clear. The ex-wife couldn’t be found, and they only had Yuan Han and his family’s word for it.

How could Zhou Yi be so stupid? Grandmother Zhou felt both angry and heartbroken thinking of Zhou Yi kneeling outside in the cold winter.

“Don’t worry, I’ve already gotten Sister Zhou Yi to stand up. I told her if she lost the baby, the family would be even less likely to approve their marriage. Yuan Han will surely take good care of her.”

Grandmother Zhou gestured for Xia Xiaolan to sit on the bed. When she struggled to sit up, Xia Xiaolan quickly got her a cushion to lean against.

“Good child, she’s so muddle-headed. If she had half your intelligence, I wouldn’t care whom she wanted to marry. You make your bed, you lie in it… But she’s so confused. If the family doesn’t intervene, she’ll keep walking down the wrong path.”

How could they not care?

She was their granddaughter.

Even if they usually favored Zhou Cheng more, it didn’t mean they didn’t care about Zhou Yi.

Xia Xiaolan understood. Zhou Cheng had told her that he and Zhou Yi often played at their grandparents’ house as children, growing up under their watchful eyes.

The so-called favoritism was probably frustration with Zhou Yi’s failures. Elders were often like this, favoring and taking pride in successful descendants.

But for the unsuccessful ones, while somewhat disappointed, they inevitably worried about their future.

Was Grandmother Zhou bedridden with illness because she was worried about Zhou Yi’s future?

She should be worried. Being completely fooled by an ill-intentioned man – Xia Xiaolan felt bad for Grandmother Zhou.

The old lady was usually such an optimistic and enthusiastic person. Before Zhou Cheng brought Xia Xiaolan home, the old lady probably had doubts, but she was very warm at their first meeting.

Because the old lady was easily satisfied and didn’t necessarily require her grandchildren’s partners to have good family backgrounds.

If anyone in the Zhou family had the purest intentions and judged people regardless of status, it would be Grandmother Zhou!

If even Grandmother Zhou strongly opposed it, Yuan Han had truly performed his act poorly.

“Sister Zhou Yi is better than others. Some women don’t care about their families at all. If they take the wrong path, they take the wrong path – meeting the wrong person and living a muddled life. If Sister Zhou Yi regrets it later, she can start over… Do you want her to abort the baby and separate from Yuan Han?”

Abort the baby?

Grandmother Zhou wiped her tears, “After she knelt like this, everyone in Beijing knows she got pregnant before marriage. Even if she aborts the baby and leaves Yuan Han, I couldn’t find her a new match.”

It wasn’t about Zhou Yi losing her virtue or such nonsense, but rather that any respectable family would learn about what Zhou Yi had done – bringing home a daughter-in-law with water in her brain would bring disaster to the whole family.

When she had her moment of insanity, she even trampled on the Zhou family’s reputation. How could they expect her to care about her in-laws’ family in the future?

Some families wouldn’t mind, thinking marrying Zhou Yi meant forming a connection with the Zhou family.

But the Zhou family didn’t want in-laws like that.

Zhou Yi had destroyed her way out by kneeling.

“Then you mean—”

Grandmother Zhou silently wept for a while without speaking.

Everyone could see the pit ahead, trying to warn her with words and stop her with actions, but Zhou Yi was determined to jump in.

If you asked Xia Xiaolan, let her jump!

Let her fall and see if it hurts. If it doesn’t hurt, let her stay at the bottom. Idiots deserve a harder life.

These words were too harsh to say to Grandmother Zhou, so she could only accompany the old lady and offer some comfort. With such emotional ups and downs, the elderly woman was exhausted, and within half an hour, her eyelids began to droop.

Xia Xiaolan waited until she fell asleep before leaving.

But Zhou Wengang had arrived.

He seemed to have been there for a while. Old Master Zhou sat with a black face, not speaking, while Zhou Wengang looked ashamed.

“Father, I never thought she would be so stupid… I’ll have them register their marriage immediately, then send them far away. I’ll act as if I never had this daughter, and please don’t be angry about this unfilial granddaughter.”

“Where would you send them, letting that Yuan fellow strut around under the Zhou family name? Keep him in Beijing, don’t let him show his face, and don’t let him touch any Zhou family affairs.”

Old Master Zhou was furious.

Wasn’t he after an easy life? Let him have his fill!

Just like the live-in sons-in-law of ancient times, marrying into the wife’s family – most never amounted to anything in their lives.

These were the better cases – being useless was fine if they just lived off their wife’s family.

What was truly frightening was when they did succeed – nine out of ten would try to avenge their wounded pride by turning on the wife’s family.

Whether they were mistreated or not, just the fact that their in-laws had witnessed their failures was enough. If they held grudges, they would dig up everything the in-laws had done or said as evidence of looking down on them.

Better to give money to beggars than help a man up. How could Old Master Zhou not understand this principle?

Xia Xiaolan wanted to give the old master a thumbs-up. What Yuan Han had painstakingly schemed for was Zhou Yi’s distinguished family background… Now he would get his wish – able to see but not taste, how painful that must be!