In the countryside, a person’s reputation is really incredibly important;
the killing power of those aunties’ and grannies’ gossip is also really huge.
One reason why Zhao Yan studied like her life depended on it was exactly this—
she wanted to tell everyone that even though she was the daughter of that drunkard Zhao Yongfeng who drank himself to death, she wasn’t the sa as him.
She got good grades, stayed in the top three in her year for years on end, and could get into the best prestigious university in the Provincial City!
What her biological dad left her, besides the bad impression of being useless and always drunk and violent, and the trouble to her reputation, was also a not-so-good bad habit: valuing sons over daughters.
Ever since Zhao Yan could rember, she’d always hear her biological dad despising her real mother, saying her womb was useless, that she couldn’t even give him a single son, and that this would cut off the incense of their Old Zhao’s Family.
Zhao Yan could only sneer!
Incense?
Still talking about carrying on the family line?
What did the Zhao Family even have that was worth inheriting?
A few broken tile-roofed houses, a dozen mu of contracted land?!
Don’t even talk about so imperial throne, they didn’t even have tens of millions in assets.
Yet her biological dad still wanted a son, always thinking about having another child.
If he hadn’t died early, given how stubborn and persistent he was, he might really have gotten his wish.
And once there was a little brother, whether Zhao Yan could go to college would be up in the air.
There were way too many examples around her—
girls who had an older brother or a younger brother, unless they themselves were particularly outstanding, with insanely good grades.
Most ordinary girls would finish middle school and then go out to work.
They’d earn money to send their brothers to school and build houses.
After working a few years, once they reached the age for blind dates, their families would call them back.
They’d get engaged, take the bride price, shoulder the reputation of being a "materialistic girl who wants a bride price," yet couldn’t take anything away with them.
The money would be left for the older or younger brother to build a house and get a wife.
The more decent maiden families would give a bit of dowry.
The aner ones... tsk tsk, they really made it so their daughters had no confidence to straighten their backs once they married in.
After being bullied and beaten in their husband’s family, they didn’t even dare to make a fuss, afraid soone would say: they spent so much money to marry you, what’s wrong with you swallowing a bit of grievance?!
Of course, when Zhao Yongfeng died, Zhao Yan was still little, and she couldn’t think that far.
To be honest though, Zhao Yan really didn’t have deep feelings for her biological dad.
When she first heard the news that he’d died, her first reaction wasn’t sorrow or sadness, but quietly letting out a sigh of relief—
Perfect!
She would never again have to be afraid of her dad going crazy drunk;
she would never again have to face that look of disgust in his eyes!
Back then there wasn’t that much grief, and now almost ten years had passed; Zhao Yan had read more books, understood more principles, and had personally seen many examples around her.
As for her biological dad, if she insisted on saying she loved him so, so much and couldn’t bear to let him go, that would just be fake as hell!
Especially after going to college, when she heard her roommates each "complain" about their dads in that faux-disgusted tone that was really showing off, even if Zhao Yan wanted to blend in, she wouldn’t easily chi in.
What was she supposed to say?
Say that her biological dad was just a drunk who only knew how to act tough at ho?
Say that her biological dad had always despised her for being a girl who couldn’t carry on the Zhao Family line?
Forget it!
Wasn’t that shaful enough already!
Zhao Yan would rather use this to play the tragic card, say that her dad had died long ago, than make too many comnts about her biological father.
"Yanyan, you really don’t object to remarrying?"
He Tiantian acted as if she hadn’t noticed the flicker of light in Zhao Yan’s eyes. Putting on a deliberately emotional look, she asked anxiously.
"Mom, of course I don’t object! When I was little, I didn’t understand anything and I was scared you’d abandon !"
Seeing her real mother like this, Zhao Yan couldn’t help feeling a bit guilty, a bit remorseful.
She held her mom’s hand and said seriously, "Now I’ve grown up, and I understand how hard things have been for you. I’ve always hoped you could get your own share of happiness!"
"Aiya, what happiness or unhappiness? I’m already this old; back in our hotown I’d be an old woman holding grandkids by now!"
"...It’s mainly still for your sake. Professor Qiao said he has connections in the Provincial City, and in the future, whether you’re taking the grad school entrance exam or looking for a job, he can help!"
"Later, when you graduate and it’s ti to talk about your marriage, so families will nitpick about ’single-parent families.’ Yanyan, you’re my only daughter. As long as you live well, I can accept anything!"
He Tiantian was definitely not so Holy Mother who only knew how to sacrifice herself and never "took credit."
If she made sacrifices for Zhao Yan as her daughter, she wanted Zhao Yan to know.
She did this not just to show off her rit, but also because she hoped Zhao Yan could understand: she wasn’t actually so poor little pitiful thing. Even though she had no father and the family wasn’t well-off, she had a mother who thought of her wholeheartedly!
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