Chapter 100
When Huang Jie heard her younger brother-in-law's words, she was about to lose her temper.
What did he mean? Her own daughter was always the one being taken care of at home, and now he wanted her to look after someone else at school?
If it were her own siblings, that would be one thing, but this was a relative with no blood relation.
Asking her daughter to take care of her younger brother-in-law's adopted daughter.
If their family needed to curry favor with her younger brother-in-law's family, that would be understandable, but now it was clearly her younger brother-in-law's family who needed to cling to them to get by.
She had just said that her younger brother-in-law had made some progress after three years out in the world, learning what it meant to have a sense of propriety.
Now it seemed that a leopard really couldn't change its spots; her younger brother-in-law hadn't changed at all, he was still the kind of person who lacked common sense.
Not only was Huang Jie, the biological mother, unhappy about this, but the other family members were also unwilling.
The Eldest Uncle's expression suddenly turned serious, and the Eldest Aunt put her hand on Huang Jie to calm her.
The Eldest Aunt said, "Ah Li is young and at the age where she should be carefree, how could she take care of someone else?"
Since her sister-in-law had spoken up first, Huang Jie didn't hold back either, "Sister-in-law is right. If Third Brother is worried about his adopted daughter, it's best to keep her by his side and look after her himself."
Hong Yan, who had been quietly playing the role of a bystander, suddenly spoke up, "Both sisters-in-law are right. Your third brother has always spoken without thinking things through. You've known him for so long, you understand his character. He doesn't have any ill intentions."
"He just mentioned wanting the girl I gave birth to transfer to Ah Li's school. He hadn't discussed this with me beforehand. Let me be the first to say, I don't agree with this. That girl has a lowly fate, poor grades, and doesn't study well. If we let her be in the same class as our good girl Ah Li, she might be a bad influence."
Just listening to her words, there was a sour and sarcastic tone to them, as if she was telling the reluctant Eldest Aunt and Huang Jie that her own daughter wasn't worthy of studying with their precious young ladies.
When Hong Yan spoke of her daughter's "lowly fate," her tone was so bitter that it sounded more like she was cursing an enemy rather than speaking about her daughter.
Both the Eldest Aunt and Huang Jie, being mothers of daughters themselves, frowned at this. Even if they wanted to be sarcastic towards others, they would never use the method of belittling their own daughters.
Her cousins raised their eyebrows at Shi Li, with looks that seemed to say, "What are you up to?"
Heaven knows, Shi Li truly didn't have any ulterior motives. She was such a kind-hearted person who simply wanted to do something to help others.
Hong Yan quickly waved her hand, "Aunt knows that Ah Li is kind, but you don't know how selfish and vain Song Ying is. Being around her will corrupt you."
Shi Li waved her hand even more vigorously, "It's alright, we're family. I won't look down on my sister. You said I'm a good person, so if she spends time with me, she'll be influenced to become a good person too."
Her female cousin couldn't help but laugh. Wasn't her little sister essentially saying that Song Ying wasn't good because she had spent too much time with her biological mother, Hong Yan, and had been influenced by her?
As Hong Yan was about to refuse Shi Li again, Youngest Uncle Shi had already made the decision, "Since Ah Li is willing, we'll trouble you with this then."
Shi Li looked into Hong Yan's eyes with a slight smile, "It's no trouble. We're family, saying such things makes it seem too formal."
The "we're family" principle had resurfaced. Hong Yan scornfully curled her lip. When her husband wanted to return to work at the company, the whole family had been reluctant, with only the Old Lady speaking up to help.
Now this dead girl suddenly remembered they were family.
From these simple exchanges, everyone present could sense that Hong Yan didn't value her own biological daughter very much.
Following the principle of annoying Hong Yan, the Eldest Aunt proactively brought up, "You're staying at the old house tonight. What about your daughter? Should we send the driver to bring her from the hotel? It's not safe for a girl to stay alone in a hotel."
Youngest Uncle Shi's smile became a bit uncomfortable, "We haven't settled in properly here yet, so we didn't dare bring her along. The girl is staying at home to watch the house."
The Eldest Aunt let out a meaningful "Oh," then said, "You two are really brave, daring to leave the child alone at home."
"She's a grown girl now, she should be able to take care of herself."
The Eldest Aunt asked again, "So when do you plan to bring the child over?"
Once again, Hong Yan spoke before Youngest Uncle Shi could, "There's no rush. Once we're settled here, we'll bring her over. She's a young woman now, she certainly has the ability to take care of herself."