Chapter 732

When they went out with Uncle Jiang to work as laborers, it would be for a month or two. Every time they came back, the little uncle and aunt’s house was in chaos—either Jiang Bai was being beaten, or Jiang Ning was being beaten. They often heard Jiang Bai crying nonstop, or saw Jiang Ning jumping around after being hit. They remembered every time it was their mother who went to stop the fight, pulling Jiang Ning back home to eat.

Jiang Ning never brought it up, and they didn’t really remember Uncle Jiang’s attitude. They always welcomed Jiang Ning. Whenever their mother pitied Jiang Ning and took her home, they were happy and didn’t care much about their father’s attitude.

These were family scandals, and since Mother Jiang was an elder, they didn’t feel comfortable gossiping about it behind her back. They only vaguely said Jiang Ning had been beaten a lot as a child.

Jiang Guoding’s family moved to town when Jiang Yanyan was two or three years old. They only came back for a day or two during New Year, and knew nothing of village affairs. His impression of Jiang Ning was simply that she was born around the same time as his daughter, later got into Peking University, and had extraordinary wisdom and vision managing the local economy.

But he truly didn’t know what hardships Jiang Ning endured in childhood.”

As the only daughter showered with endless love, it was hard for her to imagine Jiang Ning’s childhood. Her world was always bright and full of flowers—always sunny. That’s why she was so innocent and lively, receiving only praise, encouragement, and affirmation in life.

Because her dad was the town mayor.

Well, he became the county magistrate.

Though only a deputy, unless in front of the county magistrate himself, no one would forget to call Jiang Guoding County Magistrate Jiang rather than Deputy County Magistrate Jiang.

Yanyan’s mom said nothing. She still found it hard to accept Jiang Ning’s prickly personality, all sharp edges and thorns, feeling it was too harsh. At the New Year’s dinner, no one dared to advise Jiang Ning to reconcile with her mother or say anything about “the love of parents” anymore.”

That night’s scene shook everyone who thought Jiang Ning was always easygoing and sweet. From then on, no one dared to assume that because she smiled, she would listen to elder advice or be persuaded.

She treated her own father, mother, and eldest uncle like this—how could they expect her to obey?

Who did they think they were?

But they also saw Jiang Ning’s attitude towards Grandpa Jiang and Uncle Jiang’s wife. Grandpa Jiang need not be mentioned; Jiang Ning said it herself—without Grandpa Jiang, there would be no her. Seeing how happily Grandpa Jiang lived, they could tell how devoted and filial Jiang Ning was to him.

Then look at Uncle Jiang’s wife—because she cared for Jiang Ning as a child, Jiang Ning let her live in her house, earned money for her, and every year brought all kinds of clothes, shoes, and gifts.

Though these things weren’t much, everything had to be compared.

Now thinking about it, Jiang Ning bought things for the separate house where Uncle Jiang’s wife lived—but what had she bought for her own parents?

Tsk!

Just by looking at how Jiang Ning treated those who helped her, they could tell how she really felt.

Father Jiang and Mother Jiang hadn’t expected Jiang Ning to hold such grudges.

Father Jiang was a complicated person. Was he bad? Not really. Was he good? Not really. Did he have cunning? Not really. Did he have none at all? He had his own little schemes and grudges.

But Father Jiang was exactly like Jiang Song in one way—he didn’t hold grudges, he only remembered the good things, not the punishments.

So in his mind, everyone should be like him, not holding grudges, and the whole family should be harmonious and loving.

But Jiang Ning’s grudges went far beyond what he could imagine. He thought that as long as he spoke nicely and softened his attitude, he could win his daughter back. But that night, Jiang Ning told him through her actions that all the hurt she suffered growing up, she would remember forever and never forgive.

Originally, after dinner, he wanted to stay at Jiang Ning’s place to take a bath from head to toe—after all, there was a heated wall here, so the bath wouldn’t be cold. He even planned to stay and see the New Year at Jiang Ning’s.

In the end, he left Jiang Ning’s place silently, together with Mother Jiang. The once lively New Year’s Eve dinner broke up, leaving only Uncle Jiang, his wife, Grandpa Jiang, and Grandma Jiang.”

In this, Uncle Jiang was quite like Mother Jiang—always speaking without thinking, completely unaware of how much his words hurt others. For example, he had long urged Father Jiang to make Jiang Ning drop out and work. This brought him no benefit, no malice; he genuinely believed that girls studied just to benefit other families. Father Jiang should send her out to work and earn money for her brothers.

In his mind, that was the right thing to do.

Just like he thought studying was useless—his sons had all dropped out early to learn bricklaying from him. He believed learning a trade was more useful than studying. That was his understanding.

Seeing Jiang Ning just cast him a faint glance, a soft snort from her nose, then quietly looking at him with raised eyes, Uncle Jiang felt immense pressure. Embarrassed, he hugged his eldest granddaughter and walked away, muttering, “Alright, alright, I won’t say more.”

Mother Jiang also remained silent.

In fact, Mother Jiang never thought she did anything wrong, nor did she believe what she did to Jiang Ning was worth her daughter’s grudge.

Compared to many families in the village and what they did to their daughters, she really hadn’t done much. At least she let her go to school.

She herself never went to school.

Back then, her dad was the team leader of the brigade, later the leader of the charcoal mountain squad. She only attended a few days of a literacy class and could only write her own name.

Everything she had seen and experienced growing up was like this—girls got beaten, and she had lived through the same.

Although her own mother never beat her, all she heard growing up from her step-grandmother was that girls were useless burdens, cursed in the harshest words imaginable.

In her heart, Jiang Ning should be like all the girls she had seen from childhood to adulthood—like every girl in the village who was beaten and scolded growing up, but still wholeheartedly worked hard to earn money for the family, for their brothers, and came back without complaint to care for their aging parents.

She just didn’t understand why all the other girls were like that—and only Jiang Ning was different.

Other girls became more filial the more they were beaten and scolded. Only Jiang Ning—when you hit her, she held a grudge!

It seems that since ancient times, the rules for women had always been: be gentle, be kind, be magnanimous, be virtuous and good, and accept whatever comes their way.

Only then were they considered good girls, a good woman, fitting the universal values the world held for girls.

The word “holding grudges” shouldn’t even exist when it comes to women.

Mother Jiang never thought that her own daughter would one day harbor resentment because she beat her, and would refuse to care for her when she grew old.

That was completely against Mother Jiang’s upbringing and values.

Generation after generation, women had been PUA’d like this.

And Mother Jiang didn’t know or understand any of this.

Jiang Ning also didn’t care about how distraught Father Jiang and Mother Jiang looked as they left.

The remnants of the table still hadn’t been cleared, and Grandpa Jiang and Grandma Jiang were still seated at the head.

Jiang Ning took a few red envelopes out of her pocket, first giving Grandpa Jiang and Grandma Jiang each a 2,000 yuan red envelope. 

Grandpa Jiang kept saying no, telling her to keep the money for herself, “I’ve been saving the money you’ve given me all these years, no place to spend it!”

Grandpa Jiang knew very well that she owed many loans outside, so he refused Jiang Ning’s money.