In the end, Uncle and Aunt failed to persuade Chen Mo. Both families left in a huff. As she was heading out, Aunt muttered, "People change once they have money. Who knows where that money came from? Maybe it was stolen!"
Father and son both heard that. Chen Mo wanted to jump up and rush after them, but Father Chen Jianguo grabbed his wrist.
"Don't go. Just pretend nothing happened. They're relatives, so it's better to leave them some dignity," Father Chen Jianguo said.
"Dad! They said something like that. What dignity is there to preserve? Is that any way for an uncle and aunt to talk about their own nephew?" Chen Mo said bitterly. Still, he obediently sat back down rather than chasing after them. He did not want his father to stew in silence. Though he felt his father was somewhat weak, he remembered that this was the father who had raised the three siblings. No matter what, he should be grateful.
"Er Wa, listen to your dad. If they could say something like that today, they won't have the nerve to come back again," Mother Fu Huili said as she came out. She had been listening inside the house all along.
Father Chen Jianguo kept smoking. His own brothers were so disappointing—what was there to say? If not for his wife's Uncle being capable enough to support the family, the children would have dropped out of school long ago and gone off to work as migrant workers. How could Er Wa have had the money to come back and start a business?
What he had said today was really a rejection. He knew his Er Wa very well. Chen Mo was a child with a mind of his own, nothing like him, soft-hearted and easily swayed.
But