He had panicked too, never imagining that his little maneuvers had been discovered long ago.
With neither a leg to stand on nor a word in his defense, he could only repeat, almost pleading, "Stop shouting, stop shouting. I won't ask anymore. Isn't that enough?"
Huang Ling's and Zhuang Chaoying's voices carried through the walls, alarming the Lin family next door.
Zhuang Tunan rose to go home and see what was happening, but Song Ying quietly stopped him.
Back at the Zhuang home, Zhuang Chaoying finally managed to calm Huang Ling down and wiped the sweat from his forehead.
Only after a long while did he steel himself and cautiously speak again. "Over there, we actually discussed another solution. Neither of my parents would come here. We could send someone to stay there temporarily and help out. My mother wanted Xiaoting to stay for a while.
"She could take the bus back to school in the morning, eat lunch at home, and I could cycle her over after school in the afternoon. At night, she'd only need to help Granny when she got up to use the toilet. Going back and forth would be a little tiring, but it would only be a month or two. It would be over soon."
Huang Ling's face turned iron-gray as she listened. The emotions she had just suppressed surged back even harder.
She trembled all over with anger.
The two Zhuang elders had never hidden their preference for boys over girls, but she had never imagined Granny Zhuang would dare set her sights on her daughter.
What chilled her even more was that Zhuang Chaoying had not rejected the idea on the spot and actually dared bring it up to her at a moment like this.
A violent wave of nausea rose, churning