Of course, that little bit of warmth did not last long.
Just two or three days later, everything returned to the way it had been.
His parents' cold looks and faultfinding, his younger brother and sister-in-law's harshness and rejection, all returned, worse than before.
The repeated wrenching between these worlds of ice and fire almost made him question his life. In his daze, he felt that the brief warmth of family affection a few days earlier had been nothing but an illusory dream.
This was how the Old Zhuang family repeatedly kept "Filial Zhuang" under their thumb: a blow from a stick, then a sweet date. Another blow, then another sweet date.
The method was old, but it held him firmly in their grasp.
Two months later, Granny Zhuang's leg finally healed completely.
The old woman had been nursed into a fair complexion and had grown two sizes plumper, while Zhuang Chaoying had lost well over ten pounds.
His cheeks had sunken somewhat, and prolonged sleep deprivation had left him with chronic tinnitus. A withered exhaustion seeped from his very bones, as though every drop of energy had been drained from him.
Zhuang Tunan and Zhuang Xiaoting were terribly distressed by the change in Zhuang Chaoying.
Zhou Cheng and Huang Ling, however, remained expressionless, sneering inwardly.
People always had to pay the price for their choices.
Since Zhuang Chaoying had gained psychological satisfaction from this "filial piety," he naturally had to swallow the bitter fruit that remained himself.
In October, a Japanese film aired on television.
For a time, long sideburns and bell-bottoms swept through streets and alleys, taking the whole country by storm.
Song Ying had always loved fashion, and under her influence, Huang Ling made each of her children a new outfit too.
It was worth mentioning that