Chapter 1395 - 1397
On the way back home, Zhao Xuran was practically sprinting, all kinds of anxious.
He was worried what if Ni Zi went hungry; as for whether Gong Ruini would tell Gong Ruzhi about this, that was something Zhao Xuran really wasn’t worried about at all.
"Huh, why are there used bowls in the sink?" In Zhao Xuran’s opinion, this definitely meant someone had just eaten.
Then he looked at how many bowls there were. "Ah."
How could Zhao Xuran not be mad. "I already said, don’t eat the stuff in the fridge."
"Who knows how many days it’s been sitting there."
"That punk Gong Ruzhi is going too far. It’s one thing if he eats it himself, but he actually gave it to Ni Zi too."
"Does he not know that right now Ni Zi is supposed to be eating fresh ingredients?"
The more he thought about it, the more irritated Zhao Xuran got. "If Ni Zi was really that hungry, couldn’t she just go downstairs to buy something to eat?"
"It’s just that short stretch of road, how is it she can’t manage to walk it?"
"Seriously needs to be taught a lesson."
As he kept muttering nonstop, Zhao Xuran completely forgot what he’d told them before he left.
Gong Ruzhi had just walked Gong Ruini upstairs and watched her fall asleep, then rushed downstairs planning to wash the bowls, and did not expect to be greeted by Brother Xu Ran’s endless nagging.
"Wasn’t it you, Brother Xu Ran, who said not to eat outside food?"
Gong Ruzhi had wanted to storm in full of rage, but in the end decided it’d be better to play the pitiful card.
If he took a hard line with Brother Xu Ran, he was sure he’d be the one to lose. "My sister kept saying she was hungry, what was I supposed to do?"
His own sister was absolutely starving. Even though she didn’t say anything, her hands kept rubbing her belly—if that’s not hunger, then what is?
"Was I supposed to just stand there and watch my sister go hungry?"
Letting his wife go hungry was absolutely not an option. Zhao Xuran shook his head fast, all that earlier bluster about giving Gong Ruzhi a good scolding had completely vanished.
"You’re the one who’s way too slow." Seeing how completely his momentum had been crushed, Gong Ruzhi was honestly delighted.
Knowing that at this point, even if Zhao Xuran was mad he could only swallow it, he of course went full firepower without holding back.
"My sister is giving your Zhao Family a kid, and now it’s gotten to the point where she can’t even get a proper bite to eat?"
"If you’re like this, how am I supposed to trust you to take care of my sister?" The more Gong Ruzhi thought about it, the more he felt this was a tricky situation.
"Ah, I haven’t even told Mom yet." Just now he’d been busy taking care of his sister in every possible way and honestly hadn’t thought of that.
Now that his brother‑in‑law brought it up, he had to tell his mom, or he was dead. His mom definitely wouldn’t let him off.
He was about to make the call when Zhao Xuran grabbed him. "Don’t call."
Don’t call—what was that supposed to mean? Gong Ruzhi looked at Zhao Xuran in confusion.
He doesn’t want him to tell the family? What’s that about? This is a huge deal, and he’s actually not letting him tell the family?
If Zhao Xuran hadn’t looked so excited earlier, Gong Ruzhi would really have thought he wasn’t happy about the baby in his sister’s belly.
"If you call home, they’ll definitely send someone over to take care of your sister." Seeing the tangled look on Gong Ruzhi’s face, he knew the kid had misunderstood, so he quickly added an explanation.
Wasn’t that obvious? Why else call home? Other than telling their parents the good news, the main purpose was to see who might be free to come to the United States to help out.
"What I was thinking is, if they send someone, you won’t be free anymore."
"And then they’ll be all over us, telling us what to do." Even though his mother‑in‑law practiced traditional Chinese medicine, Zhao Xuran honestly felt that her thinking was pretty old‑fashioned.
"I can take good care of Ni Zi, and I’ll take good care of the baby too." Zhao Xuran was worried that once his mother‑in‑law came to the United States, she’d make him and his wife sleep in separate beds.
In his opinion that was highly likely. Sure, he could protest, but as Ni Zi’s belly got bigger, his mother‑in‑law would definitely say she’d stay with Ni Zi, claiming she didn’t want to affect his studies.
It’s not that her intentions were wrong, it’s just that Zhao Xuran really wanted to be able to share some of the burden for Gong Ruini at all times.
"You know what your sister’s like. If it’s an elder taking care of her, do you really think she’ll speak up and ask for what she wants?" Zhao Xuran patiently tried to talk sense into Gong Ruzhi.
Well, of course she wouldn’t. His sister might be bossy as anything in front of them, but in front of elders she was absolutely the model child.
Forget making demands—if she saw an elder busy, she’d probably jump up to help.
In the past that wouldn’t have mattered, but now things were different. "So what are you saying?"
"Don’t tell me you’re good at taking care of people." Gong Ruzhi gave Zhao Xuran a skeptical once‑over. "Judging by your efficiency today, it’s really not great."
So what if it made Brother Xu Ran mad—he was going to tell the truth.
Some things were better said now than bottled up forever. "Brother Xu Ran, I’m really worried about all kinds of things."
"If you can’t even take care of my sister properly, how are you going to take care of my nephew?" Gong Ruzhi had never been a dad, but he’d seen a lot.
Like several neighbors near their house—so many husbands and wives, or daughters‑in‑law and mothers‑in‑law, fighting nonstop. Wasn’t it just because the wives felt the dads didn’t care enough about the kids?
Before, Gong Ruzhi could just treat it as a joke, listening and watching, busy and entertained. But once it was his own sister in that position, he felt like this really wasn’t something to mess around with.
"Don’t tell me you guarantee anything. No amount of promises means anything."
"And as for swearing, forget it. So many people swear with ’may I be struck by lightning’ and all that, but how many have actually been struck by lightning?"
Gong Ruzhi himself was unreliable with his words sometimes, but he demanded that other people be totally reliable with theirs.
On this point, Zhao Xuran completely agreed. If oaths really had binding power, there’d be no need for laws.
And right now the bigger problem was that even with the law as a constraint, people who lack integrity are still just as untrustworthy.
Wait, why was he thinking so much and so deeply? The key issue was that he’d just been totally looked down on by this kid, Gong Ruzhi.
"You really don’t know what kind of person I am?" Sure, he’d been slow today and let his wife go hungry, which was definitely not okay, but that didn’t give this punk the right to openly despise him.
"And it’s not like you won’t be around. You’re the kid’s uncle, aren’t you?"
If the kid looked down on him, fine—Zhao Xuran would make him eat his words. "From now on, stop hanging around the West Coast every weekend. Come help take care of the baby instead."
"I won’t say anything else, but at the very least you’ll be washing diapers."
"And you’ll have to learn to wash your niece’s clothes and help bathe her."
Then a thought hit him—no, how could he let other men get close to his soft, pink little girl? Even if it was her uncle, that wouldn’t do.
"You just handle the grunt work: go out and buy groceries, prep the ingredients, learn to cook. As for the up‑close, hands‑on caring for my girl, I’ll handle that." Zhao Xuran was confident his daughter would absolutely not be especially close with her uncle, but in this world things rarely go exactly the way you want.
What if his daughter ended up getting totally charmed by her uncle?
Wait, what was that supposed to mean? Now Gong Ruzhi was angry. You say you want him to help take care of the kid, fine—it’s his own niece, after all. But why won’t you let him really take care of her, and only have him doing the thankless chores?
Not happy. The baby is really, really not happy.