Chapter 427
"Don't they have holidays abroad?" Little Four asked naively.
Knowing that they were just chatting aimlessly rather than expecting her to answer, Zhi Xia sighed helplessly and said, "If you have any questions, you can leave a note for her on the table in the space. She will reply when she has time."
Let the siblings contact more, so they won't feel estranged from Wanqing when she comes back.
An Jingzhi still maintained the habit of reading the newspaper every morning, as he had done for many years. Zhou Nan was used to getting up early every day, taking the newspaper from the mailbox at the door, and putting it on the coffee table in the living room for him, so that he could get it as soon as he got up in the morning.
Today was no exception, continuing the habit of the past few decades.
An Jingzhi put on his glasses, picked up the newspaper, and the biggest headline was clearly visible.
Jin City's largest private enterprise Sheng'an Group reneged on its promise and canceled the overseas study quotas for no reason.
Jin City University was the most popular school in recent years because it provided quotas for overseas study every year. As soon as this was revealed, it attracted quite a lot of attention, especially from those students who were striving to get into Jin City University.
However, at the same time, as the principal, An Jingzhi's school became popular.
Before he could feel happy, anger rushed to his head.
Because this article was simply nonsense, completely ignorant of the truth, and was written entirely from the perspective of the critics.
It also brought up Pei Shuangshuang’s incident some time ago, as well as the accusation that Sheng'an Group’s chairman only knew how to make money and did not give back to society. It even compared it with Ji Family Jewelry, saying that Sheng'an Group was not one-thousandth as good as Ji Family Jewelry, and completely dragged Sheng'an Group through the mud.
When An Jingzhi arrived at Zhi Xia's place, she had just hung up Jiang Tao's phone call.
Seeing her come in, Zhi Xia was still in a good mood, smiling as she sent off several children.
An Jingzhi calmed down his anger and asked her, "Did you read today's newspaper?"
"I did."
Zhi Xia instantly understood why he had come over. She was about to invite him in to talk when she heard An Jingzhi accuse: "You still look so happy after reading it? I reminded you about this matter a few days ago. One should keep a low profile in life and a high profile in work, especially when doing good deeds. Now it's been revealed, no matter how much good you've done, if no one knows about it, it's as if you haven't done it at all..."
An Jingzhi rambled on and on, but Zhi Xia could discern that it was all for her own good.
She patiently listened to him finish before inviting him into the room and telling him her plans for dealing with this matter.
Subsequently, An Jingzhi finally felt relieved.
"As long as you know what you're doing, I was worried all morning. Now that you already have a plan, I won’t fret unnecessarily."
Perhaps due to his advanced age, An Jingzhi no longer cared as much as before. Especially when it came to children’s matters, things they could resolve themselves, he was no longer willing to intervene.
The incident continued to ferment for two days. Not to mention relatives and friends, even many neighbors had come to inquire about it.
Zhi Xia had lived here for many years and was usually quite generous and cheerful. She had a good relationship with her neighbors.
Besides, the neighbors also understood Pei Shuangshuang’s situation. She had long ceased to live with Zhi Xia, and they had watched Wanqing grow up nearby so there was absolutely no problem with her personal character.
Another two days passed and Jiang Tao compiled a list of Sheng'an Group’s charity projects over the years, each with an official government stamp, and published it in the Jincheng Daily.
Public opinion suddenly took a big turn. Sheng'an Group was completely exonerated of all accusations and even gained a reputation for doing good deeds anonymously.
Next was the incident of Wanqing being bullied and isolated at school. Among the participants were those two outstanding students who contacted the reporter, one of whom even tried to assault Wanqing. Fortunately, Wanqing, who had some martial arts skills, gave him a good beating, leaving him resentful. In order to thoroughly turn the tables, even Pei Shuangshuang had to stand from the victim’s perspective to clear her name. Fortunately, she had insisted during the lawsuit that the painting was secretly painted by Mu Yang, so Pei Shuangshuang was also a victim.
Therefore, as things progressed to the end, the real culprit Mu Yang still suffered the greatest damage, often dragged out to be scolded a few times.
Before the end of the year, the incident was finally settled.
When others mentioned those ladies of the Pei family, it was with a sympathetic attitude, feeling that they were really unlucky - just because one sister had an unreliable partner, the reputation of the whole family was damaged.
They no longer spoke about Pei Shuangshuang like before in a derogatory way about her body and appearance, extending such talk to the other women of the Pei family.
Pei Xiang couldn’t wait to call Zhi Xia and ask, "Auntie, what exactly is going on? My former leader from the art troupe said they would transfer us back and said I had a good aunt who completely resolved the matter. How exactly did you resolve it?”
Pei Xiang had been transferred out recently so she was not in Jincheng and did not know what had happened there lately.
Although Pei Sheng and Jiang Su knew about it, just mentioning Pei Shuangshuang made their teeth itch with hatred. They were even less likely to mention her or the incident in front of their daughter.
The old leader of the art troupe had contacted Pei Xiang directly, so her parents had no idea that she and her husband could be transferred back, otherwise they would have been excited long ago.
Zhi Xia explained to her what had happened these past few days, and public opinion had also reversed the reputation of the Pei family, so she could return with confidence and no one would look at her with colored glasses anymore.
Pei Xiang was naturally overjoyed at this. She and her husband had just been transferred to another place. Although there was housing, it was just two small rooms, of course not as spacious as home.
Besides, with someone at home to help take care of the children, it was much more relaxing for them. Plus her parents were getting on in years without a son to rely on, so having her around was reassuring.
Although her husband was not a son-in-law who married into the family, the sisters had long reached a tacit understanding that the couple would be responsible for supporting Pei Xiang’s parents in their old age until they passed away. As for the family property, the eldest sister said she didn’t want any, but Pei Xiang could not take it all either. They both maintained a courteous attitude on this point and there was no conflict.
Because of Er Maid, Zhi Xia and Pei JianGuo had completely fallen out for about two years without any contact.
It was only starting last year that Pei JianGuo sought Zhi Xia’s help for something, while Zhi Xia also needed Pei JianGuo’s assistance. During the New Year, Pei JianGuo came to deliver New Year gifts and Zhi Xia accepted them, also giving some return gifts.
On the 20th day of the 12th lunar month, the batch of New Year gifts that Mrs. Zhou had helped pack had already been distributed, with 10 catties of pork allocated per person.
These had already flooded the space, directly packing 200,000 heads to the large-scale livestock raisers to help slaughter, plus another 1,000 heads as processing fees.
The meat that Zhi Xia usually consumed was mostly from ancient foreign dimensional beasts, so facing so much meat, she really had a headache thinking about how to consume it all.
People all said that Sheng'an Group had good benefits, with the boss giving out big gift packages of rice, flour, fruits and meat every holiday.
Moreover, looking at the charity credentials of Sheng'an Group’s projects over the years published a few days ago, whenever a place suffered a disaster, it was the boss who donated the most and most practical supplies.
Yet they did not know she had so much extra of these things. She counted on being able to consume some every holiday, and whenever a place was in need, she would help out in a timely manner. It was not in vain that she had gained the space.
The triplets were already thirteen years old, taller than Zhi Xia now.
She assigned them tasks to deliver New Year gifts to the An, Pei Yong, and Pei Sheng families, as well as Fourth Sister next door. She thought that since Pei JianGuo had come last year and there were still gifts left, she asked Little Sixth to go with Ping'an to deliver him a portion as well.
A few days later, he came.
Perhaps stimulated by the gifts from a few days ago, his New Year gifts this year were exceptionally generous.
Pei Jing would not be back for another couple of days. Without much to say, Zhi Xia let Pei JianGuo go sit in the living room and had the triplets keep him company.
Fortunately, Pei JianGuo said he was going to Pei Yong’s place and did not stay too long.
Only when leaving, he suddenly asked Zhi Xia, "Sister-in-law, I heard Xiang Xiang and her husband are coming back, is that right?"