No matter what Liu Lan said, Ding Yun could always grasp the key points and refute her, which didn't mean Ding Yun was particularly skilled in language and literature, but rather that her daughter was too incompetent.
There were simply too many shortcomings to mention.
The fact that she was living off her parents was also undeniable.
Ding Yun wanted to hold back but found it difficult not to win the argument.
Of course, unreasonable bickering and defiance were excluded. If faced with such behavior, even someone with superior linguistic skills would be useless.
Fortunately, Liu Lan only had different values, not a complete lack of them.
So, before long, she was rendered speechless.
Then, Ding Yun issued her a final ultimatum: "Either you send Huanhuan back right now.
Or, after you send him to school tomorrow, don't bother with him anymore. I'll pick him up. If you want to live with your father, then go live with him. I'll allow you to visit every few days.
Don't dream of anything else.
Otherwise, I'll apply to change guardianship!"
Guardianship wasn't that easy to change, and Ding Yun only said this to scare her daughter. However, if she remained stubborn and unrepentant, Ding Yun might genuinely have to consider it.
After speaking, Ding Yun hung up the phone.
Based on her understanding of the original host's daughter, although the daughter was a bit unruly, she probably wouldn't go so far as to threaten her by force-feeding her son pesticides.
Therefore, she hung up the call with relative peace of mind.
As she hung up, Liu Lan on the other end was already in the already small basement, stamping her feet and pounding the walls in anger, even shouting curses. Her ferocious expression scared Hu Huanhuan, who hid in a corner with a crying voice, trembling with fear.
It might be an exaggeration to say it left psychological trauma.
But it definitely left the child with some negative emotions.
...
That evening, Ding Yun stayed up late studying magic while waiting to see if Liu Lan would send her grandson back. She waited until midnight before confirming that her grandson wouldn't be returning that day, and went to bed with resignation.
Then, the next morning, she first went to dance in the square. After dancing, she went to buy the promised pork ribs and chicken legs to marinate. Around 10:30 AM, she unhurriedly rode her electric bike to school.
Of course, she had already informed the teacher in advance, and since she personally paid the tuition, the school teachers knew her.
So Ding Yun smoothly bypassed her daughter.
She took Hu Huanhuan from the teacher.
When Hu Huanhuan saw Ding Yun, he was very cooperative. He immediately cheered and rushed into Ding Yun's arms, saying things like how much he missed his grandma.
Although "missed" might have implied anticipation of fried pork ribs and chicken legs, Ding Yun was still quite happy to hear it.
On the way back, she specifically bought three catties of shrimp.
She planned to make salted egg yolk baked shrimp for her grandson.
Her second-hand mobile phone business had been running quite smoothly, and even gained some reputation. Now, on average, she sold two to three phones a day. Selling these phones, while not a cost-free business for Ding Yun, had very low costs, as old phones weren't worth much.
Therefore, her income was quite good.
She had even saved tens of thousands of yuan again.
With money in hand, she naturally became willing to buy ingredients she previously hesitated to buy, such as fresh large shrimp.
In the past, the original host would at most buy half a catty or a catty, and those were the smaller ones, costing eighteen to twenty yuan per catty.
This time, Ding Yun bought three catties, and they were the largest size, costing thirty-two yuan per catty. This delighted Hu Huanhuan, who was sitting behind her on the electric bike. In his excitement, he also showed some concern, worried if she had bought too much.
Worried if it cost too much.
He actually didn't want to eat that many shrimp.
He even said that buying smaller, cheaper shrimp was also fine.
In response, Ding Yun neither complained about poverty nor said she could make money now. She just said he had suffered recently, and this was a special treat to help him recover.
It was just an occasional thing, so he shouldn't worry.
Upon arriving home, Ding Yun immediately told Hu Huanhuan to go back to his room to do his homework, while she went into the kitchen to prepare lunch.
Fried pork ribs, fried chicken, fried meat strips, everything was there. She had promised yesterday, so she wouldn't go back on her word. Parents were always the first role models and learning examples for children. If you couldn't achieve certain things yourself,
Then you shouldn't blame the child.
When calling the child a liar, you should think more about whether you yourself are honest and if you frequently lie.
Everything was marinated in advance, and the ingredients were sufficient. Thus, about half an hour later, Ding Yun brought the cooked dishes to the dining table and called out to the child:
"Huanhuan, come quickly and eat lunch!"
Perhaps because he truly had limited access to phones and was quite hungry, he didn't exhibit the common behavior in other families where meals were called out multiple times, and he needed to be personally urged to eat.
As soon as she spoke, he darted out, sat obediently at the dining table, and watched expectantly for Ding Yun to pick up her chopsticks first. Ding Yun, of course, picked up food for him first.
And told him to eat quickly, and that she would add more rice if it wasn't enough.
After eating, Ding Yun didn't immediately wash the dishes. Instead, she first helped him review his homework and tutored him on a few problems he didn't understand. After he finished his midday assignments,
Ding Yun began to carefully inquire about his experiences in the past few days, asking about Liu Guoding's current situation, where the three of them lived, and so on.
In short, she asked everything she could.
Although the child didn't know much, he could piece together some information. Liu Guoding's health seemed to be genuinely declining. He didn't have any terminal illnesses, but he had chronic illnesses all over his body, such as cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, high blood pressure, and so on.
He even had some liver cirrhosis and ascites.
He wouldn't die anytime soon, but he wasn't comfortable either.
He was basically incapacitated for work.
Of course, at his age, finding work was also difficult.
Additionally, Liu Lan had been actively seeking community assistance and applying for minimum living support during this period.
She had even purchased medical insurance for her father.
She was busy all day, working very hard.
Without money, she even went to buy relatively cheap pork bones to make soup for her father to supplement his nutrition.
How to describe it? Looking at it, it really didn't seem like she was faking. She was genuinely filial to her father, doing her best even if her capabilities were insufficient.
Besides this, Hu Huanhuan also learned many new phrases.
Such as "The desire to care for one's parents arises, but they are no longer there," "There are no unfilial parents in the world," and "A day as husband and wife creates a hundred days of grace."
These were all instilled in him by his mother.
Hearing this, Ding Yun felt conflicted, unsure whether to say her daughter was dim-witted, or simply foolishly filial, or purely felt sorry for her father, who had spent so many years in prison and was now riddled with illnesses, with no one to rely on.
Of course, even so, it didn't mean Ding Yun was willing to accept Liu Guoding. Furthermore, the original host's wish only concerned her grandson. She couldn't be bothered about anyone else; let them be, as long as they didn't provoke her.