Hard work after winning the lottery

He agreed too quickly and too readily, which caused Hua Yun to lose all the words she had prepared to use in her protest.

This result is far better than the best-case scenario he had anticipated.

He had expected it to be a protracted and drawn-out battle.

He was even prepared to use some methods that she didn't like.

But in the end, she chose to compromise for the sake of her child.

"besides."

Hua Yun did not lower her guard because of his straightforwardness.

She raised her red eyes and, for the first time, looked directly into his deep eyes without flinching.

Her eyes held her last shred of dignity and resolve.

"You cannot reveal your identity to anyone until they are truly able to accept and understand all of this."

"Especially in front of my family."

She couldn't imagine the uproar that would ensue if her parents and grandparents found out about this.

She couldn't let her family suffer with her.

Zhou Yanjin met her gaze but did not answer immediately.

Hua Yun's heart leaped into her throat once again at his momentary silence.

She was afraid he would reject her.

Just when she was about to break down, he finally nodded slowly.

"Can."

His voice was deep and steady, carrying a convincing power.

I respect your opinion.

Hua Yun's tense nerves finally relaxed a little.

However, his next words made her heart tighten suddenly.

"But what about Grandpa..."

Zhou Yanjin's gaze subtly drifted towards the main house.

"He probably already guessed it."

With a loud bang.

Hua Yun's mind felt like it had been hit by a bomb.

Grandpa Zhou... guessed it?

She suddenly recalled the past few days, Grandpa Zhou's seemingly unintentional displays of affection and probing, and the inquisitive yet loving gaze he cast upon the children...

It turns out that from the very beginning, she wasn't just playing a game against Zhou Yanjin alone.

She was facing the entire Zhou family.

A profound sense of powerlessness, accompanied by a belated chill, spread from the soles of my feet all the way to my limbs and bones.

This afternoon standoff in the courtyard, this tense confrontation, finally came to an end in a way that no one had anticipated.

A fragile and strange balance was achieved between Hua Yun and Zhou Yanjin.

She no longer deliberately avoided him as she had the day before.

When he appears, she will lower her head and continue what she is doing, but her movements will stiffen for a moment.

When he talks to the children, she stands not far away, her gaze fixed on the children's smiling faces, but never meeting his eyes.

She would even respond to his question about the child's appetite with a blank expression at the dinner table.

"Dabao doesn't like carrots."

"My second child needs to be fed."

"Sanbao likes to kick off the covers while sleeping."

Calm, polite, distant.

Like two strangers who are barely maintaining a semblance of dignity for the sake of their child, but whose relationship has long since fallen apart.

She thought she had concealed it well.

She thought that the turbulent emotions buried deep in her heart were firmly suppressed by a layer of ice called calm, and no one could see them.

But she forgot that there is a kind of gaze in this world that can easily see through all pretenses.

That was a mother's gaze.

And then there was Grandma's gaze.

From that afternoon onwards, Li Guifen and Grandma Hua sensed that something was wrong.

The color drained from the daughter's (granddaughter's) face as if something had drained it all away in one breath, leaving only an almost transparent paleness.

She would hold her child and sit under the grapevines in the yard, lost in thought, sometimes for an entire afternoon, oblivious even when the needle pricked her hand while she was sewing a shoe sole that was only half-finished.

At night, when Li Guifen got up to sleep, she heard several times from her daughter's room the faint, suppressed sobs coming from inside.

At first, Li Guifen and Grandma Hua had some inexplicable feelings for him.

This young man was tall, handsome, and had an extraordinary bearing; he was clearly no ordinary person.

What's even more remarkable is that he was always polite and considerate to the two elderly women, without a trace of the arrogance of a city dweller.

He was exceptionally good to his three children.

She would patiently help her eldest child assemble that complicated set of building blocks, lift her second child high above her head to make him giggle, and gently pat her youngest child's back with her warm palms.

The gentleness and patience in those eyes couldn't be faked.

The two elderly people saw this and couldn't help but feel a surge of excitement.

They know better than anyone how much hardship and exhaustion Yunyun has endured raising three children on her own these past few years.

If... if she could meet someone who truly cares for her and her child, how wonderful that would be?

This Mr. Zhou, whether from his family background (you can tell from Mr. Zhou's family that he is either rich or noble) or his character and appearance, seems to be a gift from God.

But after observing for a few days, this hidden joy gradually turned into an overwhelming cloud of doubt.

Not right.

Something's really wrong.

If a young girl in the throes of first love meets her sweetheart, she should be shy, joyful, and her smile should be impossible to hide from her eyes and brows.

But the way Yunyun looked at him...

There wasn't a trace of a woman's affection in it.

Yes, it was something extremely complex that they couldn't understand.

There was exhaustion, struggle, resistance, and even... a deep-seated, unspeakable pain.

That's not the look you give someone you love.

It's more like watching a long-standing nemesis.

A shackle of fate that she could neither resist nor avoid.

That night, the autumn in the mountain village was so quiet that you could hear the chirping of insects in the distant grass.

The three children had been playing wildly all day and were fast asleep to the lullabies hummed by their grandmother, with sweet smiles still on their little faces.

Hua Yun tucked them in and sat by the bed for a long time before tiptoeing back to her own room.

Just as she closed the door, the door to the main house next door creaked open and was gently pushed open.

Li Guifen and Grandma Hua exchanged a glance, both seeing the same resolute decision in each other's eyes.

This can't go on any longer.

They need to know what exactly happened to their daughter (granddaughter).

"Knock knock knock—"

The soft, tentative knocking sounded exceptionally clear in the quiet night.

Hua Yun had just taken off her coat and was about to lie down when she heard a knock on the door, and her heart skipped a beat.

Who could it be so late?

She subconsciously held her breath, and the first thought that flashed through her mind was Zhou Yanjin.

But she immediately rejected that idea.

He wasn't the kind of person who would knock on her door in the middle of the night.