Xia Zhi almost couldn't maintain her composure.
She wanted to tell herself not to get angry, it wasn't worth it.
She wasn't really angry either, she just felt a deep sense of powerlessness.
It was as if you were standing on the shore, watching a child drown, and you tried your best to pull them out, but they refused to come up, and were secretly competing with you.
You want to give up, but that child is still connected to your loved ones.
Sometimes Xia Zhi really wanted to stop caring about everything in a fit of anger, but then she thought, this family didn't just have An JingZhi and Zhou Nan, there was also grandfather and grandmother who doted on her, gentle elder sister-in-law Wen Qing and cute Wen Qing, plus her other two brothers who, although not as indulgent of her as fourth brother, didn't shun her either.
If she really stopped caring, the An family would collapse, and all these people who loved her would also be implicated, repeating the tragic fate of the previous life.
Xia Zhi stiffly turned her head to go home, but saw Pei Jing standing not far away across the street, gazing at her with a deep look in his eyes.
He didn't come over, but Xia Zhi walked towards him. Ultimately her destination wasn't him though, she just took a detour on the way home, not saying a word from start to finish.
Grandmother saw Xia Zhi's unusually gloomy expression for the first time, and intuitively felt that something bad had happened.
Looking back, she also saw Pei Jing coming in from the door, his face equally unpleasant.
"Little Jing, did you and Xia Zhi have a disagreement?" grandmother asked him.
Pei Jing shook his head. He didn't actually understand what was going on himself. "Nothing happened, Granny don't worry about it, I'll go see how she's doing first."
Calling her Granny just came out, it felt awkward at first, but once he said it it was fine.
Grandmother was still worried and urged him, "Then you two need to talk it through, Xia Zhi isn't an unreasonable child, don't get impatient with her, and she's different now, you need to yield to her more."
Grandmother said it lightly with a smile on her face, but as soon as Pei Jing was out of sight, she immediately went to discuss things with Grandfather.
These two children really were troublesome, it was so vexing, and they were arguing before even getting married, how would things go in the future?
When Xia Zhi got back to her room, she sat down heavily on the bed, her mind full of all kinds of messy thoughts that she couldn't calm down.
Pei Jing came in and pushed open the door. Xia Zhi turned her head and happened to meet his gaze.
As if competing, neither of them looked away.
In the end Pei Jing gave in and walked over to stand in front of her and asked, "How do you know Director Liang?"
He didn't have a good reputation, so Pei Jing was worried that Xia Zhi would suffer a loss.
But Xia Zhi was in a terrible mood and really didn't want to be hypocritical with him. She blurted out, "Are you interrogating me?"
"I was just casually asking." Pei Jing had already noticed that something was off with her, and thinking she was still young, spoke gently, "What's wrong? What did he say to you to put you in such a bad mood?"
When Pei Jing softened, Xia Zhi also realized she shouldn't take her anger out on others. She lowered her voice and said, "He's Teacher Zhao's man. He just came today to pass on a message for Teacher Zhao. I'm not angry, just a little uncomfortable."
Pei Jing: "What's making you uncomfortable?"
"I haven't rested these last few days and I'm irritable. I want to take a nap." Xia Zhi looked at him, the hint for him to leave was obvious.
Pei Jing was taken aback, he had probably been hurt in his pride. He didn't say anything more before turning around to leave.
After going out, he stared at the door for a long time, unable to figure out how he had offended her.
The footsteps outside gradually faded away. Xia Zhi closed her eyes and sank into darkness for a long time before opening them again.
She locked the door and went into the space, heading straight for the insect queen with purpose.
Little Rich Woman of the Times: "Sister Queen, I want to silently kill someone, is there a way?"
She thought about it again and again, and the interstellar side still had the most hope.
But the plane trading device had too many restrictions to stabilize the plane, so she didn't know if it would work.
Insect Queen: "There is a way, but you have to provide me with free food for a year, and prepare what I need, in very large quantities."
Little Rich Woman of the Times: "What you want is too much, I can only do half a year. Too long and I can't afford it, you know I'm very poor here."
She could provide, but she couldn't increase the other's appetite.
Insect Queen: "Deal."
Finding a large source of food, it could mass produce offspring in the next period of time.
The insects had a unique sense of territory, with one colony consisting of only one queen and countless drones, and the size of the colony depended on the queen's reproductive capacity.
Its reproductive capacity was fine, but the colony it ruled wasn't big, and the food source was a huge problem.
Now the food source was solved, as long as it kept eating, it could keep breeding offspring.
The Insect Queen had also considered using star coins to purchase, but it was still distressed by large amounts. Xia Zhi also didn't sell however much it wanted just to string it along.
Its star coins were also limited, not as abundant as Xia Zhi thought, and there were constant wars between the interstellar insects, they also had to guard against humans, and weapons consumption was huge.
Looking at it this way, Xia Zhi was at a loss, but she didn't care.
She wanted Gao Meiyun to die, she just had to die, no one could save her.
Before today, Xia Zhi also wanted Gao Meiyun to die, but had never thought of doing it herself.
She was afraid of being immersed in hatred, afraid she would become ruthless like Gao Meiyun because of hatred.
But An JingZhi's actions today were too infuriating, she couldn't care about that anymore.
The more he wanted to protect Gao Meiyun, the more she wanted her dead.
Coming out again, Xia Zhi's mood was much better. She went to the yard and shouted, "Granny, I'm going out for a bit."
"Where are you going? Let Little Jing go with you." Pei Jing was still chatting with Grandfather in the living room, discussing wedding plans, he hadn't gone back.
Xia Zhi: "No need for that. I want to go see Wen Qing, still don't know when she'll be back."
"Then wait a moment, let me get some things for you." Grandmother hurriedly packed up and went out, still carrying two packs of things, "These are the snacks the Pei family brought yesterday. You can't finish them anyway, take two packs for Wen Qing, it can count as a gesture from her sister-in-law."
It was Xia Zhi's stuff to begin with. Grandmother also wanted Xia Zhi to go over and show some attention, to bring her and sister-in-law closer together.
It should have gone over yesterday, but when she asked the girl didn't want to, and grandmother knew she had reservations, and wanted to give her son and daughter-in-law a warning, so she just let it go.
"Okay, I'm going now." Xia Zhi took the things and went out.
When she lived there, she also secretly gave Wen Qing some things to eat. After all the child was little, she only knew she ate something, and couldn't say exactly what she ate, so there was no risk of exposure.
But on the surface, she really hadn't given Wen Qing anything.
Xia Zhi thought, this was indeed her mistake. She had come back and devoted her thoughts to Gao Meiyun instead, and she was still wearing the shoes big sister-in-law made.
Although Zhou Nan said she re-made them and gave them back later, they weren't made by Xia Zhi.
