Rebirth of the Genius Charlatan

Chapter 3 – Patriarchal

From Xia Shao’s point of view, what was the meaning of the phrase “eldest grandson” in the sentences spoken by her grandfather, not to mention the other. Her father was the eldest son in the family, and Xia Shao was the eldest granddaughter, also the fact that Aunt-in-law gave birth to a daughter, and even if she did give birth to a son, he was still the youngest grandson! If Gandpa said that, doesn’t it mean he is excluding her?

Xia Shao’s grandfather Xia GuoXi was a veteran, originally a soldier like him could be arranged to the city, had a good leisure work, receiving the people’s respect as he was a veteran cadre. However, just because he had such a foul temper and wouldn’t care about others’ pride, he ended up offending others and was given a few acres of land in the countryside for the rest of his life. This made Xia GuoXi felt very upset, so he didn’t even cultivate the land and just pass it all to her grandmother while he took on the role of the head of the family and spent his days drinking at home. Xia Shao had heard from her mother that when she was born, grandfather heard it was a girl, he didn’t even go to visit her for a whole month.

Now that Aunt-in-law Jiang QiuLin was pregnant, Grandpa was pinning his hopes on his youngest daughter-in-law again, hoping that she would be able to pass on the family name. Ironically, his expectations were destined to be dashed.

In fact, Xia GuoXi and his ex-wife’s son, Xia ZhiWei married and had a son, but this son was influenced by his father who was in the triads all day long, and he was always acting like a gangster which did not meet Xia GuoXi’s expectation for a grandson. Thus, he pinned his hopes on his other two sons, but he was disappointed with the outcome.

As a child, Xia Shao didn’t understand the complex world of adults, but she still could sense her grandfather’s cold words and indifferent attitude towards her. She felt disliked and this was certainly hurtful in her young mind, causing her to always felt inadequate, and have low self-esteem which became slightly introverted. In the village, she only made friends with Aunt Meng’s daughter, sister CuiCui, and after she went to school, she could always count the number of friends she had.

On the other hand, it was different now. Xia Shao had the mind of an adult, a mature mentality, and having experienced the workplace, she understands many underlying rules and truths in society.

Low self-esteem and cowardice would not be beneficial, it would only reduce one’s presence and made others ignore them even more. No one else would give out anything for free in this world for no reason, if one wants it, one has to earn for it!

Although she was still young now, Xia Shao would not wait until she was older before changing her situation. Since she was reborn in this year, then it was time to change now!

Therefore, she made a move that surprised everyone at the moment when the atmosphere in the room was tensed with the adults.

She smiled and walked towards Xia GuoXi, took the old man’s calloused hand, raised her face, and said with a sweet smile: “Grandpa, Auntie will definitely give birth to a younger brother! When Shao’er grows up, me and younger brother will be filial to you and grandma!”

The nine years old little girl, whose voice still seemed a little childish, with her sweet smile and innocent eyes, stunned a room full of people.

The most shocked person was Xia GuoXi, his granddaughter had always been afraid of him, and would usually circle her grandmother. She didn’t even have the guts to raise her eyes to meet his, what was wrong with her today?

Xia GuoXi stared at Xia Shao in shock, the child looked so much like his son, fair skin, big eyes, round face, dark hair, a look of beauty. At the moment, he could feel his granddaughter’s hand in his palm, as if a slight grip would squeeze water out from it.

Although he prefers sons to daughters and felt that grandsons were more important than granddaughters. However, after so many years, he had accepted the fact but still the thoughts of having a grandson lingers in his mind, which was why he was slightly cold towards his granddaughter. It would be against his conscionable to say that his heart doesn’t feel touched when being stared at with such innocent eyes of a child.

Just as Xia GuoXi was reeling in shock, Xia Shao’s grandmother was the first to laugh.

“Look at this, old man, our granddaughter is so understanding! At such young age, she already knows how to respect her elders as she grows up. She’s our grandchild, we didn’t dote her for nothing!”

The youngest Uncle and Aunt-in-law also laughed. The words of the child were considered the most auspicious. Thus, on this New Year’s Eve, being told by a child that there was a boy in her belly was undoubtedly the greatest blessing of all, so they were naturally happy.

Moreover, no one was more relieved than Xia Shao’s parents. Her mother even changed her sad demeanour and looked at her with approval and relief in her eyes. This child was somehow able to coax her grandfather, just with this simple sentence, and the whole family was joyous.

Xia GuoXi was still unable to react for a while, and finally gave a “hmmm”, without lashing out a lecture for the first time and went back to his room with hands behind his back,

No one saw the innocent child who look innocent a moment ago, slowly lowered her eyes, and a meaningful smile skimmed across them.

This was the way Xia Shao handled as an adult. Although she was angry at her grandfather and her young Uncle and Aunt-in-law for what they had done, she could not throw a tantrum at them. After all, she was only ten years old after the New Year had passed, and had no speaking rights in the family, let alone status. The result of throwing a tantrum would only be that her parents being blamed and accused of failing to teach their daughter, which was more loss than worth.

Not everything in this world had to be assertive to gain benefits, especially when dealing with their loved ones, who despite mutual conflicts, were not deep grudge, so why make a scene?

Even when dealing with strangers, *there’s no point in reaching out and slap the smiling person! Not to mention facing your family members, especially when the other person was just a small child?

(T/N: 伸手还不打笑脸人 Shēn shǒu hái bù dǎ xiào liǎn rén means one’s shouldn’t hit when the other party took the initiative to apologize and smile.)

Knowing this, Xia Shao was extremely diligent in the past two days, helping out here and there. As a child, she couldn’t really help much, but it always made the elders felt that she was very well-behaved and understanding. On the night of New Year, Xia Shao served tea and water to her grandparents, her little mouth was particularly sweet with her words and auspicious too, making the elderly very happy.

This was also the first time that her mother, Li Juan, wasn’t lectured by her father-in-law, Xia GuoXi, in the New Year ever since she had married into the Xia family. This brought tears to her mother’s eyes that were filled with mixed emotions.

She knows that it was all because of her daughter’s understanding and well behaved that made this happened. She wasn’t too worried about her daughter’s sudden change of attitude, after all, a child’s heart changes easily at any time, so she was secretly pleased instead.

This New Year’s Eve, everyone in the family was happy and the adults were enjoying this rare occasion. No one noticed that Xia Shao, who made all this possible, was secretly sighing.

These things were just too easy for her. She couldn’t help but get slightly anxious as she would be ten years old after this New Year and would be in the fourth grade. At this point in her life, the primary school curriculum was like child’s play and not worth wasting her time on. Unless she skips a grade and jumps to the middle school? To be honest, the middle school curriculum could be skipped for her too, but she couldn’t just skip a grade to high school. Could she? That’s would no longer be a prodigy but more of a demon!

Xia Shao had to think about what benefit she would gain to be a child prodigy if she choose to skip grades. It was nothing more than envy, praise, plus a waiver of school fees, special incentives, and some other coverage. Compulsory education only need to pay miscellaneous fees, which wasn’t much, and special awards were probably not too much either according to the economic level these days.

For Xia Shao, her biggest regret in her last life was unable to send her grandmother off when passed away. Also, in the year she graduated from junior high school, her father’s factory closed down and he was laid off. To provide a better life for her, he chose to work alone in the southern city. This departure was for ten long years, separating from his wife and daughter!

In this new life, she would have to stop these from happening! To put it bluntly, the only way to change this matter was money! That’s the only way to keep her parents from separating again due to financial means.

Xia Shao actually knows deep down in her heart what she desperately wanted to do was still business! However, with her current age……

It seems that it was time to think and plan carefully.

The moment the New Year’s bell rang, firecrackers were set off in the courtyard, and in this joyous atmosphere, Xia Shao began to meditate and plan.

At this point, little did she know that the turnaround would come two days later, on the second day of the Lunar New Year.

A shocking discovery that day would change her life and it led to her future in business, politics, and even the mafia, ushering in a mythical era of glory……