In the end, Qi Shifeng just stroked Youyou's head without answering his question. Instead, he said, "How about I ask Mom about this next time?"
He wasn't completely ignorant of Xu Tingyu's upbringing.
Although he never had much contact with the Xu family after marriage, he could get a glimpse from Zhang Qiu's attitude.
In the eyes of the outside world, as a天之骄女 (a girl of outstanding talent and beauty), she was beautiful and excellent, and should have been brought up in the palm of her family's hand.
Moreover, her family had the means to do so.
But in fact, Xu Tingyu wasn't.
The family never lacked her in material things, but whenever the time of any of her dance competitions conflicted with that of Xu Jia's, she always had to go alone.
Her needs always came after Xu Jia's.
Xu Jianmin seemed fair. Before Xu Tingyu got married, he even bought her an apartment, gave her a lot of financial products, and even sent her all kinds of bags and jewelry every year.
However, later when the Xu family faced financial problems, Xu Tingyu gave all the cash and financial products she had.
This was also the reason why she didn't have much money to help out after the Xu family went bankrupt.
Even when Xu Jianmin talked to Qi Shifeng to borrow money back then, he never took this daughter into consideration.
Compared with Zhang Qiu, at least Xu Jianmin wasn't that extreme. The ratio of his love for his son and daughter was probably seven to three.
But Zhang Qiu was different.
The ratio of her love for her son and daughter was nine to one.
Even after Xu Jia had an accident, she took back that one part of love for Xu Tingyu.
In the past four years, Zhang Qiu had never asked about Xu Tingyu even once in the sanitarium.
When she was most delirious due to illness, the only names she kept calling were Xu Jia and Xu Jianmin.
In her heart, she had long forgotten she had a daughter.
As for whether Xu Tingyu had ever been hysterical in her teenage years, he didn't know.
He knew too little about her, and his love for her was indeed not up to par.
Qi Shifeng fell silent.
It was Youyou beside him who comforted him.
"Dad, don't be sad. You didn't know about the past. After you figure it out, give Mom a good hug, okay?"
Qi Shifeng was suddenly enlightened.
If he kept indulging in the regret of the past and did nothing, he would regret and feel sorry forever.
"When I saw Sister Chaoliu just now, I really wanted to hug her. But Godfather hugged her, so I'll hug her later." Youyou whispered again.
It was the first time he faced such a situation, so of course he was quite at a loss.
Qi Shifeng didn't want to interfere in other people's family affairs, but he thought it was necessary to talk to Qian Luo.
Since they had chosen to have two children, they shouldn't favor one over the other. Otherwise, they wouldn't be raising siblings but two enemies.
Most of the disharmony between siblings was caused by the elders' unfair treatment.
"Okay, then Dad will take you to meet Sister Chaoliu again in a few days, okay?"
Qi Shifeng gathered his emotions. When he held Youyou's little hand, he found that there was a cut on his little finger with dried blood on it.
He immediately frowned tightly and tried to soften his tone to make sure he didn't scare Youyou.
"What happened to your hand? Does it hurt? Why didn't you tell Dad?"
He held his son's hand, feeling extremely heart - broken.
Although it was inevitable for children to get bumps and bruises during their growth, it didn't mean that parents wouldn't feel heart - broken.
Youyou glanced at him and then explained, "Just now when the little brother came to grab the toy, he took mine first. When Sister Chaoliu helped me get it back, this happened."
After saying that, he quickly added another explanation, "But Sister Chaoliu didn't do it on purpose. She just wanted to help me get it back."
Qi Shifeng was silent for a few seconds and then continued in a relaxed tone, "Is that really the case? Youyou, you can't lie to Dad."
He knew his son too well. From his evasive tone and the way he dared not look him in the eye, he could tell that he wasn't telling the truth.
Youyou didn't expect his lie to be exposed so soon. He had no choice but to dejectedly tell the truth.
It turned out that when Qian Yang was brought over, he took a fancy to the toy in Qian Chao's hand.
He seemed to be used to snatching things from his sister. He ignored Youyou who was also holding a toy beside him and rushed straight towards Qian Chao.
Qian Chao put the toy behind her back and pointed at Youyou, saying to Qian Yang,
"Why do you want to snatch mine? There's someone else over there. We're siblings, and he's an outsider. You should snatch his."
Qian Yang remained unmoved and stubbornly insisted on snatching Qian Chao's toy.
As a result, Qian Chao got angry. She directly ran in front of Youyou and snatched the toy from his hand.
She used so much force that the edge of the toy scratched Youyou's little finger.
Qian Chao handed the toy she snatched from Youyou to Qian Yang, but Qian Yang didn't want it.
The one in Qian Chao's hand was the newest one sent by the guests today, while the one in Youyou's hand was the one they had already grown tired of playing with.
For kids, the ones they hadn't played with were always the best.
But Qian Chao got angry. She said to Qian Yang, "Don't you understand what I'm saying? Didn't Grandpa and Grandma say that you would protect me in the future? Now you're snatching from me instead of from others?"
After saying that, she pushed Youyou.
"None of you little brothers are good. You're an outsider, but Dad will hug you, and Grandpa and Grandma will talk to you with a smile."
"Why? Just because you're also a boy? Is being a boy something so great?"
"I hate you all. I hate all little brothers."
In the end, Qian Chao let out a shrill scream and smashed the toy on the ground.
This act successfully stunned Youyou and scared Qian Yang into crying.
Only then did it catch the adults' attention.
After Qi Shifeng heard the whole story, his eyebrows furrowed even tighter.
It seemed that Qian Chao's values had been distorted a lot by the idea of valuing sons over daughters.
Qian Luo must take this matter seriously.
After Youyou finished speaking, he carefully glanced at Qi Shifeng's expression, got closer to him, and said, "Dad, don't blame Sister Chaoliu, okay?"
"She's really so pitiful. She just wanted to keep her toy. I believe she didn't do it on purpose."
"Don't tell Godfather, okay? I'm so afraid that Godfather will stop loving her because of this."
There was full of worry on Youyou's face.
For a child, the thought that their parents would stop loving them was scarier than the sky falling.
Qi Shifeng's heart softened again. He stroked Youyou's hair and told him not to worry. "Got it. Dad will handle this properly and won't blame Chaoliu."
After getting his father's promise, Youyou relaxed and said with a big smile,
"Then when I buy toys, can I buy three of the same? Then the next time I see Sister Chaoliu and Little Brother Yangyang, we can play with the same toys."
"Little Brother Yangyang won't have to snatch from Sister Chaoliu, and Sister Chaoliu won't be sad."
Qi Shifeng looked at his son and showed a gratified smile. "Okay, I'll do as you say."