The person who came was none other than Wang Lanhua!
"What are you looking for?" Her eyes were full of vigilance, and her tone was icy.
"N-nothing..." Chuntao was so frightened that her tongue tied into knots. She hurriedly lowered her head, not daring to look at her.
"I... my head hurts a little. I want to sleep here for a while."
Wang Lanhua, however, took out a little green book from her pocket and waved it in front of Chuntao's eyes. "This is what you're looking for, right?"
Chuntao glanced at the object in Wang Lanhua's hand. Sure enough, it was a green-covered booklet with three words on it: "Household Registration Book."
How could it be in Wang Lanhua's hands? Did she know all along that she would come looking for it?
Chuntao's guess was spot on.
The other day, when Li Dazhuang came back from Wangjia Village and told Wang Lanhua about Zhou Zhijun acting strange, Wang Lanhua grew suspicious and said, "There's something fishy going on here!"
Zhou Zhijun saying he wanted Chuntao and Wang Jieshi to go get their marriage certificate was just a trick to get the household registration book.
Naturally, she wasn't foolish enough to just hand it over. Instead, she hid the household registration book.
Today, during the celebratory noodle banquet, even though Wang Lanhua was lying in bed, she had already arranged for someone to keep an eye on Chuntao's every move.
As soon as Chuntao stepped into Grandma Shen's room, that person trotted over to report back to Wang Lanhua.
Wang Lanhua wasn't in a hurry to come over. She deliberately waited until Chuntao had ransacked the place looking for it before she slowly strolled in with the household registration book in her pocket.
Seeing Chuntao's face turn deathly pale, not even daring to lift her head, a smug smile immediately appeared on the corners of her mouth. She took two steps to stand right in front of Chuntao.
Lowering her voice, she said, "Li Chuntao, let me tell you, you were traded for by me, Wang Lanhua. In this life, you are a person of the Wang family while alive, and a ghost of the Wang family when dead..."
"Mother! Mother! My little brother is crying!"
Li Xiaolian's tearful shouts suddenly came from outside the house.
Hearing the commotion, Wang Lanhua glared fiercely at Chuntao, waved the household registration book under her nose, quickly stuffed it into her pocket, and turned to walk out briskly.
The taut string in Chuntao's heart snapped. She slumped down onto the edge of the bed, panting heavily.
With the household registration book in Wang Lanhua's hands, getting it would be harder than climbing to heaven.
While Chuntao sat in the inner room worrying, Zhou Zhijun was in the courtyard, taking all of this in.
Seeing Wang Lanhua enter Grandma Shen's room, he quietly crept over to the base of the window. Every single one of Wang Lanhua's harsh words reached his ears, making his teeth itch with anger.
After the wedding banquet ended and the relatives gradually left, Grandma Shen held onto Chuntao's hand.
With red eyes, she sighed and said, "Tao, Grandma knows you have a hard life.
But how can life ever be smooth sailing? As women, don't we all have to suffer these grievances?
Our Li family has been dutiful and honest for generations. Listen to Grandma's advice, Grandma is doing this for your own good.
In the Wang family, at least you have food to eat and a place to shelter from the wind and rain. If you leave the Wang family, you won't even have a way to survive..."
Chuntao had been obedient and sensible since childhood, listening to whatever her grandmother said. Only now did she realize how foolishly she had lived in the past.
She opened her mouth, wanting to say that she never wanted to live this kind of life again, but the words didn't come out.
She secretly schemed in her heart: as soon as she got the household registration book, she would go get a marriage certificate with Zhou Zhijun!
She also didn't want to care about these miserable affairs of her maiden family anymore.
On the way back, Chuntao was depressed the whole time, her head drooping.
Seeing her like this, Zhou Zhijun patted her shoulder and comforted her, "Don't worry, I have a way!"
"The thing is clutched in my sister-in-law's hands, what way could you possibly have?" Chuntao's voice was full of frustration.
"Don't worry about that! Within three days, I will definitely get the household registration book for you!" Zhou Zhijun patted his chest loudly, his tone firm.
Sure enough, on the third night after Li Dazhuang's family hosted the noodle banquet, the house was robbed, and their cow was led away!
Li Dazhuang and Grandma Shen panicked and chased outside. A donkey was still tied up in the east room, and Wang Lanhua, terrified that the thief had accomplices coming to steal the donkey, hurried to the east room to keep watch.
Hearing the shouts, the villagers all got up one after another to help catch the thief.
Seeing the large crowd, the thief was frightened into abandoning the cow and ran away in a flash!
Over at Wangjia Village, early the next morning, Chuntao was standing around the stove cooking when Zhou Zhijun hurried in.
With a bit of pride on his face, he said, "I got the household registration book! Come on, let's go to the county town right now!"
Chuntao knew Zhou Zhijun was capable, but she didn't expect him to get it so quickly.
Both surprised and delighted, she didn't have time to ask for details before following Zhou Zhijun to hurry to the county town.
Upon arriving at the police station, Zhou Zhijun handed the household registration book to the staff member. "Comrade, please separate Li Chuntao out and make a separate household registration book for her."
The staff member picked up the book, opened it, flipped through a few pages, and frowned so hard it could kill a fly.
"Are you kidding me? Li Chuntao's name isn't even in here!" Saying that, they threw the book onto the desk.
Zhou Zhijun quickly picked it up to look. Sure enough, Chuntao's page was missing. There were obvious tear marks; Chuntao's page must have been ripped out.
"Brother Zhijun!" Chuntao's eyes widened. "My sister-in-law must have torn it out!"
Zhou Zhijun frowned. "Wang Lanhua is really a piece of work!"
Without Chuntao's name in the household registration book, they naturally couldn't process the household separation.
By the time the two walked out of the police station, the sun was already high in the south.
Since the matter wasn't resolved, Chuntao felt depressed and kept her head down in silence.
Seeing her like this, Zhou Zhijun comforted her, "It's fine. Wait until Wu Mingwei comes back from his business trip. I'll go find him to get you a household registration book, and then we'll get our marriage certificate!"
Chuntao's heart was a mess. "Liu Cuilan and the others definitely won't let this go easily."
"You have absolutely nothing to do with the Wang family anymore. What can she do?"
Zhou Zhijun took her hand and walked to a store, shouting to the counter, "Comrade, give me a pack of chocolate!"
He took out a few dollars to pay the bill, tore open the packaging, picked up a piece, and brought it to Chuntao's mouth. "Here, open your mouth!"
Passersby cast strange glances at them. Chuntao blushed deeply under their stares and hurriedly took the chocolate from his hand. "I'll eat it myself!"
She bit off a small piece and held it in her mouth. First, a bitter taste spread across the tip of her tongue, but soon after, traces of sweetness rippled out from the bottom of her heart.
Chuntao let out a long breath. Would her life be like this chocolate?
Just then, a familiar voice suddenly came from behind, shouting in exasperation, "Li Chuntao! Zhou Zhijun! You two stop right there!"
Chuntao stiffened all over and turned her head abruptly. Her heart instantly felt as if it were tightly squeezed by a large hand, squeezing so hard she couldn't breathe.
