Reality slapped Liu Chunlan hard in the face.
Auntie Li told her:
"Your son is now looking for a second marriage. He's in his thirties and doesn't even own a house.
"It's hard to find someone with these conditions.
"How much bride price can you afford?"
Liu Chunlan was unconvinced:
"Let's not talk about the bride price first. My son is a handsome talent with a good job and a high salary.
"He also has a car, and a house is just a matter of time.
"How could he not find someone with his conditions?"
Auntie Li brushed her off casually:
"What are your requirements?"
Liu Chunlan immediately started listing them off:
"First, she can't be too ugly; she at least needs to match my son's looks.
"Second, she must be over 165 centimeters tall, otherwise it will affect the genes of our Wang family's future generations.
"Third, she must be sensible, hardworking, nimble, and a good cook.
"Fourth, she must be especially filial. If I tell her to go east, she shouldn't go west. She must absolutely listen to me.
"Fifth, she must know how to make money. Her salary can't be much less than my son's.
"Sixth, she must be a virgin. My son doesn't want second-hand goods.
"Seventh..."
"Forget about seventh and eighth."
Auntie Li interrupted her impatiently:
"Get two million ready for the bride price."
"What? How much? Two million?"
Liu Chunlan gripped the phone and screamed:
"What kind of bullshit is that? Two million, why don't you just go rob a bank?
"Is she encrusted with gold? How dare she ask for a two million bride price?"
Auntie Li snorted:
"Then let me ask you, is your son encrusted with gold? How dare you make such demands?
"Liu Chunlan, stop dreaming.
"I can't meet a single one of your requirements, but I do have another suitable match I can introduce to your son."
"What is she like?"
Liu Chunlan's interest was instantly piqued.
Unexpectedly, Auntie Li said:
"A widow whose husband died last year, bringing along two sons.
"As soon as she marries into your family, she'll immediately change the children's surname to Wang. Haven't you always wanted a grandson?
"Now you get two at once, and her demands are low. She only wants an eighty-eight thousand bride price. Will you consider it?"
"Get the hell out of here!"
Liu Chunlan hung up the phone in anger:
"What the hell? What kind of nonsense is this?
"Find a widow for my son? With two burdens in tow?
"What does she take my son for? Free labor?
"What a joke."
Liu Chunlan was furious, but Wang Meijuan quickly started calculating:
"Mom, how about we don't let Haohao get married again, and just have Li Borui adopted by him.
"That would still be your grandson, right? There's no issue with the bloodline, killing two birds with one stone, right?"
"My foot!"
Liu Chunlan remained disdainful:
"He's a cripple now, do you understand what a cripple is?
"How could I want a cripple as my grandson? No way, absolutely not!"
Wang Meijuan glared angrily at Liu Chunlan and said no more, silently beginning to tidy up the house.
After several hours, the house was finally clean, but it was also empty.
Everything of value was gone; it was truly four bare walls.
Liu Chunlan was still lying in bed:
"Juan'er, make some food, I'm starving."
Wang Meijuan was hungry too, but what was she supposed to cook with?
All the pots, pans, and bowls in the house were gone.
Liu Chunlan lost her temper: "If we don't have any, go buy them! Are you waiting for me to buy them?"
Wang Meijuan nodded:
"Mom, I don't have any money."
Liu Chunlan rolled her eyes in anger and threw two hundred yuan at Wang Meijuan:
"Debt collectors, you're all just debt collectors!
"The ones married in are useless, and the ones married out are useless too. How am I so unlucky!"
While Liu Chunlan was full of anger here, Wang Hao was finding it dull lying in his dorm room every day over there.
Most of the people living in the dorms were young guys who had just entered society, making a thirty-year-old like him seem entirely out of place.
He lay in bed scrolling through his phone, scrolling and scrolling, until eventually all he saw were beautiful women.
He felt an unbearable itch in his heart.
Ever since things got messy with Lin Wanyi over the divorce, he hadn't had that kind of life for a long time.
Thinking of this, and then thinking of the money in his bank account, he immediately got up.
An hour later, having spent over a thousand yuan, he felt refreshed and used his new phone to send a text message to Lin Wanyi:
[Lin Wanyi, I have plenty of women. The world doesn't stop spinning just because you're gone.]
He thought Lin Wanyi would be angry, but Lin Wanyi assumed it was a spam message and didn't even look at it.
She lay in her own room, on her own bed.
The bed she had slept in since childhood was still as fragrant and soft as ever.
Li Suhua lay next to her:
"Are you finally at peace now? Rest at home for a while longer, there's no need to rush anything."
Lin Wanyi was tired, truly tired.
These past two or three months had been more exhausting than the previous eight years.
Now, she could finally lean into her mother's embrace and sleep comfortably, just like when she was a child.
In her sleep, she dreamed of her childhood, of elementary school, middle school, and even high school and college.
The whole journey was filled with happiness, but in the end, her dream was suddenly shattered when Wang Hao appeared.
Wang Hao, Wang Hao.
She looked around by the faint light of the moon.
Even though there was clearly no one around, she somehow felt that Wang Hao was standing everywhere.
Dozens of Wang Haos surrounded her from the front, back, left, and right.
They all reached out to her:
"Lin Wanyi, you can't escape, you will never escape.
"You are my wife, my wife for a lifetime.
"You are mine, mine!"
Lin Wanyi reached out and grabbed wildly but caught nothing. She yelled at Wang Hao:
"Is that you, Wang Hao?
"Come out, come out right now, come out!
"Stop following me, okay? We're divorced, we're really divorced."
But Wang Hao still said, "We are not divorced, I will never divorce you in my life.
"Lin Wanyi, you will never escape, you will always be my wife."
"No!"
Lin Wanyi tightly covered her ears: "No, I'm not your wife, not anymore.
"Wang Hao, I am no longer your wife."
"Yes, you are!
"You will be for a lifetime, you will always be my wife.
"Lin Wanyi, you are my wife!"
"No, get lost!
"Wang Hao, get out of here!"
She finally couldn't help but roar loudly.
The roar awakened Li Suhua. She pushed open the door and saw Lin Wanyi covering her ears and shouting:
"Get lost! Wang Hao, get lost, hurry up and get out!"
Li Suhua immediately turned on the light and hugged Lin Wanyi:
"Wanyi, wake up, wake up. You were dreaming, right?
"Open your eyes and look, Wang Hao isn't here, he's really not here."
The light irritated Lin Wanyi's eyes. She opened them with difficulty and saw Li Suhua beside her.
She instantly broke down: "Mom, I saw Wang Hao, so many Wang Haos.
"So many of them, they surrounded me, they all said they wouldn't let me go.
"Mom, what should I do? Wang Hao keeps pestering me, I can't shake him off."
Li Suhua's heart ached terribly; all she could do was hold her tightly:
"Go to sleep, Mom will sleep with you.
"Wanyi, Wang Hao isn't here, he's really not here.
"He's thousands of miles away."
Despite having Li Suhua beside her, Lin Wanyi couldn't fall asleep again.
She closed her eyes and forced herself to sleep, but after Li Suhua fell asleep, she opened her eyes and stayed awake until dawn.
She understood Liu Siyue; she finally knew how she had felt.
Fear, control.
Like a giant invisible net constantly enveloping her.
Wang Hao had become her inner demon!
