After the Xiao family was rehabilitated, life got better and better. With the reform and opening up, her father opened a traditional Chinese medicine clinic, and Wang Meixia wanted to remarry him.
Back then, her father felt not just disgust toward Wang Meixia but hatred. In just five short years, his only son had died and his younger daughter had gone missing—how could he not hate her?
Wang Meixia tried tantrums, crawling into his bed, drugging him—all to no avail. Then she started begging the Xiao family to help treat this child of hers. Wang Meixia said that this child shared half the blood of Xiao Mandong and was also a biological brother. Xiao Zhenyu was already gone, and Xiao Manxue was missing. This child was Xiao Mandong's only remaining blood relative—and when he grew up, he would be a support for Xiao Mandong's natal family. As Xiao Mandong's father, helping take care of Xiao Mandong's younger brother was only right. What a ridiculous argument.
"Leave now. I have nothing to do with any of you. Don't ever show your faces in front of me again—it makes me sick to look at you!" Don't talk to her about mother-daughter affection. A mother like that, she didn't want.
Zheng Chao was furious at Xiao Mandong's words. He really wanted to teach this ill-mannered brat a lesson, but for the sake of those two thousand yuan, he held back.
"Mandong, no matter what you say, the child your mother is carrying right now is your biological brother or sister. You share half the same blood. Blood is thicker than water—that's a fact you can never cut away."
"I know that now that you're grown up, you might not be able to accept me as your stepfather. I won't force it. But you can't let my presence create a rift between you and your mother. Don't blame her for marrying me—the divorce was forced by circumstances. If you want to assign blame, it's the Xiao family that caused it. Cutting ties with you was also forced—when the Xiao family had such a big scandal, the Wang family still had a whole household to look after. They had to protect themselves. As a daughter, she couldn't just ignore her own family's survival."
"She's a woman raising your little brother alone—it's really not easy. We're family after all, so there's no need to nitpick about every little thing. Your mother said that once the baby is born she won't have time to go out, so we came while we still could, to see you all. Seeing that you're living well, your mother can rest easy."
"You don't even know how many nights your mother cried when she heard you got divorced. She truly worries about you all."
"The Xiao family caused it? I remember my grandmother told me that my father had a betrothed fiancée. So how did it happen that after going to treat my grandmother's illness and drinking a bowl of water, he ended up lying on the kang in the Wang family's house? And my mother just happened to walk into the wrong room—with the whole family there, and she didn't even think to call for help? Who exactly caused harm to whom?"
Old Lady Wang's face changed completely. She never expected Old Lady Xiao to tell the children about this. That was really too much. Even if she was wrong, you couldn't tell her children about her embarrassing past. How was a mother supposed to maintain authority in front of her children after something like that?
"Mandong, matters between the older generation—you younger ones shouldn't get involved. Those half-heard stories, bits and pieces, how can you take them all as truth?"
She didn't expect this man to be so smooth-tongued, making everything sound so nice. If she didn't know that the two of them had been carrying on long before, she might have thought he was such an upright and honorable man.
"You say you worry about us? Worry with just your mouth? The money my father left for my sister—did it all go to your two children?"
Zheng Chao was startled when he heard Xiao Mandong's words. How did she know he had a son and a daughter? Did she already know about his affair with Wang Meixia long ago? And after all he had said, this brat was still thinking about that money.
"That money was left for Xiao Zhenyu. Don't worry—we won't touch a single cent."
"I know three thousand was left for Xiao Zhenyu. I'd guess that money is currently in grandmother's pocket, isn't it?"
The old lady swallowed hard but said nothing.
"And what about the one thousand for my sister? That was the money for her to go to the countryside. As a man, you wouldn't stoop to stealing your stepdaughter's money, would you?"
Zheng Chao's face darkened. "I really don't know about that money. You can ask your mother."
Wang Meixia couldn't handle her daughter's relentless questioning. She'd been sharp-tongued since childhood, and she'd only gotten worse with age—really disagreeable. People said she favored Wang Yuanyuan, and it was true. Yuanyuan's little mouth had been as sweet as honey from a young age. But her own two daughters—one sharp-edged, the other dull—she didn't know how she'd given birth to such two creatures.
"Enough. I'm your mother. Stop worrying about the money. You've thrown your little fit, that's enough. I'm tired of standing here. Open the door—I need to rest. I only had a corn cake for lunch, and I'm starving. A mother comes all this way to see her daughter and can't even get a sip of water. What a crime."
Wang Meixia tried to change the subject and avoid the matter. She didn't want to keep arguing with Xiao Mandong on the doorstep—it was too embarrassing.
As for the money, of course there was no way she was giving it back. At the time of the divorce, she'd taken out five thousand total: three thousand left for Xiao Zhenyu, one thousand for her, and one thousand for Xiao Manxue. But right after she got the money, Old Lady Wang took four thousand from her, leaving her only Xiao Manxue's one thousand—and that was mostly spent by now. When she heard that Xiao Mandong had sold her job for two thousand, she'd traveled all this way. At the time, she'd told them not to buy a job for Xiao Mandong, but Xiao Jingping refused to listen, saying a woman with a job would have a better time in her husband's family. Look at her now—did having a job do her any good? She still ended up divorced, and then sold the job anyway.
Of course, the money from selling the job still had to go to her mother. Otherwise, what if she just squandered it all? She'd just heard from Wang Yuanyuan that Xiao Mandong was extremely generous in the village—spending several hundred yuan on building some shabby house, buying meat for the workers, handing out red envelopes. Wasn't that insane? Having money and not using it to honor her own mother, but spending it on strangers—just like the Xiao family's ways. Back then Xiao Jingping did the same, waiving medicine fees for anyone he thought looked pitiful. That's why, by the time they divorced, they had so little savings left.
"You're overthinking it. I only have two rooms here—not enough space. You should go to a guesthouse in town."
When the old lady heard they'd have to stay at a guesthouse, she immediately panicked. That would be so expensive:
"How could there not be enough space? Your mother and stepfather take one room, and I'll stay with your uncle in the other. Isn't that just right?"
What a lovely plan. Letting that adulterous pair sleep on her kang—she'd be sick to her stomach. But for the sake of her reputation, she couldn't say it out loud.
"If you all stay here, then where do I and Xiao Manxue sleep?"
"You two can stay at the educated youth dormitory for a while. Yuanyuan has been living fine at the dormitory. Why did you insist on moving out? And look at this house you've got—that must have cost quite a bit, didn't it? Did you blow through all the money from selling your job? You should let your mother hold onto the rest of the money for you. That way, when you marry again in the future, you'll have a dowry."
"I have my own house. Why would I live in the youth cadre dormitory? My job was bought for me by my dad. What does that have to do with your Wang family's money?"
"Xiao Mandong, I am your grandmother. You child really have been spoiled rotten by the Xiao family—absolutely no manners at all."
"The Xiao family has never schemed to send their own daughter into a man's bed, nor have they had a daughter who remarried within a year already six or seven months pregnant. Indeed, the Wang family's daughter is far more 'well-bred' than anyone in the Xiao family."
The old lady flew into a rage, slipped off her shoe, and hurled it straight at Xiao Mandong.
