Shenjia Village was an isolated and remote place.
Although there were no mountains surrounding it, transportation was still inconvenient. The village lay in a hilly region where the ground was covered with stones, making road construction extremely difficult. Even the road leading to the county town was almost entirely rocky.
After being jolted around on the bus for nearly an hour, the group finally arrived at the village.
“Jiaojiao, you’re back! Oh, your husband came back too! Wonderful! He must have returned to take you away this time.”
A middle-aged woman from the village beamed at Shen Jiao.
“I’ve always said that Jiaojiao looked blessed from the time she was little. You’ll soon be moving to the city and living on state-supplied grain. Out of all the girls in your generation, you’re the one who married best.”
“Hehe, Auntie, are my brother and sister-in-law at home?”
The woman’s enthusiastic words left Shen Jiao feeling awkward.
She could hardly announce that she was about to get divorced.
She was certain that the moment she let the news slip, it would be like throwing a bomb into Shenjia Village. The entire village would instantly erupt.
The villagers would surround her and bombard her with questions about the divorce. Some of the more hot-headed ones might even decide to stand up for her and give that scumbag Qin Zhifeng a beating.
Although Shen Jiao would not have minded seeing Qin Zhifeng taught a lesson, what she wanted most was to complete the divorce as quickly as possible.
She did not want to remain tied to that scumbag for even one moment longer.
“Jiaojiao, why are you leaving so quickly? Come to my house for some water. Your uncle and your older cousin haven’t seen Zhifeng in a long time.”
“They happen to be home right now. Let them speak with a university student too. The younger children should also take a good look at him and learn from Zhifeng.”
“I don’t expect them to get into university, but if even one of them could enter a technical secondary school and live on state-supplied grain, your uncle and I would feel that our lives had been worthwhile.”
The woman’s praise made Qin Zhifeng raise his head proudly.
He looked like a victorious rooster.
The sight made Shen Jiao feel nauseated.
What was so extraordinary about being a university student?
In her previous life, even though she had only attended a technical secondary school while working part-time, she had employed two university graduates herself.
In later generations, university graduates were everywhere.
At first, she had held people with degrees in particularly high regard. After enough time passed, however, she stopped caring about qualifications alone.
Performance was what mattered.
If someone performed poorly, she would not give them a single extra cent in salary merely because they possessed a university degree.
She had been that wilful.
However, university students in this era truly did seem impressive.
After graduation, they were guaranteed an iron rice bowl. They did not need to pay tuition fees, and the state even provided them with allowances.
University was such a wonderful opportunity, so how had a scumbag like Qin Zhifeng managed to get in?
“Jiaojiao, you’re back! I saw you from a distance just now but didn’t dare believe it was you.”
An elderly woman approached them.
“Oh, Zhifeng came back too! Wonderful. Jiaojiao has finally endured long enough to enjoy better days.”
The elderly woman took Shen Jiao’s hand in her rough palm and carefully looked her over as she spoke.
She belonged to the same branch of the Shen clan. According to seniority, Shen Jiao had to address her as Great-Grandma.
The elderly woman’s arrival brought Shen Jiao back to her senses.
When she noticed several more villagers approaching, she hurriedly made an excuse and quickly led the others away.
Qin Zhifeng followed closely behind her.
As for Gu Xinguo and An Qing, they remained at the village entrance instead of following them inside.
People in rural areas had a strong sense of clan and community. The pair were afraid that their presence would make the divorce even more difficult.
The villagers might even redirect their anger towards them and beat them up.
Shen Jiao walked all the way to her brother and sister-in-law’s home.
However, when she reached the entrance, she stopped.
The original owner had been driven from this house by her sister-in-law and had been forced to travel to the capital to seek refuge with her husband.
Who could have known that after leaving, her soul would never return?
The person who had come back was merely an outsider occupying her body.
Shen Jiao did not exactly feel the nervousness of someone returning home after a long absence, but she still lacked confidence.
When Shen Jiao stopped, Qin Zhifeng did not share any of her concerns.
Although he had once lived in this courtyard for more than a year, he felt no affection for it.
He had not suffered any obvious mistreatment while living with the Shen family, but how many people understood the bitterness he had endured?
People said he had married Shen Jiao, but because he had no house in Shenjia Village, he had been forced to live with her family.
It had made him seem almost like a live-in son-in-law.
At home, he had cautiously tried to please every member of the Shen family, including Shen Jiao.
The villagers had all praised him for cherishing his wife, but who had ever understood his suffering?
To outsiders, he had looked like a live-in son-in-law.
To the Shen family, he had been treated like one too.
They might not have dared torment him openly, but there had always been veiled insults and cutting remarks.
Now, he had finally broken free of those shackles.
He had entered Capital University. From this moment onwards, his life and the Shen family’s would be as different as heaven and earth.
He was the sky.
The Shen family was the earth.
As for Shen Jiao, the woman who had brought him such humiliation, he would finally sever all ties with her today.
He could hardly wait.
At the same time, he was eager to show off his current success and let the Shen family see how brilliantly he was doing.
He wanted to see them regret everything until their intestines turned green.
“Shen Jiao, how do you still have the nerve to come back?”
A voice that felt both familiar and unfamiliar came from behind her.
Shen Jiao turned and saw her sister-in-law, Du Lingxiang, carrying a hoe over one shoulder and a basket of wild vegetables over her arm.
She stared at Shen Jiao with undisguised disgust.
“Sister-in-law, I came back because I have something to do. I’ll leave once it’s finished.”
Shen Jiao had no desire to argue with Du Lingxiang.
All she wanted was to complete the divorce quickly, use her connections to purchase a job, and settle herself somewhere.
After that, she could decide how to earn more money.
A person truly could not survive in this world without money.
In her previous life, she had suffered countless hardships. In the end, even the parents who had once despised her had been forced to flatter her.
Was that not all because of money?
“Oh, I was wondering why you sounded so confident today. It turns out our great university student has returned.”
Du Lingxiang looked at Qin Zhifeng.
“What is it? Have you come to take Shen Jiao to the city?”
Qin Zhifeng had already stepped over the threshold, but when he heard Du Lingxiang’s voice, he withdrew his leg.
The sharp-featured woman before him was the very person who had constantly mocked him both openly and indirectly in the past.
“No. We—”
Shen Jiao noticed several villagers approaching and immediately cut him off.
She did not want any unexpected complications.
Since the divorce was already inevitable, it was best to finish it quickly.
If the villagers became involved, they might stand on her side and make things difficult for Qin Zhifeng.
However, once Qin Zhifeng left, she would be the one who had to endure their ridicule and gossip.
“Sister-in-law, let’s discuss this inside. There’s no need to shout about family matters until the entire street knows.”
Du Lingxiang noticed that her sworn enemy was also heading towards them.
She snorted, handed Shen Jiao the basket of wild vegetables, and entered the house first with the hoe over her shoulder.
Shen Jiao and Qin Zhifeng followed behind her.
Because Shen Jiao’s parents had both been particularly hardworking and capable, the Shen family home was sturdier than those of most other villagers.
The main building consisted of five blue-brick rooms in a row, with an overhanging front roof.
There were also three side rooms on both the eastern and western sides, built with a mixture of brick and stone. Two sheds for storing miscellaneous items stood on the southern side of the courtyard.
Shen Jiao and Qin Zhifeng had once lived in the western wing, while her brother and sister-in-law lived in the eastern wing.
Because the kitchen occupied one of the eastern rooms, her brother and sister-in-law could only use the remaining two rooms.
That was why they had particularly resented Shen Jiao and Qin Zhifeng for occupying all three rooms in the western wing.
Most of the veiled insults Qin Zhifeng had endured had come from Du Lingxiang.
However, she had only dared vent her anger verbally.
While Shen Jiao’s parents were still alive, she would never have dared truly mistreat him.
The persecution Qin Zhifeng imagined had merely become an excuse for abandoning his wife and marrying another woman.
After he married Shen Jiao, her parents might not have treated him with great warmth, but they had certainly never treated him badly.
Once they entered the courtyard, Du Lingxiang drove the two children who had emerged from the house back inside.
Then she immediately turned on Qin Zhifeng.
She had offended him plenty of times in the past and had even driven Shen Jiao from the house.
She had already given up on receiving any benefits from a university student like him.
Since she had already played the villain, she might as well continue to the end.
“Qin Zhifeng, let me make something clear. You can take Shen Jiao to the city to enjoy a good life, but this family did not raise her for so many years without cost.”
“When the two of you married, you didn’t give us any bride price. Now you’re a university student and will become a government cadre in the future. Surely you can’t continue ignoring all proper customs?”
Du Lingxiang openly demanded money.
Qin Zhifeng frowned in disgust.
As expected, she and Shen Jiao belonged to the same family.
They were all obsessed with money.
Every one of them was equally vulgar.
“I didn’t come back to take Shen Jiao to the city. I came to divorce her.”
“What?”
Du Lingxiang had not even reacted when Shen Chunshan, who had returned a step behind her, heard Qin Zhifeng’s words.
“A divorce? Say that again. What did you come back here to do?”
How could he divorce his younger sister?
How was she supposed to live afterwards?
“Qin Zhifeng, you bastard! Say the word ‘divorce’ one more time!”
Shen Chunshan was usually mild-tempered and agreeable.
As other people described him, even three blows from a stick could not force a fart out of him.
However, it was precisely men like that who became terrifying once they lost their tempers.
His eyes opened wide and filled with red veins. The tendons bulged along his neck, while his large hands clenched tightly into fists at his sides.
He looked ready to attack the moment Qin Zhifeng mentioned divorce again.
Qin Zhifeng was nothing more than a coward who bullied the weak and feared the strong.
When he saw Shen Chunshan’s furious expression, his legs weakened.
He swallowed nervously and retreated behind Shen Jiao.
Shen Jiao watched the confrontation between the two men coldly, without the slightest change in expression.
Shen Chunshan might be standing up for his biological younger sister now, but she still looked down on him.
Where had he been before?
If he had possessed even the slightest sense of responsibility as a man, the original Shen Jiao would never have travelled to the capital alone to search for her husband and ultimately lost her life.
“Brother, I agreed to the divorce too. We came back to collect the household-registration booklet and marriage certificate.”
“Jiaojiao, you can’t get divorced. If you divorce him, your entire life will be ruined.”
Shen Chunshan’s voice was filled with anguish.
He lacked ability.
The work points he earned after exhausting himself throughout the year were barely enough to support his own small family.
His wife and younger sister could not get along, either.
If Shen Jiao divorced, she would have nowhere to go.
“I have hands and feet. I won’t starve to death.”
“That sounds nice,” Du Lingxiang interrupted. “But after the divorce, won’t you still expect your brother and sister-in-law to support you?”
“Let me make this clear. We don’t have spare money to feed you.”
“Don’t worry. Even after the divorce, I won’t ask you to support me.”
“You said it yourself. If you have nowhere to go after the divorce, I still won’t allow you through this door.”
“I keep my word. I guarantee I won’t rely on either of you.”
Only after receiving Shen Jiao’s assurance did Du Lingxiang relax.
She turned and walked towards Qin Zhifeng.
“Qin Zhifeng, I don’t care whether you came to take Shen Jiao to the city or divorce her. If you want the household-registration booklet and a letter of introduction, you must first make up the bride price you failed to pay.”
“Du Lingxiang, I’m still the head of this family. It isn’t your place to make the decisions!”
When Shen Chunshan saw his wife agreeing to Shen Jiao’s divorce, he shouted at her.
During the years since their marriage, her husband had always been like a block of wood in front of her.
If she told him to go east, he would never dare go west.
This was the first time he had ever shouted at her.
How could Du Lingxiang tolerate it?
She lowered her head, rushed forward in several quick steps, and rammed her head into Shen Chunshan.
The force sent him stumbling backwards.
“Shen Chunshan, you useless coward!”
“If you were capable enough to earn mountains of gold and silver for me, do you think I wouldn’t know how to be a good sister-in-law?”
“You only know how to shout at me. Go on, keep shouting! If you can shout money into existence, I’ll take your surname!”
That single outburst had already exhausted all of Shen Chunshan’s courage.
After his wife headbutted him, it was as though she had broken his spine.
He crouched in the courtyard, clutching his head with a pained expression.
Although Shen Jiao had never expected much from him, somewhere deep in her heart, she had still hoped he might display some responsibility as an older brother.
Perhaps then, she could have gained someone to rely upon in this unfamiliar world and lived a little more easily.
Unfortunately, she was destined to be disappointed.
“My conditions remain the same,” Du Lingxiang said after subduing her husband. “Only after you make up the full bride price will I hand over the household-registration booklet and marriage certificate.”
Qin Zhifeng looked towards Shen Jiao, hoping she would persuade her sister-in-law.
However, Shen Jiao did not even glance at him.
He swallowed.
Since she refused to help him, she could not blame him for being ruthless.
“Sister-in-law, I won’t be making up any bride price. However, after the divorce, I will pay Shen Jiao alimony.”
Du Lingxiang’s eyes immediately lit up.
She did not care whether the money was called alimony or overdue bride price.
As long as there was money to take, that was enough.
Of course, the amount could not be too small.
Meanwhile, Shen Jiao was suddenly struck by a very bad feeling.
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