Chapter 22: A Woman’s Confidence
“Hello, Comrade Zhang Jun. Auntie Qian sent me to help her pick up some things from you…” The moment Lin Wan stepped out, she saw the young kitchen apprentice standing by himself. She quickly walked up with a smile and called out to him.
Geng Xiangyang was a fish in the original host’s pond… wait, no, he was an acquaintance. But Geng Xiangyang worked at the state-owned restaurant on Guihua Street.
This place was the West Street state-owned restaurant.
Zhang Jun scratched his head awkwardly. “Comrade, I’m not Geng Xiangyang. My name is Zhang Jun.” This female comrade was so beautiful that his tone shifted, softening unconsciously.
Hearing this, Lin Wan hurriedly apologized, “I’m so sorry, I must have mistaken you for someone else!”
“I also got the place wrong.”
“He works at the state-owned restaurant on Guihua Street.”
“Look at my memory.”
Now that she knew his name, it was time to beat a retreat! Comrade Huang Guixiang was already looking over.
Lin Wan intentionally dragged her feet, strolling slowly back with Huang Guixiang. Yet, despite their slow pace, they still ran right into Guo Xuyang and Zhang Qin at the entrance of the family compound. Zhang Qin was carrying her luggage and instinctively shrank behind Guo Xuyang’s back the moment she saw them.
This time, Lin Wan couldn’t hold it back. Her eyes rolled all the way to the heavens.
If someone didn’t know the truth, they would think she and her mother were some sort of ferocious monsters who had abused Zhang Qin for years!
Guo Xuyang took Zhang Qin’s hand and cast a freezing glare at Lin Wan. “Don’t be afraid, Qinqin. You no longer have a single cent’s worth of a relationship with this family!”
With that, he pulled Zhang Qin along and strode away.
Zhang Qin probably wasn’t paying attention, because his sudden pull caused her to stumble right into him. Guo Xuyang was quick on his feet and caught her firmly in his embrace.
“Hugging and embracing in a public space, what kind of moral conduct is this? Watch out or I’ll report you to the authorities!” Huang Guixiang was thoroughly displeased by Guo Xuyang and Zhang Qin’s attitude.
Guo Xuyang let out a cold sneer. Completely ignoring Huang Guixiang, he made sure Zhang Qin wasn’t hurt and prepared to lead her away.
Zhang Qin looked back at Lin Wan and Huang Guixiang, her eyes brimming with unshed tears. She looked as though she wanted to say something, but in the end, she uttered nothing at all. All her grievances were perfectly captured in those tears that refused to fall.
Lin Wan felt… she truly had a knack for running into this bizarre pair!
“Mom, let’s go back!” Lin Wan pulled Huang Guixiang toward the house, having absolutely no desire to entangle herself with these two eccentric people.
These two were the type to live entirely in their own worlds. No matter what you said or did, they had their own rigid logic. To put it nicely, they were pigheaded. To put it bluntly, they were completely blind and deaf to reality.
“Look at them! Just look at them! I am still their elder, after all…” Huang Guixiang was genuinely furious. Any stepmother would lose her mind if her stepdaughter and stepson-in-law completely disregarded her like this.
Lin Wan wrapped an arm around Huang Guixiang, acting spoiled to comfort her. “Mom, what kind of junior is she to you? I’m your only daughter!”
“Alright, alright, don’t waste your energy getting angry over irrelevant people. If you make yourself sick, no one can suffer it for you!”
“Think about me more, don’t you feel a bit better already?”
Within a few sentences, Huang Guixiang was completely coaxed into a bright mood by Lin Wan.
When they returned inside, the house was dead silent, and the atmosphere felt incredibly oppressive.
The two brothers, Zhang Hongqi and Zhang Hongjun, sat directly opposite Zhang Aimin. The dining table had already been cleared clean. Resting on the table were five hundred yuan and a legal disclaimer document signed by Zhang Aimin and the Zhang brothers.
Guo Xuyang had shelled out cash to entirely buy out Zhang Qin’s relationship with the Zhang family. The document spelled it out with absolute clarity: from this day forward, whether Zhang Aimin lived or died, fell sick or grew old, it would have absolutely nothing to do with Zhang Qin.
Seeing Huang Guixiang and Lin Wan return, Bao Yan and Zhong Hongmei—who were currently washing dishes and sweeping the floor—immediately set down their chores and stood firmly beside their respective husbands.
Lin Wan also took her position right behind Huang Guixiang.
Huang Guixiang looked at the disclaimer document and said sarcastically, “No wonder when I ran into Zhang Qin and her man downstairs, they looked at me with absolute contempt.”
“Turns out she found herself a backer and cut ties with the family!”
“Tsk tsk~”
Lin Wan truly hadn’t expected that a fragile, weak girl like Zhang Qin would actually dare to cut ties completely. She didn’t possess a job, and now that she had severed relationships with her maternal family, she could only live as a total parasite dependent on Guo Xuyang!
If it were her, and her maternal family was like the Zhang family, even if she wanted to cut ties, she would never bring it out into the open like this. She would just quietly distance herself. In this era where communication relied entirely on letters and telegrams, and making a single phone call was a massive ordeal, vanishing from someone’s life was incredibly easy! Why bother tearing off all pretense? It cost a fortune and left both sides looking terrible.
Furthermore, mother-in-law relationships in this era were a hundred times harder to navigate than in modern times. With Zhang Qin acting so recklessly without any regard for consequences, where exactly was her safety net? Hopefully she was smart enough to have Guo Xuyang find a way to secure a job for her later. It seemed the military base could resolve job assignments for a portion of the dependents who accompanied the soldiers.
As for relying on herself to find a job… it wasn’t that Lin Wan looked down on Zhang Qin, but in this day and age, job vacancies were incredibly scarce. Otherwise, the nation wouldn’t be mobilizing educated youths to go down to the countryside!
Zhang Aimin hung his head low, looking completely withered. “I’ll just act as if I never had this daughter!”
“Guixiang, what do you think we should do with this money?”
What should they do? Naturally, she should pocket it, what else!
Huang Guixiang habitually reached out to grab the cash on the table, but Lin Wan stopped her, shaking her head at her mother.
“Mom, let Uncle Zhang, Eldest Brother, and Second Brother make the decision on this matter.”
“Otherwise, if word gets out that you, a stepmother, pocketed the buyout money of your stepdaughter, your reputation will be completely ruined!”
“Hongqiang won’t touch a cent of this money either.”
It wasn’t a massive sum of money anyway. Even if it were divided, the share landing on Zhang Hongqiang would be meager, yet it would draw an immense amount of trouble.
“Let’s go, Hongqiang. Come to Sister’s room to practice writing.”
“Mom, you come to my room too.”
Huang Guixiang realized: Oh, right! Her Wanwan was currently a glorious employee of the post office, and her boyfriend was a deputy regimental commander. She absolutely had to prioritize her reputation now; she couldn’t drag Wanwan down!
Huang Guixiang nodded vigorously. “Right! Old Zhang, you and your sons figure out how to arrange this money, don’t ask me!”
“Even if you divide it all between Eldest and Second son, that pair of blockheads, I won’t utter a single word of complaint!”
The first and second branches: “…” They wanted the money, but they didn’t want to be called blockheads.
Thud… Lin Wan’s bedroom door shut tight.
Zhang Aimin thought to himself: I get it! I’ll keep this money for now, and slip it to my wife under the blankets later!
He snatched the cash into his hand instantly. “Divide what? We haven’t even split the household yet!”
“Besides, I am her father!”
“The disclaimer document states it clearly too: this five hundred yuan bought out my old age support. This is my retirement money!”
A look of deep disappointment surfaced in the eyes of Bao Yan and Zhong Hongmei. Zhang Hongqi didn’t feel much; he believed this arrangement was only right. Zhang Hongbin wanted a share, but since his father refused to give it up, there was nothing he could do. In any case, he would absolutely never step up to be the target of dissent.
Inside Lin Wan’s bedroom.
Zhang Hongqiang sat before her writing desk, pulling a long face as he wrote.
Lin Wan set a condition for him: “As long as you write to my satisfaction, I will reward you with a White Rabbit creamy candy!”
There’s White Rabbit candy? Zhang Hongqiang swallowed his spit, instantly feeling his motivation surge back.
Lin Wan pulled Huang Guixiang to the side and whispered coaxingly, “Mom, let’s split the household!”
“When a biological mother holds all the financial power, the children will harbor resentment, let alone when you’re a stepmother.”
“Just look at Zhang Qin—she cut ties with the family the moment she married, and Uncle Zhang is her biological father!”
Split the household first. Then, find a way to purchase a job for Huang Guixiang. If she lacked money, that would be a different story. But since she currently possessed both cash and a massive mountain of supplies, she genuinely didn’t need Huang Guixiang to rack her brains to scrape money from the Zhang family just to subsidize her.
Sigh, she just didn’t know if Comrade Huang Guixiang would actually agree to it.
