When Zhao Panpan returned to the Zhao family home, the cramped thirty-square-meter apartment looked even smaller than she remembered. The space had been divided into two tiny bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, and a bathroom. Every corner felt suffocatingly tight. In the living room, even two people standing there would struggle just to turn around.
On the small dining table—barely a meter long—sat an unusually rich spread of food.
For the past few days, Zhao Panpan had been eating out. Seeing these simple home-cooked dishes made her unexpectedly hungry.
Liu Fenhong was a good cook. The fish soup she made was creamy white and fragrant. Zhao Panpan felt like she could easily drink two big bowls.
Zhao Yongwei waved for her to sit down, and Zhao Panpan didn’t hesitate.
When she was a child, Zhao Yongwei had never spent any time or energy on her. After she started working, he had still used her grandparents to ask her for money. So now, eating his food didn’t make her feel guilty at all.
Besides, judging from how much Zhao Yongwei usually disliked her, criticized her, and pinched every penny, a table this generous could only mean one thing—he had already dug a pit and was waiting for her to fall into it.
Growing up the way she did, Zhao Panpan had long learned to be extremely cautious around them.
At seventeen or eighteen, she had still longed desperately for family affection. By twenty-three or twenty-four, she had kept giving while quietly drowning in disappointment. And now, she could look at Zhao Yongwei almost like an outsider, calmly analyzing the bottomless selfishness in his nature.
Escaping the grip of her original family had been painful, but she had survived it.
“Panpan,” Zhao Yongwei said, clearing his throat. “At the hospital the other day, your dad was worried about you. I was also too angry, so I said those things. Don’t take them to heart. I only said them for your own good.”
Zhao Panpan tugged at the corner of her mouth in a faint smile but didn’t comment. With someone like Zhao Yongwei, arguing was pointless.
Liu Fenhong smiled as she ladled soup into a bowl for her. “I heard your divorce has already gone to court. Being a woman really isn’t easy.”
Zhao Panpan didn’t know how to respond.
Liu Fenhong had been beaten by Zhao Yongwei for thirty years. The worst time had been when he broke the bridge of her nose and she had to stay in the hospital for days.
Even now, a long scar still ran across her lips.
When Zhao Panpan was eighteen or nineteen, every time she saw Liu Fenhong, the woman would grab her and pour out her misery—how her husband beat her, how he drank, gambled, and chased women, how hard it was to raise children alone.
Back then, Zhao Panpan truly felt sorry for her. She had even treated her sincerely like a mother. More than once she had advised her: if things were really unbearable, she could just get a divorce. Zhao Panpan would live with her and help raise her younger brother and sister.
She had secretly slipped Liu Fenhong money many times, telling her to hide it and not let Zhao Yongwei find out. If it wasn’t enough, she said, just ask her again.
But that sincerity was repaid with betrayal. Liu Fenhong went straight to Zhao Yongwei and stirred trouble, and Zhao Panpan ended up being beaten by him again and again.
After that, she learned to stop feeling sorry for this woman.
She also learned to stay far away from her.
It seemed like twenty-five was a turning point in life.
Things that once felt confusing suddenly became crystal clear with age and experience.
All those complaints Liu Fenhong poured out to her were simply a way to take advantage of Zhao Panpan’s kindness and get money from her.
Then she would turn around and report to Zhao Yongwei that Zhao Panpan had encouraged her to divorce—proving her loyalty to him while redirecting his anger, lowering the chances that she herself would be beaten.
Zhao Panpan agreed with one thing she had said: life for women wasn’t easy.
But she didn’t mean all women.
Women who crawl through marriage begging for scraps of affection like worms… and women who know they’re standing in a pit of fire but still burn themselves just to warm others—those women weren’t worthy of sympathy.
Whether a person was a man or a woman, the most important thing was to stand on their own feet.
So Zhao Panpan no longer pitied Liu Fenhong.
And she even looked down on her past self—the version of her that kept giving just because she craved family affection.
Seeing Zhao Panpan quietly eating without responding, Liu Fenhong gave an awkward laugh and glanced at Zhao Yongwei.
Zhao Yongwei was displeased too. He had already said nice things and even apologized, yet Zhao Panpan hadn’t been moved to tears of gratitude. No sense of appreciation at all.
But thinking about what he wanted, he swallowed his anger and forced himself to speak calmly.
“Panpan, your brother will graduate from high school soon. Once he goes to college, he’ll definitely start dating. Our house… it’s about time we upgraded.”
Zhao Panpan didn’t even lift her head. “Then upgrade it.”
Zhao Yongwei’s heart jumped with excitement.
“You know Tianqi goes to a private high school. The tuition is expensive. And this year your father lost his job… money is really tight.”
Zhao Panpan kept eating in silence.
Three years ago, when she had still foolishly believed family mattered, she had genuinely tried to plan Zhao Tianqi’s future.
His middle school entrance exam scores were so bad that the total of seven subjects didn’t even add up to his height. No high school would accept him. Liu Fenhong cried every day, convinced that if he didn’t go to high school, his life would be ruined.
Zhao Panpan had asked around and learned that students with poor grades were often better off learning a practical skill. There were hundreds of trades, and every field had people who could excel. As long as someone mastered one craft, they could still live well.
But Zhao Yongwei believed she was deliberately taking revenge. He thought she was bitter because he hadn’t allowed her to attend college back then. In his mind, her suggestions were malicious attempts to block Zhao Tianqi’s path to university and a bright future.
After listening to people brag and exaggerate, Zhao Yongwei paid a huge tuition fee to send Zhao Tianqi to a private high school. He even shamelessly held a celebration banquet for it.
At that time, her grandparents had called her back and scolded her, demanding she give Zhao Tianqi ten thousand yuan as a gift to celebrate his admission. They said it would also show her parents that she knew she had been wrong.
What they repeated most was this:
“Tianqi is your brother. In the future, he’ll be the one from your mother’s side of the family. If you’re bullied in your husband’s family, you’ll have to rely on him to stand up for you. If you don’t treat him well now, why would he help you later?”
Zhao Panpan had found that funny.
They clearly knew that if you wanted someone to treat you well, you had to give something first. You had to treat others well.
But when it came to her, somehow it became something they could demand without giving anything in return.
They didn’t even need to offer her half a sweet date before expecting her to hand over her heart and everything she had.
Quite a clever calculation.
Zhao Panpan didn’t argue with her grandparents, but at the celebration banquet she only gave a small red envelope of five hundred yuan.
She herself had been admitted to a top-tier university. Yet her future and her prospects meant nothing to these people.
She was scolded viciously afterward, but from that day on she cut off contact with the Zhao family for a full year—and her life had been peaceful during that time.
Later, when she bought her own apartment, she returned during the New Year almost out of stubborn pride. She wanted to prove that without them, she could live even better.
At first Zhao Yongwei had restrained himself.
But a person’s nature doesn’t really change. Once he realized he couldn’t get much from her, he quickly returned to his old ways—waving the authority of a father around, belittling Zhao Panpan, mocking and insulting her.
By then, though, Zhao Panpan no longer felt hurt.
She didn’t feel trapped by his so-called family ties either. To her, it was almost like watching a joke.
A man with ambitions as high as the sky but no ability or character—someone stuck at the bottom of society. Unable to fight against fate or the hardships of reality, he could only swing his fists at his own family.
Liu Fenhong saw Zhao Panpan staying silent and immediately began wiping her tears.
“Tianqi isn’t like you. His grades aren’t good, and he’s not very capable. We can’t rely on him in the future. We can only start planning early. Once we find him a wife someday, that’ll be enough.”
She looked at Zhao Panpan with watery eyes.
“The one we can really rely on is you. You’re your parents’ pride.”
Zhao Panpan’s eyes widened. “Rely on me for what?”
Liu Fenhong looked at her innocently. “When your father and I grow old, of course we’ll have to rely on you to take care of us.”
Zhao Panpan let out a dry laugh. “And why exactly should I take care of you?”
Liu Fenhong froze.
After all, she was only Zhao Panpan’s stepmother. And it had been her suggestion back then that Zhao Panpan be sent away to be raised by her grandparents. There was never any real affection between them. Zhao Panpan’s rebuttal was completely justified.
Not wanting to embarrass herself further, Liu Fenhong turned away and began silently crying, looking pitiful and wronged.
Zhao Yongwei felt anger rising in his chest.
But he still hadn’t reached his goal. Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to ask,
“Panpan, I heard that after your divorce, the court awarded you more than two hundred thousand yuan?”