Tang Rubao took two steps back, avoiding his outstretched hand. “Zhou Jingran, if you don’t love me, then let me go. Marriage, like people, can’t withstand too much strain.”
“Tu Xiuxiu is wonderful, she’s beautiful, intelligent, and has a stable job. She’s far more suitable to be your wife than I am.”
“No!” The man, who usually couldn’t be bothered to explain anything to her, suddenly grew anxious to clarify: “Xiuxiu and I are completely innocent. I have absolutely no romantic feelings for her. I only see her as a younger sister.”
“Really… it doesn’t matter anymore.”
She was no longer the Tang Rubao of her past life, and she no longer cared about his explanations.
Love, once lost, is lost. She didn’t want to look back, let alone make the same mistake again.
There are countless men in the world who have younger sisters, yet they don’t abandon their wives and children for them after marriage.
But in her past life, Zhou Jingran and Tu Xiuxiu had been inseparable, completely forgetting that he had a wife and child back in his hometown.
His feelings for this so-called “younger sister” were truly something else.
A chill crept into Tang Rubao’s heart.
Especially when she recalled the look her daughter had given her before she died.
She couldn’t let go. If loving him had been a mistake, then let heaven punish her.
But her daughter was innocent. Why couldn’t she receive her father’s love? Why did she have to die so young?
Tang Rubao closed the door, not forgetting to remind him, “Three days will pass in the blink of an eye. Don’t forget to prepare five hundred yuan for me.”
Zhou Jingran stood there, staring at the door she had shut without hesitation.
He clenched his fists again and again.
The veins on the back of his hands bulged, like ropes tightening around his heart, pulling painfully.
It was suffocating.
How had his wife, once obedient, timid, insecure, and quiet, suddenly become a completely different person?
Everything about her, her speech, her mannerisms, even the way she looked at him, had changed.
If he didn’t believe in science, he would have thought she was possessed.
How could someone change so suddenly, so completely?
“Tang Rubao… why do you feel like a stranger?” Zhou Jingran stared at the door.
The door wasn’t soundproof, every word could be heard clearly.
Tang Rubao, of course, heard everything he said.
“Have I always been a stranger to you?” she replied coldly.
“The moment I was falsely accused of scalding Tu Xiuxiu’s hand and when you pushed me so hard my forehead hit the edge of the table, I had already given up on you.”
“I don’t love you anymore. Why do you expect me to stay as obedient and compliant as before?”
“Zhou Jingran, do you even know me? Do you know what I like, what I enjoy eating, or what I like to do?”
“You know nothing. So what right do you have to say I’ve become a stranger?”
Whether she was the timid Tang Rubao of before or the bold and unyielding woman she was now, she had always been a stranger to him.
Hearing her words, Zhou Jingran’s deep eyes darkened.
He lowered his head and let out a soft sigh.
It was true, he had never understood her.
He only remembered the first time they met, when he went with her father to the train station to pick her up.
Back then, she had been thin, dark-skinned, with dry, yellowish hair.
She had been shy and reserved in front of him.
After seeing her a few more times, he noticed the way she looked at him, it was different from how she looked at other men.
That gaze clung to him stubbornly, like something that wouldn’t let go.
Later, she gathered her courage and handed him a love letter. The words were simple, crooked, almost childlike: “I like you.”
She even told his comrades that she wanted to marry him and become his wife…
Her wish came true. She became his wife.
And throughout their marriage, her love for him only deepened.
If she loved him so much, why did she suddenly want a divorce?
And even make such an outrageous demand, five hundred yuan.
After thinking it over, Zhou Jingran finally came to a conclusion: she was doing all of this just to get his attention.
His expression darkened as he recalled how flustered he had felt earlier, even wanting to explain himself to her.
With a cold aura around him, he turned and went back to his bedroom, lying down fully clothed.
Thinking about how his emotions had been stirred by her talk of divorce these past two days, he grew so angry that he pounded his chest and stomped his feet.
Haha… women.
He wouldn’t bother with her anymore.
The next day, Tang Rubao slept until noon.
She cooked herself some white rice, stir-fried sweet potato leaves, and fried dried radish with cured meat.
After eating, she went out into the yard to bask in the sun.
The midday sun was scorching, but after standing in it for a few minutes, she felt full of energy.
She had only been in the yard a short while when she saw Zhou Jingran passing by the door carrying a television set.
Without thinking, it was obvious he was delivering it to Tu Xiuxiu’s house.
When he saw her, his eyes darkened, his face expressionless.
Tang Rubao raised an eyebrow. So he really bought a TV for Tu Xiuxiu?
What a despicable man.
Stingy as a miser toward his own wife, yet generous as a peacock toward another man’s wife.
That night.
When Zhou Jingran returned from training, Tang Rubao was eating dinner.
In the afternoon, she had gone to a nearby villager and bought a chicken.
She used the meat to make braised chicken with shiitake mushrooms, and the bones to make chicken soup.
A three-pound chicken was just enough for her to eat alone.
Zhou Jingran pushed the door open and walked in. Smelling the rich aroma of chicken soup, he raised his eyebrows and swallowed.
Seeing that Tang Rubao no longer greeted him attentively or served him food like before, he frowned in displeasure.
He took off his camouflage short-sleeved shirt, revealing a white vest underneath.
He sat down in the living room, his dark, cold gaze fixed on Tang Rubao.
Tang Rubao calmly held her bowl and drank her soup.
He didn’t speak, and neither did she. She didn’t even spare him a glance.
Is this how a wife should behave? Zhou Jingran felt increasingly dissatisfied with her.
But thinking of the telegram he had received that day, and despite intending to ignore her, he still spoke calmly, “My mother is bringing my sister here next week.”
Tang Rubao paused mid-sip.
In her past life, his mother had arrived after June 1st.
After meeting her and Tu Xiuxiu, they like Zhou Jingran, became completely taken with Tu Xiuxiu.
They constantly criticized her and found fault with everything she did.
When they learned she refused to divorce Zhou Jingran, his mother even drugged him, hoping to push him into being with Tu Xiuxiu…
Unexpectedly, Zhou Jingran ended up with her instead, and she became pregnant.
“Oh,” Tang Rubao responded lightly, continuing to drink her soup.
His mother and sister were coming next week, she needed to move out before then.
She had no intention of serving those two “living ancestors.”
That night, Tang Rubao stayed up writing again under the lamp.
Just like in her previous life, she still enjoyed writing in the quiet of the night.
Her efficiency during those four nighttime hours was far higher than during the day.
The next day, she took her completed manuscript to the post office and mailed it.
After leaving, she planned to go to the department store to buy some food.
Suddenly, a little girl, about five or six years old, dressed in ragged clothes, ran out from beside a trash can on the street. She rushed up and hugged Tang Rubao’s leg, crying, “Mom!”
Tang Rubao looked down at the dirty little face and froze in shock.
“Anlai?”