Zhou Jingran glanced at her coldly. “Isn’t that the case?”
“If you say so, then so be it.” Tang Rubao took the envelope, waved it in front of him, and said, “When we got married, you didn’t give me any bride price. Let’s treat this as your belated bride price.”
Back when they married, he had simply submitted a marriage application to the military.
He hadn’t bought her new clothes, blankets, or given her any betrothal money.
Her words felt like a slap across Zhou Jingran’s face.
His expression turned even colder.
“A bride price? You think you’re worth that much?” he shot back.
“Why wouldn’t I be worth it?” Tang Rubao no longer had any intention of enduring in silence.
In her previous life, no matter what he said, she never dared to contradict him.
He treated Tu Xiuxiu well, but whenever she showed even a hint of displeasure, he would only grow colder toward her.
If she made a fuss, he would accuse her of being narrow-minded, jealous, and lacking compassion.
In this life, she refused to suppress herself any longer.
If she could argue, she would argue. If she could curse, she would curse. If she could fight, she would fight.
At least her conscience was clear.
Since he brought up money, she decided to settle the accounts with him.
She would make him understand that she was worth two hundred yuan.
Tang Rubao stood up and pointed around the living room. “Zhou Jingran, look at everything in this house, wasn’t it all paid for with my money?”
“These sofas, curtains, tables, shoe racks, did they just appear out of nowhere?”
“All of this was bought with my father’s pension. I’ll charge you twenty yuan a month. How many years have we been married?”
She stretched out her hand bluntly. “Let’s do it this way, give me another three hundred yuan. That makes it five hundred.”
She considered those extra three hundred as his divorce compensation.
Once the divorce certificate was issued, they would have nothing to do with each other anymore.
“What do you need five hundred for?” Zhou Jingran’s face turned pale with anger at her petty calculations.
“Of course, I’ll save up five hundred and carry a latrine on my head,” she mocked. She must have been out of her mind to ever fall in love with him.
“Tang Rubao!” Zhou Jingran frowned deeply. Even now, he couldn’t believe this was the same Tang Rubao he once knew.
In the past, if he compared her unfavorably to Tu Xiuxiu, she would only lower her head with reddened eyes, not daring to say a word.
Now, when he mocked her worth, she talked back, argued, and even demanded money from him.
Zhou Jingran concluded that she must be too idle, thinking too much and becoming unreasonable.
He looked at her seriously, displeased. “You should read more books.”
But as soon as he said it, he remembered she could barely read, and he sighed helplessly.
Forget it, asking her to study was pointless.
Tang Rubao waved her hand dismissively. “Reading books costs money too.”
“I don’t have that much money.”
“Then give me whatever you have.”
“I’ve already given you all I have!”
“…So poor?” she muttered.
She asked, “How much do you have left?”
“That’s all,” Zhou Jingran snapped, glaring at her. “Are you obsessed with money?”
Tang Rubao grinned. “If I can’t have your love, I can at least take your money, right?”
Zhou Jingran fell silent.
Since their marriage, he had never seen her smile like that.
Her face had always been dull and lifeless, carrying a constant look of sorrow, something that dampened anyone’s mood.
“I’m giving you one month to come up with three hundred yuan,” she said. “Otherwise, I’ll keep bringing up divorce.”
“That’s enough!” Zhou Jingran slammed his hand on the table and stood up, glaring at her. “I’m giving you two hundred so you’ll stop talking about divorce!”
Tang Rubao sneered. “These two hundred are your bride price. You still owe me three hundred. Pay it back quickly.”
Zhou Jingran frowned. “When did I ever owe you three hundred?”
She was becoming more and more unreasonable, now even shameless.
This woman felt completely unfamiliar to him.
Tang Rubao stared at him as if he were an idiot. “Didn’t I just calculate it? Everything in this house, food, clothes, daily necessities, even the things you give to Tu Xiuxiu and her daughter, were bought with my money. Now I’m collecting the debt.”
“You—!” Zhou Jingran was furious.
He usually ate at the army canteen!
Seeing how easily he got angry, Tang Rubao clicked her tongue and withdrew her hand.
“Looks like there’s nothing more to talk about. I’m going back to my room. Don’t bother me before dinner.”
Zhou Jingran watched her retreating figure, his fists clenched. “You burned Xiuxiu. Go do her laundry and cook for her.”
Tang Rubao turned back and looked at him with disdain. “If you’re sick, go see a doctor. Don’t spread your illness to me.”
After saying that, she quickened her steps, went into her room, shut the door, and locked it.
She clutched the money tightly in her hands.
Two hundred yuan might be nothing more than the cost of a meal in later times, but in this era, it was a huge sum.
With this money, she wouldn’t have to worry about food after the divorce.
She hid the money deep inside the innermost pocket of her duffel bag.
Then she walked to the window and looked out at the familiar family compound.
She spread her arms and took a deep breath of the fresh air drifting in.
It felt good.
Heaven had given her a second chance at life.
Before long, she saw Zhou Jingran leave the yard with an aluminum lunchbox, hurrying toward Tu Xiuxiu’s house.
Tang Rubao let out a cold laugh, he must be going to deliver porridge to Tu Xiuxiu.
He really took good care of her.
Hmph. Even the rice used to cook that porridge was bought with her money.
…
At Tu Xiuxiu’s house.
Tu Xiuxiu stood by the washroom door, staring at the bucket of foul-smelling clothes, her face dark.
In the past, whenever she pretended to have a cold or back pain, Tang Rubao would obediently come over to wash her clothes and clean her house.
The clothes in the bucket had been sitting for two days. Now that Tang Rubao had fallen out with Zhou Jingran, she definitely wouldn’t come to help anymore.
Creak—
The sound of the door opening came from behind.
She turned and saw Zhou Jingran, tall, upright, and handsome, walking in with an aluminum lunchbox.
Ke Xin, who had been doing her homework at the table, looked up, saw him, and ran over happily. Hugging him, she tilted her little face up and sweetly called, “Uncle Zhou.”
Tu Xiuxiu stood there watching, her feelings complicated.
Zhou Jingran was exactly her type. He was also very good to her daughter, and her daughter liked him very much.
She believed that if she married him and brought her daughter along, she would definitely have a happy life.
But…
The thought of his mentally challenged younger sister was something she simply couldn’t accept.
“Ah Ran, why aren’t you at home with Rubao? What are you doing here?” she asked, walking over to pour him some water.
Zhou Jingran often came to her hous, there was even a cup reserved for him.
Worried about her injured hand, he quickly set down the lunchbox and went to her. “I can do it myself. Sit down and don’t hurt your hand.”
Tu Xiuxiu took a couple of light steps back and smiled sweetly. “It’s just pouring water. I’m not that delicate. I’m going to do the laundry.”
With that, she turned to leave.
Zhou Jingran hadn’t even taken a sip of water yet.
Hearing that she was going to wash clothes, he quickly stopped her. “Your hand is injured, how can you wash clothes?”
“I can do it with one hand.”
Her voice was clear and her tone straightforward, so unlike Tang Rubao, who always seemed dull and lifeless.
Zhou Jingran set down his cup, walked over, and grabbed her arm. “Don’t. If you hurt your hand again, it’ll take even longer to heal. You still have rehearsals, and there’s a Children’s Day performance coming up.”
There wasn’t much time left before the performance.
Tu Xiuxiu smiled helplessly. “These clothes have been sitting for two days, they’ve already started to smell.”
After saying that, she sighed softly and glanced at five-year-old Ke Xin. “Xinxin is still too young, otherwise I would’ve had her wash them.”
Zhou Jingran walked into the washroom, picked up the wooden tub of clothes, and said, “I’ll take them back and have Rubao wash them.”