“Kong Hetai, do you want a divorce too so you can marry someone else?” Qi Zhirou said to her husband, Kong Hetai, while sitting in their seats at the wedding, giving his “old face” a pinch as she spoke.
He immediately shifted his gaze back from the stage.
“No, I was just watching to see what tricks that old bastard is pulling.”
Kong Ning, sitting beside them, found her parents’ double-act a little boring.
At their age, still playing jealous games, how childish.
Kong Ning rolled her eyes and inexplicably looked over at Wei Mu’s face beside her again.
She didn’t know why Wei Mu was sitting next to her.
Wei Mu was very strange today; she wasn’t as sad as Kong Ning had expected.
Still… that was good.
As long as she wasn’t heartbroken, it was fine.
Wei Mu stared calmly at the pair of “elderly people” on the stage. Well, weren’t they old? Her father, Wei Mingzhe, had been cheating for fifteen years, and his illegitimate son was only a few years younger than Wei Mu.
The fact that he was remarrying only now was strange enough.
Could it be that the mistress really got pregnant with a second child and forced his hand?
Otherwise, this wouldn’t fit her Uncle Wei’s usual behavior.
Wei Mingzhe cared about his reputation. When he was young, he married Wei Mu’s mother, Huo Han, who was his equal in social standing. Because she was proud and not his type at all, they had major arguments every three days and minor fights every two. There was not a shred of emotional foundation between them.
Yet, this marriage lasted for quite a few years, right up until Wei Mu was in third grade. When Huo Han discovered Wei Mingzhe’s illegitimate son, the woman, who had only been enduring it for the sake of a family alliance, lost her patience completely. This crossed her bottom line.
Huo Han was a proud person. She could accept two people who didn’t love each other staying together as husband and wife, but she could not tolerate betrayal in a marriage. Even if neither of them loved each other, Huo Han’s self-esteem could not accept being betrayed.
Lidiculously enough, Wei Mingzhe actually went behind her back and produced an illegitimate son. The Huo family were no fools either.
When someone broke the rules of the game, there was no longer any need to keep playing.
Apart from producing Wei Mu, the alliance between the Wei and Huo families had failed catastrophically.
Huo Han took Wei Mu abroad to clear her mind. Meanwhile, Wei Mingzhe, who was targeted in retaliation, walked on thin ice with his company’s finances for a few years. Yet, several years later, he managed to run the business back up, and its momentum grew better and better. Seeing that, he began eyeing a second marriage.
He didn’t marry the mistress, though; Wei Mingzhe felt she wasn’t good enough for him.
He had always cherished his reputation.
As the saying goes, only a fool doesn’t take advantage of an opportunity.
The marriage was dissolved, but her daughter’s property couldn’t be handed over to others. Under the premise of having a legitimate child, Wei Mingzhe wouldn’t let the illegitimate son inherit the family business, but without an heir, he was bound to remarry.
Therefore, Huo Han sent Wei Mu back to Hangcheng while she enjoyed herself abroad alone, at least returning first to claim a spot, regardless of whether her father would have another child later.
Of course, in the end, Wei Mingzhe failed to marry anyone else either. The mistress, Li Mei, had ruthless methods; none of the families of equal standing were willing to give their daughters to Wei Mingzhe, and Wei Mingzhe wasn’t willing to marry a woman from a family with weak influence.
And so it dragged on until now.
An old tree putting forth new blossoms, he actually married Li Mei.
“That younger brother of yours, have you figured out how to deal with him?” Kong Ning leaned against her chair and spoke nonchalantly. She tapped the seat cushion with her right index finger, unpeeled a mandarin orange with her left hand, and stuffed it into her mouth.
Wei Mu’s brother was a young wolf; at such a young age, he already didn’t seem like a decent person. Now that he was brought into the open, wouldn’t he come to fight for the family property in a few years when he grew up?
“I won’t deal with him. He can have it,” Wei Mu turned her head to look at her.
“I don’t want their things.”
Whether it belonged to Wei Mingzhe or Huo Han.
When she was younger, Wei Mu had also been a child who yearned for her parents’ care and love. It was just that no matter how dazzling or how hard she tried, true love and care had never fallen into her eyes.
She was simply a life not born out of love.
“So generous?” Kong Ning, who loved money as much as her own life, would absolutely never let her money escape her grip.
She would be delighted to count money until her hands turned soft.
“How about I give it to you instead?” Wei Mu looked sideways at Kong Ning. Her mouth finally stopped being tightly set and curled up into a smile.
“That would be wonderful!!!” Kong Ning was already imagining the scene of Wei Mu showering her with money.
“Okay then,” the young woman gently agreed.
By the time the reception actually began, Kong Hetai had already been surrounded by people to talk business.
Qi Zhirou dismissed the other wives and stayed together with Kong Ning and Wei Mu.
Qi Zhirou had disliked dealing with people when she was young, which Kong Ning knew well. Her mother called herself a “lonely artist,” claiming it was normal that others didn’t understand her thinking, just as she only liked playing with her elusive best friend, Huo Han, whom she didn’t see for years at a time.
Qi Zhirou, a magnificent, misplaced oddity in today’s performance art world.
Sometimes, Kong Ning preferred to say her mother was a low-level performer in the crosstalk comedy world who “amazed everyone with a single feat.”
The kind specifically meant to freeze people’s smiles, complete with a side service of choking people to death with her words.
“Oh my, speaking of weddings, you two said you were going to get married when you were little,” Qi Zhirou sank into her memories, a loving smile on her face.
“Mom, don’t talk nonsense.” Kong Ning had just taken a glass of red wine from the waiter’s tray when she heard her mother talking nonsense, almost dropping the glass.
How could she possibly marry Wei Mu?
“Who said I’m talking nonsense? Back then, you somehow opened the safe in the study, took gold bracelets and the property deed, and went to propose to Mumu. A little kid, so clever, you insisted on playing with little sister Wei Mu and desperately shoved the things into her arms.” Qi Zhirou described it vividly, but her eyes paid no attention to Kong Ning, continuing to tell Wei Mu about her hilarious childhood antics.
Because it happened so long ago, likely right after they started kindergarten, Kong Ning and Wei Mu barely had any memory of it.
“Mom, stop talking.”
“The stuff that happened later is even more fun,” Qi Zhirou became even more excited.
“Aunt Qi, go ahead and tell it. I’m listening,” Wei Mu wrapped her arm around Qi Zhirou’s.
“I joked with your mother about arranging a childhood betrothal for the two of you. Hahaha, that girl Ningning was shouting ‘betrothal gifts, betrothal gifts’ and even insisted on chasing you around to kiss you.”
“Cough, cough, cough, Mom, really, stop talking.”
Otherwise, Kong Ning was afraid that even if she didn’t get drunk today, she would be choked to death by red wine.
“You’re so old now, what’s there to be embarrassed about? Being so awkward,” Qi Zhirou simply ignored her “unaffectionate” daughter and continued chatting with Wei Mu.
Finding it extremely boring, Kong Ning pulled out her phone to chat and began to “utter wild statements” in her dorm group chat.
For example: “I think I was picked up from the trash.”
“Be sure to remember: Wei Mu is my number one rival.”
Nobody responded to Kong Ning.
During such a precious vacation, they didn’t want to pay attention to Kong Ning, whose mouth was as stubborn as steel.
“Kong Ning, how about accompanying me somewhere?”
Kong Ning was enjoying the breeze on the balcony while accusing those in the group chat of why they were still ignoring her.
As messages were sent out one after another, the group chat grew even colder.
“Not going.”
Didn’t she see that she was doing serious business? If she didn’t get the dorm members to align their story today, Kong Ning wouldn’t even be able to sleep.