She sat under a patch of shade outside the state-run restaurant and waited for a long while before she finally saw Lu Cheng and Sun Xiaoxiao walk out.
The two parted ways at the entrance. Lu Cheng even took off the scarf from his own neck and put it around Sun Xiaoxiao’s, saying gently, “It’s cold. Don’t catch a chill.”
It was obvious that Sun Xiaoxiao became even more shy.
Shen Wei thought that if she hadn’t interfered unnecessarily, the scene from her previous life might have played out again.
In Lu Cheng’s heart, there was only his true love, Liu Qingqing. It didn’t matter to him whether he married her or Sun Xiaoxiao. If Lu Cheng never made anything of himself, that might still be fine but once he gained power, Sun Xiaoxiao would likely be discarded just as ruthlessly as Shen Wei had been in her past life.
Since it was “true love,” then in this life, the two of them should just be locked together. They shouldn’t go around harming anyone else.
“Sun Xiaoxiao?”
She called out to the girl from a corner.
The girl was very small and thin, even shorter than Shen Wei, wearing worn-out patched clothes, her eyes timid and uncertain.
“You are… Shen Wei?” Sun Xiaoxiao asked.
Shen Wei nodded. “Mm. What are you doing here?”
Sun Xiaoxiao felt too embarrassed to say she was on a blind date, so she only said she was just walking around nearby.
Shen Wei exposed her immediately. “I was sitting across from you in the restaurant just now. I saw everything.”
To get closer to Sun Xiaoxiao, she quickly admitted, “A week ago, I also went on a blind date with Lu Cheng.”
Sun Xiaoxiao was startled. “Ah? You also went on a blind date with him?”
“Do you know why I didn’t agree in the end?” Shen Wei said. “Because I found out he has a childhood sweetheart. The two of them are even closer than a married couple.”
She didn’t say anything more after that. Some things, no matter how much you hear from others, are never as shocking as seeing them with your own eyes.
“When it comes to marriage, what do women really want? Isn’t it just wholehearted devotion? If after marriage they’re intimate with each other while you’re treated like an outsider, wouldn’t that be unbearable?”
“Think about it carefully yourself.”
After saying this earnestly, Shen Wei turned and left.
That was all she could say. A life decision like this still had to be made by Sun Xiaoxiao herself in the end.
Sun Xiaoxiao stood by the roadside for a long time in hesitation. She didn’t want to go home. At home, waiting for her were only heavy chores, with no trace of warmth.
She longed to be loved. She longed to escape her current situation through marriage.
Before Shen Wei told her these things, she had actually been quite satisfied with Lu Cheng. He was good-looking and had even treated her to a bowl of three-ingredient noodles she had never eaten before.
But if he already had someone else in his heart, Sun Xiaoxiao could not accept it. She decided she needed to investigate carefully.
……
On the way home, Shen Wei stopped to buy some vegetables. That evening, she made red bean porridge, stir-fried spicy chili potato shreds, and steamed a few old-style fermented bread buns.
To her, eating a quiet meal alone was also a kind of happiness.
Just as she had put down her bowl and chopsticks and hadn’t even finished cleaning up, the commotion started again at the gate.
“Shen Wei! Open the door!”
Her grandparents had come.
As soon as Liu Jun and his wife heard someone daring to make a scene at their door, they immediately grabbed shovels and went out.
“Where did these old troublemakers come from, daring to cause a scene at my door?”
The Shen elderly couple were indeed startled by this display. They had already learned from their younger son that Shen Wei was renting here.
So they came over with grim faces.
This granddaughter was becoming more and more outrageous living outside and not caring at all about whether the two old people lived or died.
“If you’ve got the guts, just beat me to death!” Old Lady Shen shouted, lying straight down on the ground. “No one cares about me anymore anyway. I might as well just die!”
“Oh, so you know you’re an old nuisance?” Shuanghua wasn’t intimidated at all. She crossed her arms and said to the neighbors who had come to watch the commotion, “These two old people, after their eldest son died, moved in with their younger son’s family into the eldest son’s house, trying to take over the property left for the daughter. They even made a little girl in her teens serve their whole family. Back then they weren’t thinking about dying at all. Now that the granddaughter isn’t serving them at home, they immediately start throwing tantrums and threatening suicide. Even if someone is old and thick-skinned, there has to be a limit, right?”
By the time Shen Wei opened the door, she heard Shuanghua scolding them fiercely.
“Tell me, if you two die and go see your dead martyr son, what are you even going to say?”
“Seen people relying on sons for retirement, seen people relying on daughters, but this is the first time I’ve seen people trying to rely on a granddaughter for support!”
“Do you think Shen Wei is an easy target, just a young girl you can bully into serving you two old nuisances?”
“I’m telling you, since Shen Wei is renting our house, she’s my Shuanghua’s little sister from now on!”
Shuanghua squatted down, looked at the old woman lying on the ground, and smiled. “You like the ground in front of my house that much? I’ll go get boiling water right now and pour it on it.”
Old Lady Shen actually felt a bit scared of this woman. Dressed flamboyantly and acting unruly, she really looked like someone who might actually pour boiling water on her.
Frightened, the old woman scrambled up from the ground. “Shen Wei, you ungrateful thing! You’re just watching them bully your grandmother? You heartless wretch!”
“Yes, I am a heartless wretch,” Shen Wei said calmly, not the slightest bit angry. “The severance agreement has already been published in the newspaper. If you come here to cause trouble again, I’ll report you to the police. If the police say I have a legal obligation to support you, then let them issue an official document. I will support you strictly according to the law.”
In truth, the legal system at the time was still not very complete. And since she had already written a severance agreement, even if she was legally required to support them on behalf of her father, she would only pay the legally required minimum monthly support she would never again serve them in every detail like in her past life.
The Shen elderly couple didn’t understand the law at all, and they didn’t even really hear what she was saying. They only caught the part about Shen Wei cutting ties with them and no longer caring for them.
How miserable their lives had become.
“You unfilial thing! You’ll get your retribution! When thunder strikes, the heavens will surely strike you dead! We’ll just wait and see with our own eyes!”
Shuanghua immediately shouted back, “If the heavens are going to strike anyone, it’ll be you two old nuisances first! And you still call yourselves grandparents never seen people curse their own grandchildren like this!”
The Shen elderly couple finally left, trembling.
“I didn’t expect that little bitch Shen Wei would be renting from this tough woman!” Old Lady Shen spat. “This trip was a total joke! We should’ve gone to her breakfast stall instead. She needs to make money, so she wouldn’t dare ignore us there!”
Old Man Shen immediately brightened up. “You’re right, old woman. How come we didn’t think of that sooner? Yes! Tomorrow morning we’ll go to her breakfast stall and make trouble. We’ll make sure none of her buns sell. I want to see who dares buy food from an unfilial daughter! I’ll make sure people think she’s disgusting stomach rot, liver rot, everything!”