Crash!
A glass cup shattered at her feet, and scalding tea splashed onto An Ning, making her instinctively flinch.
“Break off the engagement?”
An Father’s face was livid. “If the neighbors find out the Zhao family broke off the engagement, where will your mother and I hide our faces? Your brother’s marriage is finally looking up, and you choose this exact moment to cause trouble!”
An Mother’s slanted eyes pierced An Ning like needles. “Did you upset Chengyuan again? I’ve told you eight hundred times: a girl needs to be gentle and sensible. Don’t be so stubborn, but you just won’t listen. And what’s with the suitcase? You aren’t planning to move back in, are you?”
“Move back in?”
An Xiaoqiang grew anxious. “Where would you even stay? Mom…”
The An family’s three-bedroom apartment had one room for An Father and An Mother, one for An Xiaoqiang, and a windowless storage room for junk.
In the years before her engagement, An Ning had always slept in that storage room.
Once An Ning moved out, An Father and An Mother calculated that the three bedrooms should become two. If An Ning wanted to come back, she would have to sleep on the sofa.
“I…”
“No!”
An Ning had barely opened her mouth before An Mother interrupted her. “Tingting’s parents are coming over this weekend. How would it look if you’re sleeping in the living room? You’ll make the whole place a mess!”
“Doesn’t your company have staff dorms? Go stay in a dorm!” An Father declared with finality.
“I won’t be coming back anymore!”
Biting back her tears, An Ning turned to look at her stunned parents. “And starting next month, I won’t be giving you any more of my salary!”
“You wouldn’t dare!!”
An Father stood up abruptly, his face ashen.
“What did you say?” An Mother also grew frantic, her eyes glaring at An Ning as if spitting fire. “Say that again?”
Tears nearly spilled from An Ning’s eyes.
For three years of work, she hadn’t lived at home or eaten at home, yet she handed over more than half her salary every month. They had made it sound so nice—that they were saving it for her to use as a dowry when she got married.
In the blink of an eye, that money, along with the 200,000 yuan bride price, had been used to buy a new house for An Xiaoqiang.
She had only come to the An family when she was five years old.
Since getting into university at eighteen, her tuition had been covered by student loans, and her living expenses were saved up from part-time jobs. Even if her upbringing over those ten-odd years had cost ten thousand a year, she had long since paid it back through her years of work.
She owed them nothing!
Gripping the handle of her suitcase tightly to keep from shaking, An Ning looked up. “You ask me to be filial to my parents, but for a 200,000 yuan bride price, you engaged me to Zhao Chengyuan without ever asking if I liked him or if we were compatible.”
“You said I was the older sister and had to take care of my brother. An Xiaoqiang’s tuition, living expenses, food, clothes—even his game console—I was the one who bought them for him.”
“But what about you? Did you ever treat me like a daughter or a sister? Even if you adopted me, after all these years, I’ve paid you back. I don’t owe you anything!”
“You brat! I think you’ve had it too easy for too long and forgotten your own name!”
Looking left and right, An Mother did as she always had: she snatched up a feather duster and swung it at An Ning. “You ate my food, wore my clothes, and used my things. Without the An family, you’d be a nameless bastard in an orphanage with no father or mother. Would you have had the chance to grow up, go to university, and find a good job?”
“Talk back to me, will you? Take this—”
Thud!
An Ning snatched the feather duster away and hurled it onto the floor. “You think I want the name An? If I could, I’d rather never have been adopted by you!!”
Slap!
An Father struck her with a heavy blow. “Get out! You don’t want the name An? You don’t want to recognize us? Then get out! I want to see just how capable you really are!”
An Ning’s head throbbed, and her vision flickered with darkness.
Her left cheek began to swell at a visible rate.
If time could go back, she would rather have lived in the orphanage forever. It would have been better than a life where she had to watch people’s faces for every extra bite of food, where she had to wake up before dawn to cook breakfast, and where she was beaten for breaking a single bowl.
Glaring resentfully at An Father, An Ning pulled her suitcase and stormed out the door.
Behind her, An Mother chased her out and screamed, “You little brat, if you have the guts, don’t you ever come back! You want to change your surname? Not a chance! Without the household registration booklet, I’ll make sure you can’t even get married for the rest of your life!”
When Zhao Chengyuan and the matchmaker had come to the door, they had been clear: this marriage was fine as long as she could help him stall for two years. Once his “white moonlight,” who was studying abroad, returned and the two families broke off the engagement, the 200,000 yuan bride price would be treated as compensation to the An family for An Ning’s lost youth.
An Ning wanted to break away from the An family? She was dreaming!
Slam!
Slamming the door shut, An Mother looked up to see An Xiaoqiang staring at her reproachfully. “Mom, you drove her away. Who’s going to pay the mortgage for my house now? It’s over three thousand a month. Where will I get that money?”
“You…”
The harsh words had just been spoken, and now trouble had arrived. An Mother’s heart ached with frustration.
After a long moment, a look of joy crossed her face. She hurriedly found her phone and dialed a number. “Sister Fen? Didn’t you say yesterday that so-and-so’s youngest son was looking for a wife? How much bride price is the other side offering?”
“That much? What do you think of my An Ning? … Although she isn’t my own flesh and blood, I’ve raised her for so many years; I have to pick a good one for her, don’t I? A family that gives a large bride price shows they are decent people. An Ning will only live well if she marries into a home like that, right? … Older men know how to cherish a woman. Go and ask around quickly. Let me know if you hear anything. When it’s settled, I’ll give you a thick red envelope for the matchmaker.”
Hanging up, An Mother let out a sigh of relief, her face bright with joy.
She didn’t believe that little brat could ever fly out from the palm of her hand!
An Ning’s face burned with stinging pain, and passersby frequently turned to look at her.
She seemed to see nothing, her feet moving rapidly. She glanced at the black Volkswagen that her ride-hailing app indicated had arrived. Seeing a black Volkswagen parked by the curb, An Ning stepped forward, opened the trunk to put her suitcase inside, then opened the door and sat in the back seat.
Large tears began to fall. An Ning leaned over, burying her face in her palms as she wept.
In the driver’s seat, Ji Cheng started sweating.
He wanted to say, “Miss, you’ve gotten into the wrong car. The one with the hazard lights on ahead should be yours,” but the girl’s shoulders were shaking violently. With her face covered and tears falling in large droplets, she looked absolutely heartbroken.
Ji Cheng couldn’t help but look at the Boss in the back seat.
The atmosphere in the car was suppressed to the extreme. Even from a side profile, one could see the Boss was on the verge of fury. His tensed jawline revealed endless anger.
Ring ring…
A phone rang abruptly.
It was her phone.
She glanced at it, and seeing it wasn’t the An family, An Ning answered, “Hello…”
“Is this the passenger with the tail number 1216? I’ve arrived. I’m parked by the road with my hazard lights on. Are you almost here?”
The voice from the other end was clearly audible through the cheap phone’s speaker.
Ji Cheng saw the girl’s body go stiff instantly.
“Okay.”
Hanging up, An Ning instinctively looked up.