Su Nian’an returned to her room. Looking at the shabby, run-down room that Su Aiguo and his wife had arranged for her, she couldn’t help but laugh in exasperation.
The original owner really was a pitiful little thing. Fortunately, Su Nian’an herself had long since become immune to this thing called family affection.
If nobody loved her, then she would simply love herself well.
As she lay on the bed, Su Nian’an closed her eyes and sorted through the memories in her mind as well as the plot of the novel.
The original owner’s memories had absolutely nothing to do with the direction of the later plot.
The original owner could be described as nothing more than a cannon-fodder character a pitiful girl whose purpose was to highlight the vicious female supporting character, Su Nianxi. Su Nianxi abandoned her fiancé, the male lead, in the early part of the story and, wanting to break off the engagement, found the original owner to take her place in the marriage.
According to the original plot, the original owner had already drowned herself today.
The only memories of the original owner that Su Nian’an could access were memories of how she had been abused and exploited by her aunt’s family.
In fact, before Su Nian’an was brought to Beijing by the Su family, she had already turned eighteen, and her aunt’s family had plotted to marry her off to a butcher in the village.
A man who slaughtered pigs!
He had money and meat, so at the very least, there would be no need to worry about the betrothal gifts.
Therefore, when Su Aiguo and his wife came to pick her up, the original owner had actually regarded the two of them as her salvation.
Caught between such overwhelming joy and despair, it was no wonder the original owner couldn’t think things through.
As for the original plot
Su Nian’an was a little helpless. She apparently hadn’t read much of the original novel. She had cursed at it and tossed the book aside.
The general storyline was that the male and female leads met in the countryside. The male lead was sent down to the countryside, while the female lead was an educated youth. The two had already developed feelings for each other while living in the countryside.
Afterward, because of various misunderstandings, they failed to end up together. Then the male lead’s family was rehabilitated and returned to Beijing.
Several years later, the male and female leads would meet again at the height of their respective lives.
After that, they were probably supposed to rekindle their relationship.
Anyway, Su Nian’an hadn’t read that far.
From Su Nian’an’s money-minded perspective, the original novel was basically just: You love me, I love you, but somehow we just can’t be together, followed by all kinds of heartbreaking angst.
The main issue was the male lead’s character.
To be honest, Su Nian’an had never felt that he seemed to like the female lead at all. After all, it was always the female lead who was making the first move and showering him with attention.
As for the male lead, the original novel repeatedly described him with words like tough, cold, refined, handsome, uninterested in women, restrained, and celibate.
Anyway, Su Nian’an had no idea what the author had been thinking. Perhaps the author simply wanted to portray her male lead as an exceptionally aloof man who would love only the female lead.
That was also why Su Nian’an had agreed to marry Gu Qingyu.
He wasn’t interested in women, so wasn’t that perfect?
Once she married him, she could endure some hardship alongside the Su family for a while. After the Gu family was rehabilitated, Su Nian’an could collect a whole bunch of benefits, as well as obtain an independent household registration booklet.
Once she was free and independent, where couldn’t she settle down?
She had heard that in this era, anyone who wanted to become rich had to go to Hong Kong. Su Nian’an felt that going there or staying didn’t really matter.
With her skills, she wouldn’t starve to death even on the mainland.
Anyway, she would just take things one step at a time.
For now, the first thing was to get the money from the Su family.
Thinking about this, Su Nian’an gradually drifted off into a peaceful sleep.
Meanwhile, the other three people still in the living room were in anything but a pleasant mood.
“Oh my goodness. That’s so much money. Are you really going to give all of that to that wretched girl?” Liu Cuilian asked, her face full of pain at the thought of it.
What Su Aiguo usually disliked most about his wife was her stingy, small-minded nature.
But this time, even Su Aiguo himself was reluctant to part with the money.
After all, what he had just agreed to give Su Nian’an amounted to nearly half of the Su family’s remaining assets their emergency savings.
Back then, because they were afraid of being classified as capitalists, the Su family had not dared to keep too much of their wealth. Most of it had been donated.
On top of that, people like them had been taken advantage of when they purchased their jobs.
But under those circumstances, money was obviously less important than having a job.
Furthermore, the Su family had become accustomed to spending lavishly.
Not to mention Su Aiguo and Liu Cuilian, even Su Nianxi had been spoiled by them. She demanded meat at every meal and still wanted beautiful new clothes.
No matter how much wealth the family had accumulated, it would never be enough for the Su family to spend.
And now that Su Nian’an was taking away so much money and so many coupons, it was only making an already difficult situation even worse for the Su family.
“Shut up! If you don’t want Xixi to go to the countryside, then stop talking so much nonsense.” Su Aiguo said irritably.
“I… I just feel sorry about the money…” Liu Cuilian said guiltily. “We were already having to tighten our belts to get by.”
“Tighten your belts? You two are wearing different clothes every single day. How exactly are you tightening your belts? From now on, you get one new outfit a month. What’s the use of buying so many clothes? You can’t eat them.”
Women naturally loved beauty.
And Su Nianxi, being a beautiful vicious female supporting character, had an especially large wardrobe and never wore the same outfit twice.
“Can’t we can’t we just break off the engagement with the Gu family? I’ve brought this up before. Why won’t you listen to me? The Gu family is practically like a family of stray dogs now. They’ve all been sent down to the countryside for re-education. Why do we still have to send one of our daughters to their family?” Liu Cuilian finally voiced the thoughts she had been holding back for so long.
“Break off the engagement? That’s easy for you to say!” Su Aiguo said coldly. “When our Su family was in trouble back then, it was Grandpa Gu who helped us, and he did it because of my father’s reputation. Otherwise, with our family’s class background, our entire family would certainly have been sent to the countryside for re-education as well. Everyone of importance in Beijing knows about this. If you want us to be unable to survive in Beijing in the future, then go ahead and break off the engagement. All for the sake of saving this little bit of money, refuse to let Su Nian’an marry into the Gu family.”
Hearing this, Liu Cuilian was completely stunned.
“Is it really that serious? That can’t be, right? What does our family’s business have to do with other people?” Liu Cuilian asked in confusion.
“The Gu family is an established old family in Beijing. They have connections, one way or another, with many influential people in the city. If we dare to break the engagement, just wait and see. We don’t even know what kind of ridicule we’ll face.”
Su Aiguo always felt that there was something unusual about the Gu family’s sudden collective downfall and being sent to the countryside.
But no matter how unusual the situation was, he did not want his beloved daughter, Su Nianxi, to suffer alongside them.
As for Su Nian’an, his biological daughter, he did feel a little guilty toward her deep down.
But not much.
Still, if the problem could be solved with money, Su Aiguo felt it was worth it.
After all, there were plenty of people who went to the countryside and died there because they couldn’t adapt to rural life.
“Dad, it’s all my fault” Su Nianxi looked at Su Aiguo with tears in her eyes, looking especially pitiful as she cried.
“What’s your fault? Your grandfather arranged this marriage for you in the first place. We already owe the Gu family a favor, so let Su Nian’an repay that debt. She wants money, so give it to her. No one is to bring this matter up again. Right now, all we need to do is send Su Nian’an to the countryside and hand her over to the Gu family.”
In Su Aiguo’s words, Su Nian’an could hardly even be considered a person.
She was more like an object something that could be used at will to repay a debt of gratitude, something that could simply be handed over to someone else.