“Xiangdong’s here.” Elder Shen, seeing that it was his eldest daughter-in-law’s nephew from her natal family, told him to just go inside and grab whatever he needed.
The old man didn’t notice the strange look exchanged between Xiangdong and Wanqing and Huixin.
Shock flickered in all three pairs of eyes—especially Wang Xiangdong’s, which bulged so wide they looked ready to pop out of his head.
No wonder they hadn’t been able to find any information about those two women. They’d assumed they weren’t from around here, but who’d have thought they’d run into each other like this—what a “coincidence.”
Song Huixin crossed her legs and sized up Wang Xiangdong with keen interest. “What a small world~”
Wang Xiangdong pressed his lips together and said nothing. With Elder Shen present, he had to think before speaking. Until he figured out what to say, he’d keep his mouth shut.
Elder Shen looked from Wang Xiangdong to Huixin. “You know each other?”
Then he thought better of it—impossible. Hadn’t Huixin and Wanqing only just arrived in Su City a couple of days ago?
How could they possibly know each other!
“That’s right, Uncle,” Song Huixin said with a curl of her lips. “We do know each other, of course. Last time Wanqing and I went out to eat, we were harassed by two lowlife thugs—and he was one of them! He said he’d taken a liking to Wanqing, even tried to threaten us by saying his uncle-in-law was the director of the cotton mill. When we refused, he told us to just wait and see. I never thought we’d run into him again so soon.”
Wang Xiangdong’s mouth twitched violently. This bitch!
She was actually tattling right in front of Elder Shen! If he’d known, he wouldn’t have let them off so easily last time.
Lin Wanqing’s brows carried a hint of fond indulgence toward Song Huixin’s “tattling.” With such a good opportunity, she certainly wouldn’t let it pass.
Hearing this, Elder Shen’s originally pleasant expression darkened abruptly. He demanded of Wang Xiangdong, “Is this true?”
“Grandpa Shen, it’s a misunderstanding—it was all a misunderstanding last time—”
Wang Xiangdong had never had a good reputation among the elders anyway. His explanation that it was all a misunderstanding—Elder Shen didn’t believe a single word!
So it was all true!
This yellow-haired punk who never acted right—he actually had the nerve to try poaching from their family!
Elder Shen slammed his hand hard on the table and pointed fiercely at Wang Xiangdong, telling him to get lost and deliver the things to the hospital first. “I’ll deal with you when I get back!”
Wang Xiangdong didn’t even dare try to explain. He grabbed a few random pieces of clothing and bolted.
Afraid that if he ran too slow, Elder Shen might give him a swift end right then and there.
Everyone in the entire military district knew of Elder Shen’s ferocity back in the day! Just one look from him was enough to make Wang Xiangdong’s legs go weak.
In the entire Shen family, there were only two people he feared most—one was Elder Shen, and the other was Shen Yunzheng!
“You two were bullied out there and didn’t even tell me when you came back?” Elder Shen’s expression was stern, his heart aching for these two children.
So young, and their families had suffered such misfortune. They’d married far from home. In today’s world, a woman without anyone to rely on would have a hard time getting by.
“Grandpa, we weren’t wronged.” Lin Wanqing let out a soft laugh.
They hadn’t taken those two men seriously at all—so where was the grievance?
Hearing her say that made Elder Shen’s heart ache even more. Such good children, and so strong too!
“I’ll make sure you get a satisfactory resolution to this matter, don’t you worry.”
Elder Shen gave his word. For now, he needed to wait until Yunfeng’s condition stabilized. Besides, with both Chongli and Yunzheng away from home, he didn’t even know who to send to run errands.
Thinking of those two useless uncle and nephew, Elder Shen felt a wave of dizziness. Busy, busy, busy—always busy every day. They couldn’t even protect their own wives when they were being bullied.
…
Military District People’s Hospital, Inpatient Ward.
The things Wang Xiangdong had hurriedly brought were all useless. Wang Chunyan looked at them with utter disdain. “Would anyone wear clothes this thick in a hospital? Are you trying to bake your uncle-in-law to death? And what’s this? A leather jacket? A suit? You brought everything useless and not a single thing useful. Did you bring a washbasin or a towel? Not one! What did I tell you before you left? You forgot that fast? You can’t even do something this simple—what exactly are you good for?”
“Auntie, don’t scold me yet. I have something important to ask you.” Wang Xiangdong glanced at his uncle-in-law still lying unconscious in bed, swallowed hard, and lowered his voice. “Did relatives come to your house?”
“Huh?” Wang Chunyan answered irritably, “Chongli and Yunzheng’s fiancées. They arrived from the capital a couple of days ago. Didn’t I mention this to you before?”
The moment those words left her mouth, Wang Xiangdong felt like dying.
No wonder the old man was so angry—so one of them was his cousin’s wife, and the other was his aunt?
Wang Xiangdong’s face turned ugly as sin. He thought, I’m done for.
“I told you to make a good impression in front of your uncle-in-law this time, because I was thinking that when the factory promotes a deputy director next time, your uncle-in-law could give you a leg up. And you—you useless piece of—!”
Wang Chunyan was furious. “You go back right now and make another trip. Take all these useless clothes back and get what I told you to get.”
“Forget it, Auntie. Tell me what you need and I’ll go buy it. It’s too inconvenient for me to make another trip back.” Wang Xiangdong didn’t want to go back there—not even if a knife were held to his throat.
Wang Chunyan grew even angrier at his wasteful spending.
“Just because there’s money at home, you can spend it however you like? Anyone can see you’re not someone who knows how to run a household.”
“Auntie, it’s not the same thing,” Wang Xiangdong tried to explain but didn’t even know where to begin. He opened his mouth, then hesitated.
“What on earth happened?!”
“It’s just… ugh…”
Wang Xiangdong let out a sigh and gave his aunt a warning shot first. “I did something wrong. Don’t scold me just yet.”
“Go on, tell me.”
Wang Chunyan furrowed her brow, then thought it wasn’t a good place to talk—she was worried about disturbing Shen Yunfeng’s rest—so she dragged her nephew outside to talk.
“Auntie, a couple of days ago I ran into two pretty girls while eating out. I was thinking, why not try to find myself a girlfriend? So I figured I’d get to know them, but things turned a bit unpleasant.”
“Clueless! Chasing girls takes brains too. As the saying goes, ‘a man chasing a woman is like climbing a mountain’—everything takes time, you can’t rush it.” Wang Chunyan had no idea why he was bringing this up and was about to offer some words of comfort when it suddenly hit her.
Two pretty girls?
It couldn’t be that much of a coincidence!
She looked at Wang Xiangdong’s face and became even more certain of what she was thinking.
Those two girls were Lin Wanqing and Song Huixin.
“You!” Wang Chunyan raised her hand in a fury and smacked him a few times. “You’ve got good taste, I’ll give you that!”
“Auntie! Auntie, I know I was wrong,” Wang Xiangdong hurriedly admitted his mistake and apologized.
Wang Chunyan wasn’t truly angry, though. He was her only precious nephew—she practically treated him like her own son on a daily basis.
“Since it was a misunderstanding, then it’s fine. Any man who runs into a good-looking woman would go up and strike up a conversation. It’s perfectly normal.”
“Grandpa Shen knows about this now too, and he’s furious,” Wang Xiangdong said, on the verge of tears. “Auntie, I haven’t lived long enough yet.”
Wang Chunyan saw how scared he was before anything had even happened and silently cursed him a “coward.” “What are you afraid of? At worst, you apologize. No need to be scared. If you don’t dare go back, then send someone to fetch your things. Don’t just think about buying stuff all day long.”
That’s it?
Wang Xiangdong felt a slight sense of relief inside. He knew his aunt would never abandon him.
“Auntie, actually, this isn’t entirely my fault. The main blame goes to that woman—she was the one who came on to me in broad daylight. I just accidentally took the bait!”