Naturally, Lu Jianguo wouldn’t explain this to his daughter. How could he admit it was for the sake of face, for maintaining his authority in the factory?
For reputation, for benefits.
His wife was right – being good to his deceased son’s wife had indeed brought him tremendous advantages.
Even the County Magistrate and County Party Secretary would give him thumbs-up when they saw him.
They praised him as remarkable, saying ordinary people couldn’t accomplish what he had.
The factory was even more effusive in their praise, everyone said the Lu Family had great vision and genuine kindness. Whoever met him would remark: “The Lu Family truly lives up to their military heritage, their actions always demonstrate great foresight.”
Business negotiations went exceptionally smoothly, with people consistently commenting: “Old Lu is truly reliable, absolutely trustworthy.”
Such benefits had become too numerous to count recently.
So he felt that being good to his eldest son’s wife, spending some money, brought returns far exceeding the amount spent – that was enough.
But these matters didn’t need to be discussed with his daughter.
In the following days, Li Yue lived quite comfortably.
The Lu Family seemed to have collectively become more tolerant toward her, though she knew this was merely the hunter lying in wait before the hunt.
She had been studying the key to the upstairs study recently, having observed everyone in the household. It seemed only Lu Jianguo carried a bunch of keys on his belt.
Jingling with many keys.
While Li Shaohua and Lu Xiao only had one bicycle key and one house key each.
Lu Qing was the same.
Taking advantage of Feng Jing’s hospitalization these past two days, she had cleared out everything valuable from Feng Jing’s bedroom.
To her surprise, Feng Jing was wealthier than Lu Qing.
From Feng Jing’s bedroom, she collected over two thousand yuan in cash, along with gold jewelry.
Lu Qing only had three hundred yuan, which she temporarily left untouched. Since Lu Qing rarely went out, it wasn’t worth causing major disturbances for such a small amount – the timing wasn’t right yet.
As for Lu Xiao, he was surprisingly poor without a single cent, only carrying a few dozen yuan on him. If they divorced, she wouldn’t get anything at all.
Searching her own bedroom and Lu Xiao’s study only yielded about ten yuan, with nothing else valuable.
The original host only had ten yuan, money her mother had given her for luck when she married.
Today was Feng Jing’s discharge from the hospital.
Lu Qing had become the family’s little maid these past few days, and now that Feng Jing was coming home, she felt quite displeased.
Because the days of her mother’s favoritism were about to resume.
But thinking about her movie date with Gu Huaichuan tonight, she felt somewhat relieved.
At the thought of Gu Huaichuan, her eyes filled with shy affection.
Li Yue stood at the kitchen doorway crunching on a cucumber, watching Lu Qing’s expression and couldn’t resist teasing: “What’s wrong? Thinking about your little boyfriend?”
Life was boring, and she occasionally enjoyed teasing Lu Qing, similar to teasing a stray cat by the roadside.
Startled, Lu Qing patted her chest and shot her a disgusted look: “Do you have to walk without making any sound?”
“Can’t blame me, you were just too absorbed in thinking about men.”
Lu Qing choked: “What nonsense are you talking? When was I thinking about men? Don’t… don’t spread rumors.”
She looked at Li Yue suspiciously, frowning as she scrutinized her up and down.
Li Yue let her look all she wanted.
“How come I’ve noticed you’ve been acting strange lately? You didn’t used to be like this?”
Snap—
The cucumber butt accurately landed in the kitchen trash can.
“What was I like before? And what am I like now?” She continued teasing Lu Qing – this was a good tool that would prove quite useful at critical moments.
Lu Qing was lost in thought for a moment before saying, “You used to be so easy to bul… talk to. You never contradicted anything I said before. How dare you talk back to my brother now? Do you really want to divorce my second brother?”
Lu Xiao, who had been about to go out to pick up Feng Jing, froze at these words. The door he was going to open remained only slightly ajar, not fully pulled open.
“That’s for certain.” Li Yue said this with complete seriousness, without any hint of joking.
“Why? Didn’t you really like my second brother?” Lu Qing couldn’t help asking.
She still thought Li Yue was a lovesick fool, seduced by her second brother’s handsome appearance.
She stayed at their house all day doing chores without leaving.
One corner of Li Yue’s mouth slowly curved upward, sketching a wicked arc: “Of course it’s because your brother isn’t a real man. Should I stay with him and live like a widow?”
Just as Lu Qing was about to speak, her pupils suddenly contracted. She immediately shut her mouth and pretended to be busy with work.
Sensing the scorching gaze from behind and combining it with Lu Qing’s reaction, Li Yue knew.
Lu Xiao was right behind her.
Sure enough, the next second she heard Lu Xiao’s icy voice from behind, gritting through his teeth: “Li Yue, what nonsense are you spouting?”
Lu Qing made a grimacing face at Li Yue, wearing an expression of someone enjoying the show.
Li Yue calmly turned around, her placid eyes meeting Lu Xiao’s piercing cold gaze.
“What? Is anything I said wrong? We’ve been married for three months, and you’ve slept in the study for three months. If you’re not impotent, then what are you? Unless… you like men?”
“You…”
“I’m perfectly fine – fair skin, beautiful looks, long legs. If even this can’t attract you, then you’re either impotent or you like men. Does that really need thinking about? It’s completely obvious.”
Li Yue raised an eyebrow slightly at Lu Xiao, her eyes filled with nothing but provocation.
If she didn’t anger him, how could she cause trouble? If they didn’t argue and just maintained this cold war every day, how could she escalate things?
You can’t use a single chopstick alone, and one hand can’t clap – she needed someone to cooperate with her.
So these past few days she had been stirring up trouble everywhere, wanting every member of the Lu Family to genuinely despise her from the depths of their souls.
If they had the capability, they should just hit her – then everything would be easy to resolve.
Lu Xiao’s narrow eyes surged with towering rage, but for the sake of Feng Jing’s kidney, he suppressed it once again.
“Don’t regret this, Li Yue.” After throwing out these words, he turned and left.
His retreating figure looked somewhat awkward, as if he was fleeing.
Lu Qing gave Li Yue a thumbs-up and said in a rather cheerful tone: “I’ll take you to see a movie tonight.”
“Great. Just what I wanted – I don’t want to see that magnificent white lotus at home anyway.”
Li Yue had been worrying about how to go out. Although the Lu Family had been treating her like air these past few days and didn’t make her work,
they wouldn’t let her go out, afraid she might run away.
They even made Lu Qing stay home to watch her.
This was causing Lu Qing’s dream of marrying into the County Magistrate’s family to shatter.
“I don’t want to see her either, she’s so fake. One of my classmate’s mothers had Uremia before, and she wasn’t like that at all. She managed everything inside and outside the home, could do anything, and wasn’t weak like noodles, always leaning on someone’s shoulder.”
Whenever Lu Qing thought about Feng Jing’s affected mannerisms every day, she felt extremely uncomfortable all over. Even Li Yue seemed cute in comparison.
Li Yue: …
Although she had never met a Uremia patient before, she figured there probably weren’t many people with this disease who could handle everything inside and outside the home. That would require being a superhuman.
But she had no need to upset Lu Qing—it was best to just go along with her for now.
Lu Qing looked her over from head to toe, already calculating in her mind. Though Li Yue had been quite beautiful back when she first got married, now her face looked dry and noticeably darker, far from attractive.
What Lu Qing didn’t realize was that anyone who had been severely underweight would look unwell. Li Yue’s body had endured five days of extreme starvation without even a drop of water—dehydration and hunger had ultimately taken her life. As a result, she now appeared gaunt, sallow, and thin, a condition that couldn’t be restored anytime soon.
So Lu Qing thought of taking Li Yue out, intending to use her as a contrast. She figured Gu Huaichuan would surely notice her own shining qualities then.
Using Li Yue’s plainness to highlight her own beauty was, in Lu Qing’s view, an honor for Li Yue—after all, she wouldn’t just take anyone along.
“Let’s go. I’m not cooking today—we’re eating out,” Lu Qing declared, her excitement causing her to completely forget the task her mother had assigned.
With that, she led Li Yue out the door.