Eager to do anything that might win back his wife’s heart, Zhang Jiahua couldn’t care less that he was still in the middle of an argument with his mother. He immediately took off running.
Wang Pozi had agreed with extreme enthusiasm, rushing non-stop to the Knowledge Youth Institute. She even made sure to come back and tell Zhang Jiahua to head over there first thing the next morning.
"If you need a message passed again next time, just come find my Hawa!" Braving Granny Zhang’s murderous glare, Wang Pozi left feeling perfectly satisfied.
The Wang family would have plenty of gossip to enjoy tonight. If she wasn’t afraid of being shooed away, she really wanted to tag along with the man of the Zhang Family tomorrow to watch the divorce. A divorce! This was the first time anyone in the village was doing such a thing!
Neither of the parties involved slept very peacefully that night.
Zhang Jiahua wasn’t sleepy at all. The bed no longer held the sweet fragrance of a woman or the milky scent of a baby. All that remained were messy clothes and the sour stench of sweat after a long day of labor. Without Deng Yuyuan, there was no one to wash his clothes, cook his meals, and care for his every need. Zhang Jiahua had no choice but to stay up late doing his own laundry. Every now and then, he would trace the patches his wife had stitched onto his clothes, his eyes turning red.
He rolled out of bed, careful not to wake anyone, and walked out the door alone. He made his way to the most distant plot of wasteland owned by his family—a piece of homestead land his father had originally left for his descendants to build houses on. Taking advantage of the darkness, he chopped down some wood, deciding to build a thatched hut to live in for now. He would never let his wife and daughter live in a thatched hut with him, but he had to show his family his determination to split from the household first.
In her room, Deng Yuyuan suddenly opened her eyes, clear and entirely devoid of sleepiness. She had a vague premonition that tomorrow’s divorce wouldn’t go smoothly. Since she couldn’t sleep, there was no point in forcing it.
Moving lightly, she climbed out of bed and whispered to the soundly sleeping Zhao Erdong, "I’m going to sit in the courtyard for a bit. You go back to sleep."
Tuantuan was in the cradle in the middle of the room, sleeping soundly.
Deng Yuyuan draped a jacket over her shoulders and sat on the long bench outside the bedroom. Looking around furtively like a thief, she opened the farming game. The lessons of her death in her previous life were still vivid in her mind, yet she still couldn’t kick the habit in this life.
[...]
"AI is forbidden from being speechless."
Under the moonlight, Deng Yuyuan upgraded her farm to level five. Reaching a level that was a multiple of five didn’t unlock any new plants or animals; instead, it rewarded her with a potion. She wondered if it would be a Double Harvest Potion or a Rapid Growth Potion.
[Low-Level Body Repair Potion: Slightly improves physical fitness and lightly repairs hidden bodily injuries upon consumption. Side effect: Enters a 24-hour period of weakness, during which extreme emotional fluctuations are ill-advised.]
It was a godsend potion she had never seen before!
Deng Yuyuan eagerly took it out. After a brief mental struggle, she downed it. Even though she was getting divorced tomorrow, a period of weakness where extreme emotions were ill-advised didn’t sound like a big deal.
The most important thing was that it should be able to alleviate her postpartum pain. Even though her wounds had healed and her complexion had recovered some of its rosy hue, she still occasionally felt a phantom pain deep in her bones during the night or on rainy days.
Soon, her body felt much lighter. The lingering pain faded away, replaced by a surging wave of drowsiness washing over her mind. Deng Yuyuan stretched and got up to head back inside. If she was sleepy, she might as well sleep. It didn’t matter. It was time for bed anyway; this was just a sleeping pill with only benefits and no downsides.
By the time she woke up the next day, she realized she had been too careless. She almost couldn’t get out of bed.
When Zhao Erdong helped pull back the covers and sat her up, she gasped in shock. A massive, dark bruise covered Deng Yuyuan’s knee, swelling it to twice its normal size. It looked absolutely terrifying.
"How about we skip today and go another time?"
Deng Yuyuan gritted her teeth, gripped Zhao Erdong’s extended hand, and used it to pull herself out of bed. "We’re going!"
Delays could lead to complications. It had taken so much effort to get Zhang Jiahua to agree; she couldn’t be the one to drop the ball now. If she delayed, how long would it drag on? It was just a flesh wound. Aside from the pain, forcing herself to walk wouldn’t make the injury any worse.
"Sister Er Dong, could I trouble you to go with Zhang Jiahua to find the captain first to get the divorce letter of introduction? Once we have the letter, we’ll go to town together to get the divorce certificate and Tuantuan’s birth certificate."
"Alright." Zhao Erdong nodded without hesitation.
At that moment, the door opened from the outside.
"Sister Er Dong, Sister Yuanyuan, Zhang Jiahua is here." Tian Tian knocked once and pushed the door open, the young girl looking rather flustered. "You two better hurry up and get ready to go with him. I’ve already grabbed some steamed cornbread for you. Zhang Jiahua looks like he’s being marched to the gallows, so you’d better hurry up and get the divorce sorted first."
Tian Tian’s gaze unconsciously fell on Deng Yuyuan’s knee. "What happened? What’s going on... That bastard Zhang Jiahua." She immediately realized it was the injury from kneeling yesterday.
Deng Yuyuan smiled and comforted her. "It’s fine, I can still make it to town. It’s just that I’ll have to trouble Sister Er Dong to go with Zhang Jiahua to find the captain for me."
"I’ll go find the captain for you," Tian Tian quickly offered. "Let Sister Er Dong apply some medicine for you first. It’s settled then, bye!" Tian Tian ran off like a wisp of smoke.
Zhao Erdong still looked worried. "Sigh, by the time you get back from getting the certificates, who knows what kind of state this leg will be in."
"It’s fine. I’ll just have Zhang Jiahua carry me," Deng Yuyuan said matter-of-factly, not batting an eye.
"Huh?" Zhao Erdong paused.
Deng Yuyuan patiently repeated, "I’ll have Zhang Jiahua carry me."
"Aren’t you guys going to get a divorce?" Zhao Erdong’s eyes widened, giving her usually mature and dignified face a rare touch of cuteness.
Deng Yuyuan blinked, her playful eyelashes seeming to catch the light along with her pupils. She looked like a cunning little fox. "A great woman knows how to be flexible. Setting aside the fact that he’s the culprit for this, giving him a little hope of reconciliation will make him much more willing to go through with the divorce."
Deng Yuyuan absolutely didn’t believe that Zhang Jiahua had suddenly changed his true colors. Unless he had been reborn or possessed by someone else, there was only one possible reason for his decision: he was using a stalling tactic, planning to play a long, roundabout game of getting back together.
"You’re too clever for your own good." Zhao Erdong laughed, playfully tapping her nose.
Seeing that the person who came out was Tian Tian, Zhang Jiahua immediately peered behind her.
"Stop looking," Tian Tian told him grumpily. "Because of you, Sister Yuanyuan has a massive bruise on her knee. She needs to rest for a bit, so I’ll go with you to find the captain."
A worried look subconsciously crossed Zhang Jiahua’s face. "How about..."
"How about what?" Tian Tian put her hands on her hips, looking incredibly fierce. "Sister Yuanyuan is insisting on getting divorced today even with an injury like that, so don’t you dare drag her down!"
She couldn’t care less if her words struck a nerve. As the old cliché went—a little late for that now. Now that his wife didn’t want him anymore, he was standing here acting all pitiful. He put on a decent act now, looking like he felt bad about his wife getting hurt, but his legs certainly hadn’t gone soft when he knelt down to force Sister Yuanyuan yesterday.
The captain didn’t hold up the letter of introduction. He glanced at Zhang Jiahua and readily wrote it out.
He asked casually, "Why didn’t Comrade Deng Yuyuan come?"