A crisp phone ringtone suddenly went off, pulling Jiang Zhi out of her memories.
She glanced at the caller’s name and silently withdrew her gaze.
Once the phone had gone quiet, she unhurriedly dug Duan Heyu’s name out of her contacts and blocked and deleted it with one tap.
Jiang Zhi turned her face over. She had been woken by cramps early in the morning and hadn’t slept well, so now her eyelids were fighting each other.
Just as she was about to fall asleep, Zheng Wan’s voice came from outside the door. “Xiao Zhi, are you asleep? There’s a call for you, he says he’s your classmate.”
Jiang Zhi’s eyes snapped open.
She opened the door and took Zheng Wan’s phone. That string of numbers could not have been more familiar.
She had used Duan Heyu’s phone to call her mother just once, and she didn’t expect him to quietly save the number.
Afraid Zheng Wan would think too much, Jiang Zhi nodded and said, “Mm, it’s my classmate. My phone happened to run out of battery and shut off. He probably has something urgent.”
“Then you two talk. Mom will get back to being busy.”
The door closed, and Jiang Zhi’s attitude immediately turned a hundred and eighty degrees. “You dog, what do you want? You’ve even learned to play the pester-them-to-death game, haven’t you?”
“I want to ask what you want. What’s the meaning of not answering the phone? You even blocked me!”
Jiang Zhi: “No meaning, I just didn’t want to answer.”
Duan Heyu was genuinely angered. He took a deep breath and said through gritted teeth, “Can you stop making trouble? You’ve been making a fuss at me for a whole month over that little thing and still won’t let it rest. What exactly do you want from me? This young master apologizes to you, all right?”
—Classic scumbag quotes
Jiang Zhi’s brow twitched three times. How did he manage to step precisely on three landmines in a single sentence?
The last bit of filter Jiang Zhi had for Duan Heyu shattered without leaving a scrap.
Her gaze fell on the little doll sitting on the desk. The doll’s duck bill seemed to let out a quack, just as annoyingly noisy as its original owner.
She raised a hand to rub her brow and decisively brought up the breakup.
The other end of the line instantly blew up. Duan Heyu let out a string of rapid-fire words, reacting even more strongly than she had imagined, even with a faint trace of panic.
Jiang Zhi held the phone a bit farther away and said calmly, “We’re both adults. It’s just a breakup, don’t make such a fuss. There’s no shortage of fragrant grass anywhere in the world.”
“Jiang Zhi! Don’t even think about breaking up. You have to take responsibility for me to the very end!” Duan Heyu roared hysterically.
Duan Heyu’s family was wealthy. He had been born with a golden spoon in his mouth and had always had a young master’s temper. In the two years he had been with Jiang Zhi, she had held him down and made him change quite a bit, but only now that they were breaking up did she realize where the change was, he had clearly just been holding it in without letting it out.
Jiang Zhi’s face soured and she gave a cold laugh, her patience used up. “The two of us, the man unmarried and the woman unmarried, dating freely. What responsibility do I need to take for you? What, could it be that you’re pregnant with my child? Don’t be too absurd.”
“…”
Duan Heyu: “I…”
“That’s enough, let’s leave it at that. Calm down and digest it yourself. Also, you’re not allowed to call this phone number again.”
Jiang Zhi didn’t want her parents to know about her dating at all, and now that Duan Heyu had already been filed away in her mind as an ex-boyfriend, there was even less need to make it public.
Duan Heyu stammered on his end, starting to speak and stopping again, but she had no mind left to argue with him.
She hung up bluntly. All of Jiang Zhi’s sleepiness was gone. She picked up the doll Duan Heyu had given her from the desk and punched it a few times to vent, then sat back on the bed and opened the Flower Petal Forum to see whether last night’s post had any updates.
After OP ran off last night, the post’s heat dropped fast, and by morning it couldn’t be found in the first dozen or so pages. It had gone completely cold.
Jiang Zhi pulled the comments to the bottom and was drawn to one netizen’s newest message.
267L: OP isn’t lying, because I have a buddy who also…
Jiang Zhi clicked into this account’s homepage and took a look, and found it was a new account registered only two days ago.
So it was a shill. She understood at once. It looked like this post was nine times out of ten fake.
Jiang Zhi didn’t feel disappointed, it was entirely within expectations, and she soon forgot the post.
Just past one in the afternoon, there was a noise at the entryway.
Jiang Zhi walked out and ran right into Papa Jiang changing his shoes. Old Jiang bent over and asked her with a concerned smile, “Are you feeling better? Dad brought you milk tea. It’s still hot.”
Jiang Zhi’s eyes flickered as she caught sight of the two cups of milk tea sitting on the shoe cabinet.
“You’ve eaten already, right? Then I won’t heat up food for you.” She picked up the milk tea and walked back. “You’re back pretty early. I thought you were planning to have dinner there before coming home.”
Old Jiang answered with a squinting smile, “I couldn’t bear to miss a single meal your mother cooks.”
Zheng Wan heard the noise and came out of the bedroom. She was a little surprised to see her husband. “Why are you back so early?”
“It’s nothing big, and staying there is no fun. Better to come home and be with you two.” As Old Jiang said this, he reached behind his back and produced a rose as if doing a magic trick.
He attentively presented it to Zheng Wan. “I saw someone selling flowers on the way, so I picked the prettiest one and bought it.”
Zheng Wan was instantly overjoyed. She shot her husband a reproachful glare and said, “We’re an old married couple, what are you spending this money for?”
“How can spending money on you count as waste? Besides, an old married couple has to understand romance even more, otherwise wouldn’t we have lived to this age for nothing?”
Jiang Zhi: …
Jiang Zhi’s teeth ached from watching. She turned her back and sucked at her milk tea in big mouthfuls.
Once the couple was done being sappy, Jiang Zhi planted herself in a chair with her legs spread wide and cut straight to the point. “Old Jiang, out with it. What is the old lady scheming this time? Does she want money or does she want people?”
Wanting people naturally meant pushing them to have another child.
Old Woman Jiang had given birth to three sons. Jiang Zhi’s father was the second, stuck in the middle and the least favored by her.
The old lady especially preferred sons over daughters. Jiang the eldest and Jiang the third married early, and by their early twenties their children were already running all over the place, and all of them were boys with a handle.
That made her insufferably pleased with herself. Every day when she had nothing to do, she would carry a grandson to the neighbors’ houses to show him off and harvest other people’s envy and flattery.
Jiang Zhi’s father, on the other hand, married late. He met Zheng Wan at twenty-eight, married at twenty-nine, had his daughter Jiang Zhi at thirty-two, and after that the couple didn’t have any more children.
Old Woman Jiang had always been quite unhappy about this, feeling that her second son and his wife were holding things back and costing her her old face, and from time to time she called her son and daughter-in-law over for a scolding.
To force the two of them to have a second child, the old lady went everywhere asking for son-bearing prescriptions, and every few days, while Papa Jiang wasn’t home, she would sneak over to the house and force Zheng Wan to drink folk remedies.
Fortunately, although Zheng Wan was gentle and virtuous, she wasn’t a sheep to be slaughtered at will. Every time, she refused the medicine of unknown composition in her mother-in-law’s hand, gently but no less firmly.
But even so, the old lady never tired of pushing for a birth, and when they met she could still bring up a second child with her son and daughter-in-law, who were in their fifties.
“Dad will hold up everything. You two don’t have to worry, just take care of yourselves.”
Jiang Zhi scoffed at Old Jiang’s words. “Old Jiang, don’t dodge the heavy part for the light. Has the old lady set her sights on our family’s apartment?”
Right on target. Old Jiang blinked, unable to hide his surprise.
Jiang Zhi knew she had guessed right. Beside her, Zheng Wan’s expression turned subtle. She looked at her husband and asked, “What’s going on?”
Old Jiang had no choice but to tell mother and daughter everything.
Ten years ago, Jiang Zhi’s maternal grandfather passed away and left Zheng Wan this three-bedroom apartment in the city center. The family of three finally moved out of the private house they were renting, and not only did they save a big expense every month, they also put aside quite a lot of money.
All of this was seen by Old Woman Jiang and her other two sons.
The mother and sons were terribly green with envy, yet they couldn’t get any advantage out of it. As it happened, Jiang the eldest’s son was preparing to marry this year, and the woman’s side demanded an apartment in the city. But housing prices in the city center were absurdly high, and how could an ordinary wage-earning family like theirs afford one?
So mother and son put their heads together and turned their crooked idea onto Jiang Zhi’s family.
“Your family only has one girl anyway, and sooner or later she’ll marry into someone else’s family. Rather than letting that apartment end up as a bargain for people of another surname, better to sell it to your eldest brother. After all, we’re the ones who are family.”
“Besides, your own nephew is getting married, and as an elder you should put something up anyway. Not parting with a single hair, what kind of elder is that? Just treat the apartment as the gift.”
“That apartment of yours isn’t new either, it’s quite a few years old. Just sell it to your eldest brother at half price.”
After listening to Old Jiang’s retelling, Jiang Zhi was so angry she laughed.
Times really were progressing. The toad not only dared to covet swan meat [1]covet swan meat (lai hama xiang chi tian’e rou, 癞蛤蟆想吃天鹅肉) Idiom, someone lowly reaching for what is far above them jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3234060_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3234060_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, but it had even learned to work an abacus, and the abacus beads flew straight into her face, nearly smashing it in.
Apartments in the center of Haishi started at ten million, and even with money you might not manage to buy one. What was the difference between selling it to Jiang the eldest at half price and just giving it to him?
Jiang Zhi sneered. This bunch in Old Jiang’s family really were shameless enough, greedy enough never to be satisfied.
“The apartment was left to Mom by Grandpa. Strictly counted, the two of us, father and daughter, are both freeloading here. Let me say the ugly words first: Old Jiang, if you dare to get muddle-headed, don’t blame me for turning on you.”
Jiang Zhi stood on Zheng Wan’s side without question, sworn to defend her rights to the death.
She would rather not marry and have children than let this apartment fall into other people’s hands, especially that group who watched hungrily and dreamed of eating up a household with no male heir.
Zheng Wan’s heart warmed at her daughter shielding her like a cow shielding its calf, and her expression softened. “This apartment I’m leaving only to Xiao Zhi. Whoever else comes asking, I won’t give it, much less sell it.”
Watching his wife and daughter huddle together in a united front, Old Jiang awkwardly pushed up the glasses on his nose and hurried to state his position. “Well said, I agree!”
Afraid his daughter would think too much, Old Jiang went on, “Xiao Zhi, besides this apartment, your mother and I have actually saved up quite a lot of money over the years, enough for the down payment on an apartment in the city center. Take some time these days to go look around and see if there’s an apartment you like. We’ll buy it on mortgage first, and you don’t need to worry about the loan part.”
Hearing Old Jiang say he would buy her an apartment as lightly as a breeze and thin clouds, Jiang Zhi: “…”
Tell me quick, who gave you the courage to want to buy an apartment in Haishi!!! Was it Fish Leong again?
But Old Jiang gave off the confident, steady air of a rich tycoon, which forced her to stop and think it over.
Old Jiang was a construction engineer with an annual salary of five or six hundred thousand.
Zheng Wan was a full-time housewife. Before inheriting this apartment, the family’s income came mainly from Old Jiang’s salary, and the savings came from Zheng Wan counting every fen and cent and pinching them out day by day.
Jiang Zhi wasn’t clear on exactly how much, but in any case the family could travel abroad once or twice a year.
And after her mother inherited the property, the savings would only rise with the tide, not shrink.
Jiang Zhi did a rough calculation and realized with a shock that the family might have several million in savings.
She suddenly wanted to lie flat…
Thinking of the classmates around her who were getting offers from big companies one after another, the next batch of elites in the making, the future pillars of the nation, and then thinking of her own four years of university life shuttling between the cafeteria and the dorm with nothing to show for it, she was exactly a salted fish lying flat.
The anxiety and pressure of approaching graduation from a while back vanished in an instant.
The savings weren’t in her hands, but! She was immediate family. Her parents’ money was her money. Round it off and didn’t that mean that at a young age, before even graduating, she had a million in savings?
A few million in savings wasn’t much in Haishi, but it really was enough for a salted fish like her to casually find a job paying four or five thousand a month and lie flat.
As long as she didn’t starve to death.
—Oh, right
Jiang Zhi’s eyes lit up. Lately there seemed to be a wave of full-time daughters, and the main selling point was companionship.
Ahem, then how about… she boldly applied and gave it a try too?
Jiang Zhi thickened her face and brought it up, and when she met Old Jiang and Zheng Wan’s extremely astonished looks, she blushed for the first time ever and quickly beat a retreat.
Forget it, forget it! Living off your parents really wasn’t something an ordinary person could do.
But who knew that her always dignified and elegant mother would grab her in a hug, her eyes full of stars, happy as a child?
“Sweetie, Mom has been hoping you’d stay at home! Our family isn’t short of that little bit of money you’d make. Your father and I have been so anxious lately we couldn’t sleep, afraid that after you graduate you’d go out to work and be treated badly, and your father and I wouldn’t be able to help… Fortunately you’re willing to stay at home. Thank you, baby, Mom is really so happy.”
Jiang Zhi: 0.0
References[+]