It would probably be impossible for Qin Mingzhi to move everything out in a single day. She would likely have to come back several times.
Xiao Xingjie gave a bitter smile.
Forget it. Even if she came back several times, so what? In the end, she was still going to leave.
Just thinking about watching Qin Mingzhi’s belongings disappear from the house one by one made Xiao Xingjie feel strangely uncomfortable.
He secretly sighed. After finally calming himself down, he opened his eyes again—only to see Qin Mengxue’s face.
Qin Mengxue immediately put on a pitiful expression.
Xiao Xingjie almost wished he could close his eyes again.
He frowned, his gaze sharp.
“Drop that act. Go get your mother. We need to discuss something.”
Qin Mengxue’s eyes immediately lit up.
Discuss something?
Did that mean they were going to discuss the marriage between the two of them?
Her heart skipped two quick beats, and a hint of smugness appeared in her eyes.
In the end, Xiao Xingjie had still compromised.
Her good days were finally about to begin!
So what if Qin Mingzhi was beautiful? Wasn’t Qin Mengxue still the ultimate winner?
The corners of Qin Mengxue’s lips were almost impossible to suppress.
In her previous life, Qin Mingzhi had married so well and enjoyed all the glory and happiness that came with being a military officer’s wife for so many years.
This time, it was finally her turn to enjoy such a good life!
In this lifetime, she was determined to live an even more glorious life than Qin Mingzhi had in her previous one. Then, she would appear before Qin Mingzhi looking radiant and successful, ruthlessly crush her beneath her feet, and make her taste the bitter agony of envy!
Without thinking too much about it, Qin Mengxue excitedly went to fetch Zhu Caiyan.
Zhu Caiyan asked a couple of simple questions. Thinking that her daughter’s marriage was finally about to be settled, the mother and daughter were both grinning from ear to ear.
Zhu Caiyan was so carried away with herself that the moment she arrived, she called out—
“Son-in-law! In-laws! Are you calling us here to discuss the children’s marriage?”
Jiang Yuying was already in a foul mood. Hearing Zhu Caiyan address them that way made her glare furiously, as if she wanted to kill someone.
“Who are you calling your in-laws? Who’s your son-in-law? You’re the mother of a shameless woman who crawled into another woman’s bed. How dare you call him that?”
Zhu Caiyan was stunned.
“You… What do you mean?”
Jiang Yuying rolled her eyes at them.
While Qin Mengxue had been fetching Zhu Caiyan, Xiao Xingjie had already told his parents everything he was thinking.
His divorce from Qin Mingzhi was already settled. Rather than waiting until after the divorce for Qin Mengxue to go to great lengths to stir up trouble and force him to marry her, it would be better to settle the matter as soon as possible.
That way, they could prevent Qin Mengxue from obsessing over it and resorting to more underhanded schemes.
At least this would allow them to keep the situation under control and minimize the damage.
After all, he had already been forced to marry Qin Mingzhi once because of their engagement. If he had to marry Qin Mengxue a second time for the sake of his future, it wasn’t as though he couldn’t do it.
But while Xiao Xingjie could bring himself to accept it, Jiang Yuying and Xiao Hengshan simply couldn’t.
In their eyes, Xiao Xingjie was an exceptional man. Now that he was finally getting divorced, why should he have to marry someone like Qin Mengxue?
The more Jiang Yuying thought about it, the angrier she became. She was so furious that she nearly bit through her gums, and her eyes looked as though she wanted to tear Qin Mengxue and her mother apart.
Jiang Yuying walked straight over to the stone table in the courtyard and sat down. She took out a pen and a sheet of paper.
“These are all the conditions we just came up with for Qin Mengxue to marry my son. Take a look for yourselves.”
When Qin Mengxue heard that she could still marry Xiao Xingjie, a smile immediately returned to her face. She eagerly picked up the paper.
The next second, the smile gradually disappeared from her lips, and her brows knitted tighter and tighter.
“This… This is bullying!”
Zhu Caiyan protested in disbelief.
“Why did Qin Mingzhi get so much betrothal money when she married into your family? You even bought her all that new furniture and a bicycle! A sewing machine, a radio… She got all three major items, and even jewelry! Why does my daughter get nothing when she marries into your family?”
“And what does this mean? If she doesn’t give birth to a son, and they eventually divorce, she isn’t allowed to take a single thing from the family?”
“My daughter is marrying into your family as your daughter-in-law, yet this is how you guard against her? You only care about having her give you a grandson?”
“And there’s all this other stuff! She has to make your beds every morning, serve you tea and water, do the laundry, cook… Why does my daughter have to do everything by herself?”
“Why?”
Jiang Yuying let out a cold laugh and leaned back in her chair, her eyes filled with mockery.
“Qin Mingzhi was formally married into our family. Our two families had arranged their engagement long ago, so of course we weren’t going to mistreat her.”
“But what is your daughter?”
“On her wedding night, she tied up her own sister, sneaked into her brother-in-law’s room like a thief, and deliberately slept with him first.”
“Heh. You used such despicable methods to steal someone else’s marriage, and you still expect good treatment? Dream on!”
“So many relatives, friends, neighbors, and people from the neighborhood saw what happened today. Your daughter clearly did nothing with my son, yet she shamelessly insisted that my son had slept with her.”
“Now everyone knows about this. Our family’s reputation has been completely ruined because of you. We haven’t even demanded compensation for the emotional distress you caused us, and you actually have the nerve to come here and make demands?”
Jiang Yuying slapped her own face several times with a loud smack, smack, smack.
“Do you have dog skin pasted over your faces? Have you no shame at all?”
“Get this straight. Your daughter is the one who desperately insists on marrying my son. The fact that we’re even willing to let her through our door is already an enormous favor!”
“You’ll agree to these conditions whether you like it or not.”
“Otherwise, forget about this marriage!”
“And if you dare use this as leverage and go around making a scene, we’ll report you to the police for attempting to extort a bride price!”
“After all, nothing happened between your daughter and my son last night. You have no evidence whatsoever that my son did anything to Qin Mengxue.”
“You…”
Although Zhu Caiyan was furious, she knew perfectly well that they were in the wrong. There was no way she could win an argument against Jiang Yuying.
She turned around, grabbed Qin Mengxue’s hand, and the mother and daughter put their heads together to whisper.
“Mengxue, think carefully. Are you really determined to marry Xiao Xingjie?”
“They clearly don’t treat you like a human being!”
Qin Mengxue had been somewhat angry at first, but after thinking it over, her anger subsided.
“Mom, we can’t just look at the conditions right now. So what if there’s no bride price? With Xiao Xingjie’s family background, he’ll only rise higher and higher in the military. I’ll be a military officer’s wife in the future.”
“Not only will I have the status, but the benefits and treatment military families receive are also famously good. I definitely won’t have a bad life.”
“Once I give birth to a son, won’t the Qin family treat me like a goddess? By then, we’ll have both money and status. Won’t we be able to crush Qin Mingzhi beneath our feet?”
Zhu Caiyan was beginning to feel tempted.
“But it says here that you have to serve your in-laws…”
Qin Mengxue waved her hand dismissively with a smile.
“We can just agree to it for now. Who outside the family will know whether I actually take care of them or not? If I simply refuse to work, can they kill me?”
“The important thing is to get married first.”
“Otherwise, what if that bitch Qin Mingzhi regrets it later when she sees Xiao Xingjie gaining status and comes crawling back to him? If they rekindle their old feelings, we’ll never have another chance!”
After thinking about it, Zhu Caiyan felt that her daughter had a point and nodded.
“Fine. Then we’ll agree!”
The mother and daughter quickly reached an agreement. They accepted all the conditions and were just about to sign their names on the paper when Jiang Yuying suddenly snatched it away.
“Wait. There’s one more condition I haven’t had time to write down yet.”