Li Baoling and Lin Mingyuan knew where the Fang family lived, so they weren’t in a hurry. They carefully disguised themselves. Lin Mingyuan was fine as he was, but Li Baoling directly put on Lin Mingyuan’s clothes, tucked all her hair into a hat, and smeared a bit of dirt on her face. Now they looked like two men.
“Let’s go.”
They really arrived at just the right time. A huge crowd had gathered downstairs at the Fang family building, all there to watch the excitement. In this situation, even though the two of them were outsiders, they didn’t stand out at all.
“Hey, what’s going on with the Fang family? Sounds like they’re fighting?”
“Don’t even mention it. Daming’s back—everything’s turned into a mess.”
“What does it have to do with Daming?”
“What do you mean what does it have to do with him? He caused all of this. If Daming hadn’t gone to the black market and gotten caught, would Fang Yuejin have lost his chance at becoming director? Now it’s great—who knows how much that new wife is going to kick up a fuss.”
“Exactly. The Fang household hasn’t had a peaceful day lately. If they’re not fighting, they’re arguing. The old man and old woman keep insisting that no matter what, Fang Yuejin has to get their eldest grandson out. But the younger daughter-in-law refuses. This was the critical moment for Fang Yuejin’s promotion—if it weren’t for Fang Daming, the director position would definitely have been his.”
“I don’t think Fang Yuejin himself wanted to either. Otherwise, would he really have let Daming stay locked up for so many days?”
“So now that Daming’s out, does that mean the director position is completely gone?”
“Most likely.”
“Just wait. This isn’t over yet—there’ll be more trouble later.”
“That’s terrible for us. We live right downstairs from them. They’ve been fighting so much these past few days that my wife already went back to her parents’ place. It’s unbearable.”
Since the Fang family was fighting upstairs, everyone downstairs was chatting away happily.
Li Baoling and Lin Mingyuan blended right in, listening to the curses from upstairs one moment and Fang family gossip the next, enjoying themselves immensely.
Li Baoling in particular had her eyes shining as she stared at the third floor—if only she could see it live.
But the Fang family wasn’t about to give these spectators a chance. As soon as Fang Daming got home, Old Man Fang shut all the windows.
“Is Tingting at home?”
“She’s locked in her room. Don’t let her hear any of this.”
Old Man Fang and Old Madam Fang were afraid the girl would go out and talk nonsense again. The family was already chaotic enough—especially with Sun Suqin sitting there with a dark face.
Sun Suqin was indeed seething with anger. Why had she married Fang Yuejin? Was it for his age? Or for his troublesome parents and his useless elder brother and sister-in-law? Of course not—she married him for his status and position.
He was about to become an office director. She didn’t even dare imagine it—once he truly became the head of the office, how many good things would come into the house? But now it was all ruined.
Even Sun Suqin herself had been indulging in dreams of becoming the director’s wife. She had cleaned the house from top to bottom, waiting for all those things to come in, and for waves of people to show up bearing gifts. She had even planned to buy new clothes. And now this happened—she’d already been generous enough not to smash the Fang household.
All thanks to that idiot Fang Daming. In her opinion, he should have just stayed locked up. Fang Tingting, that fool, couldn’t be married off, yet he managed to send himself to jail instead—utter trash.
She was furious.
And the Fang family still expected her to put on a good face? What kind of nonsense were they dreaming about?
Old Madam Fang was angry too, but in the end, the eldest grandson mattered most. He was the root of the Fang family. As for the child Sun Suqin had given birth to—she wouldn’t even let the old couple see the child’s face. With a mother like Sun Suqin, who knew how much trouble she’d stir up in the future.
“Second daughter-in-law, who are you sulking for? Daming didn’t do it on purpose. The child was just trying to help his second uncle vent his anger. Is it really worth this?” Old Madam Fang grew even more distressed as she spoke. If that vixen hadn’t been stirring things up, their Daming wouldn’t have had to stay locked up for so many days. Heaven knew how the child had suffered inside.
Sun Suqin was just about to explode when the door opened. Fang Yuejin came back with Fang Daming.
At that moment, the old couple forgot about being angry and hurried to look at their eldest grandson.
“Oh my poor Daming, you’ve really suffered. Look at you—what have you become?”
“You’ve lost weight. You must not have eaten or slept well in there. You really went through hell, didn’t you?”
Not only the old couple, but even Fang Daming’s elder brother and sister-in-law were so heartbroken that tears streamed down their faces.
“Second brother, you too—listening to all that nonsense. Couldn’t you have gotten the child out earlier? And you call yourself his uncle!”
Fang Yuejin was so angry he almost laughed. If the family hadn’t been causing such a ruckus, he really wouldn’t have bothered.
Sun Suqin was so furious she started banging things around.
“That’s enough. Who are you putting on a show for? It’s just a director position—are you really that worked up?” Old Madam Fang had never liked Sun Suqin. Ever since she married into the family, there hadn’t been a single peaceful day.
Before Sun Suqin could speak, Fang Yuejin snapped first. “Just a director position? Do you know how many years I’ve been stuck as a deputy director? I finally had this opportunity, and now it’s gone. That bastard Sun so-and-so got promoted—do you think he’ll let me off?”
“He’ll definitely find ways to make things hard for me. Damn it, that bastard. Don’t think I’m just going to let this go.”
“But didn’t Daming do it to help you vent your anger?” Old Madam Fang argued.
“Did I fucking ask him to vent my anger for me? Huh?” Fang Yuejin roared. “And if you were going to do something like this, couldn’t you have fucking told me? Even one extra sentence would’ve been fine!”
Fang Yuejin’s roar startled everyone—except Sun Suqin. She had been waiting for this day for a long time.
“Enough!” Old Man Fang finally spoke up. “You want everyone to watch our family make fools of ourselves?”
“Watch! Let them watch! Ever since Tingting’s marriage mess, haven’t I already lost enough face?” Fang Yuejin shouted, then stormed to the window and flung it open. Sure enough, there was a mass of heads downstairs.
“Fuck!”
Old Man Fang couldn’t take it. He hurriedly pushed Fang Yuejin away and slammed the window shut again.
That left the crowd downstairs confused.
“What happened? Why did the window open and then close again?”
“Who knows? But judging from this, they must be fighting.”
“Hey, it’d be great if Tingting came downstairs later. She’d definitely tell us everything.”
“Hey, you two—whose family are you from?”
When the Fang family window opened earlier, Li Baoling and Lin Mingyuan instinctively ducked. That single movement was noticed by a nearby auntie.
“We’re Fang Daming’s classmates. We came to bring him something,” Lin Mingyuan replied calmly.
Seeing that they really did look like young people, the neighbor aunt kindly advised, “Then don’t go up right now. They’re fighting.”
“Mmm, okay.” The two nodded obediently.
They were here precisely to watch the fight.
“You know, the Fang family used to look so impressive. Old Madam Fang looked down on everyone else, acting like her family was the best. And now—since when did they start fighting every day?”
“Since the new daughter-in-law moved in. That woman’s got schemes—she’s wrapped Fang Yuejin around her finger.”
“No, it started with Tingting’s marriage. They say Daming arranged it, and it was one of his classmates, right?”
At that, everyone remembered—weren’t there two classmates standing right there?
“Hey, you two are also Daming’s classmates. Do you know which classmate Daming found for Tingting?”
Lin Mingyuan shook his head. “No idea. Daming never mentioned it.”
The auntie wanted to ask more, but suddenly two people rushed out of the stairwell—it was Fang Yuejin and his wife. Instantly, the crowd downstairs fell silent.
“Heh.” Fang Yuejin swept them with a cold glance. Truly, these people never minded watching chaos. They’d better pray he never found a handle to use against them.
Sun Suqin didn’t want to come down either. She hated these neighbors—always staring at her like she was some kind of monkey.
The couple wore equally sour expressions and walked just as fast.
Seeing them come down, Lin Mingyuan and Li Baoling instinctively dodged, though there was no real need. After all, aside from Fang Daming, no one in the Fang family had ever seen him.
After that, the Fang household went quiet. Not only was there no sound outside, there was silence inside as well.
After this incident, Fang Yuejin had all but fallen out with his family. Even angrier were the old couple—they felt they’d raised this son for nothing.
As for Fang Daming, he couldn’t understand how things had turned out this way.
He now hated everyone: he hated his parents for being useless and forcing him to curry favor with his uncle; he hated his grandparents for being unable to manage their two sons; he hated his uncle and aunt—if it weren’t for their daughter, would all this mess have happened? He even hated Lin Mingyuan, for not showing up that day.
And Zhang Dazhuang, who had stabbed him in the back—that despicable bastard. One day, sooner or later, he would kill them all.
But for now, he had to first coax his grandparents into arranging a job for him.
Downstairs, Lin Mingyuan and Li Baoling had no idea that Fang Daming had now become a pure hatred warrior. They didn’t care either. The show was over—it was time to exchange their goods for money.
Li Baoling said, “With the Fang family in such chaos, Fang Daming will definitely behave himself for a while.”
Lin Mingyuan replied, “For sure. Fang Daming relied on his uncle to act all high and mighty. Now he’s dragged him down like this—not that any of them are good people—but Fang Yuejin definitely won’t want to see him.”
“He really got what he deserved for scheming against others.”
“Exactly.”
The two mocked Fang Daming as they walked, all the way to the purchasing station.
Sure enough, they weren’t the protagonists. The staff tried to cheat them. If Li Baoling hadn’t turned around and prepared to leave with the item, the man wouldn’t have relented. In the end, the price matched what Shen Xiangyang had gotten before. It was about twenty years old, priced at 450 yuan. Only then did Li Baoling agree.
Why should the protagonist get everything effortlessly, while the two of them had to fight and struggle and still get cheated? Absolutely not. In the end, they happily walked away with more than four hundred yuan.
“This is a huge sum. We have to protect it well,” Li Baoling said, tucking the money away as if she were carrying tens of thousands in later times.
Lin Mingyuan immediately nodded. This was all thanks to Li Baoling, so whatever she said, he listened.
“Let’s go eat at the state-run restaurant!” If you made money, you had to eat and drink. They didn’t come to the county often—especially since they’d just gotten married. Opportunities like this would only get rarer. So Li Baoling decided that every time they came to the county, they had to eat something good.
Lin Mingyuan couldn’t agree more.
After enjoying themselves thoroughly, the two headed back to the village with their “huge fortune”—and ran straight into Shen Xiangyang.
Well, wasn’t this their god of wealth?
“What a coincidence. Just got off work, Shen Xiangyang?” Li Baoling greeted him first.
“What fate we have. Having a fine young man like you in our village is truly an honor for Liujia Village,” Lin Mingyuan followed up immediately.
Shen Xiangyang, who was in a good mood after just eating roast rabbit: ???
The other educated youths walking toward them: ???