“I’ve learned from someone.”
Wu Jie was surprised. Learned from someone? Who? How come she didn’t know?
But she had only been working at the Su residence for two years, so it was understandable that she didn’t know the past.
That evening, Su Wan cooked three dishes for herself and kept Wu Jie to eat together. She also told her to help look after the old mansion.
Wu Jie was actually happy to hear that Su Wan was going to join the army, but she was also worried, as Su Wan really didn’t seem like someone who could endure hardship.
She also felt a bit reluctant—if Su Wan went with the army, she would lose this good job.
Wu Jie had three children; two were sent to the countryside, and the youngest was only eight. Her husband had broken his leg while working at the factory last year and still hadn’t returned to work.
Although there was compensation, it wasn’t enough to cover expenses.
Moreover, her son and daughter sent letters from the countryside; life there was hard, and she had to send them money every month.
Losing this job would make life even harder.
Unexpectedly, Su Wan had considered this too. She asked Wu Jie to guard the mansion and even kept her wages the same as before.
Wu Jie felt deeply touched but also a bit embarrassed, since she hadn’t done much work lately.
“Miss, you can just give me half the wage. Cleaning the house doesn’t take much effort.”
But Su Wan said, “Wu Jie, not only do you need to clean, but if any news comes in, you have to inform me. Also, if there are things you can’t buy locally, you can send them to me.”
Shanghai was different; many policy updates and information were more timely there. Even if she went to the southwest, she needed someone to relay news from here.
Wu Jie finally felt reassured. “Okay, Miss. If there’s anything you want to know or anything you want to buy, just tell me and I’ll send it to you.”
Speaking of sending things, though she had a space, she couldn’t just put anything in it and take it out there.
Gu Huaizhi would surely be suspicious; the space thing was too unusual, and she didn’t plan to tell him.
“Wu Jie, help me pack some things later. I need to send a few items over there.”
“All right.”
At the Zhou family.
Zhou Chongming’s face showed several obvious slap marks. He lowered his head, eyes full of anger and shame.
Zhou Father and Zhou Mother said nothing. Zhou Chongming’s elder brother, Zhou Congrang, pointed at him angrily: “We thought you’d been behaving these days, but who knew you would do something like this!”
“Dad, Mom! Today he borrowed money everywhere and paid three thousand yuan in one day!”
“Do you know that Zhao Mengxue’s older brother went stealing? What kind of family can that come from?!”
Zhou Mother’s eyes widened. “Stealing?! My goodness! Chongming! What kind of woman did you find?!”
Zhou Chongming gritted his teeth. “Dad! Mom! Xue’er is different from her brother. She’s extremely kind and gentle, a really good girl!”
“Heh, kind and gentle?” Zhou Congrang’s voice was sarcastic.
Zhou Chongming glared at his brother, but when their eyes met, he calmed down a little.
“Brother! Xue’er really is good. She’s sincere with me! She’s not like her brother!”
Zhou Congrang threw a thick report letter onto the table.
“Bang!” The papers scattered. The dense handwriting made the eyes dizzy.
“What’s this?” Zhou Mother picked up a sheet and asked.
“You youngest son found a good woman and got her pregnant! Look at what kind of person she is!”
Hearing that someone was pregnant, Zhou Mother gasped, clutching Zhou Chongming’s hand. “Chongming! Did you really get her pregnant?!”
Zhou Chongming hadn’t expected his brother to know even this. He panicked.
“I… I did! I want to marry Xue’er! She’s carrying my child. You have to agree!” Zhou Chongming fell to his knees, eyes closed, speaking his words.
“Marry this kind of woman?! If you marry her, get out of the Zhou family!” Zhou Congrang said coldly.
Zhou Chongming looked at his elder brother in disbelief. How could such cold words come from his mouth?
“Mom~ Xue’er is already carrying a child of the Zhou family. You wouldn’t let your grandson be left outside, would you?” Zhou Chongming clutched his mother’s legs, crying.
“Slap! Slap!” Two sharp slaps hit Zhou Chongming’s face. “What a thing you’ve done! What kind of woman is this? Getting her pregnant, it’s laughable!”
Zhou Chongming was stunned. In his entire life, his mother had never hit him, so why now?
Zhou Father looked at the paper in his hand. “Congrang, did you investigate this?”
Zhou Congrang nodded. “Yes, it’s true.”
“Ungrateful son! Cut ties with this woman immediately! If you insist on marrying her, we’ll sever father-son relations!”
Zhou Chongming was completely confused. He crawled a few steps, picked up the papers, and scanned them.
“No! Impossible! Xue’er isn’t that kind of person. There must be some misunderstanding! Brother, are you sure your investigator is reliable? Could there be a mistake?”
He grabbed his brother’s pants leg and shouted.
Zhou Congrang kicked his hand away. “It was Xiao Zhong who investigated. Do you think he could make a mistake?”
Xiao Zhong was his brother’s most reliable subordinate. In the past, when he handled intelligence, he could trace three generations of someone’s ancestry.
If that’s the case, then Zhao Mengxue really was this kind of woman.
Su Wan, receiving the information gathered by the detective, was also stunned. Zhao Mengxue was truly something else—she had used people and entangled so many.
Su Wan had been close to Zhao Mengxue. When her father was alive, he often took her out to meet friends, and sometimes Zhao Mengxue would go along.
Whenever her father bought her new dresses, bags, or jewelry, she would make sure Zhao Mengxue got the same.
Zhao Mengxue had lived like a young lady under Su Wan’s father’s patronage. Her previously dark skin had even become fairer with whitening cream.
She was clever—once she had money, she could dress well and spent her time scheming to snag a wealthy husband.
Now thinking back, Zhao Mengxue probably had designs on Gu Huaizhi too, right?
But later, she also liked Gu Huaizhi, even forcing him to marry her. Did Zhao Mengxue hate Su Wan because of that?
But Gu Huaizhi didn’t like her, nor did he like Su Wan.
Why should she hate Su Wan? Where did she get the face for that?
At the Zhao family.
After losing her job, Zhao Mengxue stayed home every day. She had seen through her family—her parents were biased. If she hadn’t attached herself to Su Wan, they would have treated her even worse over the years.
Now, without a job and having fallen out with Su Wan, she was carrying Zhou Chongming’s child.
She hadn’t planned to tell her family, but they forced her to work, and it was hard labor, so she had to say something.
At first, Zhao Mother was furious. Being pregnant before marriage was scandalous—if anyone knew, they’d be scorned!
But once she learned the father was a wealthy young master, her attitude changed.
Moreover, Su Wan had already written a letter of forgiveness, and she had heard that it was the wealthy young master who paid to have it written.
A knock at the door. Zhao Mother smiled and opened it, seeing a woman dressed like a wealthy lady.
Could this be the wealthy young master’s mother? Here to formally propose marriage?