Lu Weiguo was trembling with rage.
And she was asking what he thought?
He thought it was outrageous!
Twenty thousand yuan just for a letter breaking off the engagement? Did she really take him for a fool with money to burn?
Back when he married into the Song family, he had received a bride price of one thousand yuan, which had already been an astronomical sum at the time. Nowadays, finding a live-in son-in-law would only cost around six hundred yuan. With twenty thousand yuan, they could find more than thirty men willing to marry into the family—there wouldn’t even be enough room for all of them to stand in one house!
He admitted that the Li family’s boy was quite outstanding, but no matter how outstanding he was, he wasn’t worth twenty thousand yuan.
“That’s wonderful! Now I can finally be with Brother Wenzhu openly! Dad, hurry up and give her the money.”
When Lu Manman heard that Song Jinyue was willing to break off her engagement with Li Wenzhu, she was the happiest person in the room.
She had dreamed countless times of marrying Brother Wenzhu and becoming his wife. Now, at last, her dream was about to come true.
“Have you lost your mind?! That’s twenty thousand yuan! Twenty thousand!”
Lu Weiguo had always spoiled Lu Manman and indulged her every whim, but today, he couldn’t stop himself from losing his temper with her.
Lu Manman froze. Tears immediately welled up in her eyes.
“Dad, you yelled at me.”
“Manman, Dad didn’t mean to yell at you. But do you understand how much twenty thousand yuan is? That’s enough to find you more than thirty live-in husbands! Be good. There are plenty of men in this world who are better than Wenzhu. When the time comes, Dad will find someone even better for you.”
Lu Weiguo’s voice softened as he coaxed her gently.
“I don’t care! I only want Brother Wenzhu. I won’t marry anyone except him!”
Lu Manman turned her face away and threw a little tantrum.
Sure enough, only those who were loved could afford to act so fearlessly.
Ever since Shen Yurou and her two daughters entered the family, Lu Weiguo had shown less and less concern for Song Jinyue. Song Jinyue had only been ten years old at the time. She couldn’t understand why her father’s attitude toward her had changed so quickly.
Whenever Lu Manman cried, Lu Weiguo would abandon Song Jinyue to comfort her.
Thinking crying would also earn her father’s attention, Song Jinyue began crying and making a fuss every day. Yet instead of gaining his affection, she only made Lu Weiguo increasingly annoyed with her.
Back then, Song Jinyue had been too young to understand.
But now she did.
For a child who wasn’t loved, everything she did would always be wrong.
It didn’t matter.
She had no need for that kind of love anyway.
Shen Yurou had always been skilled at reading people’s expressions. Seeing the impatience beginning to show on Lu Weiguo’s face, she hurried over to Lu Manman’s side and tried to persuade her.
“Manman, your father is right. There are plenty of good men in this world, so stop clinging to Wenzhu. Mom knows you grew up without a father by your side and never had much sense of security. Wenzhu treated you well, so naturally you became dependent on him. But twenty thousand yuan isn’t a small amount. Be good and listen to us.”
Shen Yurou lovingly wrapped an arm around Lu Manman’s arm, but every word subtly reminded Lu Weiguo of how much he owed their mother and daughters.
Lu Weiguo opened his mouth, but in the end, he still couldn’t bring himself to offer the twenty thousand yuan.
“If Dad won’t pay, then I’ll use my own money. That should be fine, right? Mom, please help me. I can’t live without Brother Wenzhu.”
After receiving a meaningful look from Shen Yurou, Lu Manman knew when to stop and didn’t continue making a scene.
In the end, the mother and daughter took out the money they had saved over the years.
Lu Manman had seven thousand yuan, while Shen Yurou had thirteen thousand.
Together, it was exactly twenty thousand yuan.
Shen Yurou tightly gripped her bankbook.
This was every penny she had managed to save over the years. The thought of handing all of it over to Song Jinyue made her heart ache terribly.
She was about to persuade Lu Manman one more time to give up on Li Wenzhu, but before she could speak, Lu Manman snatched the bankbook from her hand and immediately held it out to Song Jinyue.
“Here’s twenty thousand yuan. Go write the engagement cancellation agreement right now.”
“No problem.”
Song Jinyue glanced at the balance in the bankbook and readily agreed.
She hadn’t expected that scumbag Li Wenzhu to be worth so much money.
Since he’d helped her earn twenty thousand yuan, she sincerely wished that he and Lu Manman would remain permanently tied to each other.
A bitch and a dog—a match made to last forever!
Standing nearby, Lu Weiguo was dumbfounded when he saw Shen Yurou and Lu Manman casually produce twenty thousand yuan.
“Where did you get so much money?”
He controlled all the household finances and personally paid for their daily expenses. The spending money he gave them each month wasn’t much either.
So where had this twenty thousand yuan come from?
The mother and daughter’s expressions stiffened at his questioning.
Shen Yurou was the first to react. Tears immediately filled her eyes as she put on a pitiful expression.
“Weiguo, what kind of tone is that? Manman and I were only worried that something might happen to the family and we’d suddenly need money, so we sold some of our jewelry and saved the money to help with household expenses. It’s bad enough that you don’t appreciate our good intentions, but now you’re actually suspicious of us?”
Lu Weiguo also realized that his tone had been too harsh and quickly said, “Yurou, that’s not what I meant.”
Holding the bankbook, Song Jinyue watched the scene with undisguised mockery.
“Tsk, tsk. Back then, my mother had only been dead for a month before you couldn’t wait to bring this mother and her two daughters into our home. I thought your relationship must have been incredibly deep. But it turns out they’ve been secretly hiding their own little stash of money from you.”
She paused, her smile growing increasingly sarcastic.
“If they dare hide money in this house today, who knows? Tomorrow they might dare hide a man. Be careful you haven’t invited wolves into your own home. Otherwise, you might end up losing both your woman and your money!”
“Song Jinyue, stop trying to sow discord between us! Hurry up and write the engagement cancellation agreement!”
Lu Manman shouted angrily, urging Song Jinyue to write it immediately.
Song Jinyue didn’t say anything else.
She knew her scumbag father was naturally suspicious. Once the seed of doubt had been planted, it would be enough to keep him and Shen Yurou fighting for several days.
“Since you paid up so readily, I’ll sign the severance agreement while I’m at it. That way, I won’t become a burden to you after I go to the countryside. You’d better make sure nothing happens to you, though. I’m still waiting for you to bring me back someday.”
Song Jinyue handed the completed family severance agreement to Lu Weiguo, speaking with such seriousness that it almost sounded sincere.
Lu Weiguo stared at the document and frowned.
For some reason, he felt that something wasn’t quite right.
Before he could think about it carefully, Lu Manman tugged at his sleeve.
“Dad, what are you hesitating for? Song Jinyue is completely unpredictable. Who knows what kind of trouble she’ll cause once she gets to the countryside? If you don’t sever ties with her now, are you planning to wait until she drags our entire family down with her?”
Hearing this, Lu Weiguo stopped hesitating.
He took the severance agreement, signed his name, and even pressed his fingerprint onto it.
The moment Song Jinyue got the agreement back, excitement surged through her heart.
But she didn’t let a trace of it show on her face.
Instead, she tossed the engagement cancellation agreement to Lu Manman and immediately began driving them out of her room.
“All right, you’ve gotten what you wanted. Stop crowding around my room. Seeing so many of you packed in here is annoying. I’m hungry. Go make me something to eat.”
Lu Manman read the engagement cancellation agreement three times before clutching it to her chest like a precious treasure.
“The family’s housekeeper has already been dismissed. If you want something to eat, make it yourself. Stop ordering us around like we’re your servants.”
Now that she had the agreement in hand, Lu Manman felt much more confident. When Song Jinyue tried ordering her around, she immediately shot back without restraint.
Song Jinyue crossed her arms and looked at her with a half-smile.
“Hmm? Don’t want that job anymore?”
“You!”
Lu Manman glared so fiercely that she wished she could burn a hole straight through Song Jinyue’s face.
Unfortunately, there was nothing she could do to Song Jinyue right now.
No matter how furious she was, she could only swallow her anger.
“Jinyue, Manman, stop arguing. Mom will go make dinner right now.”
Shen Yurou was becoming increasingly uncomfortable under Lu Weiguo’s probing gaze.
She quickly put on the appearance of a virtuous wife and loving mother, using the excuse of cooking to turn around and escape his scrutiny.
After driving Lu Weiguo and Lu Manman out, Song Jinyue slammed the door shut with a bang.
Delighted, she looked at the three bankbooks in her hands.
Thirty thousand yuan!
In this era, that was an enormous fortune!
And this was only the tiny amount she’d managed to pry from between her scumbag father’s fingers.
Once she added all the assets he’d secretly transferred away…
She could hardly imagine just how enormous that fortune would be.
Every bit of the Song family’s vast wealth had been built through her maternal grandfather’s hard work.
And her scumbag father thought he could use the Song family’s money to support his mistress and illegitimate children?
He could dream on!
According to the original plot of the novel, the Song family would soon become the next target of a major political purge.
If Song Jinyue couldn’t find a way to deal with the family’s enormous fortune before then, she would simply turn it over to the state.
Either way, she wouldn’t leave so much as a feather for these ungrateful wolves!
Having made up her mind, Song Jinyue looked around at the mess covering her room and sighed.
Resigned to her fate, she began cleaning up.
Her gaze eventually landed on the shattered glass photo frame lying on the floor.
Inside was a photograph of their family of three.
Song Jinyue had been ten years old that year.
It was the final family photograph they had taken before her mother passed away.
Song Jinyue reached down to pick up the frame when a sudden sharp pain shot through her finger.
She quickly brought her finger to her lips and blew on it.
A shard of broken glass had sliced through her skin.
Blood immediately began flowing from the wound, quickly running across her palm and down toward her wrist.
The instant her blood touched the jade bracelet—
Song Jinyue’s figure suddenly vanished from the room!