Zhao Yaoyao glanced at the clock on the wall; it looked like she would have to spend the night in the county town.
Around half-past twelve, Fan Baoshan pushed the door open and walked in. Seeing Zhao Yaoyao sitting by the table, he looked somewhat surprised. “Why are you here?”
He took off his coat and looked at Zhao Mingyue, who was walking out of the bedroom. “Aren’t you working today?”
Zhao Mingyue said, “I switched to the night shift.”
She walked over to Zhao Yaoyao, beaming with smiles, and said, “Er-yatou has come to give us money again, but this time she insisted on seeing you before handing it over.”
Sounds of footsteps came from the hallway one after another; they were presumably Fan Baoshan’s colleagues who had gotten off work at the same time.
“If you have something to say, spit it out. I have to go to work in a while,” Fan Baoshan sat down, looking somewhat irritable as he checked the time.
He had to take a half-hour nap every afternoon to keep his energy up, or he would get extremely irritable.
Zhao Yaoyao didn’t beat around the bush and went straight to the point. “Return all the money I gave you before. As for the food and drinks I provided, consider it feeding a dog, but every single cent of the money I gave you must be returned to me, without a single coin missing!”
Zhao Mingyue: “!!”
Fan Baoshan: “!!”
The two of them looked at her simultaneously, their eyes filled with disbelief.
“Wait, what did you say?” Fan Baoshan couldn’t believe his ears. The person who used to love him to death was actually asking him for money.
It was simply an unprecedented marvel.
Zhao Yaoyao looked him up and down and raised her voice again. “I said return the money. Altogether, I subsidized you around six hundred yuan, and now you’re going to give every last cent back to me!”
He looked refined and scholarly, yet he didn’t do a single decent thing.
Fan Baoshan pushed his gold-rimmed glasses up and raged, “You gave that to us of your own free will! What right do you have to ask for it back?”
Zhao Mingyue chimed in to help, “That’s right, you gave it all willingly and we were very grateful, but what is the meaning of asking for it back now?”
“Besides, we’ve already spent that money, so even if you want it back, it’s gone. We’re family after all; once we get a firm footing in the county town, we’ll definitely bring you over to enjoy the good life. When the time comes, I’ll even find you an iron rice bowl so you can live in the county town too. To say the least, you’ll at least be able to see Baoshan every few days. How about that?”
The married couple were truly a match made in heaven, one playing the good cop while the other played the bad cop.
Zhao Yaoyao wasn’t buying their act and directly shouted, “Bah! Do you think he’s some kind of gold nugget? Do I care to look at him? With an ingrate like him, I find even a second glance sickening!”
As soon as these words left her mouth, Fan Baoshan—who had been sitting with a stern face—instantly snapped. “You, you, you!”
“What about you? You aren’t even worth a single strand of hair compared to my husband, and yet you have the nerve to be this narcissistic? I’m telling you, my patience is limited. If you don’t give me the money, I’ll go make a scene all over the streets and see who loses face!”
Changing her tone, she added, “Besides, you wouldn’t want me making a scene at your workplace, would you?”
In this day and age, having an iron rice bowl wasn’t easy, with countless envious eyes staring at every single position.
If someone had personal conduct issues, severe consequences could mean losing their job entirely.
Fan Baoshan was so angry that the veins on his forehead bulged, but mindful of the surrounding colleagues, he could only lower his voice and say, “We can’t pull together that much money right now. Be patient and give us some time to figure something out.”
Zhao Yaoyao flatly refused: “That’s none of my concern.”
“If I don’t get the money today, I’m not leaving.”
Remembering how submissive Zhao Yaoyao used to be to him, Fan Baoshan was momentarily at a loss for what to do now that she was out of his control.
Just as they were racking their brains for a solution, Zhao Yaoyao suddenly pushed the front door open and cried out in a clear, melodious voice toward the outside, “Come and take a look, everyone! Doctor Fan owes money and refuses to pay, and now he’s getting furious out of embarrassment…”
“Zhao Yaoyao!” Fan Baoshan suddenly grabbed her hand and quickly pulled the door shut.
Looking at this flawless, beautiful face, he blurted out, “I can return the money to you, but you need to think this through carefully. Once I give you the money, everything between us is settled once and for all, and don’t even think about having anything to do with me ever again.”
“Fine! Hand it over!”
Zhao Yaoyao reached out impatiently, a bright and cheerful smile on her face.
That single smile left even the furious Fan Baoshan momentarily mesmerized.
With her curved eyebrows and clear, bright eyes, her smile bloomed like summer flowers for a fleeting moment, utterly captivating.
He couldn’t help thinking to himself: If she were just a bit smarter, not so foolish, and if her health were good enough to bear him children, and if she had a proper job to earn money, perhaps they could have had a happy ending together.
“Baoshan-ge!” Zhao Mingyue couldn’t help calling out.
Watching Fan Baoshan looking so utterly entranced, jealousy burned fiercely in her heart, and she wished she could just ruin that seductive face.
Zhao Yaoyao didn’t have that much patience and frowned in warning, “Hurry up, don’t waste my time.”
Fan Baoshan let go of her hand and, turning his back to her, said, “If you’re trying to get my attention this way, then congratulations, you’ve succeeded. Once I give you the money, we are through. Even if you beg me on your knees in the future, I won’t have anything to do with you ever again.”
In his mind, it was impossible for Zhao Yaoyao not to love him; she had previously been willing to sacrifice her reputation and even her life for him.
All her abnormal behavior today was merely a stunt to attract his attention.
“Mingyue, go to the money box and get the cash for her!”
“Baoshan-ge, that’s the money we saved to open the noodle shop!”
“Give it to her!”
Fan Baoshan’s tone allowed for no objection.
Though unwilling in her heart, Zhao Mingyue still went into the bedroom to get it.
This marriage was her punching above her weight class, placing her in a submissive role within it.
Once those six hundred yuan were taken away, there would only be a little over three hundred yuan left in the money box—hard-earned savings from their frugal living. They had planned to save for one more year to have enough, but now falling short by such a huge margin made her feel utterly hollow inside.
Holding the exact sum of six hundred yuan, Zhao Yaoyao felt much better. “I’ve got the money now, so I won’t disturb you two any further.”
As she opened the door and walked out, many neighbors who had been eavesdropping had nowhere to hide and started nervously scurrying about the moment they saw her come out.
After she left, Zhao Mingyue sat on the edge of the bed and wept heartbrokenly. “That was the money saved for opening the noodle shop, and just like that, she took it away. I’m so unsatisfied!”
She didn’t want to spend her whole life trapped in a factory workshop earning dead-end wages with no hope of ever getting ahead.
Fan Baoshan, however, was extremely confident. “Don’t worry, she’s just throwing a little tantrum. Once she calms down, she’ll probably bring the money back with interest, and maybe even add a bit more on top.”
As long as he took the time to coax her a little, she would probably even be willing to hand her life over to him.
“I hope so. I’m going back to my parents’ house right now to ask around and find out what’s going on—this Er-yatou has changed completely, like a totally different person!”
Looking at the money box, Zhao Mingyue felt utterly depressed and stopped putting on her usual virtuous-wife act altogether as she turned and left the house.