Jiang Nan suddenly had a strong premonition: the educated youth Cen was the very figure she had glimpsed inside the Cheng household. But when she thought carefully, the original Jiang Nan had been married to Cheng Denglin for eight years, and she couldn’t recall the Cheng family ever having such a relative or friend. She found it strange and wondered if she had mistaken someone else.
Meanwhile, Cen Jingqiu was thinking: the teacher Jiang who had once sheltered her turned out to be such a sharp-tongued, petty woman. That day, she had planned to slip out quietly while Zhao Rui took his mother to see the doctor, hoping to catch a ride. She remembered Lu Xiaoxiao telling her that her hometown was also Ancheng. She had grown up in the farm machinery factory’s residential compound until finishing primary school, then moved with her mother to another city. Cen Jingqiu intended to “accidentally” meet her future in-laws and daughter-in-law ahead of time.
But when she asked around at the factory, she learned that her future mother-in-law had gone to university. Cen Jingqiu was disappointed, but unwilling to waste the trip, so she decided to visit her future daughter-in-law as a child.
After asking for the Cheng family’s address, she claimed to be a friend of Cheng Yixin. People began to look at her strangely.
Later, a loose-tongued aunt couldn’t help asking if she knew about Cheng Yixin freeloading at her brother and sister-in-law’s house. Cen Jingqiu’s first reaction was to deny it—her in-laws couldn’t possibly be like that!
In her eyes, Cheng Yixin was elegant, intellectual, full of refinement. How could she do something so disgraceful? Even she herself, when staying at her brother and sister-in-law’s house for a few days, had been asked to contribute rations. How could the Cheng family tolerate it for two or three years, only to suddenly explode?
It had to be a rumor. Cen Jingqiu refused to believe it. She brought fruit and knocked on the Cheng family’s door, introducing herself as Cheng Yixin’s friend. She said she had come to chat with Cheng Yixin, but since she had gone to university, she wanted to visit Cheng’s parents and children instead.
Father and mother Cheng didn’t doubt her. After all, Cen Jingqiu looked presentable, dressed neatly, and brought gifts—she didn’t seem like a fraud. So she entered the Cheng household, chatted with the parents, and called Lu Xiaoxiao and Lu Mingsheng over. She held their hands, looked them over carefully, and exclaimed with delight: indeed, her future daughter-in-law had been a pretty, adorable child. The more she looked, the more she liked her.
It was at this moment that Jiang Nan arrived.
Cen Jingqiu, afraid of embarrassing the Cheng family, didn’t go out. In the end, she only glanced at the woman rumored to be the sister-in-law.
In her previous life, because Zhao Rui had always opposed Lu Xiaoxiao’s marriage to her son, the families had never met. Cen Jingqiu had only seen her daughter-in-law’s mother and stepfather, never the rest of the family. She hadn’t expected that Teacher Jiang would turn out to be the daughter-in-law’s aunt—or rather, former aunt. If she hadn’t seen this woman today, behaving like a shrew, even threatening children, she would never have imagined Teacher Jiang to be such a person.
As for the possibility that Lu Xiaoxiao was a bad child, she never considered it. Like Mother Cheng, she thought Jiang Nan was making a fuss over nothing. So when she saw Jiang Nan again, she showed no warmth.
And Jiang Nan never forced kindness on cold faces. Seeing her attitude, she didn’t bother speaking, and the two simply went their separate ways.
Back at the Cheng household, after sending Cen Jingqiu off, Mother Cheng immediately grabbed Cheng Hao by the ear and scolded him: “Such a small matter, and you thought it worth running away from home!”
Cheng Hao was chewing candy. When the pain struck, he twisted free and tried to chase after his mother. Mother Cheng quickly pulled him back. “What, I can’t even scold you now? Where did you get such a bad temper!”
All of it was learned from Jiangnan!
Cheng Hao, emboldened, deliberately gave a loud “hmph,” chewing his milk candy in big bites just to make Lu Xiaoxiao and Lu Mingsheng jealous.
Lu Xiaoxiao, startled and aggrieved, pouted and burst into tears. Mother Cheng hurried to comfort her, looking utterly distressed.
Meanwhile, Cheng Denglin was staring at the rattan chair in the house.
That chair had worn down, breaking some of its cane strips, and the nails inside had indeed been exposed. But worried the children might get hurt, he had tightly wrapped it with hemp rope, covering the nails. So why had it snagged clothing that day?
He looked at the still-crying Lu Xiaoxiao and the furious Lu Mingsheng glaring at Cheng Hao. A chill ran down his spine. Xiaoxiao was only so young… “training a dog”? He recalled Jiang Nan’s words.
To be honest, the description was vivid. But Xiaoxiao and Mingsheng were barely five years old—could they really think at that level? Perhaps Jiang Nan had overinterpreted.
Cheng Denglin turned to Cheng Hao, saw him still chewing, peeling another candy, and sternly reminded, “Eat less, or you’ll ruin your teeth!”
Cheng Hao shook his head, ignoring him. Only then did Cheng Denglin realize his mother hadn’t bought snacks for the children in a long time. One portion of milk was shared among three. Cheng Hao going to his mother might not have been only about affection—he wanted good food too.
Cheng Denglin sighed. He was already handing over thirty-five yuan a month for household expenses, yet things were still this tight. He wondered if he should contribute more. Later, when he went to find his parents, he overheard them quarreling.
His father, voice suppressed, said: “Just let Yixin cover Xiaoxiao and Mingsheng’s kindergarten fees. You can’t keep cutting household expenses like this. Look at how greedy the children are!”
His mother seemed unwilling, muttering something too quiet for him to hear.
His father grew angry: “Yixin has money! And she’ll earn more in the future. Unlike us—once our retirement money is gone, we’ll have to live entirely at the mercy of our son and daughter-in-law. Do you want that? Besides, Xiaoxiao and Mingsheng are the Lu family’s children. The Lu family left money to raise them. It’s with Yixin. How can it all fall on our household?”
Hearing this, Cheng Denglin didn’t wait for them to reach a conclusion. He silently turned back to his room. From that day on, he began personally caring for Cheng Hao. He came home early after work, no longer chasing overtime pay or travel allowances, and focused on supervising Cheng Hao’s studies. He bought candies, pastries, and nutritional supplements in the same amounts Jiang Nan had once provided, kept them in their room, and gave them as rewards based on Cheng Hao’s progress in homework and learning.
Cheng Hao felt both extremely happy and deeply troubled.
When Mother Zhao returned home from the farm and didn’t see her daughter-in-law, she heard from her grandson that she had gone out. She said nothing—after all, her son was divorcing, and she couldn’t control what the woman did.
Not long after, the divorce lawsuit went to trial. As Cen Jingqiu had said, it was not approved. The current law did not recognize divorce on the grounds of emotional breakdown.
Zhao Rui had expected this and wasn’t bothered. He simply continued to file new petitions.
A few days after returning from court, Cen Jingqiu received a letter from her brother and sister-in-law. The entire letter scolded her for running away and demanded she return immediately, warning that otherwise the Zhou family would retaliate against them.
Cen Jingqiu knew well how difficult the Zhou family could be from her past life, so she had no intention of going back. But she hadn’t expected the Zhou family to come looking for her at the Zhao household!
Zhao Rui was plowing the fields when his son came running. “Dad, someone came to the house. Grandma says you must come back quickly!”
Zhao Rui was puzzled. At this time of year, every brigade was busy—who would be visiting? As he walked out of the field, he asked Zhao Chuanze, “Who came?”
Zhao Chuanze was on the verge of tears. “I don’t know her. An old lady. She even tried to hit Mom!”
The other workers in the field, hearing this, grew curious. Once father and son had gone far enough, one of them solemnly asked the team leader for leave to go to the toilet, then secretly followed.
When Zhao Rui reached his house, he heard an old woman inside cursing loudly, calling Cen Jingqiu promiscuous, accusing her of marrying two men.
Outside his house, many elderly villagers who weren’t working had gathered to watch. Seeing him, they urged, “Zhao Rui’s back! Hurry inside, don’t let them wreck your home!”
As he entered, he heard their murmurs: “No wonder he wants a divorce. Who would want such a wife…”
Inside, Mother Zhao, relieved to see her son, clung to him and explained the situation: “This is the family Cen Jingqiu was matched with in the city!”
Zhao Rui glanced at Cen Jingqiu, who was hiding behind his mother, her hair and clothes disheveled, tears streaming down her face. She shrank back, terrified by the coldness in his eyes.
Mother Zhou, who had come all this way to cause trouble, saw that Cen Jingqiu’s man was tall and imposing. She restrained herself somewhat and said to him, “Young man, you be the judge. Cen Jingqiu was matched with my son, the date was set, and relatives were notified of the banquet. Then she ran away. I came to demand an explanation—is that unreasonable?”
Zhao Rui ignored her question. He said coldly, “I’m in the process of divorcing Cen Jingqiu. Whatever business you have with her, as long as you don’t make trouble in my house, it’s none of my concern. Now, leave my home. Otherwise, don’t blame me for being rude.” Then he turned his cold gaze on Cen Jingqiu. “You too.”
If they disturbed his mother and triggered her illness, he would make them pay dearly.
Both Mother Zhou and Cen Jingqiu were startled by Zhao Rui’s aura, as if he might grab a stick the next moment and drive them out.
Mother Zhou had brought her nephew along. The boy tugged at her sleeve. Though she felt intimidated, she kept up appearances, flung her hand, and left with her nephew, head held high. She had come specifically to make Cen Jingqiu miserable. Her plan was to wreck her rural household too, leaving her with nothing, so she could see the consequences of deceiving and humiliating the Zhou family!
But she hadn’t expected that the country man was already filing for divorce, while Cen Jingqiu stubbornly refused to separate.
Mother Zhou was shocked and furious. Cen Jingqiu had fled from her son’s marriage only to cling desperately to a peasant man. It left her feeling humiliated, as if her son had been outshone.
Now, having been driven out in disgrace, Mother Zhou could not be satisfied. So she stood at Zhao Rui’s doorway, loudly spreading word of Cen Jingqiu’s deeds: claiming she was divorced in the countryside, childless, and seeking matches in the city…
The Zhao family elders felt their faces burn with shame. They had been persuading reconciliation, even pressuring the Li family to send Zhao Rui back home, all for such a woman. They hadn’t expected this!
The man who had followed Zhao Rui home got a juicy piece of gossip, then hurried back to the fields to share it with the workers.
The villagers gasped in shock. Someone asked, “Does this count as being a loose woman, or is it a crime of hooliganism?”
Another frowned, hesitated, and said, “No, I don’t think so—nothing actually happened…” Then reminded the first man, “That kind of talk isn’t allowed anymore. Watch yourself!”
Cen Jingqiu was nearly driven mad with rage. She knew the Zhou family were troublemakers. Zhou Min’s first wife had been forced to divorce because of her family’s political background. In her past life, she too had been driven to flee Ningcheng. But she hadn’t expected Mother Zhou to be so insane—traveling all this way in an era when travel was difficult, just to ruin her!
Originally, only Zhao Rui knew about her matchmaking. She could still play the victim, hoping for sympathy and reconciliation. But now she didn’t even dare meet Mother Zhao’s eyes.
And Mother Zhou kept slandering her outside the door. Cen Jingqiu finally snapped, rushing out to fight with her.
Chaos erupted again outside the Zhao household.
Jiang Nan, visiting Aunt Jiang at the Li family, overheard part of it and sighed inwardly—truly, people cannot be judged by appearances.