Her maternal grandfather knew that the man had ulterior motives, but what could he do? His daughter was determined to be with him, and he couldn’t bear to let her live a difficult life.
After Xu Hongtao married Wen Mingxin, he received quite a bit of money and many benefits from the Wen family.
At first, her grandfather indulged him. But gradually, he saw just how insatiably greedy the man was and stopped giving in to their demands. Wen Mingxin was angry about it, but there was nothing she could do.
As Xu Hongtao received less and less from the Wen family, even his request for help finding a better job was turned down. Resentment slowly began to grow in his heart.
Later, the original owner’s mother died of illness, and Xu Hongtao took over the property she had brought into the marriage, seemingly as a matter of course.
Only a few months after her death, he married Zhong Yan and brought her into the Xu family, making the original owner call Zhong Yan “Mom.”
Originally, Xu Hongtao had intended to use the original owner to continue getting benefits from the Wen family.
But her maternal grandfather never gave him the chance. As soon as he learned that Xu Hongtao had remarried, he forcefully took the original owner away.
Xu Shuning had every reason to suspect that her mother’s death had something seriously wrong with it. Unfortunately, the book merely glossed over the matter without providing any details.
Her grandfather might have investigated it back then, but apparently, he hadn’t found anything.
Zhong Yan had once been Xu Hongtao’s first love. The two had met while they were in school, and not long after Xu Hongtao married the original owner’s mother, the two secretly began an affair.
Later, Zhong Yan became pregnant. In order for her child to be born openly and have a legitimate identity, Xu Hongtao even found her a fake husband.
As the original owner’s grandfather rose higher and higher in rank, Xu Hongtao became increasingly jealous. He encouraged the original owner to divorce Cui Wenzhou and get together with Zhao Yang. One reason was that his stepdaughter had her eye on Cui Wenzhou.
Another reason was that he wanted greater control over the original owner so he could use her to obtain more benefits.
He knew how deeply her grandparents loved her. No matter what she did—even if she fell out with them over a man—they would never abandon her.
So he put on an act in front of Xu Shuning, playing the role of a so-called good father while continuing to squeeze benefits out of the Wen family.
The Wen family had inherited quite a lot of valuable possessions from their ancestors. Given how troubled the times were, her grandparents had told the younger members of the family about the details in case anything happened.
If something went wrong, those things would serve as their future security. Once the situation improved, they would be enough to guarantee them a comfortable life for the rest of their years.
Xu Hongtao knew the Wen family was wealthy, but he knew nothing about their secret. Even when Wen Mingxin was alive, she had never told him about it.
But the original owner was such an idiot that after getting into a fight with her grandfather and becoming angry, it was as if a donkey had kicked her in the head. She told him everything she knew about the family’s secrets.
Later, her stepsister unlocked the space hidden within the original owner’s ancestral jade bracelet. Using the space and the information the original owner had provided, she took all of the Wen family’s wealth into the space. Then, at Xu Hongtao’s instruction, she deliberately left behind gold bars as evidence and reported the Wen family.
The original owner hadn’t just been stupid enough to get herself killed—she had also dragged the entire Wen family down with her.
In truth, the original owner didn’t necessarily have to end up that way. But what could she do when her stepsister had a cheat-like advantage?
Once the original owner had lost all her value, it was only natural that she would be discarded like trash.
Her husband, Cui Wenzhou, didn’t get a happy ending either.
After repeatedly failing to seduce him, her stepsister eventually became consumed by resentment.
After the stepsister met the male lead from the novel, the two of them joined forces and schemed against Cui Wenzhou, causing him to die during a mission.
After Cui Wenzhou’s death, the male lead conveniently took over his position and continued climbing the ranks.
Eventually, he married the female lead, and together they went on to enjoy a brilliant future.
Meanwhile, the original owner, the Wen family, and Cui Wenzhou were nothing more than stepping stones on the male and female leads’ path to success.
God only knew how long Xu Shuning had ranted while reading that plot.
Had the author gotten their head caught in a door? How could they possibly have written such a ridiculous storyline?
Not a single one of the male or female leads was a decent person.
Was there really no entry requirement for becoming a protagonist these days?
Damn it!
Whoever wanted this transmigration could have it. So many people dreamed of being transported into another world, so why had it landed on her?
Couldn’t someone please come and switch her back?
Fine, she had transmigrated. But couldn’t they at least have let her transmigrate into the body of a normal person?
She desperately wanted to jump up and point at the heavens and give them a piece of her mind.
This was way too much of a setup!
It was now May 1974.
Thinking back to what the others had just said, Xu Shuning realized that she had arrived at precisely the moment when the original owner had been manipulated into threatening Cui Wenzhou with suicide in an attempt to force him to divorce her.
Thank goodness.
Thank goodness it wasn’t too late.
The jade bracelet hadn’t fallen into her stepsister’s hands yet. She hadn’t quarreled with her grandfather either, and most importantly, she hadn’t revealed the Wen family’s secret.
This time, she was here.
She absolutely would not let the tragedy from the original story happen again.
As for the male and female leads, they could forget about stepping on her corpse to rise to the top.
The first thing she had to do was make sure she didn’t divorce Cui Wenzhou.
For someone living in this era, having a military officer for a husband was already a very good thing.
Besides, the book had described Cui Wenzhou as outstanding in both family background and appearance. His personality should be decent too; otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to put up with all the original owner’s tantrums.
As for the protagonists’ plot armor, that was hard to predict.
To prevent Cui Wenzhou from dying in another accident and, at the same time, to give them a chance to develop their relationship as husband and wife, she decided to go to Heilongjiang Province and join him at his posting.
But before she left, there was one thing she needed to deal with first.
She had to take care of the three scumbags in this household.
She would make sure they lost everything and fell straight into the mud, leaving them with no opportunity to hurt her grandparents’ family again.
Only then could she leave without worry.
Xu Shuning quietly thought it all over in her head.
Her prolonged silence gradually made the other three people in the room impatient.
Wasn’t this idiot usually quick to agree to everything they said?
What was wrong with her today?
Her stepmother, Zhong Yan, glanced at Xu Hongtao.
He immediately understood what she meant and spoke up.
“Shuning, what are you spacing out for? Did you hear what your aunt and sister just said?”
Xu Shuning raised her head impatiently and met Xu Hongtao’s gaze.
This man was the scumbag father who had schemed against his own daughter and ultimately caused her miserable death.
He really was a piece of work.
Pretending that she had simply been lost in thought, Xu Shuning looked at them with a bewildered expression.
“What did you just say? I was distracted and didn’t hear you.”
Xu Siyao breathed a sigh of relief.
So she hadn’t heard them after all.
For a moment, she’d thought Xu Shuning had figured something out.
But then again, she was such an idiot. She believed whatever anyone told her. There was no way she could possibly think any deeper about it.
Xu Siyao patiently repeated what she had said earlier.
Xu Shuning listened attentively, nodding from time to time. She even looked as though she was quite pleased with the suggestion.
Zhong Yan said, “Shuning, Auntie thinks your sister’s idea is a very good one. It’s the quickest way to solve the problem you’re facing right now.”
“As long as Cui Wenzhou sees that you’re willing to risk your own life just to divorce him, he’ll definitely agree to it. And if something really does happen to you, it will affect his career too. Having a reputation for driving his wife to her death wouldn’t look good, and he wouldn’t be able to bear the consequences.”
Xu Siyao chimed in from the side, nodding vigorously.
“That’s right. Mom is absolutely right.”
The mother and daughter sang the same tune, and the sight was utterly disgusting.
How could people be this vicious?
While discussing such a plan, they hadn’t spared a single thought for the original owner’s physical condition. Every one of them had been completely consumed by their own schemes.
And yet the original owner had never doubted them.
She had genuinely believed that they were doing all this for her own good and had obediently done exactly what they told her to do.
Too bad for them.
Xu Shuning wasn’t the same fool as the original owner.
She wasn’t going to believe a single word of their bullshit.