Lin Zhaoyang raised an eyebrow at Yao Dasong.
“If I’m making it up, then let the consequences fall on me.”
She refused to back down even an inch.
“We treated Cousin Shicheng like family—like an older brother. Your family treated us like fools.”
If the one asking to borrow money today had been her uncle and aunt, Cousin Wang Jianchang, or her younger aunt and uncle instead, Lin Zhaoyang would have found a way to lend them some money even if she hadn’t been holding onto those two hundred yuan from the bride price.
Because those relatives only asked for help when they truly had no other choice.
Among relatives, borrowing money was perfectly normal.
After all, no family had smooth sailing every single year. Everyone ran into times when they urgently needed cash.
But her uncle’s family and her younger aunt’s family would lose sleep if they owed someone money.
They would do everything they could to repay it as quickly as possible.
The Yao family had no such integrity.
“Zhaoyang, you’re a girl with such a terrible temper, and you never stop dredging up old grudges. No wonder Yang Wen chose Lin Ni instead of you.”
Humiliated by Lin Zhaoyang’s sharp tongue, Wang Fengping blurted out the words she’d been keeping inside.
The moment they left her mouth, however, she realized she shouldn’t have said them.
But it was already too late.
Lin Daheng was already on his feet, pointing toward the door.
“So you came here today just to laugh at my daughter?”
“Get out!”
“Our family doesn’t welcome you!”
“I…”
Being thrown out by her own brother-in-law made Wang Fengping feel utterly humiliated.
She was angry that her younger sister and brother-in-law weren’t giving her, the eldest sister, any face at all.
“Fine! We’re leaving!”
“It’s not like we wanted to come in the first place!”
Since there was no chance of borrowing the money anyway, Wang Fengping grabbed her husband and stormed out.
Grandma sighed deeply.
“Out of all my children… how did Fengping end up being the odd one out?”
She firmly believed that when she had raised her children, she had never favored sons over daughters, nor had she played favorites.
She had raised them all the same.
Yet somehow Wang Fengping had turned out crooked.
Tang Yumei merely curled her lips without saying anything.
As a daughter-in-law who had married into the family, it wasn’t really her place to comment on the Wang siblings.
Still…
Out of all three of her sisters-in-law, Wang Fengping was the one she disliked the most.
She had rarely met people as shameless as Wang Fengping and Yao Dasong.
“Forget it, Mom.”
Wang Fenglan was angry too, but she didn’t want the elderly couple upsetting themselves.
“We’ve known what Big Sister is like for years.”
Grandma still looked troubled.
She gently patted Lin Zhaoyang’s arm.
“You really know how to keep things to yourself.”
“Why didn’t you tell Grandma what happened when you were little?”
She thought that if she had known back then, while she was still young and strong enough to discipline people, she would have taught Yao Shicheng a proper lesson for cheating his younger cousins out of their lucky money.
But now she was only hearing about it after all these years.
Yao Shicheng was already a grown man.
He could probably knock an old woman like her over with a single finger.
“I was the one who told her not to say anything,” Wang Fenglan explained on her daughter’s behalf.
“Even if she’d told us, your eldest sister wouldn’t have changed.”
“And it would only have upset you and Dad during the New Year.”
“There was no point.”
“If you can’t get along with someone, then just see them less.”
Lin Zhaoyang had always lived by that principle.
“Zhaoyang is right.”
Wang Kuishi was equally troubled by his eldest daughter’s family.
Wang Fengping was exactly the sort of person who mocked everyone living a poorer life whenever she was doing well—even her own siblings.
But whenever her own life wasn’t going well, she resented everyone who was doing better than she was, especially those who refused to help her.
She laughed at those who had less…
And envied those who had more.
That perfectly described Wang Fengping’s entire family.
She believed that because Wang Keming, her older brother, and Wang Fenglan, her younger sister, were living better lives than she was, they had an obligation to support her family.
Everyone had come mainly because they were worried about Lin Zhaoyang.
Seeing that she seemed completely unaffected—not at all like someone crushed by heartbreak—they finally felt relieved.
The entire Wang family didn’t even stay for a late-night snack.
Since it was still early enough, they caught another bus home that very evening.
Lin Zhaoyang accompanied her parents to the bus stop and watched them board before returning.
Instead of going home, Lin Daheng and Wang Fenglan followed her back to her house and asked about the furniture.
“When was all this delivered?”
Wang Fenglan ran her hand over the furniture.
“They used really good wood.”
“I had them deliver it before the furniture factory closed.”
Lin Zhaoyang smiled.
“I was worried that if I waited any longer, Yang Wen would return all the furniture so he could help Lin Ni scrape together those five hundred yuan.”
Wang Fenglan stared blankly for two seconds before bursting into laughter.
“You little rascal.”
“Our daughter’s unwillingness to take a loss definitely comes from me.”
Lin Daheng wholeheartedly approved of what she had done.
“She’s clever.”
“It can benefit anyone except Lin Ni.”
Since both Lin Daheng and Wang Fenglan still had work the next day, they stayed only a little while longer.
Before leaving, they reminded their daughter to keep some distance from the neighbor next door.
When Lin Xinhua returned home carrying a huge watermelon, he learned that Grandma, Grandpa, and the rest of the family had visited while he was out playing.
His expression immediately collapsed.
“I shouldn’t have gone out!”
He wailed dramatically.
“If I’d known, I would’ve stayed home!”
“The summer vacation is still long.”
Lin Zhaoyang comforted him.
“If you miss Grandpa and Grandma, after you come back from Auntie’s village, you can stay at Uncle’s house for a few days.”
“But Cousin didn’t come home this summer.”
“Auntie said he felt bad about making the family pay for the travel expenses, so he stayed at school and found a temporary job to earn his own living expenses.”
She knocked on the watermelon sitting on the table.
It gave off a deep, solid thump.
“You can still buy watermelons this late?”
“It looks pretty fresh.”
“You can.”
Lin Xinhua nodded.
“Farmers from nearby villages bring them to the park entrance on tricycles to sell.”
“Lots of people buy them at night.”
“I’m planning to take this one to Auntie’s house tomorrow.”
Then he asked,
“Sis, do you want some now?”
“If you do, I’ll go buy another one.”
“We can keep this one for home.”
“Take this one to Auntie’s.”
Lin Zhaoyang waved him off.
“It’s too big.”
“We won’t finish it tonight, and it’ll spoil by tomorrow.”
“I’ll go to the park myself tomorrow.”
“If they’re still selling them, I’ll buy a smaller one and take it over to Mom and Dad’s so we can eat it together.”
Lin Xinhua nodded before mumbling,
“It’d be nice if we had a refrigerator.”
One of his classmates had one at home.
In the summer they could make their own popsicles, and fruit never had to be thrown away just because it couldn’t all be eaten at once.
But refrigerators were expensive.
Knowing his family’s circumstances, Lin Xinhua had never even considered asking his parents—or his sister—to buy one.
Early the next morning, Lin Xinhua packed a change of clothes and his homework before leaving with Zou Zhengting.
Lin Zhaoyang stayed home all day without going anywhere.
Her mind was filled with one thought.
She wanted to quit her job and start a business.
She had secretly tested her parents’ opinions before.
In their eyes, only people who couldn’t find work and didn’t want to starve resorted to doing business.
If she suddenly announced she wanted to resign and become an entrepreneur now…
Her parents would undoubtedly think the broken engagement had driven her insane.
Even though she couldn’t start a business yet, Lin Zhaoyang didn’t sit idle.
If she couldn’t earn money through business…
She would earn it through writing.
She had been making money that way since middle school.
Back then, she wrote more traditional articles.
But after the economic reforms and opening up, new newspapers and magazines had begun appearing one after another like bamboo shoots after the rain.
So she gradually switched to writing for more popular publications.
Over the past two years, magazines like Story Club and Reader had become regular places where she submitted her work.
And this year…
There was another new magazine to add to the list: Zhiyin.
Lin Zhaoyang knew exactly what each magazine liked to publish.
For the story she was writing today for Zhiyin, she used herself as the inspiration.
She turned the true story of having her fiancé stolen twice by her own cousin into an irresistibly compelling tale.