Meng Ruo remembered very clearly that in the original book, there was a man named “You Che” who was a true titan—an electronics tycoon.
Not only did he own his own company, but he also created a household appliance brand that was famous nationwide. At one point, every household used appliances from this brand, whether it was refrigerators, color TVs, or washing machines. At the height of its popularity, whenever a new refrigerator model was released, the public would crowd the streets just to get a chance to buy one.
Because the original book focused on describing the ordinary lives and the resilient spirit of the main protagonists—celebrating the happiness of common folk—the life of this tycoon was only mentioned in passing. There wasn’t even a word about his deeds before he became successful.
In the original story, this tycoon served three main purposes:
The Male Lead’s Spiritual Mentor: It could be said that the tycoon’s success inspired the male lead’s will to overcome difficulties and keep fighting.
The Male Lead’s Benefactor: He reached out to help the male lead during a critical low point in his life.
A Foil for the Female Lead’s Virtue: There was a passage in the book describing how You Che’s grandmother had passed away. During that time, You Che was very depressed. By chance, he happened to eat a dish cooked by the female lead. The taste reminded him of his late grandmother. To cherish that flavor, You Che visited the male lead’s house two or three times that month.
Afterward, You Che moved to Shen City for the development of his company. Later in the book, his appearances could be counted on one hand—and even those few times were just the female lead seeing him on the television news or in newspaper reports.
In any case, after going to Shen City, You Che expanded his company further and further. All the appliances the female lead’s family bought were produced by You Che’s company.
“The ‘You’ with the water radical, and the ‘Che’ as in ‘to penetrate through,'” Yang Qing answered, somewhat puzzled.
He had simply changed his name; why was she so excited?
Assuming she might not understand why he changed his surname, he explained further, “My mother’s surname was You. I changed it to follow hers.”
Hearing this, Meng Ruo realized he truly was that electronics tycoon, You Che.
She remembered the original book mentioning that before You Che made it big, he had served as an R&D engineer at an electronics factory. This provided the foundation for his later success. And Yang Qing—now You Che—was currently an R&D engineer at the electronics factory.
“Does my new name clash with yours?” You Che asked.
Meng Ruo paused and replied, “No, not at all.”
“Then why ask?” she countered.
“Your reaction seemed a bit extreme,” You Che remarked.
Meng Ruo gave a couple of awkward laughs, her confidence lacking as she answered her own question, “Extreme? Was it? It seemed fine to me.”
How could her reaction not be extreme? She had just hit the jackpot and successfully latched onto a future tycoon’s leg. Such a thick, sturdy leg to lean on, and she had just secured it? Meng Ruo found it a bit hard to believe.
Knowing the person in front of her was a future tycoon, the way Meng Ruo looked at him changed, carrying a hint of scrutiny.
Yang Qing. Previously, she had thought he was just a good-looking passerby, but he turned out to be a hidden legend.
Ten minutes later, Meng Ruo walked out of the Civil Affairs Bureau holding a hand-written marriage certificate.
In the early 90s, the internet didn’t exist yet. Marriage certificates weren’t computer-printed like they would be in the future; personal information was all hand-written. A wedding photo of the couple was attached to the side, stamped with a bright red official seal, and that was it.
Meng Ruo looked at the name on the certificate and felt like she was dreaming. Had she really just latched onto this legendary figure so easily?
In the original book, it was never mentioned if the tycoon had ever married, but it definitely wasn’t to her.
After getting the certificate, Meng Ruo swiftly moved her household registration (hukou) from the Meng family to You Che’s name. You Che was the head of the household, and she was the wife.
When she returned home that evening, the dowry chests Li Mei had commissioned from the carpenter were finished.
A pair, two in total, symbolizing a harmonious union.
Meng Ruo took the bride price money she received on the day of the engagement gifts and the gold jewelry she had made a few days ago and placed them at the bottom of the chests to “press the box.”
The bride price was 3,800 yuan. The pair of gold bracelets Li Mei was forced to pay for cost 4,200 yuan. Combined with the “three pieces of gold” Yang Qing—no, You Che—had made for her, which cost 2,000 yuan, it added up to 10,000 yuan.
And all this money was now hers. She had accidentally become a “Ten-Thousand Yuan Household.”
Looking at so much gold jewelry, Meng Ruo began to worry. Keeping these pieces at home definitely wasn’t safe; she had to find a way to hide them. Public security wasn’t great in this era, and petty theft was common. There were no home safes for sale yet, so leaving things out made them easy targets for thieves.
After thinking it over, she pulled her bankbook from a pile of clothes. She had only recently started working, so the money in the bankbook was meager—only a pathetic 100-plus yuan.
Once the wedding was over, she would definitely have to deposit the bride price money into her account. But with only 3,800 yuan, it definitely wasn’t enough. She still wanted to buy a house and earn much, much more money. She understood too well that in this world, there was no one she could truly rely on.
As for the future tycoon You Che—to be honest, she didn’t know how long their marriage would last. Perhaps in a few years, they wouldn’t be able to make it work, or maybe once You Che became successful, he would fall for someone else. She couldn’t just do nothing simply because she had a safety net; she couldn’t just wait for You Che to get rich and take her along for the ride. There were too many variables in the future.
Therefore, having one’s own money was more reliable than anyone else’s.
After organizing the dowry chests, Meng Ruo locked them both. Now, she had 10,000 yuan in assets and was married to a future tycoon. Meng Ruo felt that as long as she could successfully marry out, she could practically sail through to the grand finale.
All that business about being jealous of the female lead, fighting over a scumbag, causing chaos, being kicked out, and meeting a tragic end…
Not going to happen!
Meng Ruo’s dream of an easy life had just begun when an unexpected turn suddenly occurred.
Li Mei’s cousin-in-law and nephew from her maternal family arrived at the door early in the morning.
Meng Jun happened to be away today. He had left before dawn with Master Sun from the kitchen to go to a neighboring city to stock up on supplies. Otherwise, Li Mei would have been truly busy trying to deal with her cousin-in-law on one side and Meng Jun on the other.
Meng Ruo, Li Mei, Zheng Wan, and Meng Jiyue were in the middle of breakfast when a sudden “thump, thump, thump” knock sounded at the door.
The person outside shouted while knocking, “Is Li Mei home?”
“Coming, coming! Stop knocking before you break the door!” Li Mei grumbled as she walked over to open it.
When the door opened, Li Mei froze. Standing at the door were a woman and a man—her cousin-in-law and her nephew.
Big Sister Zhou next door had already heard the commotion and opened her own door early, standing there to watch the drama.
Their dining table was positioned directly facing the front door. Hearing the knocking, Meng Ruo also glanced outside. She didn’t recognize the two people at the door, but she immediately noticed Big Sister Zhou standing there watching.
This Big Sister Zhou was a unique character; whenever there was a bit of noise in the house, she would inevitably open her door to “eat melons” (spectate). It was a pity Big Sister Zhou lived in this era; if she had been born a few decades later, she would have certainly been a top-tier paparazzi with a sharp nose for news.
The cousin-in-law and nephew were quite rude. Seeing Li Mei open the door, they didn’t wait to be invited in. They directly shoved the host, Li Mei, aside and strode grandly into the house.
“Cousin-in-law, how did you find out where my house is?” Li Mei asked, an embarrassed expression on her face.
“By searching for it!” the woman replied disdainfully.
Seeing that they were still eating breakfast, the cousin-in-law unceremoniously pulled over a chair and sat down. “Perfect, Tao-tao and I haven’t had breakfast yet.” With that, she looked at Li Mei, signaling for her to serve some porridge.
They were having plain rice porridge for breakfast, with two plates of pickles on the table.
“Zheng Wan, go to the kitchen and serve two bowls of porridge,” Li Mei hurriedly instructed.
Why call her? Meng Ruo was right there too. Zheng Wan stood up reluctantly and went to the kitchen, returning a few minutes later with two bowls of white rice porridge.
Li Mei’s cousin-in-law took the porridge, gestured for her son to sit beside her, and then began to slurp the porridge loudly.
“Second Aunt, who are they?” Zheng Wan asked rudely, looking at the woman with a face full of disdain for her crude behavior.
Before Li Mei could answer, the cousin-in-law reacted first. She scrutinized Zheng Wan and asked, “Second Aunt? Are you Meijuan’s child?”
Li Meijuan was Li Mei’s younger sister.
Hearing this, Li Mei’s eyes widened, and she thought it was all over. She had forgotten that Wu Hongyun was quite familiar with Li Meijuan.
Li Mei’s cousin-in-law was named Wu Hongyun, and the nephew was Wang Tao. Wu Hongyun’s home wasn’t in Fengzhou City but in a subordinate county of the city.
About ten days ago, Wu Hongyun had come to Fengzhou City for a market fair and had accidentally run into Li Mei. At first, she thought she had seen wrong and couldn’t believe she would meet Li Mei in the city. She followed her for a bit, found a suitable opportunity to step forward and greet her, and discovered it really was Li Mei.
After the greeting, Wu Hongyun looked down and saw Meng Jiyue following Li Mei.
“Mom, who is this?” Meng Jiyue asked while licking a sugar figurine.
Li Mei didn’t explain to Meng Jiyue immediately. She took out 1.50 yuan from her pocket and sent him off to play.
Seeing that Li Mei was well-dressed and generous enough to give a child 1.50 yuan in pocket money at once, Wu Hongyun knew that Li Mei had remarried—and not only that, but had married well. One had to know that when her own child asked for pocket money, she would only give ten or twenty cents after much crying and begging.
What Wu Hongyun didn’t know was that while Li Mei was usually frugal, she was extremely generous toward her precious son, Meng Jiyue, often giving him fifty cents or a yuan in pocket money.
Li Mei’s hometown was the same as Wu Hongyun’s: Liantang Village. Ever since Li Mei divorced Zheng Guanghui, she had left Liantang Village and hadn’t been heard from for seven or eight years. Sometimes when Wu Hongyun went back to the village and asked Li Mei’s parents, even they didn’t know where she was. To think she had come to Fengzhou City and remarried.
Li Mei was also very surprised to see Wu Hongyun, and after the surprise came guilt and fear.
To successfully marry Meng Jun, Li Mei had told many lies—saying her parents had died long ago and that her relatives no longer spoke to her. Most importantly, Meng Jun only knew she had been married before; he didn’t know she had also given birth to a child.
To keep up the lie, Li Mei naturally couldn’t let her family know about her remarriage; otherwise, the fact that she had a child would be exposed. Thus, after getting together with Meng Jun, she had directly cut off all contact with her hometown for seven or eight years.
She hadn’t expected to run into her cousin-in-law at the market today.
Having finally run into Li Mei, Wu Hongyun wasn’t about to let her go so easily. Thus, Li Mei was forced to chat with Wu Hongyun for an hour or two. It was called chatting, but it was mostly Wu Hongyun prying into Li Mei’s current situation.
Li Mei was also very careful. Fearing that Wu Hongyun would cling to her if she knew she had married well, she was vague about her current life.
Seeing Li Mei being evasive, Wu Hongyun began talking about her own situation—mentioning her useless eldest son, Wang Tao. She said Wang Tao had dropped out of middle school and had been idling around ever since. Now that he was thirty, he still didn’t have a steady job. He had gone on several blind dates, but not a single girl was interested in him.
Then Wu Hongyun asked Li Mei if she knew of any suitable girls.
Li Mei immediately thought of Meng Ruo. Perhaps she wanted to get rid of Wu Hongyun quickly, or perhaps she wanted to marry Meng Ruo off as soon as possible but didn’t want her to marry too well. Thus, Li Mei agreed on the spot to introduce Meng Ruo to Wu Hongyun’s eldest son.
Of course, once she agreed, she couldn’t just do nothing, or it would be troublesome if Wu Hongyun came looking for her.
Wu Hongyun had run into her at the market, but if Wu Hongyun had a bit of patience, she could still find her house by asking around.
Of course, Li Mei had her own schemes, and so did Wu Hongyun. Wu Hongyun feared Li Mei wouldn’t keep her word and also guessed that Li Mei had married very well and was perhaps quite wealthy. So, after the two parted, Wu Hongyun secretly followed Li Mei all morning and finally tracked her to her house.
Over the past few days, Li Mei had been busy dealing with Meng Ruo and arranging the dowry, leaving her completely occupied and causing her to put the matter of Wu Hongyun entirely out of her mind.
She hadn’t expected Wu Hongyun to actually show up, and even bring her eldest son, Wang Tao. It was obvious that Wu Hongyun had come to claim a wife for her son.
It was lucky that Meng Jun wasn’t home today; otherwise, all the lies she had told over the years would have been exposed.
“I don’t remember Meijuan having such a big daughter, and Meijuan’s husband’s surname wasn’t Zheng either,” Wu Hongyun said with a smile, immediately sensing something fishy.
“Li Mei, I remember your previous husband’s surname was Zheng, wasn’t it?” Wu Hongyun asked.