Chapter 31

Involving Lu Chen?

Hearing this, both Meng Yinyin and Meng Xuan immediately became serious. They both perked up, eager to listen closely to what Wang Chengwu had to say.

Noticing their change in demeanor, Wang Chengwu stopped wasting time and quickly shared some of the details he had uncovered recently.

It turned out this matter was somewhat related to Meng Yinyin, because if he hadn’t taken the opportunity to visit Meng Yinyin while accompanying his sister-in-law, Lu Xiujuan, back to her family, he might never have noticed the strange things about the Lu family.

The oddest thing about the Lu family was that they had been poor farmers for three generations but suddenly had the money to build an extravagant courtyard.

Wang Chengwu had casually asked Lu Xiujuan about this and had noticed her nervous reaction—her eyes flickering, as if guilty. That’s when Wang Chengwu realized that the truth behind this matter was probably not simple.

To avoid the Lu family’s issues affecting his own, Wang Chengwu had spent the past few days trying to investigate further.

Surprisingly, after some effort, he had actually uncovered some clues, and they came directly from his sister-in-law, Lu Xiujuan.

After marrying into their family, perhaps because of her character, Lu Xiujuan had been especially cautious around Wang Chengwu’s family. She seemed afraid that even the smallest mistake might get her scolded or rejected.

But Wang Chengwu’s family was actually very easygoing. Although his mother, Zhao Shufen, would occasionally complain, it was always lighthearted and never serious.

However, Lu Xiujuan’s sensitivity and low self-esteem made it difficult for her to handle even the slightest criticism. Any comment she didn’t like would make her cry and put on a hurt expression.

At first, they all tried to console her, but as time went on, the tension became more obvious. It was clear they weren’t getting along, and living together was becoming a problem.

So, Wang Chengwu’s parents had started thinking about whether they should prepare another house for the eldest son and Lu Xiujuan to move into. This way, both families could avoid the friction caused by their personality differences.

However, this would be unfair to the second son, considering they have two sons. Unfortunately, there is only one extra house. Ideally, the eldest son would be the one to support them in their old age. Now, the bigger house would be more suitable for the eldest son and his wife to live in, while the second son would have to move into the smaller house once he gets married.

But the current situation is certainly not what they expected.

After thinking it over, the elderly couple realized that their second son hadn’t found a suitable partner for such a long time. After finally meeting someone willing to give him a chance, the person ended up rejecting him. It could be years before he gets married.

So, they felt that perhaps they could let the eldest son and his wife move out first, and deal with the second son’s situation once he got married. At least they could solve the current problem.

The elderly couple decided to discuss it with both sons to see if they would agree. If they had no objections, they would proceed with this plan.

The two sons of the Wang family were obedient and filial, and the brothers had always had a good relationship. Therefore, they had no hesitation or complaints, immediately agreeing to their parents’ suggestion.

However, they didn’t expect that while the two of them had reached an agreement and made a decision, a problem arose with Lu Xiujuan.

When the eldest son, Wang Chengwen, went to tell Lu Xiujuan about this arrangement, Lu Xiujuan first reacted with fear and panic. She couldn’t help but wonder if she had done something wrong to be disliked by her in-laws, which led them to want her and Wang Chengwen to move out.

Her heart was in turmoil!

But after the panic, a wave of anger and resentment quickly followed.

She had visited the other house that the Wang family owned—it was a small one-bedroom house. Actually, it was just right for the two of them to live in, even spacious. However, no matter how good that house was, it couldn’t compare to the current three-bedroom house.

What was worse was that Wang Chengwen, as the eldest son, was supposed to inherit the big house. But now, they were being pushed by his parents to move into the small house. How could this be fair? This was totally unreasonable!

Thinking of this, Lu Xiujuan felt angry. She believed that her in-laws were biased, favoring the younger son. Perhaps it was because of their favoritism toward him that they had treated her poorly, constantly nitpicking at her!

Lu Xiujuan, with her narrow-mindedness and sensitive nature, felt that this incident seemed to confirm her suspicions.

That night, the Wang family’s eldest son’s room erupted in a burst of crying. Between sobs, she seemed to be shouting words like “biased,” “bullying,” and “hate me.”

This caused a dark expression to appear on the faces of Wang Chengwen’s parents and Wang Chengwu.

The next day, Wang Chengwen, looking embarrassed and exhausted, told his parents and Wang Chengwu about what had happened. Wang Chengwen’s parents, being elders and kind-hearted, didn’t want to insist on anything since Lu Xiujuan was so unwilling to move out. They felt it wasn’t right to push her into it.

After all, if they forced Lu Xiujuan and their eldest son to move out, it wouldn’t be fair.

They decided to bear with it for now since this was the daughter-in-law they had chosen for their son.

Just as they were about to continue tolerating the situation, Wang Chengwu, with a firm attitude, spoke up.

“We’ll find another way to handle this. If it doesn’t work, I’ll go talk to my sister-in-law.”

His personality was different from that of his parents and elder brother. He wasn’t the type to suppress his feelings for the sake of others. He had a more assertive attitude and wasn’t afraid to confront difficult situations.

The parents and the eldest son had gotten used to Wang Chengwu’s strong-willed attitude, so they agreed to let him handle the conversation with Lu Xiujuan.

When Wang Chengwu called Lu Xiujuan out to discuss the matter of moving, Lu Xiujuan was completely caught off guard. She thought that after her crying the night before, considering her husband and in-laws’ personalities, this would blow over.

Who knew that while things had been smoothed over on their end, her younger brother-in-law wasn’t so easily softened.

Especially over the past few days, Lu Xiujuan had realized that the most influential person in the family was Wang Chengwu. He was not only smart but also very determined, and in her eyes, he was the hardest to get along with.

Lu Xiujuan felt nervous facing him. She wanted to continue crying and playing the victim, but Wang Chengwu didn’t give her the chance. He directly asked her what she didn’t like about the house.

Lu Xiujuan was too afraid to tell the truth—about feeling that her in-laws were biased and didn’t like her, which was why they were pushing her out.

But seeing the determined look on Wang Chengwu’s face, she finally had no choice but to rack her brain and try to say that she didn’t want to be separated from the family and wanted to stay and continue taking care of everyone.

Before she could even finish her sentence, Wang Chengwu interrupted, saying, “Sister-in-law, are you unhappy with the small size of the house? To be honest, our family’s living conditions are not as good as your family’s in the countryside. Your house is big and spacious. If you’re unhappy with this small house, we understand. But unfortunately, this is all we can offer. If you really can’t accept it, maybe you should find someone else…”

Wang Chengwu’s words were interrupted by a pale-faced Lu Xiujuan, who hurriedly cut him off. She understood what he was implying—he was suggesting that if she didn’t like the house, maybe she should divorce and find someone with a bigger house.

Was he trying to get Wang Chengwen to divorce her? There was no way she could agree to that!

In a panic, Lu Xiujuan could no longer hold back her emotions and quickly explained that she didn’t mean that and didn’t dislike the small house.

But Wang Chengwu still looked at her with an expression of disbelief.

“Sister-in-law, I heard that you grew up in a big house. Your family’s house is so grand. If you don’t like our place, we can understand…”

“No! Our family was very poor before! That house was built later; I didn’t grow up in a big house!”

It was as if Lu Xiujuan was afraid that Wang Chengwu might misunderstand, so she quickly spoke up to clarify.

Wang Chengwu’s eyes flickered for a moment, and without revealing anything, he continued to ask, “Then, Sister-in-law, seeing that your family was able to build such a large courtyard later, it’s obvious your conditions were quite good. That house must have cost over a thousand, right? It’s not like us. Although we appear to be workers and seem prosperous on the surface, in reality…”

At this point, Lu Xiujuan was so overwhelmed with fear that she could no longer control her thoughts and emotions. She forgot all about the fact that she shouldn’t casually reveal her family’s secrets.

Moreover, deep down, she had been influenced by Lu Dashan and Jiang Guihua, who had ingrained certain principles in her, such as “A married daughter is like water poured out” and “Once you’re married, you belong to your husband’s family.”

So, strictly speaking, she believed that after her marriage, her family was now her husband’s, and her own family should come second.

In the end, she directly told Wang Chengwu where the money for her family’s house came from.

“Our family was really poor. The money to build that house actually came from my second uncle…”

“Your second uncle lent you money?”

“No… My parents used my second uncle’s pension…”

Lu Xiujuan’s words stunned Wang Chengwu greatly!

But he didn’t show it. He calmly changed the subject, saying he would discuss living arrangements with his parents again, and then stopped pressing Lu Xiujuan for more details.

After hearing this secret, Wang Chengwu was no longer interested in anything else.

What filled his mind now, aside from shock, was more panic.

He wasn’t stupid. Just from the way Lu Dashan and his wife treated Lu Chen last time, as well as the vast difference between their families, he could tell how badly they treated him.

And Lu Chen was Lu Xiujuan’s second uncle’s son, the only son, and should have been the heir to that pension.

But now, that pension had been used by Lu Xiujuan’s parents. This wasn’t just morally wrong—it was illegal!

Now, Wang Chengwu was even more certain that Lu Xiujuan’s misuse of Lu Chen’s father’s pension would bring trouble to their family. His emotions had been complicated these past few days, and his appearance on the street during work hours today was because he had made up his mind to come clean to Lu Chen about this.

Though he cared a lot about his own parents, the best course of action was to pretend not to know anything and say nothing, hoping they wouldn’t be implicated.

But if others found out about this, they would still be dragged into it!

Moreover, now that he knew the secret, he felt guilty not telling Lu Chen, the victim.

So, he had planned to ask for leave and go to the Nanjiao Brigade to tell Lu Chen.

However, before he reached the brigade, he bumped into Meng Yinyin and decided to let her tell Lu Chen first, as he didn’t know how to face him himself.

After all, Lu Xiujuan was now married into the Wang family, and Lu Chen might not be happy to see him.

After hearing this, Meng Yinyin and Meng Xuan had very different reactions.

Meng Yinyin was completely shocked. She hadn’t expected that the house of Lu Dashan’s family came from such a source. How could they do this? It was shameless and outrageous!

Meanwhile, Meng Xuan had an expression of “as expected” with a hint of pleasure. After all, now there was another clue and piece of evidence.

“Comrade Wang Chengwu, right? Alright, we’ll tell Lu Chen about this when we get back, but I still need to remind you that Lu Dashan’s actions are illegal. I hope you’re mentally prepared.”

Although Lu Dashan wasn’t very close to them, there was still Lu Xiujuan. Who knew if she would ask them to get involved with the family in the future?

For instance, by helping them make connections.

Wang Chengwu was a smart man, and immediately understood what Meng Xuan meant. He replied sternly, “Comrade Meng Xuan, don’t worry. Our Wang family are law-abiding citizens. We will never break the law or stand by and assist others in wrongdoing!”

Meng Xuan was pleased with his response. Smiling, he continued, “Alright, I’ll thank you on behalf of the organization. But there’s one more thing that may require your help.”