Chapter 10: Previously Blind

Shen Yuchu didn’t say much to him, instead finding a piece of paper. She picked up a pen, found a tattered book with yellowed and curled edges, and casually placed it under the paper.

The next second, she meticulously wrote “Divorce Application”.

Shen Chunfen’s eyes widened. Her daughter-in-law was actually… a cultured person?

Lin Xuan was also stunned when he saw her handwriting. Initially, the Shen family had only sent her to kindergarten for two years before she was sent to pick up wheat stalks.

To put it bluntly, the only characters she knew in the toilet were “male” and “female”.

This was according to Lü Chunhuan, who believed that girls should do more work and that education was useless. As long as a girl was pretty, marrying well would be like a second rebirth.

Therefore, she had almost no education, the only numbers she knew were taught by Lü Chunhuan. Not only was she uneducated and illiterate, but she used to curse and spit frequently.

The knowledge she possessed and what she had seen came from television, operas, or Lü Chunhuan’s words.

Now, seeing her neat and elegant regular script handwriting, not only was Lin Xuan stunned, but even Shen Chunfen was surprised.

Shen Chunfen was literate. She had always believed that this daughter-in-law was not a good match for her son. Her son was a college graduate (though a junior college), but being able to stay in the army as an officer made him a highly sought-after prospect.

It must be said that Lü Chunhuan’s judgment in choosing a husband for Shen Yuchu was quite “ruthless”.

However, Shen Yuchu knew that the Lin family disliked her, let alone Lü Chunhuan’s insistence on the dowry and betrothal gifts from the Lin family.

It was simply a mismatch between the two protagonists. The original Shen Yuchu, however, possessed Lü Chunhuan’s foolishness. When she heard that Lin Xuan was a college student and saw him in his military uniform – so handsome, so good-looking –

She thought that as long as she took off her clothes beside the haystack, she could marry him. She directly stripped, although Lin Xuan didn’t do anything.

But she insisted on crying, a wronged kind of cry, as if demanding responsibility from him.

Lin Xuan, to be fair, was quite handsome, exceptionally handsome—the most handsome young man for miles around!

After the original Shen Yuchu married him, she was obedient, washing his feet at night, and always giving him the best cuts of chicken and meat, even going without herself.

Shen Chunfen constantly made things difficult for the original Shen Yuchu, but thinking she was the wife of a college graduate filled her with boundless naivete. She thought that was how life should be.

Lin Xuan didn’t return home for three years, which she attributed to his demanding military duties. She tried to emulate the women on television, being gentle and virtuous. Although Lü Chunhuan hadn’t taught her this, she learned it from television.

After all, the women on television all used this method to keep their husbands.

But what did the original Shen Yuchu get in return…?

She received even more hatred, disgust, and even the Lin family’s feeling that she had clung to their son for life, an disgusting presence that couldn’t be shaken off.

Because of this, she didn’t receive a penny of Lin Xuan’s three years of allowance. In short, she only had food, water, and a bed in the Lin family. In reality?

The Lin family never gave her any money. The clothes she wore were hand-me-downs from Lin Hui.

The so-called new clothes were simply because Shen Chunfen was afraid that people would say they mistreated their daughter-in-law. Therefore, every New Year, Shen Chunfen, the mother-in-law, would take her to the mall to buy a new outfit.

In three years, Shen Chunfen bought her three new outfits, always a coat and new shoes.

But the underwear and trousers she wore in the winter were all Lin Hui’s discarded clothes, worn and torn.

Shen Chunfen would just tell her to mend them herself. After all, she didn’t earn any money, so why should she spend the Lin family’s money?

Besides, the new clothes were only outerwear.

During the New Year, when many relatives and friends came to visit, they could see the new clothes she was wearing.

On the twenty-eighth day of the lunar year, the last market day before New Year’s Eve, Shen Chunfen practically wanted to beat drums and announce throughout the village that she was taking her freeloading daughter-in-law to buy clothes.

That was the happiest time for the original Shen Yuchu. People in the village even joked that as long as she dressed beautifully enough, Lin Xuan would come home for the New Year. Seeing her “beautiful” appearance, he would be captivated.

The original Shen Yuchu secretly rejoiced at the time. Now it’s just a joke…

After writing “Divorce Application”, Shen Yuchu neatly signed her name: Shen Yuchu.

Then, she handed the paper to Lin Xuan.

“Here, sign your name. We’ll go to the village chief to get his signature, then get it stamped in town. You take it to your unit, and our relationship will be over.”

Lin Xuan took it, his eyes widening. The lines of black characters were elegant and beautiful, almost every character the same size, perfectly aligned, so neat that if he hadn’t seen her write it himself,

He would have suspected it was printed. Even the archivists in their archives probably couldn’t write such neat characters.

Shen Chunfen was also stunned. This was the first time she had seen Shen Yuchu write. Before, she had been completely illiterate.

Lin Xuan held the paper, looking at Shen Yuchu sitting on the small stool.

She looked the same, her appearance unchanged.

Only… only her eyes no longer avoided his gaze, devoid of the girlish blush and shyness she used to show him?

And she… she dared to look directly at him?

He glared at her, and she dared to glare back?

“You, you…” Lin Xuan’s handsome lips formed the words “you, you,” but he inexplicably closed his mouth again. A strange feeling stuck in his throat, making him uncomfortable.

An indescribable discomfort, he didn’t know how to speak.

Finally, he folded the divorce application and put it in his pocket.

“I happen to be going to the village chief’s house. I’ll give it to her then.”

“Okay!” Shen Yuchu stood up and saw the abacus on the Lin family’s cabinet. She walked over, but she couldn’t reach it.

So she pulled over a nearby chair and stepped on it.

Shen Yuchu took down the abacus, which was covered in a layer of dust.

When Shen Chunfen saw her take the abacus, she walked over and said to Shen Yuchu, “What are you doing with the abacus, I…”

“Huff~” Shen Yuchu pursed her lips and blew on the abacus beads, sending the dust flying.

“Cough cough cough!” The dust flew into Shen Chunfen’s face, causing her to cough violently. Even Lin Xuan, standing nearby, was affected, his hair dusted with abacus dust.