◎ Second update ◎ 

Zhou Guoping was confused by Liu Nianhua, who was usually good-tempered. Is this cold, indifferent woman really his wife? 

“Nianhua, what are you saying out of anger?” Zhou Guoping lowered his voice and slightly bent over. “Yes, I was confused. If you want to hit me, go ahead, hit me!” 

Zhou Guoping took Liu Nianhua’s hand and was about to hit himself, but Liu Nianhua didn’t appreciate it and struggled to break free. 

“How many years have we been married? Can you really bear to divorce me? Besides, life is so tough for divorced women; everyone will take advantage of you!” 

“I don’t think anyone can take advantage of me more than you.” If Liu Nianhua had any lingering hesitation, it disappeared now. 

“I’m not going to argue with you. You’re just angry and not thinking clearly today. Let’s go home and talk about it there.” After saying that, he tried to rush out. 

As long as he runs away, Liu Nianhua will have no evidence to use against him in the future, and he can still keep his reputation and job. 

Unfortunately, there was a big god at the door, stretching out his long legs, blocking Zhou Guoping’s way. 

“Xiao Xu, I’m not criticizing you, but stay out of our family affairs. Your wife is already being so disrespectful. Take Xiao Liang and go home quickly.” 

Xu Shengjie pushed the person into the house and locked the door. With his strength he knocked Zhou Guoping to the ground. “Sister Hua hasn’t finished her words yet. Besides, how dare you talk about my wife? Are you even qualified?” 

Zhou Guoping is not a man at all. Even after doing something wrong, he stays stubborn and only says things that benefit him. Who can tolerate this? 

“I was wrong, I was wrong.” Zhou Guoping pulled out his last trick. His wife knew she was soft-hearted.

After several slaps to his face, Zhou Guoping simply knelt on the ground, tugging at Liu Nianhua’s clothes, tears welling up in his eyes. ” Nianhua, please don’t make this worse; otherwise, the bus team will fire me! I…I will also be criticized. Think about it: how have I treated you over the years? Last year, I drove the bus, sitting for so many hours every day. I was so tired that I couldn’t straighten my back, and you massaged it for me. My work is not easy, and I work so hard for you! Can you bear it? Can you bear to see me lose my job and be scolded by people outside?” 

Besides, do you have the heart to let Xiaolong and Xiaohu lose face in front of other children in the future?” 

She couldn’t bear it, which is why she hadn’t made a big deal out of this. In the past, there was a woman on the next street who was having an affair. She was caught and criticized. Her two children were bullied by other kids all day long. She didn’t want her kids to experience that unpleasant feeling. 

Looking at Zhou Guoping’s uncontrolled appearance, she suddenly recalled how exhausted he looked when he came home from work. Her heart felt torn and bitter. 

Why does he have to do this when he can’t just live a good life? 

“Didn’t Sister Hua’s father give you this job?” Liang Baozhen saw that Zhou Guoping was playing the emotional card and reminded him, “If it weren’t for Sister Hua, where would you be now? Would you even have enough to eat? Could you be earning a salary of several dozen yuan a month?” 

“That’s something I earned with my own skills!” Zhou Guoping glared at Liang Baozhen, but when he noticed Xu Shengjie’s presence, he fell silent. 

He has always bullied the weak and feared the strong. Xu Shengjie is a retired soldier, so he doesn’t have the courage to provoke him. 

“Skill? What skill do you have?” Liu Nianhua’s last bit of sympathy was also gone, “Without our family, would you have had the chance to learn to drive? Would you have gotten a job as a bus driver? Look at you now; you are such an ungrateful person!” 

“Zhou Guoping, I’m telling you; I can’t continue living like this! I might not make a big scene out of this, but we must get a divorce, and you have to return my job. Don’t even think about taking the child with you. Since you’re having an affair with Wang Fang, let her give birth to your child!” 

“No!” Zhou Guoping abruptly stood up, looking at Liu Nianhua fiercely. “Fine, we can get a divorce, but the job and the kids are mine! Don’t get any ideas!” 

“You don’t agree, huh?” Liu Nianhua rushed to the door and grabbed the handle. “Then I’ll call everyone right now so they can see what you’ve been up to, and I’ll make sure the bus company hears about it. Let’s see if you don’t get fired!” 

“You! Liu Nianhua, you have such a cruel heart!” Zhou Guoping pointed at the woman in front of him and uttered some broken phrases. “I really misjudged you. I thought you were a gentle and virtuous woman, but I didn’t expect you to be so cruel!” 

“I’m cruel?” Liu Nianhua gradually came to her senses. It turned out that this man was always like this, shifting his mistakes to others. Now that he was caught in bed with someone else, he turned around and blamed her. “Zhou Guoping, you’re the one messing around, and you blame me for being cruel?” 

“Since you don’t care, I don’t care either. Let’s all be miserable! I’ll go call someone now!” As she said that, she opened the door and pretended to leave. 

“Don’t, don’t!” Zhou Guoping’s face trembled. For a moment, he saw himself being criticized and despised by everyone, and being fired from the bus company… 

No, he couldn’t let outsiders know about this, and he couldn’t be fired. It would be a pity to lose his job, but he still knew how to drive. After all, drivers were in high demand these days, and there were too few of them. 

He could get a divorce, but as long as he kept his reputation, he could find another job and remarry! 

What’s so great about Liu Nianhua anyway? 

“Don’t go! I’ll agree to it!” Zhou Guoping shouted and stopped Liu Nianhua from leaving. 

Liu Nianhua slowly turned around, looked at Zhou Guoping, and finally smiled bitterly, as if she was relieved. 

Wang Fang was annoyed by the noise, so she put on her clothes and went out of the bedroom to take a look. She saw Zhou Guoping writing an agreement on the table, and he had to sign and put his fingerprints on it. 

She didn’t care. As long as the matter didn’t get out of hand, what happened in Zhou Guoping’s family had nothing to do with her. 

However, if he lost his job and his income, she would not want to bother with Zhou Guoping anymore. 

“Okay.” Zhou Guoping completed the divorce agreement and the agreement to transfer his job and not fight for child custody. He then signed his name and pressed his red fingerprint. 

“It’s almost dawn. Let’s go to the bus company now to handle the job transfer.” Liu Nianhua looked at the three pages of paper and felt that her whole life depended on it, which she found ridiculous. 

“Are you in such a hurry?” Zhou Guoping tried to coax Liu Nianhua “After all this commotion, everyone is tired. Let’s go back and rest first. We’ll go again tomorrow.” 

Zhou Guoping planned to first coax Liu Nianhua. Even though they had written the agreement, there might still be a chance to change things. If he went home, spoke kindly, and cooked a meal, he hoped he could win her back. 

“We’re not going back. We’ll go directly to handle this now. I’ve already brought my household registration book with me. After we sort out the job, we’ll go ahead and file for divorce.” 

“Alright! You’re so impatient, huh? Let’s go. I didn’t expect you to be so heartless!” 

Wang Fang sat indifferently on a stool in the living room, as if she were an outsider. Her expression did not change as she watched Zhou Guoping, who was about to lose his job because of his affair with her. 

Liang Baozhen supported Liu Nianhua and prepared to leave. Before leaving, Liu Nianhua remembered that he had just hit Zhou Guoping a few times and the house key had fallen out. The two went into the bedroom, retrieved the key, and set off again. 

*** 

At dawn, people had already started arriving at the bus company office. The city’s buses began their first run at 6:30 in the morning. The old man at the gate got up yawning and opened the door. He was stunned when he saw several people at the door. 

When he saw clearly that it was the bus driver Zhou Guoping outside, he finally recognized an acquaintance, “Brother Zhou, it’s not your shift today. Why are you here so early?” 

Zhou Guoping hadn’t slept all night, and now he was disheveled. He tried to make himself presentable by wiping his hair a few times. Seeing the familiar Uncle Wang, he forced a smile and said, “I have something to discuss. Has the captain arrived?” 

“He just went in.” 

Zong Qingsong, the bus company’s captain, had to come in early every morning to supervise the bus departures. Today, as he had just settled in, Zhou Guoping and his wife Liu Nianhua arrived. 

She knew Liu Nianhua. Her father used to work in the bus team. He retired early and let his son-in-law take over the job. Everyone often teased Zhou Guoping, saying that his father-in-law was really good to him. 

“Captain Zong,” Liu Nianhua greeted him. 

“Oh, Xiao Liu is here too? How is your father doing lately?” 

“He’s doing good.” 

Captain Zong nodded, “That’s good. I’ll go have a cup of tea with the old man when I have time. By the way, why are you here with Xiao Zhou today?” 

Liu Nianhua glanced at Zhou Guoping, and seeing that he couldn’t open his mouth, she spoke for him, “We are here to transfer our jobs.” 

“What?” Captain Zong was confused. Zhou Guoping was doing a good job and wanted to give up his job? Bus drivers are popular jobs with stable positions! No one in their right mind would do such a thing. “Who are you going to transfer it to?” 

“Me.” Liu Nianhua could see from Captain Zong’s expression that he misunderstood, “I can’t drive, I want to be a conductor.” 

“Wait, what are you two thinking? Your husband is giving up his job as a driver for you to be a conductor? Isn’t that stupid. Conductors earn less than drivers!” 

Seeing Zhou Guoping still hanging his head and wearing a sullen face, Liu Nianhua felt even more irritated with him. “It’s because…” 

“Because I’m not in good health. My body hurts too much,” Zhou Guoping feared Liu Nianhua might accidentally reveal his affair, so he quickly interrupted, “I can’t handle driving a bus anymore, so I thought Nianhua could take over.” 

Captain Zong felt a little regretful and inquired about the situation in detail. Seeing that the couple refused to give in, he had no choice but to agree. He wrote a slip for the job transfer and asked Liu Nianhua to keep it. Then he went to find Secretary Guo, who was in charge of personnel transfers at the public transportation company, to handle the formalities. 

Holding the slip, Liu Nianhua feared there might be complications and decided to go directly to the bus company. Since her father was a bus driver, other drivers and conductors recognized Liu Nianhua and often let her and her mother ride for free. This privilege continued even after Zhou Guoping became a bus driver. 

Watching the conductor push through the crowded bus, Liu Nianhua suddenly felt uncertain about her ability to do well in this job. She gripped the slip tightly. 

After all the formalities were completed, Zhou Guoping watched Secretary Guo fill in the information for Liu Nianhua, and he was no longer a bus driver. 

Normally, job transfers wouldn’t happen so quickly, but as luck would have it, Captain Zong had a relative who wanted to come in. However, since there was no available position, even though he was the captain, he couldn’t do anything about it. Now that Zhou Guoping happened to be confused and didn’t want to work, Captain Zong approved it immediately and asked his relative to get familiar with the route and take over Zhou Guoping’s bus. 

After returning to the courtyard, everyone was exhausted. Liang Baozhen felt tired and uncomfortable, and Liu Nianhua was still in a daze. 

“Sister Hua, please go back to your house and rest for a while.” Liu Nianhua thanked the two of them. If it weren’t for them today, she would not have been able to negotiate terms with Zhou Guoping so smoothly. 

Back in the house, there was the matter of the two children. Zhou Guoping had been silent all the way, but inside the house, he showed some concern for Xiaolong and Xiaohu. He held Xiaohu and asked him all sorts of questions. Liu Nianhua found it even more ridiculous watching from the side. 

It seemed like he was still trying to put on an act at the last moment. 

What truly made her decide on the divorce was that just a few days ago, Zhou Guoping had ignored Xiao Hu’s fall and rushed out to meet Wang Fang. He didn’t care about his own child, let alone others. 

Liang Baozhen collapsed onto the bed as soon as she got back into the room. Xu Shengjie spoke briefly with the grandmother outside before coming in. 

Thinking about what happened with Liu Nianhua today, Liang Baozhen somehow felt a sense of empathy. Remembering the information in the book, she and Liu Nianhua had similar experiences, but fortunately, she knew the plot in advance and avoided Chen Siming, while Liu Nianhua had firmly decided on the divorce. 

“I feel like he got off too easily.” Xu Shengjie was also preparing to catch up on some sleep. This was his first time accompanying someone to catch an adulterer. Zhou Guoping’s performance in Wang Fang’s room made him frown, but he couldn’t interfere too much. Now that he thought about it, saving Zhou Guoping’s reputation for work and the child’s matter was still not enough to make up for it. 

Liang Baozhen turned over and looked at Xu Shengjie with bright eyes, “Sister Hua and I did something bad just before we went out.” 

“What bad thing?” 

Liang Baozhen had originally accompanied Liu Nianhua to Wang Fang’s bedroom to find the key. The key had fallen to the head of the bed. Liu Nianhua walked over and picked up the key. Just as she was about to leave, she saw a belt that had fallen beside the bed. She recognized it; it belonged to Zhou Guoping, and she had bought it for him. 

Liu Nianhua picked up the belt and looked at Liang Baozhen, then made up her mind and stuffed the belt into the crack of the bed. In another seven days, Wang Fang’s man would be back. 

She heard that man had a violent temper. 

The author has something to say: 

Liu Nianhua (blackened version): This is the first time I have done something bad in my life.