Chapter 140

As the Wang family members walked out of the library, they were in a daze.

Clearly, they had agreed last night to use the threat of divorce to scare Wu Xiaoling. There was no way they would let her go to college; otherwise, who would do the cooking and laundry at home for several years? Didn’t they marry this daughter-in-law for nothing?

But, but they had agreed to just scare her.

They hadn’t said they would actually divorce her.

How did it come to this?

They wanted to cause a scene, but there were several burly men from the Armed Forces Department standing there.

Although the Four Cleanups Movement had already ended, and the movement’s scars on people’s bodies would take some time to heal.

Although they wanted to, they ultimately didn’t dare to cause a scene.

They just came out in a daze holding the divorce certificate.

Wang Jianshe inexplicably became single. The Wang family suddenly lost their daughter-in-law.

By now, they still hadn’t figured out what had happened, how it had turned out like this?

In the library, Zheng Ai persuaded everyone else to leave and cleared the area.

Only Wu Xiaoling and her parents were left.

“Don’t cry,” Qiao Wei comforted Wu’s mother.

Wu’s mother cried softly. Her daughter was now a divorced woman; how could she not cry?

“Both of you still want Xiaoling to go to college in your hearts, right?” Qiao Wei said, “I can tell.”

“But you can’t have the best of both worlds. You’ve seen how the Wang family insists on keeping Xiaoling, even if it means breaking the net. Xiaoling, show your parents your hand.”

Only then did Wu’s mother notice Wu Xiaoling’s bandaged hand. She forgot about crying and exclaimed, “What happened to your hand?”

Wu Xiaoling hung her head. “They locked me up to prevent me from going to college. I broke the glass and climbed out. My hand got cut.”

Wu’s father said angrily, “How could they do this! Why couldn’t they have a proper conversation!”

Qiao Wei sneered, “If my slave wants to run away and stop being my ox or horse, I’d lock up the slave too.”

Wu Xiaoling remained silent.

Wu’s father also fell silent.

Wu’s mother began to sob.

“I know, everyone usually treats divorce as a big deal,” Qiao Wei leaned back against the large wooden table, arms crossed. “Is it really that serious?”

Wu’s mother didn’t dare to face this assertive woman who had just orchestrated Wu Xiaoling’s divorce.

“Auntie, please don’t cry. Just think, besides not being able to manage household chores and have children for the next few years, what else is there if Wang’s family doesn’t let Xiaoling go to college?”

Wu’s mother stopped sobbing and looked up.

Wu Xiaoling said, “They said if I went to college, I wouldn’t be content to live a simple life with Wang Jianshe.”

Qiao Wei sneered and laughed, “Look, the Wang family understands it perfectly. If Xiaoling goes to college and graduates, she’ll be a college graduate. The school will give her better job placements, higher salaries, and better treatment. In the future, she’ll get promotions and raises faster than others. The whole Wang family understands that by then, Wang Jianshe won’t be worthy of Xiaoling.”

Wu’s parents both looked at her.

People at this time couldn’t escape from the traditional views on marriage. If a woman didn’t have a man to rely on, her parents would feel as if the sky were falling.

There was no concept of remaining single or being independent; even if there were, it was extremely rare.

The mainstream ideology still advocated entering into marriage.

So Qiao Wei could only comfort Wu’s parents according to the mainstream ideology.

She couldn’t stand to see them looking so mournful, as if Wu Xiaoling had died.

She had just gotten a divorce, after all.

“Don’t worry, give Xiaoling time to finish college.”

“When she has a degree, gets a good job, and earns a high salary, you’ll see plenty of men and their parents lining up to date her. People are the most practical.”

In the evening, Yan Lei asked about Wu Xiaoling’s situation. After all, a sudden new resident in the house warranted an update.

Qiao Wei recounted the events of the day to him.

Yan’s expression was somewhat complicated.

“What’s wrong?” Qiao Wei asked, cuddling with Fufu in her arms.

Fufu was five years old.

But Fufu didn’t have the same conditions as Yan Xiang did at the beginning; she couldn’t be with her mother every day.

Since Fufu was four years old, when the Four Cleanups Movement fell and the family began to stabilize, Qiao Wei stopped idling around and actively immersed herself in work, becoming busy. Most of the time, Fufu was with the nanny, who took care of her. Mother and daughter could only spend time together in the evenings after work.

Yan Lei said, “So you… got someone divorced?”

“What else could I do?” Qiao Wei said. “They locked her up. She’s a person with her own will. She’s not meat that the Wang family bought from the market; she’s a living person.”

Yan Lei said, “If it could be avoided, it would be better not to divorce.”

Qiao Wei glanced at him. “A low-quality marriage is not as good as a high-quality single life.”

“Besides, if Xiao Wu still wants to get married, when she graduates from college, improves herself, she’s bound to find someone better than her ex-husband.”

Actually, men were just this practical.

At this time, there was no concept of being materialistic, but even without this term, men had always been this way. Despite often labeling women as materialistic, they were actually more practical than anyone else.

Those men who only talked about love and not about bread were deeply aware that they couldn’t afford the bread, so they used love to deceive and trap you.

When you pursued love wholeheartedly, he was calculating whether having you as an extra labor force could earn him half a loaf of bread.

Yan Lei seemed a bit absent-minded.

At bedtime, Qiao Wei went to tell Fufu a story. This was the most intimate time for mother and daughter every day.

When Qiao Wei returned to her own bedroom, Yan Lei was still awake, waiting for her.

At this time, society had progressed; and three turns and one sound have replaced the thirty-six legs of the past. People’s living standards had greatly improved.

There were sofas and dressing tables at home now.

Qiao Wei sat at the dressing table combing her hair, looking at him through the mirror. “What’s on your mind? Spit it out.”

Yan Lei cleared his throat and asked, “Why don’t you take the exam?”

He hurriedly added, “If you pass, I’ll definitely support you in going to school.”

Qiao Wei chuckled and turned around. “Wow, you’ve been holding that in for a long time, haven’t you?”

He probably kept it to himself since the announcement about the resumption of the college entrance examination.

He waited until the acceptance letter arrived before asking.

Qiao Wei pulled back the covers and climbed into bed.

“The purpose of going to college boils down to two things.”

“One is acquiring knowledge.”

“Two is obtaining a degree as a stepping stone for employment.”

“I don’t need either of these.”

They turned off the light, and both lay down.

After a while, Yan Lei propped himself up and asked, “Qiao Wei, what’s college like?”

Qiao Wei thought for a moment. “The teaching building is filled with classrooms, used for lectures during the day and self-study at night.”

“I don’t know how many people share a dorm room. At night, when the lights go out, they chat away, talking about everything under the sun.”

“The library is for studying. If it’s crowded, you have to fight for a spot.”

“And as for the cafeteria…”

Suddenly, Yan Lei leaned down to kiss her.

Qiao Wei giggled.

Yan Lei sighed, “You really…”

Qiao Wei admitted, “Yes.”

As Yan Lei’s age, status, and perspective grew, he gradually removed the filter of “high school student” from his view of Qiao Wei.

But at the same time, he also increasingly understood that Qiao Wei’s perspective and level of knowledge were definitely not something a high school student could achieve.

She truly had been to college.

She was a college graduate.

Yan Lei felt a rush of heat throughout his body.

Just like before.

At their age, they both understood the importance of letting go.

Like fish and water, they played and merged together.

Yan Xiang had been away for three years. Initially, he wrote letters home every month.

Now, it was noticeably less frequent.

Qiao Wei told Yan Lei, “He hasn’t written a letter in six months.”

Qiao Wei sighed.

She understood this situation well. The earlier the child leaves, the less common ground they have with their parents.

Yan Lei understood too. He had left home at fourteen, just two years older than Yan Xiang when he left.

Once you leave home, the world outside is vast.

You meet people you’ve never met before and learn things you never understood before.

When you look back, you find your parents still in the fields. When you talk to them, they don’t understand.

He, too, often went years without returning home.

Unless something major happened, like the birth of Yan Fu’s child, he would write home voluntarily.

Otherwise, it was always letters from home asking for money or lamenting their situation.

Of course, he and Qiao Wei were not like that.

But Yan Xiang’s situation was special.

He had entered the adult world directly, working alongside many adults several times his age.

“Is he lonely?” Qiao Wei murmured to herself, then quickly denied it. “No, he’ll be happy.”

That was his world. Due to the unique nature of that world, those people might not match him in intelligence, but they were practical geniuses.

There, someone could understand what he said. His happiness could be shared.

When he was in the library before, he solved complex equations, lifted his head in joy, wanting to share it with someone.

Although everyone liked him and took care of him, no one could understand why that equation made him so happy.

He couldn’t find anyone to share it with.

There must have been some disappointment.

Looking at it now, Qiao Wei felt that in the original text, Yan Xiang becoming a silent and reserved teenager might not have been entirely Lin Xixi’s fault.

Lin Xixi only had an elementary school education; how could she understand Yan Xiang’s things?

Yan Xiang couldn’t find the group he belonged to. Over time, he became silent.

“I’ve always wondered…” Qiao Wei said, “How does a child like Xiang Xiang see us ordinary people in his eyes?”

“Would it be like how humans see monkeys? Living alone among a large group of monkeys?”

Yan Lei: “…”

“Phew, I’m definitely not a monkey,” Qiao Wei said. “I’m his mother.”

Yan Lei thought for a moment. Yan Xiang had always respected his father’s authority from a young age.

“I’m not one either,” he said gladly.

And Fufu definitely wasn’t. Fufu was Yan Xiang’s treasure, always showing her off since she was little.

The couple, coincidentally, suddenly thought of Jun Jun.