No one knew how Ye Zhiqiang managed it, but three days later, the full 1.2 million was in Shu Yan’s account. They went to sign the divorce papers, making it official.

“Most of this money is for the kids,” Ye Zhiqiang said as he signed, suddenly feeling uncomfortable. “Shu Yan, don’t let your cousin or your family cheat you out of it.”

All that wealth he’d worked so hard for over the years was now hers—this old, nagging woman’s—and taken in such a humiliating way. Meanwhile, Jiaojiao’s reputation was in ruins.

“That’s none of your business.” Shu Yan let out a huge sigh of relief as she took the divorce certificate. She handed him a paper bag. “The photos and negatives are all here. Ye Zhiqiang, from now on, we have nothing to do with each other.”

Outside the civil affairs office, Ye Zhiqiang saw Shu Jianyang waiting in his car. His face twitched, and he let out a cold snort before turning to leave.

“Daddy…” Ye Tianbao poked his head out of the car window and called.

Ye Zhiqiang froze for a moment but didn’t turn back. He kept walking.

“Daddy…” Ye Tianbao called again, but still didn’t see his father look back.

Little kids didn’t really understand anything. They believed whatever the adults around them told them. Their grandmother had always told them that Daddy was out working hard to earn money for them, that he was good to them. So even though they barely saw him, both kids were fond of him.

Ye Tianbao burst into loud sobs. Shu Yan pulled him into her arms and gently patted his shoulder. These past few days he’d cried a lot, and she’d mostly ignored it. But today was different. Whatever Ye Zhiqiang had done, to the kids he was still their father. Especially for someone as young as Tianbao—what did he know?

“From now on, Mommy will take care of you and your sister.”

Ye Jingjing tugged carefully at Shu Yan’s sleeve. Unlike her little brother, she actually understood quite a bit. She knew their father didn’t want their mother or them anymore. Just like in the village, where Big Niu’s dad didn’t want Big Niu’s mom and went and found a new one.

That night, Shu Yan learned from Shu Jianyang that the money Ye Zhiqiang paid was partly from loans, some even at high interest. He was now deep in debt.

“You don’t need to worry about him,” Shu Jianyang said, thinking Shu Yan felt sorry for Ye Zhiqiang after so many years of marriage and with two kids. “As long as he doesn’t try anything stupid, he just needs to finish those two projects. Once he gets paid, he can pay off all the debt.”

But Shu Yan shook her head, looking annoyed. “I didn’t think he’d even have a chance to bounce back.”

Shu Jianyang: …

“So what are you planning?” He realized he still didn’t really understand his cousin.

“Third Brother, aren’t you starting a construction company? Why don’t you take this chance to grab his projects?” The more Shu Yan thought about it, the more it made sense. “He doesn’t have any working capital now. The tiniest problem and he won’t be able to keep things running. And let’s be honest—look at the guys working for him. You don’t want them?”

Shu Jianyang felt a surge of excitement. Over the past couple of days, he’d seen how easy it was to find general laborers—but skilled foremen and tradesmen were hard to come by. You could build the stage, but without actors, there was no show to put on.

“You said those two projects of his are good ones. If you can take them over, you’re guaranteed to make money.” Shu Yan was sure this was the perfect opportunity.

“How come I never realized you were so sharp?” Shu Jianyang asked, half-joking, half-serious. Or maybe… you don’t even seem like the same person. If you’d always been this clever, would Ye Zhiqiang ever have dared divorce you? Or were you just pretending all this time—waiting until he cheated so you could catch him and throw him out with nothing?

Shu Jianyang wasn’t sure what scenarios he’d been imagining, but Shu Yan broke his thoughts by asking about the other two apartments.

“The locations are all really good,” he told her. “Your asking prices aren’t high either. There’s been a lot of interest—I think they’ll sell pretty soon.”

Still, he felt uneasy about her selling everything. “Don’t you want to keep one? Just in case… you and the kids need somewhere to come back to.”

He didn’t spell it out, but Shu Yan understood what he meant. She was a woman with two children, moving to a completely unfamiliar place. No one likes to think the worst, but what if something went wrong? It made sense to keep a place back home as a safety net.

“Why not just stay here?” Shu Jianyang added. “Your third brother might not be all that capable, but I can at least keep you three safe.”

After all, she’d be a single woman with two kids and a large sum of money in an unfamiliar city. If anything happened, she wouldn’t even have someone to ask for help. At least here in Xicheng, he could look out for her.

Shu Yan smiled gratefully. “Mostly, I just want to go somewhere no one knows me. Start over. Here in Xicheng? It’s nothing but a place full of bad memories for me.”

There was no way she could stay in Xicheng. Walls have ears—sooner or later her birth parents would hear she’d divorced Ye Zhiqiang and that she was sitting on a small fortune. Then they’d come pestering her constantly, probably dragging Ye Zhiqiang’s parents into it too. How would she ever get any peace?

Seeing she was determined, Shu Jianyang didn’t try to talk her out of it anymore. In the days they’d spent together, he’d realized this quiet cousin of his was actually very strong-willed. He figured she’d been planning this move for a long time.

Selling property was always a matter of timing. If you were lucky, it could go as soon as it was listed. If not, it might sit for a year or two. Shu Yan decided she’d give it a week. If they didn’t sell by then, she’d just leave them in Shu Jianyang’s hands to sell later while she took the kids and left first.

That night, after feeding the kids and getting them to bed, Shu Yan sat down to tally her finances. She had 10,000 yuan in savings from before. She’d sold the storefront apartment to Shu Jianyang for 300,000—more expensive because of its location. His two friends had each bought one of the other apartments for 150,000 each. That alone came to 610,000. Add in the 1.5 million she’d gotten from Ye Zhiqiang, and she was at 2.11 million. With the two unsold apartments estimated to fetch another 200–300,000 total, she figured she’d have around 2.4 million yuan in cash.

Two million in the 90s was worth more than 20 million would be in the future. Even in 2019, not many households could come up with over two million in cash.

She tucked her passbook, household registration book, and ID safely with her. Speaking of the household book—urban household registration was highly coveted in the early 90s. Many people went to great lengths to get it. Once Ye Zhiqiang made money, he’d moved the entire family into the city. During the divorce, Shu Jianyang had pulled some strings to move her registration out. The two kids were also now on her household book. The address was still the apartment she’d been living in. Once that sold, she’d close the registration there and set up a new one wherever she bought a place in her new city.

She slept soundly that night. In the morning, she stretched lazily while the children were still asleep. She noticed tear tracks on Ye Tianbao’s face. Shu Yan froze for a second. She hadn’t heard him crying last night—had he cried in secret? If it had been Ye Jingjing, she would have understood. But Tianbao usually just wailed loudly. She figured it must have been because of everything that happened yesterday.

Shu Yan gently pulled the blanket up around her son and let out a quiet sigh. Divorce was always hard on kids—but what could she do when they’d had a father like that?

Ye Jingjing, on the other hand, didn’t seem too upset. Compared to a father she saw less than twice a year, being with her mother was obviously better. She’d seen what happened to Big Niu in the village. Ever since Big Niu got a stepmother, she’d never had a full meal and was always getting beaten. With Mom, at least they wouldn’t go hungry or get hit. Don’t be fooled by her age—she understood these things.

“Mom…” Ye Jingjing called softly.

“You’re awake?”

Ye Jingjing had been dressing herself since she was little. She could even help her little brother get dressed and wash his face, already acting like a tiny adult—so mature it made your heart ache.

After helping them wash up, Shu Yan changed clothes herself. She pinched her waist a bit—it felt looser than before. Had she lost weight?

Looking in the mirror carefully, she really did seem a little slimmer, though she was still very overweight. Once they settled down somewhere new, she’d have to start losing weight seriously.

“Sister Yan, breakfast!” Xiao Fei showed up to deliver Shu Jianyang’s breakfast and had brought hers along too.

“Thanks.” Shu Yan handed him some money.

“That’s too much,” Xiao Fei protested helplessly. This cousin of Third Brother was really too polite.

“The extra’s for you to buy yourself something to drink.” He might have delivered her breakfast along the way, but he didn’t have to. Even if others didn’t care about that kind of thing, Shu Yan couldn’t just take it for granted.

Around noon, someone was supposed to come see the apartment. Shu Yan left the kids with Third Brother, grabbed the keys, and went to wait at the gate. But instead of potential buyers, people from her hometown showed up.

At first, Shu Yan suspected Ye Zhiqiang was behind it, but she immediately dismissed that idea. If Ye Zhiqiang had wanted to sic her family on her, he would have used that trick ages ago. He wouldn’t have waited until now.

Leading the group was her birth mother, Lin Zixiang. Following her was the youngest son of the family, Shu Jianxiang. Like most traditional families, the eldest son was expected to hold up the family name, while the youngest was spoiled. The second child was always the most overlooked. Just look at who got to “move to the city.” Her older brother Shu Jianfei always got to go with their father, while Lin Zixiang always took the youngest son. Every time, they’d scrape money off Shu Yan before going home.

“You and Zhiqiang had a fight?” Lin Zixiang asked bluntly.

Shu Yan didn’t answer. She simply unlocked the door and led them inside. There was no point in standing in the doorway letting neighbors watch the drama.

Once inside, Lin Zixiang gave Shu Yan an annoyed shove. “I’m talking to you! Cat got your tongue?”

Shu Yan: I’ll just bear it.

“Couples argue sometimes. It’s normal.” She needed to get them out before the people coming to see the apartment arrived.

She wasn’t about to tell them about the divorce. No need to make things messier. She’d leave town with the kids soon enough. Let them try to find her then.

“Just an argument?” Lin Zixiang scoffed. “Well, let me tell you—those old bastards from the Ye family came all the way to our village demanding their grandson back! Said you went and got Jianbo to help you snatch their precious grandson. What the hell is going on?” She was fuming now. “What, you don’t have parents? No brothers? You had to go get some distant cousin involved? Your big aunt has been crowing about it non-stop. You’ve embarrassed me so badly I can’t even show my face!”

Lin Zixiang and her eldest son’s wife had never gotten along, and this time they’d really fallen out over Shu Yan asking Shu Jianbo for help. The eldest brother’s wife had spent ages boasting about it at home, making snide comments that all three of Lin Zixiang’s sons were so useless their married-out sister had to beg help from a distant cousin.

That nearly drove Shu Youfu and Lin Zixiang mad with embarrassment—and it was one of the big reasons she’d come storming over with her youngest son in tow.

“I know what I’m doing,” Shu Yan said flatly. Who else could she have asked? Those three useless brothers of hers wouldn’t have been able to get the kids out of the Ye house if their lives depended on it.

“You know what you’re doing? What the hell do you know?” Lin Zixiang exploded, practically jumping in rage. “You idiot! How did I give birth to such a useless thing? Can’t even control your man! Where’s Ye Zhiqiang? I’m going to talk to him myself—is he really going to just abandon his wife and kids? Our Shu family isn’t that easy to bully!”

“He’ll be back for lunch soon. You can talk to him then.”

That shut Lin Zixiang up immediately.

She was fierce at home, bossing her daughters around, but when it came to Ye Zhiqiang, she went meek as a mouse. She didn’t dare say a single word to his face.

“You’re so capable, huh? Having your cousin help snatch the kids. If Zhiqiang hadn’t happened to call home when he did, he wouldn’t even have known his own kids had come into the city.” Her eyes swept around the room, noticing there wasn’t even a piece of fruit out for them. Her face fell. “We’ve been here ages. You can’t even put out some fruit for us?”

“Ye Zhiqiang’s been keeping a woman outside all this time. I listened to you and turned a blind eye—like boiling oil in my heart. I am your daughter too. Can’t you feel a little sorry for me?” Shu Yan deliberately wiped at her eyes, her voice hitching like she might cry. “Bringing the kids over was my last resort. He’s never home. I thought if the kids were here, maybe he’d come back to see them more, and I’d at least get to see him too.”

In Lin Zixiang’s eyes, children were the best way to keep a man tied down. She actually looked a little pleased at that, and said grudgingly, “Well, at least you’ve got some sense.” Then she glared at Shu Yan. “Don’t talk nonsense like I don’t care about you. Men are all like that! Even the useless idiots back in our village keep mistresses if they can. Zhiqiang’s got real ability. Just look at your friends—who has it as good as you? Living in a fancy house, riding in a car, money coming in every month, and he’s never laid a hand on you. Look at that Yingzi next door, screaming every night because her husband beats her. You’re just too comfortable—that’s why your head is full of these stupid ideas.”

Shu Yan: …

“Third Sister, I’m hungry.” Shu Jianxiang had been bored, shaking his leg impatiently. Seeing they were just about done talking, he demanded like a little lord, “Hurry up.”

“Yeah, we spent half the day on the road just for you. Haven’t even had lunch yet. Go make something before your brother starves,” Lin Zixiang added immediately, softening the moment she heard her son was hungry.

“You know how it is,” Shu Yan said, looking at them awkwardly. “Zhiqiang really doesn’t like me giving money to my family. If he comes back and sees you here…”

Lin Zixiang’s face darkened in fury, like she wanted to slap Shu Yan then and there. “Useless! All these years and you can’t even control your own household!”

But even as she cursed, she knew perfectly well she was scared of Ye Zhiqiang herself. That man was cunning as a fox and completely ruthless when he lost his temper—he wouldn’t give you a shred of face.

“Cover our travel costs—and food too. If you won’t cook for us, you’d better give us money to buy something.” Lin Zixiang made it clear she wasn’t leaving without cash.

Shu Yan pretended to hesitate before slowly pulling out a hundred-yuan bill. In her mind, she made a little note: fine, let’s call this year’s “filial payment” done. In the countryside, a married-out daughter giving her family a hundred yuan in a year was already generous.

Lin Zixiang snatched the money with clear displeasure, eyes glued to Shu Yan’s pocket like she wished she could turn it inside out. But knowing her daughter was usually obedient, she didn’t dare push further. She did sweep the living room one last time, grabbed the two cups off the table, and left with a scornful parting shot:

“Bah, what use is having a daughter? Came all this way and couldn’t even get a proper meal.”

Shu Yan watched them go in silence, feeling sorry for the original owner of this body. Shu Jianxiang didn’t even bother hiding his contempt—he didn’t see her as a sister at all. As for Lin Zixiang, she hadn’t asked even a single question about how Shu Yan was doing. She didn’t care at all if her daughter was happy, only that she wouldn’t divorce and cut off the family’s money. In her eyes, Shu Yan wasn’t a daughter at all, just a walking wallet.

About ten minutes later, the prospective buyer finally arrived. He was a man in his forties who immediately started apologizing.

“I’m so sorry for keeping you waiting.”

“It’s fine—I got to take another look at the place anyway,” Shu Yan said lightly. Luckily he had been late. If he’d come while Lin Zixiang was there, there would have been an ugly scene.

The apartment was in a prime location near the new bus station. Nearby units were selling for 170,000 or 180,000, so her asking price of 160,000 was actually very fair.

The man was straightforward. After a quick look around, he didn’t even try to bargain. He agreed on the spot.

While she was finishing up the paperwork, Shu Jianyang called to say another of the apartments had sold too—complete with furniture and appliances—for 150,000.

“All the properties are settled now. You’re really leaving?” Over the past few days, Shu Jianyang had come to see Shu Yan in a new light.

“Yeah, I’m planning to go tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow? That soon?” He hadn’t expected her to act so fast.

“I’d planned on leaving these few days anyway.” Shu Yan smiled. “Third Brother, thank you. Without you, I probably would’ve been stuck with just that one apartment and a measly ten thousand yuan, living out my life in misery with the kids.”

“Don’t sell yourself short. All the plans were yours. I just ran some errands. Even without me, you’d have figured out a way to put Ye Zhiqiang in his place.”

Shu Yan chuckled. “You sure have a lot of faith in me, Third Brother.”

The next morning, Shu Yan packed up the few belongings she and the kids had and got ready to head to the train station. She opened the door to find Shu Jianyang already waiting.

“Come on, I’ll drive you.” He took Ye Tianbao, who was still sleeping, right out of her arms.

Standing on the platform, Shu Yan waved toward the train window. “Third Brother, head back. I’ll call you when we arrive.”

=^_^=