Chapter 8 "Umbilical Cord"

He Xiaolan never stopped Zhang Xinrong from finding a second love. After all, her biological father, He Guoqiang, was truly unreliable. On the evening after the Gaokao, Zhang Xinrong placed her divorce certificate before He Xiaolan. The green divorce certificate, juxtaposed with the cilantro in the beef noodles, signaled the end of Zhang Xinrong's marriage, along with the now-unprintable green divorce certificate.

"When did you find out your dad had another family outside?"

"It was probably in junior high school. That woman came to my house pregnant and went crazy, then she slapped me."

Butterfly jumped up from the bed and looked at He Xiaolan in disbelief.

"Your mother was very patient. She waited until you graduated from high school before divorcing you."

Ultimately, holding out for four or five years was nothing more than mutual torture. No one was willing to admit their marriage was failing, least of all Ms. Zhang Xinrong. He Xiaolan's first rule in agreeing to marry Wang Qingwei was that they wouldn't argue. They could discuss anything, but not argue. I'd heard too many arguments, too many complaints.

He Xiaolan doesn't want Yueyue to become another herself, nor does she want herself to become Zhang Xinrong.

After He Guoqiang's infidelity, He Xiaolan's aunt took Zhang Xinrong to various fortune-telling sessions. They weren't looking for the cause in He Guoqiang, but were determined to uncover the evil spirit hidden in Zhang Xinrong's birth chart. The results were all that Zhang Xinrong had a difficult fate and was unlucky for her husband.

"My mom also asked someone to tell my fortune, and she said I can't get married before I'm 30. I have to get married as soon as I'm 30, otherwise I'll be single for the rest of my life."

Qin Tiantian washed the mask off her face. Time slipped by so quickly on her well-maintained complexion, and those traces of time were soon replaced by new skincare products. "She makes it sound so easy. I feel like once I blow out my 30th birthday candle, a 5'85" handsome man with eight-pack abs will immediately kneel down in front of me and propose to me."

"If I divorce Qian Helin, even fortune tellers would say I have a tough life."

"Are we three the Axe Gang? We can defeat whoever we catch." Qin Tiantian turned on the music on her phone and started dancing to the rhythm of the music.

Clinking glasses, celebrating the fact that I'll never again shed tears of grief over unnecessary family grief. A hard fate can bring bad luck to a husband, but it means igniting others to warm you. So, why not live life to the fullest, savoring every breath of money-scented breeze you've earned? As long as you're open-minded and generous, anyone can be around you, even a dog.

He Xiaolan now wishes she were a dog. If she were a dog, she wouldn't have to accompany Ms. Zhang Xinrong to the police station to report the case, and then watch the police officer's earnest advice while her mother's nonchalant defense.

The police officer almost broke the thermos in front of him and said, "Auntie, we are talking about business now. Did you two make a video call during your chat?"

"Yes! I even took a screenshot of it. Look, is it a real person?" Ms. Zhang Xinrong said as she handed the police her phone. On the screen was an AI character that couldn't be more fake. He Xiaolan took a closer look and saw that it had six fingers in the corner.

"Auntie, it's like this, this person is generated by AI, these are all fake, all computer-generated." The police officer sighed deeply and looked at He Xiaolan helplessly. He Xiaolan probably guessed what he meant, which was to ask her to quickly persuade her biological mother.

"Mom, the policeman is right. Take a good look at this photo. Doesn't this person have six fingers?"

"It's not normal for someone to have six fingers. The son of Lao Lu, our neighbor, also has six fingers."

The police did their best, He Xiaolan did her best, and Ms. Zhang Xinrong believed from the beginning to the end that the mercenary with British aristocratic ancestry who returned to Wall Street from the Syrian battlefield would one day descend from the sky on a colorful cloud, bringing not only love but also tens of millions of dollars.

He Xiaolan took Wang Qingwei and Yueyue out for dinner. Ms. Zhang Xinrong was still angry and refused to go out with them. On the way, He Xiaolan kept complaining to Wang Qingwei about Ms. Zhang Xinrong's stupidity and her refusal to listen to anything they said.

"Your mother has always been like this. She never listens to anyone and has her own theories."

Wang Qingwei went to a nearby restaurant to get a balloon for Yueyue. He Xiaolan stood by and seemed a little reluctant.

"What happened to my mother? It's mainly because technology is developing so fast, and old people like them can't keep up with the pace of development. We can't blame her entirely."

Wang Qingwei covered his daughter's ears, thought about it, and summed up his mother-in-law's behavior in four words.

"Too much lack of love."

Although He Xiaolan disagreed with Wang Qingwei's words, she couldn't find any reason to refute them. But where did the 300,000 yuan come from? Ms. Zhang Xinrong was defrauded of not only the 300,000 yuan she borrowed, but also her own retirement savings of over 100,000 yuan. She had refused Qin Tiantian and Hua Hudie's help out of pride, and now she regretted it.

He Xiaolan surveyed the Tianjin home. Not a single valuable item remained. The Arc'teryx Wang Qingwei was wearing was a knockoff, as were the Descente shoes. The Chanel 22bags tossed on the sofa were also, needless to say, fake. While they might be thrifty, they still had to equip themselves appropriately in front of outsiders.

"Why not sell the house in your hometown? Your mother can live in Tianjin. If she goes back home, she can live in the village. If there's no heating in the winter, you can come to Beijing or Tianjin. After paying off the debt, you can buy her a financial insurance policy with the remaining money." Wang Qingwei offered a solution that sounded good, but Ms. Zhang Xinrong refused to accept it.

"I'm already this old, but I don't even have my own house. Is this acceptable? What will people back home say about me? How will they look at me? Others' children buy them villas when they get old, but I'm 70 years old. I have to live in a small house in Tianjin and work as a nanny for my own daughter," said Ms. Zhang Xinrong, shaking the pot in her hand angrily.

"If you feel ashamed, don't be fooled. How did you end up with a second love affair with someone from a foreign country? When he said he was 32, you didn't think about it. That person is five years younger than me. If you really find him and bring him home, should I call him brother or dad?"

Wang Qingwei watched the mother and daughter quarrel, not daring to breathe. At this moment, silence was the best option, because no matter what he said, it would upset one of them. He immediately picked up Yueyue and went to McDonald's. The mother and daughter were left at home facing each other, neither willing to compromise.

"When you divorced He Guoqiang, the house was transferred to my name. This time, you have to agree to this matter. If you don't agree, there is nothing you can do. Otherwise, you can go to your aunt and uncle to borrow money to pay back the debt. I don't want to be harassed by debt collectors every day."

The lights in the restaurant are not very bright. I wanted to fix it when I moved in, but I never found the time. In the end, I just used it as a makeshift one. He Xiaolan suddenly found that Ms. Zhang Xinrong had become so thin, while her own shadow was so huge, big enough to hug her.

"Mom, I'm thirty-seven, not seven. I can try to help you solve any problem you have. You have to trust me."

"Why do I believe you? You will always be a child in my heart..."

The elixir of life has been invented! Simply reside in Ms. Zhang Xinrong's heart and you can remain young forever.

"It's hard to sell second-hand houses now. I visited several agencies yesterday, and the prices they offered were not very good," Ms. Zhang Xinrong is still struggling.

"It has to be sold even if it's not good. I can find 100,000 yuan, but where can I find 300,000 yuan?" He Xiaolan sat in the co-pilot seat and complained to Wang Qingwei about Ms. Zhang Xinrong's reasons. Her fingers kept rubbing her temples. She had a headache. The headaches of life kept coming one after another. Sooner or later, she would be turned into a big-headed doll.

Too annoying, I picked up my phone to have some fun. Yueyue's parents' group kept popping up with messages like, "Yueyue's classmate's mom is pretty weird. The teacher asked for a swimsuit, and she insisted it be Moody Tiger. She could just pick up something from Decathlon. She won't wear it much anyway."

"If you had money, Yueyue would have arranged everything long ago." Wang Qingwei smiled. He knew what He Xiaolan was thinking best. Although he looked generous, he cared a lot in his heart.

"Don't expose my secret. Even if we are jealous, we should be jealous in a decent way."

It was already late when they got back to Beijing, and the checkpoints were jammed again. Wang Qingwei said he had to go to the company early in the morning, so he showered and went to bed. He Xiaolan tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep at all.

She didn't want to sell the house; it was the only umbilical cord connecting her to her hometown, and it was time to sever it. In her youth, she'd longed to leave home and never return, but now that she'd finally lived in Beijing, she'd always missed that small city. Occasionally, a gentle afternoon breeze, carrying the scent of memories, would leap into He Xiaolan's heart, filling her with a sense of melancholy.

But how could Beijing, where people are so crowded, allow such petty-bourgeois sentiments to exist? Monday came in a blink of an eye, and the sleep-deprived He Xiaolan instantly understood the rooster. Getting up so early every day would make anyone want to scream.

He Xiaolan wanted to buy groceries after get off work, so she got up early and went out with Wang Qingwei. When she arrived at the entrance of Wang Qingwei's company, she found that the entrance was even more lively than the market. People were standing in three layers inside and outside, and there was even faint sounds of crying.