Chapter 144 Fu Jiaojiao Ran Away

Aunt Cao, her face beaming, quickly darted into the yard on her short legs and told everyone some shocking gossip that made their eyes pop out.

"Fu Jiaojiao ran away!"

Cheng Jiajia was listening to a radio program at home when she was startled by Aunt Cao suddenly barging in.

Thinking she hadn't heard correctly, she checked again, "W-what the hell?!"

Aunt Cao was beaming with excitement, gesturing wildly and spitting as she exclaimed, "Fu Jiaojiao from the front yard, she ran away!"

Based on Aunt Cao's lengthy description, Cheng Jiajia gleaned the following key pieces of information:

Fu Jiaojiao from the front yard ran away!

Not only did she run away, but before she did, she borrowed money from all of Fu Ziqiang's acquaintances and friends, sold her job, and took all of the Zhu family's savings!

Her entire family, including her own, has vanished! Nobody knows where the Fu family went!

What's even more outrageous is that before the girl ran away, she plastered the Zhu family's big-character posters all over several courtyards nearby. Overnight, a series of shocking stories about Zhu Ziqiang being a gigolo, deceiving his wife into marriage, immediately taking advantage of her family's weakness, and secretly getting a tubal ligation without her knowledge were all spread like wildfire.

The more Cheng Jiajia listened, the brighter her eyes became. In the end, all she wanted to do was give Fu Jiaojiao a thumbs up!

He even praised her, saying, "You ran well!"

Regarding the Zhu family, the victims in the incident, she only had two words:

Serves you right!

Despicable men who trick young girls into raising their children deserve to be punished like this!

She originally thought that Zhu Ziqiang was infertile, which is why he deliberately made Fu Jiaojiao misunderstand that it was her problem. In Cheng Jiajia's eyes, he was already a despicable man. She never expected that this man could be even more despicable!

He never intended for Fu Jiaojiao to have a child, and he even secretly went to the hospital to get a tubal ligation without telling her.

He tricked a young girl into marrying him as a divorced man, and then didn't want her to have his child.

Does anyone think they can't see what this person is up to?

Isn't it just that you want someone to help raise your two older children, but you're afraid that if they have their own children, they won't treat your two older children well?

If you want both, why don't you just kill him?

Fortunately, the outcome was satisfying, otherwise she would have been incredibly frustrated.

Not only Cheng Jiajia thought so, but all the women in the courtyard, except for Aunt Yan, thought so when they heard about it.

Everyone was stunned:

"My God, isn't this just tricking young girls into raising his child?"

"Pah! He's a piece of trash! He deserves to be ripped off by Xiao Fu!"

"A man like that is simply a disgrace to the compound!"

Even Chang Dafeng cursed Zhu Ziqiang, calling him a scoundrel, saying, "He's a heartless bastard who gave birth to a son but has no anus! This woman has no children of her own, how can she expect her stepson to support her in her old age?"

Obviously, that's impossible. Even one's own children can be unfilial, let alone those born to other women.

Although Chang Dafeng was greedy and extremely shrewish, she still knew this.

Surprisingly, despite the frequent frictions among them, they were remarkably united on this matter, all condemning Zhu Ziqiang, that despicable man, with a shared sense of righteous indignation.

Suddenly, a different voice came from the crowd. Someone said weakly, "Well, you can't say that, can you? Zhu Ziqiang is Fu Jiaojiao's man after all. What she did was too much."

who?

Who's talking nonsense?

In a flash, everyone's attention turned to this unusual flower.

Seeing everyone looking at her, Aunt Yan, who was no longer the weak and useless person she used to be, straightened her back slightly and said in a tone of an elder, which she believed to be very right, "Am I wrong? We are family after all. What is the Zhu family going to do if Fu Jiaojiao takes all the money? Besides, women still need men to live. Now that things are so tense, how will we face our husbands and mothers-in-law when Fu Jiaojiao comes back? Women should be more generous and virtuous."

Everyone: "..."

Everyone was too lazy to talk to this oddball. Chang Dafeng rolled her eyes and said sarcastically, "You're so magnanimous, then why were you fighting like cats and dogs with the Bai family mother and daughter over money not long ago? You're so virtuous, then why did you give all of Qin Weimin's salary to that mother and daughter? Why don't you go to the Bai family and help them with some chores? After all, you and Lao Qin are divorced but still live together, so you and the Bai family mother and daughter are practically family. Family members live close by, and you see each other all the time, so you can't let things get so tense. A woman should be more magnanimous and virtuous."

Aunt Yan: "..."

Their first attempt to rise to prominence ended in defeat!

Aunt Yan's face turned a deep shade of liver color. "I didn't mean that, I didn't mean that..."

Chang Dafeng refused to back down, "If that's not what you mean, then what do you mean? Tell us! Didn't you say that women need to be generous and virtuous for life to be easier? Then show us how generous and virtuous you can be first."

"Yes, yes, Old Chang is right!"

"Old Yan, you need to be more magnanimous and treat those two from the Bai family better in the future. After all, they are your husband's wife and daughter now!"

Several other middle-aged women also joined in, 'sincerely' trying to persuade her, which made Aunt Yan so embarrassed that she couldn't utter a single word.

His previous air of superiority was completely gone; he hung his head and reverted to his old, pathetic self.

Damn it, damn it!

These unreasonable old women!

That's not what she meant at all! How can Fu Jiaojiao's situation be compared to her family's?

With a "pfft," Cheng Jiajia couldn't help but laugh.

You know what, it's actually quite satisfying to watch Chang Dafeng, that old shrew, roast people!

Chang Dafeng proudly puffed out her chest: Pshaw, little Karami~

Everyone exchanged glances, and they all tacitly decided that they didn't want to talk to Aunt Yan anymore.

What are you so arrogant about? You haven't even figured out how to live your own life yet!

"Come on, let's hurry and go to the front yard to see what's going on!"

Cheng Jiajia was startled; she had almost forgotten about this. How could she be left out of any juicy gossip?

He quickly grabbed Aunt Cao's arm and pulled her forward.

"Hey, hurry up, hurry up! If you're a step too late, you won't get a good spot!"

...

Here's what happened: The day before yesterday afternoon, Grandma Zhu took her two grandsons to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy candy. When she returned with her two beloved grandsons, Fu Jiaojiao was nowhere to be seen. The old lady didn't think much of it at the time, since she didn't like Fu Jiaojiao anyway, and it was better that she wasn't home.

This old lady was very calculating. She usually cooked two meals a day. She fed Fu Jiaojiao coarse cornbread with pickled vegetables, and occasionally she would make cabbage and radish stew with vermicelli as a snack. She didn't care whether Fu Jiaojiao could eat it or not. If she couldn't eat it, that was fine, as it would save food!

After Fu Jiaojiao finished eating, she secretly took out a bowl of meat and vegetables from the cupboard and cooked it for her son and two grandsons.

Now that her little hussy isn't home, she can finally cook some meat for her two grandchildren openly and honestly, instead of sneaking around like usual. She feels so stifled, having to eat meat like a thief even when she's at home.

The three of them, grandfather, grandmother, and grandson, enjoyed a delicious meal of meat until their bellies were round, completely forgetting about Fu Jiaojiao.

When Zhu Ziqiang got home from work, Fu Jiaojiao still hadn't returned, but he didn't think much of it, assuming she had gone to her parents' house. After all, Fu Jiaojiao had been going to her parents' house a lot lately, and he wondered what she was doing there.

Zhu Ziqiang was happy to see it happen. Although Fu Jiaojiao's relative who was an official had fallen from power, he still had a strong foundation built up over the years, and his family's conditions were still much better than theirs. Every time Fu Jiaojiao went back to her parents' home, she would bring back a lot of things, and the two children benefited greatly from it.

None of the family members cared about this matter.

On the morning of the third day, Zhu Ziqiang went to work and noticed that many people were looking at him strangely, but at this point, he still didn't realize that something was wrong.

It wasn't until several of his coworkers came to find him and asked how his mother was doing that he finally found out.

Zhu Ziqiang was completely stumped by the question.

When did his mother get sick?

Then the coworkers told them about Fu Jiaojiao asking them for money, and said that if they didn't have enough money, they shouldn't hesitate to ask, as they had some left.

Of course, that's just a polite way of putting it. The real reason is that Fu Jiaojiao borrowed a total of two or three hundred yuan. When Fu Jiaojiao asked them for the money, she sounded pitiful, and since both of them were working, they thought they could pay it back quickly, so they lent her the money.

But when these people met up afterwards, they became more and more uneasy. Zhu Ziqiang's mother was sick, so why didn't he step forward himself, but instead his wife was borrowing money everywhere? And these past few days, he's been going to work perfectly fine, showing no signs of anything going wrong at home. Something's not right.

After the group explained the situation, Zhu Ziqiang's heart pounded. He had a feeling that something was wrong, so he quickly asked for leave and rushed to the textile factory, wanting to find Fu Jiaojiao and get some answers.

Why did she borrow money from so many people?!

Unexpectedly, the textile factory said that Fu Jiaojiao had sold her job a few days ago.

When they got home, sure enough, all the family savings had vanished, and Fu Jiaojiao was nowhere to be found.

Zhu Ziqiang's heart sank; he had a premonition that something bad was about to happen.

He rushed to Fu Jiaojiao's parents' house, but the gate was locked. The neighbors said that the family had all left a couple of days ago and no one knew where they had gone.

By this point, Zhu Ziqiang was basically certain that Fu Jiaojiao, that bitch, had run away with his money, and not only that, she had left him with a mountain of debt.

But that wasn't the most despairing thing for him.

What's most despairing is that when he got home, he found a crowd of people gathered around his house, pointing and gossiping.

It turned out that several large courtyards nearby had been plastered with big-character posters, revealing that Zhu Ziqiang was a freeloader, a marriage fraudster, and that he immediately took advantage of the woman's weak family after seeing that she was a freeloader, as well as that he had secretly undergone a tubal ligation. Everyone knew about it.

Zhu Ziqiang's already pale face turned deathly white.

It's over, it's over for him!

At this moment, Old Mrs. Zhu sat on the ground, wailing and cursing, her face contorted with grief at the loss of her mother. "Oh! That damned little bitch! That shameless whore who deserves to die! She's unfaithful and found another man outside, so why doesn't she want to stay together? Why?! Why can she just leave whenever she wants? And she even dared to take all the money from our family! That shameless little bitch! How dare she harm my family like this, that heartless, rotten thing! My son Ziqiang has been ruined by her, how will he live now? My son, my son, you've suffered so much!"

Old Mrs. Zhu hated Fu Jiaojiao so much that her teeth itched. If Fu Jiaojiao were in front of her, she would definitely cut that little hussy into a thousand pieces!

That little brat not only stole the family's money, but also borrowed a mountain of debt from others. She's trying to drive their family to their doom!

What angered her even more was that before leaving, that little bitch Fu Jiaojiao had posted big-character posters all over the area around the compound, making everyone know about their messy family affairs. People from several neighboring compounds came to see them make a fool of themselves!

What 'marriage fraud' and 'gold digger'? Pshaw! She won't admit it!

It was clearly that little bitch who took the initiative to marry her son!

What bothered Grandma Zhu the most was 'vasectomy'!

The old lady was partially illiterate and didn't quite understand what 'vasectomy' meant.

A kind neighbor explained to her, "It means that after a man has that surgery, he can no longer have children."

Grandma Zhu: "!!!"

May the old lady's world collapse!

In Grandma Zhu's understanding, it meant that after a man had that surgery, he would become a eunuch and become impotent.

How can a grown man be incapable?!

What kind of man is he if he can't even do that?!

The old lady was overwhelmed with grief, unsure whether to cry over the family's vanished savings and enormous debt, or to feel heartbroken that her son had become a eunuch.

Waaaaah!

This little bitch pulled this stunt, and now everyone within hundreds of miles knows her son is dying. How is he ever going to get married?

If she doesn't get married, who will help raise her two grandsons in the future?

However, after cursing Fu Jiaojiao with the most vicious words, Old Lady Zhu was surprised to find that not a single person around her joined her in condemning that little bitch Fu Jiaojiao. Instead, some people were even cursing her own son.

"I never would have guessed that Zhu Ziqiang was this kind of person!"

"Hmph, without some tricks up her sleeve, would a perfectly good young woman from a well-off family have married him and become a stepmother to two children?"

"I heard that he lied to Fu Jiaojiao, saying that he wasn't married but had registered a marriage with someone else before he confessed that he had two children in the countryside."

"What a scoundrel!"

"Oh my, I knew it! Young women shouldn't become stepmothers!"

One older woman even pulled her daughter aside for a lesson, saying, "See? You can't marry a divorced man with a child, and you definitely can't marry a poor divorced man with a child! They'll never have a good ending!"

Grandma Zhu: "!!!"

Are you even human?! Are you even human?!

Her family has suffered such a terrible fate, and instead of showing sympathy, these people are joining in to curse Fu Jiaojiao, that little bitch, and they're even making sarcastic remarks!

He even insulted his own son!

What did her son do wrong?!

It's all that little bitch Fu Jiaojiao's fault! She ran off with the money to elope with some random guy!

Old Mrs. Zhu stopped cursing in anger, grabbed her son's arm, and said bitterly, "Call the police! Go call the police! Arrest that little bitch! Get our money back!"

Zhu Ziqiang's face turned ashen, but he did not move.

Is he trying to avoid reporting it to the police?!

He wouldn't dare!

Fu Jiaojiao left herself a letter, stating that she had caught him giving gifts to Deng Guangming and Director Jiang, and threatened him that if he reported her to the police, she would report him!

Forget about Director Jiang, but who is Deng Guangming? If he gets involved with you, do you think you'll have a good outcome?

Moreover, I am not entirely innocent.

Zhu Ziqiang had gone through so much trouble to get to the city from the countryside, and he didn't want to lose his job because of this.

Seeing that her son didn't move, Old Lady Zhu assumed he was still thinking about Fu Jiaojiao and couldn't bear to report her to the police. She immediately pointed at Zhu Ziqiang's nose and started scolding him.

"You useless piece of trash! You're being bullied to the point of being pathetic, and you just throw away so much money from our family like that. How are my two grandsons supposed to live?! Are you going to report this to the police or not?! If you don't, I don't have a son like you!"

Seeing that the old lady was getting agitated and still making a fuss, Zhu Ziqiang pulled his mother into the house with a gloomy face, blocking the view of the onlookers outside.

...

Cheng Jiajia was enjoying the play immensely when it abruptly ended halfway through. She clicked her tongue in disappointment.

She turned her head and was startled by Aunt Hao's half-dead face. "Aunt Hao, what's wrong with you?"

Aunt Hao forced a smile. "Xiao Cheng, I'm fine. I'm just bitter inside and out. I taste bitter from head to toe."

Cheng Jiajia: "..."

I can see that your face looks quite like a bitter gourd right now.

No, it's Fu Jiaojiao who ran away, not Zou's daughter-in-law. Why does Aunt Hao look even more like a bitter gourd than Old Lady Zhu?

Aunt Hao wasn't in the mood to answer her questions and drifted away like a ghost.

This matter actually had nothing to do with Aunt Hao, but it made her already cold heart even more desperate.

Zhu Ziqiang, that scoundrel, made a fool of himself by faking marriage, and everyone knows it now. The reputation of all the men in his neighborhood is completely ruined.

Her son, her son, now he'll have even less chance of finding a partner!

Grandma Hao's eyes went blank, her mind went blank, and her body swayed three times, almost falling to the ground.

Good heavens!

That bastard, that bastard! He's not even human, and he's dragging his son down with him. He's a complete scoundrel!

Aunt Hao was so angry she felt like dying.

Unexpectedly, things took a turn for the better, and within two days, a matchmaker came knocking on their door.