Chapter 96 [Revised and Read Again] I want to die! ...

Chapter 96

Hearing Qi Changming's despairing words, Qi Donghan showed no sympathy, remaining calm instead, "You've figured it out?"

Qi Changming smiled bitterly, wondering if he had finally come to his senses.

No, it's that now he has no way out.

His silence is the best answer.

*

Outside.

After Meng Yingying and Sister Lao came out, Sister Lao curiously looked Meng Yingying up and down. After looking at her so many times, Meng Yingying couldn't stand it anymore.

"Comrade, why are you looking at me like that?"

His tone was gentle and very polite.

Sister Lao's eyes lit up, "My goodness, you're even prettier in person than in the newspaper! How come you're so fair-skinned?"

"Is what Xiao Qi inside said true? Are you really his childhood sweetheart?"

Meng Yingying nodded, "Yes."

"He must be incredibly blind to accept such a beautiful childhood sweetheart like you and even broke off the engagement. He's practically asking for trouble."

Meng Yingying smiled but didn't say anything.

She doesn't gossip behind people's backs, not even Qi Changming.

"Is the person who just came with you the person you're going to get a marriage certificate with?"

Sister Lao inquired about it with a gossipy air.

Meng Yingying nodded, "It's him."

"Look at this kid, he's got a good physique and a lot of masculine energy." Saying this, Sister Lao patted Meng Yingying on the shoulder, "Comrade Meng, your good fortune is yet to come."

Meng Yingying couldn't stand the occasion with such risqué jokes, and she didn't know what to say. Fortunately, Qi Donghan came out from inside.

He called to her, "Yingying, come in and get your marriage certificate."

Meng Yingying nodded and followed him inside.

Sister Lao, who loves to join in the fun, turned around and followed her inside. She was too embarrassed to get too close, so she followed at a distance, so that she could get firsthand information and spread the gossip.

Meng Yingying sat down in front of the counter with Qi Donghan, while Qi Changming sat behind him. In front of him was a desk with a pile of seals on it.

He was like a walking corpse, using the skills he had been trained on time and time again.

"Name."

The voice was mechanical and stiff.

Meng Yingying and Qi Donghan exchanged a glance, and Qi Donghan nodded, "Qi Donghan."

"Meng Yingying".

"Marriage report".

At the same time, Meng Yingying and Qi Donghan handed over the approved marriage certificate.

Qi Changming took it; the approval report on it was somewhat red, and he glanced at it before quickly handing it back to them.

"Is the marriage voluntary?"

Meng Yingying and Qi Donghan exchanged a glance and nodded in unison, "Yes."

Qi Changming didn't dare to look them in the eye the whole time. He just kept his head down and followed muscle memory to process their marriage certificate and stamp it with the official seal.

He was distracted as he covered the paper.

God is really ridiculous.

It seems that the few months he spent familiarizing himself with the Civil Affairs Bureau were solely for preparing the marriage application for Meng Yingying and Qi Donghan.

Even more coincidentally, this was his first day on the job, officially issuing marriage certificates to people.

The thought sent chills down Qi Changming's spine. Without even checking which official seal it was, he picked it up and stamped it onto the marriage certificate.

After stamping the document with the official seal, he mechanically handed it to Qi Donghan and Meng Yingying, saying, "Comrade, I wish you a long and happy marriage and many children."

It's like reciting lines.

Qi Donghan grunted in agreement, looking at the thin piece of paper on which his and Meng Yingying's names were written.

With this piece of paper, his relationship with Yingying would be legal.

Just as Qi Donghan looked back, he saw the adoption stamp at the bottom.

His face darkened instantly. "Qi Changming, where can I get a marriage certificate and get an adoption stamp?"

He adopted Meng Yingying.

Or should Meng Yingying adopt him?

Before Qi Changming could react, Sister Lao, who was watching the gossip, quickly came over and took the marriage certificate with a frown.

When I saw that both marriage certificates were stamped with adoption seals.

Sister Lao was both angry and amused. With a slap, she threw the marriage certificate at Qi Changming's face. "Little Qi, no matter how unhappy you are, this man married your childhood sweetheart. You can't retaliate like this."

"They're both adults. They're getting married, and you're signing an adoption certificate. Does that mean the man is adopting the woman as his daughter, or the woman is adopting the man as his son?"

That's a really funny question.

The other staff members at the Civil Affairs Bureau also came over, and when they saw the official seal on the marriage certificate...

Everyone was taken aback. "This is a marriage certificate, right? Why is it stamped with an adoption seal?"

"There must be a mistake."

"In all my years of working, I have never seen a marriage certificate stamped with an adoption stamp."

"Yeah, I don't have it either. It must be Xiao Qi Gai's. He's probably a newbie and not familiar with this kind of thing yet."

"You can't stamp an adoption certificate on a marriage certificate, what would that make?"

Meng Yingying hadn't actually looked at it yet. When she looked down at her marriage certificate, she said helplessly, "Comrade, I need to get it stamped again."

"Neither my spouse nor I want this marriage certificate that has an adoption stamp."

Sister Lao pushed away Qi Changming, who was still in a daze, and immediately took his place. She took out two new marriage certificates, wrote her name on them, looked at them again and again, and then took out a marriage registration stamp from the drawer.

"Xiao Qi, keep an eye on it, stamp the marriage certificate with the marriage registration seal."

"Adoption stamps are only used when a child is adopted, so don't make a mistake in the future."

Qi Changming was still in a daze, having made such a basic mistake in front of everyone, especially in front of Meng Yingying and Qi Donghan.

To be honest, Qi Changming felt like dying.

But with so many people around, he could only nod with a blank face, as if that would lessen the shame.

After stamping the marriage registration seal on it, Sister Lao immediately took out a small transparent seal from the drawer.

This little stamp is something that everyone gets when they come in.

That is, the so-called marriage registrar's name stamp. She took it out, dipped it in ink, and slapped it twice, successfully stamping the marriage registrar's name on Meng Yingying and Qi Donghan's marriage certificate.

That is, Qi Changming.

Looking at his own name, Qi Changming, on their marriage certificate, felt that God had played a joke on him.

It was clearly a marriage certificate for two people, but he was the marriage registrar.

Is there anything more ridiculous in the world?

Meng Yingying also found it strange. She looked at the marriage certificate again and again, wondering where in the world her former childhood sweetheart would act as their marriage registrar.

Ironically, all three names were on the same marriage certificate, but Meng Yingying quickly came to terms with it.

For her, ever since she broke off her engagement with Qi Changming, she and he had become strangers.

Just treat Qi Changming as a marriage registrar, that's fine.

After receiving the marriage certificate, Meng Yingying folded it and put it away. She stood up to say goodbye, "Thank you, Comrade Qi."

They were very polite.

They treated her like a complete stranger, which left Qi Changming feeling utterly dejected. He calmly watched Meng Yingying and Qi Donghan leave.

He followed her out from behind the counter and asked Sister Lao for leave with a blank expression.

Seeing him like this, Sister Lao was a little worried and scared. "Your leave has already been approved, but Xiao Qi, why don't you go home and rest?"

You don't look too well.

Sister Lao is a smart woman. She sensed that Qi Changming was not in a good state. She didn't want to leave such a ticking time bomb at work, as she felt that something might happen at any time.

"I'll approve a few days off for you. Go back and get some rest."

She said everything, good and bad, and in Qi Changming's state, she could even stamp the marriage registration stamp on the marriage certificate as if it were an adoption stamp.

Given his skill level, the fact that he wasn't scolded or complained about is only because the two parties were acquaintances.

However, if someone with a bad temper were to stamp a new person's document as if they were adopted, they might not even be able to keep their job.

Unfortunately, Qi Changming was unaware of all of this that Sister Lao was thinking; all he knew was that he wanted to get home as quickly as possible.

And that's exactly what he did.

When he arrived, his mother, Chen Xiulan, was still at home. Since her release from prison, Chen Xiulan had been ostracized by her workplace.

Her daily work was also very mundane, and she simply couldn't stand being pointed at and gossiped about at work.

So he made an excuse to take leave and stay at home.

Originally, she wanted to knit a sweater for each member of her family to ease tensions between them, since it was getting cold.

Unexpectedly, while she was unraveling the yarn, Qi Changming pushed the door open and came in. His face was pale from the cold wind, and his eyes were blank.

"Changming, why are you back at this hour?"

Chen Xiulan carefully placed the half-unraveled yarn on the sofa before getting up to help Qi Changming.

Only when she helped him up did she realize that her son's skin was as cold as ice.

Chen Xiulan was startled, and immediately asked with a worried look, "Changming, what's wrong with you?"

"Were you bullied at work?"

Qi Changming was still clutching a newspaper in his hand, with Meng Yingying's photo in the middle. He unfolded the newspaper in front of Chen Xiulan.

"Did you meet Meng Yingying a long time ago?"

Chen Xiulan never expected that her son would actually see this issue of the newspaper. When the newspaper came down, to prevent her son from seeing it, she burned all the newspapers of that date in the house as matches.

However, she couldn't say this to her son, Qi Changming, so Chen Xiulan naturally asked, "What Meng Yingying?"

"Of course I've met Meng Yingying." She smiled and tried to snatch the newspaper from his hand, but Qi Changming pushed her away forcefully.

"You've seen her, and you know what she looks like."

"You know better than I what kind of lesbian I like."

"Mom, why didn't you tell me back then?"

If his mother had told him earlier, wouldn't he and Meng Yingying have been able to avoid missing each other so completely?

Seeing him ask her this, Chen Xiulan felt her authority as a mother was being challenged. She immediately turned cold and said, "What did I say to you? That Meng Yingying is beautiful? That Meng Yingying is a vixen?"

"Qi Changming, have you forgotten your own identity, and also forgotten Meng Yingying's identity?"

"Or have you forgotten the humiliation the Song family inflicted on you last time?"

Chen Xiulan had a complete grasp of her son's psychology.

She brought up the humiliation her family had suffered at the Song family's house last time, wanting to sever her son's feelings for Meng Yingying.

However, she did not expect that things would turn out the other way around.

The youngest son, who usually flew into a rage and vehemently denied anything when her thoughts were exposed, was unusually calm at this moment. "Yes, I forgot!"

He yelled, "I forgot!"

"If I had met Meng Yingying sooner, I would never have broken off the engagement, never retired from the army, and never been humiliated by the Song family at their doorstep—"

Before he could finish speaking, Chen Xiulan raised her hand and slapped him hard across the face, saying harshly, "Qi Changming, you really have no heart. Look what Meng Yingying has done to your mother! She's become a laughing stock at home and at work."

"Now I'm like a rat in the street. You're telling me, if I had fallen for Meng Yingying earlier?"

"Qi Changming." Chen Xiulan's expression was somewhat ferocious at this moment, like an angry lioness. "You dare repeat yourself? Who did you take a fancy to?"

Qi Changming acted like an outsider, calmly and coldly watching his mother go mad. "I said, I've taken a liking to Meng Yingying."

"If you hadn't made me leave the army and break off the engagement, I wouldn't be in this situation now."

“They would never stay in a civil affairs office; they’re too young to be retiring.”

Chen Xiulan raised her hand, as if to slap him again.

However, Qi Changming neither dodged nor avoided him; he just stared straight at him, saying, "You can kill me if you want."

"In that case, for me, it's at least just a dream."

He couldn't tell whether it was resentment or affection.

Or perhaps it was both. When he saw Meng Yingying marry Qi Donghan, he knew that the childhood sweetheart he had once despised would never belong to her again.

Seeing her son so dejected, Chen Xiulan was exasperated and asked, "You like Meng Yingying?"

"Don't you hate Meng Yingying the most?"

How could you like her?

She simply couldn't understand it.

Qi Changming slumped to the ground, staring blankly at the beam on the roof. A spider web was spun on the beam, and a spider was repeatedly pulling and retracting its web.

In the middle of the spider web was a winged insect, which was repeatedly entangled and tightened by the web.

He could almost predict that the insect would suffocate and die soon.

He and that insect seemed to be no different.

He originally had the sky, freedom, and companions of his own, but he took the wrong path and got himself tangled in this spider web.

He lost his original environment, his freedom, and his companions, while the civil affairs office was like a spider web, tightly binding him.

Meng Yingying was the person he once despised. Because of this person, he blindly ran into a spider web and is now on the verge of being shattered to pieces.

Qi Changming did not answer his mother Chen Xiulan's question; he simply lay on the waxed, shiny floor of the Qi family home.

This floorboard used to be an important marker for her mother to distinguish between city dwellers and country folk.

The country folk toiled with their faces to the earth and their backs to the sky, their shoes always covered in mud.

That was the kind of existence she despised the most.

However, after suddenly learning that Meng Yingying was the granddaughter of the Song family, she briefly changed her opinion, but she was still more self-centered.

Even knowing that Meng Yingying was the granddaughter of the Song family, she still couldn't lower her head.

Qi Changming suddenly laughed sarcastically, "Mom, if I went to the countryside to farm for someone and came back covered in mud every day, would you look down on me?"

Chen Xiulan's face immediately turned stern. "Qi Changming, what's wrong with you? Haven't you done a good enough job at the Civil Affairs Bureau?"

"You can sit in the office every day, drink tea, and read the newspaper, and you can earn a month's salary, enough to support your family. Don't you think that's good enough?"

“Go and see.” She pointed outside the door. “Go and see how many people are desperate to get into the city, to have an easy, stable job. They can’t get it even if they beg and plead, but you got it so easily. And now you’re telling me you’re going to go to the countryside to farm?”

"Qi Changming, are you out of your mind? My Qi family and the Chen family stopped farming a generation ago. You are the third generation of our family. You should be sitting in the office drinking tea and reading the newspaper, but you don't go. Instead, you want to farm. I think you have hysteria. You've gone mad!"

Her words seemed to give Qi Changming an outlet for his anger, and he suddenly stood up from the ground and started smashing things around the room.

"I'm insane. You've driven me insane."

“I’ve never lived a day for myself since I was a child. I didn’t want an arranged marriage, but my dad insisted on it. After it was arranged, you didn’t help me resolve the issue. Now that I have a bright future in the military, you’ve sent my arranged marriage back to me.”

"I could have just come to me, but you insisted on making me annul the engagement, retire from the army, and go to the civil affairs office. Now I'm a complete wreck in the civil affairs office, are you satisfied now?"

Qi Changming shook his head, his eyes reddening, and hysterically threw down the enamel plate in his hand, smashing it with a bang onto the carefully maintained wooden floor.

It instantly created a small crater.

Chen Xiulan was heartbroken, but Qi Changming didn't give her a chance to feel sorry for him. "You're not satisfied. You're not satisfied with me. You think I'm a good-for-nothing now, unable to marry a daughter-in-law from a high-class family to bring you honor."

Chen Xiulan subconsciously wanted to say no, but she wanted to go forward and snatch the teacup from Qi Changming's hand. She had saved up half a month's salary to buy this teacup from the supply and marketing cooperative.

She's going to steal it.

Qi Changming wouldn't let her take it. Instead, right in front of her, he smashed the set of teacups printed with red plum blossoms on the ground one by one, just to make a sound.

He laughed maniacally, "Does it sound good?"

"Does it break your heart?"

Chen Xiulan looked unwell.

Qi Changming, however, felt a sense of satisfaction. He wasn't satisfied with just one tumble and continued tumbling. "You know what? I saw Meng Yingying at the Civil Affairs Bureau today."

Upon hearing this, Chen Xiulan suddenly realized why her son had gone mad.

My heart was in my throat.

"Is Meng Yingying regretting it? Is she planning to ask you to reconcile with her?"

“Qi Changming, let me tell you, my Qi family is of high social standing. Even if Meng Yingying is the granddaughter of the Song family—” She paused here, “I still disagree.”

As for how much of what she said was true, only she herself knew.

When Chen Xiulan left the Song family, she did have some regrets, but the more she regretted it, the more tormented she became.

The better Meng Yingying does, the more it shows how blind Meng Yingying was.

Therefore, she was determined to suppress the other party no matter what.

Qi Changming smirked, then suddenly burst into laughter. "Meng Yingying has taken a liking to me?"

"Mom, what makes you think that a woman considered a genius in the performing arts troupe would turn around and fall for me?"

"What does she see in me? My difficult mother? Or my job at the civil affairs office, earning forty-two a month? Or at the very least, her interest in my family's past betrayal and attempts to destroy her?"

"Okay, Mom!"

Qi Changming stepped forward and straightened Chen Xiulan's collar. She was wearing an indigo blue cotton-padded coat with the words "Harbin Supply and Marketing Cooperative" printed on it. The coat was very clean and without a single wrinkle, just like her.

Strong-willed, dignified, and aloof.

"Stop daydreaming. Don't worry, Meng Yingying won't come looking for me again."

"Don't forget, she's the granddaughter of the Song family."

His actions finally frightened Chen Xiulan. She was afraid that her youngest son would go crazy because of Meng Yingying and destroy the entire house.

She gently coaxed him, "Changming, don't worry. If you really fall for Meng Yingying, I'll just kneel down before her, beg for her forgiveness, and apologize. She'll definitely accept you."

The Song family's granddaughter is also an option, as long as she's willing to hold her nose.

Upon hearing this, Qi Changming could no longer hold back. He shoved Chen Xiulan away and roared at her, "How ridiculous are you?"

"Even now, you still think our family is well-off? No matter how well-off my Qi family is, can we compare to the Song family?"

"Do you dare say that my Qi family is better than the Song family?"

Qi Changming's eyes were red, and his eyeballs were bulging out, making him look extremely frightening. "Do you know who I got a marriage certificate for today?"

"Meng Yingying and Qi Donghan".

When he said those words, his voice was sharp and shrill, filled with resentment and regret, as if it were about to burst forth.

"Don't worry, with Qi Donghan as a shining example, Meng Yingying will never come looking for me again!"

"She will never come looking for me again in this lifetime."

He roared hysterically.

It was as if he was telling Chen Xiulan, and also telling himself.

Chen Xiulan froze, then her face twisted for a moment, "Vixen, I knew she was a vixen. I was wondering why Commander Qi always sided with Meng Yingying and helped her blackmail us when the engagement was broken off."

"It turns out that the two of them had already been having an affair all along."

But this high branch is even more outstanding than her son.

How could Chen Xiulan accept this?

"Walk."

She grabbed Qi Changming and started to walk out, saying, "I'll take you to find her. I want to ask her, what right does Meng Yingying have to criticize you?"

Her son is the best.

Why does Meng Yingying dislike her son so much?

Qi Changming was pulled by Chen Xiulan but he didn't move, lying on the ground like a corpse, with broken glass all over the ground.

However, he seemed completely oblivious.

"Why go to see Meng Yingying? Are you just asking for humiliation?"

"You go, I'm not going."

Looking at her son like this, Chen Xiulan felt a sense of helplessness and panic. "Changming, what do you want to do?"

She didn't even dare to utter a single word of abuse when her son smashed up the house.

Ultimately, it's either the East Wind prevailing over the West Wind, or the West Wind prevailing over the East Wind.

Clearly, Qi Changming's east wind has overpowered Chen Xiulan's west wind.

Qi Changming didn't look at her, a mocking smile playing on his lips, and he said hysterically, "You're asking me what I want to do?"

"I! Want! To! Die!"

"I! Just! Want! To! Die!"

-----------------------

Author's note: Sorry, I made a mistake in the punctuation. It has been corrected. Thank you for pointing it out.

I'll send out 88 red envelopes as compensation~

I saw everyone saying I'd be adding extra chapters! My wrist is much better these past few days, so I'll start adding extra chapters from today~ Hehehe