Chapter 36 [VIP]

Lin Changbin was still asleep inside when he was suddenly startled awake by a loud shout, almost rolling off the bed.

He hurriedly got up to find his clothes, and just as he put on his pants, someone rushed in.

"Mother, my wife, what brings you here?"

Chen Rong rushed over and slapped Lin Changbin across the face four or five times. The slaps were delivered with ten times the force, making Lin Changbin see stars and his ears ring.

He covered his face, unable to recover for a long time. He felt a chill down his back, and cold sweat streamed down his temples.

"Let me explain, this is a misunderstanding..."

"A man and a woman sleeping in the same bed is called a misunderstanding? You call yourself a scholar? You're only doing things that are worse than beasts and sordid!"

Lin Changbin stammered, "What's wrong with a man having three, three wives, or four concubines?"

"Is she a wife or a concubine? She had an affair with a prostitute without a matchmaker and even had a child with her. If word got out, people would laugh their heads off."

Widow Yu stood at the door, too frightened to even breathe.

Lin Changbin retorted angrily, "That's still better than you, you can't even have a son."

Upon hearing this, Chen Rong instantly flew into a rage, grabbing his hair and tearing at it again. "Just because I can't give birth to a son, does that give you the right to treat my child like this? You even want to marry Qiu'er off to that beast Fang Shen in exchange for a shop? Keep dreaming!"

"Ouch, ouch, let go! What do you want?"

"Get a divorce! Get a divorce right now!"

"At your age, why are you still making such a fuss?"

"Pah! I feel so disgusted by you that I can't eat. If you don't want a divorce, fine, but let's make this clear today: as long as I'm alive, this prostitute will never be allowed into the Lin family. Her bastard child will never be listed in the Lin family genealogy, and her illegitimate child will have no chance of taking the imperial examinations!"

Upon hearing this, Widow Yu quickly knelt on the ground and feigned pitifulness, saying, "I was wrong, it has nothing to do with Lin Lang, please don't hit Lin Lang, hit me instead!"

Chen Rong didn't hold back. Both the adulterer and the adulteress deserved to be beaten. She had been doing manual labor for many years and was stronger than both of them. With two nephews backing her up, she naturally vented all her pent-up resentment. She grabbed the woman's hair, making her look disheveled, and beat Lin Changbin until his face was bruised and swollen.

"You vicious woman, fine, let's get a divorce, but stop hitting me..."

Having vented her anger, Chen Rong pulled out a pre-written divorce agreement from her bosom and threw it at him.

The room was dark, and he didn't look closely before pressing his fingerprint on the blood from his nose.

Wang Ying picked up the divorce papers, folded them, and returned them to her aunt, then gently supported her swaying body.

Looking at the two people embracing on the ground, Chen Rong felt only exhaustion. It wasn't worth getting angry or sad over such people.

"After the divorce, Qiu'er and Sui'er will both come with me. From now on, we'll go our separate ways and never see each other again."

Lin Changbin quickly said, "How can that be? Qiu'er and Sui'er are my Lin family's children, you can't take them away!"

Chen Rong knew what he was thinking, and felt even more heartbroken. She turned around and rushed towards the baby sleeping in the swaddling clothes, "You can keep Qiu'er, but this kid can't stay. Trade your son for my son!"

"No, don't get agitated! Let's talk this out, don't hurt the child!" This was his precious child, born late in life, and he was in so much pain that his legs went weak when he saw Chen Rong grab him.

"The two children are coming with you, quickly put him down."

Chen Rong chuckled and tossed the little brat to him.

The baby was jolted awake and started wailing loudly. Lin Changbin felt extremely distressed and held the child, trying to soothe him, "Oh, Fugui, don't cry, my dear, don't be afraid, Daddy's here..."

Chen Rong couldn't bear to watch any longer, so she turned around and left the house. When she reached the front door, she stumbled and almost fell.

Wang Ying and Chen Qingyan quickly stepped forward to help her up, saying, "Third Aunt, don't be sad for this kind of person."

Chen Rong's eyes filled with tears. "Third Aunt isn't grieving for him. I wouldn't have shed a single tear even if he died. I'm grieving for my two children. He never... he never held them like this before..."

Chen Rong recalled that when her eldest son was three years old, he wanted to play with his father, but Lin Changbin had just returned from school and was probably in a bad mood after being scolded by the teacher.

Qiu'er called out "Daddy" and ran towards him, but was kicked away by Lin Changbin. The child's face turned purple and she couldn't cry for a long time. Chen Rong felt sorry for her and kept shedding tears.

The more I think about it, the more upset I get. I only hate myself for being so cowardly back then and not leaving this scumbag sooner!

*

Back home, I started packing. After so many years of marriage, we've only added a handful of things to our home.

In her younger days, Chen Rong loved to dress up. When she bought new fabric to make clothes, her in-laws would nag her, saying that she shouldn't be so extravagant and should save the money for Lin Changbin's education. After he passed the imperial examination, he could eat whatever he wanted and buy whatever he wanted.

She kept drawing this pie in her mind year after year, until her eldest and second sons grew up and she got used to a life of cutting back on food and clothing. As a result, her two sons didn't have many good days.

Later, Lin Changbin stopped taking the imperial examinations, and his family didn't have much money left. He wanted to open a shop again, trying to get money from Chen Rong's dowry.

Fortunately, she firmly refused back then, otherwise she wouldn't even have any money to live on now.

The dowry chests were moved out of the house, and Chen Rong wiped the dust off them with a dry cloth.

These were all prepared by her parents when she got married. They included fifty strings of cash, eighty taels of silver, several bolts of fine cloth, and jewelry.

Of the six bedding sets given as part of the wedding dowry, two mattresses were already worn out, so Chen Rong didn't take them and only took the good ones.

Clothes for adults and children were packed into parcels, and all the New Year's goods brought from our hometown were loaded back into the car. Luckily, we caught two buses on the way here, so we could take all these things back with us.

Lin Qiu ran around helping to move things, her smile never faltering, and even the pain in her neck didn't hurt anymore.

When they were halfway through packing, Lin Changbin returned, along with the widow and the child she was holding.

These two were really impatient; Chen Rong hadn't even left yet when the widow barged in.

Lin Changbin came back specifically to keep an eye on things, fearing they might empty the house when they left.

On the way back, he kept thinking about it, feeling that something was wrong. He wondered which gossipy person had told Chen Rong about it, otherwise, with her intelligence, she shouldn't have known that he was messing around outside.

After thinking for a long time without finding a solution, I had no choice but to accept the fact.

Although divorce was not his original intention, she found out and there was no other way at the moment, so he took the opportunity to bring his son back and add him to the family genealogy as soon as possible.

Upon entering the courtyard and seeing the car fully loaded, his face instantly darkened. He hurriedly ran into the house, only to find it empty and many things missing.

"Chen Rong! Are you going to empty my house?"

Auntie San patted the dust off her hands and said, "What do you have at home? Do you still think you're the young master of the Lin family? You lost money opening shops outside, and your family fortune is long gone. I only have the things my parents gave me as dowry."

Lin Changbin didn't believe it, so he ran to the mule cart and checked it carefully, even opening the bedding to look inside. Only after confirming that there was nothing from his family was he disappointed.

"Qiu'er, Sui'er, do you really want to go with your mother?"

The two children, raised with traditional patriarchal values, were terrified of him and simply stared at him expressionlessly without saying a word.

Chen Qingyan quickly stepped in front of his two cousins ​​and said, "We just made an agreement, are you going to go back on your word?"

Lin Xiucai did want to back out. Lin Qiu and Lin Sui had both left, so how could he explain it to Fang Erlang? He had received so many benefits from them before and after, and he would have to give them all back if the marriage didn't go through.

Wang Ying sneered and said, "Your son is still young. If something happens to your cousin, he probably won't grow up."

Upon hearing this, Lin Changbin completely gave up. Nothing was more important than his precious son. He waved his hand and said, "You've raised a bunch of ungrateful wretches, a money-loser. Go away, go away, and never come back in this lifetime."

Lin Qiu's tense body finally relaxed, and she looked at her cousin and his wife with tears in her eyes. It's so good to have them here!

After packing their things, they still had to take the divorce papers to the government office to retrieve Chen Rong's and their two children's household registrations and return them to Qingshui Town.

This was a bit troublesome. It took two days to finally complete the formalities, and this farce finally came to an end.

*

The Chen family's mule cart wasn't very big; it was a bit cramped for five adults. Chen Rong sat on one side with her two children, while Wang Ying and Chen Qingyan sat on the other.

Sitting in one position for a long time in a car can be tiring, so Wang Ying leaned her body on Chen Qingyan's shoulder.

"Are you sleepy?" Chen Qingyan asked in a low voice.

"good."

"Lean on my shoulder and sleep for a while." She reached out and put her arm around Wang Ying's shoulder to make him more comfortable.

Chen Rong smiled slightly as she looked at the two of them. Luckily, the two children had come; otherwise, she wouldn't have known what to do.

However, the smile quickly faded, and a look of worry returned.

She took her two children and went back to her parents' home after the divorce; people will definitely gossip about her.

She wasn't afraid of people gossiping; at her age, let them say what they want. Her two children were still young and their marriages were still undecided. She was just worried about holding them back...

Chen Rong looked at her eldest son beside her, "Does the injury on your neck still hurt?"

Lin Qiu shook her head. "It doesn't hurt."

Wang Ying remembered the bottle of medicine Cao Kun had given her yesterday, and quickly took it out of her package and handed it to him. "This is wound medicine given by the owner of the traveling guild. They often get injured while traveling all over the country, so their wound medicine is better than that from pharmacies. Take it and try it."

Lin Qiu took it and whispered a thank you.

Chen Rong sighed softly. Well, let's just take it one step at a time. The worst that can happen is that. If all else fails, we can buy a few acres of land on the estate and find Qiu'er a husband who will live with her.

The mule cart swayed and rattled for three days before finally returning to town on the fourteenth day of the twelfth lunar month.

Li, the woman at home, had been waiting anxiously for a long time. She had said she would be back in seven or eight days, but it had been ten days and there was still no news.

For the past few days, Ershun has been waiting at the town entrance every day, asking around whenever a car returns from the county if they've seen their two children.

Today, Ershun went to the town entrance to inquire about news as usual, and after waiting for a while, he saw his own mule cart return.

He happily went to greet them, "Uncle Chen, Uncle Dunzi!"

"Hey~ Ershun, what brings you here?"

"The old lady asked me to inquire about your whereabouts here. Your family is very worried because you haven't come back for so long."

"Get in the car quickly, let's go back together."

The mule cart quickened its pace and stopped at the Chen family's gate in less than fifteen minutes. The gatekeeper, Lin, called out, "Young Master, the young master is back!"

Li and her two children hurried out, and only when they saw that her son and son-in-law had returned safely did she feel relieved.

"Why did it take so long? I thought you would have been back a few days ago."

Chen Qingyan said, "Something happened at my third aunt's house, so I brought them all back."

Chen Rong, pulling her two children, got off the mule cart and stood somewhat helplessly at the door.

When Li saw the dowry chests on the cart, she understood immediately. She stepped forward, took the child's hand, and said, "Don't think about anything now that you're home. Take the child inside quickly. I've asked the kitchen to make some meat soup. Drink some to warm yourselves up."

Chen Rong's nose stung with tears. "Sigh!"

A note from the author: