Chapter 110: A client came to the door, so no lawsuit was filed...
Without going to court or filing a lawsuit, after a week of stalemate, Aunt Li and Uncle Sun went to the neighborhood office together to get their divorce certificate.
Mingxi was a little puzzled when she heard that Grandpa Sun had gotten his divorce certificate with Grandma Li so readily.
Didn't he refuse to get a divorce before? Why has he suddenly changed his attitude and readily gone to the neighborhood office with Aunt Li to get the divorce certificate?
Zhao Sulan: "You're still young and haven't thought things through. Old Sun doesn't want a divorce primarily because he's reluctant to give up his assets, and secondly because he's reluctant to part with such a capable housekeeper as Old Li. But Old Sun is still a man who cares about his reputation. Old Li ran away from home and moved into Sun Lili's house because of the divorce, which made him lose face in the alley. It also made his son-in-law lose face again when he found out about these things. Now this matter has even reached his workplace. As long as Aunt Li doesn't come back, people will keep talking about it."
Mingxi scratched his head: "So Grandpa Sun agreed to divorce Grandma Li just because he didn't want to lose face? He actually had the heart to do that?"
No matter how important face is, it's not as important as money, right?
Grandpa Sun agreed to the divorce on the condition that he would give Grandma Li his salary and the house.
Zhao Sulan scoffed, "You think you're so young? Your Aunt Li is over fifty, almost sixty. To put it bluntly, how many more years does she have left? When she's gone, who will get the house? It'll go to the Sun family's children, whether it's Sun Lili or the two brothers, Sun Xuewen and Sun Xuewu. The house will ultimately belong to the Sun family. Old Sun is giving the house to your Aunt Li now because he's hoping it will eventually go back to the Sun family."
Mingxi tilted her head and thought for a moment: "What about the money? Aren't there still money?"
Speaking of this, Zhao Sulan became even more disdainful, curling her lip and saying, "How much money can Old Sun possibly come up with?"
In recent years, the Sun family has been spending money non-stop. First, Sun Lili got married, then their eldest son Sun Xuewen got married, then they bought a job for their second son Sun Xuewu, and soon after, Sun Xuewu was getting married.
Even if Old Sun can earn money, and the Sun family is not poor, if they spend it so recklessly, the Sun family will not be able to save any money.
Otherwise, Old Sun wouldn't have bothered to steal Aunt Li's secret stash of money this time.
Furthermore, since it didn't go to court or follow the legal process, it's simply a matter of how much money Old Sun has, whichever he says he has.
How much money can he give to Aunt Li?
Zhao Sulan: "Just you wait and see, he definitely didn't give Old Li much money!"
Zhao Sulan spoke with certainty, and when Mingxi went out to ask Aunt He, she was right!
"Old Li suffered a great loss in this divorce. She only got the west wing room of the Sun family's house, plus two hundred yuan. I heard that Old Sun was crying poor, saying that Sun Xuewu was getting married soon and had to give the bride's family a dowry, and then there would be a wedding banquet. He couldn't do without money. After deducting all these expenses, the family could only come up with two hundred yuan, which he gave to Old Li. They were husband and wife, and even if they divorced, Old Li should not mistreat herself when she was living alone outside."
Tsk tsk.
Mingxi curled her lip in disdain. Grandpa Sun's words sounded nice, but who knew how much of them were genuine?
The Sun family was indeed struggling financially, but she still didn't believe that they only had two hundred yuan in working capital left.
Including Sun Xuewen and his wife, who have already moved out, and Sun Lili, who has already married, the Sun family has a total of six people. Among the six people, only Aunt Li is unemployed.
Although the Sun family had separated long ago, and the children's wages no longer had to be handed over to the family commune, Sun Xuewen and Sun Xuewu still gave the elderly couple five yuan a month for their retirement. Sun Xuewu lived at home and, in addition to his retirement money, also paid ten yuan a month for living expenses. When Sun Lili came back for holidays, she would bring back many gifts and also give the elderly couple a lot of money.
Grandpa Sun also receives a monthly salary of about seventy yuan, which adds up to quite a bit.
So no matter what, the Sun family wouldn't only have two hundred yuan.
As a wife who shared a bed with Grandpa Sun, Aunt Li must have been aware of this. However, she had a good temper and a soft heart, and probably just wanted to get a divorce as soon as possible, so she didn't hold it against Grandpa Sun.
Aunt He, on the other hand, was very indignant: "Old Li is too easy to talk to. Old Sun gave her such a small amount of money and sent her away. If I were her, I would go to court and file a lawsuit. Even if it costs me my life, I would still bite off a piece of his flesh!"
Grandma He's husband, standing nearby, was trembling.
Luckily, he and his wife have a good relationship and won't get a divorce, otherwise he might be in trouble...
Seeing how agitated Aunt He was, Mingxi quickly comforted her, "Aunt He, don't be angry. It's a good thing that Aunt Li can get a divorce."
Aunt He gritted her teeth: "Good thing my ass! You have no idea how shameless old Sun is. His family has two large rooms facing north, and he gave the smallest and most remote west wing to old Li. He even made old Li sign a promise that after old Li passes away, the west wing will be left to one of Sun Xuewen, Sun Xuewu, or Sun Lili."
Aunt He was very disdainful. Old Sun was making such a fuss, saying that he was giving the house to Old Li, but in reality, he was just temporarily lending the house to Old Li. He was going to return the house to the Sun family later.
"This old man usually seems honest and quiet in the yard, but I never expected him to be so cunning! It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that he's a master of the abacus!"
Aunt He muttered, "And Old Li too, he's too easygoing. He does whatever Old Sun says without ever arguing. The only thing he's really tough on is getting a divorce."
She muttered to herself, "I heard that Old Sun went to Sun Lili's place a few days ago to apologize to Old Li and ask for reconciliation, but Old Li didn't agree."
It's not surprising that Mingxi's ears twitched.
Grandpa Sun clearly didn't want a divorce before. The reason he readily agreed to divorce Grandma Li was not only because he wanted to save face, but also because he knew there was no way to win Grandma Li back and that there was no hope of continuing the stalemate.
Mingxi was talking to Aunt He when she saw Aunt Li walking in from outside the courtyard carrying the bundle she had taken with her when she left.
Mingxi: "Aunt Li, you're back!"
Mingxi shouted, which summoned everyone in the courtyard. Aunt He, Aunt Ma, Zhao Sulan and several other women rushed out and gathered around Aunt Li.
"Old Li, you're back!"
Aunt Li: "Yes, I'm back. It's not appropriate for me, as a mother-in-law, to always stay at my daughter and son-in-law's house, so I came back."
Everyone looked at Aunt Li and then at the Sun family, their eyes hesitant, unsure whether to speak.
Finally, it was Aunt He who couldn't contain her curiosity and asked, "Um, Old Li, what brings you back this time...?"
Before she could finish speaking, Aunt Li interrupted her, saying, "I live in the west wing. It's been empty for a while now, so I'll tidy it up and move in."
The Sun family had three rooms in total. Two of the north-facing rooms on the west side were combined, while the smaller west wing room next to it was separate. The west wing room was originally occupied by Sun Lili, who was still unmarried. After Sun Lili got married, Sun Xuewu moved in there for a while. Later, Sun Xuewen got married and moved out, and Sun Xuewu moved into the large north-facing room where Sun Xuewen lived. Old Sun and Aunt Li lived in another north-facing room, and the west wing room was left empty.
At the beginning of the year, Old Sun tidied up and renovated the west wing, including the walls and roof, saying he wanted to rent it out to supplement his family income.
But even though the rental ad has been posted for more than half a year, people have come to see the house, but no one has rented it.
They all complained that the house was too small, the windows were too small, it didn't face the sun, and it didn't even have a kitchen.
However, this is convenient for Aunt Li, as the house is already furnished and ready for her to move in with just her bags.
Aunt Li smiled at everyone and said, "Speaking of which, I need to trouble you all a bit. I'm planning to build a small kitchen in the corner on the west side of our courtyard, and I'll need your help."
Her words had two meanings: first, she genuinely wanted everyone's help; second, she was making it clear that she was eating alone and had nothing to do with the Sun family.
Everyone understood what she meant immediately and laughed as they spoke.
"Okay, it's nothing, do you even need to ask for help? It's just building a kitchen. I happen to have a spare tarpaulin at home. You buy some wood, and we'll build your kitchen in no time!"
"There's no need to buy wood, I have some at home. It's not much, but it'll definitely be enough to build a kitchen."
"What are we waiting for? Let's get to work!"
"Get moving, get moving!"
Without a word, everyone immediately got to work. Seeing the people busy in the yard, Aunt Li's eyes welled up with tears. But the people in the yard didn't let her wallow in her sorrow. Aunt He grabbed her and said, "Old Li, tell me how big and how you want your kitchen built. I'll help you plan it out."
Aunt Li: "Well... it doesn't need to be very big, just big enough to fit a stove. I was thinking of putting the stove outside in the summer so it wouldn't get wet in the rain."
"Okay, I understand now. You can hold it up!"
The older women were busy making arrangements, and the younger members of the family in the courtyard were also called out to help. Mingxi, being the strongest, was ordered around and bossed around, but she didn't get angry.
When the shed was being set up, Old Sun came out and offered to help. He kept saying, "Chunzhi and I were husband and wife after all. Even though she was angry with me and wanted to divorce me, I still care about her and worry about her. Giving her this house is a good thing. I'll feel more at ease if she comes back to live here. At least I can take better care of her if we live together."
Old Sun didn't do much work, but he talked a lot.
Everyone frowned as they listened, realizing they had really misjudged him. No one had expected that the usually quiet and honest Old Sun could be so eloquent.
With that one word, he shifted all the blame onto Aunt Li.
The divorce was initiated by Aunt Li in a fit of pique; the house was also insisted upon by Aunt Li; he, on the other hand, was a pitiful and innocent sucker, a kind and righteous man who spent money and effort on his ex-wife, unable to let go, and even willing to take care of her after the divorce.
Mingxi kept rolling her eyes. Grandpa Sun was being kind and righteous now, but what about before? What about when Aunt Li was bullied by Granny Sun, when she was ostracized by her sisters-in-law, and when she was taking care of Granny Sun all by herself?
Why didn't he take care of Aunt Li or help her back then?
But there were always people who fell for Grandpa Sun's charm. When the old men in the courtyard heard this, they patted Grandpa Sun on the shoulder sympathetically and said, "You've had it tough!"
Mingxi noticed that Grandma He's husband was leaning close to Grandpa Sun, so he immediately nudged Grandma He.
Aunt He looked up and saw her husband, that idiot, genuinely feeling sorry for Old Sun. She was so angry that she slapped him and said, "What do you mean 'not easy'? Have you finished the work I told you to do? If you haven't, then get back to work!"
Old Zheng: "Hey, hey, I'm going to get to work now, don't rush me..."
He dared not feel sorry for Old Sun anymore and obediently followed his wife to do chores.
If he doesn't finish this job, he might be the next old man to get divorced!
A few old men in the courtyard were swayed by Old Sun's rhetoric, but the older women were all very discerning and knew that he was just trying to clear his name; not one of them believed him.
They also dragged away all the men in their own family who believed Old Sun's words.
Old Sun was angry, but there was nothing he could do.
With many hands making light work, setting up a tarpaulin shed wasn't difficult. Everyone pitched in, and the kitchen was quickly built. But once the kitchen was set up, there was still one problem: we were short of supplies.
Aunt Li cooks all by herself, so she definitely needs to prepare a stove, pots and pans, and other such things. These things are not easy to come by, especially the stove, which has to be bought with industrial ration coupons.
No one has a lot of industrial tickets; even if they wanted to collect them, they couldn't manage to gather just a few.
Mingxi gave an idea: "Aunt Li, why don't you go to the coal briquette factory? Sometimes they sell defective coal stoves outside the factory. They're usually just poorly welded, but they don't affect the use of the stove. You don't need a coupon for the defective ones."
She heard this from Sister Wang. Sister Wang's sister-in-law worked at a coal briquette factory. A few years ago, she helped Sister Wang's family get a coal stove. Sister Wang did give her money at the time, but afterwards, every time they ate at home, her sister-in-law would bring it up. The implication was that without her, Sister Wang wouldn't have been able to get the stove and wouldn't have been able to eat.
This infuriated Sister Wang.
She complained to Mingxi and Yu Xiaomin several times that a defective coal stove could be sold at the store outside the coal factory. It was just that she didn't know that. If she had known earlier, she wouldn't have had to bother her sister-in-law and would have saved herself from owing such a favor and being talked about for the rest of her life.
Because of this, Mingxi remembered that there were coal briquette stoves for sale outside the coal briquette factory.
Believe it or not, this really is an information gap. Some defective coal briquette stoves from the coal briquette factory are sold directly at the sales office outside the factory, but apart from the people who live in that area and the people who work at the coal briquette factory, no one else really knows about it.
As soon as Mingxi said that, everyone in the courtyard's eyes lit up.
"Really? There are even stoves that don't require tickets!"
"Old Li, why don't you go take a look? If you're going, I'll go too. My stove has been used for several years and it's starting to malfunction."
"If you're going, I'll go take a look too!"
After discussing it, everyone decided to go and check out the coal briquette factory.
Mingxi and Zhao Sulan also went to see what was going on. When everyone rushed to the coal briquette factory, they were surprised to find that there were quite a few people there.
Mingxi scratched his head: "What day is it today? Why are there so many people outside the coal briquette factory? What are they all here to buy?"
Zhao Sulan thought for a moment: "They must be here to buy coal."
Mingxi: "Why did you buy coal so early?"
It's not even mid-October yet, why are you buying coal so early?
Zhao Sulan slapped her thigh and exclaimed, "Oh dear, we really need to get there early! This year, we don't need coal coupons to buy coal. We can buy as much as we want. Everyone should buy in advance, because we're afraid that all the coal will be sold out by the time we get there!"
Actually, it's not that you can't buy them.
Everyone was just too afraid of the cold.
In previous years, coal coupons were required to buy coal, and there were regulations on how much each household could buy. Each household was supplied with 300 jin of coal per month, which was equivalent to 170 yuan for honeycomb briquettes. In winter, the supply was increased to 450 jin of coal per household, which was equivalent to 240 yuan for honeycomb briquettes.
Don't be fooled by the amount of coal it sounds like; a stove that burns warmly consumes a lot of coal. In winter, with several rooms using one stove for boiling water, cooking, and heating, it consumes a lot of coal. If you really want to keep the rooms warm, this amount of coal is simply not enough.
It can only be said that the indoor temperature is basically maintained at a level where people won't freeze to death.
In previous years, coal supplies were tight, and everyone got through the cold. But this year is different. This year, coal supplies are unlimited, so everyone is making a concerted effort to stockpile more.
If you buy a little more, and I buy a little more, we're all afraid that in the end we won't be able to buy anything at all.
So everyone rushed to buy it first.
In previous years when supplies were limited, people would get up at one or two in the morning at the beginning of each month to queue up outside coal shops to buy coal. Now that supplies are unlimited, even more people are queuing up in advance to grab coal.
After Zhao Sulan reminded them, everyone remembered about buying coal and quickly joined the queue to buy it.
Aunt He didn't have much money on her. She told Mingxi to queue up for her while she went back to get the money, and then rushed home.
Mingxi joined the queue. Even though it was not yet mid-October, there were quite a few people buying coal, and the queue was very long, probably fifty or sixty meters.
Mingxi turned her head to look behind her. There were more people coming from behind. She could not see their faces clearly from a distance, but she could tell that there was a man and a woman. She guessed that they were also here to buy coal. They were quite well prepared, as they came by pushing a cart.
None of the middle-aged women in Mingxi Courtyard suggested pushing a cart over.
However, Mingxi wasn't in a hurry. She had just checked and found that there were people with handcarts next to the coal factory who could help deliver coal.
He wasn't an employee of the coal factory; he was probably someone from the neighborhood who was unemployed and came here to earn extra money by pushing his own cart. It wasn't expensive; he only charged five cents per delivery and even helped unload the goods.
Looking at it this way, five cents is quite a good deal. Mingxi plans to spend five cents to hire someone to help deliver the coal back in a little while.
As Mingxi was pondering this, the two people who had come up behind her also approached. She looked up and glanced at them.
Hey, it's two familiar faces.
Mingxi waved his hand: "Officer Bai, Comrade Cong!"
Bai Ling: "Hey, Mingxi! You're here to buy coal too?"
"Ah, no, we originally came here to... uh, no, let's say to buy coal, just pretend I came to buy coal!"
Mingxi wanted to say that she hadn't originally come to buy coal, but that would be a far cry from the point. Anyway, she decided to buy coal in the end, so she could say she came to buy coal!
Mingxi: "Officer Bai, are you here to buy coal too?"
Bai Ling nodded: "Yes, my mom originally said she was going to come with my dad to buy coal, but I thought they weren't in good health, their backs were bad, and they couldn't lift heavy things. Plus, I happened to be free today, so I thought I'd come and buy it myself. Cong Kai was also free today, so he came to help me out."
Mingxi winked and made a teasing "yo-yo" sound, "Comrade Cong, did you just happen to have some free time, or did you specially make time to help Bai Gong'an?"
Cong Kai blushed after Ming Xi said that.
Bai Ling glared at Ming Xi: "You're always joking around with him, bullying him!"
Mingxi's smile widened: "Oh, so you're protecting each other now. Are you two officially dating? Or are you still developing your relationship?"
Bai Ling didn't bother with any formalities and went straight to the point: "Ahem, let me introduce ourselves. We're currently in a relationship with marriage in mind. He's my boyfriend."
"Congratulations!" Mingxi said with a smile.
Bai Ling smiled and said, "I have to thank you for connecting us. If it weren't for you, I don't know when this idiot next to me would have been able to explain things to me."
Bai Ling truly felt she had to thank Ming Xi, not only because Ming Xi introduced her to Cong Kai, but also because Ming Xi acted as Cong Kai's strategist.
Although their meeting was brief, Bai Ling had a good impression of Cong Kai. She felt that this man was good-looking, spoke gently, and seemed to have a good temper. She could get along with him and have a good conversation with him.
She had only rushed around that day, taking the thief to the police station, when her boss made her work overtime. She thought Cong Kai would have a bad impression of her, but to her surprise, Cong Kai waited for her at the police station for a day and even asked her out to dinner.
Bai Ling felt that Cong Kai was a good person, but she was too busy those two days. There was a murder case in Dongcheng, and she worked overtime day and night. She didn't have time to go out to dinner with Cong Kai, so she had to refuse.
Unexpectedly, Cong Kai, that fool, misunderstood that she had no feelings for him.
Fortunately, Cong Kai went to Ming Xi, who gave him advice, telling him to come to her and ask her for clarification.
Bai Ling then realized that Cong Kai had misunderstood. The two talked things out and expressed their feelings. Bai Ling was not a coy person. Knowing that Cong Kai also had feelings for her, she immediately agreed to date him.
Once they started dating, they realized how lucky Mingxi was to have told Congkai to come to them. Otherwise, if Congkai hadn't come, they would have missed each other due to misunderstandings.
Therefore, Bai Ling was filled with gratitude towards Ming Xi at this moment.
She said, "You're the perfect matchmaker for us. Without you, we definitely wouldn't have gotten together. You have to come to our wedding, and we'll give you a big red envelope!"
Mingxi smiled and said, "Of course! I will definitely attend your wedding banquet. Even if there's no big red envelope, I will still go!"
Bai Ling laughed heartily: "Alright, it's settled then!"
Bai Ling: "Oh, by the way, have you been busy lately? A few people in my workplace know I have a boyfriend and want you to help them find someone. Is that convenient for you?"
Mingxi's eyes lit up: "Convenient, of course it's convenient!"
With customers delivering right to your door, what could be inconvenient about that!
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