As she carried her child out, the sun was setting, and there were beautiful sunset clouds on the horizon. She looked up at them for a while and suddenly felt that her future was bright.
So what if He Yan doesn't want them? They'll still live a good life.
Back at the guesthouse, the child's diaper was soaked through. She quickly changed it. It was so annoying that there weren't even disposable diapers these days. The diaper couldn't last more than a few peees.
She fed the baby again, and after the baby was full, he burped contentedly and gave Xiaohua a sweet smile.
Xiaohua happily reached out and tapped her baby's little face with her finger: "Wow, baby, you can smile now? You're so amazing! Mommy gives you a thumbs up!"
That night, she slept soundly with her child in her arms, without any worries or anxieties about the future, only confidence and anticipation.
The next day, Su Qin brought He Ya over.
Su Qin and He Ya still acted superior and looked down on everyone, and Xiao Hua suppressed the urge to roll her eyes at them.
He asked, without any emotion, "Did you bring the money?"
Su Qin threw a thick envelope onto the table along with an agreement document.
"Sign it. From now on, you and He Yan will have absolutely no relationship."
Xiaohua didn't sign immediately. Instead, she picked up the envelope containing the money. She noticed that it was obviously less than 30,000 yuan thick. She felt it in her hand and weighed it. It was at most 10,000 yuan. Moreover, there were some small denomination banknotes mixed in with it.
It's probably around five thousand at most.
I immediately felt that this was going too far!
"Where's the promised 30,000? This isn't 30,000 at all! Are you trying to take advantage of me because I can't count?"
Xiaohua slammed the money down on the table.
He Ya arrogantly said, "Giving you five thousand is just our family being kind. Don't be so shameless. If you have the guts, go ahead and cause trouble. Do you think anyone would help you, a peasant woman with no relatives or friends in this big city?"
Su Qin pretended to stop He Ya, signaling her to shut up and stop talking.
“Xiaohua, you and He Yan were once husband and wife. Although our family is a wealthy family, we are still public servants. We really can’t come up with 30,000 yuan in cash right now. Why don’t you take this money and take the child back to your hometown for now? We will transfer the money to you when we have cash later.”
Xiaohua picked up the divorce agreement from the table, glanced at it briefly, and found the contents to be utterly offensive.
She waved the agreement in her hand: "Okay, I'll sign it once you've raised the money."
Su Qin could no longer maintain her noblewoman demeanor and angrily bared her teeth at Xiao Hua, saying, "I'll give you an extra five thousand. You'd better sign it now, or I won't give you a single penny. You and He Yan can still get a divorce. Do you think our family can't do that?"
After all that talk, all they want is to pay less.
Xiao Hua chuckled coldly a few times.
“I believe you. If that’s the case, why bother making me sign the papers? Not a penny less than 30,000. Next time, have He Yan bring the money over to talk to me. After all, it’s me who’s divorcing him! What kind of man is he if he doesn’t step forward and hides behind his mother and sister?”
Finally, Xiaohua threw the money and documents directly at Su Qin and He Ya's faces, kicking them out the door.
Actually, she didn't have to take the money, and she could have signed the document more readily. But she was disgusted by their bullying and tyrannical behavior. She despised a man who didn't even want his own flesh and blood.
Although the child was conceived through the original owner Ye Xiaohua's scheme, the child has already been born, so shouldn't he, as the biological father, take responsibility?
After returning home, Su Qin called He Yan and complained bitterly about Ye Xiaohua's misdeeds. She said that Ye Xiaohua demanded 30,000 yuan from them before she would sign the divorce papers. Some of this was true, but Su Qin and He Ya had exaggerated the story.
Of course, Xiao Hua didn't care what He Yan thought of her; she didn't care about that jerk at all.
He Yan only said on the phone that the divorce should be put on hold for now, and that he would discuss it again when he returned from the army. He also said that he could apply to the army for a divorce after they had been separated for two years due to their irreconcilable differences.
The divorce was temporarily put on hold because the He family reneged on the agreement and didn't pay the full 30,000 yuan. Xiaohua moved from the guesthouse to a newly rented house with her child.
It was an old-style company-provided apartment, one bedroom and one living room, with the kitchen in the corridor and a shared bathroom. To be honest, it was very inconvenient, but for that era, the housing conditions were already quite good.
The rent isn't too expensive, only forty yuan a month, plus five yuan for water and electricity, making it forty-five yuan a month. We buy our own honeycomb briquettes for cooking.
She successfully landed a job as a high school math tutor. The physics tutoring job she had previously applied for was rejected because the male homeowner disliked her for having a child and not being able to provide a graduation certificate.
The high school math tutor position she applied for was also hosted by the female owner of the house. Both were kind and easy-going women who were able to empathize with her and understand her perspective.
The tuition for high school is relatively expensive. She goes twice a week, with two classes each time, and each class costs 10 yuan. In this way, she can earn 160 yuan a month at this school. With the income from tutoring English, she has more than 300 yuan a month, which is enough for her and her child to live on.
Tuition fees are settled weekly, and I received my first week's tutoring fee.
Xiaohua bought several outfits for herself and her child. After all, it's a big city, and if you dress poorly, people will really look down on you.
Tutoring only earns her a little over 300 yuan a month, which is far from her ideal. But she can't earn more money while taking care of her child. She can only wait until her child is a little older before making any plans. For now, she'll just keep doing what she has to do.
During that year, Xiaohua took on two more tutoring jobs through her parents' introductions, and her income increased. She moved from a tenement building to a commercial apartment, and the rent increased from tens of yuan to more than one hundred yuan.
She has high standards for housing; she doesn't want to cook in the hallway or share a toilet with others. She'd rather save money elsewhere but still live in a better place.
The real estate market is now developing rapidly in Shanghai, and wealthy people have already bought apartments and moved into mid-rise buildings.
Xiaohua's biggest goal now is to save money to buy a house, so that she and her child can have a stable home.
A diploma is very important. When her child was one year old, Xiaohua gritted her teeth and spent more than 100 yuan a month to hire a daytime nanny to help her take care of the child. This way, she could tutor more families and earn more money.
She also had extra time to read books and wanted to retake the college entrance examination. She had looked at the current college entrance examination papers, which were much easier than those from decades later, and she thought it wouldn't be difficult for her to get into Fudan University again.
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