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"Zhou Yue, crying your eyes out won't help, I'm getting a divorce!"
Summer of 1983.
As soon as Liang Guiying arrived at her son's dormitory, she heard her son, Zheng Fangshu, shouting and forcing his wife to divorce him.
She put down her heavy burden, kicked the door open, and shouted, "Zheng Fangshu, why are you getting a divorce?!"
This is the staff dormitory of Jiangcheng Boiler Factory, located at the foot of Lianhua Mountain, consisting of more than a dozen rows of small bungalows made of red bricks.
Liang Guiying's son, Zheng Fangshu, is the deputy head of the technical department. His housing was allocated according to the standards for grassroots cadres, and it was a small one-bedroom apartment.
He leaned against the door, looking impatient, while his daughter-in-law, Zhou Yue, was sitting on the ground, crying her heart out.
Liang Guiying rushed over and grabbed Zhou Yue, yelling, "Cry, cry, cry! All you do is cry! You're crying away all your good fortune!"
Zhou Yue is 1.65 meters tall, but she is thin and weak, like a bamboo pole. Liang Guiying is strong and didn't control her strength when she lifted her, almost throwing her into the air.
Pulling her back with force, Liang Guiying pressed her down onto the stool next to her, then asked her son, "Fang Shu, how do you plan to get a divorce?"
Upon seeing Liang Guiying, Zheng Fangshu felt a moment of guilt, but he forced himself to remain calm: "Mom, what brings you here?"
"How I got here is unimportant. Just tell me how you plan to get a divorce," Liang Guiying stared intently at her son. "Don't worry about whether Zhou Yue is willing or not. Your mother has plenty of ways to control her!"
Liang Guiying has a fierce face and speaks quickly, urgently, and rapidly, like a machine gun. Not only is Zhou Yue afraid of her, but even Zheng Fangshu, who is now a junior cadre in the boiler factory, is still afraid of her.
Zheng Fangshu didn't dare to delay for a second and quickly said, "Xiaonian let her take it away, and the house in the airport residential area also belongs to her. I can't give her anything more."
"The house in the airport residential area was left by Zhou Yue's parents, and it has nothing to do with you! If you want a divorce, you should do it in a dignified way. I don't want to be pointed at and gossiped about when I go out, with people saying that I'm living off my ex-daughter-in-law's family fortune!"
"But--"
Liang Guiying gave direct instructions: "Give Zhou Yue 1,000 yuan in cash, plus vouchers worth no less than 1,000 yuan! Consider it a buyout of your father-daughter relationship with Xiaonian! From now on, whether Xiaonian is in school or sick, she won't come to you. And even if you are old, sick, or dead and destitute, you can't come to her for help!"
How did his mother know that he happened to have 1,000 yuan in cash and 1,000 yuan worth of vouchers?
Before Zheng Fangshu could figure it out, Liang Guiying went over and pinched his ear: "You think you're all grown up now? You dare to disobey me?"
"mom--"
"If you don't want Chen Zhilan to be called a vixen when she goes out, then don't give her a single penny!"
Liang Guiying spoke in a low voice, but Zheng Fangshu felt as if he had been struck by lightning.
"Mom, how did you know—"
"You're my child. I can tell whether you want to poop or pee just by the way you turn your butt up. What don't I know about you?"
Liang Guiying said in a deep voice, "It's three o'clock now, and there are still three hours before the Civil Affairs Bureau closes for the day. If you're quick, you can finish the procedures today. Otherwise, once Zhou Yue finds out about you and Chen Zhilan, she'll come to the factory and cause trouble. You can forget about your future!"
A thousand yuan in cash, plus vouchers worth no less than a thousand yuan—this was practically the death knell for Zheng Fangshu.
But compared to his future and Chen Zhilan's situation, this amount of money doesn't seem like much or excessive.
Zheng Fangshu turned around and went inside to bring out the money and vouchers.
Liang Guiying snatched the money and tickets away and called to Zhou Yue, "Let's go get a divorce!"
"I won't get a divorce!"
The usually timid Zhou Yue grabbed Zheng Fangshu, her eyes filled with despair. "Zheng Fangshu, when you proposed to me, you clearly said you would never leave me for the rest of your life, but now you're forcing me to get a divorce. Zheng Fangshu, didn't you ever think that I wouldn't be able to live without a divorce?"
"You can't live without a divorce? Were you a ghost before you got married?" Zheng Fangshu glared at her. "Let me tell you, Zhou Yue, even if you hang yourself here today, I'll—"
"Zheng Fangshu!"
Liang Guiying forcefully shoved Zheng Fangshu aside, then turned to Zhou Yue and glared at her: "You won't get a divorce, huh? Fine! Fangshu, you lock her up, I'm going to pick up Xiaonian and give her up for adoption! You and your daughter will never see each other again in this lifetime!"
Zhou Yue's weakness was her daughter, Xiao Nian. Whenever Liang Guiying mentioned Zhou Xiao Nian, Zhou Yue was immediately put in her place.
She nodded through her tears: "Okay, I agree to the divorce."
Liang Guiying held Zheng Fangshu's hand with her left hand and pulled Zhou Yue with her right hand as they went to the Civil Affairs Bureau to sign the divorce papers.
Zheng Fangshu took the green booklet and was about to take Liang Guiying back to Lianhua Mountain when Liang Guiying stopped him: "You're busy with work, and it's not easy for you to come to the city. Why don't you just go to the police station up ahead and transfer Zhou Yue and Xiao Nian's household registrations out?"
Zheng Fangshu was of course willing. After transferring their household registrations, he would have no further connection with Zhou Yue and her daughter. He was so decisive that Zhilan would definitely be happy.
The police station was not far from the civil affairs bureau, just a few minutes' walk away. During the walk, Zhou Yue seemed to be in a daze, and Liang Guiying held her back the whole time.
Before long, Zhou Yue and Zheng Xiaonian were removed from Zheng Fangshu's household registration.
Zheng Fangshu asked, "Mom, can we go back now? It's a holiday tomorrow, I'll cook you a nice feast!"
Liang Guiying pointed at Zhou Yue: "How can I leave like this? What if she jumps into the river? You divorced her and she jumps in the river right after. Don't you think the police will come after you? Don't you think the factory security will come after you? What about your future? What about my reputation? You go first! I'll take her home safely first!"
Zheng Fangshu understands.
Despite his mother's fierce appearance, she was actually a very upright person. He remembered that when he was a child, his family was short of food, but they still took in a mother and child who had fled famine for a full half month.
She treats strangers this way, let alone Zhou Yue, who was once her daughter-in-law and has her own granddaughter.
However, since Mom is such an upright and honest person, why didn't she beat him up when she knew he was cheating?
Why did she so readily agree to his divorce from Zhou Yue, and even take the initiative to suggest that he sever his father-daughter relationship with his daughter Xiaonian?
Zheng Fangshu sensed a conspiracy.
But Liang Guiying is his biological mother. Would his biological mother turn around and harm her own son for the sake of Zhou Yue, an outsider?
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