Chapter 41
The video begins with a court judgment, followed by footage of her and her senior's wife pushing and shoving each other, and the sound of their argument is also played.
"Look at yourself! Do you even deserve your senior? He said he must have been blind to marry you. You're ugly enough, but you're like a dead fish in bed, with absolutely no passion. And yet you still cling to him like this? What makes you think you deserve this?"
"Why should he? Ask him why he should be where he is today! I gave him resources, connections, and built a platform for him. Without me, what would he be?! Am I ugly?!"
"Why don't you ask him about the simp he was when he was pursuing me? I was blind to believe him. Only today did I find out that you two were having an affair behind my back for years. Let me tell you, my family could have lifted him up back then, and my family can bring him down just as easily."
The scumbag was heartbroken and egged Yao Xue on with a few words, which led to a fight between the two women. As a result, the woman was pushed to the ground and lost her child before she could even experience the joy of having a child.
The video wasn't over yet; the next scene had the key parts of the human body blurred out, but the screen was completely white, clearly a private hotel room pornographic film.
The phone emitted the distinctive sounds of a woman and a man in bed. It was clear that the woman was Yao Xue, who was saying "harder" and "faster," accompanied by the man cursing "slut" and "dog" and the creaking of the bed frame as it was shaken.
Yao Xue quickly closed the video and deleted it all at once. She pointed at Jiang Lan in a fit of rage and said, "Jiang Lan, I never thought you were this kind of person!"
Jiang Lan watched as she spat out words, her usually affectedly sweet voice cracking, and felt a surge of secret pleasure. Her earlier annoyance at her dirty phone vanished.
"Me too, I never expected you to be this kind of person, Yao Xue. I wonder if anyone in the class group knows?"
"If you dare spread this around, I'll sue you for violating someone's privacy and disseminating obscene materials! Humph!"
Yao Xue, her words harsh but her heart pounding, warned Jiang Lan and got up to leave. Jiang Lan called her back. At that moment, Xiao Ming also answered the video call. Jiang Lan pointed the phone at Yao Xue, and Xiao Ming waved with a smile on his face.
"Hi, Ms. Yao. I remember telling you before that I hoped you would still be this happy and proud after a while. Why do you seem a little unhappy now?"
Yao Xue's face turned pale and then flushed as she lowered her head and rushed out of the reception room.
Jiang Lan walked out of the meeting room and instructed the receptionist, "Make a note of this person, and also tell the security department to add him to the company's visitor blacklist."
"Okay, Mr. Jiang."
Back in her office, Jiang Lan dialed her high school best friend Luo Qinyuan's number: "You're addicted to selling me out, aren't you?!"
The voice on the other end of the phone sounded a little weak: "Xiao Rou asked me for your address, and I didn't think it was anything that couldn't be told, so I gave it to her. It's... not to the point of [selling] me."
Jiang Lan suppressed her anger: "Don't you know who Wen Yarou is asking for my address for? Do you even know how many people have watched Yao Xue's porn? You sold me to such a slut just to be her lapdog?!"
There was no response on the other end of the phone. Jiang Lanxin felt a little cold: "I'll give you one last piece of advice: birds of a feather flock together. Don't end up being the one left holding the bag. Alright, from now on, we're strangers."
Jiang Lan took a deep breath after hanging up the phone, leaned back in her chair, and felt a little desolate.
In this materialistic world, people's hearts are fickle, and his way of interacting with others is inevitably changing in the direction of Xiaoming's "severing ties with family."
Jiang Lan is going back to the county town this weekend. His father asked him to go back and choose the materials for the house renovation. Apart from opening up his original room and the guest room next door, the original layout of the house will remain unchanged, so there is no need to redesign it, which saves a lot of trouble.
He originally wanted to be a hands-off parent, since he didn't spend much time at home anyway. He was willing to accept his parents decorating the house with themes like "prosperity and wealth," "harmony brings good fortune," or even a bathroom or hotel style.
But while lying in bed with Xiaoming scrolling through her phone, she laughed and said: "Then the bedroom dressing table will be mahogany, paired with a sliding door wardrobe in the style of a lotus pond under the moonlight, and red tile baseboards. It would be nice to go back there occasionally to sleep and get back to nature."
Following Xiaoming's words, Jiang Lan imagined the scene and was startled. Without hesitation, she agreed to go home and accompany her father to the building materials market, and even gave her parents some instructions:
“I’ll find the renovation team. Don’t accept any jobs from acquaintances. I’ll pay for everything. You just need to keep an eye on the progress.”
Jiang Lan found a renovation company on the platform. The company acted quickly. He paid the deposit and the renovation drawings were completed the next day. After Jiang Lan confirmed the drawings, the renovation team immediately started work.
The renovation was done in sections, so people didn't have to move out. However, apart from Jiang's parents, there wasn't enough room for anyone else to live there. Jiang Lan went and returned on the same day, so Xiao Ming didn't go back with her.
Jiang Lan returned home early in the morning, and before she even drove her car into the yard, her father and the foreman got into her car and went to the building materials market.
I walked around so much that my legs got thinner, and I didn't get home until the afternoon.
During lunch, Jiang's mother said to Jiang Lan with a gossipy look on her face, "Your classmate Yao Xue got fired from her job."
Jiang Lan raised an eyebrow to indicate that she was listening. Jiang's mother continued, "You really can't tell people like that. Do you know why she was fired?"
"Why?"
"She used to be someone's mistress. When the wife found out, she beat the wife so badly that she miscarried. The wife sued her. She was locked up for a few days and had to pay a lot of money. After all that trouble, her company fired her."
Jiang Lan responded with a few "uh-huhs," but instead of receiving any exclamations of surprise or admiration from her son, Jiang's mother glared at him several times. She scolded, "Men are all the same, not a single one of them is any good. Look, it's clearly the man who cheats, but it's always the woman who bears the consequences!"
The men present were silently and inexplicably lumped into the "bad guys" category, leaving Jiang Lan no choice but to offer her explanation:
"That man had to bear the consequences. His law firm went bankrupt, his wife divorced him, and he was left with a mountain of debt."
"That's great news. Hmm... how did you hear that?"
"My classmate said so."
Actually, it was Xiaoming who told him. He asked Xiaoming how he had so many sources of information, and Xiaoming casually replied, "I know many people from all walks of life. This original wife was found by a senior business information consultant I know."
Jiang Lan asked her how much it cost to investigate the information, and Xiao Ming said, "It didn't cost any money, and I even made a little profit. That original wife is incredibly shrewd and worldly-wise."
After Jiang's father finished eating and went back to his bedroom to rest, Jiang's mother said mysteriously to her son, "Did you know that your cousin got divorced?"
"Which cousin...the younger cousin from my aunt's family?"
"Who else is it? It's him."
"His child isn't even a year old yet, how could they be divorced?"
"Your cousin is always doing nothing productive, stealing chickens and dogs all the time, and your aunt is the same way. She was complaining to someone online, and they started dating. She even went to meet someone behind her family's back... what was it again?"
"Face-to-face meeting".
"Yes, he met up with someone in person. I heard he even went to a hotel and slept with someone. After he came back, he packed his things, stole some of your aunt's jewelry, and left without a word. He didn't take the child with him either."
"???? No need to go through divorce proceedings?"
"What procedures were they going through? They didn't even get a marriage certificate. The woman came into the house while she was heavily pregnant, and I didn't even see her parents."
"And now?"
"Your cousin is living a carefree life, just as happy as ever. Your aunt is taking care of the child, without having to spend any money or effort. With a son like this, your aunt is truly blessed. Although he's still young now, she'll probably have to raise this child to adulthood. She'll just have to put up with it."
After sighing, Jiang's mother looked at her son and couldn't help but feel a sense of pride. She stroked his hair and said softly, "Your dad's friend sent over a styrofoam box of bayberries. You can share half of them with Xiaoming later."
"Yes, thank you, Mom."
After settling the renovation details, Jiang Lan returned home with a trunk full of her mother's loving local specialties, bathed in the setting sun.
The renovation took two months from start to finish. Jiang Lan was busy with this whenever she had free time, and Xiao Ming would sometimes accompany her.
As the time on her high-speed train ticket back to Xiaoming's hometown drew closer, Jiang Lan became increasingly nervous.
Two nights before departure, a major incident suddenly broke in the Dream Cube group: three mercenaries had died in accidents in the real world at the same time.
These three people, who lived in different cities, died unexpectedly at the same time.
Mercenary deaths are not uncommon. When the first one was revealed, it didn't attract much attention except for some mercenaries who knew the victim. When the second one was revealed, someone said, "What a coincidence." But when the third one was revealed, the group was in an uproar.
Official personnel in the group quickly took action, hiding and blocking relevant messages, and issuing a notice asking everyone to remain restrained and refrain from making inappropriate remarks that could cause a disturbance. A report will be released once the official investigation is complete; please wait patiently.
Jiang Lan was also very curious about the cause of the three deaths, as this was the first incident in the Dream Cube where multiple mercenaries had died simultaneously. Although everyone in the group guessed that they had most likely encountered something strange in the Dream Cube and failed to escape, the fact that three people died at the same time in the dream was very illogical.
Let's wait for the official investigation results.
Jiang Lan asked Xiaoming what brand of cigarettes his future father-in-law liked to smoke, whether he liked to drink alcohol, and whether he preferred green tea or black tea.
Xiao Ming directly rejected his plan to bring cigarettes, alcohol, and tea: "What do my family do? Do you need to spend that money on me? Just bring some local specialties that we can't buy anywhere else."
"What about your aunt? What about your brother and sister-in-law? And Yuan Yuan?"
"Treat everyone equally, no need to bring any. When you go back, give Yuan Yuan a few game skins, and he can call you whatever you want."
That strange feeling resurfaced, and Jiang Lan couldn't help but call Liu Zhen: "What did you buy when you first went to your father-in-law's house?"
"Damn, you're efficient! You're coming already? When?"
"Double Ninth Festival".
"Oh, so you asked for leave to go to your father-in-law's house. You even wrote 'personal leave' as the reason for your leave. It's not very nice of you to hide it like that."
"Stop talking nonsense, what should I give you?"
"The four staples: cigarettes, alcohol, tea, and nutritional supplements. If you feel that's not serious or substantial enough, then go for high-end jewelry, watches, and cosmetics."
"If it's a small town and the family is frugal, then give them something practical and that holds its value."
Jiang Lan suddenly understood: local specialties plus gold—it had both unique appeal and value retention.
The night before departure, Jiang's mother called Jiang Lan and gave him repeated instructions, fearing that her son might say something hurtful and ruin the marriage that was already in her grasp.
"Be more proactive, take the initiative when you see something to do, and be observant."
"Be sweet-talking, be affectionate, and compliment people more."
Xiao Ming found it amusing that he hadn't slept well all night and teased him:
"They say a mother-in-law is more and more satisfied with her son-in-law the more she looks at him. My mom even praised you for being handsome and said she likes you a lot. My dad is also very satisfied with you. Don't worry, I'm here. Just think of it as a visit to my home and a chance to see where I grew up."
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