Zhan Chunlan hadn't had a chance to experience the Song family's techniques yet, but she had certainly witnessed her older sister Zhan Chunhua's methods firsthand.
Even though she's watched countless short dramas in modern times and thinks she knows all the tropes of leading and supporting actresses, she can't help but sigh: "There is no end to learning, and diligence is the only way to reach the mountain of knowledge." You really have to keep learning until you die!
Zhan Chunhua arranged to meet Jiao Lei, but not at the state-run restaurant, which was his father's territory. They met at People's Park.
This made things convenient for Zhan Chunlan. It was a weekend, and she had just finished dealing with the Zhu family's matter. It was Zhan Chunyun's turn to cook, so she had time to stroll around outside.
It's a bit of a shame that my cheat system is a system that can monitor me closely in real time.
Zhan Chunhua and Jiao Lei sat on a park bench. Jiao Lei looked cheerful, but Zhan Chunhua looked sad.
"Comrade Jiao Lei, the reason I came out this time is to tell you that we... should... let's just call it quits." As she said this, Zhan Chunhua's eyes were red and tears were welling up in them. She looked like a crystal doll, as if she could shatter at the slightest touch.
Jiao Lei had never met a woman like this before, and he was immediately at a loss. He didn't even hear what she was saying, and just kept gently comforting her: "What's wrong? Did my mom say something to you? Don't take her words to heart, I'll talk to her properly when I get back."
Zhan Chunlan shook her head, sobbing uncontrollably: "No, Auntie didn't come looking for me. It's just that I feel like I'm a burden to you."
"You're so good, how could you be a burden?" Jiao Lei breathed a sigh of relief when he heard her say that.
“You have younger siblings in school, and your parents are getting old. All the burdens are on your shoulders, and you need someone to help you share the load…”
Jiao Lei was puzzled. "Really? Am I under that much pressure? Didn't my parents say that my younger siblings are all my responsibility?"
"But my family favors boys over girls and can't offer me any help. Even this job I have now, I found it myself..."
Jiao Lei felt heartbroken when he heard her say these words, but he was tongue-tied and didn't know how to comfort her. He wanted to pat her back, but he raised his hand and didn't dare to put it down, afraid that someone would see it. He was so anxious that he was restless.
"You can find a girl with better financial conditions; she might not care so much about the bride price."
Really? Do girls with good financial conditions not care about the bride price?
Seeing that he seemed to be thinking seriously, Zhan Chunhua used all her strength to control herself and not slap his big face.
She looked up at Jiao Lei, tears streaming down her face like round, bright pearls falling into his heart.
“But my parents don’t like daughters. They raised me all these years and even lent me money to find me a job, just so they could sell me for a good price and help support my younger brother in the future. If you stay with me, you’ll just be a burden to me.”
After saying that, she turned her head away, not daring to look at that excited, flushed face, afraid that she would burst out laughing.
"I wish I could leave this family sooner. I've always wanted a home, a home of my own, where I don't have to take care of my younger siblings and can just focus on building my own little family."
"Go back now, and don't come looking for me again."
After Zhan Chunhua finished her last line with a sob in her voice, she ran away, leaving Jiao Lei alone on the spot. He belatedly reached out his arm, wanting to stop her, but his feet seemed to be frozen in place, and he didn't move. He only whispered "Chunhua!" before slowly sitting down, and no one knew what he was thinking.
Zhan Chunlan stamped her frozen feet. "Tsk, how come both of my older sisters in this family seem more like the main characters than me? Am I just a supporting character in this world? And there's a control group in the family, are we all cannon fodder? Did I transmigrate into another world or into a book?"
She walked and thought, but even after entering the house, she still couldn't figure it out. However, she did come to a conclusion: since she had never read any novels with those names, it wouldn't make any sense to transmigrate into a book. She didn't know any of the plots, so whether it was transmigration or transmigration into a book, it didn't matter. She didn't ask for great wealth and status, she just wanted a stable job, a pension when she got old, and to happily do square dancing with the old folks every day!
Jiao Lei walked home with his frozen head, when he encountered a group of old ladies chatting.
"Have you heard? The Zhang family's daughter-in-law has taken the family's food rations back to her parents' home again."
"Is she the Zhang family's wife who has four younger brothers? I heard from the old lady of the Zhang family that Tian Feng lent all her family's money to her eldest brother to get married. She said it was a loan, but after all these years, even though the child is several years old, she still hasn't paid it back."
"The Zhang family is really unlucky to have married such a daughter-in-law. It is said that her second brother is getting married now, and there are also her third and fourth brothers to come."
“I heard from my grandson that her third brother felt it was unfair that her two older brothers spent so much money, and asked her to give up her job to him.”
"How can he be so shameless? This job doesn't belong to Tian Feng; it's Zhang's younger sister who got it on her own! When she got married, she didn't want a dowry, she just wanted this job. Zhang's younger sister had no choice but to give it to her, and she's been working in the countryside for the past two years."
"Tsk tsk, she's sucking the blood of the Zhang family to support her old Tian family! How could Tian Feng do such a thing? Doesn't her husband care?"
"Of course we'll manage it. This time, her second brother is getting married and her third brother needs to work, so her husband disagrees. We just don't know if he can control him."
"Tsk tsk, what a mess. I don't think that Xiao Zhang is any better. He stole his own sister's job after getting married. Is that something a human being would do?"
"I haven't seen Zhang Xiaomei for years. It seems she went to the countryside and never came back. Sigh~ that girl is really unlucky~"
A group of elderly women sat together, sighing and complaining about other people's affairs, creating a somewhat comical scene.
Another old lady suddenly thought of another family and quickly said, "Let me tell you, the reason why the Zhang family is living like this is because the men in the Zhang family are stupid. In fact, the girls in families that favor sons over daughters are the easiest to manipulate."
A group of elderly women, seeing that she had a different opinion, quickly gathered around her: "What do you mean?"
The old lady became the center of attention, somewhat proudly saying, "Because girls like this have never been cared for at home. If you are willing to show that you care about her a lot, you don't even need to do anything. Just a word of comfort will be enough for her to repay you tenfold. If you show a little bit of care through your actions, she will repay you a hundredfold and completely forget about her family."
"Really?" The old lady frowned and recalled, "I remember I married my old man because he shared half of a steamed rice cake with me. That was the first time I ever ate steamed rice cake, and I still remember the taste. I thought he was a caring person, but after we got married, I had to bring him his meals. Yet I always felt that he was good to me."
"Eek~" The old ladies around her all curled their lip. "You were fooled by half a steamed bun? My husband at least gave me a month's salary, even though he hasn't paid me since we got married..."
Towards the end, her voice was so soft that no one around could hear her. But everyone here had lived most of their lives and had seen it all, so they knew what she was talking about.
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