4.004 First Discussion on Divorce
"I rushed back and haven't eaten yet. Is there any leftover lunch you made? I'm hungry." After confirming that everything was alright at home, I felt relieved and started to feel hungry.
"There's still a bowl of rice left, I'll heat it up for you." Su Yu decided to wait until he had filled his stomach before talking to him about divorce.
“No need to heat it up, eating hot food on this hot day will only make you sweat.” He handed her a cloth bag he was carrying and walked towards the kitchen. “I came back in a hurry this time and didn’t have time to look for anything. There are two cans in here. The bottles were cracked when I was moving them, so Wang Ge and I each took two. You can take them in and wait for the two kids to come back to eat.”
Su Yu took out the can and saw that there was a dent on the bottom of the bottle, but the dent was very shallow and the bottle was not broken. There were two cans of oranges. In those days, you needed coupons to buy anything, and you couldn't just buy things with money. There were very few snacks that children could eat. Only Ning Jin, who was a truck driver, could bring some things back with him every time he delivered goods.
She sat still in the chair, watching the man shovel rice into his mouth with gusto, his cheeks bulging out, clearly very hungry.
"Eat slowly, don't choke. This is cooled boiled water, drink some. The rice is quite dry without any vegetables." She went into the house and took a bowl of water from the pot and put it on the table for him.
"White rice tastes sweet and refreshing, how could it feel dry?" But he still picked up the water and drank it all in one gulp.
After eating and drinking water, she pushed the two bowls onto the table, rubbed her face, and said, "I'm not hungry anymore, I just want to sleep. I'll go pick up Ping An and Xiao Yuan. You can cook at home. I saw there's a piece of bone in the cupboard. Stew it with potatoes for dinner. In this hot weather, even if you soak meat in water, it will spoil quickly."
"Wait, I have something to tell you. Don't go pick up the kids yet."
"We can talk about it tonight. I'm going to pick up the kids first." Ning Jin noticed her expression was off and instinctively wanted to leave quickly. He felt that what she was saying wasn't what he wanted to hear.
"Let's get a divorce." She spoke before he even took a step, the heavy words slipping out, yet Su Yu felt a sense of relief.
"What? What are you talking about?" Ning Jin couldn't believe what he was hearing. He scratched the back of his head and spun around twice before asking, "Tell me honestly, did something happen to Ping An?"
Only in this way could he understand her sudden madness.
"What does this have to do with Ping An? Oh, so you don't trust her and think she caused trouble for your son and wants to divorce you?" She understood what he meant and immediately loosened her grip on his hand. "Ping An is fine. He had a fight with Xiao Yuan and went to your parents' house for lunch. Your mother said he went to his maternal grandmother's house in the afternoon. If you don't believe me, go ask him yourself."
Ning Jin didn't understand what she meant by "So you don't believe her." How could it be her? But even though he had doubts, he didn't press her for details in the face of divorce. He just assumed she had misspoke and explained, "I don't disbelieve you. I just don't understand why you want a divorce. Why would you even think about divorce? What respectable family would get a divorce? These days, divorces are usually about reporting each other and severing ties. You're not thinking of reporting me, are you?"
He asked jokingly, but what he really wanted to know was whether she had taken a fancy to another man and wanted to divorce and remarry.
This interruption actually made Su Yu feel relieved and calm down. It was true that he was panicked by the death of "Su Yu", but the complicated relationships and fragile trust in the second marriage family were also real.
“I want to divorce you just because I’m tired, it has nothing to do with anything else.” Su Yu explained calmly, “I went through a near-death experience and figured out a lot of things. If I marry you, not only will I have more things to do, but I will also have more people to take care of. What’s even more tiring is this complicated relationship, the relatives who treat me coldly, and having to be submissive for more than half a year. I don’t want to compromise anymore. If I hadn’t been lucky the day before yesterday, I would have fainted and probably wouldn’t have woken up. I’ve already buried you when you came back today. I’ve figured it out, not getting married will actually reduce the trouble.”
"Aren't we doing well now? If you're still worried, I'll take you to the hospital for another checkup. Don't be so stubborn at work in the future; try to slack off whenever you can. We have two sons now, and if we have a daughter later, the five of us will be a happy family. Let's not talk about divorce anymore. Are you tired? Go inside and get some sleep." Ning Jin didn't want to talk about it anymore and wanted to get it over with quickly. He bent down and spoke directly to her face, putting his hands on her shoulders as if to help her into the house to lie down for a while.
"I was talking about relatives who treated me coldly. I've been meek and obedient for half a year and you haven't heard me, have you?" Su Yu broke free from his hand and began to explain in detail: "Just half a month after we got our marriage certificate, you started driving long-distance cars, leaving the kids, parents, brothers, and sisters-in-law all to me. Your mother would suddenly show up at the door every few days, like she was scouting the place, to warn me not to bully your son, to be discreet and well-behaved outside, and she even followed me. When I went to buy groceries, I ran into an old classmate and chatted for a bit, and she pounced on me and slapped me twice, accusing me of prostituting myself while my husband wasn't home."
Su Yu stared at the man in front of her. "I did as she wished. I have a reputation for being a flirt. I don't dare to walk with my head up when I go out. I go home and stay there after get off work, for fear of running into my former classmates."
"Why didn't you tell me? I didn't know. You should have told me." Ning Jin ran her hands through her short, stubble-covered hair, looking both distressed and angry.
Su Yu didn't know why the original owner didn't say anything. Maybe she was conservative and shy, afraid of making a big fuss, afraid that the man wouldn't believe her. Her memories only included what had happened. She had no idea what the original owner was thinking. But that didn't stop her from being angry. "What good would it do to tell you? Would you help me fight back?"
She stopped him from speaking and continued, "And Ping An's maternal grandparents' house, your former mother-in-law and brother-in-law also came to warn me that if I dared to let Ping An suffer any grievances, they would send someone to deal with me. Your son also listens to his grandmother and brother-in-law. Whenever he is unhappy, he goes to his grandmother. After I brought him back, he still goes against me. If I buy a piece of meat, he says I am a glutton. If I fry two eggs, he insists on making them bigger. Oh, and he also sends rice and flour from home to his grandmother's house."
“I’ll teach him a lesson. Tomorrow I’ll go to his maternal grandparents’ house to pick him up and then talk to his grandparents and uncle. Ping’an’s mother has been gone for six years. Apart from Ping’an, our two families have no other contact.” To avoid being interrupted again, he quickly promised, “You should have told me. If you hadn’t told me, I wouldn’t have known that you were being bullied. If Ping’an’s uncle comes to threaten you again, just shout ‘robbery!’ Send him to jail. When I get back, tell me again, and I’ll go beat him up. As for my mother, I’ll talk to her later. You said you can’t help you fight back, but I promise she won’t do it again.”
The man's attitude seemed acceptable, but her anger couldn't be quelled by his few words. In her memory, she saw a 27-year-old honest and kind woman who, after being full of expectations for starting a new family at the time of her marriage, gradually became sullen, walking with her chest hunched and head down, working silently at work, afraid of running into acquaintances after get off work, and even suspecting that people were laughing at her when they whispered and laughed on the street. After returning home, she had to mediate between her two children, be wary of her mother-in-law suddenly coming to inspect, and be wary of her stepson's maternal relatives causing trouble.
She also instructed her son, Xu Yuan, not to let it slip when he went back to his maternal grandparents' house. She was a farmer's daughter who had lost her husband and was raising her son after graduating from junior high school. She had married a man in town who had a job, and he had even bought her a job. Everyone in the village envied her. Even though she suspected that many people knew about her mother-in-law slapping her in the street and was extremely upset, she still had to maintain a respectable image and only report good news to her family.
Even Su Yu, an observer, was furious. The original owner of this body was an honest and patient person. She had lived a good life for five years after marrying Xu Yuan's father. However, the man slipped and was killed by a stone he was carrying while quarrying. The quarry paid a sum of money and gave her a job, but none of it went to her. She was even forced to remarry by Xu's family, who wanted to take over her family's house. Fortunately, she had her father to back her up.
But Xu Yuan's uncles didn't dare to act openly, so they resorted to underhanded tactics. Su Yu endured it all, afraid that if she gave in, the house would belong to someone else, and her son would become a pitiful little dependent. Gradually, people started knocking on the widow's door at night, and she dared not sleep all night long, until she met Ning Jin, who agreed to let her remarry with her son.
However, the Xu family refused to let her take Xu Yuan away, saying that he was the lifeblood of the Xu family and they were afraid that she would change his surname. They refused to let her change her household registration, even though if Xu Yuan went with her he would have a town household registration and receive food and ration coupons every month.
The original owner was afraid that if she remarried, she would have to rely on a man for food and she would have a son who would eat for free. So she discussed with Ning Jin about asking him to find her a job, and she would pay him back when she earned money.
In this respect, Su Yu admired her quite a bit. She was honest and didn't talk much, but she was very clear-headed. She recognized the wolfish nature of the Xu family and was determined to take Xu Yuan away. Fearing that her son would be wronged, she made a condition that he had a job before the marriage.
She thought this must be why "Su Yu" had been suffering grievances and bullying for the past six months, swallowing her bitterness and not wanting to cause Ning Jin any trouble. In comparison, she had a job and income at the Ning family's house, and a man who was often away from home, but with him around, no ill-intentioned people would knock on her door at night.
"No, I still want a divorce. Just thinking about your family relationships gives me a headache. Your mother, your ex-mother-in-law, your current mother-in-law, my ex-mother-in-law, my son, your son—there's never a moment of peace among these people. I can't handle it." She really couldn't handle it. She was used to living alone and hated the complicated relationships among all her relatives. Just like Ningjin said, he couldn't do anything to his mother. If she didn't listen to him and made a scene, wouldn't she be the one dealing with her in the end? Besides, he was often not home.
"Tell me honestly, do you have someone else outside?" Ning Jin stared at her and asked in a deep voice.
"No, I'm at home all the time except when I'm at work. Where would I go to steal a man?" She gave him a disapproving look.
"Then I won't agree to a divorce, and you can forget about it. As you just said, even if I divorce you, you won't have an easy time. Your mother is forcing you to remarry, you have to earn money to support your son, and your former mother-in-law is stirring up trouble. Just stay with me and we'll live a good life. As for Ping An, there's still my former mother-in-law and my mother. I'll talk to them."
"And you said before that you were being bullied and wanted a divorce, but I'm also wronged. My wife was being bullied and I was kept in the dark. Now you're directly asking me for a divorce, and I'm furious. Why didn't you tell me before? Why are you just telling me the result now? I don't agree. Can't we just live a normal life together? Now I understand, and I'll stand up for you from now on." He squatted between her legs, looking up at her face, and said this as if he were pleading.
"I……"
"What do you mean, 'what do you mean, 'what do you mean'? Shut up, I'm not getting a divorce." The man interrupted her, not giving her a chance to argue further, and got up to tug at his pants. "I'm going to pee, I'm dying to pee."
"Rude." Su Yu glanced at him and watched him flee in panic.
Even if they couldn't reach an agreement, they still had to cook dinner. Besides, Su Yu's thoughts were a bit chaotic. She needed to think carefully about what to do next. If Ning Jin insisted on not divorcing her, she would have to expose him and send him to jail, but that method was too cruel. She wasn't that heartless. So there were only two possibilities: either Ning Jin suddenly wanted a divorce, which seemed unlikely now, or they wouldn't divorce. As he said, he would deal with his relationship with Ning Jin while she stayed home to take care of the children and continue to maintain the family.
The door was suddenly pushed open, and Su Yu walked out of the kitchen, one hand holding a bone and the other holding a knife. She bumped into a boy who was as tall as her waist. "Well, you're stealing delicious food while I'm not home. My grandma was right. You call yourself an oil thief. You say you're doing this for my own good, but you're actually emptying my house."
This is Ning Jin's biological son, Ning Ping'an, who has returned. There is also an old woman with triangular eyes standing at the door. Su Yu saw that she was about to open her mouth to curse, so she said to the man who had just come out of the latrine, "I thought you fell into the latrine. Now it's your turn to step forward."
"Ping An, so this is how you talk to your mother when I'm not home?" Ning Jin walked over with a stern face, picked up the terrified boy and kicked him a couple of times. Without leaving the house, he stood in the yard and asked the flustered person at the door, "Auntie, is this how you raise Ping An?" He pointed to the door of the main room and said, "This is Su Yu's own home. What do you mean by 'oil thief'? Ping An's mother has been dead for six years. It's normal for me to remarry. If you keep interfering and corrupting my son, I think we should have less contact. If you want to be filial, you'll have to wait until Ping An grows up and can earn money, and then we'll see what he wants. But it's not your place to come to my house and act like an elder to lecture my wife."
This wasn't the first time Ning Jin had given her the cold shoulder, but it was the first time he'd spoken so frankly. Granny Liu's chest heaved with anger as she snapped, "You're blinded by this woman! How can you talk to me like that? How can you face my Xiao Yi? She gave you a son, and now that you've married this vixen, you're siding with her! I definitely have to teach my grandson to be wary of her, lest he be bullied to death without me even knowing it!" The panic on Granny Liu's face vanished, replaced by a justified indignation.
“My son has someone to teach him, so I don’t need to trouble you. I can’t possibly protect Xiaoyi for the rest of my life. Aunt, you should go back now. If you want to visit in the future, do it when I’m home. Also, don’t come to Ping’an’s uncles either. If they do, I’ll have Su Yu call the police and say there’s been a home invasion robbery.” Ning Jin warned with a dark face, while glaring at her son, whose face showed dissatisfaction.
Su Yu leaned against the door, holding a kitchen knife, watching the show. She didn't care when the old woman spat at her from afar. She lowered her eyes, thinking that such low-level tactics were not worth her retaliating against.
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