The two bags of clothes were large and heavy. Fang Qiao wanted to ask the factory's car to give her a ride, but Dong Ping refused, feeling it was inappropriate to trouble her younger sister again.
Dong Ping and Fang Hai struggled to drag the two bags of clothes onto the bus, paid three fares, and changed buses twice before finally bringing the clothes back to their rented courtyard.
When she got home, she didn't have time to sort out the clothes before she had to go out to pick up her child.
Her and Fang Hai's second daughter, Fang Kangning, is still in the preschool class. During the summer vacation, she has nowhere to go, so when she has to go out, she temporarily leaves the child with her grandparents and asks her mother-in-law, Yang Fengxia, to look after her.
It's probably because the parents-in-law are getting older and their health is deteriorating. They know that their youngest son, Fang Lu, is an unreliable scoundrel, their eldest daughter is tightly controlled by her in-laws, and their youngest daughter has long since stopped contacting her. The old couple are afraid that their eldest son will also become estranged from them and end up destitute in their old age, so they took the initiative to show their goodwill.
Dong Ping didn't have the courage to go against societal norms, and she was also afraid that she would be criticized by relatives and neighbors for being unfilial. So, when her husband's family offered her a way out, she accepted it.
In recent years, her relationship with her husband's family has become visibly more harmonious. Fang Kangning, who was not originally favored by her grandparents, has become the old couple's little darling.
After all, Fang Xue had been seeking medical treatment for so many years, and was already at the advanced maternal age without having a second child. Fang Lu was even more of a scoundrel, only dating but not getting married, and was almost thirty without a child. Meanwhile, Fang Qiao's twins never snuggled up to them, and the old couple had probably forgotten what the two children looked like. As a result, Fang Kangning's status rose accordingly.
Dong Ping rode her bicycle towards the old courtyard. Just as she entered the alley, she bumped into Fang Xue, who was coming out of it.
"Oh, big sister, you're here too."
Fang Xue simply hummed in response, then lowered her head and walked away silently.
Dong Ping was completely baffled. She wondered if she had offended her sister-in-law recently. Why didn't her sister-in-law speak to her when they met?
Dong Ping couldn't understand it, and in the end, she could only attribute it all to Fang Xue's inability to have a child over the years, which had caused her personality to become strange.
As soon as she entered the door, Dong Ping called out, "Kang Ning, Kang Ning, you're home. Mom has come to pick you up."
No one answered at home, so Yang Fengxia lifted the curtain and came out of the house, saying, "Kang Ning went to Xiangxiang's house next door to play."
Her voice had a thick nasal tone. Dong Ping frowned and asked, "Mom, your voice doesn't sound right. Do you have a cold?"
"No." Yang Fengxia shook her head.
Dong Ping leaned closer and saw that Yang Fengxia's eyes were red, as if she had just been crying.
"Mom, what's wrong? What happened? Why are you crying?"
Yang Fengxia initially wanted to say it was nothing, but then she thought that her eldest daughter-in-law was no stranger, so she told her the truth: "Your eldest sister just came over, and your eldest sister's husband... your eldest sister caught him having an affair."
Dong Ping stared wide-eyed in astonishment: "My God, is it true? Is he really my brother-in-law? How could he do such a thing!"
"Of course it's true. Your older sister followed him for several days and saw them shopping together, watching movies, and even hugging and cuddling on a boat at the Summer Palace."
As Yang Fengxia spoke, her eyes turned resentful, and she cursed, "That Zhang fellow is shameless and heartless! Your eldest sister has been married to him for so many years, enduring countless injections and drinking countless bitter medicines to give him a son. Her beautiful face has become sallow from all the suffering. And he, on the contrary, doesn't appreciate your eldest sister's kindness at all. Instead, he's having affairs outside! Going to the movies, shopping, taking a boat ride at the Summer Palace—why didn't that damn adulterous couple drown? It's good that the world has one less scourge!"
"Ah..." Dong Ping was speechless: "This is too..."
"Shameless! This old man has no shame to do such a thing! Doesn't he care if the neighbors find out? Panpan is already in high school, and she'll be getting married in a few years. Doesn't he think about how his child will behave in the future? What family would want their son and daughter-in-law to have a father like this?"
Dong Ping sensed something amiss in the old lady's tone and tentatively asked, "What's your sister thinking about her brother-in-law doing something like this? Is it divorce or...?"
Sure enough, the old lady immediately said, "Panpan is already so old, why is she getting a divorce? Isn't that embarrassing enough?"
"After he did something like that, why is your older sister still going on to stay with him?"
“What else can we do but keep going? Men make mistakes. Your older sister said that as long as your brother-in-law can correct his mistakes and break up with that vixen, she will give him another chance, pretend that this never happened, and the family can continue living together.”
Yang Fengxia still held old-fashioned views, believing that marriage was for life. She thought that if a man made a mistake, he should be beaten and scolded, but divorce was absolutely out of the question.
Fang Xue couldn't bear to part with the feelings she had shared after so many years of marriage. She cried all night until her eyes were swollen. Thinking about the bond they had formed since childhood and her daughter who was about to enter high school, she finally believed the man's promise and gritted her teeth and endured it.
Dong Ping couldn't help but curl her lip, thinking to herself: A leopard can't change its spots, and a cheating man's words are nothing but lies! Pure nonsense!
If my sister-in-law actually believes his nonsense, she'll be in for a lot of tears in the future!
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