At 9 a.m., Ye Zhiqiang arrived at the teahouse on time, with only two people with him. Shu Yan also brought only two people besides Shu Jianyang.
We're here to negotiate, not to fight.
"Yan Yan. They say even a day as husband and wife is worth a hundred days of kindness. We've been married for so many years and have two children. You don't have to be so cruel, do you?" Ye Zhiqiang looked at the divorce agreement Shu Yan had drafted and felt that she was leaving him with absolutely nothing.
"Ye Zhiqiang, where do you get the nerve to talk to me about some 'gratitude'? Why didn't you talk about that when you forced me to divorce you? Did you hire someone to harm me yesterday? If I hadn't been careful, would I still be sitting here now? Don't you feel ashamed saying that?" Shu Yan gasped for breath, almost driven mad by him. "Alright, we all know each other! Stop pretending here, stop spouting this useless nonsense. I'm just asking you, do you agree to the conditions here? If you do, we'll sign the divorce papers right now. If not, then we'll see each other in court. Let the state decide everything."
In the early 1990s, society took personal conduct issues very seriously. Shu Yan's evidence was conclusive, and if the case went to court, Shu Yan would definitely win.
"Are you sure you want to go to court? If we go to court, all the photos will become evidence and be made public. Everyone who appears in court and the jurors will be able to see them. Anyway, I'm not the one who will be embarrassed, so I don't care," Shu Yan said calmly.
"Shu Yan." Ye Zhiqiang gritted his teeth and looked at her, unable to understand how someone who was as stupid as a pig a moment ago could become so shrewd and domineering the next.
"I'm not deaf," Shu Yan said, glancing at him with annoyance.
Ye Zhiqiang took a deep breath and said in a low voice, "I'm still a father of two, so I don't expect you to leave with nothing when I filed for divorce. You don't need to be so ruthless now."
"It's not that I'm being unreasonable. It's that you and that vixen went too far." Shu Yan sat up straight and stared at Ye Zhiqiang.
According to memory, six months ago, Ye Zhiqiang began to subject the original owner of this body to emotional abuse, trying to force her to leave on her own. When that didn't work, he started finding fault with her and verbally and physically assaulting her, beating her six times in two months. During this time, Li Jiaojiao would frequently come to humiliate and belittle her, ultimately driving her to the brink of despair, which led to her suicide.
Regardless of who the original owner of this body was, she was driven to her death by them. A living person was lost just like that, and Shu Yan didn't think she had gone too far.
Neither of them was willing to back down, making further discussion impossible. Ye Zhiqiang stormed off, with no possibility of leaving with nothing. Even if they went to court, it wouldn't be quick, and they could always find a way to deal with it in the meantime.
He wanted to delay, but Shu Yan didn't. They couldn't live in constant fear forever; she could bear it, but the two children couldn't.
"What do you plan to do?" Shu Jianyang frowned. "Otherwise, I'll just have someone tie him up, bind one of his hands and one of his feet, and he'll be obedient."
Shu Yan sighed helplessly. Despite his tall and handsome appearance and refined demeanor when he sat still, this cousin was actually a ruthless man; otherwise, he wouldn't have achieved his current status.
"Third Brother, this is a society governed by law. What you're doing is kidnapping, intimidation, and threats. If something happens, even if we're in the right, we'll be in the wrong."
Getting involved in organized crime is ultimately not the right path. Shu Jianyang did his best for her, and Shu Yan reciprocated by hoping to help him in some way.
"Then what do you suggest?" After spending a few days with his cousin, Shu Jianyang no longer treated her as an ignorant countrywoman, but truly began to talk to her as an equal.
"To kill the chicken as a warning to the monkey."
"Make an example of someone?" Shu Jianyang narrowed his eyes. "You mean that Li Jiaojiao?"
Shu Yan smiled gently. Don't think that just because she rarely mentioned Li Jiaojiao before, she would let her off the hook. She just didn't have the time. She originally thought that if Ye Zhiqiang knew what was good for him, she would let the matter go for now. But since Ye Zhiqiang wasn't cooperating, Shu Yan could only apologize.
As the female protagonist's mother, Li Jiaojiao's background is also described at length in the original novel.
In 1992, university graduates were guaranteed job placement. Li Jiaojiao, from an average school, still had a stable job as a finance staff member at a city winery. The Li Jiaojiao in the book has a keen eye; she immediately falls for Ye Zhiqiang, who has little formal education. After marriage, she uses her abilities to transfer to a government agency, becoming the secretary of the then-governor thanks to her beautiful handwriting and good writing skills. When the female lead appears, she is already the director of the Education Bureau, and Ye Zhiqiang has also developed his construction company into one of the top real estate companies in Xicheng. The female lead is undoubtedly a pampered princess.
While reading the book, readers assumed that Ye Zhiqiang had separated from his ex-wife before getting together with Li Jiaojiao, since it was rare for people to get married in the countryside at that time. Ye Zhiqiang excused himself by saying that he was young and didn't understand, and that it was his parents' decision.
Looking back 19 years, the older generation's marriages might seem frivolous, with some believing that marriage without a certificate doesn't count as marriage. Furthermore, many people in the future might not consider divorce a big deal, especially since the book states that Ye Zhiqiang not only gave the house but also all of the family's savings.
Shu Yan only discovered so many details after transmigrating into the original body. Perhaps it's because of the different perspectives that she sees things differently. What if she had transmigrated into Li Jiaojiao? Shu Yan shuddered, unable to think any further.
Anyway, now she's become Shu Yan, a haggard housewife about to be ruthlessly abandoned by her scumbag boyfriend.
Comparatively speaking, Li Jiaojiao was much easier to deal with. Considering that she couldn't afford to have too much of a falling out with Ye Zhiqiang, Shu Yan chose photos where only Li Jiaojiao's image was clearly visible, while Ye Zhiqiang's image was either turned away or shown in profile. The photos were divided into three copies: one was sent to Li Jiaojiao's school, one to her factory, and the third to her hometown. She didn't go through the post office; she used the manual service directly.
They posted the photos directly on the school's bulletin board and the big-character posters outside the factory. The person who delivered them to the village was Afei. This clever kid didn't post them on the wall; he just took a stack of photos to the woman at the entrance of the village and asked her to pass them on to Li Jiaojiao's parents.
"My God!" the woman exclaimed upon seeing the photo, attracting a crowd that quickly gathered around. Upon seeing the photo, they were immediately excited.
These days, entertainment is scarce. When people in the village aren't busy, they love to get together and gossip. If any man or woman gets a little close, people will say they're dating. And if the rumors spread, they start to sound like the truth.
Now that the photos are in front of you, they are real evidence, no different from seeing it with your own eyes.
"Isn't this the college student from the village? Her mother always praises her daughter for her abilities, and she really is." A woman peeked out and said, "Aunt Guihua, don't look at these photos by yourself. Let me see them too."
"Yes, Osmanthus Goddess, quickly show everyone, see how college students are different from others!" This was an excited and innocent young man.
How could a college student who is usually so arrogant do something like this? Even if you can't eat it, you can at least take a look and feast your eyes, right?
A group of people gathered around, watching with great enthusiasm. Xiao Fei secretly slipped away when no one was paying attention. He still had to go to the next village to send out photos. Sister Yan said that she had to take care of the surrounding villages.
Within an hour, everyone knew that the college student from the Li family was a bad influence, seducing other women's husbands in the city, and that the wives had caught them in bed together and even sent shameless photos to the village.
When Li Jiaojiao's maternal grandmother saw the photo, she fainted. Her two uncles and aunts were so angry that they were trembling all over. They both had daughters, and now that this niece had caused such a scandal, their daughters' reputations were also ruined. Especially her eldest aunt, whose daughter was in the process of getting married. Now that this had happened, she didn't know if the marriage would even go through.
When Li Jiaojiao's parents returned from the mountain, they felt that the villagers were pointing and whispering about them the whole way. They were puzzled because in the past, when their family produced a college student, everyone in the village fawned over them. Now, they seemed to want to avoid knowing them.
As soon as they arrived at the door, they saw a group of people blocking their doorway. The two of them felt a chill run down their spines. What had happened at home?
Upon seeing the photo, Li's mother fainted instantly, falling over in a flurry of motion. When she finally regained consciousness, she sat on the floor, slapping her thigh and crying, "I have no face to live anymore, no face to live anymore..."
Li's father squatted to the side smoking. Although he didn't cry, his face looked a hundred times worse than Li's mother's.
The Li family was shrouded in gloom, and things weren't much better for Li Jiaojiao. As soon as she entered the factory, she was pointed at and gossiped about. Her former colleagues, who used to hang out with her, all avoided her like the plague. Even Sister Wang, who had always been kind to her, looked at her with a look of utter disappointment.
"Sister Wang, what's wrong?" Li Jiaojiao's heart was pounding, and she had a feeling that something bad was about to happen.
"Jiaojiao, you? Eh!" Sister Wang blushed, too embarrassed to speak.
"Li Jiaojiao, the factory manager said you need to go to his office since you've arrived." Another young girl in the office had been assigned to the factory with Li Jiaojiao, and the two had been secretly competing with each other. When she saw the photo this morning, she secretly took it to the factory manager.
Upon seeing the photo, Li Jiaojiao felt her blood freeze and collapsed to the ground.
"As you've seen, after something like this, the factory can no longer keep you," the factory manager said earnestly. "You're a college graduate; your family went through so much to raise you, and you've done something like this. Go back and reflect on your actions."
Li Jiaojiao felt ice-cold all over. It was over, completely over. Her reputation was ruined, and she had lost her job.
When Ye Zhiqiang returned from the construction site, he saw Li Jiaojiao sitting there looking lost and asked worriedly, "What's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"
"Brother Qiang, I've lost my job." Li Jiaojiao moved her head and looked at Ye Zhiqiang as if she had seen a lifeline.
"If you're gone, you're gone. Do you think I can't afford to support you?" Ye Zhiqiang said nonchalantly.
Two or three hundred yuan a month isn't even enough for her to buy a single piece of clothing. It's perfect for her to stay home and rest during her pregnancy, so she can give him a healthy, chubby, and intelligent son.
Li Jiaojiao covered her face and shook her head, crying, "Our photos have been leaked. Everyone in the factory has seen them, and the school knows about them too. How am I supposed to face people now? I might as well be dead."
Ye Zhiqiang stood up abruptly, his eyes bloodshot. "I'm going to find her."
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