Upon hearing his older sister's words, Xu Zifan hurriedly waved his hand, "No, you can't say that. She never liked me in the first place. If it weren't for the child, I wouldn't have been able to marry her at all. If I ask her like that, wouldn't I be hurting her? No, no!"
A young man asked in surprise, "Zifan, your wife is quite beautiful? Why did you get married for the sake of the child? How did you two meet?"
Xu Zifan realized he had said the wrong thing and refused to say more, only saying, "We are classmates and have known each other for many years. Actually, my wife is a very good person; you have misunderstood her."
"What does your wife look like? Do you have a photo? We weren't at the wedding, so we should at least recognize her. We don't want to bump into her on the street and not recognize her."
Xu Zifan turned on his phone, showed them the screen saver, and laughed, "This is my wife. She used to be the school beauty at our school."
Wow, really? She looks just like a celebrity!
"Is this really your wife? She's so beautiful, no wonder she was the school beauty."
Everyone praised Wu Xuefei's beauty, but at the same time, they couldn't help but scrutinize Xu Zifan. His dull hairstyle, expressionless face, unchanging t-shirt and jeans, and uninteresting personality—why would such an honest man marry a campus beauty? What's his motive?
"Zifan, have you gotten married and bought a house yet?"
Xu Zifan nodded. "My parents bought it for me two years ago. It's in the Lan Ge residential area and it's been renovated a long time ago."
The price per square meter in the LanGe residential complex is 12,000 yuan, which is considered high-end in this city. Anything more expensive would be a school district property or a villa. The group exchanged glances and agreed they'd found the reason. What else could such a beautiful girl want to marry Xu Zifan for? It must be for the house.
A rather handsome colleague shook his head and pursed his lips, thinking to himself, "These days, beautiful women are so materialistic." His girlfriend wouldn't agree to marry him because he didn't own a house. He never expected that a dull, uninteresting, honest guy like Xu Zifan would marry such a beautiful woman, much prettier than his girlfriend. It's all because of a nice house, isn't it? So materialistic!
Once people see Wu Xuefei's photos, they'll stop saying anything. She's a beautiful woman who married him and got pregnant; it would be heartless to make her do all that. This is the common perception of beautiful women marrying honest men—it's as if a beautiful woman is at a disadvantage if she marries him. And it's assumed that the beautiful woman is only after the honest man's money, not him as a person.
Xu Zifan also talked about family matters, saying that these colleagues were just minor supporting characters and it wasn't their turn to shine yet, so a little groundwork was enough.
His colleagues had gossiped about it and felt sorry for Xu Zifan, thinking he was in a bad situation. Considering his busy schedule, they were too embarrassed to ask him for help, so Xu Zifan spent the morning quietly. At lunchtime, they casually asked him if he wanted to eat with them.
Xu Zifan's first reaction was, "Do you usually split the bill when you eat together? Isn't that cheaper than eating alone?"
Several colleagues paused for a moment, then nodded, "Yeah, we can all order a few dishes together and split the cost by card, it's quite cheap."
"Then I'll go. Take me with you when you eat from now on!" Xu Zifan quickly stood up and put on his employee badge. Their employee badges can be used to clock in and out, and can also be used as meal cards in the cafeteria. Their monthly meal allowance is deposited into their employee badges.
Everyone went to the cafeteria and found a large table to sit at. Xu Zifan only ordered a dish of stir-fried shredded potatoes with vinegar, the cheapest dish on the menu. Sister Liu, sitting next to him, looked at him curiously and said, "Zifan, you really didn't have a wedding? It looks like you had a lavish wedding and spent all your money!"
The handsome young man said sourly, "It must be because they gave your family a lot of dowry, right? Otherwise, would your parents have agreed to let you get married?"
Xu Zifan thought about it seriously and shook his head, saying, "No, we've known each other for a long time. We got our marriage certificate as soon as we decided to get married, and nothing else."
Such a beautiful girl only got a marriage certificate with him? He married the school beauty for nine yuan? The handsome young man asked incredulously, "Brother Fan, I remember you've always been quite well-off. What happened to your family?"
The female assistant, a recent graduate, was naive and kind. She then asked, "Brother Fan, what's wrong? If there's anything we can do to help, please let us know. We're all colleagues, and we'll definitely help you."
The others glanced at her, but since they had already spoken, they all chimed in with a few words. Xu Zifan looked touched, stood up, took the teapot, and poured tea for them one by one. Raising her teacup, she said, "I'm not very good at talking, and I'm not very sociable. I haven't interacted with everyone much before, but I didn't expect you all to be so kind to me and care about me so much. I'll toast you with tea instead of wine. You are all my good colleagues. You were willing to help me today, and I will definitely help you if you encounter any difficulties in the future!"
Xu Zifan finished his tea in one gulp! The others blinked, thinking that he was truly an honest man, actually downing his tea in one go; a belly full of tea wouldn't feel good. Some followed suit, while others took only a token sip, and the atmosphere became lively.
Seeing Xu Zifan so excited, everyone felt it was quite rare, so they asked again, "Zifan, what's wrong with you? You've been working overtime every day lately, and things have changed a lot. We're quite worried about you. If you have any problems, tell us. Three heads are better than one, and we'll help you come up with some ideas."
The person speaking was quite adept at subtly changing the female assistant's words about helping to her offering advice. Xu Zifan noticed this but didn't mind. He hesitated for a moment before sighing and saying, "It's my father-in-law. I feel like I've done something wrong. I haven't been sleeping well these past few days and I keep having nightmares."
No one understood. "It's related to your father-in-law? What did you do?"
"My father-in-law…" Xu Zifan suddenly stopped and looked around.
Looking at her, he leaned forward and whispered, "You mustn't tell anyone, it's all in the past, it's all over."
Everyone crowded forward, nodding in agreement, "Don't worry, we definitely won't tell anyone."
Xu Zifan whispered, "After I married my wife, she told me that my father-in-law had killed someone in a drunk driving accident. The family demanded a million yuan to write a letter of forgiveness for my father-in-law before he was released. I just feel that the deceased was quite innocent, and if I helped my father-in-law get away with it, wouldn't I be letting him down too much?"
Everyone gasped. "You paid one million?"
"Your wife demanded a million dollars from you as soon as you got married?"
"Your wife did this on purpose, didn't she? Is she just after your money?"
"Your father-in-law is so immoral. He drank and drove. He's really pitiful."
"How could you be so stupid? You'd give me a million?"
Xu Zifan said, "My wife is pregnant with my child. She's such a good person, and I feel like I'm blessed by Lady Luck when she married me. How could I not help when her father had this accident? Besides, my wife was so worried about this that she couldn't sleep at night and almost fainted from crying. If I didn't help, wouldn't the child be in trouble? I gave her a million, and that's fine. It's just that I feel guilty and sorry for the deceased."
Sister Liu shook her head and sighed, "You're really honest. You gave away a million so easily, and you only felt sorry for the deceased. Zifan, you can't be so honest in the future, otherwise no matter how much money you make, it won't be enough to spend."
Xu Zifan laughed and said, "Sister Liu, you're exaggerating. This kind of thing only happens once in a lifetime. If we live a good life from now on, we won't have so many places to spend money. I just ran out of savings this month. I'll be frugal for a while, and things will be fine next month. It's not that bad."
The handsome young man looked at him sympathetically. "You're really in a bad situation, aren't you? You've given away a million, and your father-in-law still expects you to clean his bathroom. He's living at your place now, right? He even makes you sweep the floor after work. It's obvious he's bullying you. Brother Fan, you really need to learn to say no. You can't just be so submissive. It's one thing to love your wife, but serving your father-in-law like he's an emperor isn't normal, really."
"Right, right, I forgot about it before. Your father-in-law went too far. You rescued him, and instead of being grateful, he treated you like a babysitter. This won't do, Zifan."
"Brother Fan, you work so hard to earn money now, and you still do so much housework every day. Isn't that basically supporting them and taking care of them? My God, if I had known you were this good, I would have paired you up with Xiao Lin! Xiao Lin, don't you think so? Where can you find a man as good as Brother Fan?"
Xiaolin, the female assistant, nodded and said, "Really, even the so-called 'perfect husband' doesn't reach Brother Fan's level. Brother Fan, don't blame me for being blunt, but if your wife really sees how hard you work and enjoys life with her dad every day, then... she definitely isn't sincere towards you and doesn't deserve your sacrifices."
Sister Liu said, "Zifan, now that you're married and pregnant, let's not talk about anything else. I think you have to learn to say no to them. Don't just do whatever they ask you to do. It would be good to start by changing things by doing housework. You work so hard, they should do what they can. Go back and talk to them properly. Even if things get tense, it's okay. That's how family life works out. You can only change things if you talk things out. You must not continue like this. This kind of imbalance in the family will cause problems sooner or later. You must find this balance for the family to last. This is for the good of the family."
Xu Zifan nodded repeatedly, "Sister Liu, you've been married for over twenty years and your family has always been happy. You're definitely right. This is my first marriage. I'd never even dated before. I probably misunderstood things and thought that just being good to my wife was enough. I understand what you're saying. For this to last, I need to make her do something at home too, otherwise, things will get out of balance."
He raised his glass and said, "Thank you, Sister Liu, you taught me so much today."
Sister Liu smiled somewhat embarrassedly: "I didn't say anything, you're too kind. Every family has its own problems, and every family's situation is different. I'm just giving you a suggestion, you can consider it yourself. Come on, let's eat."
Xu Zifan smiled and nodded, "Thank you everyone. I don't have many friends, and it's hard to keep things to myself. Seeing how much you all helped me today, I couldn't help but tell you what was on my mind, and I feel much better now. Don't worry, I will learn to say no. I will do what I should do, and I will refuse to do anything that I shouldn't do."
"That's right, Brother Fan, we're waiting for your good news."
The colleague who asked Xu Zifan to help with the work in the morning felt that something was not quite right, but after thinking about it, he couldn't figure it out, so he put it out of his mind and chatted and laughed with his colleagues.
Xu Zifan smiled. He needed to learn to say no, not only to the two at home, but also to everyone here.