Hearing Gao Jianmin say this, Chun Mian laughed out of sheer anger. "Yes, yes, yes, I'm petty. I hold grudges. Fine then, let's get a divorce! You can go find someone who isn't petty and doesn't hold grudges!"
Chun Mian's words dropped like a clap of thunder, startling the onlookers from Beigang Village and the people who had come to mediate. Everything had been fine—how did the talk suddenly turn to divorce?
"Divorce? Are you crazy, Wei Shumei? If we divorce, who would even want you?" Gao Jianmin also thought Chun Mian must have lost her mind, his voice sharply rising in an angry demand.
Chun Mian looked at him as if looking at a fool. She gave a faint smile before speaking. "Whether anyone wants me or not isn't up to you, Gao Jianmin. Besides, I'd rather be a widow than spend another day living with a house full of rotten people like your family. I want a divorce!"
"Fine, let's divorce! I'd like to see who you'll marry after this!" Gao Jianmin grew even more irritated. He had been beaten at noon, and his mother and younger sister had been wronged. Now Chun Mian had come back, refusing to admit her mistakes and even demanding a divorce. Gao Jianmin felt she was just too spoiled. Once they actually divorced, he would see if she regretted it. When she came crying and begging to come back, he decided he would definitely raise his conditions!
"I disagree! Why divorce when everything is perfectly fine? Do you have another man on the outside? You got rid of that child—was it a bastard?" How could Old Mrs. Gao possibly agree to a divorce? After all, the Wei family was well-off and willing to subsidize their daughter. She had expended a lot of effort back then to find such a wife for Gao Jianmin. Did they expect her to just let go? That was impossible!
"If you want to believe your son is a cuckold, go right ahead. My conscience is clear, and I'm not afraid of any investigation," Chun Mian said very calmly, completely unfazed by Old Mrs. Gao's hysteria.
Old Mrs. Gao was choked by Chun Mian's words. She didn't move for a long time, only glaring at Chun Mian with venomous eyes.
"Alright. Since both parties are willing to divorce, let's tally up all the things you took from my daughter." Seeing Gao Jianmin still sticking his neck out with an expression that said he was superior and everyone else was beneath him, Old Man Wei scoffed lightly and spoke in a cold voice.
"What things? I didn't eat anything. I don't know." Old Mrs. Gao struck a brazenly obstinate pose, making it clear she would refuse to admit to anything.
Seeing her like this, Old Man Wei sneered. "Refusing to admit it? That's fine. We brought plenty of people. Let's tear down the house as compensation."
Hearing Old Man Wei's words, the Wei family members raised their tools, ready to step forward. Their hands itched with the urge to dismantle the house.
"Hey, hey, hey, Mr. Wei, let's talk this over reasonably. Let's just talk it out." Seeing that they were actually preparing to tear the place down, Gao Hongyang hurriedly made a token effort to block them.
The other neighbors who were watching the commotion also helped to hold them back. But the more these people intervened, the more emboldened Old Mrs. Gao became.
"Sister-in-law Gen Sheng, hurry up and compensate them for their things," Gao Hongyang said with a stern expression.
But Old Mrs. Gao wasn't afraid at all. She stubbornly stuck her neck out and refused to confess. "What things? I don't have them. I don't know."
"Exactly. We don't have them. We don't know." Although Gao Jianmin didn't know why Old Mrs. Gao wouldn't admit it, if his own mother said she didn't have them, then she didn't have them.
The Wei family group was enraged to the point of laughter by this shameless mother and son. When they had first evaluated the marriage prospect, how had they failed to see the Gao family's atrocious temperament? Now they realized they had made a terrible error in judgment, but the price of this mistake was far too steep. They had let their daughter suffer a whole year of torment in the Gao family for nothing.
"Alright then. Tear down the house." Old Man Wei had only stopped earlier to give Gao Hongyang face. But since these people were dead set on being incorrigible, Old Man Wei felt there was no need to save them any dignity.
At Old Man Wei's command, the nephews who had come along swung their tools in unison and stepped forward.
Terrified, Old Mrs. Gao jumped to her feet. With one arm wrapped around Gao Anna, she frantically waved her other hand in front of her. "What are you doing? What are you doing?"
Gao Anna was so scared she burst into wailing, but her cries were completely drowned out by Old Mrs. Gao's screaming and cursing. At this moment, Gao Jianmin also forgot about his physical pain, jumping and shouting to stop the Wei family from tearing down their house.
After the two sides deadlocked for a moment, Old Mrs. Gao finally roared with extreme reluctance, "We'll compensate! We'll compensate! Bah! Our Gao family ancestors truly failed to accumulate any good karma. How did we end up marrying such a jinx..."
Seeing that these people genuinely wanted to demolish her house, Old Mrs. Gao didn't dare to deny it anymore. She howled at the top of her lungs, but unfortunately, no one was interested in her one-woman show. Old Mrs. Gao wanted to save the house, and the Wei family couldn't be bothered to demand justice from this kind of person anymore. They just wanted to take back what they had lost.
The two sides temporarily calmed down, sat down, and began to settle the accounts. In the end, the total came out to an astonishing one hundred and thirty yuan, plus some loose change. Old Mrs. Gao immediately jumped up and screamed in protest!
She hadn't been this heartbroken when she was eating the goods, but now, after the fact, she regretted it. Unfortunately for her, every member of the Wei family was gripping a tool and glaring like a tiger watching its prey. If she truly dared to refuse or withhold the money, everyone would just tear the house straight down!
Did Old Mrs. Gao have the money on hand? She actually did.
The reason she cried about being poor every day and always loved taking advantage of others was that she didn't want her family to know she had money. Furthermore, once a bad habit was formed, it wasn't easy to break. By placing herself and Gao Anna in the role of tragic victims, her three sons would feel sorry for their hard-luck mother and sister.
Now being forced to pay compensation, Old Mrs. Gao still wanted to wrangle over it. However, the moment she showed the slightest hesitation, the men of the Wei family surged forward with their tools raised. If Old Mrs. Gao hadn't reacted quickly, the glass windows of her room would probably have been smashed to pieces.
"Bah!" Holding the crying Gao Anna, Old Mrs. Gao went back into the house to fetch the money while the others waited outside. Old Mrs. Gao did want to stall for time, but the moment the thought crossed her mind and she lingered in the room for a second too long, there was a sudden BANG against the glass window. Terrified, Old Mrs. Gao was forced to honestly count the money and bring it out.
Seeing the stacks of ten-yuan notes in Old Mrs. Gao's hands, the spectating villagers clicked their tongues in amazement. They never expected that this lone old lady would actually have so much cash on hand.
"Alright, the accounts are settled. The custom-made furniture my daughter brought when she married into this family will be taken away with us. Also, since it's still early, we'll borrow a cart to go to the county town and finalize the divorce." After counting the money and confirming it was correct, Old Man Wei spoke again.
Hearing that they were going to take the dowry furniture away as well, Old Mrs. Gao's face turned green. However, two young men were standing right outside her window holding pickaxes, ready to smash the glass at any moment. Even if Old Mrs. Gao was seething with guilt and resentment, she didn't dare say a word.
Then, the crowd realized that Chun Mian's dowry furniture—two brand-new wardrobes with floral decals—were actually being carried out of Old Mrs. Gao's room! Old Mrs. Gao even had to specifically go back inside to pack up her clothes; all her things had been stored inside the wardrobes, meaning she had clearly been using them.
"To actually take her daughter-in-law's wardrobes for her own use... This old lady is even more shameless than she was in her youth."
"You can say that again. We used to think the widow and her children were quite pitiful, but looking at it now, there's always something detestable about pitiful people."
...