Chapter 2 — A Social Insurance Sheet

I burst out laughing: "Ly Xuyen, do you know how much money our family has? The total is exactly fifty thousand. If you give it all away, how will the whole family live in the future?" The smile on my husband's face stiffened: "Shut up! I'm the one who makes the money to support the family, it's not your turn to speak up here! I said I'd lend fifty thousand, so it's fifty thousand. Don't you still have a set of three dowries? If it's not enough, then mortgage it!" Because he wanted to help his brother-in-law, he really spared nothing, even wanting to calculate my dowry. The husband's brother pouted, his voice full of sarcasm: "Sister-in-law, what you said is not right! My brother supports my husband in his business, that is the family's friendship. You are an outsider, it's best not to interfere." Hearing that, my husband's parents also nodded in agreement. I laughed coldly: "Outsiders? What you said is so right! What about you? Haven't you heard the saying 'a girl getting married is like a bowl of water being thrown out'? If I don't have the right to speak up, then you don't even have the right to speak up!" Her brother-in-law's face was sometimes red and sometimes white, so angry that he slammed his chopsticks on the table. The father-in-law quickly reconciled and told everyone to eat. I also don't want to make a fuss about this, but my husband won't stop.

"It's just that I don't pay insurance for you, what's the big deal? How long are you going to riot?"

I burst out laughing: "I messed up? Are you kidding? Is this the money I saved up so much that you want to give it to my sister? Even fifty yuan of insurance money, you feel sorry for me. Has your conscience been eaten by a dog?" My mother-in-law was angry, pointed her finger at me and scolded: "Who are you talking about? Say it again! All these years of eating at my house, drinking at my house, and now you still argue loudly? I tell you, in this house, if you want to stay, stay, if you don't want to, then get out of here!" Normally, even though my mother-in-law and I don't like each other, we can at least maintain a facade of harmony. Unexpectedly, when she said she would turn around, she immediately turned around. Without paying insurance for me, not only did they not admit their mistake, but they also blatantly acted like they were right. The husband's brother snorted coldly: "Brother, look, this is a good wife that you married! I can't earn a penny for the family, I always cause unreasonable things, dividing the whole family's feelings. If it were me, I definitely couldn't stand it!" My husband glared at me, rolled up his sleeves, and seemed to really want to take action. I immediately overturned the dining table and rushed in front of him: "Ly Xuyen, if you dare to touch me, I dare to stab you with a knife!" My husband's eyes widened, his pupils looked like they were about to explode, his fists were clenched so tightly that they cracked. Before we got married, I told him that if he dared to hit me, I would definitely divorce him. At that time, he patted his chest and promised to treat me well for the rest of my life. The son said unhappily: "Mom, grandma has a hard time cooking for the meal. You said flip is flip, you should apologize to grandma!" It turns out that in his heart, his grandmother was more pitiful than me. Turns out, I failed as a mother to this extent. Tears kept rising, I tried to swallow them back, turned around and wanted to go back to my room. Unexpectedly, suddenly my hair was yanked. Before I could react, I was thrown to the ground, my head hitting the cold stone floor, causing sharp pain to my brain. I struggled to get up, looked at my angry husband, my parents-in-law and son indifferently watching, suddenly feeling that the past ten years had been wasted. Returning to my room, I searched my luggage and started packing my things. Outside, the whole family was cleaning up the battlefield, while blaming me for being unreasonably rude. The sound of my mother-in-law and brother-in-law talking loudly and softly echoed in my ears.

"It's just that I don't pay insurance, what's so angry about it? I'm young and strong as an ox, isn't paying for that insurance an unjust waste of money? My parents are old, so I pay because I'm afraid something will happen to my son in the future. As for my great-grandson, he's a member of the Ly family, it's only natural that he has insurance!"

"That's right, Mom! No matter what she does, my brother will have to spend money to get a new wife. It's a good thing if he doesn't force his grandmother to compensate. In my opinion, from the beginning, my parents should have told her directly that her insurance will be taken care of by my grandmother!"

“We just thought it would be as simple as possible. Who would have thought that we could hide it for more than ten years, but in the end it was still discovered.”

Fifty dong a year, over ten years it's only five or six hundred. Yet they would rather keep it a secret from me for many years, rather than spend that amount of money. Every day they bring up the fact that I don't make money, but have they ever asked me if I want to work? Before getting married, I was an elementary school teacher. Because I got married far away, the school was too far from home, plus I vomited every day to the point of dehydration during pregnancy. I really couldn't bear it, so I quit my job. At that time, the principal also said that after giving birth, I could return to teaching at any time if I wanted to. But as soon as her son was born, he was constantly sick, and his parents-in-law were only engrossed in playing mahjong, and no one helped. Just like that, going back to work was delayed until now. Every day I'm busy taking care of the farm, then return to take care of the house. The husband's parents do not intervene in anything, but always give orders and point fingers. Luckily, my husband doesn't treat me badly, my son is gradually growing up, I thought life would get better. Unexpectedly, a bucket of cold water poured straight down on my head, leaving me completely numb. When I was packing my clothes, I realized I hadn't been able to buy a new outfit for seven or eight years. One shirt was so worn that the sleeves and elbows were white. I couldn't help but laugh bitterly—what kind of life have I lived these past years? Saving every penny, not daring to eat well, not daring to dress well, and in the end the whole family treated her like a free nanny. I picked up my luggage and walked straight out. Husband frowned: "Run away to your mother's house again? Your parents are right, outsiders can never be loyal to the Ly family. Not paying insurance for you is really wise! An ungrateful and ungrateful person like you is not worthy at all!"

"I run back to my mother's house all the time? Don't you feel guilty when you say this? I only come back twice a year at most! Each time I've only been gone for three days, some people have called to urge me to come home and serve this whole house! I tell you, I won't serve anymore!"

After saying that, I threw the already signed divorce petition straight into my husband's face. The mother-in-law grabbed it, glanced at it, then screamed shrilly: "You want to divide half of the property? What an insatiable greed! Who gave you that face? You can't even make a penny and you still dare to ask for money?"

"I deserve half of the assets! If you don't agree, then we'll meet in court!"

I smiled coldly, looking straight into her eyes: "Old lady, Aren't you still proud that the Ly family has never had a divorce? Here I come, I have to break that precedent!” Having finished speaking, I turned to my son.

“Mom and dad divorced, who do you want to go with?”

In the past, for the sake of my child, I endured so much anger and sadness that I endured everything. It's not that I've never thought about divorce, but seeing how young my children are, I can't bear it. But now I can't stand it anymore!

“Mom divorced dad just because of fifty coins in insurance money? Do you need to make such a big deal of it?”

Overdoing it? Is this how my son perceives me? The child I worked so hard to raise, fed every spoonful of rice, changed every diaper, was completely blind to the pain I had endured for so many years. But he said I overdid it! I looked at my child, trying to stay calm: "So you think, dad should give all his savings to your aunt?"

“I see no problem at all! A family should know how to help each other! Even if I gave her all my money, my family wouldn't starve to death. Dad is still making money, right?”

I felt my heart clench.

“If mom insists on divorcing dad, I will follow dad!”

“My grandparents treat me well, my dad buys me toys, and doesn't force me to study. I like them, I hate you!”

I was stunned. Only then did I know, my son hates me!