Chapter 5 — My Mother-in-Law Tore Up My Application

Today your mother was merely acting on a sudden impulse. She is getting older, and with everything that has happened to Jia Shu, her heart simply could not bear the weight of it all.

I raised my gaze and looked right into his eyes.

Then in my past life—never mind. Before, when I was the one who could not bear it, what did you say to me?

Yan frowned deeply.

Lately, you have been speaking in such peculiar ways.

I let out a quiet, mirthless laugh.

Perhaps having died once, a person ceases to remain entirely normal.

He did not understand my words, dismissing them merely as a form of sarcasm.

Qian He, you are in a stable position now. Why must you refuse to let Jia Shu go?

I am not holding onto him.

Yet the video was submitted by you.

It was your family who created it.

His expression darkened visibly.

You were never such a petty person in the past.

I stared at him, suddenly flooded with the memory of my past life. After my bag had been torn open, he had stood before me in this exact manner. Accusing me of being petty. Accusing me of lacking empathy for the elderly. Asking whether it was not true that the household had merely experienced a minor mishap. In his mouth, my entire future, painstakingly built, was reduced to a minor mishap. The entirety of my being, trampled into the dust by them, was attributed solely to my own terrible temperament. I asked him:

Yan, if the thing your mother destroyed that day had belonged to me, would you have allowed her to go and explain herself?

He fell silent. That was enough. I reached into my bag and withdrew the divorce agreement.

Sign your name.

His eyes swept over the pages, a flicker of panic crossing his features.

Are you being serious?

I have always been serious.

His voice softened, turning pleading:

Qian He, we have been married for four years; it does not have to come to this. In the future, I will have us move out. We will no longer live with my mother, all right?

How utterly laughable. In the past, I had begged him countless times. When Yu Fen forced her way into our bedroom in the middle of the night without knocking, I begged him to move. When Yu Fen confiscated my salary card, I begged him to move. When Yu Fen used my civil service examination review books to prop up a wobbly table leg, I begged him to move. His response was always the same:

My mother only has one eldest son, which is me. I cannot leave her to face loneliness by herself.

Now, however, he was willing to yield. Because I had successfully climbed ashore. Because his precious younger brother was in trouble. Because he had finally discovered that I would no longer allow myself to be manipulated by him at will. I replied:

It is too late.

Yan’s eyes grew red.

I know I handled things poorly this time, but after all, my mother is still my mother, and Jia Shu is my younger brother. I was caught right in the middle, and it was genuinely difficult for me.

Therefore, you chose to make it difficult for me.

He found himself entirely at a loss for words. I pushed the pen forward across the table.

Sign it.

He did not reach for it.

I do not agree to this.

I withdrew the papers and slipped them back into my bag.

Then we will settle this through the courts.

His head snapped up abruptly.

Hua Qian He, must you be so utterly ruthless?

I gazed steadily at him.

If I were not a little ruthless, I am afraid your family would pull me back down into the abyss.

That very evening, I packed my things and moved back to my parents’ house. My mother opened the door, and upon seeing me standing there with my suitcase, she froze in momentary astonishment. I looked at her and said:

Mom, I want a divorce.

The rims of her eyes instantly turned red. Yet this time, she did not urge me to endure for the sake of peace. She simply reached out, took the handle of my suitcase, and said:

Coming home is all that matters.

My father emerged from the kitchen, still holding a wooden spatula in his hand.

Dinner is almost ready.

Standing in the entryway, a sudden, sharp stinging sensation pierced the bridge of my nose. It was not sorrow. It was the overwhelming realization that I had finally returned to a place where I no longer needed to constantly guard myself against the malice of others. Jia Shu’s academic credentials were ultimately revoked. The news arrived on the exact day I completed my employment onboarding procedures. The brand-new employee badge clipped to my chest featured a photograph that could hardly be called flattering, but as I gazed at it repeatedly, every angle began to look pleasing to my eyes. Jia Shu’s troubles extended far beyond mere administrative sealing. Soon after, the disciplinary committee contacted the school authorities, and the truth of his past disciplinary record came to light—it was far from a trivial matter. He had taken examinations in place of others, and that serious infraction had been officially logged in his permanent file. In the documents, he had glossed over the details with vague terminology and had even attempted to illegally purge the explanatory addendum. The fundamental issue of his lack of integrity crushed him beyond recovery. Yu Fen wept behind closed doors for three days straight. According to my eldest sister-in-law, Jia Shu bolted the door to his bedroom, and the moment Yu Fen approached to coax him, he roared from within:

Stop touching my things!

Was it not you who claimed you did not understand? You understood so little that you completely ruined my career!

If you had known those things belonged to me, would you not have opened the bag? Then that means you deliberately tried to ruin Hua Qian He!

Every single word echoed like a delayed curse hurled back at them on my behalf from my past life. Listening to the accounts, I felt a deep, intoxicating wave of satisfaction. Immensely satisfying. I could vividly picture Yu Fen’s complexion—alternating between shades of ash and pale green, desperately wanting to weep yet lacking the courage to do so. The youngest son she doted on above all else had finally stripped away her final pretense of ignorance. On the eve of our scheduled divorce hearing, Yan sought me out once more. This time, instead of waiting downstairs to shout for me, he sent a text message:

Qian He, let us meet just once. There are a few things I need to say to you.

Initially, I had no intention of going. Upon second thought, however, I decided that attending would do no harm. The sheer pathetic wretchedness of certain people was something one ought not to miss. Inside the quiet cafe, he sat near the window, his frame visibly having lost a significant amount of weight.

Jia Shu’s mental state has been dreadful lately.

I stirred the iced beverage in my glass lazily.

And what does that have to do with me?

He offered a bitter, self-deprecating smile.

You would never have been so cold-hearted in the past.

In the past, I possessed warmth.

I lifted my eyes to meet his.

Only for it to be scooped out by your family to feed your cooking stove.

His expression stiffened into a rigid mask.

Qian He, I admit that I should not have forced you to shoulder the blame that day. I was merely panicked.

No.

I corrected him instantly.