Widow Remarries In Sixties

Chapter 5

Fu Yanyan didn’t know how everything had unfolded. From the moment she jumped off the rooftop of the teaching building, she hadn’t thought about living anymore. She was in too much pain and just wanted to be free.

She had thought dying would be clean and neat, but she never imagined that after death, she would involuntarily follow Jin Xiuzhu. That woman truly didn’t love her; she only shed a few tears and was quickly comforted by her lover.

However, Fu Yanyan didn’t feel angry either. After all, she had long been utterly disappointed in Jin Xiuzhu. So, she numbly watched as Jin Xiuzhu was betrayed and abandoned step by step by her lover, burdened with enormous debts, and finally walked down a path of no return.

As for “Dad” Jiang, he never married the “aunt” Jin Xiuzhu spoke of. After divorcing Jin Xiuzhu, he lived alone with He Yan. Unfortunately, good people don’t live long and he died in an accident.

As for He Yan, the nominal older brother, Fu Yanyan actually hated him at first.

In the previous life, Jin Xiuzhu had suddenly come from the countryside to the military compound and started living a good life. Feeling inferior and timid, she knew she had resorted to unsavory means to achieve everything she had now.

Therefore, she couldn’t lift her head in front of Dad Jiang. She tried to please him, and she was particularly tolerant and biased toward Dad Jiang’s adopted son, He Yan. Regardless of food or drink, as long as He Yan liked it, she would accommodate him. Whenever there was a conflict with He Yan, it was always her fault, as if only by doing so could she appear fair and be seen as a good stepmother.

At that time, He Yan would just stand by and laugh, as if mocking her for being less important in Jin Xiuzhu’s heart despite being her biological mother.

Even worse, she knew sometimes he intentionally wanted to see her embarrassed.

Those humiliations and disappointments were deeply engraved in her mind, so when Jin Xiuzhu and Dad Jiang parted ways later, she even felt relieved.

But luck did not favor her. Jin Xiuzhu took her daughter south to start a small business. After a period of peaceful living, when the business began to flourish, Jin Xiuzhu sent her daughter to a boarding school and neglected her.

She found herself another man and spent all her money on him. Meanwhile, her daughter had to eat the worst food at school, and because of overdue miscellaneous fees, she was bullied by teachers and classmates, leading to depression.

So when He Yan came to the south secretly to see her, and found out she was being bullied and stood up for her by getting into fights, Fu Yanyan at that time didn’t appreciate it. She would rather be bullied than have him help her, and even deliberately said, “Isn’t this what you wanted?”

At that moment, He Yan stood opposite her, towering over her by a head, but at that moment, he seemed as low as dust. He looked at her with red eyes, said nothing, and left. But since then, no one dared to openly bully her, at most, they just avoided talking to her.

But He Yan didn’t know that some wounds weren’t just physical.

She still remembered, on the eve of the college entrance examination, after a day of mental preparation, she cautiously told Jin Xiuzhu about the twenty yuan registration fee and living expenses for school.

She had thought of many ways to deal with it, even thought that if Jin Xiuzhu disagreed, she would tell her that she would pay her back in the future. But she never expected to be showered with a stream of insults before she could even finish a sentence, calling her a jinx, blaming her for her biological father’s death, for ruining her marriage, and now, for constantly coming home and affecting her business...

At that moment, she suddenly felt that life in this world was meaningless.

Later, she saw He Yan limping in and out of the hospital, covered in dust and looking pitiful, his dream of joining the army from childhood unfulfilled.

Meanwhile, Jin Xiuzhu lay in the hospital bed, kept alive by intravenous nutrition, supported by He Yan’s hard work.

In the end, Fu Yanyan saw an old lady in the same hospital room eyeing the jade pendant on her neck. In the middle of the night, the old lady tried to steal it, causing it to fall and shatter on the ground.

At that moment, Fu Yanyan suddenly remembered that she had bought the pendant with all the money she had at the time because Jin Xiuzhu had complained she couldn’t sleep well recently. That money was given to her secretly by her stepfather when Jin Xiuzhu divorced him.

At the moment the jade pendant shattered, she seemed to hear Jin Xiuzhu tremblingly call out her name.

Seeing this, Jin Xiuzhu blushed. It was the first time someone had eaten her leftovers.

There was a strange feeling in her heart, but she didn’t dislike it.

After dinner, Jin Xiuzhu efficiently cleaned up the dishes and chopsticks.

Jiang Mingchuan didn’t just sit around either. He sat down by the stove and boiled some hot water, then tidied up the kitchen.

—

In the evening, the family of four finished their simple hygiene routines and went to bed.

There were two rooms in the house, but only one was cleaned up. Previously, when Jiang Mingchuan and He Yan slept at home, they slept together.

Luckily, Jiang Mingchuan had widened the bed beforehand, so the four of them lying on it weren’t too crowded.

Jiang Mingchuan and Jin Xiuzhu lay on their sides facing each other, separated by two children. They both felt a bit awkward, considering they had only known each other for a few days.

However, both children slept soundly, and soon the rhythmic sound of their breathing filled the air.

Jiang Mingchuan then closed his eyes as well.

Only Jin Xiuzhu found it difficult to fall asleep. Everything in front of her felt like a dream.

Just a few days ago, she was a prisoner at the bottom of society, and now she suddenly had a new husband and two children.

But soon, she found it impossible to sleep. The man’s deafening snoring came from nearby, disturbing her peace of mind.

The noise woke up Fu Yanyan, who shifted her body slightly.

Jin Xiuzhu noticed and shot an annoyed glance at the man opposite her, raising her hand to cover the child’s ears. Angrily, she muttered, “Sounds like a cow mooing.”

Fu Yanyan suddenly froze. She hadn’t heard clearly what Jin Xiuzhu said, but she felt the warmth emanating from her ears, and it took her a while to realize it was real.

There was an inexplicable sourness in her heart.

The next morning, Jiang Mingchuan went next door to the Wu family early in the morning to fetch water with a bucket. Their house didn’t have a well, so they had to get water from their neighbors.

After making six or seven trips back and forth, filling the water tank, he stood at the doorway for a while and noticed that the mother and daughter inside still hadn’t woken up. However, their son was very sensible, already in the kitchen boiling water and preparing breakfast.

Jiang Mingchuan returned to the kitchen and took the spatula from his son’s hand, starting to cook the vegetables.

He noticed his son, He Yan, sitting quietly under the stove, watching the fire.

Father and son didn’t speak for a while, both feeling that something was off.