"I agree."
Gu Nuan Nuan nodded immediately. But she was afraid nodding too quickly might make her mother suspicious, so she started fiddling with her fingers and explained to Zhang Minzhen, her face a mask of grievance, "Mom, Lin Jiayi and Lin Jia Bao are always bullying me in class. I've told Dad, but every single time, he doesn't even bother to ask what happened. He just scolds me instead, saying they're good kids and it must be my fault for not getting along with my classmates and provoking them. But it was their fault every single time! I never did anything to them. I didn't used to know why Dad always sided with them, but then I accidentally overheard him talking with Grandma, and now I know. Anyway, they don't like me one bit, so I'm not going to like them either. As long as I have you, Mom, that's all I need."
"They were bullying you? Why did you never come and tell me?" Upon hearing this, Zhang Minzhen's hatred for Gu Lihui and her mother-in-law grew even more intense. 'They don't care about their own legitimate child, but instead, they dote on those bastards from his affair…' Her heart wrenched with pain as she looked at her daughter.
"Dad told me not to. He said it was just kids playing around, and that as long as I didn't provoke Lin Jiayi and Lin Jia Bao and tried to suck up to them, everything would be fine. He also said that if you found out and went to the school to make a scene, everyone would look down on me."
Gu Nuan Nuan lowered her head.
'Not a single word she'd just said was an exaggeration. In her past life, while her mother was recovering from her injuries, he had brainwashed her with these exact words. After being brainwashed so thoroughly, she had foolishly believed her scumbag dad and brought gifts to suck up to those two little scumbags. When her scumbag dad found out she was giving them things, he even praised her. He'd personally taken her to buy a Hero-brand fountain pen—something he was usually too cheap to buy for her—as a birthday gift to "apologize" to them. He'd even lectured her, saying she had to be "generous" to make friends.'
'Lin Jiayi and Lin Jia Bao were happy to get the pen and, in a great show of "charity," left her alone for a while. It was only later, when the truth came out, that she learned the real reason: their good-for-nothing father had thrown sulfuric acid at the wrong person. Once they knew the whole story, their homewrecker mom had ordered them to lay low, and they didn't dare to disobey.'
'Later on, she never dared to tell her mother about this incident, but it became a "dark history" from her past that she brooded over for the rest of her life.'
'Thankfully, this time around, it was all just starting. Events had only progressed to the point where she came home to complain to her scumbag dad; he hadn't yet offered her that rotten advice.'
'Another thing that was different from her last life was that, back then, she hadn't had the chance to overhear the conversation between her scumbag dad and her grandmother. Because of that, at the start of her last life, she still held out some hope for them. Not knowing the truth, she had been deeply hurt and confused for a long time, wondering why they would defend "other people's children" while looking down on their own.'
'Later, after Lin Jiayi became her stepsister and bullied her repeatedly, she would openly mock her, saying her mother was incompetent and couldn't keep a hold on her man. At those times, she had even secretly resented her own mother.'
"He's a real piece of work. To abuse his own… child from his legal wife, all for the sake of two bastards."
These words didn't just infuriate Zhang Minzhen; even the female shop owner, a total stranger, was furious after hearing the story. She had originally meant to say, "…abuse his own flesh and blood," but then she realized—'aren't those two bastards his flesh and blood, too?' So she'd corrected herself, and when she couldn't think of a better phrase on the spot, she landed on the words "legal wife."
She looked at Zhang Minzhen indignantly and said, "Listen, honey. I know they say you shouldn't encourage divorce, but staying with a family like that is more dangerous than living in a wolf's den. Get out while you still can. A three-legged toad might be hard to find, but there are plenty of two-legged men out there, aren't there?"
Although the shop owner's words were blunt, they were exactly what Gu Nuan Nuan wanted to say. However, these weren't things a "child" her age could say so openly to her mother.
At her words, Gu Nuan Nuan's head snapped up. She looked at her mother with desperate hope, terrified that she might still be holding out for that scumbag dad, or that she might misunderstand and think Nuannuan didn't want them to divorce. So, she quickly nodded again and again, showing her agreement with the shop owner.
Seeing her daughter's reaction, Zhang Minzhen's heart ached. "You want Mom to get a divorce too, don't you?"
"Mm-hm. Remember when the teacher told us we needed to buy fountain pens? Dad gave me one that my cousin had already broken—the ink wouldn't even flow smoothly. He told me I needed to learn the virtue of being frugal. Then, after Lin Jiayi and Lin Jia Bao bullied me, he actually told me to buy them new fountain pens for their birthday as an apology. He even said he'd take me to buy them, and that it could count as my own birthday present, just given early." Gu Nuan Nuan lowered her head, twisting her fingers.
"Your father… he really said that?" Zhang Minzhen asked, gritting her teeth.
'Gu Lihui controlled the family's finances. They had already fought over whether or not to buy their daughter a new fountain pen, and she had lost the argument. She had already resigned herself to using what little money she'd saved to buy one for Nuannuan herself. She never imagined he could be so shamelessly biased toward those bastards.'
"Yes."
Gu Nuan Nuan nodded and sighed. "I told Dad that they already have pens, but he pretended not to hear me. I even suggested that he could use the money to buy me a new pen, and we could just get two hardcover notebooks for Lin Jiayi and Lin Jia Bao with what was left over. But he just yelled at me and called me petty."
The shop owner at her side added indignantly, "I've never heard of a father like that. He's really something else."
"We're leaving. Mom will divorce him." Zhang Minzhen steeled herself, her decision made. "But Nuannuan, you'll probably have to face some hard times with me after this. Are you scared?" 'The way Gu Lihui has treated me and our daughter is utterly heartless. If I don't leave him now, he'll devour us both until there's nothing left.'
But a divorce meant she would certainly lose her current job and their home.
She thought about her job as a salesclerk at the supply and marketing cooperative, which she'd only gotten because her husband's sister's father-in-law was the director. Zhang Minzhen sighed to herself.
It wasn't just the job, either. The apartment she shared with her husband had been assigned to them because of that position. If she divorced him, her first priorities would have to be finding a place for her and her daughter to live and securing a livelihood.
Moving back in with her parents was out of the question. With her parents, an older brother, and two younger brothers, it was a large family, and their home was already cramped. Besides, a divorced daughter returning home was bound to create friction with her sisters-in-law, and it would give the neighbors plenty to gossip about.
'Life is so hard for a woman, especially a divorced one,' Zhang Minzhen thought, gritting her teeth. 'But no matter how hard it gets, I have to go through with this divorce.'
"Mom, as long as I can be with you, I'm not afraid of any hardship." Gu Nuan Nuan took her mother's hand, her eyes on her troubled face. "Mom, are you worried that we won't have a place to live?"
"How did you know?" Zhang Minzhen's eyes widened as she stared at her daughter. She cleared her throat softly. "Nuannuan, be good. This isn't something you need to think about. Mom will figure it out."