"I heard what Auntie and Grandma said. They said that even your job is thanks to their family, and if you don't listen, they'll make you lose it and we'll have to live on the street. Mom, we're not really going to have to live on the street, are we?"
Gu Nuan Nuan blinked, looking up at her mother. 'In this life, Mom hasn't had her accident yet. The Gu family probably won't be in such a hurry to force a divorce, so they won't offer us the old house in the countryside like they did before.' Living with her maternal grandparents was unlikely, and besides, it wasn't what she wanted. Therefore, she had to remind her mother to fight for a house.
"Uh... Don't worry, that won't happen. Mom will figure something out about the house." An embarrassed and slightly annoyed look crossed Zhang Minzhen's face, but her words lacked conviction.
For the sake of her job at the supply and marketing co-op and the tiny room that at least allowed them to move out of her in-laws' home, she not only regularly gave "gifts" to her sister-in-law's father-in-law, but she also frequently had to cover her sister-in-law's shifts on her own days off.
Her mother-in-law would constantly bring it up, telling her she needed to be grateful, making her feel as if she were inherently inferior to everyone in the Gu family.
What was more frustrating was that she couldn't hide a single detail about her salary or benefits from her in-laws—not how much money she made or what goods she received. Worse, Gu Lihui kept a tight grip on all the money she earned. Her pockets were always empty. Forget about buying gifts for her own family when she visited home; she was so strapped for cash she couldn't even buy new clothes for herself. She was even restricted from buying slightly better sanitary pads during her period. The constant arguments never solved anything.
"Mom, why don't we move back to Lihua Village? Didn't you say that Grandma insisted you and Dad pay for the two houses there, so they already belong to our family? And don't you remember? Besides the houses in the village, our family also has a house in town."
Gu Nuan Nuan reminded Zhang Minzhen with a shrewd look, "Mom, a house is marital property. If you divorce Dad, you can get a share. But Grandma and Dad will never agree to give you the house in town. You'd be better off asking for the two properties in Lihua Village."
'In my last life, Mom lost her temporary job at the co-op after her face was disfigured, and the co-op took back the small house we were living in.'
'Back then, that scum of a father lied to Mom, claiming the person who threw acid on her was mentally ill and from a dirt-poor family. So, not only could they not press charges, but they also wouldn't get a single cent in compensation. They just had to accept their bad luck.'
'As soon as Mom recovered a little, that scum father, desperate to divorce and get rid of her, offered her one of the old houses in Lihua Village. Mom must have been completely disheartened. In the end, she didn't overthink it and only insisted on getting custody of me before moving us to the countryside.'
'The worst part was, a few years later, just when she and Mom had finally settled down in Lihua Village, had nearly finished repairing the old house, and had even added two new rooms, an underground hot spring was discovered in the area. The land was expropriated to build a sanatorium for government officials, and our house was part of the designated zone. The compensation for the demolition was substantial, but before Mom could even be happy about it, that scum father showed up with his mistress-turned-stepmother to claim the house.'
'It turned out that when Mom and that scum had divorced, the property deed for the Lihua Village house hadn't been processed. Mom's worldly experience was limited back then, and it never even occurred to her to secure a deed. She simply assumed that the house given to her in the divorce was legally hers.'
'But after he married his mistress, she couldn't stand the thought of me and Mom getting the house. She goaded him into secretly processing the property deed in his name, planning to wait a few years—long enough for us to fix the place up nicely—before taking it back.'
'But then, the news of the demolition came out before they could act.'
'By the time the demolition compensation was paid out, it was too late. Because that scum and his new wife produced the property deed, all the money went straight into their pockets. As if that wasn't a big enough blow, the stepmother cruelly chose that moment to reveal that her fraternal twins were his children all along.'
'In this life, I absolutely cannot let Mom make the same mistakes again.'
"That's true... but Lihua Village is quite a distance from town. Never mind whether those houses are even livable—even if they are, what would you do about school if we lived there?"
At her daughter's reminder, Zhang Minzhen suddenly recalled how her mother-in-law, desperate to shed her "country bumpkin" status, get a town residency permit, and build a house, had been short on cash. She had set her sights on Zhang Minzhen's dowry, ultimately forcing the "sale" of two dilapidated properties in Lihua Village to the couple.
As for the house in town, that was built on land approved after they got their residency permits. There were three plots of land altogether for the homestead: one for her parents-in-law, one for her and Gu Lihui, and one for her brother-in-law's family.
In the end, her mother-in-law made the decision to merge all three plots and build a single two-story house on them.
She had helped pay for the construction; not only did her monthly salary go toward paying off the debt, but she had also borrowed a large sum from her own family. Yet, after the house was built, her little family hardly ever stayed there except for holidays.
She knew perfectly well that if they divorced, her in-laws would never agree to give her a piece of that house. 'Even if they did, I wouldn't want to live with the Gu family anymore. But no matter what, I paid for part of that house.'
Zhang Minzhen thought it over and over, concluding that her daughter was right. It was better to ask for the properties in Lihua Village than to fight for the house in town. Since the village houses were old, rundown, and in the countryside, she had a much better chance of getting them.
"It'll be okay, Mom. Actually, a few of my classmates live in Lihua Village," Gu Nuan Nuan said with a smile.
"But that's a round trip of several miles! How could you possibly manage that walk to and from school every day?" Looking at her daughter's smiling face, Zhang Minzhen's heart ached so much that tears welled in her eyes. 'It's all my fault. I'm not capable enough to give my daughter a good life. Now we don't even have a place to live, and I'll have to make her walk that long mountain road every single day, rain or shine.'
"Mom, if my classmates can do it, I definitely can too. Our teacher says that you have to endure the greatest hardships to achieve the greatest success. She also says that the fragrance of the plum blossom comes from the bitter cold, and a sharp sword is forged through constant grinding," Gu Nuan Nuan comforted her mother. 'I did it in my past life, after all. A little extra walking at my age isn't a bad thing; it's good exercise.'
Hearing this, Zhang Minzhen stroked her daughter's small head, a look of gratified relief on her face.
"You may not have found a good man, but you have a wonderful daughter. Your future is sure to be blessed," the female shopkeeper, who had been quietly listening to their conversation, said to Zhang Minzhen with a sigh.
Just as she finished speaking, the police arrived. There were two of them: one was younger and looked a bit green, as if he hadn't graduated from the academy long ago; the other was older and had the unmistakable look of an experienced officer.