Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
After finalizing the IOU, Qiao Dongliang did not dawdle. He would not withhold what he should give Ding Jiayi.
Ding Jiayi’s hands shivered, but she took the ‘money’ and held on to it tightly.
“There are guests in my house today. It’s not convenient for you to stay put. If you wish to entertain your guests, that’s fine. Go back to your small courtyard to do so. I’ll definitely not join you.” Qiao Dongliang gave a deep sigh of relief as if he had just resolved a huge matter.
Not to mention Ding Jiayi, even Qiao Dongliang did not understand why they would end up divorcing when everything seemed fine earlier.
Having been a couple with Ding Jiayi for so many years, Qiao Dongliang might not have to do this to end the marriage as long as Ding Jiayi was willing to change or even restrain herself.
However, the honest and upright Qiao Dongliang was really unable to tolerate Ding Jiayi’s behavior today.
What Ding Jiayi did today not only embarrassed herself but also Qiao Dongliang. It made Qiao Dongliang unable to lift his head as an individual.
“I…” Ding Jiayi still shamelessly wished to address Miao Jing as a ‘sister’ and drag Miao Jing out of the house with her. However, Miao Jing had followed Qiao Nan to her room earlier and had not stepped out of it since. She did not bother about Ding Jiayi as well. Ding Jiayi was still suffering from having negotiated with Qiao Dongliang about the divorce.
The emotionally confused Ding Jiayi sniffed. “I’m leaving. I’ll host my sister. I don’t need you to tell me what to do. I’ll certainly host my sister at my own house!” Having that said, Ding Jiayi held on to the IOU and ran out of the small quad.
“Sigh.” Ding Jiayi finally left, but Qiao Dongliang’s mood was not any better. He looked extremely downhearted.
He was already a middle-aged man and he was divorcing. Most depressingly, his wife was gone, his money was gone, and even his house was gone.
Qiao Dongliang felt confused and was at a loss as he thought about how he could support his daughter given his situation.
“Uncle Qiao, I’ll send the money to you tomorrow.” Zhai Sheng poured a cup of tea for Qiao Dongliang. “Uncle Qiao, perhaps this is better for you, Nan Nan, and her. It may be better for your family of four.”
“What is better for our family of four?” Qiao Nan, who came out to get a cup of water for Miao Jing, heard the last sentence of the conversation.
“Nan Nan, I’m going to divorce your mom,” Qiao Dongliang said in an earth-shattering manner.
At this moment, in the small courtyard of the Qiao family.
“What? You and Dad are going to divorce? Mom, you’re crazy!” Qiao Zijin screamed. She smiled sarcastically. “Mom, don’t joke with me. If you really want to divorce, Dad will not be afraid. We’re the ones who need to worry, yet you used this to threaten Dad? Are your brains flooded? I only asked you to go and take the things, but you’re actually divorcing Dad. Mom, what is wrong with you?”
She did not bring back the things but was going to have a divorce.
Qiao Zijin was spinning in anxiety. “Mom, if your mind was not in the right state today, you should not have gone there then. You… you! I really don’t know what to say. You’re crazy. You’re really crazy!”
“Alright, don’t kick up a fuss anymore. Do you think I feel happy about this? Am I the one being crazy? It’s your Dad. He insisted to divorce me. Did I have a choice?” Ding Jiayi was so regretful but the matter had been cast in stone. Unless Old Qiao could not give her the money tomorrow, they would definitely divorce.
“Mom, you can continue to lie if you wish to. Everything was going well. Why did Dad suddenly mention divorce? Do you think I’ll believe you? Weren’t you just taking some dry goods? How did you provoke Dad?” At the end of the conversation, Qiao Zijin was having a headache.
If she had known that this would happen, she should have thought of a way to resolve it herself. Her mother was doing her a disservice. She had to be even busier now.
She was only supposed to take a little stuff. Qiao Zijin really did not understand how it resulted in her mother getting a divorce with her father. Her mother was truly a genius!
“I… Didn’t I do all those things for the good of our family? I just wanted to grab the opportunity to find a path for your dad and me. Who knew that your dad would turn crazy and want to divorce me! How much is his dignity worth for anyway? Are pride and dignity more important than money and our future? Relatives like the Zhai family are not within our reach usually. A rare opportunity like this is hard to come by. If I didn’t go forward to interact with them, I’d be truly crazy then.” She did not do anything wrong. Everything that she did was for the sake of this family.
It was Old Qiao who wanted his pride too much. He not only failed to understand her good intentions, but he also kicked up a fuss.
“What exactly happened?” Qiao Zijin asked with a stiff face.
“It’s like this…” Ding Jiayi spoke about the matter regarding Miao Jing. “Tell me, should I give up such a good opportunity? Zijin, tell me. This time, was it not your dad who was overly concerned about his dignity? It’s already fine that he’s so full of pride, but he even wanted to divorce me. It’s so infuriating.”
“Alright, don’t talk about it anymore.” Qiao Zijin rubbed her own forehead. “It’s not like this was your first time knowing that Dad wants to keep his dignity. He wants to keep his dignity in front of his former comrades, and the more so in front of the Zhai family. The feelings that he has for the soldiers and the army, don’t you know it better than others? Dad was also cornered by you.”
It was, of course, a good opportunity to be associated with the Zhai family.
However, the pretext was that the Zhai family had to be willing to.
Qiao Zijin knew all along that she was too close to Wang Yang and was stooping to flattery. The difference was that she was willing to curry favor and Wang Yang was willing to accept it.
If Wang Yang did not defer to her tactics, she would then retreat in the face of overwhelming odds and leave some dignity for herself. Similar to the Zhai family, a family of high status like the Wang family would not yield to constant pestering. If pestering was of any use, the relatives of the Zhai family would have queued to the other side of the earth. It would never be the turn of the Qiao family.
“Dad even wrote you an IOU. Are you really going to divorce with Dad tomorrow?”
“What can I do if I don’t? If I don’t, where can I get the money to let you continue your studies? You’re now in senior high school and I already can’t afford it. When you attend college… I don’t even wish to think about it. Your dad said that if he and I divorce, he’ll not only give me a sum of money but also a monthly allowance of a hundred yuan. Judging by this, I still need to find a job.” At the mention of finding a job, Ding Jiayi felt so miserable that she wanted to cry.
Ding Jiayi suffered much when she was working previously. She finally found an excuse to revert to a full-time housewife again.
After the divorce, Ding Jiayi’s future life would not be easy anymore.
“You already know this, yet, you still want to divorce?!” Given that meager ability of her mother, she could neither earn much money nor suffer hardships. The one hundred yuan monthly allowance from her father was not enough for them to rely on!
Blamed by the elder daughter, Ding Jiayi, who was in an extremely bad mood, also exploded. “Alright, don’t complain anymore. Who did I do all these for? Wasn’t it because of you that your dad and I became like this? Your dad is unhappy that I’m biased toward you and spare all my thoughts for you. That’s why he wanted to divorce me! You’re blaming me? Fine, I’ll let you decide on this matter. There’s money if I divorce your dad. There’s no money if I don’t. What do you want me to do? I’ll listen to you. Won’t that do?”
