Chapter 124: Youth Is Wonderful ②
Nie Aifang did not expect Chen Yan to come to the vegetable market to cause trouble. Yes, she did not know Chen Yan, but she knew that her younger brother Nie Aiwen’s wife’s name was Chen Yan. When this woman, with the demeanor of a shrew, grabbed the vegetables on the vegetable stand and scattered and trampled them, then announced her name, she knew this person was her brother’s ex-wife, Chen Yan.
Just last time, after Nie Aiwen somewhat rashly confessed to her, she knew that Nie Aiwen had divorced his wife. And when Nie Aiwen brought a young and beautiful girl to celebrate Nie Qiu’s birthday, she was relieved. She really didn’t expect Nie Aiwen to like her. Although they were not biological siblings, she had always treated Nie Aiwen as her own younger brother.
Son preference was very serious in that era, so serious that even adopting another’s son required having a son. Even though she was the biological child, her parents still treated Nie Aiwen better and doted on him more. But she never felt envious or jealous, because Mom often said, “You are the older one, you should let the younger one have his way.” When she grew older, she had been resentful and had argued and fussed, but Nie Aiwen, with a runny nose and a naive expression, would always offer her a White Rabbit candy he had tricked from someone else. Seeing her eat it, he would smile brilliantly.
Every time she felt unbalanced, she would go to the town market to buy pork intestines to cook for her family. Because she knew Nie Aiwen didn’t like pork intestines. He was a little better when he was young, but as he got older, he didn’t like them anymore. But her family praised her for being sensible, knowing what her younger brother liked and buying it. It was fine for Old Man to dote on his younger brother, and it was fine for Mom to dote on her younger brother.
After Old Man and Mom passed away, it was just the two siblings, relying on each other. She supported him through junior high school. He left his hometown to work in the big city, and she stayed to work at the pig farm. Every day, she slaughtered pigs and fed them feed. Life just went on like that.
“You old woman! How dare you steal my husband? Shameless! You have no figure, no looks, what makes you think you can?” After throwing a tantrum, Chen Yan pointed at Nie Aifang and cursed, “You better see your own worth! People who act like whores at least put up a facade, but you, you’re afraid people won’t know what you’re doing, and you’ve even opened a vegetable stand in the market with our family’s money. Have you no shame?”
Nie Aifang had never encountered such a situation and was a bit stunned. “You… are you mistaking me for someone else?”
“Mistake you for someone else? Impossible! Who else could it be?” Chen Yan acted like a shrew, spitting as she spoke. “I’m telling you, if you’re sensible, let me slap you a few times. If you’re not sensible, be careful I disfigure you!”
With that, Chen Yan lunged forward, raising her hand to slap Nie Aifang’s cheek. Nie Aifang’s eyes widened, and she couldn’t help but step back. In the nick of time, a pair of snow-white delicate hands appeared in Nie Aifang’s sight and grabbed Chen Yan’s hand.
“Who?!” Chen Yan angrily turned her head, looking at the person who grabbed her hand. “Who the hell is meddling?”
“It’s me!” Li Mingxue stared at Chen Yan and then asked Nie Aifang, “Elder sister, are you alright?”
They were driving past this market, and she thought Nie Aiwen’s elder sister’s family probably wouldn’t have prepared much food. To avoid troubling them, they decided to buy some vegetables at the market before going to their place. Nie Aiwen had gone to the parking spot behind the market to park. She entered the market first, and unexpectedly encountered this situation!
This person is the boss’s elder sister, and also the person the boss likes, yet here, she is being bullied by this woman?
In her eyes, Nie Aifang had always been an honest and law-abiding person. This shrew-like person was the one who was hateful.
Nie Aifang shook her head, feeling very grateful to Li Mingxue for saving her, but she was also very worried. If Chen Yan found out that the person in front of her was Aiwen’s new girlfriend…
“She’s trying to steal my man, you mind your own damn business!” Chen Yan shook off Li Mingxue’s hand and was about to pounce on Nie Aifang again.
Li Mingxue also lunged forward to hold her back. Even though she heard the woman say Nie Aifang stole her man, without knowing the truth, she didn’t want this woman to harm Nie Aifang.
Besides… how could the boss’s elder sister steal her man? Regardless, this woman was much younger and prettier than the boss’s elder sister, so how could she possibly steal him?
“Aiwen…” Nie Aifang looked at Nie Aiwen walking in from the vegetable market doorway, and then looked at Li Mingxue with concern.
“You still say you’re not seducing my husband!” Chen Yan excitedly tugged at Li Mingxue’s clothes, pointing at Nie Aiwen to indicate to Li Mingxue. “See? This person is my husband. This old woman, this whore, she’s seducing my husband! And you’re helping this kind of person?” She had always thought Li Mingxue was just a passerby who acted out of a sense of justice.
Li Mingxue understood. She let go and slapped Chen Yan. “You’ve got the wrong person. This is Aiwen’s elder sister. You should be looking for me.”
Chen Yan’s eyes widened. She took a step back, and after realizing what happened, she started wailing and lunging to hit Li Mingxue.
Nie Aiwen walked over and grabbed Chen Yan, frowning and shouting, “Enough! Aren’t you making enough of a scene?”
The people buying and selling vegetables around stood there watching, all of them starting to whisper. Nie Aiwen frowned, looked at Nie Aifang who was squatting on the ground picking up vegetables, and then turned to Chen Yan. “We are divorced, Chen Yan. If you continue to make a scene, I will call the police to handle this matter.”
Chen Yan, with tears streaming down her face, grabbed Nie Aiwen’s sleeve. Her heavy dark makeup was smudged by her tears, creating a mess on her cheeks. “Aiwen… Xiao Yu misses you, Aiwen. I know I was wrong, please come back!”
Nie Aiwen didn’t want to be the object of public spectacle, but he also didn’t want this person to ruin Nie Aifang’s reputation. He pulled away Chen Yan’s hand that was clinging to him, stepped back, and watched Chen Yan fall to the ground. “Chen Yan, my elder sister raised me. Without my elder sister, there would be no me today. But when we got married, you disdained my elder sister, thinking she would bring shame to your family, and didn’t let her attend our wedding. That’s fine. My elder sister is not in good health and has a child. The cost of living in the city is high, and you wouldn’t let me give money to my elder sister, not even let me borrow money! Fine, I tolerated all of that. If the child wanted to go to Guinness, you took him to Guinness. If the child wanted to go to Bali, you took him to Bali. If the child wanted to hit his parents, you let him hit his parents. Have you ever thought about what kind of person your child will become when he grows up with such doting?”
“If I scold the child once, your parents would scold me a hundred times. If I discipline the child once, you would reprimand me a thousand times. Chen Yan, I’ve had enough! I am a father! I am a man!” Nie Aiwen no longer cared about losing face. Anyway… even if his reputation was ruined, it wouldn’t matter, as he didn’t live here. But he absolutely could not ruin his elder sister’s reputation. “You agreed to the divorce, didn’t you? I believe I have done everything I could. Your family’s company went public, and I offered advice to your father. For the divorce, I didn’t take a single cent from your family. What more are you unhappy about?”
The onlookers understood. It turned out he was a live-in son-in-law! Many people knew that being a live-in son-in-law was not easy. With the slightest carelessness, one could be pointed at and gossiped about. Any man with self-respect would not become a live-in son-in-law!
They looked at the person who had fallen to the ground, pointing and discussing animatedly. Whether this woman was right or wrong, they would not comment. Just from the fact that this woman came to cause trouble for others without any clear reason, they knew she was not someone to be trifled with!
