Chapter 152: Handling
“Stop!”
The voice wasn’t particularly loud, yet it was shockingly deafening in the corridor.
Ren Xuan, who had bolted away, abruptly halted and instinctively froze in place.
Clack clack clack~
The sound of leather shoes stepping out, each one striking her heart like a hammer, making her scalp tingle.
Ren Xuan lowered her gaze to the pair of black leather shoes stopped right in front of her, clenching her slightly sticky palms. “Aunt Ma, is there anything else?”
“Back then, it was your Ren Family, you Ren Xuan, who begged shamelessly for Jia Dan to take responsibility. And now, you’re the ones rushing to break off the engagement.
How is our Fu Family a soft persimmon that you can pick at, knead, and toy with as you please?”
Gripping the jade pendant tightly in her hand, Ma Xiuzhen struggled to control her trembling fingertips from anger, spitting out unusually sharp and biting words for the first time. “What kind of trash is your Ren Family’s Ren Xuan? Do you think you’re worthy of looking down on Jia Dan?”
“Aunt Ma, don’t go too far…”
“Tch~”
Casting a contemptuous glance at her, Ma Xiuzhen elegantly smoothed her hair and sneered before slowly turning around, her tone calm yet extremely cold.
“Since the engagement is broken off, aside from this jade pendant, please return everything the Fu Family sent to the Ren Family intact, otherwise…”
“Just try it and see if my Fu Family can still personally crush you now.”
Though it wasn’t certain how much Jia Dan liked her or this marriage, as a mother, she wouldn’t tolerate someone coming to humiliate and stab at the heart at such a critical moment.
If only their Ren Family had come to break off the engagement after Fu Rong and his son were discharged from the hospital, she absolutely wouldn’t have said a word.
Ren Xuan’s face was gloomy, her expression extremely ugly, her long nails digging into the soft flesh of her palm.
Even after walking out of the hospital room into the corridor and seeing her waiting parents, she still hadn’t recovered.
“Dad, Mom.”
“How did it go, Xuanxuan? Did you break it off? Did you make everything clear?”
The Ren Family was just an ordinary worker family, and having four workers in the household was enough to make many people envious.
Later, they latched onto the Fu Family. Not to mention anything else, just relying on this layer of marriage connection had brought plenty of benefits to the Ren Family members, let alone minor things like promotions to small cadres.
But now, with the Fu Family on the verge of collapse and Fu Jiatan crippled, the Ren Family had only one precious daughter—they absolutely wouldn’t throw her into such a fire pit.
Xuanxuan was pretty with a great figure; couldn’t she just turn around and find someone better?
Luckily, Fu Jiatan had dragged it out back then with the excuse of establishing his career before starting a family. Otherwise, a perfectly good young unmarried girl thrown into the hands of a cripple would truly be a massive loss!
“It’s broken off.”
Ren Father and Ren Mother immediately beamed with joy upon hearing this, but the next second, upon hearing their daughter’s addition, their expressions instantly stiffened.
“However, Aunt Ma said to return everything the Fu Family sent to our home.”
“On what grounds?!”
Ren Mother excitedly sprayed saliva everywhere. Returning all those things would be like taking her old life!
The jewelry from the engagement, the three major items, and the big red envelope…
“On what grounds? On the grounds that they are the Fu Family, on the grounds that Fu Rong hasn’t kicked the bucket yet, and his position is still hanging there!”
“His dad… do we really have to return them?”
No way they could not return them!
Ren Mother wailed with a mournful face, as if her heart and lungs had been dug out. “Those things were prepared for the youngest…”
“Shut up, we’ll talk about it after we get back!”
Unaware of the ugly faces of her former in-laws outside the hospital room, Ma Xiuzhen had already arrived at her husband’s intensive care unit.
Looking at him covered in tubes, his eyes still tightly closed, Ma Xiuzhen instantly dropped all her forced pretense. “ARong… wake up quickly, or we’ll be bullied to death…”
As if hearing his wife’s sobs by his ear, Fu Rong’s fingers under the quilt on the bed twitched slightly.
……
Gu City.
Arriving in Yong County before dawn, Su Ning took the earliest route bus to the city.
She first went home briefly to pack some things she needed, stuffing them into a small suitcase as cover.
Dragging the suitcase to the neighboring courtyard, she learned Zhang Ze hadn’t returned yet. After instructing Tian Xiang on a few things, she hurriedly left again to make a call at the post office.
Next, to the textile factory and the mechanical factory.
By the time all the errands were done and the tireless Su Ning rushed back to the First Brigade, it was completely dark.
Yan Bei stood motionless at the village entrance like a stone waiting for his wife, not knowing how long he had been there.
Only when he saw Captain Su’s little grandson driving the ox cart back did his cold, hard face under the moonlight soften a bit.
“Why are you standing here?”
Hadn’t she told the young man they had agreed he would pick her up on time in the county town, so she could rest assured and wait at home?
Waving at him, as soon as he approached, without waiting for him to speak, she directly pulled him into the cart bed.
Su Jianqun couldn’t help turning back to glance at the young man his grandpa had called the most capable youth, whom he had seen twice.
Rumor had it he had been sent down to their Team One for two or three days already, seemingly deliberately avoiding people—if not for him waiting specifically here, it would have been hard to catch sight of him.
“Engineer Yan…”
“I’m not anymore. Just call me Yan Bei.”
“Then… Yan Big Brother!”
Greeting him, Su Jianqun turned back and continued carefully driving the cart toward the back mountain at the end of the village.
Safely dropping him off at the ancestral home’s courtyard gate and receiving the handful of chocolates Su Ning stuffed at him, he left happily.
These were high-end candies from the Friendship store in Shanghai City. He had only shared half a piece with his big brother from the box she gave before; just putting it in his mouth, after the initial bitterness, it was incredibly smooth and sweet—Su Jianqun liked them very much.
His distant younger sister was good in every way, just too generous!
Opening the courtyard gate, she saw various furniture placed in the courtyard. Su Ning walked forward lightly to inspect them and casually asked, “When did Uncle Dacheng send these over?”
“Not long after dinner. I heard the noise and came to help move them into the courtyard.”
Setting down the things in his hand, Yan Bei roughly scanned them; aside from this small leather suitcase, the rest were mostly his own belongings.
As expected, saying she was off on errands, the main thing was tidying up and bringing his things over for him.
Bending down and concealing the depth in his eyes, Yan Bei found that square wooden box amid the pile of luggage.
This was a treasure chest he had casually polished in his spare time, containing the salary he had saved in the bank over years of work, money and ration coupons needed for daily expenses, and some valuables like a watch and small items.
“Su Ning, these for you.”
“Hm?”
Having just finished checking the furniture on the ground, Su Ning blankly looked at the things he handed her, her face full of question marks.
“Why are you giving me your passbook and money and ration coupons?”
“I can’t use them now anyway. Even if I wanted to spend them, I couldn’t, and it’d just invite trouble.”
“Oh, I get it. You want me to keep them safe for you? No problem.”
Taking the items with both hands, Su Ning nodded understandingly, planning to store them separately in the bedroom of her Peach Blossom Spring Space, so they wouldn’t be lost no matter where she went.
A smile at the corner of his mouth, Yan Bei didn’t explain. Once given, he had no intention of taking back the items, and he even planned to hand over more in the future under a different identity.
“Let’s go. First, move the things and furniture to where you’re staying.”
“No rush on that. Have you eaten?”
“You mentioning it, I actually forgot.”
Bringing her to the kitchen, Yan Bei brought out the meal that had been warming in the pot one by one onto the table.
“Did you make this?”
“Yeah, the taste isn’t great. Make do and eat some.”
The simplest scrambled eggs with tomatoes and eggplant with beans.
Honestly, with this appearance… it really looked a bit scary.
Hesitating slightly as she took the bowl and chopsticks he handed her, she thought of the bizarre meals she had made back when she couldn’t cook anything in the space—those strange flavors were a lingering shadow she still didn’t want to recall.
Glancing at his expectant yet somewhat nervous expression as he looked at her, Su Ning gripped her chopsticks tighter and picked up a nearby long bean.
“How is it?”
“Mm, it’s okay. For a first time, making it like this is very good!”
Nodding affirmatively in some surprise, Su Ning noted the appearance was indeed poor, but the taste had no major issues.
Just a bit overcooked and scorched.
Seeing her eat without much difficulty and getting an affirmative answer, Yan Bei breathed a sigh of relief. As long as it was edible, that was fine.
“Have you eaten?”
“Yes.”
“Really?”
The portions weren’t large, but they didn’t look touched at all.
“Really ate. I wouldn’t lie to you.”
The breakfast she left that morning had quite a bit left, and since he had finished the work at the cattle shed before returning, lunch and dinner became one meal. He had heated up and eaten all the leftovers.
“Alright then. Today I got in touch with the Shanghai City side and already know the exact addresses for those two places. See if there’s anything you need to mail?”
