Chapter 2: The Poor Home

Isn't that exactly how Wang Liang was? During the ten years after he disappeared, he didn't send her a single cent. The children's tuition was all saved up bit by bit by her selling eels.

After Hua Xiali sued Wang Liang, she feared he would become desperate and turn to violence. To protect her family, she chose to call the police. After a long and exhausting ordeal, she successfully managed to have Wang Liang sever ties with their two sons and even secured five thousand yuan in compensation. After the divorce, Wang Liang left with his girlfriend.

Perhaps it was because they were afraid of people pointing fingers at them, or perhaps that woman simply didn't want to take care of her parents-in-law, but once the two of them left, they never returned.

When her two sons were in middle school and high school, Hua Xiali found work near their schools to take care of them. Hairdresser, dishwasher, street cleaner, receptionist, nanny... she had done it all. She had even watched over factories for breeding farms and orchards; she had worked many different jobs.

Her two sons were quite promising. Although the universities they got into weren't particularly prestigious, they at least managed to get into college.

The cost of university was high, so Hua Xiali chose to work as a live-in nanny, which offered a higher income and meant she didn't have to spend money on rent.

During the time her two sons were in college, their hometown was demolished to build a university town. After her divorce, Hua Xiali had returned to her parents' home with her two children. She didn't live with her eldest sister and brother-in-law, but instead applied for a new plot of land to build a house. Therefore, when the demolition happened, Hua Xiali’s family received nearly 2.6 million yuan in total for population, housing, and land compensation.

After receiving the demolition money, many people suddenly appeared around her, wanting to lead her into business investments and the like. She felt anxious and afraid, terrified that others would scheme to take the money in her hands.

Moreover, some people in the village had lost all their money and, unable to bear the blow, chose to jump off buildings. At that time, Hua Xiali became certain that these people who had suddenly appeared were not good; they were working together to set traps just to swindle people out of their money.

Thus, Hua Xiali returned to the city to continue working as a low-profile nanny, unwilling to let anyone know she was carrying a fortune of over two million yuan.

Housing prices in their hometown county were relatively low, so she bought each of her two sons a 150-square-meter apartment as a guarantee for their future lives. Regardless of whether they could find good jobs after graduation, with a house, they wouldn't have to worry about housing and could take their time looking for work.

Even if the salary was low, it didn't matter; as long as they could support themselves, it was fine.

After both sons graduated, Hua Xiali bought each of them a car worth about 100,000 yuan and gave each of them a savings book with 100,000 yuan.

In the year Hua Xiali turned fifty, her ex-husband Wang Liang finally deigned to return to his hometown. He had cancer, his wife had abandoned him and run off, and the demolition money from the house and land that belonged to him had been seized by his sister and brother-in-law's family. Penniless, he entangled himself with Hua Xiali's two sons.

The two sons sent Wang Liang directly to Hua Xiali, asking her to take care of him. Hua Xiali was disappointed and angry, but she loved her children after all. Fearing that Wang Liang would sue them and affect their careers, families, and the future of their descendants to take civil service exams, she relented.

Hua Xiali only let Wang Liang live in the house; she did not take care of him personally. Instead, she spent a small amount of money to hire a male villager to look after him. She hated him for ruining her entire life; how could she possibly take care of him?

She even "kindly" went to the police station to help Wang Liang report the case and put out a notice in the newspaper to search for his wife and children. In any case, she wouldn't let that woman and her children have an easy time either.

Why should they get to steal someone else's husband, cause her a lifetime of misery, and leave her with no peace in her old age, while they lived a good life outside?

Later, Wang Liang died, and that woman brought her children to the house to seize Hua Xiali's property. Only then did Hua Xiali realize that the dog Wang Liang had actually written a will before he died.

In the will, he left Hua Xiali's resettlement house to his children with the mistress.

It was while they were grabbing the house that Hua Xiali was pushed down the stairs by them...

"Mom." Hua Xiali snapped back to reality, reaching out to hold her mother's hand. "Mom, I don't like either Wang Liang or Ding Yong. Can you help me reject both of them?"

"I'm only nineteen this year, I'm still young, there's no need to rush. I want to improve our family's situation first before considering marriage, is that okay?"

"Mom, I want to stay with you for a few more years. I want to eat my mother's cooking for a few more years." Hua Xiali leaned into her mother's embrace, her eyes quickly turning red, welling up with tears. "Mom, I can't bear to leave you. I don't want to go to someone else's house; I want to earn money for our own family. I don't want to earn money for someone else's family..."

Whether it was a dream or a final flash of clarity before death, she didn't want to see Wang Liang's disgusting face again. She was afraid of dirtying her cycle of reincarnation. A thousand words could not express the bitterness of her life.

Her mother raised her hand and placed it on Hua Xiali's shoulder, patting it gently, and finally nodded helplessly. "Alright, when Wang Liang and Ding Yong come again, Mom will help you turn them away."

If her daughter doesn't want to marry, then she won't. If she stays for another two years, perhaps she'll meet someone even better!

Seeing her mother agree, Hua Xiali was overjoyed. Fearing that the warmth would be fleeting, she greedily leaned into her mother's arms, hugging her tightly.

After a long time, Hua Xiali in her arms didn't move at all. Her mother looked down and saw that she had already fallen asleep, her eyes and nose red, looking just like a little piglet.

Her mother smiled helplessly, carefully laid her down, tucked her in gently, and then tiptoed out of Hua Xiali's room.

Hua Chunli, sitting at the kitchen table, saw her mother come out alone and asked curiously, "Where's Xiali?"

"I guess she had a nightmare. She said some nonsense, cried for a while, and then fell asleep again." Her mother walked over, sat down, and picked up her bowl and chopsticks to eat. "Xiali said she doesn't choose either Wang Liang or Ding Yong. When they come to look for her again, just send them away! Lest people misunderstand that Xiali is two-timing and ruin her reputation."

"Mom, you should be the one to say it. They are both my elementary school classmates; it's hard for me to say anything," Hua Chunli said helplessly.

She hadn't expected that they would just happen to run into them at the supermarket entrance before the New Year, and she certainly didn't expect that these two would both come to pursue her sister.

It had been over ten years since elementary school graduation, and they hadn't seen each other. Hua Chunli didn't know them well, so she had nothing to say about them pursuing Hua Xiali.

Now that Hua Xiali wanted to reject them, then so be it. She wouldn't help outsiders persuade her sister. If she stayed at home for two more years, she and Zhang Yongfeng could have an easier time.

Her father was a miner with a decent income, but because he had to support the three sisters, there were no savings in the family. Three years ago, the coal mine collapsed, and her father was buried inside. Although he was rescued later, he was paralyzed. She, who was in her third year of high school, and Hua Xiali, who was in her first year, didn't hesitate at all and chose to drop out, leaving only the youngest sister to continue her studies.

(End of chapter)