Yang Liqun was already annoyed about being woken up so early by her mother-in-law to go to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy groceries. However, as soon as she returned home and heard her husband say that they were going to send his parents back to the countryside, she was so overjoyed that she forgot to put on an act. Her entire face lit up with a smile.
She even started thinking about which ticket she should buy for them to return home—preferably the earliest one available.
But before she could enjoy her happiness for a few seconds, Zhang Guixiang’s sharp voice shattered her thoughts.
“You’re just dying for me and your father-in-law to go back to the countryside, aren’t you? How did our Ma family end up with such an unfilial daughter-in-law? We must have been cursed for eight lifetimes to have such bad luck!” Zhang Guixiang was already furious and flustered. Seeing Yang Liqun gloating only made her even more enraged.
She couldn’t afford to offend the people outside or the two men in the family, but did that mean she couldn’t deal with this daughter-in-law who had cost them a hefty bride price?
With that, she charged forward aggressively, attempting to hit Yang Liqun.
But Yang Liqun wasn’t the type to be easily bullied. Seeing Zhang Guixiang lunge at her, she immediately raised her hands to fight back. She was young and had a strong grip, while Zhang Guixiang was no match for her. Losing her balance, Zhang Guixiang fell flat on her backside with a painful yelp.
“Aiyo! A daughter-in-law hitting her mother-in-law—does heaven even allow this?” Zhang Guixiang took the opportunity to sprawl on the floor, slapping her thighs as if she had suffered the greatest grievance in the world.
Yang Liqun sneered, looking down at her from above as she threw a tantrum. “You were the one who struck first, and you still have the nerve to shout? Shameless! I can tolerate other things, but if you dare to lay a hand on me, I won’t let it slide!”
She wasn’t particularly smart, but she wasn’t stupid either. When an in-law raises their hand against a daughter-in-law, there are only two possibilities—it happens once, or it happens countless times. If she endured it the first time, she’d be resigning herself to a lifetime of beatings.
Zhang Guixiang was a living example of this. Yang Liqun refused to follow in this old woman’s footsteps.
“You… you…!” Zhang Guixiang pointed at Yang Liqun, unable to get a word out for a long time.
Ma Changjun, unable to stand it any longer, suddenly stood up from his chair. “Enough! Mom, say less! We’re a family—why are we resorting to fighting? If this gets out, we’ll be a laughingstock. I’m not joking with you—if you go out and cause trouble again, I’ll definitely send you back!”
“Especially when it comes to Comrade Zhou’s family—stop hovering around them! It’s lucky that they didn’t say anything today. If they had, you would have ruined my future!”
His current department had no prospects for advancement, and his salary hadn’t increased in years. He had always been considering a job transfer, and the technical department led by Zhou Yinghuai was his top choice.
At first, living across the hall from him seemed like an advantage—an excellent opportunity to build a good relationship and make the transfer process easier. But before he even had a chance to explain this to his family, his mother had already caused a massive problem.
First, there had been a dispute over clutter in the stairwell. Today, she even lied to try and get some benefits from them…
Now, what should have been an advantage had turned into a disadvantage. Worse, they had almost become enemies!
Zhang Guixiang listened to her son the most. Hearing that this concerned Ma Changjun’s future, she was so frightened that she didn’t dare throw another fit. She quickly scrambled to her feet, anxiety written all over her face. “Should I go over and apologize?”
She hadn’t known that this Zhou fellow was so capable. If she had, she never would have acted recklessly against his family.
“What’s done is done. What use is an apology now? They probably don’t even want to see you,” Ma Shugen spoke up, immediately dismissing Zhang Guixiang’s idea.
Ma Changjun also thought his father made sense, so he nodded in agreement. Then, turning to Yang Liqun, his tone softened significantly. “Liqun, my mom is old, and her mind isn’t always clear. She didn’t really mean to hit you.”
After a pause, he added, “No matter what, she’s still my mother. Could you show her a little respect?”
Yang Liqun snorted but ultimately gave everyone a way out by not pressing the issue further.
Compared to all this, she was more curious about what they had just been talking about. She had been listening the entire time but was completely lost. Who was this Comrade Zhou? Why was there talk of an apology…?
What on earth had happened while she was out buying groceries? How could it have made Ma Changjun, who had always been filial and concerned about his reputation, relent and agree to send Zhang Guixiang back to the countryside? And it even had something to do with his career prospects?
Could it be that Zhang Guixiang had done something to offend Comrade Zhou, which nearly jeopardized Ma Changjun’s job transfer? She had only learned two days ago that he wanted to transfer departments, which was why she had greeted Comrade Zhou and his wife with a smile when she saw them yesterday.
But their response had been indifferent, so she hadn’t insisted on pushing a warm face against a cold backside.
Unable to figure it out, she simply asked outright.
Upon hearing her question, the expressions of everyone in the room darkened. Ma Changjun, in particular, turned and walked toward the bedroom. “It’s over now, so why keep asking about it?”
The more evasive he was, the more guilty he seemed.
Yang Liqun knew she wouldn’t get anything out of them, so she stormed into the kitchen and dragged out her two daughters. Under her relentless questioning, she finally learned the whole story—and immediately exploded. She clung to Ma Changjun, demanding an explanation.
“So much money, so many sugar ration tickets, and you just handed them over like that? Last time, when my sister-in-law finished her postpartum confinement, I asked for just one sugar ticket as a gift, and you refused! But the moment your mother causes trouble, you give them away without hesitation?”
Ma Changjun had just lain down for a nap when Yang Liqun yanked him out of bed. Annoyed, he shook her off impatiently. “What are you yelling about? So damn annoying! All you ever do is send things to your family—why don’t you just go back and live with them?”
“Ma Changjun, do you even have a conscience? How do you have the face to say something like that? For years, I’ve managed this household inside and out, given birth to two children for you—if nothing else, I’ve worked hard! Part of that money and those ration tickets came from my salary. What’s wrong with me giving one to my brother’s wife?”
“We’re all one family. Do you really have to be so petty about it? I’m done arguing with you. You’re being completely unreasonable.”
“Ma Changjun!”
The couple was in a full-blown shouting match when Zhang Guixiang, still sitting in the living room, couldn’t help but chime in with a scornful remark. “What are you fighting with your man for? You’ve been married into this family for years and only gave birth to two useless girls—what good are they? How do you even have the nerve to argue? The fact that Changjun hasn’t divorced you yet is already more than you deserve.”
Hearing those words, Yang Liqun froze for a moment. This had always been a sore spot for her, and Zhang Guixiang had just stabbed right into her heart.
“What are you standing there for? Go make dinner! Or are you not going to work later?”
“Give me a proper explanation, and I’ll go. Otherwise, nobody is going to have a peaceful day today.”
“This is outrageous…”
The Ma household erupted into chaos, with constant bursts of shouting that made for an entertaining spectacle for their upstairs and downstairs neighbors.
Meanwhile, Cheng Fangqiu and Zhou Yinghuai shut their door, cutting themselves off from the outside world. They had no idea what was happening in the Ma family.
“This is infuriating.” Cheng Fangqiu angrily tossed the money and ration tickets that Ma Changjun had given them onto the table, taking several deep breaths to suppress her frustration.
“Don’t be mad, don’t be mad. We just won’t associate with them anymore.” Zhou Yinghuai gently patted her back. Seeing her gradually calm down, he wrapped his arms around her waist and whispered in her ear, “What do you want for breakfast?”
“Aren’t you going back to sleep?” Cheng Fangqiu asked, but the moment the words left her mouth, she realized they were unnecessary. After all the commotion, neither of them had any sleepiness left in them.
She was just about to say she would make breakfast for him when Zhou Yinghuai suddenly hugged her tightly, resting his chin against her neck and murmuring in a low voice, “Qiuqiu, I’m sorry. I wasn’t careful enough earlier—I shouldn’t have let her into the house.”
If the person who had entered had been a man—a ruthless, dangerous man…
He didn’t even dare to imagine what terrifying things might have happened.
Hearing the lingering fear and tremor in Zhou Yinghuai’s voice, Cheng Fangqiu was momentarily stunned. Then, she turned around and hugged him back. It was only then that she noticed his eyes were red—almost entirely bloodshot.
Perhaps feeling that it was embarrassing to show such vulnerability in front of her, he tilted his head slightly, trying to avoid her gaze. But she cupped his face and forced him to look at her directly.
“Don’t take all the blame on yourself, okay?”
Cheng Fangqiu sighed helplessly, then used her fingertip to gently wipe the moisture from the corner of his eyes, carefully drying them. She patiently reassured him, “Be good, let’s not waste our energy blaming ourselves. Running into someone as ridiculous as her isn’t our fault. You already handled it well.”
That single word—”be good”—paired with her soft, gentle tone, gradually calmed the turmoil in Zhou Yinghuai’s heart. He nodded, held her quietly for a while, and then finally released her.
“Go freshen up first. I’ll tidy up the sugar and start cooking.”
Cheng Fangqiu nodded and turned toward the bathroom. She didn’t notice the fleeting trace of cold sharpness in Zhou Yinghuai’s eyes.
After breakfast, the two of them took a nap before getting back to working on the wedding invitations. Cheng Fangqiu didn’t dare to write anything herself this time, so she simply instructed Zhou Yinghuai while he handled the task. Before long, they had finished designing the invitation layout.
It was simple and traditional but carried a touch of thoughtfulness—overall, Cheng Fangqiu was very satisfied with the result.
What surprised her even more was Zhou Yinghuai’s handwriting. She had seen his writing before back when they were at the educated youth point, and she had known then that he had excellent penmanship. But she hadn’t expected that when he got serious, his calligraphy would be downright breathtaking.
Smooth and flowing, yet strong and powerful—clearly the result of years of practice.
Taking advantage of this, Cheng Fangqiu immediately handed over the entire responsibility of writing the invitations to him, using it as an excuse.
With the invitation design settled, the next step was figuring out the guest list. The wedding banquet in Ping Le Village was being handled by Cheng Baokuan and Ding Ximei, so the young couple only had to worry about the Rongzhou wedding banquet.
As for the Cheng family, only a few close relatives could make it to the provincial capital for the wedding, and Ding Ximei had already given her the finalized list. The Zhou family’s side was even simpler—it seemed like only Zhou Yinghuai’s younger brother would be attending.
The most troublesome part was figuring out which people from the factory should be invited.
This was a minefield. Navigating workplace relationships was tricky—one wrong step, and they could accidentally offend someone. But with hundreds, even thousands of employees in the machinery factory, there was no way they could invite everyone…
Lacking experience in such matters, the two of them exchanged helpless glances, both at a loss.
Cheng Fangqiu bit her lip, and suddenly, an idea popped into her head. Her eyes lit up. “Hey, didn’t one of your colleagues just get married recently? Why don’t we ask them for advice?”
However, Zhou Yinghuai frowned slightly. “He’s the deputy factory director, and it was his second marriage. The standards for his guest list were much more particular than ours, so it’s not very useful as a reference.”
“You call the deputy factory director a ‘colleague’?” Cheng Fangqiu twitched the corners of her mouth. Then, she suddenly remembered Xu Qiqi. Previously, she had felt indignant that such a pretty young girl had married a man with a lingering attachment to his ex-wife. But now, knowing that the man was not just anybody but a deputy factory director, she oddly felt a tiny, tiny, tiny bit of comfort.
Well, she was already married to him. At least having a husband with some status and stability was better than marrying an average worker—it would at least provide a more secure life.
“He is a deputy factory director, yes. But the technical department isn’t under his jurisdiction, so…”
Zhou Yinghuai had a decent relationship with Chang Yan’an, but they weren’t exactly close friends. And since Chang Yan’an wasn’t technically his superior, that was why he referred to him as just a ‘colleague.’
Cheng Fangqiu wasn’t particularly interested in the details of that relationship. She cared more about figuring out the invitations. She interrupted him impatiently, “So what do we do, then?”
“Actually, we could still ask them,” Zhou Yinghuai said after a moment of thought. “Even if it’s not a perfect reference, it’s better than nothing.”
“Hmm.” Cheng Fangqiu strongly agreed. Besides, they could also ask about other things—it was better than fumbling around blindly as complete novices.
With the plan settled, they decided to pick up a few things from the supply and marketing cooperative before heading straight to the Chang family’s home.
Coincidentally, the barbershop was right next to the supply and marketing cooperative, so Zhou Yinghuai took the opportunity to get a haircut.
In this era, there weren’t many hairstyle options. The barber simply gave him a neat crew cut—a style that seemed simple and safe but was actually quite a test of one’s looks. Only those with truly good features could pull it off and still look great.
After paying for the haircut, Cheng Fangqiu turned around and saw Zhou Yinghuai standing in front of the mirror, brushing away the tiny bits of hair on his face.
Sunlight streamed in through the window, landing just right on him. Dressed in black from head to toe, his tall and lean frame looked even more striking. His features were deep-set and sharply defined, exuding a cold, aristocratic aura. But with his new crew cut, his entire demeanor had shifted—it added a touch of ruggedness to him.
He looked both rebellious and handsome—truly a rare, one-in-a-million kind of man.
Cheng Fangqiu stared at him for a long moment, unconsciously swallowing as her gaze drifted to his short, stiff hair. Her thoughts slowly wandered off.
Tsk, if he burrows into my arms at night, it’s definitely going to be prickly, isn’t it?