Living like a widow? My rough neighbor is coaxing me to have a baby every night.

Chapter 49 Let your older brother take good care of you

As the sun began to set, it cast a long shadow on the dilapidated cart.

When they returned to the Li family home, Li Laogen was squatting on the large blue stone by the door, puffing on his pipe. When he saw Niu Guihua return with a beaming smile and her bulging arms, his cloudy old eyes lit up.

"How's it going? The money..." Li Laogen tapped his pipe and stood up.

"Here they are! They're all here!"

Niu Guihua patted the money in her arms triumphantly, her long face crinkling into a wide smile. "My daughter's got a sharp mind! A few words were enough to scare that old hag Zhao Cuifen! Not only did she obediently hand over the money, but she also promised to go to the county town tomorrow to get a divorce!"

Upon hearing this, Li Laogen felt a sense of relief, but then frowned and looked at Li Xianglian, who remained silent in the car: "Girl, does Zhao Gang really have someone else outside? And he's going to jail?"

Li Laogen lived his whole life in a cowardly way.

My greatest skill in this life is being afraid of trouble; I always listen to my wife.

Upon hearing words like "jail" or "execution," his heart would pound with unease.

Li Xianglian's legs felt weak; the commotion she had just caused had exhausted all her strength.

She leaned against the wooden door frame covered in barbs, looking at the so-called biological father in front of her.

This is her father!

Even at this point, he wasn't concerned about whether his daughter had been wronged or that she had almost been sold to a butcher; he was afraid of causing trouble.

"Dad, we'll know if it's true or not when we get to the county town tomorrow, won't we?"

Li Xianglian's voice was indifferent.

She didn't look at the pile of money; she just stared intently at Li Laogen's deeply lined old face.

"If you're afraid of trouble, don't take the money. Just send me back to the Zhao family now. Let Zhao Gang continue to treat me like a servant, let his mother point at me and curse me every day for being a barren hen. When his mistress in the city gives birth to a big, fat son, he'll kick me out. Then the whole village will laugh at you, calling you a worthless old woman who sold her daughter and still got nothing in return. You'll regret it."

"this……"

Li Laogen was so choked by these words that his face turned pale, and he opened his mouth but couldn't say a word.

He rubbed his calloused hands awkwardly, his cloth shoes rubbing nervously in the dirt.

"I...I was just afraid things would get out of hand and I wouldn't be able to handle it..."

"What's so difficult about ending this?"

Niu Guihua glared at Li Laogen and shoved him aside. "We've got the money, what are we afraid of! Tomorrow, as long as we get divorced, we'll take the money and leave, we don't care if the Zhao family lives or dies! Dabao, push the car in and get your sister some food! Don't let her get sick from starving, we still need her to act tomorrow!"

Li Xianglian was locked back in that dark woodshed.

The difference this time was that Niu Guihua didn't bring her that heavy iron lock. Instead, she even brought her a bowl of dumpling soup mixed with wheat flour, which, although without meat, had a few drops of oil floating on top.

Li Xianglian didn't stand on ceremony and started eating as soon as she picked up the bowl.

She knew this was just a ploy to get her enough rest so she could go to the county town and help them fraudulently obtain a divorce certificate. But she had to drink this soup; she needed the strength to wait for tomorrow's big show.

Late at night.

The woodshed was so quiet that the only sound was the rats gnawing on the wood. Li Xianglian leaned against the haystack, clutching the piece of oiled paper tightly in her hand—the leftover sesame seed cake that Qin Rushan had given her last night.

She closed her eyes, her mind filled with Qin Rushan's fiery eyes from last night and his whispers in her ear.

"Once we get to the county town, don't be afraid of anything. Once we're in town, I'll take care of the rest."

As firm as a mountain, I believe in you!

I've staked my life on this; this time, we absolutely must win!

*

The night was like a suffocatingly dark, sealed pot, making it hard to breathe.

The main room of the Zhao family was dark, with only a sliver of moonlight filtering through the paper windows, casting a pale, eerie glow on the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed).

Zhao Cuifen lay slumped on the kang (a heated brick bed), feeling as if her heart was being cut by a dull knife.

That's two hundred yuan!

In addition, there was a pile of borrowed bills, all of which she had to beg from door to door, risking her reputation.

The thought of all that money going into Niu Guihua's bottomless pit tomorrow made Zhao Cuifen want to bang her head against the wall.

She turned over, and her old bones made a crisp "crack" sound. She kept groaning, a kind of illness caused by heartache.

Just then, someone gently scratched the back window twice, like a mouse scratching at food.

"Cuifen? Are you asleep?" That low, hoarse voice could only belong to Sun Laowai.

Zhao Cuifen was already seething with anger, and hearing the commotion, she snapped, "Get lost! I don't have time to waste arguing with you today! My heart is shattered into eight pieces!"

The dark figure outside the window didn't leave; instead, it moved even closer, and the smell of cheap tobacco seeped in through the window cracks: "What's going on? I heard from Er Laizi at the village entrance that it was quite lively in front of your house during the day? Is that Li girl really going to sue Gangzi and send him to jail?"

Mentioning this only fueled Zhao Cuifen's anger. She slipped on her shoes, got out of bed, yanked open the door latch, and dragged the timid old man inside.

"You dare bring that up again! It's all a terrible idea you came up with!"

Zhao Cuifen plopped down on the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed), wiping away tears as she complained, "I said selling him to some remote mountain village would be the end of it, but what happened? Now he's suing Gangzi for bigamy! That's a death sentence! To shut that jinx, I spent a fortune today! Over two hundred yuan!"

As Zhao Cuifen spoke, tears and snot streamed down her face; she was truly heartbroken.

Sun Laowai entered the house and, without any ceremony, familiarly climbed onto the kang (a heated brick bed), sat down cross-legged, and listened to Zhao Cuifen recount the events of the day in a tearful and exaggerated manner. When he heard Li Xianglian threaten the Zhao family with the terms "unregistered resident" and "illegitimate child," Sun Laowai's beady eyes darted around a few times, and suddenly he slapped his thigh and chuckled.

"Laugh! You can still laugh!"

Zhao Cuifen punched him in anger, "I'm so worried!"

"Cuifen, how can you be so easily swayed!"

Old Sun grabbed Zhao Cuifen's hand, stroked the dry, bark-like back of her hand, and a shrewd glint in his eyes. "Think about it carefully. Although this matter has cost you money, it may not be a bad thing!"

"You've lost over two hundred yuan, isn't that a bad thing?" Zhao Cuifen said irritably, shaking off his hand.

"Are you stupid?!"

Old Sun leaned close to her ear, spitting everywhere, "Think about it, if that damned girl Li Xianglian keeps hogging the toilet and refuses to get a divorce, what will Gangzi do in the city? Will that city girl be willing to stay with him without a proper status? When her belly gets big and she can't hide it anymore, that'll be a real disaster!"

Zhao Cuifen paused for a moment, then stopped sobbing.

Seeing that she had taken his words to heart, Old Sun continued his charade: "Now it's all good. Those poor bastards in the Li family are asking for a divorce for money. Isn't this exactly what we wanted? As long as we go to the county town tomorrow to complete the formalities and exchange that red book, Gangzi will be a free man!"

"Then we'll immediately arrange things with that guy in the city. That grandson will be a legitimate golden nugget from birth! What's two hundred yuan? Consider it a toll to pave the way for our grandson! It's a celebratory gift!"

As Zhao Cuifen pondered these words, her originally ashen face slowly regained some color.

Yes, once he gets divorced, Gangzi can marry that official's daughter. The Zhao family will be on a much higher social ladder. Although this amount of money hurts, it's nothing compared to Gangzi's future.

"That's what they say... but the money was real."

Zhao Cuifen sighed. Although the huge weight in her heart had been lifted, she still felt incredibly cheated. "I've lost all face this afternoon. I've borrowed from the whole village. How am I going to live from now on?"

"If Gangzi becomes successful in the future, will he ever let you go hungry?"

Old Sun's hand scurried up Zhao Cuifen's arm, chuckling, "Alright, don't worry. As long as our grandson is safe, that's great news. As the saying goes, you can't catch a wolf without risking your cub."

"You old codger, you're quick-witted."

Zhao Cuifen felt relieved. Looking at Sun Laowai's wrinkled, orange-peel-like face, she wasn't as annoyed as before. Her body softened and she leaned closer to him.

Sun Laowai was a seasoned veteran in the world of pleasure; he could tell from this posture that the time was right.

He chuckled, and his hand, which resembled withered tree bark, naturally wrapped around Zhao Cuifen's waist, giving her a light pinch on her thick layer of fat.

"It's good that you've figured it out, it's good that you've figured it out."

Sun Laowai's voice became sticky and slurred, carrying a creepy ambiguity, and his cloudy old eyes were filled with naked desire.

"You've suffered so much today, you must be terrified, right? Come on, let your older brother take good care of you and calm you down..."

As he spoke, his hand began to wander under the hem of his clothes.

Although Zhao Cuifen was old, her energy was immediately aroused by this old man.

With a huge weight lifted from my shoulders, the emptiness I felt was immediately filled by the burning desire within me.

Instead of pushing Sun Laowai away, she leaned to the side and pressed herself against his thin chest, her cloudy eyes revealing a calculating allure.

"devil……"

Zhao Cuifen's voice was sickeningly sweet as she traced circles on Sun Laowai's inner thigh with one hand, "You always say you care about me, but why don't you do something practical?"

Sun Laowai shuddered as she touched him, a surge of lust rising to his head, his breathing becoming rapid and heavy: "Affordable? I'll give you all the affordable stuff in a bit..."

"Who wants your thing!"

Zhao Cuifen playfully punched him in the chest, her body twisting like a water snake. "I'm drowning in debt because of this mess. I scraped together that two hundred yuan, how am I going to survive? Old Sun, you're a well-known bachelor in the east of the village, you only have yourself to feed, and your daughter has always been very filial to you, you must have saved up quite a bit, right? Look at me..."

She didn't finish her sentence, but her meaning couldn't be clearer. Her hand pressed lightly on a sensitive spot, the implication unmistakable—money was required for this to happen.

Who is Sun Laowai?

He was a notorious miser; he would always ask the salesperson for an extra ounce of vinegar when he went to the supply and marketing cooperative.

Trying to get money out of him is harder than climbing to heaven.

Upon hearing the word "money," his mind, clouded by lust, instantly cleared by half.

"Oh my goodness!"

Old Sun wore a bitter expression, but his hands didn't stop moving. Instead, he became even more eager to undo Zhao Cuifen's belt, wanting to get this over with quickly. "Don't you know how little money I have left for my funeral? I spent almost all of it on medical treatment the other day. Besides, I still need to save money to buy you face cream from the city, don't I? That stuff is expensive."

"You're so stingy! I'm being driven crazy, and you won't even offer to help me out!"

Zhao Cuifen was somewhat displeased and reached out to push him away, "No money? If you don't have money, don't touch me!"