Chapter 404: “Yanyan, please save me and my child.” (1)
“I wasn’t sure before but I am now.” Shu Yan wasn’t upset. Even if Shu Jianyang was with Li Jiaojiao, she still wouldn’t be upset. It was Shu Jianyang’s prerogative whoever he wanted to be with. They would just talk to each other less often.
“Miaomiao is Li Jiaojiao’s cousin but they are very different.” Shu Jianyang stuttered as he tried to explain. “When we met…… I really didn’t know about her relationship with Li Jiaojiao……only when we started dating and got to know each other better…… that’s when I learned that she was a cousin of Li Jiaojiao.”
Shu Jianyang truly didn’t know that Li Miaomiao was Li Jiaojiao’s cousin. Their personalities and temperaments were too different.
Speaking of Li Miaomiao, they had to talk about her father. Her father and Li Jiaojiao’s father were brothers. Li Jiaojiao’s father was the oldest and everybody referred to him as Big Li. Li Miaomiao’s father was the second child and he was referred to as Second Li. Second Li was smarter than Big Li. He got into normal school and became a teacher in the city, married a wife from the city, and was considered a leap in status.
Back then, it was not easy for a family in the village to support a student. For the sake of putting Second Li through school, Big Li was not able to get married until he was 26. That was very old for a villager. As such, when Second Li started working, he did a lot to help out his older brother who had sacrificed a lot for him.
In addition to the money and stuff that he sent back every month, he also paid for the construction of Big Li’s house. Second Li’s wife fought with him a lot over that.
There was nothing wrong with repaying a favor but he should not omit his own family.
Second Li had further put Li Jiaojiao through college and she even stayed with Second Li and his family when she went to college. Second Li treated him better than he did his own daughter.
One time, something was stolen out of the house. It was Second Li’s favorite calligraphy work. Li Jiaojiao accused Li Miaomiao of stealing it. That wasn’t a big deal but Second Li, as a father, didn’t even let his daughter explain and just took Li Jiaojiao’s words for it. When Li Miaomiao shouted out that Li Jiaojiao was the one who stole it, Second Li slapped her across her face.
Second Li’s wife finally exploded. She ran over, slapped Li Jiaojiao across her face, turned, and slapped Second Li too before he could say a word. She asked for a divorce before he could process what had just happened.
Li Miaomiao’s mother’s family did quite well in City Xi and it was not something that Second Li, with no root there, could measure up to. Second Li’s wife got both the house and Li Miaomiao’s custody after the divorce.
That was the reason that Li Miaomiao hated Li Jiaojiao even more so than Shu Yan did. When she inadvertently learned that Li Jiaojiao was a mistress, she was also going to collect evidences to ruin Li Jiaojiao but Shu Yan beat her to it.
Shu Yan felt dubious when she heard the entire story. Li Jiaojiao did have an uncle in the novel but no cousin of hers was mentioned. Did something happen?
“She is with her mom?”
“Yeah. Haven’t you noticed? The only ones there from Miaomiao’s father side was her grandparents and her father. Nobody else, especially her second uncle and his family.”*
As Li Jiaojiao caused Second Li’s divorce, Big Li also beat her to death. Had she not gotten into a university, she probably would have been married off forcefully.
Then there were those pictures of Li Jiaojiao and the entire Li family felt shamed. Big Li and his wife brought their son with them to work out of town and nobody knew where they went. As such, they had no idea that Miaomiao was getting married. Even if they did know, Li Miaomiao’s mother would not have allowed them to attend the banquet.
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Translator’s notes:
Link to “normal school” but this TL did not know what it was until today.
* The relationship seemed to be mixed up here as Miaomiao’s dad = Second Li…… but I translated the text correctly. =D