Reborn in the 1970s — Married a Proud Rough Man

Mr. Xie had a powerful sense of self-preservation. ”I’ll go pack right now.”

Mrs. Xie was satisfied. Mr. Xie leaned over, gave her a peck on the cheek, and then turned and left the room.

The next day, when Qin Mei woke up, Jie Jingchen had already left for work. She got out of bed, went to the bathroom, washed up, changed her clothes, and left her room.

Qin Xiang was sitting in the courtyard, drinking tea. Seeing the dark circles under his eyes, Qin Mei asked, feigning ignorance, ”Didn’t sleep well last night?”

”I slept fine at the guesthouse. It was after I came back here that I couldn’t sleep.” Qin Xiang regretted leaving the place.

Qin Mei sat down in the wicker chair next to him. Qin Xiang wasn’t the only one who hadn’t slept well.

”Little Sis, I’m telling you, your brother-in-law Jing Er and his wife really know how to fight,” Qin Xiang complained. ”Especially his wife. Her voice was completely hoarse, but she was still cursing out Jing Er non-stop.”

Qin Mei glanced in the direction of their room and asked, ”Where are they?”

”Your brother-in-law Jing Er dragged his wife off to get a divorce,” Qin Xiang replied.

”So soon?” Qin Mei was surprised. ’Jie Jingwei is certainly efficient.’

Qin Xiang shot her a sidelong glance. ”I think it’s such a hassle. The old days were better—all it took was a single letter of divorce, and it was over.”

”Old-fashioned.” Qin Mei glared at him. ’A letter of divorce, seriously! And he’s supposed to be a soldier. His thinking is so backwards!’

”Heh heh!” Qin Xiang chuckled, leaning closer to Qin Mei to ask in a low voice, ”Little Sis, are you sure getting a new sister-in-law will make things any easier between you?”

”With someone else, I don’t know. But with Teacher Lin, it will only be worse,” Qin Mei said. ’The person Teacher Lin loves is Jie Jingchen. When she was just a neighbor, I could avoid seeing her if I really tried. But if she moves into this courtyard, we’ll be running into each other constantly.’

’A sister-in-law who covets my husband... I’d have to be on guard at all times. But there’s an upside. It’s easy to dodge a spear in the open, but hard to defend against an arrow in the dark. If Lin Yaru marries into the Jie Family and moves into this courtyard, she’ll be out in the open.’

”Sister-in-law, you’re worrying for nothing,” Jie Jingjue said, sauntering in from outside.

”Skipping work again?” Qin Mei was used to seeing Jie Jingjue around during work hours. ’This guy has no passion for his job. He works one day and skips two—he might as well just quit.’

”Dad asked me to help Jing Er move, and the bonus he’s giving me is several times my daily pay,” Jie Jingjue said smugly.

”Help Jing Er move?” Qin Mei was stunned. ’I’d already prepared myself. As long as Lin Yaru didn’t provoke me, we could have coexisted peacefully.’

”You didn’t know?” Jie Jingjue seemed surprised. ”Didn’t Mom tell you?”

Qin Mei shook her head. No one had mentioned it to her. ’This is news worth celebrating. They should have woken me up for this!’

”I’ve already finished moving Jing Er’s things. As for his wife’s stuff, I’m taking the small items to the Xu Family’s place first. We’ll decide what to do with the larger items after she comes back from finalizing the divorce.” Jie Jingjue walked over to Qin Xiang and pulled him up from the wicker chair. ”Brother Qin, since you’ve got nothing better to do, come help me out.”

Qin Xiang didn’t refuse. A thought occurred to Qin Mei, and she asked, ”What about Jie You? Who is he staying with?”

”Xiao You is part of the Jie Family, so of course he’s going with Jing Er,” Jie Jingjue said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

’When a couple divorces, it’s the children who suffer.’ Feeling a pang of sympathy, Qin Mei asked, ”Is Jie You moving too?”

”Of course! He’s Jing Er’s son. He has to go wherever Jing Er goes,” Jie Jingjue replied.

Qin Mei didn’t ask any more questions. ’Jie You is moving out too. Can Father-in-law really bear to let him go? I’ve seen how much he dotes on that boy.’

’With Jie Jingwei’s family gone, the house will be so much quieter.’

’Jie Jingwei and Xu Chunyan are divorcing. As things stand, the Xu Family has no power to fight the Jie Family for custody of Jie You. Even if Xu Chunyan didn’t want the divorce, it’s not up to her. She brought this on herself. Serves her right.’

’And then there’s Lin Yaru. She’s so infatuated with Jie Jingchen. Once she calms down, will she really be willing to marry Jie Jingwei?’

Her stomach growled. Qin Mei rubbed her belly and got up to find something to eat in the kitchen.

After breakfast, Qin Mei was in the courtyard refining some medicine. Qin Xiang had gone with Jie Jingjue to take Xu Chunyan’s things to the Xu Family’s house, and Jing Qi was inside studying. Qin Mei was left to work alone in the courtyard.

”Fourth Wife of Jing.” Second Auntie walked into the courtyard.

”Second Auntie,” Qin Mei called out.

”Fourth Wife of Jing, what are you doing?” Second Auntie asked curiously. She had grown used to the smell of Chinese medicine.

”Refining medicine,” Qin Mei answered truthfully.

Second Auntie’s eyes lit up as if she’d just discovered a new business opportunity. She sat down across from Qin Mei and whispered, ”Medicine is in short supply right now. We could secretly...”

”Second Auntie, you’ve misunderstood. This medicine is for my brother,” Qin Mei quickly cut her off.

”Oh?” Second Auntie’s face fell for a moment, but then her hope was instantly rekindled. ”This batch is for your brother, fine. But the next batch you make... I can take it to the black market to sell secretly.”

”I have no plans to sell medicine right now.” Qin Mei shut down the idea. ’It’s not wise to break the rules right now. It would be much safer to wait for the official policies to change and do everything legally.’

Second Auntie glanced around warily and continued to persuade her in a low voice, ”Fourth Wife of Jing, the profit from selling medicine is huge. You just handle refining it, and I’ll handle selling it. You can trust me; I’m careful. There won’t be any problems. And even if something did go wrong, I’d die before I’d ever sell you out.”

Qin Mei remained unmoved. Second Auntie continued her pitch, getting so worked up that she forgot to keep her voice down.

”Second Auntie, be careful. Walls have ears,” Qin Mei reminded her.

Second Auntie immediately shut up and clamped a hand over her mouth. She looked left and right, and sure enough, she spotted someone lurking suspiciously by the courtyard wall.

”Well, hello Second Auntie. Here to see the Fourth Wife of Jing again?” The neighbor, having been discovered, stopped hiding and greeted her.

”Heh heh, I just dropped my two grandsons off at school and was feeling bored, so I thought I’d come over and chat with the Fourth Wife of Jing,” Second Auntie chuckled.

”You two go on and chat. I’m just airing out my quilt.” The neighbor was holding a rug beater, hitting a cotton quilt with it.

Second Auntie ignored the neighbor and changed the subject. ”Fourth Wife of Jing, do you think Jing Er and Xu Chunyan will actually go through with the divorce?”

’Since they’re getting divorced,’ Second Auntie thought, ’it’s probably not appropriate to call Xu Chunyan ’Second Daughter-in-law Jing’ anymore.’

”Can you get a fake divorce?” Qin Mei seized on the key point.

Second Auntie paused for a moment. ”Of course not. I just find it hard to believe that someone with Xu Chunyan’s temper would agree to divorce Jing Er.”

So many people wanted to marry into the Jie Family, especially the children of Doctor Qiao. With Jing Si married, everyone had their eyes on Jing Wu. Even Jing Qi had people watching him, just waiting for him to grow up. They didn’t even dream of having him marry one of their daughters; they’d be perfectly happy to have their own sons marry into the Jie Family instead.

”The Lin Family is putting on the pressure, so Jie Jingwei doesn’t dare to delay. He’s dead set on the divorce, so Xu Chunyan has to go through with it whether she wants to or not,” Qin Mei said. ’That’s just reality. A charge of ’hooliganism’ would be bad enough for Jie Jingwei, let alone a charge of r...’

Jie Jingwei and Lin Yaru had, in fact, slept together. Both had been drugged, but it was impossible to determine who was responsible. The Lin Family insisted that Jie Jingwei had harbored ill intentions toward Lin Yaru. Unable to defend himself, Jie Jingwei could only bow to her parents’ wishes and agree to the marriage.

”They seemed like such a loving couple, for something like this to happen... But if you ask me, Xu Chunyan brought it on herself. Why, of all people, did she have to ask Teacher Lin to look after Xiao You? Her own mother was sick, but doesn’t she have a brother back home? And even if a son isn’t as attentive as a daughter, she could have gone to care for her mother herself. She could have even asked one of us to help watch Xiao You; we wouldn’t have refused. Was it really appropriate for a young, unmarried woman like Teacher Lin to come to the Jie Family home to look after a child?” Second Auntie was convinced Xu Chunyan had only herself to blame.

Qin Mei smiled but said nothing. ’Their target was Jie Jingchen. I just took advantage of their little scheme to push Lin Yaru and Jie Jingwei together.’

’She recalled her confrontation with Xu Chunyan. She had told her then to just give her husband up to Lin Yaru. Now, her words had come true.’

”Sigh. They divorce, and the child is the one who suffers,” Second Auntie sighed.

Qin Mei listened without replying.

”Fourth Wife of Jing, don’t you think there’s something fishy about all this?” Second Auntie asked.