Some girlfriends saw that Liang Yingying’s face was not right, and asked: “What’s wrong?”
With her girlfriends, Liang Yingying is living as a human being who is a winner in life, and her human body cannot collapse. She turned off the phone screen and smiled forcibly: “It’s okay. There is nothing to visit in this shop, let’s go to the next one.”
Liang Yingying’s next shopping spree was a bit crazy, which made her girlfriends speechless.
At the dining table, they were extremely envious of Liang Yingying.
“Yingying, you’ve been living a good life.” They said, “It’s not like us, we haven’t settled ours yet.”
Liang Yingying said falsely: “I just walked one step faster. Everyone can definitely have a chance. It’s your turn next.”
The girlfriends sighed and one of them said: “I didn’t know that the sky was thick before, that’s what I thought so. As the days passed, and I got older day by day, I realized that it was not that easy. You are still amazing.”
The pride dissipated the previous suffocation, and Liang Yingying felt much more comfortable in her chest. People really have to find happiness from others.
A girlfriend said: “If I go back home for the Chinese New Year this time, I don’t plan to come back. The family introduced me to a blind date, the little owner of a small restaurant, and I plan to go there and be a little boss.”
It sounds good to say ‘boss’ and ‘madam boss’, but this kind of small restaurant, especially in a small place like her hometown, is equivalent to accepting her fate and going home to live a poor life in the eyes of Liang Yingying’s group of girlfriends.
“What else can I do?” This girlfriend said, “I am older than you all, and I am 35 now this year. I’m getting a little stiff in the face with hyaluronic acid. A big boss said that I was laughing so unnaturally one day. Let me tell you, I was almost able to catch him, but guess what? He was snatched away by a 23-year-old girl!”
“Bachelor degree! A college student! Tell me, if you are a college student, you work hard but you think that it’s still not okay, you read all the books for nothing, then you’d come and grab a rice bowl from us?”
“I went back and took a look in the mirror that day, and my heart was really cold. Look at the little girls now, they are younger than us, more beautiful than us, and more educated than us. Why do they want to grab from others? Can I use my wrinkles to rob back? Forget it, forget it, while you haven’t completely become an old grandma, hurry home and find an honest man to marry. It’s not too late to give birth, and I’m afraid that I won’t be able to give birth later. Elderly mothers are no joke.”
When she said this, the atmosphere became depressed.
Because among these people, Liang Yingying is still the youngest, just 30 this year. The others are all over 30 years old.
At this age, some women ride the wind and waves, and some women are old and yellow.
Liang Yingying had already gone ashore, and it didn’t hurt to stand and talk: “Why are you so sad? Don’t you have a man in your hands that you can hold?”
Her girlfriend, “You think everyone is as lucky as you are. If you say that you have a child, you will have a child. If you want a son, you will have a son. If you deserve to die, you will be on the top. Do you know that I have a sister? Her name is Ami. I told her about you. She thought that you were very good. She quietly manipulated things and became pregnant. She wanted to trap the man. But guess what happened?”
Liang Yingying and her girlfriends all looked sideways: “The man wouldn’t deny it, right?”
“It’s was fine if he just denied it.” The girlfriend said, “But my sister almost died.”
This Ami imitated Liang Yingying and became pregnant with a man’s child. After a showdown with the man, he disappeared. Immediately after that, his mother brought her bodyguards to the door, directly pressed her and went to the hospital to get an abortion.
After Ami was detained, she wanted to contact the man again, but found that she had been blocked. Then two days later, she was still bleeding and getting worse, and she fainted before she saw the doctor in that hospital.
She was bleeding heavily, and she was admitted to the ICU, and her life was almost gone.
After the rescue, the medical expenses were all paid by herself. When she returned to the rental house, the landlord said that the rent had expired, and the account used to pay the rent hasn’t received any money deposit.
The units there were used by the men to hide their beauties as their golden house. It was the men’s happy house. It was located in a high-grade apartment, and the rent was expensive. Without the financial support of a man, Ami couldn’t afford it alone, so she had to move out first and borrow money from the other sisters in the building.
“Finally, someone introduced her to a boyfriend recently, so she had a place to live again.” Her girlfriend said.
“Isn’t that great? Men are like this. They come and go, and someone can spend money on them.” Liang Yingying said.
“What?” Her girlfriend said, “The newly found one is 68 years old and she doesn’t know when he will die. Ami still has to serve him all day long and late at night. Oh, the old man is so disgusting, she said, he looks like a Shar-Pei dog when she takes off his clothes. Oh, it’s disgusting even if you just think about it. With such a comparison, a fat man now is considered as a lady-killer.”
There is no happiness without contrast.
Zhang Huan is not yet 50, he is still in his prime, he looks handsome, and his figure is well-managed. Neat and tidy, he is also a Confucian merchant with fashionable clothes.
The height of Liang Yingying’s life can be said to have crushed all these girlfriends.
In fact, she had expected this situation of gradually losing the favor of men after getting older, she had expected it a few years ago. It’s just that the past few years of being Mrs. Zhang have gone smoothly, and gradually put the sense of living in peace of mind behind her.
She looked at these girlfriends who sighed for where the future lay, and kept telling herself: You are already doing well, be content with it!
It’s just that she is 30 years old now, will it be like this from now on?
Deep in her heart, she can’t help but feel empty and panicked…
When Zhang Huan’s ‘family of four’ happily returned to K City, Liang Yingying had already returned before them.
When Zhang Heling saw her mother, she excitedly told her, “Mom, we have gone to an island in the Indian Ocean, and it’s fun…” The little mouth is like a machine gun and finally said, “It would be great if we could go out together next time!”
Liang Yingying resisted the urge to tear this stupid daughter’s mouth, and said with a smile: “Really, you were not naughty right, it’s hard for Dad to take care of you alone.”
With that said, seeing that Zhang Huan had handed the luggage to an aunt and started to untie his coat, she hurried over to catch his coat. She didn’t even dare to ask, “Why did you go out and play without telling me?”, she just smiled and asked him if he had eaten on the road, whether he wanted to take a shower or something.
Zhang Yansheng only glanced at her and walked past her.
In this family, there has been a new pattern of status and situation. Liang Yingying bullied Zhang Yansheng at her young age, and the era of stepping on Zhang Yansheng to be Mrs. Zhang happily has passed.
Zhang Huan stretched out his waist and said: “It’s home.”
Seeing that Zhang Yansheng had already ascended the stairs, he shouted: “Yanyan, it’s time to start preparing for the New Year’s goods!”
Zhang Yansheng replied, “I’m exhausted” and went upstairs.
Zhang Heling asked, “Dad, are you going to buy firecrackers and fireworks?”
In ancient times, preparing New Year’s goods was mainly to take advantage of the Chinese New Year to eat two bites that were not usually eaten, and then make new clothes. Now, in buying New Year’s goods, the main things are firecrackers and fireworks for good fortune.
Zhang Shuocheng became excited at the moment, and rushed over and hugged Zhang Huan’s arm: “Dad, I’m going to buy fireworks too!”
Zhang Heling also said: “Me too…”
Zhang Huan laughed loudly.
The aunts received big red envelopes at the end of the year, and they all went home for the New Year. When Aunt Luo left, Zhang Yansheng also gave her a red envelope alone.
Aunt Luo kept pushing it back: “Why would a kid like you give a red envelope.”
Zhang Yansheng stuck it to her: “I’m giving it in behalf of my mother!”
Aunt Luo squeezed the thick red envelope and said with emotion: “You grew up in a blink of an eye.”
On New Year’s Eve, Zhang Yu and Zhang Huan took their family to the old lady’s place.
The chef and aunts at the old lady’s place are also on vacation, and the old lady is the only one left in the huge house. Fortunately, the two sons came with a family of nine, large and small. Including the old lady, she brought together a family of ten, which was lively.
The meals were all New Year’s meals ordered in advance from the restaurant, but how could there be no dumplings for the New Year? A large family gathered around the kitchen island and wrapped the dumplings together.
Among so many people, Liang Yingying turned out to make the best dumplings, even the old lady can’t wrap a dumpling well.
The others are simply playing with dough.
On this occasion, Liang Yingying is very knowledgeable about current affairs. Knowing that others don’t like to see her, she talks less and does more things. She made the dumplings neatly, and the dumplings were well wrapped, one by one, like ingots.
It is rare for the old lady to praise her: “The wrapping is good.”
Liang Yingying was flattered.
Immediately afterwards, Zhang Huan, her dearest husband said, “She can do this too.”
Liang Yingying: “…”
Her noble sister-in-law echoed: “It’s better for people to know some things, instead of not knowing anything.”
“…” Liang Yingying wanted to say something with a bellyful of mother’s criticism, but she could only smile flatteringly, “Sister-in-law is right.”
Zhang Yu’s wife smiled slightly and did not talk directly to her at all.
Zhang Yansheng had already seen that the corners of the old lady’s mouth twitched slightly. Turning her eyes again, she saw the smiling gaze of her cousin, Zhang Qi.
Zhang Yansheng was speechless.
To be honest, although she knew that her aunt and cousin had some competition that was not hostile to her, she still liked her aunt’s way of speaking more than before.
Zhang Yu’s wife has always bullied Liang Yingying outright.
When talking to Zhang Yansheng, she also paid a little attention to her speaking skills, but to Liang Yingying… she was from a good background, she was rich, and she still occupied the status of her sister-in-law. She didn’t need to go into any circles at all, and she suppressed Liang Yingying through and through.
Anyway, the old lady couldn’t look up to Liang Yingying, so she didn’t care at all.
Compared with this kind of blatant oppression, Zhang Yansheng felt that when her cousin Zhang Qi talked, the tea tasted too strong, and there was always a sense of petty family spirit.
It was strange, she was also born with a golden spoon. How can she develop such a character?
Zhang Yansheng felt that her grandmother would never like the smell of tea. In her previous life, Zhang Qi was chosen by her to be the heir and took care of her personally. She wonders if she had helped her cousin break the smell of tea.
Turning her eyes again, Zhang Shuocheng was still playing with the dough heartlessly, but Zhang Heling raised her head with a confused expression — she had already faintly realized that there was something wrong in this conversation, but she didn’t know what was wrong nor the root cause.
It is really a matter of indifference that people cannot make choices when they are reborn.
Zhang Heling felt her sister’s gaze and looked at Zhang Yansheng. Confusion was written in those dark eyes.
Zhang Yansheng smiled at her faintly.
The elder sister’s smile diluted the confusion and anxiety in the little girl’s heart. She raised her hand to show Zhang Yansheng the dough in her palm: “Sister, do you think I squeezed it right? Does it look the same?”
That thing doesn’t look like a dumpling at all. What kind of animal is it anyway?
Zhang Yansheng said decisively: “Yes!”
Zhang Heling became happy and put aside all those little confusions.
The old lady on the other side of the kitchen island asked Zhang Qi about the arrangements she had for the New Year.
During the winter vacation, Zhang Qi did have some arrangements for going out. The old lady nodded, and did not intend to continue.
When Zhang Huan heard it, he became very awake, smiled and asked, “Does Mom have any arrangements?”
After he said this, Zhang Qi realized that her grandmother didn’t want to know what arrangements she had, but wanted to arrange one for her, and she didn’t realize this just now.
She hurriedly said, “Grandma, what’s the matter? My arrangement is not that important. I will follow your arrangements first.”
The old lady felt that her granddaughter was not stupid at all and said, “After the New Year, I want to take Qiqi to listen to a financial forum.”
Zhang Qi is only a freshman in college, and it doesn’t matter if she understands or if she’s not interested. What matters is the attitude expressed by the old lady.
Both Zhang Yu and his wife’s eyes lit up. Zhang Yu’s wife hurriedly said, “Let her go with you, she has nothing to do, let her make an appointment with her classmates another day.”
Zhang Qi also actively stated: “Grandma, my business is not important, so I will go with you. I have heard of this forum before, and I just want to see and look around.”
After Zhang Qi finished speaking, Zhang Huan also said, “It’s very good, very good, children have to go out and see the world more.”
Zhang Yansheng was thinking about her cousin’s affairs, why her father was so enthusiastic, so she saw her father turn his head to look at her, smiled and said, “Yanyan, you should go together with them, listen more, and see more. It wouldn’t hurt if you go.”
Her father’s eyes were bright, and his eyes were shining brightly.
Afraid that Zhang Yansheng would not understand what he meant, he raised his eyebrows and gave her a wink.
Zhang Yansheng: “…”
Zhang Yansheng really didn’t know that her father’s expression could be so smart.
***The complete translation of this novel is available on my Patreon account. Please support. Thank you! ^^