Chapter 50: Let the Love-Struck Fool Die p3
When Yun Lan returned to South Lake Mansion and saw the haggard Yang Yijun, her tears also fell disobediently.
But with Yun Lan around, Yang Yijun wouldn’t say anything. She could not let Jingya know about these messy things at home.
“Mom, what exactly do I have to do to make you happy? Zhiru also resents you. He said that he has treated you as his own mother for so many years of marriage, but you’re treating him like this. He feels heartbroken.”
“Shut up! Shut up! When will you wake up? You didn’t listen to a single word I said in the study that day! You’re in your forties, how are you not as clear-headed as a sixteen-year-old child? You… you’ve lived for so long in vain! What are you doing now? Are you standing on Zhou Zhiru’s side and attacking your own mother?” Yang Yijun was so angry that she turned and threw all the pillows on the bed at Yun Lan.
“Grandma, please talk nicely. Don’t be angry,” Yun Jingya said, stepping forward to stop Yang Yijun. She didn’t quite understand. She turned to look at Yun Lan and asked with tears in her eyes, “Mom, what is it all about? Why did you and Dad have to move out? Isn’t it good to live here?”
Yun Lan was clearly even more sad. She was crying so hard that her shoulders were shaking, like a wronged child. “Mom, just give the thing to Zhiru. Then our family can live together like before. For so many years, where has he not been good enough to me, to Jingya, to this family? Whenever something happens, he’s the first to step up. He also helps when relatives have problems. He’s the only son in his family. When you said you wanted my brother to have the Yun surname, he didn’t even object and just said he would listen to you. The people in our hometown in Dongshan have laughed at him a lot. He hasn’t been back for so many years just because he’s afraid of being stabbed in the back and cursed. He also has his difficulties, but you’re still on guard against him, and you’re threatening him with that thing. Mom, what exactly are you trying to do?”
Large tears rolled down her face. The thought of Zhiru drinking and crying about his grievances over the years made Yun Lan’s heart ache. She stomped her foot and shouted at Yang Yijun, “Mom, what exactly are you trying to do? Zhiru said that if you want the company, if you want money, he can give it all to you. He said that everything in the future will be left to me and the children.”
Yun Lan stood there in a daze, her eyes wide, looking at her mother, who was crying with anger and full of grievances, then turned to look at her grandmother, who was biting her lip, so angry that she couldn’t speak.
“Can someone tell me what this is all about? Mom, what do you want Grandma to give back to Dad? I don’t understand what you’re saying, but I beg you, please don’t fight, okay?” Yun Jingya said, pulling on Yun Lan’s arm and reaching out to wipe her tears.
Yun Lan turned and hugged Yun Jingya, sobbing. Just as she was about to speak, Yang Yijun turned and threw the table lamp from the bedside at her, her eyes filled with tears, but her gaze was very fierce. “Yun Lan, get out!”
Yun Jingya was so scared that she shivered. Yun Lan turned and saw the shards of the table lamp at her feet. She was so scared that she was dumbfounded. After a long while, she covered her mouth and started to cry. “Waaah, Jingya, your grandmother is sick… she actually tried to smash me to death, waaah.”
Then she cried and cried, feeling extremely wronged. “Mom, you actually threw something at me. You’ve never been like this before. What’s wrong with you?” Yun Lan said, raising her arm to wipe her tears, and then she started to wail.
Yang Yijun looked at Yun Lan, who was acting like a child in front of her. Tears streamed down her old eyes like a broken string.
It had been like this since she was a child. Whenever she was wronged, she would cry like this. And every time, her heart would ache for her.
But this time, Yang Yijun only felt sorry for herself, and for Jingya, who was standing next to her, not understanding anything, but still trying to be strong and comfort her mother not to cry.
“Ahhh, waaah, ah, woo, ah, hahaha, ah, haha…” Yang Yijun’s shoulders were shaking. She was crying, and then she suddenly couldn’t help but laugh, and the tears streamed down her face.
When Yun Jingya came back, her eyes were swollen like two small walnuts. Zhou Wanfeng only looked up for a moment, then continued to do her homework with a blank expression.
Yun Jingya, who had been preparing to make excuses all the way, squinted her eyes and smiled, holding up the lunch box in her hand. Her voice was very hoarse, like the sound of an old tree bark being torn. “Wanfeng, I brought back some delicious food. There’s twice-cooked pork, spicy shrimp, and your favorite braised eggplant.”
With that, she put the things in the kitchen, then turned to go to the restroom to wash her face, gently patting her face and making faces in the mirror.
After wiping her face, she went out to find her backpack. “Oh, I have to stay up late tonight. I have a lot of homework to do.”
Zhou Wanfeng took out the few test papers that had been handed out in class. She had already finished them.
Yun Jingya smiled. “Thank you, Wanfeng. If I really can’t finish in time, I’ll just copy yours. I’ll do it myself for now.”
At nearly twelve o’clock, Zhou Wanfeng went back to her room to rest.
Seeing Zhou Wanfeng leave, Yun Jingya suddenly lost her strength. She lay on her desk, her eyelashes wet, and her tears fell on the test paper as she cried silently.
On Monday, Yun Jingya was not in a good state. Her eyes were still swollen, and so was her throat.
When the English teacher asked her a question in class, she stood there in a daze, her expression blank. When she saw the teacher and her classmates looking at her, she realized that she had been spacing out. She lowered her head in shame and said sorry.
The English teacher was gentle and just said to pay attention in class.
The math teacher, Meng Yuanzhi, was a very strict teacher. He had sternly reminded Yun Jingya once for looking down and not at the blackboard in class. There was another math class in the afternoon. Meng Yuanzhi came into the classroom with the class homework and handed it out. He first taught the class as usual.
Yun Jingya was called up to do a problem on the blackboard. She stood up and stood there in a daze, her eyes blank, not knowing what to do.
The whole class had noticed that Yun Jingya was not in a good state these past few days. She was very off.
Her deskmate had told people that she would occasionally see Yun Jingya’s eyelashes wet.
“Yun Jingya, this is not the first time I’ve reminded you. You were in this state this morning. What did I say to you? Don’t space out in class. Do you think your grades are good enough that you don’t have to listen? You don’t even do your homework. What are you trying to do? If you don’t want to study, then go home,” Meng Yuanzhi said, picking up the first homework book and opening it in front of the whole class. It only had the questions copied, and no answers. It was Yun Jingya’s.
With that, he threw it at Yun Jingya.
“You don’t listen in class, you don’t do your homework. Then I’d like to ask you, what are you doing sitting in the classroom? If you don’t want to study, then get out,” Meng Yuanzhi said with a fierce expression, pointing at the door and telling Yun Jingya to go out and stand against the wall.
The class was silent. No one dared to breathe.
In an instant, Yun Jingya suddenly started to sob. She said sorry to the math teacher, and her emotions came flooding out like a dam breaking. She couldn’t control it at all. She sat down and lay on her desk, crying loudly.
The class was in an uproar. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know.”
The math teacher, Meng Yuanzhi, looked at her crying and was so angry that he put away his textbook. “What are you crying for? Did I say something wrong? Are you wronged?”
Jiang Chen kicked Zhou Wanfeng’s stool and half-stood up, whispering, “Zhou Wanfeng, what’s going on? What’s wrong with her? What is she crying about?”
No one knew what was wrong with Yun Jingya. In their impression, she was not the type to cry after being scolded by a teacher a few times. Usually, she would actively admit her mistake and correct it. And she would not make such a low-level mistake.
Wang Feili took out a tissue and had someone pass it to Jingya.
The math class could not go on. Yun Jingya’s crying could not be stopped.
Meng Yuanzhi left the classroom with his book, his face dark with anger. “You guys can have a self-study period.”
The moment the teacher left, the class immediately became noisy. Many of the girls went up to comfort Yun Jingya, giving her tissues and saying it was okay.
But their words of comfort were useless. Yun Jingya’s tears would continue to fall even after she had wiped them away.
Zhou Wanfeng stood up with a cold face, walked up to Yun Jingya, and pulled her up by the arm. “Get up. Come out with me.”
Wang Feili stood up, stuffed a tissue into Zhou Wanfeng’s hand, and then obediently sat back down.
Yun Jingya wiped her tears with one hand and was pulled out of the classroom by Zhou Wanfeng with the other.
Someone in the class poked their head out to look, but was scolded by the class president, Wu Junfeng. “Go and do your homework. Don’t talk.”
Zhou Wanfeng dragged Yun Jingya to a secluded corner and asked directly with a cold face, “Tell me. What happened at home?”
It was a direct hit. Yun Jingya’s shoulders were trembling as she sobbed. “…Grandma and Mom are going to sever their mother-daughter relationship, waaah…”
“Impossible,” she sneered.
“Mom is also crying a lot. She’s full of grievances. She asked Grandma for something to give back to Dad. The moment she mentioned it, Grandma got angry and even threw something at her,” Yun Jingya said, shaking her head. “I’ve never seen them fight like this before. Mom and Dad have already moved out, waaah. Wanfeng, waaah, please help me. I don’t know what to do. Mom is crying so sadly, and Grandma is also very sad. Everyone is crying, and I can’t do anything…” Yun Jingya grabbed Wanfeng’s arm and cried so hard she was out of breath. The sense of powerlessness was almost tearing her apart.
“Wanfeng, waaah, please, please help me, ah, woo, woo,” Yun Jingya said, grabbing Zhou Wanfeng’s hand and slowly squatting on the ground.
She actually didn’t know what she could ask Wanfeng to help with, but she couldn’t hold on anymore. The two people she loved most were torturing each other. She didn’t want her mother to cry, and she didn’t want her grandmother to be sad.
Zhou Wanfeng looked down at the on-the-verge-of-breakdown Yun Jingya. She felt that this was the goal that Zhou Zhiru had wanted to achieve, and he had done it.
She looked up, took a deep breath, and reached out to pull Yun Jingya up, stuffing the tissue that Wang Feili had given her into her hand. “Help me ask for leave from the homeroom teacher, or Wu Junfeng.”
Her eyes were cold. She turned and walked towards the school gate.
Yun Jingya looked at Zhou Wanfeng’s back, in a daze. A few seconds later, her brain finally came back to her. Her voice was hoarse. “Wanfeng, what kind of leave do you want me to ask for? Where are you going now?”
Zhou Wanfeng walked away.
Class Six was having a physical education class on the playground. Lu Qing had a limp and couldn’t do anything. He was just sitting on the rostrum, watching others play ball. He glanced over and thought he was seeing things.
He hopped over.
“Zhou Wanfeng?”
“Do you have any money?” Zhou Wanfeng’s expression was dark, her eyes like ice.
Lu Qing subconsciously handed over the money in his pocket.
Before he could ask why she was here, she had already walked past him.
“What?” Lu Qing turned to look at Zhou Wanfeng. Seeing that she was not going to the main gate, but to the other side, he was trying to figure out what she was doing when he saw her walk to the school wall, jump, pull herself up, and flip over.
Lu Qing’s eyes were wide. Three seconds later, he looked away and quickly looked around. No one had seen it, right? Why was she climbing the wall?
Zhou Wanfeng took a taxi and went straight back to South Lake Mansion. It was not early, not late. Old Dong was startled to see her come back. Before he could go up and speak, she had already run into the house.
Auntie Luo and Auntie Zhang were both very surprised to see Zhou Wanfeng come back.
Yang Yijun was in the Go room, but her mind was empty. She was staring at the empty Go board in a daze.
Bang. The door was pushed open. Zhou Wanfeng stood at the door, looking at the shocked Yang Yijun with a cold face. “You call Yun Lan. Tell her to come over now.”
Yang Yijun stood up in shock. “Why are you back at this hour? Where’s Jingya?”
“Go and call her,” Zhou Wanfeng’s words seemed to be squeezed out from between her teeth, with an undeniable sharpness.
Auntie Luo and Auntie Zhang, who had run over, saw Yang Yijun nod, and then they quickly went to make the call.
Yang Yijun followed Zhou Wanfeng. Before she could speak, Zhou Wanfeng suddenly turned around. “Your affairs have already affected Yun Jingya. She had an emotional breakdown in class today and started to wail. The teacher was so angry that he just left.”
“What?” Yang Yijun was so shocked that she froze.
“She’s not doing her homework, she’s spacing out in class, she’s in a daze, and she’s even crying. If this continues, Zhou Zhiru’s goal will be achieved.”
“Goal?” Yang Yijun’s mind was a mess now. She could only repeat Zhou Wanfeng’s words.
But Zhou Wanfeng’s next words were like a thunderbolt. “Yun Lan and Yun Jingya, which one do you want?”
Yang Yijun’s mind was a complete mess. Her hands were trembling, her face ashen. Which one?
An hour later, Yun Lan came.
The moment she saw Zhou Wanfeng, she froze, instinctively afraid, especially since those cold, dark eyes were fixed on her.
“Mom?” she called out weakly, standing still.
Yang Yijun’s mind was still repeating Zhou Wanfeng’s previous words. Jingya had cried at school, had wailed. That child was not one to cry. The thought of Jingya crying at school made Yang Yijun’s eyes feel dry and tight.
The three of them were standing in the first-floor main bedroom. Yun Lan was some distance from Yang Yijun, because Zhou Wanfeng was there.
“You didn’t understand a single word I said that day. Can’t you see your own situation? For other couples, a divorce is a matter between two people. For you and him, it’s him unilaterally getting rid of you. It has nothing to do with whether you want to or not. If he wants to get rid of you, he can. The reason he’s not divorcing you now is because you’re very useful. You’re standing on his side, helping him to deal with your own mother and daughter, making the two people who love you suffer and break down. What are you living for? You might as well just die,” Zhou Wanfeng’s voice was unhurried, her pace just right, but her tone held no hint of mockery.
Her eyes were calm and cold as she walked towards Yun Lan.