Chapter 42 Competition Between Men

A panic he had never experienced before spread from the soles of his feet to his entire body. His whole body felt cold and his palms were sweating. Before his eyes, it was as if he had already seen Fan Xia being snatched away by Rong Xiu, Rong Xiu coming to the door with a big belly demanding Fan Xia take responsibility, while Fan Xia gently caressed Rong Xiu’s swollen belly and calmly proposed divorce to him.

No! Absolutely not!

Wen Lan Sheng’s tear-stained eyes were filled with gloomy distortion. He would absolutely not allow that day to come.

He couldn’t compete with Rong Xiu in terms of power and wealth. Now, the only chips in his hand were his years of feelings with Fan Xia and his status as Fan Xia’s husband. But he couldn’t possibly live with just an empty title. He had to win back Fan Xia’s heart.

Wen Lan Sheng covered his flat lower abdomen, cold light flowing in his clear, moist eyes.

When Wen Lan Sheng returned home with his arm around Fan Xia, Xie Cen visibly relaxed.

“Dad, Mom, we’re back.”

“It’s good that you’re back.” Xie Cen’s tense expression instantly relaxed. He eagerly came forward to take Fan Xia and Wen Lan Sheng’s hands, placing them together in his palm, and said earnestly: “Now that you are husband and wife, there should be no overnight grudges between spouses. If there’s anything, you should talk it out openly, don’t keep it bottled up inside.”

“I understand, Dad. Fan Xia and I have already talked it out. We won’t argue anymore in the future.” Wen Lan Sheng nestled in Fan Xia’s arms with a gentle smile, the tear stains in the corners of his eyes particularly noticeable.

“That’s good, that’s good.” Xie Cen smiled with relief, looking very much like an elder who had worried himself sick over his children.

He watched as Fan Xia and Wen Lan Sheng went into the room. Seeing their bedroom door close, Xie Cen’s old arms and legs suddenly became agile as he stepped over the mountain of clutter in the living room and sat down beside Wen Ming Yue. In a deliberately lowered voice, he excitedly said: “They’ve made up, they’ve made up.”

Wen Ming Yue looked up from her phone: “I know.”

Xie Cen clutched his chest: “Seeing them reconcile, I can finally put down this big stone in my heart. If Fan Xia had really left on her wedding night, we two outsiders would have no face to continue living here.”

Wen Ming Yue remained silent, her expression complex.

She had worked hard all her life, painstakingly saving up over a million, originally intending to pave the way for Wen Jing’s future. Who knew that not only had she failed to pave that future, but she had also lost her only place of refuge.

Approaching retirement age, a time when she should be enjoying her twilight years, those old friends and neighbors who had retired were growing flowers, raising fish, practicing calligraphy, going to the park to practice tai chi, and on weekends their children would bring grandchildren to visit them. Their lives were so comfortable.

And her? A big family, actually crowded together living with her daughter-in-law.

The whole building at her workplace knew about her selling her house and moving. When she went to work at the factory, those usual colleagues looked at her with some subtle changes in their eyes, and even dared to mock her.

How would they have dared before?

Wasn’t it just because they saw her as an easy target now? An almost-retired old woman whose daughter was useless, shamelessly clinging to her son and daughter-in-law for support?

Wen Ming Yue narrowed her eyes, filled with humiliation.

This feeling of having to constantly watch her daughter-in-law’s face, she had long since had enough of it.

Wen Ming Yue was also a respectable cashier at the factory, and had never suffered such indignities when she was young. Who would have thought that in her old age, she would have to rely on others for her very breath?

Wen Ming Yue couldn’t help but recall earlier, when Fan Xia and Wen Lan Sheng were arguing. That was truly arguing in front of them, the old couple. Her son was almost kneeling down to apologize to her, but she didn’t soften her heart at all, slamming the door and leaving.

She didn’t put them, the in-laws, in her eyes at all.

How stifling! How utterly stifling!

Wen Ming Yue tightly gripped her phone. She wasn’t resigned. She had struggled all her life. When she was young, it was understandable that she couldn’t compare to Director Fan with her university degree. But now that she was old, to still be ridden over and bullied by her daughter, and even have the son she had raised herself carry on the family line for the Fan family.

How could she endure such humiliation? She opened her phone, the screen lighting up her wrinkled face. Her cloudy eyes stared fixedly at the screen, looking at various stock forum messages online.

“Looking at your phone again. I really don’t know what’s so good about that phone, can you see flowers bloom from it?” Xie Cen complained. “If you have nothing to do, you should think about our Jing Jing. Jing Jing has no job now, and no education. She can’t find work and just spends all day cooped up on the balcony playing games. This can’t go on.”

“Fan Xia lets us two live in this house because we’re Lan Sheng’s parents. She has to support us. But Jing Jing, she really has no obligation to her.”

“If one day Fan Xia gets impatient and kicks Jing Jing out, she won’t even have a place to live.” Xie Cen shook Wen Ming Yue’s arm, urging her incessantly.

Xie Cen doted on his younger daughter immensely, but at this moment, Wen Jing was lying on the small bed on the balcony, wearing headphones, deeply engrossed in her game, not caring at all about the future.

Xie Cen shook his head helplessly, thinking, if only his daughter could be half as excellent as Fan Xia.

He didn’t expect her to be as rich and successful as Fan Xia, just to be able to support herself. To cultivate Wen Jing, the Wen family had sent her to all kinds of tutoring classes since she was young, spending money like water. But in the end, she couldn’t even get into a second-tier private university.

As for Fan Xia, forget about tutoring classes. As an orphan, she was so poor she couldn’t even afford a set of practice exam books. Yet she still managed to enter the Capital University as the city’s top scholar.

Xie Cen felt both resentful and deeply helpless.

“I heard from a friend that there’s a state-owned enterprise recruiting contract workers recently. Although the salary is low, only 4,000, they provide social insurance and such. While it’s not a formal position in the state-owned enterprise, they generally don’t fire people, it’s very stable. Many people want to get in. We sold our house and still have nearly 500,000 left, right? Why don’t we take some money from there to help Jing Jing get in through connections?”

“Jing Jing’s mom, are you listening to me?” Xie Cen forcibly took away Wen Ming Yue’s phone and said.

Wen Ming Yue’s face changed slightly. Her fingers scratched the sofa unnaturally as she said, “You’re really getting muddle-headed in your old age. This salary isn’t even enough for Jing Jing’s monthly eating, drinking, and entertainment. At this rate, she’ll never be able to buy a house in her lifetime. Without a house, which man would be willing to marry her and have children?”

“I’m just out of options!” Xie Cen thought about what she said and realized she was right. If a woman had no house and no car, wouldn’t it be true that no man would be willing to marry her? How would he be able to hold his granddaughter in the future?

Xie Cen felt even more resentful. If Jing Jing could also be like Fan Xia, young and already owning a house and car in the capital, with a decent job, how many men would be throwing themselves at her? Even the CEO of a top company would have to be content being a mistress or secret lover.

If their Jing Jing was also so accomplished and managed to bring home a rich young master… Xie Cen’s thoughts started to wander.

“Then what do you suggest we do?” He came back to his senses and asked.

“I’ll ask around at work, see if my old colleagues know of any lucrative positions,” Wen Ming Yue said.

“Alright, but you better hurry. I don’t want to wake up one day and see our Jing Jing being kicked out by Fan Xia,” Xie Cen said.

“I know.” Wen Ming Yue finally loosened her hand that had been scratching the sofa and let out a long sigh.

Fortunately, she had reacted quickly and glossed over this matter. If Xie Cen knew that she had invested all their money in the stock market, he would surely raise hell.

Five hundred thousand. She had invested all five hundred thousand. This money was a huge sum for them, but for those stock-playing enthusiasts on the forum, it was just a small amount.

These days, she spent all her time on stock forums, knowing that to succeed, the higher the cost, the greater the return. To thoroughly shame those who looked down on her, she had to turn things around with this one shot.

When the time came, not only would she no longer have to watch Fan Xia’s face, she could even help Jing Jing buy a new house, marry a husband, and live a respectable life again.

Outside the bedroom, Wen Ming Yue and Xie Cen were calculating for the future at every turn. Inside the bedroom, iris petals were scattered.

Soft, soothing music spread thickly in the air. Wen Lan Sheng swayed slowly to the melody, unbuttoning his clothes. The white wedding suit fell away like flower petals. He held a beautiful purple iris between his teeth, humming lazily, his eyes seductive.

Fan Xia leaned casually against the headboard, leisurely watching his performance.

As the song ended, she remained fully clothed, while Wen Lan Sheng, blushing, burrowed into Fan Xia’s arms. His fingers played with her collar as he said in a coquettish, rich voice, “Fan Xia, did you like it?”

“It was beautiful,” Fan Xia’s fingertips, like the world’s gentlest feather, caressed his earlobe. Wen Lan Sheng let out a soft “mm~”.

“I prepared it especially for today. I practiced secretly for a long time,” Wen Lan Sheng said shyly.

They had been together since their second year of high school. He knew that women craved novelty, and after a long time, it was easy to lose interest. So, he often tried to play some new tricks.

Fan Xia’s smile deepened, her fingertips caressing his soft earlobe. “It’s a good thing I didn’t leave today, or I would have missed such a wonderful performance.”

Wen Lan Sheng let out a coquettish hum, just about to unbutton her clothes when a video call rang.

It was Rong Xiu.

Wen Lan Sheng’s face suddenly froze. Deliberately choosing this time to call, what malicious intentions.

Before he could say anything, Fan Xia had already tilted up his chin: “Do you remember what you just told me in the elevator?”

“I remember.” Wen Lan Sheng nodded resentfully, jealousy and sourness in his voice: “Fan Xia, go ahead and answer the call. I won’t be childish and interrupt your work anymore.”

Fan Xia kissed the corner of his mouth satisfactorily, as if wanting to swallow his grievances: “Good boy.”

“Am I disturbing you?” As the video connected, Rong Xiu’s face, refined to perfection, appeared on the screen. In the video, his hair was damp, and he had changed out of his conservative business suit into a set of black silk pajamas, deliberately exposing his undulating chest to tempt her.

Shameless! Wen Lan Sheng cursed in his heart as he lay sprawled across Fan Xia’s body.

“Not at all, how could you?” Fan Xia shook her head and smiled.

“That’s good. I was worried I might disturb your wedding night.” Rong Xiu’s eyes lowered gently, a faint smile on his lips.

If you were really worried, you wouldn’t have called. Calling and then pretending to be innocent, setting up a righteous facade while being a scoundrel.

Acting like a cold, unapproachable flower in public, but putting on a fawning act in front of women, wagging your tail and currying favor. Slut! Wen Lan Sheng glared at him.

“Is something the matter?” Fan Xia asked.

“Nothing much.” Rong Xiu picked up a small puppy with one hand. A small, white, soft rice ball lay on his arm. “It’s just Yi Mei. It misses you a bit. It keeps barking at night and won’t sleep even when comforted. After all, you were the one who picked it up. It’s very attached to you.”

Rong Xiu’s voice was low and husky with a hint of melancholy. His long, upturned eyes, having removed his gold-rimmed glasses, gazed at her full of tender feelings. There was a faint glimmer of tears in his eyes, and the small wine-red mole under his left eye seemed to pulse with hidden currents. His manner of wanting to speak but holding back was extremely alluring, as if he himself were the dog he spoke of.

It was as if something soft and tiny quickly crawled across her heart.

“You miss me that much?” Fan Xia smiled and said to Yi Mei, but her eyes were on Rong Xiu: “Then shall I come see you tomorrow?”

“Yes!” Countless vibrant lights instantly flooded into Rong Xiu’s cold eyes. Realizing what he had said, he bit his lip, his eyes filled with youthful shyness: “I’m saying that on Yi Mei’s behalf.”

Fan Xia’s eyes were full of gentle laughter: “I know.”

Suddenly her expression changed slightly. She watched as Wen Lan Sheng’s body slowly slid down, his soft, boneless hands undoing her sash.

“What’s wrong?” Rong Xiu asked.

Wen Lan Sheng gritted his teeth.

Rong Xiu, it’s time for you to experience the pain I’ve tasted!