Chapter 1949: A Turn
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
This divorce lawsuit had been going on for two to three months. That sounded like a long time, but in comparison to other divorce lawsuits, it was already rather efficient. Zhai Hua and the Zhai family had only shown up during the first and last court sessions.
That day, the Zhai family and the Wei family had bumped into each other at the entrance, and both Wei De and the Wei family were very emotional. Wei De, in particular, seemed to want to get closer to Zhai Hua and tell her something. Unfortunately, given Zhai Yaohui’s status, going out entailed having bodyguards around him.
With the protection, no one, including the Wei family, could successfully break through the security border and get close to the Zhai family. Wei De was incompetent and could not match up to the bodyguards. As such, he could only watch as Zhai Hua entered the court indifferently under the protection of those bodyguards.
“Ah De?” Mother Wei felt the guiltiest. Ever since they had started the divorce lawsuit, Mother Wei had increasingly realized just how important Zhai Hua was to the Wei family. The Wei family, who had been rather wealthy, was getting worse off by the day without Zhai Hua as the mistress of the family.
At this time last year, Zhai Hua had gotten the family two new outfits for the new season. But they had not done so this year. When Mother Wei, who was used to showing off, went out for groceries, she was afraid of running into her friends. She was more afraid that they would ask about that filial daughter-in-law of hers who was a chief’s daughter.
Thinking about how Zhai Hua had contributed to the family so selflessly and had never thrown her weight around as a chief’s daughter, Mother Wei truly regretted her actions. If she had known that such a day would come, she would have treated Zhai Hua better normally.
How would she have known that the Zhai family, who had treated Zhai Hua as someone who had died all these years, who had not helped Zhai Hua or her son, would have returned in full force to help Zhai Hua get a divorce this time?
If she had known that the Zhai family had always cared about Zhai Hua and were only treating Zhai Hua that way because she was stubborn, she would have pampered Zhai Hua and treated her like a Buddha.
Mother Wei had always felt that Zhai Hua was useless since she could not even coax her family. She had only allowed her son to marry an old woman who could not get married because of the Zhai family’s status. If Zhai Hua had a place in her family’s hearts and had pulled on some strings so that the Zhai family would have helped her son, she would have treated Zhai Hua like how she treated her ancestors!
In reality, the couple had been married for more than a decade, but her son had not been able to fulfill his dream of becoming a regiment commander. Contrarily, it seemed as though he would never get promoted from his rank as a company commander. Besides, Zhai Hua had never been in contact with the Zhai family all those years. The chief’s daughter was nothing but a title.
It was also because Zhai Hua’s temper had been so good and she had been too nice toward the Wei family. She had tried her best to be a good wife, a good daughter-in-law, and a good mother that she had been trying to live her life to prove to the Zhai family that she had not made the wrong decision.
Even with her status, she had not put on any airs. That was why Mother Wei’s uneasiness had turned into her strong and overbearing behavior as a mother-in-law. Everything was a result of mutual influence.
When Zhai Hua finally prided herself as part of the Zhai family, Mother Wei realized that it was too late for her to regret it now. Because she had gone overboard during normal times, there was nothing for her to rely on at this critical moment. There was nothing she could do since she had never treated Zhai Hua well, and even treated Wei Wei better than Jiajia.
Father Wei glanced at Mother Wei. “All right. Let’s go in. It’s too embarrassing to stay out here.” Mother Wei had her regrets, and so did Father Wei. He had always felt that he had a better image in Zhai Hua’s mind since he had never tried to interfere whenever Mother Wei bullied Zhai Hua.
He had thought that Zhai Hua would take his advice as a father-in-law once he spoke. But reality gave Father Wei a tight slap in the face.
Anyone could have seen just how indifferent and scheming Father Wei had been all along. He had just gotten the chance to say something to Zhai Hua before she rebutted him. “Uncle, I might not have said anything in the past, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t know anything. At that time, we were a family and I tried to tolerate all of you as much as I could. Uncle, I’m sure you like Wei Wei very much as a grandson. I’ve seen it for myself.”
If they did not place emphasis on their grandson, would they use their granddaughter’s resources to help their grandson?
In that way, Father Wei naturally had no way to use his good father-in-law image to persuade Zhai Hua to make up with Wei De since they had a child and to forget about the divorce.
After entering the court, the family of three found a spot by the window to have some fresh air. Ever since the day Zhai Hua had brought up a divorce, the atmosphere in the family had been stifling. After a long time, Father Wei finally spoke up when he realized that the pocket where he normally placed his cigarettes was empty. “Is there any change in your situation in the military?”
Wei De was dejected. “No.” He had thought that losing the chance of promotion after getting divorced from Zhai Hua was the greatest punishment he would get for being together with Wei Xiaomei in his youth. It was only when he received a call from the military that he realized that it was not easy for Zhai Hua to pull him up, but it was no effort at all for the Zhai family to drag him down.
Both calls from the military were not out of concern for Wei De. In the first call, the people from the military expressed that they understood that it was important to resolve his personal matters. As such, they were willing to grant him time off to settle these matters.
Less than a month later, Wei De received yet another call from the military. Because of Wei De’s dishonesty, the military had reason to believe that his character and morality were poor. More importantly, Wei De had organized a wedding dinner and had gotten married to Wei Xiaomei in the countryside. Afterward, he had cheated Zhai Hua into marriage. That bigamy was an extremely severe crime that had ruined the image of the military. As such, the military had made the decision to expel him.
The phone call was a bolt out of the blue for Wei De. He was already in despair that he would never become a regiment commander. Now, he could not even continue being a soldier, let alone a regiment commander. There was no place for him in the army anymore.
Similarly, it was only when Wei De received this call did he realize just how frightening it was to get divorced from Zhai Hua.