Chapter 55: Chapter 28 (part 1)

Ning Wan quickly put the episode between Fu Zheng and Chen Shuo behind her. Community law usually swung back and forth between being busy and quiet. Since it had been a quiet day yesterday, today seemed to be extra busy in revenge.

That day, Ning Wan and Fu Zheng took turns answering nearly 20 telephone inquiries between two waves of consultations. Everything seemed to be crowded into this time frame - even Lu Feng, back from his business trip, had scheduled his appointment to speak with Wang Liying that day.

Right as Ning Wan and Fu Zheng sent away their second wave of consults, Lu Feng and Wang Liying came to the office.

When Wang Liying saw him, a whirlpool of feelings welled up in her heart. Guilt and embarrassment covered her face. "Xiao Lu, I'm so terribly sorry. It was I who was uneducated, I thought that..."

For everything to have been made clear and the two to be able to resolve their misunderstanding should have been a happy occasion. Once misunderstandings were cleared up, everything was much easier to deal with.

However, unexpectedly, old Wang Liying had only just opened her mouth when she was interrupted by a rough baritone--

"Don't even think about giving the house to someone else!"

In accompaniment to this angry tone was the harsh sound of the door being kicked open and crashing into the wall. Ning Wan looked up to see Guo Jianguo's livid face. He was followed in by his equally angry brother, then their two wives, and finally by Guo Jianhong.

"Mother, what is wrong with you? We finally persuade you back out of this marriage. Then what do you think up? Signing an agreement to leave the house to this unrelated guy?" Guo Jianguo's wife was glaring daggers, her voice sharp with resentment. "It's not like you don't have a family! You have two sons, even if you didn't give Jianguo his inheritance, you could give it to Jianzhong's family. You're really too much!"

Hearing this, Guo Jianzhong's wife immediately echoed, "Yeah, Mother, we and eldest brother and sister-in-law are your relatives. You haven't said a word to us, yet all of a sudden you want to give the house to this guy who just jumped out of the woodwork somewhere. What do you mean by that?"

The two wives usually never saw eye-to-eye usually, but right now they were unprecedentedly united, scolding, screaming, and proclaiming the injustice being done to them. Guo Jianzhong and Guo Jianguo pitched in from time to time, and the entire scene was chaos...

"Mom! We can't accept this!"

"Mom, you're going senile! We're your relatives! We're the ones who are going to take care of you in your old age!"

Seeing that they weren't getting any response, the two couples began to slip hints of coercion and cajoling into their words--

"Mom, aren't you currently relying on us to take care of your disease and treatment? If you give the house to someone else, we might not have the money to take care of you. I mean, you know, we're not exactly well off. It's so expensive raising children now, and we're just about to have another. We're working hard to give you a grandson to carry on the family name... "

"Take care of me?" After a long silence, Wang Liying finally spoke. Her voice was tired and bitter. "If I don't give the house to Xiao Lu, were you going to take care of me?"

"I'm uneducated and have cancer, but I'm not a fool. Do you think I don't know?" Wang Liying smiled, her face embittered and harrowed. "You, give me a happy life in my old age? You both can't wait for me to die early so that you can split the house and the money I'm leaving behind."

"What did you say when I wanted the doctors to cure my disease? You told me not to take chemotherapy, but to just treat it conservatively."

Though Guo Jianzhong's face was little ugly, he argued back, "Mom, we were just looking out for you. Chemotherapy's so bad for your body, and you're old now, maybe you wouldn't have survived. We consulted doctors who said that sometimes you'll live for just as long whether or not you treat it, and treatment would have been so hard on you. Chemotherapy is basically poison, and you would have been so frail afterward. It's said that quality of life is higher in your last few years if you just stick to conservative treatment. We were really just looking out for you..."

"Jianzhong, even if we accept that to be true, do you remember what you and your wife were talking about that day outside the hospital? You said that you were planning to travel somewhere over the New Year, but now you didn't dare book a plane ticket." There was a mocking smile on Wang Liying's withered face. "Why don't you tell us all why you didn't dare book a ticket?"

When Guo Jianzhong and his wife heard this, for some reason their faces turned alternately green and red, and they both immediately stopped talking.

Tears flooded Wang Liying's dry eyes. "When I heard you speaking at first, I thought that you were thinking I didn't have much time left, so you didn't want to go out vacationing during the New Year and were going to stay with me. In my heart, I hated myself for letting you down. Why did I go and get this evil disease? But what did you say instead?"

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"You said that I probably wouldn't survive through Chinese New Year. You were afraid that if I died during the New Year you would have to change your ticket and come back for the funeral, which would be a complete waste of money. But if you didn't come back, then you were afraid that Jianguo would take advantage of the opportunity to steal the house and the bulk of the inheritance. You complained and grumbled that I was really dying at the exact wrong time."

Wang Liying choked up as she spoke. "Jianzhong, let me ask you this. When is the best time for your mother to die?"

Pale, Guo Jianzhong said nothing. His wife looked away.

Guo Jianguo took the opportunity to say, "Mom, but we're different from my brother. We..."

"You're different indeed. You didn't pay a cent for my treatment and you don't give me a cent normally. Instead, you ask me for money. But when I was ill you did bring fruit and visit."

The moment Guo Jianguo's expression eased, he heard her continue--

"But every time the fruit was completely rotten. It's too bad that your family can't eat it anymore, but what a waste to throw it out, right? Do you think I don't know what your wife is like? If something hasn't gone bad, even if you have no use for it, you wouldn't bring it to me. Your pet dogs eat expensive, imported food. But what about me? I am your mother, yet in your eyes I'm inferior to your dogs!"

"I have lived all my life reflecting on myself, watching others work and make money, hating myself for missing the right times to make the right decisions. When I bought houses for you and your brother, I hated that I didn't do it in the two years when prices were the lowest. When I couldn't take care of your children thanks to my illness, I hated myself for being sick at the wrong time... who knew that in the end, it would also be the wrong time for me to die."

"The two sons I loved so much unexpectedly have no conscience," Wang Liying said, the tears running down her face. "But now I'm dying and I've finally figured it out. I don't want to do myself wrong. I don't want to leave my house and my money to you two unfilial things."

Although Ning Wan had heard from Aunt Xiao that Wang Liying's sons were unfilial, hearing the details of the matter made her sigh in sympathy.

Guo Jianhong's face upon hearing her mother's accusations swung from surprise to guilt to remorse. She had been working away from home for many years, and obviously hadn't expected her brothers and sisters-in-law to treat her mother like this.

At this point, both Guo Jianzhong and Guo Jianguo's families were speechless. Ning Wan cleared her throat, about to bring up Wang Liying's legacy-support agreement to Lu Feng. But before she could say anything, the formerly speechless Guo Jianguo opened his mouth.

"Mom, you can't leave the house to Lu Feng." He paused, then raised his voice. "If you want to go the route of a legacy-support agreement, then fine, let's all follow the law. You need to know that even though this house has your name on it, it belongs to both you and Dad, half to both of you. Dad is gone now, but since we were considerate of the fact that you wouldn't have anywhere to stay, we didn't say anything. But strictly speaking, half of the house belongs to Dad. He didn't leave a will to bequeath it only to you, so according to the law, I, Jianzhong, Jianhong, and you would legally inherit his property. If we divide up half the house into four, then each of us has the right to ask for one-eighth of the value of this house!"

Obviously, Guo Jianguo had come prepared. Sounding as though he meant well, he continued, "Now if you want to give the other half of the house to others, that's fine, but it's not up to you to decide how Dad's half should be distributed. I won't disagree with you giving my share of the other half to someone else, but this part should be mine!"

When Guo Jianzhong heard his brother say this, he immediately echoed, "I want my share as well!"

Once the two had played good cop, their wives immediately chimed in with bad cop--

"Mom, even if you have a problem with us, you still have to think of dad's face. Even though you're not marrying this Lu Feng, by leaving the house to someone who isn't a member of the family aren't you just setting yourself up to be gossiped about in the future? Who doesn't leave the house to their own son?"

"If dad had known, he would have been so angry! Don't you think that would have let him down? He certainly wouldn't want the house he had worked so hard for all his life to be given cheaply to an outsider! After all, it's true that it's your joint property, but the money for the house really came from Dad, didn't it?"

The two sons immediately jumped on board with their wives and pressed her, saying, "Mom, if you're going to write a legacy-support agreement with Lu Feng, then we demand that the house be divided immediately. After all, it is legal and reasonable for us to divide up Dad's part of the inheritance. So either sell the house immediately and give us the money that we're owed, or if you won't sell it, then give us one-eighth of the market price."

Ning Wan had no idea that these two sons would force their old mother to divide up the property on the spot. This posed obvious challenges to the old lady. She had the house under her name right now, but if she sold it, where would she live in the future? It wasn't not easy to find a landlord who would rent to a sick, elderly lady living alone. If they died at home, then it would be considered bad luck for the landlord. But if she didn't sell it and wanted instead to sign a legacy-support agreement, her sons would force her to give them the money in cash instead. How could an old lady possibly have so much cash on hand?