Chapter 472: Their Stance

The sky had a beautiful blue hue after the snow.

When Xiang Wan woke up in the morning and saw Fang Yuanyuan’s red, puffy eyes, she knew that this girl must have been crying the night before. However, Fang Yuanyuan’s expression now looked relaxed. Not only did she clean up the house, but the windows were also sparkling bright. She woke up very early to help tidy up the place, she even prepared breakfast for them. There was even a fresh smell in the house…

After that, she ate two large steamed meat buns, sweetcorn, and two bowls of porridge…

Such an appetite.

That should be what happiness looks like to a foodie, perhaps.

Her heart was empty, so she filled her stomach.

Although her man was not with her, she still had good food to look forward to.

Xiang Wan patted Fang Yuanyuan’s shoulder in relief. “We have something on today, so I can’t join you today…”

Fang Yuanyuan had food in her mouth when Xiang Wan said that. She then stared at Xiang Wan.

“You’re abandoning me again, so you can have some time to yourselves?”

“Hey, we have matters to attend to.”

She had promised Bai Muchuan two days ago that they would visit Tu Liang’s family.

When one went visiting prior to the Lunar New Year, one must bring gifts along. Bai Muchuan got Xiang Wan to help prepare some festive goods and left them in the trunk, then they set off to Tu Liang’s house.

Tu Liang’s house was rather far away. They took nearly an hour to arrive there. That stretch of the residential area looked old with only a few small buildings. The environment of the neighborhood did not seem to be good. The accumulated snow last night started piling up at the sides of the road where a few elderly people were cleaning it up. The road to enter the neighborhood was a little too narrow. Since Bai Muchuan drove an SUV there, his vehicle would get scratches if he insisted on driving it in.

“Let’s stop outside and walk instead.”

“Sure.”

Both of them had the same thought in mind.

Bai Muchuan took the gifts from the trunk, then Xiang Wan took his arm as they walked to the neighborhood. While walking, both of them looked around the environment of the neighborhood and remained quiet.

One could go in and out of the neighborhood freely. The security guard was a middle-aged man. He just looked at them but did not ask questions. He didn’t ask them to register their names either, so both of them just went straight inside.

This neighborhood only had three buildings, so it was easy for them to search. When both of them arrived at the designated block, they saw Shen Wenjing arching her back while she locked a bicycle. Her seven-year-old daughter, Tu Siya, was wearing a knitted winter hat while rubbing her hands and stamping her feet because of the cold weather.

“Mommy, it’s so cold… Let’s get back home quickly.”

“It will be done soon! The wind is freezing here. You can go upstairs to wait for me…”

“Nope, I want to be with mommy… Laolao ¹ said that I shouldn’t leave mom’s line of sight…”

“You little silly thing!” Shen Wenjing said to her daughter while she brushed some locks of her hair back then she took the bags from the bicycle. When she held her daughter’s small hand, she caught a glimpse of Bai Muchuan and Xiang Wan, who were walking towards them.

Although Tu Liang just died not too long ago, he had been gradually forgotten in many people’s lives…

“Sis-in-law, we’re here to see you…” Xiang Wan walked over to her with a smile and patted Tu Siya’s head gently. “You seem to be taller!”

“Hello Aunty, hello Uncle!” The little girl was very well-mannered.

“Captain Bai, you both… are here? There’s no need to be so polite with me. I know that both of you are busy with work too.” Shen Wenjing smiled at them.

She seemed to be even more weary-looking than at Tu Liang’s memorial service. She also lost quite a bit of weight. Her face seemed shallow; her eyebags looked more clear than ever which suggested that she had not been sleeping well. The initial busy preparations and disbelief numbed the pain of loss she felt then. Now, all her yearning for him replaced those. She was currently in the most painful stage of losing a loved one.

However, for little Tu Siya, she didn’t seem to detect any changes in their life.

When Tu Liang was alive, he was always not at home.

Tu Siya had already accustomed herself to being with her mom. Perhaps the only difference was that she noticed that her mom cried a lot. When her mom missed her dad, she could no longer talk to him via a video call like what she used to do in the past…

“We are here to visit you.” Bai Muchuan couldn’t shake hands with her since he was holding the bags of gifts. “All these are an appreciation of all of us…”

It was not appropriate to reject their goodwill.

Shen Wenjing smiled. “Come up and have a seat.”

“Sure!”

Since they were already there, they couldn’t just leave like that.

They followed Shen Wenjing from the narrow stairways to the fourth floor. She was pulling out the keys to unlock the door when the door suddenly swung open from within.

“Oh… you’re back? This… the Captain is here too?” The one who opened the door was Tu Liang’s mother. She had met Bai Muchuan at Tu Liang’s memorial service, but she could not remember his full name and just called him ‘Captain’.

Bai Muchuan just smiled and carried the bags of gifts into the house.

“Aunty, I represent all the brothers at the team to come to visit you and sis-in-law…”

“Thank you so much! All of you are really nice! Wow so heavy, there’s so much. It’s really… I feel so ashamed already.” Tu Liang’s mom was very polite and friendly to them. She asked them to take a seat and quickly washed some fruits and made some tea.

Tu Liang’s wife was a very capable woman.

The house was not big, but it was clean and well-maintained.

Moreover, her work was also rather demanding, and she still had to take care of her daughter.

Life must have been… tough.

True enough, after chatting for a few sentences, Tu Liang’s mom started to prattle.

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“Now that my son’s gone, it’s hard on my daughter-in-law. She has to be a widow so early in her life…”

“Mom!” Shen Wenjing didn’t look good. She didn’t want her mother-in-law to talk about all these. “What are you talking about? Don’t make a laughingstock of ourselves.”

“What’s there to laugh about? Captain Bai’s one of us…” Tu Liang’s mom gave her a displeased glance. When she turned to Captain Bai, she immediately showed a polite smile and a sigh.

“My daughter-in-law has a good temper and has good looks. For the past few days, relatives and friends have been showing up intending to introduce new people to her in a rush. I’m an open-minded person and would not object to free love. My son’s already gone and my daughter-in-law wanted to remarry. I’m an old woman. I couldn’t and shouldn’t stop her…”

As she said this, the atmosphere had changed to a strange one.

Shen Wenjing seemed upset.

Xiang Wan could see and feel her pain and suffering…

However, Tu Liang’s mom was facing Bai Muchuan, she did not look at Shen Wenjing.

The next moment, her expression started to look grim.

“But, Captain, we can’t see with our naked eyes what people are up to nowadays… Who knows if there’s actually someone who’s eyeing my son’s compensation money?”

Bai Muchuan had applied for the highest amount of compensation money for Tu Liang’s family.

To the average person, that was indeed not a small sum of money.

However, when Tu Liang’s mom put it in this manner, somehow it made them feel heavy-hearted.

After all… that was a life, not money.

“Aye!” Tu Liang’s mom puffed a loud sigh. “So since Captain is here, please tell me. If Wenjing were to remarry, the money that my son exchanged his life for, and my granddaughter… should they belong to the Tu Family, or should I just let her bring everything to her new family?”

“…”

Xiang Wan was dumbstruck for a moment.

She was sitting opposite Shen Wenjing, who was like a statue now, unmoving and mute.

Tu Siya might be young, but she understood what her grandma had just said.

“I belong to mommy. I’m mommy’s daughter. Laolao has told me before that I have to follow mommy…”

“Don’t talk about your Laolao!” Tu Liang’s mom snorted unhappily. “My son’s just gone for days, but look at what they are doing? They are finding you a new step dad… Isn’t this atrocious?…”

“…”

The reality was often crueler than expected.

They were there to wish them a Happy Lunar New Year. It was unexpected that they would be welcomed by how things had turned out.

Shen Wenjing patted her daughter’s shoulder.

“Be good and go back to your room, okay?”

“Orh.”

The little girl had sensed the strange atmosphere.

She went into her room obediently.

Only then did Shen Wenjing looked at Tu Liang’s mom calmly.

“Mom, please be rest assured that I will never remarry.”

Before Bai Muchuan and Xiang Wan’s presence, she really didn’t want to wash the dirty linen in public. However, her mother-in-law couldn’t stop doing that, and she didn’t have a chance to chime in at all. Now that her daughter went back to her room, she quickly stopped her mother-in-law and made her stance clear once again.

Of course, Tu Liang’s mom would never believe her.

“I’m not a muddle-headed person. I’ve said already that it is only normal for you to remarry. I’m not that old-fashioned to make you stay here all your life… But you have to consider the impact of that decision. My son’s a hero, and you are the hero’s wife. The papers, television shows, all of them have commended him… Who in our neighborhood didn’t know that? You’re carrying the title as the wife of a hero. It doesn’t look good on you if things carry on like this!”

“…”

Shen Wenjing kept quiet.

After a moment, she looked at Bai Muchuan and Xiang Wan.

“I need to go downstairs to get something, please excuse me…”

She couldn’t stand it.

She was an intellectual after all.

She didn’t know what to say when she was sandwiched between her mother-in-law and the visitors.

Xiang Wan was very understanding. She got up too. “We also have something on and got to go now. Let’s go down together.”

When she said so, she squeezed Bai Muchuan’s hand, said their goodbyes to Tu Liang’s mom, and asked her to take care of her health. After that, they walked down the stairs together with Shen Wenjing.

“As the saying goes, there’s always a lot of scandals and dramas in front of a widow’s house.” Shen Wenjing smiled a little bitterly. “I feel apologetic to let you see all these.”

“Sis-in-law…” Bai Muchuan didn’t know what to say.

He was a man and didn’t know how to console her. He could only clench his hands into a fist.

Tu Liang was one of his brothers, yet he could not do more for him.

Xiang Wan took Shen Wenjing’s arm lightly. “Sis-in-law, it must be hard on you.”

“I’m actually fine. It’s only normal for my mom-in-law to think this way. As for my side of relatives… they are concerned about my latter half of life. They all have their concerns and stance on this matter.”