Chapter 198

Yuanxi Biotech, under Wei Sheng’s name, operated in the highly sensitive pharmaceutical industry, making its legal department especially critical. When the department was first established, it was Liang Yi who personally stepped in to help with recruitment and organization.

Thankfully, Wei Sheng had always placed great importance on the legal team. As Yuanxi Biotech rose to prominence, it inevitably stepped on the toes of several major conglomerates. In the early days, the company was heavily slandered, hit with numerous reports and complaints. The legal department was swamped.

It was during this chaotic period that Jiang Manman joined the company. Even though she only had one day off per week, she still made time whenever she could to visit her son.

Her ex-mother-in-law had initially been displeased, but Jiang Manman shut her down with a single sentence: “If you want your grandson to end up like your son, be my guest…”

Jiang Manman had no prejudice against same-sex love. In fact, back in school, she had been quite fond of reading pure romance stories.

But love is not a crime—deceiving someone into marriage is a moral issue.

What’s more, her ex-husband hadn’t just tricked her into marriage, he’d even had a child with her. Wasn’t that the ultimate betrayal of their so-called love?

She didn’t know what her ex-husband’s “boyfriend” thought about it, but if it were her, even a single act of betrayal would be unforgivable.

She couldn’t control how other people raised their sons, but if her own son ever dared to deceive someone into marriage, she’d break his damn legs!

Let’s be honest here—when your family is worth over ten billion, do you really need to fake a marriage?

There are so many women these days who don’t want to get married. If your family really needs a daughter-in-law to cover up your son’s orientation and keep the family line going, why not just privately find a woman willing to cooperate?

That way, those women wouldn’t have to worry about being pressured into marriage, and they’d get to have a child of their own. If the in-laws were willing to give, say, 100,000 to 200,000 yuan in monthly allowance, do you think anyone would even need convincing? Plenty of women would be lining up to play the role of a loving, high-society couple in name only.

Seriously, no need to serve in-laws, no fear of losing income due to childbirth, a house full of nannies to help, and a hefty monthly allowance—who wouldn’t be tempted?

If men had the biological equipment to give birth, half of them would probably be tempted too.

Perhaps because her ex-mother-in-law saw that Jiang Manman had strong values and could be a positive influence on her grandson, she eventually allowed Jiang Manman to occasionally bring the child to visit Yuan Stream Township.

Though she still had to bring a bodyguard and a nanny handpicked by the ex-mother-in-law, when Jiang Manman saw her son happily collecting eggs and digging up wild vegetables with the mountain kids, she thought to herself—she had to work harder. She wanted to become a top-tier lawyer like Lawyer Liang.

Then, just like Lawyer Liang protected Wei Sheng, she would protect her son.

“Crying my eyes out. Who said Jiang Manman doesn’t love her son?”

“Exactly. ‘When parents love their children, they plan far ahead.’ It’s because she loves him so much that she wants to give him the very best.”

“I suddenly feel like I was wrong all along. I’ve been scraping by on the 1,000 yuan my husband gives me each month, raising my son on a shoestring budget. No money for toys, no money to show him the world, not even enough for extracurricular classes. Is that kind of impoverished love and companionship really what my child needs?”

The show’s producers had originally thought Jiang Manman would suffer a backlash for not taking custody of her son after the divorce. But to their surprise, she made a stunning comeback and became a role model admired by countless married women.

She came from a good family, had an excellent education, but none of the spoiled temper of a rich girl. She followed the expected path: working, getting married. If it hadn’t been for marrying the wrong person, Jiang Manman’s life would’ve been the textbook example of a happy woman.

Because of that, countless middle-aged women felt deeply for her. Even though she had to leave her son after the divorce, these older women couldn’t bring themselves to blame her. They just wiped away tears and sighed at how hard her life had been, then turned around and cursed that scumbag who tricked her into marriage.

More importantly, Jiang Manman’s story gave all the women trapped in unhappy marriages a valuable lesson: divorce isn’t something to be afraid of. As long as both parties handle it properly, it doesn’t necessarily cause lasting harm to the child. In fact, it might even free the child from a suffocating home environment and help them grow into a stronger, healthier person.

Jiang Manman was working hard to make that happen. And Shao Min, who was over ten years older than her, was just beginning to take that first step.

Shao Min didn’t sign up for Housewives Leaving Home herself. It was her daughter who signed her up.

Shao Min’s husband was an extremely selfish man. How selfish? From the very first day of their marriage, he set a monthly budget for household expenses. Each month, Shao Min had to contribute 1,000 yuan from her salary, and he would match it with another 1,000. That 2,000 yuan was their monthly household budget. The rest of their income? They each spent their own.

Sounds fair, right? At first, Shao Min felt it was a bit cold and transactional, but since her husband didn’t have any bad habits and she wasn’t a big spender, she let it go.

But after she got pregnant and gave birth to a daughter, her husband still only gave 1,000 yuan a month. When she asked for more—because during her six-month maternity leave she was only receiving a basic salary of less than 3,000 yuan and couldn’t cover the baby’s expenses—he shamelessly replied:

“You’re the one who wanted to have a kid, not me. You gave birth to her, so you raise her. Why are you asking me for money?”

Shao Min once tried to threaten him with divorce, but he said fine, they could divorce. He didn’t want the child anyway. She could take the daughter and get lost. Oh, and she’d have to return the 68,000 yuan bride price he had paid to her family when they got married.

He figured he already had a child, so even if he didn’t raise her now, when he got old and needed support, his daughter would still have to take care of him. If she dared not to, he’d sue her for neglect.

Shao Min was so furious she cried, but she didn’t have a home of her own. If she really divorced and took the child with her, they’d be kicked out and left with nowhere to go. Her daughter would suffer with her.

She wasn’t as lucky as Jiang Manman. She didn’t have parents who would protect and love her unconditionally. When her mother heard she wanted a divorce, she came over and scolded her, saying, “Your husband gives you money, doesn’t beat you, and doesn’t cheat. What more do you want?”

So, for the sake of giving her child a stable home, Shao Min gritted her teeth and endured.

She endured for eighteen years.

What she didn’t expect was that the first thing her daughter did after getting into college was sign her up for Housewives Leaving Home.

“Mom, I’m grown up now. From now on, let me protect you.”

In that moment, Shao Min burst into tears.

She knew then that the bitter half of her life had finally come to an end.

After the show, the first thing she did when she got home was announce her decision to divorce.

This time, her mother still sided with the son-in-law and scolded her harshly. But Shao Min wasn’t afraid anymore.

Her daughter was grown. She had nothing left to fear.

What she didn’t expect was that now, her husband was the one who got scared.

He was getting old. He was afraid of getting sick and having no one to care for him, of lying in a hospital bed with no one to feed him or change his clothes.

The ridiculous part was, his idea of “changing for the better” and “treating her well” was increasing the household allowance from 1,000 yuan to 1,500 yuan.

“Get lost! You think I need your damn 1,500? I could go work as a nanny for some elderly person and earn six or seven thousand a month. You think I care about your measly allowance?”

The man refused to divorce her, clinging to his free live-in caregiver. But what he didn’t realize was that karma always comes around.

He had used their child as leverage to enslave Shao Min as a free maid for eighteen years. Now, Shao Min had found his weak spot.

The man was notoriously stingy and terrified of spending money. Shao Min handed over all her savings to her daughter, then began borrowing money everywhere under his name. When she couldn’t borrow, she started selling off everything in the house—appliances, furniture, anything she could sell.

In less than a month, the man panicked.

He even tried to hit Shao Min. But to his surprise, she immediately called the police. At first, the officers treated it as a typical domestic dispute. Couples fighting—especially those from Shao Min’s generation—was nothing new. They’d seen worse. Most didn’t even end in divorce.

But Shao Min refused mediation. She packed her things and camped out in front of the police station.

Don’t ask why. She had a simple answer: “My personal safety is at risk. If you don’t detain him, I’m afraid he’ll kill me when I go home.”

Of course, she knew he wouldn’t actually kill her. That man cherished his life too much. He was hoarding every penny so he could live comfortably in old age. No way he’d risk dying before collecting his pension.

Sure enough, with Shao Min making such a scene, the pressure quickly shifted to the police station. No one really knew what the higher-ups were thinking—maybe they figured women would communicate better with each other—so they actually assigned a female officer to mediate the situation.

Of course a woman would side with another woman! And the officer didn’t even break any rules. After realizing how prideful the husband was, she decided to bring in a reporter from the local TV station to help with the mediation. It would also make for a good news story, one that could be aired on the local channel to let the public weigh in.

The husband had already been upset about Shao Min joining that “Housewives Leaving Home” program. Now, seeing her bring the local TV crew into their house, his face turned pale with rage. He kicked the reporters out like shooing away ducks, then turned around and signed the divorce papers on the spot.

“Hmph! You’re just an old woman about to retire, and you don’t even own a house. I’d like to see where you end up after divorcing me. Don’t tell me you’ll really go be someone’s nanny,” he spat venomously.

But to his surprise, after the divorce, Shao Min didn’t become a live-in nanny. Instead, she got a job at a pharmaceutical factory.

“So that’s all she’s capable of? Working in a factory at her age, screwing bolts?” the man sneered as he turned on the TV. He was eager to see just how miserable that crazy woman’s life had become after leaving him.

Half an hour later.

He cursed and switched off the TV.

Impossible! Absolutely impossible!

The TV station must’ve faked it just to make the show look good!

There’s no way a factory in this country could be that comfortable!

But with Wei Sheng, a big boss known for his generosity, backing it, the Yuanxi Biotech pharmaceutical factory might not be the best in the country, but it certainly offered a very comfortable life.

Shao Min used to work at a mask factory. It had done well a few years ago, but recently things had gone downhill. They only had one day off a week, and if she worked full shifts, she earned about 4,000 yuan a month. After joining Yuanxi Biotech, though, the factory was so swamped with orders that she often had to work overtime. With her base salary and overtime pay, she earned over 8,900 yuan in her first month.

Because of the industry’s special requirements, the factory operated under closed management. Workers lived and ate on-site. The dorms were four-person rooms, each with a private bathroom and shower—comparable to a college dorm—and accommodation was free. They only had to split the utility bills with their roommates.

Meals were also provided free of charge in the factory cafeteria, and this was where the audience really raised their eyebrows.

It’s just a pharmaceutical factory—does the food really have to be that good?

So how over-the-top was the food that Wei Sheng arranged?

He hired two chefs from the countryside who had experience cooking for large rural banquets. Though the meals were a simplified version of those feasts, the taste and ingredients were leagues ahead of your average factory cafeteria.

Back when Shao Min had taken her daughter to college, she’d eaten at the school cafeteria once. She’d been pretty satisfied at the time, thinking her daughter wouldn’t go hungry while studying.

But now, after getting used to the meals at her own factory, Shao Min suddenly felt a twinge of sympathy for her daughter. She herself would never have the chance to go to college, but even her college-going daughter couldn’t eat as well as she did at the factory.

So just how good was the food at Yuanxi Biotech?

Every morning, there were three breakfast sets to choose from. One was the classic soy milk and fried dough sticks. Another was a local favorite: chicken broth rice noodles topped with stir-fried pickled bamboo shoots or pickled long beans with minced pork. The third option was for those with sensitive stomachs: millet porridge with steamed buns and a boiled egg. You could rotate through them daily without getting bored.

Lunch and dinner were even better, featuring dishes you’d normally see at rural banquets. The meat dishes rotated between chicken, duck, fish, and pork—things like “Immortal Chicken,” braised chicken with potatoes, duck with dried bamboo shoots, tofu braised with fish chunks, and steamed pork with rice flour. There were even more vegetable options. Local families grew their own produce, and seasonal wild greens were cheap too, so the cafeteria often served a variety of mountain vegetables. Sometimes, when there were leftovers, they’d chop them up, mix in some meat, and make giant wild veggie buns for the night-shift workers.

Her ex-husband had thought that after divorcing him and becoming an “old factory girl,” Shao Min would be eating poorly, sleeping worse, and aging rapidly. But to his shock, she actually gained weight within a month of starting the job.

After eighteen years of a soul-crushing marriage that had worn her down to skin and bones, Shao Min now had fuller cheeks, a clear gaze, and a gentle, graceful smile that probably blinded more than a few single men.

Two months later, her daughter came to visit during her school break. The moment she saw her mother, she didn’t even recognize her.

“Mom, you’ve gotten prettier!”

What she really wanted to say was, “Mom, did you secretly get plastic surgery?” But she was afraid her mom would smack her the moment they met, so she kept it to herself.

(End of Chapter)