Chapter 114

Langshan Village—word had it that Wei Sheng had returned to attend the opening ceremony of some event, and within just a few days, he’d managed to pull together an entire film crew. Jiang Xiaoman was thoroughly impressed!

He’d thought he was already the king of hustle, but Wei Sheng turned out to be the ultimate king of kings?

“Xiaoman, this is our screenwriter. Uh, just call him Teacher Wang. In their circle, they usually go by pen names,” Wei Sheng said, introducing Liang Yi to Jiang Xiaoman.

Hearing Wei Sheng call him “Teacher Wang,” Liang Yi couldn’t help but twitch at the corners of his mouth.

He hadn’t expected Jiang Xiaoman to know about his pseudonym.

“Teacher Wang, I’ve heard so much about you! My dad absolutely loves your work *Daji Reborn*. It’s amazing!”

“Pfft—” Wei Sheng struggled to hold back his laughter from the side.

Liang Yi’s mouth twitched again, and he forced a polite but awkward smile as he shook hands with Jiang Xiaoman.

Liang Yi didn’t like being watched when he was out gathering material, so after Wei Sheng asked Jiang Xiaoman to help find him a local guide in Langshan, he let Liang Yi go off on his own. If it were anyone else, he might’ve worried, but this was Liang Yi—whether in court or out, he was always the one outmaneuvering others, never the one being taken advantage of.

Besides, Wei Sheng had his own matters to attend to.

With Jiang Xiaoman’s help, Wei Sheng contacted the Langshan town government and proposed a joint production of a short drama series that would incorporate themes like poverty alleviation, rural revitalization, and grassroots legal education.

At first, the town officials were wary when they heard “joint production,” thinking they’d be asked to fund it. But once Wei Sheng explained that they didn’t need to invest a single cent and it was just a nominal partnership, they breathed a collective sigh of relief.

“If it’s just a nominal involvement, you’ll need to submit the finalized script to the county propaganda department for review. If it passes, there shouldn’t be any issues.”

After all, this was essentially free publicity for Langshan Town, and they didn’t have to spend a dime. The officials probably hadn’t seen many short dramas before and assumed they were about to shoot a full-on TV series in their town. That was a big deal!

Even though he didn’t follow the entertainment industry, the official knew that in recent years, many places had gone viral overnight after hosting variety shows or film shoots, which had significantly boosted local tourism. If Langshan could catch that wave and develop its tourism industry, it would be a huge win for the local economy.

Less than a month after returning from Langshan, Liang Yi sent Wei Sheng the scripts for the first twelve episodes.

Clearly, Teacher Wang Wu had struck gold on this trip!

Maybe it was because they now shared a secret, but Wei Sheng and Liang Yi had grown noticeably closer. Liang Yi used to rarely eat at the Hu household except during New Year, but this time, while discussing the script with Wei Sheng, he ended up staying for both dinner and a late-night snack!

So much so that Hu Qianqian grew suspicious. She cornered Liang Yi in the courtyard and asked if Wei Sheng had run into some kind of legal trouble and needed to go to court.

Why else would he be holed up with a lawyer for so long?

After all, who hires a lawyer if they’re not going to court?

Under the bright solar-powered streetlight, Liang Yi stared at Hu Qianqian with deep, intense eyes for a long moment—so long it made her nervous—before finally looking away and softly reassuring her, “No lawsuits, don’t worry. Wei Sheng wants to invest in a short drama, and he asked me to help with some of the contracts.”

Hu Qianqian was 46 this year, nine years older than Liang Yi. Their families had lived in the same compound since the days of the old Supply and Marketing Cooperative, all the way to the current neighborhood. When Liang Yi was in elementary school, Hu Qianqian was already in middle school—bright, charming, and full of youthful energy. His mother still teased him about it, saying that back when he was a little boy, a neighbor once asked if he had a crush at school. Liang Yi had pointed to Hu Qianqian playing badminton downstairs and declared with conviction—

“If I’m going to marry someone, it has to be the prettiest. I’m going to marry Sister Qianqian when I grow up!”

Who would take a child’s words seriously?

Especially when Hu Qianqian was so much older than him.

Most teenage boys develop some vague feelings for girls their own age, but despite all the pretty and adorable classmates at school, Liang Yi’s favorite moment of the day was still after school, when he’d rush downstairs to play ball and wait for that familiar figure to appear at the end of the path, slowly walking toward him…

In that moment, he heard the sound of his heart falling.

But before he could muster the courage to confess, a bolt from the blue—Sister Qianqian had a boyfriend!

Word was, the guy was a college student—tall, handsome, and well-spoken. After graduation, he landed a great job at the tobacco company.

Listening to Grandma Hu brag about her future son-in-law’s excellence, the young Liang Yi quietly locked himself in his room.

He knew that even if he went to confess to Sister Qianqian right then, Uncle Hu would never approve of them being together.

What could he offer her at that point?

That man, with a college degree and a secure job in a state-owned enterprise, could offer her so much more.

What Liang Yi never expected was that the seemingly honest and refined Wei Zhiyong would, after marriage, repeatedly drive Hu Qianqian back to her parents’ home in anger.

Back then, the older generation believed in preserving marriages at all costs. Even if Wei Zhiyong gave most of his salary to his family back home, even if he treated his nephew better than his own son, as long as he wasn’t cheating and gave his wife some household money, he was considered a decent husband.

Even Liang Yi’s mother tried to persuade Hu Qianqian not to let such “minor issues” ruin her marriage. In her view, Wei Zhiyong wasn’t spending money on other women—he was supporting his mother and helping his younger brother. A man who was filial and kind to his siblings was surely a good husband, wasn’t he?

Liang Yi wanted to say that was wrong. He wanted to encourage Hu Qianqian to get a divorce. But seeing her holding little Wei Sheng in her arms, so innocent and unaware, Liang Yi knew—she wouldn’t leave that irresponsible man. At least not until Wei Sheng was grown.

Later, Liang Yi got into a top university in the capital, went on to earn a graduate degree, and joined a prestigious law firm. After more than a decade away, he returned, thinking he’d long since moved on from his youthful infatuation. But when he heard that Hu Qianqian was looking for a lawyer to divorce Wei Sheng’s father, his pounding heart and sweaty palms told a different story. Forget? Let go?

Someone like him—who would stop at nothing to achieve his goals—how could he possibly forget the obsession of his youth?

But watching Hu Qianqian thrive after her divorce, dressing in sporty outfits and tying her hair in a high ponytail, looking exactly like the spirited girl from his memories, Liang Yi felt more and more hopeless.

Over the years, he’d helped many women escape unhappy marriages. His experience told him that only women who struggled after divorce would rush to remarry, hoping a new relationship would turn their lives around.

But women who were financially independent and living better post-divorce than they ever did in marriage? They almost never remarried.

If Hu Qianqian had been crying every day after her divorce and her family had been eager to find her a new husband, Liang Yi would’ve had every confidence in showing Grandpa and Grandma Hu that he was the best—most suitable—choice for her.

After the divorce, Hu Qianqian opened her own shop and started making money. She had both wealth and free time, no in-laws to serve, and no frustrating husband to deal with. Her life was smooth and comfortable—so much so that even Grandpa and Grandma Hu never pressured her to remarry. Hu Qianqian would have to be out of her mind to go chasing after a second marriage and bring trouble upon herself.

Think about it—even if Hu Qianqian looked young, she was still over forty. At that age, her dating pool mostly consisted of retired old men or divorced single guys around her age.

But people who get divorced and remarry in middle age usually have kids of their own. If both sides have children who are still unmarried, that would mean Hu Qianqian wouldn’t just be helping Wei Sheng buy a house and get married—she might even have to take care of his kids too… No wonder Hu Qianqian never mentioned remarriage again after the divorce.

To Liang Yi, it felt like getting a mystery gift box on Christmas—he opened it full of hope, only to find it completely empty.

Morally, he knew he should respect and wish the best for the current Hu Qianqian. After all, she was living a far happier and more relaxed life than most women her age, having escaped a hopeless marriage.

But the greedy little devil inside him kept whispering: wouldn’t it be perfect if Hu Qianqian had ended up miserable and down on her luck after the divorce? Then she’d cling to him like a drowning person grabbing a life raft, and he could effortlessly fulfill the dream he’d had since he was young…

Liang Yi didn’t even know how he made it out of the Hu household.

When he got home, he took a hot shower and drank some milk, but still couldn’t fall asleep.

Fuming with frustration, Lawyer Liang opened his laptop and once again killed off the male lead in his legal drama series.

Well, in web novelist Wang Wu’s stories, every man who betrays his marriage meets a terrible end—best case, prison; worst case, death.

That’s exactly why his female readers adore him, and why male readers constantly report him. *Ahem.*

A few days later, good news came from Langshan Town: their script had passed the propaganda department’s review!

What made Wei Sheng break out in cold sweat was that this time, Liang Yi didn’t continue his usual “Mythical Retellings” style. Instead, the new short drama script felt more like a rural version of *The Temptation to Go Home*.

The story was still based on Jiang Cancan’s family, but Liang Yi gave Cancan’s birth mother a massive golden cheat code—he had a top-tier divorce lawyer who fell off a cliff while rock climbing transmigrate into her pregnant body.

Wei Sheng: “!!!” That setup? Wild!

At the time, Cancan’s mother was about to give birth. Staring at the dilapidated shack in the middle of nowhere, the elite lawyer Tang Peiru nearly fainted. Without hesitation, she called one of her wealthy female clients and asked her to send a helicopter to pick her up.

Good thing she had money and connections—any later, and, according to the real-life timeline, Cancan’s mother would’ve died in childbirth.

Rebirth, the revenge of a scorned wife, helicopters blazing in, a CEO making a dramatic entrance… Teacher Wang Wu clearly understood the essence of today’s over-the-top short dramas—he packed in every trending element.

Cancan’s biological father dared to bully his wife only because she was an uneducated rural woman who hadn’t even finished elementary school. What he didn’t know was that the woman who just gave birth to their fourth daughter now had a whole new, no-nonsense soul inside her.

As a legendary divorce lawyer, would Tang Peiru really let some legal illiterate push her around?

Soon enough, Cancan’s father got a taste of “the righteous path.”

Tang Peiru knew full well that going through the courts to demand child support from a deadbeat like him was pointless—and she didn’t care for that little bit of money anyway. Luckily, she had plenty of rich lady friends (a standard perk for divorce lawyers).

So, she set a trap that caught Cancan’s shameless father like a bug in a jar.

First, she followed proper procedure and had a lawyer from her firm file for divorce on behalf of her new body, demanding alimony.

Of course, a scoundrel like him wasn’t going to comply with a court ruling.

So, just when Cancan’s father thought he’d escaped and was in the clear, he got a text about a “high-paying security guard job” that lured him straight into Tang Peiru’s trap.

Calling it a trap might be a stretch—it was actually a jade processing factory invested in by one of her rich clients. The place was remote and filled with valuable materials, so security was extremely tight.

Cancan’s father thought he’d landed a dream job. Out in the sticks like this, even if the court wanted to enforce a judgment, they wouldn’t be able to find him!

He never expected that the “high-paying job” was a scam targeted specifically at him. The moment he arrived, they claimed he didn’t meet the qualifications to be a security guard and reassigned him to the dirtiest, most exhausting job on site.

The factory was surrounded by desolate wilderness, with the Gobi Desert just beyond. At night, you could even hear wolves howling. Security guards patrolled constantly—there was no way to escape.

When payday finally came at the end of the month, everyone else got their wages—except for Cancan’s father. When he asked the finance department, they told him, “Sorry, your salary will be transferred directly to your wife’s account from now on, as child support for your three kids and care for your disabled elderly mother.”

So, with four kids and an elderly mother to support, shouldn’t you be working overtime?

And just like that, Jiang Cancan’s deadbeat, selfish father was completely trapped at the jade factory. Every cent he earned from backbreaking labor went straight to support payments—he didn’t get to keep a dime.

There was no escape. He even tried slacking off, but the factory’s security wasn’t there for show. After being dragged out to the Gobi Desert for a “short trip,” the pale-faced man never dared to slack again…

“Pfft~” That ending hit all the sweet spots for the audience. Wei Sheng, for one, was thoroughly satisfied.

Looking back on it, in just one episode, they covered legal responsibilities like child support for minors, elderly care for parents who’ve lost the ability to work, and issues like job scams, shady recruiters, and illegal labor—fun and educational all at once.

The first three are legal challenges often faced by rural women and children left behind, while the latter are scams that many migrant workers fall victim to.

In the script, Liang Yi used witty and humorous storytelling to show people how to fight back against these problems. But clearly, without legal knowledge, many people wouldn’t even recognize the opportunity staring them in the face.

Was this a subtle nudge for ordinary folks to learn and understand the law?

He couldn’t speak for others, but after reading this, Wei Sheng couldn’t help but order a copy of the *Civil Code*…

(End of chapter)