Chapter 186

When Wei Sheng said he wanted the moms to join the hustle too, he wasn’t just joking.

Thanks to his usual knack for attracting controversy, ever since Housewives Leaving Home became a hit, nearly every episode has trended on social media—for all the wrong reasons.

Especially after Huihui, one of the female guests, divorced her husband. That incident practically became Exhibit A for those accusing the show of “destroying ordinary families.” The backlash nearly got the program reported and taken off the air.

Fortunately, Huihui’s divorce happened after filming had wrapped, and none of it appeared in the final cut. If her ex-husband hadn’t gone online to “expose” them, no one would’ve even known.

Originally, the divorce wouldn’t have happened so soon. Huihui was a smart and driven woman. She knew that without any financial foundation, suddenly filing for divorce could mean the court wouldn’t grant her custody. Even if she did win custody, how would she provide a better life for her child?

But as if fate were on her side, the mosquito-repellent ointment she discovered during the show actually got picked up for development by the local government!

Even more surprising, Wei Sheng, knowing she had experience in e-commerce and was in urgent need of a job, decided to appoint her as the Deputy Director of Marketing. She would assist the department head in promoting the new product.

Because the marketing team had a heavy workload in the early stages, Wei Sheng set their salaries relatively high. Huihui’s base salary was 15,000 yuan per month, plus monthly performance bonuses and a year-end bonus. And knowing Wei Sheng’s generous nature with his staff, if the company did well, that year-end bonus would be no small sum.

All in all, even without the bonus, Huihui’s annual income was guaranteed to hit at least 180,000 yuan—twice what her husband made in a year!

With a stable and substantial income, Huihui finally found the courage to get divorced.

She no longer wanted to live with that family of hypocrites. Just seeing them made her lose her appetite.

There are some people in this world who, while not technically criminals, are so repulsive in their behavior that you can’t help but wish you could slap them into next week.

Huihui still remembered how, before giving birth to her eldest daughter, her mother-in-law had sworn up and down that she’d take care of the baby so Huihui could return to work without worry.

But on the very first day after the baby was born, her mother-in-law claimed she’d hurt her back making soup and disappeared. She didn’t show up again until Huihui was discharged from the hospital.

Oh, wait—she did show up two days before the baby’s one-month celebration¹, full of enthusiasm and bearing a festive outfit for the child. Huihui only sneered. If she hadn’t come, how would she take the baby back to host the full-month banquet? And without that banquet, how would she collect back all the money she’d handed out over the years?

Sure enough, once the banquet ended and the gift money was safely in her pocket, the mother-in-law suddenly fell “ill from exhaustion” and vanished again.

In truth, Huihui had already realized during her hospital stay that her mother-in-law would never help raise the child. What she hadn’t expected was that her husband would also completely ignore both her and their daughter.

What made Huihui cry from sheer frustration was hearing her mother-in-law bragging around town about how devoted her son was—how he gave his wife 3,000 yuan a month for living expenses. But in reality, that money barely covered formula and diapers. Babies are expensive, especially in the first year when they grow so fast you need to buy new clothes and shoes practically every month.

Eventually, when she ran out of money, Huihui had to swallow her pride and ask around in the neighborhood group chat if anyone had old baby clothes they didn’t need.

And that 3,000 yuan? It wasn’t just for the baby. It also had to cover utilities, gas, internet, property fees, groceries, and daily meals. After burning through all her pre-marriage savings, Huihui was completely disillusioned. She decided that once her daughter started school, she’d go back to work.

The final straw came when her daughter was about to start kindergarten. Her husband and mother-in-law had the audacity to try and sweet-talk her into having another child—a boy this time, to “carry on the family line.”

Huihui was livid. What exactly did this family have that was worth inheriting? That 3,000 yuan a month in living expenses?

After signing her employment contract with the company, Huihui didn’t hesitate. She went straight to court and filed for divorce.

Her ex-husband never saw it coming. That she’d actually go through with it—and go straight to court, no less—was a huge blow to his pride. Furious and humiliated, he took to the internet and launched a scathing post attacking Housewives Leaving Home as a show that “encourages women to get divorced.”

To be fair, the guy was a decent actor. He played the innocent victim to perfection. According to his version, he was a hardworking man supporting his family, earning just over 5,000 yuan a month, most of which he gave to his wife and child, keeping only a small amount for himself. As for not helping with the baby, well, he was always working overtime, and by the time he got home, the child was already asleep.

Cue the internet’s self-righteous brigade and moral crusaders: “How dare she? The man is out there working hard to support the family, and she doesn’t even appreciate it? She doesn’t work, asks him for money every month, and still complains it’s not enough? If she’s so capable, why doesn’t she go earn money herself?”

“Oh yes, yes, dear saints of the internet, you’re absolutely right,” Huihui replied sarcastically. “That’s why I’ve decided to let this poor man go. That 3,000 yuan a month? Let him give it to a truly virtuous woman. I’m clearly not worthy. So I’m setting him free. See how kind I am?”

“And you know what? You’re right. Women shouldn’t quit their jobs and rely on men for money. That’s just too much pressure on the poor guys. So I’ve decided, from now on, I won’t add to his burden. I’ll take my child and leave. He can save that 3,000 yuan a month, and I’ll go out and earn my own living. Isn’t that the perfect solution?”

Huihui personally clapped back at the online saints, leaving them speechless.

Wait a minute! That’s not what they meant! What they meant was that Huihui should stay with her husband, maybe find a job to help out, and stop asking him for money. That way, they wouldn’t have to divorce, and their daughter wouldn’t grow up in a single-parent household. Isn’t that a win-win? Why couldn’t this woman understand plain language?

“Huihui-jie understands just fine,” Wei Sheng muttered to his mom. “It’s just that some people aren’t speaking human language in the first place.”

Hu Qianqian could deeply relate to Huihui’s experience. She had lived through something similar herself. The only difference was, she hadn’t been lucky enough to meet someone like Wei Sheng when she needed a job the most.

Huihui’s divorce case was tough. Legally, she didn’t meet the standard criteria for divorce. Her husband hadn’t cheated, hadn’t been abusive, hadn’t refused to support the child or the household. They were still living together, so she couldn’t claim “irreconcilable differences” either.

But could something like this stump Wei Sheng? Not when he had the legendary Lawyer Liang Yi in his corner.

No exaggeration—if a dog from their neighborhood so much as peed on their garden wall, Lawyer Liang would slap it with a lawsuit. So Huihui’s husband? He didn’t stand a chance.

Through certain channels, Liang Yi uncovered some shady income streams tied to Huihui’s husband.

Turns out, even before the marriage, the man had used his job to help his mother open an online store on a certain platform, doing cross-border e-commerce. Because the income was off the books, he was extremely cautious. Even with his own wife, he insisted he only earned 5,000 yuan a month. Naturally, he never mentioned any bonuses or year-end payouts.

Back then, Huihui had been too naïve. She’d let it slip before marriage that she had over 100,000 yuan in savings. Her husband told his mother, who immediately urged him to reduce the household allowance and push Huihui to spend her own money on family expenses.

A woman with no job and no money—where could she possibly go? She’d be stuck serving their family for life.

The mother and son even had a plan: if Huihui refused to have another child, they’d cut off her and the daughter’s living expenses, forcing her to get a job. Once she experienced the hardships of working life, she’d realize how easy she had it at home. By then, she’d be begging to have not just one more kid, but three.

But they never expected that all their scheming would backfire. Huihui signed up for Wei Sheng’s show and, by sheer luck, landed a high-paying job.

With financial independence, she stood tall—and dared to take them to court.

Just as her husband was about to post another sob story online, he suddenly received an anonymous email in his inbox.

When he opened the email, a chill surged up from the soles of his feet straight to his brain, freezing him in place.

The email laid everything out in black and white: the supply channels for the cross-border online store he had registered under his mother’s name, the store’s annual revenue, and more. If this evidence ever reached his company, he’d be finished.

That very night, Huihui’s husband received a WeChat message from his wife: “Got the email? Ready to sit down and talk about the divorce now?”

Just over a month later, the two finalized their divorce through mutual agreement.

With damning evidence in hand—enough to land the man in prison—Huihui not only secured full custody of their child, but also won a lump sum of 360,000 yuan in child support, covering all expenses until the child turned eighteen.

Originally, the man and his mother had tried to play games, insisting on monthly payments. But Huihui wanted nothing more to do with them. That’s why she demanded the entire amount upfront—there was no way she’d agree to anything else.

With his back against the wall, the man didn’t dare provoke Huihui. If she decided to go nuclear and send that incriminating evidence to his company, he’d be behind bars in no time. And she’d still get her divorce either way…

Over the years, the man had made a few million through cross-border e-commerce. He wasn’t exactly rolling in riches, but he was doing well enough. With that kind of money, finding another wife wouldn’t be hard. Sure, remarriage would mean shelling out another bride price, but compared to prison? Divorce was the easy way out.

When she finally received the divorce certificate, Huihui let out a long breath of relief.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to see the man rot in jail, and it certainly wasn’t out of kindness. But if he ended up with a criminal record, it could affect their daughter’s future. With that in mind, Huihui swallowed her anger and chalked up the past few years as one long nightmare.

Still, waking up from that nightmare wasn’t without its rewards.

Before marriage, Huihui had worked in the fashion industry. In recent years, it had become a cutthroat field, with fierce competition and widespread layoffs. Even if she hadn’t gotten married and had stayed in the industry, there was no guarantee she’d still have a job.

But in a desperate bid to escape her suffocating marriage, she had impulsively signed up for a reality show. To her surprise, that decision landed her in the good graces of a new boss.

Most importantly, whether or not Boss Wei really was, as the rumors claimed, the reincarnation of the God of Wealth, their newly launched mosquito-repellent and anti-itch ointment had hit the market at the perfect time. A sudden outbreak of malaria in a certain country had sent demand for mosquito repellents skyrocketing.

Wei Sheng had originally planned to feature the ointment as a soft ad placement in the next episode of Housewives Leaving Home, hoping to ride the wave of the show’s popularity. But before that could even happen, fate handed them an unexpected windfall.

A massive pie fell straight into their laps.

Nine Streams County, known for its traditional Chinese medicinal herbs, included their ointment in the aid packages sent to the malaria-stricken regions.

What did that mean? It meant their mosquito-repellent and detoxifying ointment was about to go international, representing the wonders of traditional Chinese medicine and helping international friends battle malaria.

Unbelievable! It was even officially listed in the malaria prevention and treatment guidelines?

Even more surprising, the ointment turned out to be more effective than some imported mosquito sprays. At first, it was only used by the domestic medical personnel providing aid. But soon, wealthy locals in the affected country began scrambling to buy it through various cross-border channels. By the time domestic buyers caught on, the product was already sold out.

That wouldn’t do. How could they export it before their own people had a chance to use it? The company immediately halted overseas shipments to prioritize domestic supply.

In the pharmaceutical factory’s newly launched livestream studio, the three rotating hosts were practically shouting themselves hoarse. The most repeated line of the day was: “Sold out again? Got it, restocking now!”

Or: “I swear on my boyfriend’s life, there’s really no stock left in the warehouse! Our factory’s gears are running 24/7, they’re practically smoking! We just can’t keep up—there’s a mountain of overseas orders still waiting! But yes, yes! Our boss said domestic orders come first!”

One particularly feisty female host, upon realizing they were out of stock, rolled up her sleeves and ran off to the workshop to help with packaging. When she finally returned, she was beaming with excitement as she told the viewers, “All set! Huihui herself is standing guard at the warehouse door, making sure not a single bottle from the production line gets snatched up by scalpers. Every last one is going straight to the livestream!”

That’s right. The ointment, made entirely from traditional Chinese herbs, had become so wildly popular that scalpers were now lurking outside the factory. The livestream sold it at 38 yuan for two bottles with free shipping, but in the scalpers’ hands, it was going for 50 yuan a bottle!

A newly developed ointment had suddenly hitched a ride on the official bandwagon and become the “officially designated miracle aid.” How could competitors not be jealous?

Before long, rumors began circulating online, accusing the company of shady deals and unethical practices. Some even dug into Wei Sheng’s background, linking him to past scandals involving celebrities who had crashed and burned as online resellers. With that kind of material, fake news practically wrote itself.

And so, in the middle of the night, Wei Sheng found himself “branded a scammy reseller” and trending on the hot search for all the wrong reasons…

(End of Chapter)

Translator’s Notes