Chapter 194

Aside from Chai Xinhui, the other three guests were encountering the mysterious biotech company for the first time.

They had assumed that anyone working at such a company must be a PhD or at least a graduate student. It wasn’t until they were selecting positions that they realized there were actually many roles within the company that suited them.

As for Chai Xinhui, there was no question—she continued in her original line of work.

Jiang Manman had the highest education among the four, holding a master’s degree from a prestigious overseas university. She applied to join the company’s legal department.

Shao Min, at 43, was the oldest of the group. She had been a full-time housewife for nearly twenty years and didn’t have any particular skills, so her only option was to take a position on the production line, a job that didn’t require much technical expertise.

Tang Ying was the youngest, only 25 this year. She didn’t want to work on the assembly line, so she decided to challenge herself and joined Chai Xinhui in marketing and promotions.

Chai Xinhui hadn’t expected to recruit such a “heavy hitter.” Looking at the petite and delicate Tang Ying, it was hard to imagine how this sweet and charming young woman had managed to go toe-to-toe with her eccentric and cunning in-laws for hundreds of rounds—and even gained a massive following online.

Tang Ying’s episode was hands-down the highlight of the entire show, Housewives Leaving Home.

She became a legend among all the female guests on the show—the one who started with a terrible hand and turned it into a royal flush.

She even had countless meme edits and remix videos on a certain video platform, and was affectionately dubbed by female netizens as “the internet’s fiercest mouthpiece” and “the ultimate anti-domestic-abuse queen.”

Chai Xinhui had always considered herself a brave “rebel” in an unhappy marriage, but compared to Tang Ying, she felt like a total lightweight.

Tang Ying often said on the show, “I’m not a good girl.” When she was young and foolish, she didn’t study hard. By her second year of high school, she had fallen in love, and when her parents objected, she actually ran away with her “boyfriend” at the time!

First love in youth is always intense and full of blind devotion. Tang Ying and her boyfriend, Chu Ning, fled to a trendy city. They rented a single room in an urban village for 300 yuan. It had no toilet, no shower, no air conditioning, and at night, rats would fall from the ceiling while they slept.

Their sweet life lasted less than a month before Chu Ning regretted it and wanted to go home. The two young lovers thought it would be simple—after all, they’d already “cooked the rice,” so they’d just tell Chu Ning’s parents that Tang Ying was pregnant with their precious grandson. Surely, for the sake of the baby, his parents would accept her, right?

Of course, the Chu family wouldn’t kick Tang Ying out. Otherwise, how could they keep their son around?

But the couple did set a condition: they would allow the two to be together, but only if Chu Ning returned to school and got into college. Only then could they get married.

You can probably guess what happened next. After Chu Ning got into college, he was surrounded by young, beautiful, and talented female students. Why would he still want a woman who had given birth, lost her figure, and didn’t even have a high school diploma?

You’d think the story would end here, with poor Tang Ying getting kicked out by the Chu family while holding her baby, right?

That’s what the audience thought too when they watched that episode. People were already wiping down their keyboards, ready to go online and roast Chu Ning and his cold-blooded, manipulative parents.

But then came the jaw-dropping twist—

Once the Chu parents saw their son had finally made it into college and that his feelings for Tang Ying had faded in the daily grind, they began subjecting her to emotional abuse. They stopped giving her money, hoping to force her to leave with the child on her own.

After all, their son was now a college student. He would need to marry someone from a “proper” background. How could they let a dropout who already had a child hold the title of daughter-in-law? How would their son ever find a suitable wife?

They assumed the always obedient and quiet Tang Ying would, as usual, swallow her grievances, hold her baby, and cry alone in her room.

What they didn’t expect was that, after overhearing their little scheme, the once docile Tang Ying snapped.

You don’t want to marry me, but you want to marry some innocent college girl? Don’t you dare ruin someone else’s life!

Tang Ying grabbed her child and stormed straight to Chu Ning’s university. She didn’t bother figuring out who his advisor was. She marched to the administrative building, stood outside with a loudspeaker, and demanded the school leadership come out and give her justice.

When the school officials saw her holding a baby, their expressions changed. They thought some male teacher had gotten a mistress pregnant and now she was making a scene. They rushed her into an office, only to find out she was the family of a student.

Tang Ying didn’t waste words. Sitting in the office with her baby in her arms, she said just one thing: “Bring Chu Ning here. Either he comes with me today to get our marriage certificate, or I call the police and report him for statutory rape of a minor.”

So what’s it gonna be? Marriage or prison?

The Chu family was stunned.

They couldn’t bear to see their precious son go to jail, and with the school officials watching, they had no choice but to grit their teeth and agree.

“Wait a minute! What about the bride price?” Tang Ying sneered. “Given the going rate around here, and the fact that I gave you a fat grandson, asking for 288,000 yuan isn’t unreasonable, right?”

“You should take a look at yourself. You think you’re worth 288,000?” Chu Ning finally lost it and snapped at her.

He had been this close to winning over the class beauty—gorgeous, with a powerful father who was a top official in the development zone. If he could get with her, his future would be smooth sailing. But now, all of that had been ruined by Tang Ying.

Chu Ning still thought Tang Ying was the same shy, gentle girl she used to be. Caught off guard, he was hit square in the face when she grabbed a teacup from the desk and hurled it at him—tea and all.

But that wasn’t enough. In the next second, the petite Tang Ying picked up the chair she’d been sitting on and charged at the Chu family, raining blows down on them.

As she hit them, she shouted, “You think I don’t know what your family’s up to? You ruined me, so I’ll ruin your whole damn family! If I can’t live in peace, then none of you will! Let’s all go to hell together!”

Her ferocity stunned even the veteran campus security guards.

Beaten black and blue and forced to get a marriage certificate with the “crazy woman” Tang Ying, Chu Ning swore to himself that once they got home, the three of them would gang up on her and beat her into submission. As for that 288,000 yuan? She’d be lucky to live long enough to spend it.

But what they didn’t expect was that as soon as they got home, Tang Ying put down the baby, pulled out a phone tripod, and within seconds had her livestream up and running.

Chu Ning: “!!!”

Tang Ying sneered, “If I dared to do it, I’m not afraid of being called a shrew. With a family like yours, only a shrew like me is a fitting match. And you still think you can ruin some innocent college girl’s life? Please, for the sake of my son, do the world a favor and show some decency!”

From that day on, Tang Ying’s livestream exploded in popularity. For some reason, viewers couldn’t get enough of the “daughter-in-law vs. scumbag husband and evil mother-in-law” drama. Her viewer count soared from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands, peaking at over half a million concurrent viewers.

The Chu family, once so smug and self-assured, finally got what was coming to them.

Chu Ning’s father had always used emotional neglect as a weapon. At home, he treated Tang Ying like she didn’t exist. That kind of silent contempt had once made her feel humiliated and helpless as she tried to fit into the family.

But now, if he so much as grunted, Tang Ying would snap back with a snort of her own.

If he made tea for himself and his wife but didn’t give her a cup, Tang Ying would grab a feather duster and start sweeping, sending dust flying all over the coffee table and into their teacups.

Oh, I’m not allowed to drink? Then no one drinks!

Chu Ning’s mother used to speak in passive-aggressive tones, often making Tang Ying cry in secret.

Now, the moment she sighed, “The daughter-in-law next door has a graduate degree,” Tang Ying would shoot back, “Want me to go ask her if she’s willing to swap husbands with me?”

When Madam Chu complained, “Your husband doesn’t even make enough money to buy formula for the baby,” clearly blaming Tang Ying’s child for being a burden, Tang Ying would immediately pick up the baby and say, “Oh, we’re short on money? Then I’ll head to the school right now and tell Chu Ning to drop out and get a job. That’ll save us 20,000 yuan a year in tuition!”

The most savage moment came when Madam Chu, feeling outmatched, called in a few sharp-tongued relatives to the house, hoping to teach Tang Ying a lesson.

Just as one of the relatives pointed at Tang Ying’s nose, ready to start scolding her, Tang Ying calmly set the child down, stormed into the bathroom, grabbed the toilet brush, dipped it in the toilet water for good measure, and charged into the living room swinging.

As she struck out indiscriminately, she shouted, “When Chu Ning and I got our marriage certificate, none of you showed up with gifts or red envelopes. But now you’re all sitting in my house acting like high and mighty elders? Either cough up some cash or get the hell out! Pick one!”

The toilet brush stung and stank when it hit, sending the gaggle of nosy aunties fleeing in panic.

The stench of urine lingered in the Chu family’s living room for two full days.

But Tang Ying didn’t stop there. Every day, she hounded Madam Chu to buy groceries and cook, demanded money from Old Man Chu to buy things for the child, and threatened to storm into Chu Ning’s school to make a scene and force him to drop out and get a job if they didn’t comply.

From that point on, the Chu household was in utter chaos. Old Man Chu at least had the excuse of going to work and could hide out at the office for a while. Madam Chu wasn’t so lucky—Tang Ying bossed her around like a maid.

Only then did the Chu family realize just how good they’d had it with the gentle and obedient daughter-in-law they never appreciated. Now they’d swapped her out for a shrew, and it was too late for regrets.

After more than half a year of nonstop drama, Chu Ning didn’t even dare go home anymore. He had been this close to winning over the class belle, but once she found out he had a wife and even a kid, she was terrified of being labeled a homewrecker. She publicly chewed him out in front of the whole class, then went around telling everyone he’d tricked her into a relationship. His reputation at school was completely ruined.

Seeing that things couldn’t go on like this, the Chu family finally caved. They wanted Tang Ying to divorce their son. This time, they didn’t dare demand she leave empty-handed. Not only did they agree to pay 2,000 yuan a month in child support, they also promised Tang Ying could keep the 280,000 yuan bride price after the divorce.

That’s it?

Tang Ying rolled her eyes. “Why would I get a divorce? Once you two kick the bucket, everything in this house will belong to my son. What’s his is mine. If I divorce now, wouldn’t I be losing out big time?”

Of course Tang Ying wanted a divorce. But they thought they could buy her off with just 280,000 yuan? Dream on.

Not only did she refuse to divorce, she also demanded that the Chu parents buy a house for their grandson and put her name on the deed too. Tang Ying’s daily livestreams became a routine of poking at the Chu parents’ sore spots.

Her fans loved it. Every time she went toe-to-toe with the Chu parents in one of their “three-hundred-round battles,” the livestream viewer count would spike.

Clips of Tang Ying’s greatest hits even started circulating on certain platforms. Countless girls who struggled to speak up for themselves eagerly followed the updates, learning from Tang Ying how to take on a toxic in-law family.

Worried that Tang Ying’s demands would only grow bolder, the Chu family had no choice. In the end, they gritted their teeth and handed over a small apartment they had bought years ago, transferring the deed to Tang Ying and her son. They even threw in an extra 100,000 yuan. Only then did Tang Ying agree to the divorce.

At first, fans didn’t understand why Tang Ying insisted on making her marriage to Chu Ning official again, knowing full well he was scum. It wasn’t until she walked away with a third of the Chu family’s assets that everything clicked.

Tang Ying, you absolute legend!

With a single divorce certificate, she walked away with a small but valuable apartment—one that could be redeveloped at any time—over 300,000 yuan in cash, and full custody of her son. That divorce was worth every penny!

(End of Chapter)