CH 1

When Ruan Su woke up, she was not fully conscious yet. She turned her head and saw a pale-faced man lying beside her.

The alarm on her phone was still ringing persistently, but her husband-in-name lying beside her showed no signs of waking up.

In an instant, she was completely awake. She frantically turned off the alarm on her phone, and the room finally became quiet again.

Last night was her wedding night. She was in a trance while looking at the man who, although unconscious, still exuded an extraordinary demeanor. She remembered something that happened during her university days. At that time, her friend was busy with her love life and skipped class, but was caught by the teacher during roll call. So, her friend begged her to help her attend the class, and she actually went to listen to the class of the Department of Economics and Management. When the class was about to end, the teacher played a short clip.

In the clip, a young man in a suit and leather shoes was full of spirit and attracted the admiration of the students in the classroom.

He was Ji Mingchong, the heir of Ji Group. When he was studying abroad, he teamed up with his friends to complete a big project, and his achievements were also reported in financial magazines. The media spoke highly of him, even saying that once he took over the reins from his father, he would lead Ji Group to even greater heights, and change the direction of the entire business world. It was not an exaggeration to call such a person as the prodigy of heaven. He completed his university studies at the age of 18, and continued to pursue higher education. At the age of 20, he had already established a very promising company on his own.

He was the pride of the Ji family, and the opponent of many people.

Even a retiring veteran in the business world at that time saw him as the biggest threat to their group’s development.

However, life is ever-changing. In the year when Ji Mingchong was 22 years old, he and his elder brother were involved in a car accident on the highway. His elder brother died on the spot, and he has been in a coma for five years since then.

At that time, Father Ruan had built his fortune with the help of the deceased Father Ji. Father Ji had been kind to him, and the two families had been friends for generations. Before Ji Mingchong’s accident, the Ji and Ruan families had already arranged a marriage between them, and they were set on joining forces. After the accident, the Ruan family wanted to cancel the engagement, but they feared being criticized and shamed. Moreover, Mother Ji was a fierce woman who nobody wanted to mess with.

Father Ruan was a person who cared about his reputation and face, and even though Ji Mingchong had become comatose, he still married his daughter to the Ji family.

Everyone thought that Ruan Su would definitely be crying her heart out.

However, Ruan Su thought it was good this way.

After she finished washing up, she opened the curtains so that Ji Mingchong could bask in the sun. She walked out of the bedroom gently, not wanting to wake up her mother-in-law and nephew. The kitchen was already small, and things were all over the place, making it even more cramped.

Today is different from the past, and the Ji family is not what it used to be. After the major incident five years ago, Father Ji who lost his beloved son aged rapidly and his body collapsed within two years. Without a successor, the Ji family lost their influence in the company, and the Ji family began to decline. A huge deficit appeared, and after struggling for two years, the Ji family declared bankruptcy and the company changed hands. Father Ji was diagnosed with liver cancer last year and passed away a few months ago. Originally, a son should not have been getting married so early after his father’s death, but Mother Ji was not an ordinary person. She was afraid that the Ruan family would regret their decision, so she insisted on sticking to the original wedding date and forced the Ruan family to marry their daughter into their Ji family.

Now the Ji family has moved out of their villa and into this three-bedroom small house.

It is said that this house was the first property that Father and Mother Ji bought when they were young and had just made their fortune. It has been more than twenty years since it was built, and from the outside, it looks old and dilapidated. This is the only place they have left to live.

Ruan Su is not someone who likes to complain. After tidying up simply, she took out a few eggs from the refrigerator.

There were also some food piled up in the fridge, but when she carefully checked them all, she found that they had all expired.

While Ruan Su was frying eggs after opening the exhaust hood, a little one sneaked in but didn’t dare to get too close to her, only stretching his neck to look at the pot.

Ruan Su looked down and saw him.

“Junting, good morning, have you brushed your teeth and washed your face?” Ruan Su asked.

The child’s name is Ji Junting, the third generation of the Ji family, and also her nephew. The child is also very pitiful. His father died in a car accident, and his mother later remarried and went abroad, so now he lives with his grandmother. The appearance and demeanor of the Ji family are first-rate, and even though they are temporarily down and out, the child is clean, with natural curly hair, messy but also very cute, with a pair of grape-like big eyes staring at people, looking straight into their hearts.

“Aunt, you don’t have to call me by my full name. Just call me Maodou,” Maodou said, holding his stomach with a troubled expression. “Every time someone calls me by my full name, I feel like I’m going to get scolded.”

Ruan Su was amused and nodded, “Okay, then I’ll call you Maodou from now on. Maodou, have you brushed your teeth and washed your face?”

Maodou grinned, showing his small white teeth, “I brushed my teeth, they’re so white now.”

“Well, then wait a bit more, breakfast will be ready soon. There isn’t much in the fridge, so we’ll have to make do with egg noodles today, okay?”

Since she was ten years old, Ruan Su had been cooking for herself and had developed good cooking skills over the years.

She knew how to take care of herself. Even in times of poverty, she was the kind of person who could make life enjoyable. Therefore, faced with the current situation of the Ji family, she was neither disappointed nor upset.

Maodou nodded eagerly, “That’s great! I’m tired of eating bread every day!”

Ruan Su understood his meaning. The Ji family’s situation was not good, and there was no other source of income. Mother Ji was almost sixty years old and had lived a comfortable life for many years. Even if she went out to find work, it would be difficult to find a suitable job. Although she had experienced hardships in her earlier years, after several decades of good times, suddenly going back to the kitchen, the food she cooked was cooked but not very tasty. The family couldn’t afford to hire a maid anymore, so they had to do everything themselves.

Maodou was five and a half years old and still in kindergarten. The kindergarten hadn’t started yet, and he had been eating with his grandmother for the past few days. His chubby little face had become much thinner.

After experiencing a drastic change in his life, the five-and-a-half-year-old child has become more mature than other children of his age. He knows that the family’s situation is not good, so he doesn’t complain, but he is still a child after all. Now that he can see that his Aunt’s cooking skills are obviously much better than his grandmother’s, it fills him with expectations.

Soon, Ruan Su finished making breakfast, and at this time, her mother-in-law, Mother Ji, also got up.

Mother Ji looked indifferent, but her expression softened a bit when she saw the noodles on the table.

“Mom, let’s have breakfast,” Ruan Su whispered, “I don’t think we have anything else in the house.”

Actually, Mother Ji didn’t expect Ruan Su to get up and make breakfast. It’s not like in the ancient times when the new daughter-in-law has to serve tea to her parents-in-law and make breakfast for the family early in the morning. She married this daughter-in-law for two reasons: one was that she couldn’t stand the way the Ruan family did things and wanted to disgust them; the other was her own selfishness. As a mother, she always felt that her son would wake up someday, but she didn’t know when that day would be. Maybe at that time, she wouldn’t be there anymore, so she wanted to find someone to accompany her son.

As a mother-in-law, she has always felt conflicted. No matter what her son is like, she always thinks he is the best. If her son hadn’t had an accident, Ruan Su would definitely not be worthy of him. However, she had already figured it out. As long as Ruan Su is a reliable person, she will never treat her unfairly in the future.

She may have thought about it that way, but if she really had to act like a close family member now, being affectionate and opening up her heart, it wouldn’t be her style.

She had to observe Ruan Su for a while first.

As for the breakfast, Maodou ate comfortably, and so did Mother Ji.

Maodou finished drinking the noodle soup and was feeling full in his little belly. He was still puzzled and asked, “Grandma, these noodles are the same, with the same egg and salt. How come yours tasted so bad while Auntie’s tastes so delicious?”

Mother Ji : “…”

When Ruan Su went to wash the dishes, Mother Ji took Maodou to the room and carefully locked the door.

“Maodou, you have to listen carefully to what I am about to say,” Mother Ji whispered, “if she asks you how much money our family has left, you have to say ‘none’.”

One must not be without vigilance towards others. Many people outside are guessing that this broken ship still has three catties worth of nails[1]. The Ji family was once glorious for a long time, so how could they just go bankrupt like that? Perhaps Mother Ji still has a lot of private money on hand. Everyone knows that Mother Ji loves jewelry the most. If she casually hides some, it would be a lot of money. With such rumors circulating, Mother Ji also knows that she will be targeted by others, so she has been extra cautious in the past year and has been very frugal. She knows that the food she cooks is not delicious, and even though her grandson Maodou is starving, she still won’t take him to restaurants every day.

She cared so much about the reputation of the Ji family that she even arranged yesterday’s wedding reception at a small restaurant, but it was very shabby. She did it to avoid suspicion and being watched.

Now that Ruan Su had become her daughter-in-law, Mother Ji still regarded her as an outsider that needed to be carefully guarded against.

Maodou raised an eyebrow, “Who is she?”

Mother Ji : “Your Aunt.”

Maodou shook his head, “She didn’t ask.”

“Grandma means that if she asks, you should answer like this!”

In fact, Mother Ji didn’t worry too much about her grandson’s loose lips. On the one hand, he was still young and didn’t know anything, and she didn’t dare let him know. On the other hand, although he was young, he was very clever and not someone who could be easily bribed. If Ruan Su wanted to get information about their family from him, it was useless.

However, she still had to remind him.

Maodou pouted. A few days ago, he watched a TV drama with his grandma. In the drama, there were two women who were particularly annoying, always quarreling. The young aunt said that being a daughter-in-law was not easy, and the wicked mother-in-law was too much. The grandma said that times have changed, and the daughter-in-law dared to bully the mother-in-law!

Yesterday, he learned that grandma was Aunt’s mother-in-law, and Aunt was grandma’s daughter-in-law.

Now when he heard grandma’s words, he remembered that TV drama. So he put on a serious face and said, “Grandma, from now on, I will remain neutral in this family. I won’t help Aunt bully you, nor will I help you bully Aunt!”

As the man in the family, he had to make his position clear.

Mother Ji was taken aback when she heard this and her mouth twitched. She raised her hand and said, “Get out, quickly!”

Author’s note :

The female lead is not the type to accept her fate. There’s a reason why she married the male lead, and it’s not for her biological parents.

Footnote(s)