Chapter 45: Asking Her to Leave

Chapter 45: Chapter 45: Asking Her to Leave

Lin Qiu was hit hard. All these years, she’d been working herself to the bone inside and out, yet they’d been treating her like a fool this whole time.

"Our Liu Family’s business doesn’t need you meddling in it!" Liu Qiang glared at Fu Xiaoxiao. Just because she was pretty, she thought she could point fingers at his family?

"A vicious mother-in-law, a gutless husband—your kind of family really thinks that widow would look twice at you? You really think you’re some big dish on the table?" Fu Xiaoxiao said coolly.

"She was tricked by you because she’s too kind, but you people—you’re worse than dogs. You said you’d send money to Lin Xue, she believed you, and in the end it was all lies. You just wanted to keep her pacified so she’d go on slaving away for your Liu Family. Let me tell you, what you’re doing is fraud. I can go straight to the police and report you, have you thrown in jail." Fu Xiaoxiao’s eyes were sharp, her words decisive, defining Liu Qiang’s deceit as fraud, making him too scared to act rashly again.

"If you dare send my old bones to jail I’ll fight you to the death!" The moment Old Mrs. Liu heard her son might go to prison, she rushed forward to shield Liu Qiang.

"Old lady of the Liu Family, you’re this old already, how come you still haven’t learned to do a bit of good? Ever since Lin Qiu married into your home, I’m guessing she hasn’t had one easy day. Up at dawn, toiling till dark doing housework, running around taking care of you, wearing herself out until she’s no longer human, and what do you do? Not only do you never help, you nitpick all day, complaining about this and that. With that sharp, mean face of yours, you don’t look like you’ve got many days left to live. You should be trying to accumulate some virtue for the afterlife, instead of acting like some Grand Empress Dowager all day long. Lin Qiu can’t get pregnant? That’s your Liu Family’s bad feng shui. It’s because your moral debt is so rotten that your Liu Family is destined to have its line cut off—no sons, no heirs, no future!" Fu Xiaoxiao looked straight at Old Mrs. Liu, every word from her mouth stabbing into the old woman’s heart like a knife.

Old Mrs. Liu had always wanted a golden grandson, but after all these years, Lin Qiu still hadn’t managed to conceive a single child.

Now, hearing Fu Xiaoxiao’s words, Old Mrs. Liu’s face flushed red. She pointed at Fu Xiaoxiao, panting heavily.

Listening to Fu Xiaoxiao cursing out Old Mrs. Liu, Lin Xue felt a surge of wild excitement. She’d wanted to curse her like this for a long time.

"Get out, get out, all of you get out!" Old Mrs. Liu was so furious she ran back into her room, then rushed back out with an armful of stuff and hurled it hard at Lin Qiu.

The things scattered through the air like flowers tossed by a goddess, falling all around Lin Qiu.

"You get out too. Our Liu Family doesn’t want a daughter-in-law like you! All these years and you still can’t lay an egg, obviously it’s your problem! Hurry up and get out, don’t let me see you again!" Old Mrs. Liu threw out everything that belonged to Lin Qiu. "Son, divorce her! Mom will find you another wife! We’ll get you a big, fat boy!"

Wang Lu coldly shoved Liu Qiang to the ground. Liu Qiang scrambled up, eyes vicious, and pointed at Lin Qiu, sweeping her out of the house.

"Lin Qiu, you heard my mom. Take these people and get out of my house. I used to think you were obedient, but now, I can’t keep you anymore!" Liu Qiang didn’t dare meet Wang Lu’s gaze, but toward Lin Qiu he showed not the slightest courtesy.

"Sis, come with me!" Lin Xue was also trying to persuade Lin Qiu. She couldn’t let her go back into that den of wolves.

"You don’t have anywhere to go, do you? Heh, if you want to come back, that’s possible too. But Lin Xue’s marriage will be decided by us, and the bride price has to be handed over to us, otherwise don’t even think about coming back to this home!" Old Mrs. Liu gave a cold laugh. She knew Lin Qiu had nowhere to go.

Lin Xue would marry and be able to live a good life, but Lin Qiu? She had no family home, nowhere to go. In the end, she’d still be at Old Mrs. Liu’s mercy.

Old Mrs. Liu looked Lin Xue up and down with a mocking gaze. She didn’t believe for a second that after getting married, Lin Xue would still bring her sister along.

Even if she wanted to, that elegant rich lady standing beside her would never agree.

One look and you could tell she wasn’t someone easy to deal with.

"Mom!" Liu Qiang frowned. He’d already said he didn’t want Lin Qiu anymore, so why was his mother suddenly giving her a way back in?

"If you want to remarry, then remarry. No one said you had to keep being a couple with her. Just treat it as us taking her in, keeping her here to work for the family! Otherwise who’s going to do all the work?" Old Mrs. Liu had already planned it out. If her son wanted to remarry, he could, but someone still had to do the chores at home. Now they had a free laborer, and she figured Lin Qiu had nowhere else to go.

Hearing his mother’s words, Liu Qiang thought it over and realized it made sense, so he kept his mouth shut.

"Sis, are you really going to let them keep trampling you like this? Come with me!" Lin Xue picked up Lin Qiu’s things. After marrying into the Liu Family for so many years, Lin Qiu’s clothes were still the same few pieces from back then.

You could tell what kind of life she’d been living in the Liu Family.

Seeing Lin Qiu stay silent, Lin Xue panicked.

Could her sister still be thinking about going back into that house?

Lin Qiu felt dead inside. She lifted her gaze to look at Lin Xue, her voice hoarse. "Xiao Xue, you all should go..."

"Sis!!!" Lin Xue stared in disbelief.

Off to the side, Old Mrs. Liu’s lips curled into a smug smile. She’d known it.

"I can’t keep dragging you down anymore." Lin Qiu looked at Lin Xue. Her little sister now had new family by her side. From now on she’d live happily with him, have a good life, no more drifting and suffering like before.

Half her life was already gone. She couldn’t be a burden to her sister.

"If you don’t want your sister to live a good life, just say it." Fu Xiaoxiao said coolly. Lin Qiu froze, not understanding what Fu Xiaoxiao meant.

"I won’t drag her down. She can live a good life with Xiao Lu. I won’t bother her." Lin Qiu promised Fu Xiaoxiao earnestly.

Fu Xiaoxiao shot her a glance and let out a cold laugh. "You really are noble, aren’t you. You call this ’being free’? You think that just because you handed your sister over to my brother, you can go off and die in peace?"

"What?" Lin Xue’s eyes flew wide open. Her sister wanted to die?

"How could you..." know.

Lin Qiu stared at Fu Xiaoxiao. How could she have guessed what she was thinking?

"If something happens to you, how do you expect Lin Xue to go on living? How is she supposed to face my brother in the future? Do you really think that once you’re dead, she’ll magically have a happy life? You’re thinking of yourself as way too unimportant. Or do you think Lin Xue is the kind of person who forgets kindness?" Fu Xiaoxiao fired back directly. The sharp look in her eyes made Lin Qiu unable to lift her head.

"No, that’s not it. I just don’t want to drag her down anymore." Lin Qiu shook her head. She was already this old—once she died, her sister could finally live her own life, no longer having to worry and fret over her.

"But without you, what meaning would her life still have?" Fu Xiaoxiao turned to Lin Xue. Lin Xue’s eyes lit up; she understood what Fu Xiaoxiao meant.

"Sis, I swear, if anything happens to you, I’ll go with you right away! If you go to hell, I’ll go there with you too!" Lin Xue grabbed Lin Qiu’s hand, speaking with absolute seriousness.

"You..." Lin Qiu stared into Lin Xue’s eyes; the seriousness in them scared her.

"The Liu Family not wanting you—that’s their loss. If you stay in the Liu Family just for a place to stay, that’s what’s really stupid." Fu Xiaoxiao could see what was weighing on Lin Qiu’s mind.

"Changqing Village is tiny. Have you ever stepped beyond it? The world is so big, and you’re really willing to die in this little patch of land?"

"Don’t you want to see Lin Xue get married and have children, to be there to support her when she gets married?"

Every word Fu Xiaoxiao said sank straight into Lin Qiu’s heart. She wanted that. She wanted all of it.

"You raised me for the first half of our lives. For the second half, let me raise you. Sis, I’ve grown up now. I can take care of you." Lin Xue gripped Lin Qiu’s hand, pleading with her to leave together.