Release that Man

That one wait was one hour thanks to the traffic jam, full parking lot, and a large detour. Eventually, Ye Shuang found a parking space in the underground parking lot of a mall and had to walk all the way.

This was such a tragedy, and in that time, Little Brother Ye’s emotion transformed from the initial anxiety to nervousness to finally complaint. With impatience, he asked his two buddies to join him at the café to chew on snacks and sip on drinks. Therefore, when Ye Shuang and Anthony arrived, they saw three boys enjoying themselves, laughing and chatting.

Completely no sign of regret… Ye Shuang sat down with her brow raised. “You seem to be enjoying a great time, huh?”

Little Brother Ye had completely forgotten that he was awaiting judgement from Ye Shuang. When he saw Ye Shuang, he even had the audacity to complain. “Sis, you’re so slow. Do you know that we have something else to do? If there’s nothing else, we’ll… Ouch! Why did you hit me‽”

“If I really wanted to hit you, do you really think you’d still be alive‽” Ye Shuang cracked her knuckles and warned him. Little Brother Ye instantly remembered that his sister had the ability to punch a hole in the wall with her bare hands.

“Sis, forgive me!” Little Brother Ye apologized instantly and put up his paws in surrender.

…

After the temporary detour, the group finally went back to the early question—why did Little Brother Ye lie to get money from Ye Shuang?

“So, tell me, why did you lie to me?” Ye Shuang tapped the table to get everyone’s attention. “From the looks of it, it doesn’t seem like you’ve acquired some expensive habit. Also, what have you bought? Let me see… potatoes, apples, meat…”

These are all daily products. Are they going to help the poor?

Ye Shuang wanted to mock them, but she suddenly remembered the words that Little Brother Ye’s friend had said earlier, and she silently swallowed back the words. As she expected, before Little Brother Ye could say anything, the shy boy explained, “Sister Shuang, actually, Xiao Feng asked for money from you because of me…”

“It has nothing to do with anyone!” Little Brother Ye finally thought that he had had enough. Therefore, compelled by justice, he stepped forward and pounded his scrawny chest. “It’s me who…”

“Shut up, it’s not your turn!” Ye Shuang grabbed the pudding on the table and shoved it into Little Brother Ye’s mouth. “I’m here to know about the process, not to see you guys shouldering the guilt for each other!”

She hated this kind of story where they were each trying to help one another, and she would fail to get the main point.

Anthony grabbed Little Brother Ye’s head and giggled. “Your sister is very feral. Don’t toy with her.”

Is this foreigner’s Chinese is not good or too good? The crowd moved their gaze to Anthony before quickly moving away. Without the interruption from Little Brother Ye, the boys started to explain Little Brother Ye’s lies.

The boy had a brother-in-law, one that had not signed the registration with his sister. The main reason that they did not have legal validity was because of the disapproval from his mother.

The brother-in-law had graduated from a normal university and came from a normal farmer’s background. After graduation, he had gotten a normal job. Since the sister came from a good university, she had a good job and good looks.

When the brother-in-law came to visit for the first time, the mother had asked three questions, and they had completely rejected the man. They first asked about his job. Next, they asked about his family’s professions. Finally, they asked where he planned to buy a home after marriage.

It was not that the mother was money-minded—she was merely worried about her daughter. People had to be realistic. Furthermore, the mother did not force her daughter to break up with the man and find a rich man to marry. The only thing that she did ask for was for the daughter to hide her account book and wait another three years before going to register officially.

In these three years, if the man still had no improvement, then the mother would not need to say anything else—the criticism from people around them would be enough to wake the daughter up. In contrast, if the daughter still insisted on her initial eye, then she would allow her to get married. No one could control another person’s life, even if that person was their child. If she still insisted on marrying the man, then the mother would not stop her anymore.

Therefore, due to the ‘bad mother-in-law’, the brother-in-law had to start this underground relationship that was not approved by the family. The brother-in-law was quite a nice person, and he cared a lot about his girlfriend’s little brother. Even though he did not earn much, he would often buy fruits and snacks for him. Whether it was bribery or not, who could tell? In any case, he was a nice man.

The man also understood why the mother was dissatisfied with him, so he had made the decision to change his career to become… a real estate salesman. Even though the name did not sound that glorious, those who were in sales these days were quite rich. Selling a car, home, and insurance all earned a high commission, so one could earn a lot if one worked hard enough.

But tragedy came with this new career. He sold an office building, but because he was not familiar with the procedure, he did not know that the building had already been sold by his colleague. Therefore, he got the money, but the client did not get the real estate. When he turned around, someone hired people to surround him and break his leg…

“Brother Liu is an honest man, so he was not familiar with the procedure since this was a new job for him. He had no idea how he was tricked by others and tripped,” the boy said. “He’s not a local from San Lin City, and he has been renting a room here to pursue my sister. After his accident, no one could take care of him, and we did not dare to tell our mother, so Xiao Feng and the guys said that they’d help me gather some money after they found out…”

“What about your big sister?” Ye Shuang tapped the table rhythmically. “Didn’t you say your sister has a good income? She even has her own car, right? It shouldn’t be too hard for her to support the medical fee… Or has your sister decided to abandon ship?”

“My mother is too experienced,” the boy cried. “Ever since my sister showed up with her boyfriend, Mom has been afraid that my sister might be taken advantage of, so she already grabbed my sister’s cards and account books and locked them in the safe. Now, every week, my sister only can get a small allowance of two hundred from Mom, and if she needs to buy some clothes, she has to go with my mother…”

How free his sister had been after graduation was how harsh things were now. She had worked so hard to get a monthly salary of eight thousand and finally escaped from the life of university, but now, because she had found a boyfriend whom her mother did not approve of, she had to return to the life of getting an allowance from her mother.

Ye Shuang sweated when she heard that. That was the cruel mother of the new century. She had thought that Mother Ye was already quite cruel, but after hearing the comparison, she realized that Mother Ye was just a kind flower. The brother-in-law was hospitalized, and the medical fee was about eight thousand, not counting the ward fees. Without medical insurance, all the money that he had collected over the years disappeared just like that.

That was not all. After the surgery was done, what would happen to his life? With the broken bone, he could not go back to work. No one would reserve a space for his in the field of sales. Furthermore, he was injured because he had committed a huge mistake at work, so naturally, he had been fired.

With no money for food, no one to cook, and his fiancée not daring to stay over, the responsibility had fallen on the little brother’s shoulders. Then, everyone could guess what happened next. Since the boy did not return to the dormitory too often, and with the economic constraint, his dormitory mates soon found out. To support him, they donated… well, they went home to cheat some money to help their friend. Before Little Brother Ye swindled Ye Shuang for a thousand, he had already taken several hundred from Mother Ye, saying it was for a school trip.

“…I’ll be honest, if I was your mother, I wouldn’t have agreed to let my daughter marry someone like that as well.” Ye Shuang sighed. “The issue of his wealth aside, the man couldn’t even hold onto a job. Just how ‘honest’ is this man? It’s nice that he’s honest and kind, but if he’s honest to the point of being gullible, then it’s not a compliment anymore.”

Want to work hard? With no education, no brains, and with an incident like this, this was not only because he was unlucky. Mainly, it was because of his personality. In other words, this ‘bad luck’ was definitely not going to be an isolated incident. If they really got married, the boy’s sister would have to help him clean up the mess so many times.

Of course, this did not mean that the man had no right to pursue love, but since he wanted to go after a beautiful girl, he at least needed to have almost similar qualifications, right? He could not match her at all, so why would the mother be willing to marry her wonderfully-raised daughter that she so dearly cared for to him?

Little Brother Ye saw how awkward his friend was, so he quickly helped to rescue the situation. “Sis, now is not the time to say something like that.”

“It is indeed not the time.” Ye Shuang tapped the table with a frown on her face. “But what is going on? How come I feel like the things that I’ve heard sound so familiar?”

Anthony was curious. “Xiao Shuang, what are you thinking?”

“Let me see… Wait a minute, just now, you said that your brother-in-law sold an office block, but that building had already been booked by another buyer, and then his client found people to ambush him for revenge, right?” Ye Shuang finally realized what was wrong. “What is the name of your brother-in-law’s client?”