Quickly wear salted fish, she won by lying down

At first, Li Qiuyun and Li Zhiguo were happy when their parents divorced. After all, they had been worried that Li's mother would start demanding money from their father again, just like before. If she kept doing that, she might eventually drain their father of all his money, which would be a huge loss for them. So, the divorce was a good thing, and they no longer had to worry about their money being taken away by Li's mother and daughter.

Even though Li's mother left, Li Linlang, being Li's father's daughter, did not leave and remained in the Li family, so they had no objections.

After all, Li's mother is Li's mother, and Li Linlang is Li Linlang. Li Linlang is Li's father's daughter. If her mother divorces Li's father, of course she can stay and live in the Li family. But if Li's mother divorces Li's father, Li Linlang will have to be kicked out. Li Qiuyun's mother also divorced Li's father, so will she also have to be kicked out?
Before she could even laugh at Li Linlang's mother being kicked out, and how she would have an even lower status and become even more invisible at home—after all, she had her father and grandmother to care for her, Li Zhiguo had his grandfather and father to care for him, while Li Linlang only had her mother to care for her. Now that her mother was gone, wouldn't she be even more isolated and helpless at home, even more invisible?—she saw Li's father bring a woman home, saying that she was his new wife, her new stepmother.

Seeing the woman's shrewd expression, Li Qiuyun knew that this was definitely not the kind and gentle person her mother was. This woman wouldn't be easy to deal with after she entered the family! So she immediately objected, saying, "Dad, you're already so old, why are you marrying an old woman!"

As soon as she said this, the new stepmother looked at her father with a sad expression. Then, before the woman could say anything, her father started scolding her, saying, "What are you saying! Am I that old? Why can't I get a wife!"

What men hate most is being told they're old and no longer capable. At their age, they still have a lot of needs, okay? How can they live without a wife? These days, it's not like before liberation when there were brothels to visit and you could find women to satisfy your needs without getting married. Now, if you want to have women to satisfy your needs anytime, you have to get married.

When Li's father wanted to get married, no one else could stop him. Only Li's grandfather reminded him not to let the new bride swindle his money, and then he didn't say anything more. After all, Li's father was his son, and he naturally didn't want his son to be without a wife.

Since no one could stop Li's father from doing what he was doing, Ding Ping was able to enter the house without any problems.

Seeing this, Li Qiuyun was furious. If she had known that her father would marry a new wife, she would not have kept sowing discord in front of him, making him dislike her more and more, and eventually driving her away.

If Li's mother hadn't been driven away, her father definitely wouldn't have married a new wife.

Alas, she only thought that her father would hate his stepmother and stop giving her money. Little did she know that she went too far, causing her father to hate his stepmother so much that he divorced her and remarried. This is terrible. After all, there are few stepmothers as foolish as Li's mother in the world; most are vicious.

—She didn't know at the moment that Li's father had given Li's mother four hundred yuan, otherwise she would have been just as furious.

Not only did Li Qiuyun regret speaking ill of Li's mother to her father, which backfired, but Li Zhiguo and his wife also regretted it. Like Li Qiuyun, they realized that this new second aunt named Ding Ping was not as easy to manipulate as Li's mother had been. How could Li Zhiguo and his wife, who had been speaking ill of Li's mother to their father, not regret it?

They shared the same idea as Li Qiuyun: to make Li's father dislike Li's mother and stop giving her money. Little did they know they would go too far and cause Li's father to divorce Li's mother. Now this is really troublesome.

They now had a bad feeling, mainly because Ding Ping had three sons, all of whom were not to be trifled with. If she had a bad day at the Li family, her sons would come knocking on her door, and that would be terrible. When Ding Ping married Li's father, although she didn't invite anyone to a banquet, the family still prepared a meal. Ding Ping's three sons came over at that time, and everyone could tell from their eyes that the three of them were not to be trifled with.

Speaking of Ding Ping, she's really capable. After her husband passed away, she still managed to find jobs for all three of her sons, so they didn't have to go to the countryside. I heard that her first son's job was transferred to him by her husband before he passed away; the jobs for her second and third sons were bought with money, supposedly with a sum of money her husband's family had saved up.

But Li Qiuyun, Li Zhiguo and others always felt that this was not true. After all, buying a job would cost a lot of money. Did their family have so much money that they could buy jobs for both of their sons?

If it wasn't bought with money from her husband's family, then where did the money come from? Li Qiuyun and the others became worried, wondering if it was given by some old man that Ding Ping found.
Although Ding Ping said she hadn't found a new partner since her husband's death, and that Li's father was the first one she'd dated, Li Qiuyun and the others weren't entirely convinced by what she said. After all, Ding Ping didn't seem honest at all; she was a liar.

The thought of Ding Ping's three sons being troublesome and causing trouble in the future made Li Qiuyun, Li Zhiguo, and the others feel uneasy. They also resented their father, since if he hadn't divorced their mother and married Ding Ping, they wouldn't have let the wolf into their house.

But there's no use in complaining, because the mistake has already been made, and all they can do now is try to mitigate the damage.

The method involved the two of them going to Li's father and asking him for money under various pretexts.

Their thinking was simple: no matter what tricks the new woman might pull, once they had taken all the money from Li's father, they wouldn't have to worry about her schemes anymore. After all, if Li's father had no money, no matter how cunning she was, it would be useless if she couldn't get any money.

Their worries were not unfounded. Unlike Li's mother, Ding Ping did not have a job. When she arrived, she said that she was unemployed and did not have enough money to pay the two yuan for cooking. She asked Li's father to pay for her. Li's father knew about Ding Ping's situation and had promised to give her food. So when Ding Ping asked him to pay for cooking, Li's father naturally had no objection. After all, he couldn't just not let her eat.

Seeing that her stepmother had just come in and started spending Li's father's money, Li Qiuyun and the others naturally got anxious and went to ask Li's father for money as well.

First, Li Qiuyun came to Li's father to ask for betrothal gifts and wedding money.

If it weren't for her father's divorce and remarriage, she would already be married by now. But because her father went through divorce and remarriage, it delayed her for a long time, and she is still not married.

So at this moment, she used the excuse of getting married to ask Li's father for a dowry and wedding money.

Because she was a bride who married into the family, she was required to give the groom a dowry. Since she didn't have any money, she naturally had to ask Li's father for it.

There's also the wedding money. When Li Zhiguo got married, his father gave him a considerable amount of money, so naturally he'd want to give him some too. Otherwise, why would he give money to his nephew but not his own daughter for her wedding? (End of Chapter)