Wife, please behave yourself.

Chapter 160 Complaint

Why is the house such a mess?

"They've accumulated so much trash and they don't even bother to throw it away."

"Also, the curtains aren't even open during the day. They should be..."

"I'm sick!"

The woman's incessant chatter was shut down by Lin Wanran with just three words.

Chen Lan, who was about to say something more, suddenly fell silent.

Standing in front of the curtains, she had already grabbed them with one hand, preparing to open them so that the bedroom light, which was on even during the day, could be turned off.

However, her daughter's impatient response made her concern seem like a worthless joke.

Chen Lan is fifty-one years old this year.

She is Lin Wanran's mother and Liu Changcun's former mother-in-law.

Because she hadn't seen her daughter's family for a long time, Chen Lan, who had come all the way from the county to the city, first tried to contact her daughter at the station through a public phone, hoping that her daughter would come and pick her up.

However, Chen Lan, who was alone at the station, only received a new address, followed by Lin Wanran's statement that she should take a taxi there herself.

Chen Lan, who had worked hard for half her life, had no complaints about this. Having doted on her daughter since she was a child, she was not disappointed or angry because of Lin Wanran's rudeness.

Carrying large and small bags, they rushed to their daughter's current residence.

They assumed their daughter and her family had moved to a new house.

Upon arriving at her daughter's home, seeing the messy room, she couldn't sit still and began to fuss over the cleaning issues.

But before she could even begin to clean up the mess, she was stopped by Lin Wanran, who was in a bad mood.

At this moment, Lin Wanran was curled up on the bed.

Even though the weather has started to cool down, I'm still using a thin blanket that I would only prepare in the hot summer.

She doesn't care about her appearance at all. Even when she's at home, she does whatever makes her comfortable, but she doesn't live like Lin Wanran with messy hair and an extremely bad complexion.

Seeing her daughter in this state, Chen Lan, who had originally planned to tidy up the room, realized that something was wrong.

He glanced at the figure struggling to sit up on the bed, but his gaze wandered back and forth across the messy bedroom.

"Where are the children?"

"..."

"Changcun isn't here either; they didn't move in..."

"We got divorced."

Leaning against the headboard, Lin Wanran absentmindedly raised her hand to smooth her hair.

Even though she tried her best to appear calm, her lowered gaze prevented her from looking directly into her mother's eyes.

After a pause, Lin Wanran added.

“He gave me both children; I didn’t take any of them.”

As these words came from Lin Wanran's mouth, the already quiet room became even quieter, without the slightest sound.

After an unknown amount of time, Lin Wanran, who had been keeping her face down, finally heard her mother's questioning voice.

His tone was filled with disbelief, as if he couldn't believe it, and he asked repeatedly.

"Divorced? You and Liu Changcun are divorced?!"

"..."

"Correct."

Lin Wanran pursed her lips and took a few seconds to give a definite answer.

He took a deep breath, then raised his lowered face to face the direction where Chen Lan was by the bed.

Now she has no more worries. Since things have come to this, she doesn't care what Chen Lan says anymore.

However, to Lin Wanran's surprise, the expected questioning did not occur. Instead, after digesting this explosive news, Chen Lan remained unusually calm.

There was no bewilderment at her daughter's decision to divorce, nor did she incessantly press for details of the process.

She just stood there, stunned, for more than ten seconds before slowly approaching the bedside and sitting down sideways.

He was facing Lin Wanran, who was leaning against the headboard.

"When did this happen."

"June."

"It's been almost half a year..."

Upon hearing Lin Wanran's answer, Chen Lan muttered to herself.

Looking at Lin Wanran, who had no expression in front of him.

In Chen Lan's memory, her daughter used to like Liu Changcun to the extreme.

Every day after school, there are endless topics about Liu Changcun.

At first, Liu Changcun didn't have much affection for Lin Wanran, and his interactions with her were basically no different from those with his other classmates.

When my daughter first entered high school, she seemed like a completely different person, unlike before.

She seemed to be lovesick, so devoted to a boy.

As a mother, Chen Lan is very clear about her daughter's situation.

She also understands how blind and crazy people can be when they fall in love.

However, after returning home, Lin Wanran often mentioned Liu Changcun at school to her mother, but Chen Lan, as her mother, had never seen him in person even once.

One day later.

Chen Lan was overjoyed to see her daughter return home and asked her to cook extra food the next day to entertain Liu Changcun, who was visiting their home for the first time.

That was also the first time she met Liu Changcun, who came to visit her.

At that time, Chen Lan thought that the boy named Liu Changcun was a boy with excellent looks and a very smart mind.

Not only was he much taller than his peers, but he also proactively helped Chen Lan clear the table after the meal. It was that encounter that gave Chen Lan a new understanding of Liu Changcun.

Having met the boy his daughter had been longing for, he wholeheartedly accepted him.

Later, my daughter started dating him.

They got married and had children.

Chen Lan thought that the happy life she had never experienced would be reflected in her daughters. In order not to ruin this hard-won happiness, she didn't even dare to come to the city to disturb her daughters' family.

In the first few years after they got married and had Liu Songyan, Liu Changcun and Lin Wanran would occasionally return to the county.

The family atmosphere it presents is also exceptionally happy.

However, starting from some point, the two returned less and less often, and most of the time Liu Changcun would take the two children to the county town by car alone.

Although it was supposed to be a trip back to her daughter's parents' home, Lin Wanran, the daughter herself, rarely showed up.

Until recent years, even Liu Changcun has basically stopped visiting him.

It was only at this point that Chen Lan realized her daughter's marriage might be in trouble.

He wanted to find some relief, but Lin Wanran showed no intention of opening up to him. Their several phone calls only involved trivial matters, and Lin Wanran would quickly hang up on him again, citing work as the reason.

Although she later called her son-in-law, Liu Changcun, who had lost his parents at a young age, basically only reported good news and not bad news. Therefore, Chen Lan did not know the true situation that had happened in her daughter's family at that time.

Two more years passed, and everyone thought that the couple had just had a simple argument and would soon make up.

However, to Chen Lan's utter surprise, she learned such bombshell news from her own daughter today.

Looking at Lin Wanran, who was leaning against the headboard and barely reacting.

Chen Lan wanted to ask several times, but considering her daughter's current low spirits, she ultimately couldn't bring herself to ask.

She had only been sitting on the edge of the bed for a short while when she slowly got up and left, taking the things she had brought into the room.

They were getting ready to take it out.

While taking them out, he kept muttering to himself.

“I found some great stuff while browsing the wholesale market recently. Look at this comb… I bought it for you and Wanqiu, and a basketball for Songyan… I haven’t seen that kid in a long time. I bet he’s much taller than me by now.”

"..."

"I bought a few off-season clothes while it was still hot. I think the sizes should be fine. By the way, what sizes do they wear now?"

"do not know!"

Watching her mother take things out one by one, even though it wasn't cold yet, she had already bought winter clothes for the children.

When she heard the other person ask about her children's clothing sizes, Lin Wanran felt that her already bad mood had reached its worst point.

The inexplicably rising tone made Chen Lan shut her mouth again.

Looking at Lin Wanran, who was showing extreme annoyance.

As if frightened by her daughter, she silently stopped what she was doing and fell silent again.

However, Chen Lan's silence and concessions did not earn her daughter's understanding or sympathy.

On the contrary, Lin Wanran, who was already in a bad mood, felt an inexplicable anger rise in her heart after seeing her mother like this.

"Can you please stop doing this all the time!"

As if finding an outlet for her pent-up emotions, Lin Wanran raised her voice and began to nag impatiently.

"You always worry about trivial things. Whenever I encounter a problem, I can never count on you!"

"..."

"And all those clothes you bought, why buy down jackets so early when it's not even cold yet?"

"These clothes are all off-season items; they're cheaper at the market..."

"Cheap, cheap! Cheap!! Cheap again!"

Chen Lan's reply seemed to completely ignite Lin Wanran's long-dormant anger. Looking at her submissive mother in front of her, she was even more furious.

"It's because you're always so petty that I've become like this, and my life is getting worse and worse!"

“You’ve been like this since I was a child. You’d bring back clothes that other people didn’t want to throw away, as if they were treasures, and let me wear them.”

"I've worn old clothes since I was little, and people say I'm a beggar's child!"

"These new clothes don't even cost much, so why can't you treat me a little better?"

"Are you planning to say again that your family is having financial difficulties and that you should save money wherever possible?"

"I've heard enough of these words, and I hate them so much!"

"If you don't have money, why don't you try to earn more? If you don't have money, why did you even give birth to me in the first place!"

"I never wanted to live such a miserable life. I should be living a life of luxury, not enduring so many years of hardship with you!"

The outburst of emotions has completely robbed Lin Wanran of her ability to think.

Words that had been buried deep in my heart for many years were spoken out without any hesitation at this moment.

However, Lin Wanran, preoccupied with her grievances, failed to notice the increasingly unpleasant expression on her mother's face.

He just kept talking about how hard he had worked over the years.

She expressed that her life shouldn't be like this.

A cluttered living environment, a home for one person.

Lin Wanran herself was the one who created everything, but in order not to admit her failure, she blamed all the mistakes on her innocent mother as if she were running away.

Lin Wanran's voice grew louder and louder, from raising her tone at the beginning to finally shouting.

The chatter continued unabated, undeterred by Chen Lan's silence.

Until... a "snap" sound came.

The bedroom finally quieted down again.

(End of this chapter)