Film and Television World Life Record

Li Mu said, "What are you afraid of? Are you afraid that I will despise you and abandon you? Or are you afraid that you will be burdened by your family for the rest of your life, exploited for the rest of your life, and never have a peaceful life?"

Li Mu's words struck Fan Shengmei's weak spot. She was afraid of both of these things, and they kept her up at night.

"I…"

Li Mu tightened his grip on her, comforting her, "Don't be afraid, I'm here! If there's a problem, we'll solve it."

Ultimately, you're afraid I'll look down on you for having such a family, and you're also afraid of being burdened by such a family for the rest of your life.

"Since the root cause is your family, let's address the root cause and restore your normal family relationships, wouldn't that be great?"

Fan Shengmei's eyes lit up, and hope and longing for the future rose in her heart again.

Yes! If she can resolve her family issues, all problems will be solved, and she will have nothing to worry about.

But are her family's problems so easy to solve? Fan Shengmei doesn't lack confidence in Li Mu; she lacks confidence in herself.

Li Mu looked at Fan Shengmei, who was deep in thought, and slapped her round buttocks with a loud slap.

"What are you thinking about! Did you hear what I just said?"

Seeing that Li Mu was touching her inappropriately as before, Fan Shengmei felt much more at ease.

She said in a sweet voice, "I heard you!"

Li Mu said, "Now that you've heard me, do you want to listen to me and solve the problems at home?"

Fan Shengmei blushed slightly and whispered, "Yes."

Li Mu pinched her soft cheek: "Okay, it's good that you're willing to change. Take some time these next couple of days to explain your family situation to me in detail, and we'll think of a solution together."

“If you find a solution, you must implement it resolutely. If you give up halfway, I will be very disappointed in you. Actually, it's not that I don't mind your family situation, but there is still room for change, and I don't want to give up.”

"If you're hopeless and can't make anything of yourself, then you can't blame me."

That last sentence was clearly very damaging, bringing Fan Shengmei back to her senses from the gentle environment Li Mu had created.

Li Mu's words were very clear: he didn't dislike his family, but he didn't want to give up easily and wanted to help himself change.

If she doesn't work hard, doesn't have the determination and ruthlessness, she'll be hopeless and there will be no future for her.

From then on, she would say goodbye to her life of luxury, be reduced to her original state, and continue to be the miserable and wretched Fan Shengmei who was exploited by her family and could never escape her fate.

This is what she fears deeply. Having grown accustomed to a life of elegance and sophistication like that of a noblewoman, can she ever go back to the past?

If your abilities can't support your ambitions, you'll probably end up in an even worse situation.

Looking at Fan Shengmei's expression, Li Mu was quite satisfied. Fear, dread, and a desire to change were all that mattered. If she truly wanted to become Voldemort, he wouldn't bother getting involved in this mess.

Someone so clueless should just give up on him! He's not short of women anyway.

Looking at Fan Shengmei, who was in tears, Li Mu suddenly thought of Deng Jiajia.

He also had a terrible family and a brother like that!

Compared to Deng Jiajia, Fan Shengmei's conditions are actually quite good. Although her family has burdens and her brother has caused her trouble, she has the initiative in deciding whether to help or not.

However, she may have enjoyed the glory of jumping out of the bottom of a patriarchal family and becoming the pillar of the family. Coupled with her hesitant personality, she became more and more deeply involved.

Deng Jiajia has a family even more mired in misery than the Fan family, and a brother with no moral compass who prevents her from making any friends and forces her to sell herself as a prostitute to pay off debts.

They had no initiative and no room to struggle or break free.

Compared to Fan Shengmei, Deng Jiajia possesses a greater ruthlessness and decisiveness, and her cunning far surpasses Fan Shengmei's. If Deng Jiajia were in Fan Shengmei's position, the current situation would be entirely different. Deng Jiajia would have Fan Shengmei's entire family under her thumb.

If you put Fan Shengmei in Deng Jiajia's position, she'll never have a chance to turn her life around; it'll only get worse.

Faced with the same adversity, Deng Jiajia tried her best to grasp any straw and spared no effort, paying any price, to break free from the quagmire and escape her original fate.

Fan Shengmei, you've already set up the ladder for her, but she's still hesitating about whether to climb it.

If it were Deng Jiajia in front of her, she wouldn't need Li Mu to use any strategies to guide her; she could handle the Fan family affairs herself. What do Fan's father, mother, brother, Lei Lei... matter as much as her own happiness?

When Li Mu sent Deng Jiajia's brother to jail, Deng Jiajia treated him like a stranger, showing no emotion whatsoever. However, if Li Mu had sent Fan Shengmei's brother to jail, she would have cried her eyes out, running around trying to pull strings and plead for him under pressure from her parents, doing things that were ultimately futile.

Li Mu sometimes found Fan Shengmei strange; he couldn't help but feel that something was off about her materialistic and money-worshipping nature.

The reason why gold diggers are gold diggers is because they enjoy the pleasure of spending money, are extravagant and greedy, crave a high-quality material life, spend money like water, are extravagant, are fond of enjoyment, and are lazy.

Fan Shengmei lives in the worst house, wears high-quality counterfeit clothes, and is always short of money. She is frugal and doesn't dare to spend a penny more than necessary, making her even more thrifty than Guan Juer and Qiu Yingying.

Such materialistic women are rare.

Li Mu understood that Fan Shengmei's apparent concern for money stemmed from her frequent financial difficulties.

Every month, she pays her brother's mortgage, sends living expenses to her parents, and covers her own rent and daily expenses. Her meager salary is carefully managed every month.

If we overspend even a little, we'll be eating dirt for the rest of the time.

When ordinary people like us are short of money or overspend, unable to make timely mortgage or car loan payments, or don't have enough living expenses, we also fall into this state of being very concerned about money.

Normally, you wouldn't care if someone borrowed a small amount of money and didn't pay it back. But if you're struggling to make ends meet and someone borrows hundreds of dollars from you and doesn't pay it back, you'd really want to grab them and beat them up.

However, this situation naturally disappeared once they had more money.

Fan Shengmei's income is all meticulously planned, and she is basically in a state of overspending and financial strain year-round. What is an occasional situation for an ordinary person is probably the norm for her.

Seeing Fan Shengmei looking somewhat lost and teary-eyed, Li Mu said, "Alright, you can cry later if you're feeling emotional. Let's find your parents first and arrange a place for them to stay."

Fan Shengmei then realized what was happening, remembered her parents' situation, and the main purpose of her visit today, and quickly got up.

Li Mu said, "Send me your parents' photos and names, and I'll send someone to look for them."

"Okay, okay..." Fan Shengmei said, quickly wiping away her tears, taking out her phone, and sending Li Mu photos and details.

Li Mu took out his phone and dialed a number: "Hey, Lao Zhang, send a few more people to the train station to find some people. I'll send you the photos and information in a bit. Try to find them in places that are sheltered from the wind and warm."

"Okay, okay...you go and look for it first, I'll be right there."

As he spoke, he gestured to Fan Shengmei and said, "Let's go, let's find your parents first and make arrangements. We can talk about everything else tomorrow."

Fan Shengmei, her eyes red, nodded and obediently followed Li Mu out the door.

...

Chapter 158 A Bizarre Family

Li Mu and Fan Shengmei each drove a car and arrived at the location to meet up with Lao Zhang and the others. They found the people shortly afterward.

Upon receiving the news, Fan Shengmei ran over with tears in her eyes and hugged her mother tightly.

Li Mu watched silently from the side, without saying much. In order to solve the problem, he had to act ruthlessly and not give the other party a chance to take advantage of him.

Fan Shengmei understood this principle. If her mother knew about her relationship with Li Mu and thought she had snagged a rich husband, she might do something ridiculous.

Furthermore, since she had already given instructions on the way here, Li Mu wouldn't take the initiative to get close to her, so naturally she wouldn't dare. She deliberately maintained a certain distance, not giving her parents any chance to have any illusions.

After Fan Shengmei finished her heartfelt conversation with her parents, Li Mu called her aside and gave her a few words of advice.

"The hotel has been arranged. I'll send you the location. It's not top-of-the-line, but it's fine in all aspects. You can stay there for now."

Fan Shengmei thought about her empty wallet and nodded vigorously: "Okay, okay! A regular hotel is fine. My parents know my financial situation. If I stay in a nice place, they will overthink it and think that I am hiding my true income and saving money on my own."

Li Mu said, "Alright, I won't stay here any longer, lest your parents think you've found a rich man and start asking you for an exorbitant amount."

Fan Shengmei blushed slightly, feeling somewhat ashamed: "Li Mu, thank you for your help. Anyone who sees such a mess in our family would stay away. Thank you so much for helping me."

"Don't worry, I won't be so soft-hearted anymore. I will definitely try my best to change."

Li Mu said, "Alright, don't talk nonsense. Do we need to be so polite with each other? Go with your parents, I'm leaving now."

Without saying another word, he turned and left with a flourish.

It seemed as if only then did Fan's mother notice Li Mu. She took a few steps to Fan Shengmei's side and looked at his back, saying, "Shengmei, who is this? Why are you leaving so soon?"

Fan Shengmei said, "A friend of mine, you didn't bring your cell phones when you came, so I couldn't find you and had to ask a friend for help."

Fan's mother clicked her tongue and said regretfully, "I thought he was one of your suitors, Xiaomei! Look at what this young man is wearing, he looks very rich."

Then she turned to Fan Shengmei and complained, "Xiaomei! You're not getting any younger, don't be so picky. Look how good this young man is, he's willing to help you, he must be interested in you. Don't be so picky."

"Besides, we're short of money right now. Where can we find someone as rich as you? Don't you think about yourself? You should think about us, the two of us old folks, and about your brother and Lei Lei."

Fan Shengmei's good mood was ruined once again.

"Mom, I told you he's just a friend. I asked him to come and help me out."

"Besides, you know what kind of situation your daughter has. Our family is such a mess, do you think any well-off or rich people would even look at me? They'd all avoid us like the plague once they knew about our situation. Who am I supposed to turn to?"

Mother Fan pursed her lips and immediately fell silent.

Fan Shengmei was still angry and continued, "Mom, you asked me to consider you and Dad, to consider my brother, to consider Lei Lei, but have you ever considered me? Have you ever made any plans for me?"

"Your daughter is already 31 after the New Year, what everyone calls an 'older single woman,' and she still can't find a boyfriend. What do you think is the reason?"

"Am I too picky? With this mess in our family, if I marry an ordinary person I like, can we manage it? Sooner or later, there will be problems and we'll get divorced."

"If you want to find a rich man, everyone else is looking for young and beautiful ones. Think about how old I am, do you think they would even look at me?"

"Now your daughter is stuck in a limbo, unable to find a boyfriend or even get married. Have you ever thought about me, even a little bit? What will your daughter do in the future? Is she just going to be a slave to this family for the rest of her life, without even getting married?" As she finished speaking, tears streamed down her face again.

Fan's mother's expression changed, and in the end she could only say awkwardly, "Xiaomei, that's not what I meant. I also feel sorry for you and want you to find a good family to marry into."

"But you know our family's situation. Your brother is a good-for-nothing, and the whole family can only rely on you. Mom has no other choice."

"Xiaomei, I'm sorry you've suffered all these years."