“That Liu Wei seems to be quite a bit older than Kang Zhixin, right?” Ye Zhiqiu didn’t know much about Liu Wei—she just knew he wasn’t young.
“Liu Wei is almost forty, and he has two sons. The older son is disabled and couldn’t join the military—apparently Liu Wei arranged for him to work at a welfare factory. The younger son is healthy enough, but he’s not easy to get along with. He’s at that rebellious age—a real handful.”
Lu Shuangshuang couldn’t help gloating. “Kang Zhixin’s life after marrying into that family is probably going to be quite eventful.”
Being a stepmother isn’t easy, especially to children that old—they definitely won’t accept her easily.
Kang Zhixin had originally planned to have Kang Zhimiao and Xu Xun put in a good word for her so she could return to the cultural troupe after her injury healed.
But who would have thought that after she said just a few words, her older sister would wash her hands of her, and her brother-in-law would avoid her too.
The cultural troupe leadership deliberated and decided to dismiss Kang Zhixin.
If she could hurt someone once, she could do it again.
They could give her a chance to reform for other things, but someone with harmful intentions absolutely could not be kept.
Kang Zhixin was full of resentment. She hated Ye Zhiqiu and Lu Shuangshuang, hated Wu Qingyun, hated Kang Zhimiao and Xu Xun.
Basically, she felt everyone had wronged her, so she cried and cursed at home every day.
Kang Zhengqing, along with his brothers Kang Zhishou and Kang Zhiren, couldn’t stand Kang Zhixin anymore either. Kang Zhishou casually suggested that they should just marry Kang Zhixin off quickly.
Kang Zhengqing took it to heart. Not just him—Kang Zhishou and Kang Zhiren also helped find suitable blind date prospects for Kang Zhixin.
But Kang Zhixin was set on marrying into the military compound. The men they introduced were all from families of doctors, and she looked down on them.
In the end, Kang Zhengqing and the others gave up on her and let her do whatever she wanted.
Kang Zhixin kept asking around about Ye Zhiqiu and Lu Shuangshuang, hoping to find an opportunity to get revenge on them.
But she didn’t find out much about them—instead, she learned about Wen Shengnan.
She still had some self-awareness about her situation. She knew that her only advantage now was her youth, and since she’d lost her job, marrying a young man from the military compound would be really difficult.
First of all, most young men in the military compound had already paired up internally. Many had grown up together as childhood sweethearts, with both families knowing each other inside and out. When they reached the right age, they naturally got together.
Secondly, the cultural troupe and the military hospital staff were also suitable matches.
If she were still in the cultural troupe, Liu Wei wouldn’t have given her a second glance. But times had changed. She didn’t want to marry someone with too low a position, so she could only look for someone around Liu Wei’s age.
Kang Zhixin knew very well that she couldn’t count on Kang Zhimiao anymore. She wasn’t the same older sister—her heart had completely shifted to Ye Zhiqiu’s side.
She could only rely on herself for her lifelong matter.
Kang Zhixin was clever. She didn’t rush to give herself to Liu Wei like Wen Shengnan had. Even though she was spoiled and unreasonable, she knew very well how to please Liu Wei.
As for Liu Wei, his reputation had been damaged because of the Wen Shengnan incident, and just when he was in a bad mood, he met Kang Zhixin.
Kang Zhixin wasn’t as beautiful as Wen Shengnan, but she wasn’t bad-looking either, and she could make him happy.
Liu Wei was more generous with Kang Zhixin than he had been with Wen Shengnan, but it definitely didn’t meet Kang Zhixin’s expectations. Still, she didn’t dare say much—she just wanted to secure Liu Wei first and marry him.
Liu Wei and Kang Zhixin progressed quickly—they decided to get married after only about three months of dating.
The Kang family had no objections to Kang Zhixin and Liu Wei’s marriage. They all wished she’d just get married already. As for who she married, they couldn’t be bothered to care anymore.
It wasn’t that they didn’t care about their little sister—it was that Kang Zhixin’s previous actions had cut them to the heart like a knife.
When Liu Wei came to the Kang home to propose, Kang Zhimiao was naturally there too. Kang Zhixin’s words were full of barbs, but Kang Zhimiao didn’t take issue with her.
To Kang Zhimiao, Kang Zhixin was now a stranger. As long as she didn’t harm her or Xu Rui, she didn’t care.
After that injury, Kang Zhimiao and Xu Xun’s relationship had changed quite a bit.
Before, Kang Zhimiao faced Xu Xun like she would a superior—constantly worried about saying or doing the wrong thing, extremely cautious.
But during that injury, Xu Xun’s attitude had chilled her to the bone and made her realize she had no place in his heart. He didn’t treat her as a lover or family.
Although the injury wasn’t serious, it felt like she’d been through a life-and-death experience. She had an epiphany: she was the most important person, followed by her son Xu Rui.
Since Xu Xun didn’t treat her as a wife, she didn’t need to treat him as a husband.
After changing her mindset, she found that getting along with Xu Xun was much easier than before.
Because of this, after watching Ye Zhiqiu’s performance, Kang Zhimiao told Xu Xun her plan to start working again.
Xu Xun was quite shocked. “Start working again? You’re going to get a job?”
“Yes.” Kang Zhimiao told Xu Xun. “A dance school is recruiting dance teachers. I’ve already gone for an interview, and they notified me I can start next Monday.”
Xu Xun frowned deeply. “Why did you wait until you’d already found a job to tell me? If you go to work, what about the household? What about Ruirui?”
“Wasn’t the household fine before without me? Besides, you and Dad are never home all day—whether someone’s home or not doesn’t really make a difference.”
“As for Ruirui, I’ve told him—he’ll eat at the cafeteria for lunch, and I’ll cook for him in the mornings and evenings. If there’s no time, he can buy food at the cafeteria.”
Kang Zhimiao had already guessed Xu Xun would say this, and she’d thought in advance about how to handle him.
“Ruirui is still young, he—”
Kang Zhimiao cut Xu Xun off. “Ruirui isn’t young anymore. He can go to the cafeteria to eat by himself.”
“And Ruirui isn’t just my son—he’s your son too. If you’re worried about Ruirui eating at the cafeteria for lunch, you can come back and take him there yourself.”
Xu Xun ran his fingers through his hair. “Zhimiao, what’s gotten into you? Did I do something wrong, or did you—”
“I just want to go to work. Is that such a difficult thing? When you asked me to leave the cultural troupe, I understood. Your family couldn’t accept me being out in public—it was also so I could take better care of Ruirui at home.”
“But now Ruirui has grown up, and all I’d be teaching at the dance school is young children. You can’t be at ease with that either?”
Kang Zhimiao spread her hands. “If you don’t trust my character and think I’ll do something improper, then we can get a divorce—but Ruirui stays with me.”
This was the first time Xu Xun had heard Kang Zhimiao mention divorce. He paused, even more confused.
Weren’t they talking about her going to work? How did divorce come into it?
“So if I don’t let you go to work, you’re going to divorce me? Kang Zhimiao, you’re being completely unreasonable!”
