Back to the 1980s: Transmigrated as the Bigshot's Pampered Wife-Chapter 134: Heart-wrenching Pain

Aunt Dong stared at her husband in disbelief. She had never, not even in her wildest dreams, considered divorce.

But her natal family only had one son, her younger brother. If they couldn’t get him out, wouldn’t her family line be extinguished?

That was why when her mother had threatened divorce if they didn’t get her brother out, she hadn’t immediately objected.

Her first instinct was to use it as a scare tactic.

But she never imagined that her husband, who was usually so compliant and obeyed her every whim, would agree to a divorce without the slightest hesitation.

After the initial shock, Aunt Dong let out a trembling shriek. "Dong Jianping! How could you be so heartless as to divorce me?"

"Your mother was the one who brought up divorce. Why are you blaming our second son now? We can go handle the paperwork right after dinner."

Ren Xiaofang emerged after washing her face just in time to hear the explosive news. A wave of delight washed over her, making her feel wonderful from head to toe.

"You! What right do you have to spout nonsense here?" Dong Jianping’s mother-in-law turned on Ren Xiaofang.

"I’m his mother. You tell me if I have the right to speak," Ren Xiaofang said, gloating.

Her second son was normally completely henpecked, so thoroughly dominated by his wife that he wouldn’t dare make a peep.

Ren Xiaofang had long since grown tired of her daughter-in-law, who sent all of her husband’s salary to her own family.

Thankfully, her daughter-in-law didn’t dare take things from the Dong Family to give away, or Ren Xiaofang would have stepped in to put her in her place long ago.

"Dong Jianping, do you really want a divorce?" Aunt Dong asked, her voice wavering with uncertainty.

"I never said we absolutely have to get a divorce. But as for your brother, I really can’t help this time. You all can figure it out yourselves. If you want a divorce, then fine, let’s get a divorce."

Dong Jianping looked at his wife calmly, his voice devoid of any emotion.

He didn’t actually want a divorce, either. He had a son and a daughter; life would go on no matter who he was with. In his heart, marriage was just a matter of making do.

Most importantly, he commanded a great deal of respect at his in-laws’ home. Others might call him henpecked...

...but only he knew that every time he visited his parents-in-law, he was given the seat of honor, on equal footing with his father-in-law.

His wife’s sisters’ husbands, on the other hand, were only there to serve dishes and pour tea. His mother-in-law ordered them around to do this and that, and they weren’t even allowed to eat at the main table.

They could only watch him with envy, jealousy, and resentment, while still having to suck up to him, pouring his tea and serving his rice.

For a man, that kind of treatment afforded him a great deal of face. So what if his wife managed his salary and subsidized her family a little?

His own son and daughter weren’t going hungry, after all, and they were dressed no worse than his older brother’s children.

But if it came to divorce, he wasn’t afraid. He had a high salary, a high-ranking position, and he wasn’t bad-looking.

Aunt Dong looked at her handsome husband. She had adored him since she was a little girl and had finally fulfilled her dream of marrying him.

After they married, she had willingly taken such good care of him that he was still dashingly handsome even in middle age.

And what about her? She scrimped on food, never bought new clothes for herself, and gave every spare cent they had to her own family.

She would even shamelessly hit up any well-off relative in the Dong Family, squeezing them for money to send back to her parents.

She knew that in the eyes of the Dong Family, she was seen as petty, greedy, and sharp-tongued.

But at least in her own family’s home, she and her husband were treated as honored guests. The flattery from her mother and six younger sisters made her willing to go and squeeze money from others.

Aunt Dong looked up at her husband, still as suave and elegant as a young man despite being middle-aged. She still loved him to her very core.

And yet he was willing to divorce her so easily!

’Has he been thinking about this for a long time?’

’Otherwise, why would he be so completely unbothered by the Li family’s aggressive demands?’

’He was even in the mood to leisurely sip his tea, sitting there like a figure from a classical painting, wrapped in an aura of scholarly grace.’

’And then there was her. Her clothes were washed so thin they were nearly threadbare, her eyes were perpetually ringed with dark circles, and she was always either rushing about or dragging her feet in exhaustion.’

’Seeing the contrast, she felt a surge of self-loathing. Why wouldn’t her handsome, dashing husband be disgusted with her?’

In that instant, fear gripped Aunt Dong. ’If my husband really divorces me, what will I do!’

And so, the terrified Aunt Dong—this strong woman, this pillar of the entire Li family—finally broke down, sobbing pitifully.

When Mrs. Li saw her eldest daughter crying, she realized her son was still in jail and that threatening her son-in-law with divorce was useless.

Scared out of her wits, she immediately fell to her knees before the Dong family’s patriarch, wailing and sobbing.

"My dear in-law, I’m begging you, please save my son! He’s the only son I have! I’ll keep him in line from now on..."

Mrs. Li wailed for a long time, but the Dong family patriarch just sat there, solid and silent.

Mrs. Li was so furious she could have spat blood. For years, the Li family had been riding the coattails of the Dong Family’s influence.

Her daughters and sons-in-law all had better jobs than their neighbors, which was why her son had been so spoiled and praised that he became arrogant and lost all sense of proportion.

’Dong Jianping has a high salary, comes from a good family, and is handsome,’ she thought. ’If he divorces and remarries, he can definitely find someone better than my daughter.’

’My daughter was never a great beauty to begin with, and now her eyes are all puffy and she dresses so frumpily.’

’A divorced, middle-aged woman like her could never hope to remarry someone better than Dong Jianping.’

The whole point of telling her eldest daughter to get a divorce had been to threaten her son-in-law into saving her son.

They had never looked down on their eldest son-in-law. On the contrary, the entire family went out of their way to curry favor with him.

It was only after her eldest daughter proved capable of keeping her husband completely in line that they slowly grew more audacious.

Once they started receiving money from their eldest daughter, their family was finally able to hold their heads high, and her precious son became arrogant and domineering.

But now that her son was arrested, her eldest daughter couldn’t control her husband. The more Mrs. Li thought about it, the angrier she became, and she started to blame her daughter.

’If her eldest daughter hadn’t given him the confidence, would her son have ever become such a bully, throwing his weight around?’

Seeing her in-law sitting in the seat of honor saying nothing, while her eldest son-in-law sat beside him, casually sipping tea...

...without the slightest intention of helping, Mrs. Li concluded that her daughter was useless and that her son-in-law was disgusted with her. Furious, she erupted.

"Li Dahua, you have the nerve to stand there crying? You’re the one who jinxed our son!"

"Oh, my! Even her own mother calls Li Dahua a jinx. In that case, you should hurry up and take your jinx home with you,"

Ren Xiaofang chimed in, eager to stir up more trouble. There was nothing she enjoyed more than watching a good spectacle.

"Go back where? Li Dahua, if you don’t get your brother out, don’t you dare show your face at home again! If it weren’t for you, my son would never have ended up like this..."

Consumed by rage but not daring to curse at her son-in-law, Mrs. Li turned on her eldest daughter and unleashed a vicious, relentless tirade.

Aunt Dong was left speechless.

She raised her red, swollen eyes to look at her own mother, who was pointing a finger at her, spittle flying as she screamed, her face contorted with a look that said she wanted to tear her daughter to shreds.

That ferocious, twisted expression was so unfamiliar. ’Were all her kind smiles in the past just a lie?’

Aunt Dong’s heart felt as if it were being sliced by a thousand cuts, an excruciating, soul-crushing pain.

"Mom... so this is what you’ve really thought all along?"

She had known since she was a child that her mother was not someone to be trifled with. Towards her and her five sisters, it was always either a beating or a scolding.

None of them dared provoke her. Her mother had a mouth that could curse a person to death, and she’d even offer advice on how to do it quickly.

At that moment, Aunt Dong felt as if she had been transported back to her childhood. The scene was utterly terrifying.