Of course she would help her sister but, at the end of the day, Shu Li must be able to stand up on her own two feet.
Shu Yan recalled her Second Sister's personality carefully. Her personality was slightly stronger than original owner but not by much. She would not otherwise have allowed her in-laws to walk all over her.
If Shu Yan was going to help her, Shu Yan's thought was to have her leave the family. She only worried that her Second Sister would not be willing to do so.
"Second Sister, if you continue to stay with that family, even if I can help you this time, there will always be a next time." Shu Yan started with that before she asked, "What would you like me to do?"
Second Sister looked at Shu Yan decisively. "Divorce. I want to be like you. I want a divorce. I'll raise the children on my own. There is a woman living next door to us. She works in City Yan and makes 400 – 500 yuan a month. As long as I am willing to work hard, I will be able to support myself and my children."
Her response startled Shu Yan. She hadn't expected that from her sister.
Seeing the shock on Shu Yan, Shu Li smiled bitterly and said, "At this rate, me and my children would all die. I must do this for them, if not for myself."
The family had already spent a lot of money on treating Pingan. Never mind about his grandmother, even his father started getting annoyed when he saw Pingan, which was why nobody objected to his sister's suggestion.
The moment that he agreed to it, he had already given up on Pingan. Pingan would die without treatment. As a stay-at-home housewife with no source of income, Shu Li had no authority at home.
Shu Li figured out that if her little sister had the courage to get a divorce, then why couldn't she? If she was to get a job, even if she only made 200 yuan a month, that would still be enough to support herself and her children. In any case, she could not be in a worse situation than she was right now.
"Are you sure about that?" Shu Yan looked up and down Shu Li. Has she been taken over by a transmigrator too?
Shu Li felt the creeps from being stared at by Shu Yan. She looked down at herself. She had on a pair of pants that was fading from too many washes and a short sleeve shirt that their neighbor no longer wanted – it was so big that it made her looked like a child wearing adult clothes. She looked back at Shu Yan.
Shu Yan had on shirt and dress pants that looked expensive, heels, a watch on her wrist, a sparkling necklace around her neck, and pearl earrings. If it wasn't for the fact that her features had not changed, Shu Li would never believe that this was her little sister.
They were born from the same parents and, in the past, her little sister wasn't even as pretty as her. Looking at her now, she looked younger, prettier, and rich. She wouldn't say that she could flare as well as Shu Yan did after the divorce but, at the very minimum, she would have to slave day and night and still don't get enough to eat and couldn't even save her own children.
"Will he agree to a divorce? You can't just get a divorced single-sidedly. If the man wants to drag it out, it can take years and dragging it out for so long is bad for both you and your children." Shu Yan felt that Shu Li's divorce might be tricker than her own.
"He will agree to it. He had someone else already. She is a widow. He would only be too eager to agree to it if I bring it up!" Shu Li knew all along that her husband had been having an affair; she just never bothered doing anything about it.
"He's having an affair? That makes it much easier." All she needed to do was do what she did again. She would even be able to squeeze some money out of him. Both children would go with their mother so why shouldn't the father shell out some child support?
Cancelling her ticket, Shu Yan took Shu Li with her to go look for Shu Jianyang.
"You want a divorce?" Shu Jianyang's eyes widened. He glanced over at Shu Yan. She wasn't the only who instigated it, was she?
Shu Yan rolled her eyes, "The divorce is Second Sister's own idea. You can ask her the details and hear it from her directly."
After listening to the story, Shu Jianyang slammed on the table. "Why didn't you tell me about this sooner?"
Sooner? What good would that have done? He was their brother but not their real brother. Shu Li didn't have the guts to look for Shu Jianyang.
"Third Brother, my thought is to do what I have done again and repeat what I have done to Ye Zhiqiang on Lu Qingwei," said Shu Yan with a smile.
Shu Jianyang stroked his chin. "Don't worry. I will take care of it."
Just as Shu Li had said, Lu Qingwei agreed to a divorce as she as she brought it up. The two, however, disagreed on the matters of the children. Lu Qingwei was okay with Shu Li bringing their son with her but not the daughter.
Their daughter was already 12 years old and could help out a lot at home. In a few years' time, she would be able to bring in a sizeable bride money. Naturally, Lu Qingwei did not want the daughter to leave with Shu Li.
Shu Yan had a pretty good idea what was going through his mind. She didn't have to the time to engage with him but had Shu Jianyang brought some of his men with him. When roughly 30 big, strong men spread out in the yard, Old Mrs. Lu and Lu Qingwei were intimidated right away.
They knew that Shu Jianyang was close with the mayor and the cops so there was no point in calling the cops. They had mistreated Shu Li in the past because Shu Jianyang would not have interfered with Shu Li's matters. Now that Shu Jianyang had stepped up, they no longer had the courage to yell at Shu Li.
"Xiao Li, you can't take both children with you. What would people in town say about me? You need to at least leave me with one of them." Lu Qingwei went for a softer approach when brute forcing was no longer an option.
"Sure. Then I'll have Pingan stay with you. I will take my daughter with me." Shu Li stared at Lu Qingwei. Seeing the reluctance on his face, she mocked, "There is no way I will leave my daughter with you. Who knows what kind of a person you will sell her to being an animal like you? I am already where I am but I do not wish that my daughter will have to go through what I had."
Shu Li's daughter followed behind her tightly. Her eyes reddened the moment she heard her mother's words.
She was genuinely frightened. What was she do to if her mother left with her brother?
"Don't worry. Mom will bring you with," said Shu Li as she held her daughter's hand.
"What? Are you reluctant?" said Shu Jianyang as he gave Lu Qingwei and his family a smile that wasn't a smile.
Lu Qingwei showed his yellowish teeth and smiled, "Third Brother, I really have a lot of respect for you. They are my children too. I don't think I am asking a lot for her to leave one of them behind."
"Yes, one of them. Daughter or son. For sure we will keep one." Shu Li's aunt gave Lu Qingwei a look.
Shu Li put her children over her own life. Compared to her healthy daughter, she would be more worried to leave her son behind.
Lu Qingwei got what his sister was trying to tell him and shouted. "That's right. You were the one asking for a divorce. I am not asking for a lot for one of the two children, daughter or son."
Lu Qingwei wasn't the only one who figured that out. Shu Yan, too, had figured that out. Shu Jianyang hrumphed. What a shameless bunch.
Shu Jianyang tossed a stack of photos onto the table and said, "Why don't you take a look at these first?"
In the photos were Lu Qingwei and the widow. The photos were not as shocking a Ye Zhiqiang's but it would for certain still stir up a storm in town.
Lu Qingwei's face turned beet red and he was speechless. "These are all fake. That wasn't me in them."
"Not you?" Shu Jianyang thew another stack of photos on his face. In the photos, Lu Qingwei went with the widow to the hospital. His sister was in one of them, stroking the widow's stomach with a happy look. "It wasn't your sister who's pregnant; it was this widow. Am I right?"
Lu Qingwei began sweating. His lips parted as he looked over at Shu Li. He liked through gritted teeth, "No, my sister is pregnant. We just happened to run into her."
"Oh," said Shu Jianyang. He clapped his hands and two burly men brought the widow over. "We took her for an ultrasound. Congratulations, it's a boy. If you insist that the child is not yours, I shall let the Sun family knows about this. You have any idea what they will say...... knowing that they are about to have a grandson?"
The Sun family was the widow's husband's family. They were somewhat powerful in town. They had only one son. He was gravely ill at the time but they had him got married anyway, hoping he would leave a child behind.
Unfortunately, he passed away shortly after getting married. The widow was a pitiful one as well, being sold by her parents to the Sun family and widowed at a young age. That being said, being pitiful was not a reason to try and rob someone else's husband.
Shu Jianyang had his suspicion that the Sun family had something to do it. They might want her to get pregnant even if it was someone else's child. It would be difficult for Lu Qingwei to keep this child. The Sun family might already know about it but just waiting for the pregnancy to stabilize before expressing their intentions.
Sure enough, Lu Qingwei's face changed colors. He knew full well that had the Sun family found out that the baby was a boy, they would for sure want to keep the child. It would be impossible for him to fight against the Sun family.
"I don't want to stay at the Sun family. No." The widow turned pale when she heard Shu Jianyang's words. She looked at Lu Qingwei with anticipation. "Didn't you say you are going to marry me? Get a divorce and I will marry you. I am carrying your child. She can have both the kids. If you like daughters, we can have more in the future."
Her words had basically confirmed everything.
Shu Jianyang nodded and the lawyer behind him pulled out a divorce agreement. "Mr. Lu, please read through this carefully and sign it if everything looks good to you."
With both evidences and witnesses, Lu Qingwei couldn't say anything else. He picked up the divorce agreement and started reading through it carefully. He was unhappy when he got to the child support part.
"I had been raising them this entire time. Even if we count till they are 18, I have already raised my daughter for 12 years and my son for 8. Even if we are the splitting it 50/50, I had already done more than half of that. Why do I need to shell out more money?"
The lawyer smiled at him and said, "Mr. Lu, the housework that Madam Su had performed also count as contribution. The children, up until they were 18 years old, should be supported by both parties, not to mention that you are the party at fault. If we are to take this to court, you might have to pay out a majority of your assets."
Lu Qingwei had no knowledge in this area. In their hometown, whatever the more powerful person said, went. Right now, Shu Jianyang was the more powerful one. He even had both witnesses and evidences. Lu Qingwei didn't stand a chance whether he was to take it to court or settle out of court.
"Hurry up. I don't have all day. Sign or we take this to court. I don't think this will take long," said Shu Jianyang with a smile.
The smile gave Lu Qingwei the creeps.
"I can pay child support, but 200 a month is too much." Lu Qingwei took his old man's job and it was a decent one. He made a total of 400 a month in all and he refused to pay out half of those.
"Okay, then a one time 20,000 yuan. You won't need to worry a thing about the children from this point forward," said Shu Jianyang with a threatening look.
20,000 yuan was not a small amount and, after all the money that they had spent on Pingan's hospital fees, they didn't have that much savings at home. Lu Qingwei said he didn't have that kind of money.
After bartering, they agreed on 18,000 yuan and he would not have to worry about hospital fees for college tuitions in the future.
Tears streamed down Shu Li's cheeks after the divorce papers were signed and the money was in hand. Nobody knew whether she was sad to leave the family or felt relieved.
"Don't worry too much. It will only get better from now on." Shu Yan comforted Shu Li with her arm around hers.
"Yes, it will." Shu Li trust that she would be able to support the three of them on her own.
The two children were very docile, especially Shu Li's son. They didn't fuss but were quite like dolls.
"Thank you, Third Brother. It wouldn't have gone so smoothly if it wasn't for you." Cousin was not the same as her own sister. She must be courteous with him. As for Shu Yan, she was her own sister. They could talk later in private. She appreciated Shu Yan's help and, should her sister need anything from her in the future, she would not say a second word.