Chapter 4: Future Matters Will Be Dealt With Later
Chapter 4: Future Matters Will Be Dealt With Later
After the divorce, Zhan Lian doesn’t take back the house or car, nor does he give any explanation, so Anran continues to live there, intending to move out the moment Zhan Lian decides to reclaim them.
What also makes Anran feel quite embarrassed is that, at some unknown time, Zhan Lian silently transfers 100,000 yuan into her bank account. What does this mean? Anran doesn’t know. She can’t get in touch with Zhan Lian, and she privately assumes that this 100,000 yuan is Zhan Lian’s way of providing alimony or a settlement payment?
In addition to this, during their marriage, Zhan Lian transfers a monthly allowance into her bank account. Throughout that year, whenever he contacts her via WeChat, he sends her several thousand yuan as red envelopes, as if the envelopes contain not money but just a series of numbers. Altogether, with these unused amounts, she has at least 200,000 to 300,000 yuan.
Is it possible for an ordinary soldier to have so much money?!
Anran is not very bright growing up, and her academic performance is always below average. Zhan Lian graduated from a military academy; if he hadn’t joined the military, his college entrance exam scores might have earned him a spot at Peking University or Tsinghua University. As for her? Peking University of the Future! So, Anran didn’t get into college and ended up graduating from a technical school.
She doesn’t think much about the complexities of the situation; she just focuses on the fact that she wants a divorce. During their marriage, Zhan Lian doesn’t do anything to betray their relationship aside from not coming home. The money he gives her still needs to be repaid.
She wants to return the money to Zhan Lian, but he is unreachable. During their last three months of arguing, he blocks her on WeChat and QQ because he is fed up with her incessant demands for a divorce. Therefore, although Anran wants to repay him, she has no way to do so.
So she decides to temporarily use the money and deal with the future later.
Now, having accessed Zhan Lian’s money, Anran, who has no shortage of funds, thinks about hiring a postpartum caretaker from the hospital. The service costs around ten thousand yuan per month, which is very expensive, but the postpartum period is crucial for recovery. If she doesn’t take good care of herself, how will she have the energy to raise her daughter well in the future? Anran decides she needs to hire a caretaker to help her through the confinement period.
Then, in the future, when the child is a bit older, she could work in a TaoBao shop, or as a micro-business seller, or, at the very least, she could look for a job once her child is in preschool.
Thinking about the future like this, and with the child not around, her empty heart is unknowingly filled. Anran encourages herself to keep going and to work hard. She is determined to be a strong mother and a good mother.
"Bed 16, what’s your name?" A young nurse, dragging out her words, asks this question slowly, then listlessly lifts the curtain beside Anran’s bed.
Anran turns in bed, ready to respond, but is startled when she sees the nurse’s face exposed by the mask. The nurse’s skin, not covered by the mask, is a bluish-gray color, and her forehead is lined with bulging veins that pulsate visibly. The nurse’s appearance is eerily reminiscent of a corpse.
What is wrong with this nurse? Anran is too frightened to speak at first. The nurse stands by the bed, her eyes looking as if covered in a layer of gray, staring blankly at Anran without focus, appearing somewhat dazed, as if she herself doesn’t know why she is there.