Chapter 332: Return

The treatment for one's own wife is definitely different from that of a cousin like Su Qing.

After returning home for her postpartum recovery, Wang Yan did not stop the medicinal meals, though they went from two or three times a day to once a day, or even just a few spoonfuls. Regardless, from heavy tonics to light ones, from warm tonics to mild warm tonics, he made a little something every day, determined to replenish the vitality Yang Tao had expended.

With this, plus the constant care for the baby, the washing and cleaning, he was basically never idle. The wedding dress shop was still open, and business was still ongoing; it certainly couldn't stop. Fortunately, he had rewritten all the data in his mind, so now, besides taking care of Yang Tao and their son, he basically sat in front of the computer doing post-production work. From time to time, he also had to maintain the "Tao Yan" app, fixing bugs and adding features.

"Tao Yan" had been online for a few months. Although there were quite a few people cursing it, the ratings were above average, and the users were not limited to the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. With the users' own word-of-mouth, there was a certain level of active users nationwide. Such a situation naturally attracted the attention of some investment institutions.

Their ideas were naturally very simple, and the reality was indeed very simple; it was basically picking up money. The users of "Tao Yan" were basically people who had aspirations for marriage and were the main customers of the wedding industry. As long as they integrated offline wedding services into "Tao Yan," leveraged its platform role, opened up a community, allowed users and merchants to upload videos for display, communication, and comments, and allowed wedding-related companies from all over to join—either by paying a certain fee or by taking a commission—it wouldn't be surprising if, after a few rounds, the capital doubled or tripled.

It was just that Wang Yan had no intention of getting into the internet business again; he had no thoughts of building a community or doing social networking. "Tao Yan" was purely a window for their own shop to release information and display new products. Besides, his vision was too high now; he looked down on the money that could be earned. After all, he had started playing with aerospace engineering and was longing for the stars and the sea; it would be shameful to still be there researching how to be a middleman to earn those few pennies.

The mother-in-law knew her precious son-in-law was taking good care of things and didn't need her to worry too much, so she didn't spend all day busy here, only taking time every morning to come over and see how her grandson was doing. After all, Su Qing was at home with a two-month-old baby, and she treated Su Qing like a daughter; she couldn't just let her stay at home alone to take care of the baby.

This day, Xue Sumei came over unusually late in the afternoon. As soon as she entered, she looked like she had something on her mind, and only when she saw her grandson did she let out a long, relieved sigh.

Glancing at Wang Yan, who was sitting to the side and equally confused, Yang Tao couldn't help but ask, "What's wrong, Mom? Seeing you looking so unhappy, did something happen?"

"Sigh..." Xue Sumei started with a long sigh and said in a low voice, "Weiwei had a miscarriage..."

"Ah? Weiwei had a miscarriage?" The news was too explosive, and Yang Tao couldn't help but widen her eyes. "How did that happen? Wasn't she fine when she came over a few days ago?"

"She was fine; it just happened suddenly. The doctor said it was chromosomal abnormalities combined with the fact that Weiwei had had a few abortions before, plus the pregnancy, and something about the placenta—anyway, it was a mess, and in the end, they said it was a natural miscarriage. And this time, she had a D&C; counting the previous abortions, even if she gets pregnant in the future, she might have habitual miscarriages. In short, she won't be able to have children in this lifetime. Sigh... you don't know, Lan Caiping cried so miserably she almost fainted. She's lying in the hospital recovering now. Your Uncle Li, who was so happy before, is now staring blankly at Li Kui in the hospital. That scene, even I find it distressing to look at."

Xue Sumei shook her head and said, "You could say this is evil begetting evil. You tell me, what kind of things did Weiwei do before? If she hadn't done those things, why would it come to this today? Brother Li and Li Kui were both looking forward to the baby being born, and now, it's all ruined. I reckon there's a knot in their hearts, and Weiwei and Li Kui's life together will be difficult from now on. It's just a pity for Lan Caiping; she was so happy when she was pregnant and getting married, and now she's suffering so much. I'm afraid she feels like dying."

"It really is, sigh, Weiwei is too miserable. Mom, let's not talk about those old, rotten stories anymore. Weiwei is reaping what she sowed now. Aunt Lan never knew from beginning to end, so let's not mention it."

Yang Tao didn't know what she was feeling; she felt sorry for Lan Weiwei's encounter, but at the same time, there was indeed a sense of relief in her heart that was hard to put into words.

"Do I need you to remind me? Don't you think I would have said it earlier? If Lan Caiping knew about all those rotten things Lan Weiwei did, she might have really collapsed this time."

Yang Tao looked at Wang Yan: "Why don't you buy some things tomorrow and go to the hospital to see them? Such a big thing happened, and our two families are quite close; it wouldn't be good not to go."

"Fine, I'll go see them tomorrow morning."

Wang Yan had no objections; it was just hypocritical social interaction. He wasn't surprised to hear this news; after all, he had made a judgment before. And even if Lan Weiwei's baby had really been born safely, just as he had thought before, the two of them probably wouldn't have lasted long, and not divorcing would have just been for the sake of the child. Now it's perfect; the next time Li Kui and Lan Weiwei have a conflict, once this matter is brought up, it will basically be over.

Xue Sumei nagged for a while, doted on her grandson for a while, and then stood up with an "Oh my": "Alright, I'm going back. You two take good care of my grandson. If anything goes wrong, see how I deal with you two."

It was Xue Sumei's daily, worried nagging, clearly in a beautiful mood. Since she hadn't seen her own grandchild, she had to take good care of the one she had, making sure he was healthy.

"Are you still worried about me, Mom? I guarantee he'll grow up strong." Wang Yan responded with a chuckle: "It's this late already; why don't you eat here before going back?"

"No, Su Qing is still waiting at home; I have to go back and cook for her. It has to be you, Wang Yan. Otherwise, I don't even dare to imagine how I would take care of Taozi and then take care of Su Qing." Xue Sumei happily slung her small bag over her shoulder and said goodbye to her grandson: "Grandma is leaving, I'll come see you again tomorrow."

The little guy didn't understand anything, mumbling and blowing bubbles, his little hands grabbing randomly.

Unable to resist teasing him a couple more times, Xue Sumei finally left.

Watching the elevator close, Wang Yan closed the door and returned to the room, sitting on the bed and fiddling with the little guy who was kicking his legs blindly.

Yang Tao watched from the side with envy. Although she was the one who took care of him the most, whenever she fiddled with her son like Wang Yan was playing with a toy, the son would cry every time.

Pouting, she cursed him under her breath for being a little heartless, then called out to her lover: "You say, with such a thing happening, what will Weiwei do in the future?"

"What else can she do?" Wang Yan didn't even lift his head, grabbing the little guy's two hands and swinging them left and right, saying nonchalantly: "If they can live together, they live; if they can't, they divorce. It's such a simple matter; don't worry about other people's business."

"Who's worrying about her?" Yang Tao served him a small fist with annoyance: "To tell you the truth, I'm even a little happy in my heart; I just can't help but let my imagination run wild."

"What's there to think about? Anyway, it's Li Kui and the two of them living their lives; we'll just watch the fun from the side. If they don't live well, we'll just laugh; if they live well, that's their ability. Do you want them to live well or badly?"

"I don't know either, let nature take its course. After all, we don't have such deep hatred; we can't curse them, right?"

Wang Yan took a moment to give a thumbs up: "It has to be my wife who is magnanimous."

Yang Tao rolled her eyes: "Stop saying useless things; I'm hungry, hurry up and go buy groceries and cook for me."

"Yes, ma'am." Wang Yan responded, turned around, and trotted out; neither the adult nor the child could go hungry...

The next day, Wang Yan went to offer condolences to Lan Weiwei, who was pale, with red and swollen eyes, clearly having cried her tears dry, lying on the bed without saying a word. He also said some comforting words to Li Kui, who clearly hadn't rested well, and said some nice things to Li Zhaoxian. After dealing with it, it was over.

Following that, Lan Weiwei and Li Kui's life was, of course, as expected, not easy.

After the miscarriage, Li Kui naturally wouldn't say anything to stimulate Lan Weiwei, trying his best to repair the trauma in her heart. But Lan Weiwei knew that Li Kui wanted a child. So she brought up the matter of adopting a child again. After more than half a year, they finally found a healthy, three-year-old child with no problems and brought him home.

They had thought it out well; the two of them would educate him well and never tell the child the truth in the future. But the trivialities of life always had such and such conflicts.

Since discovering she was pregnant, Lan Weiwei had quit her job as a yoga instructor. Now, after getting married, the child was gone, but they had adopted one, so she didn't go out to work again, spending all day at home watching the child. But after all, he wasn't her own flesh and blood; as time went on, Lan Weiwei's enthusiasm faded, and she wasn't as attentive to the adopted child. Instead, she started consuming and started maintaining herself. She felt that only if she remained beautiful forever could Li Kui's heart remain with her.

But it was a pity that what Li Kui cared about was the child. He accepted that he wasn't his own flesh and blood, but he couldn't just not take care of him, right? Staying at home all day, with nothing to do, couldn't she take care of a child who was already three years old? And Lan Weiwei's consumption wasn't low. His annual salary was a million, that was true, and it was true he could spend money on his woman, but spending forty, fifty, or sixty thousand every month was a bit wrong. The most critical thing was that it was spent on things he thought were of no use, and more importantly, he didn't see much of that money being spent on the child.

Not to mention the distant ones, just look at the nearby Wang Yan and Yang Tao; weren't they much richer than him? Although they lost more than a hundred thousand every month, that was a different matter from pure spending, and now their fame had spread. Although they were still losing money, it was visible that they were about to become profitable. Besides other consumption, Yang Tao didn't spend that much.

So inevitably, the two of them had arguments and brought up old scores.

Lan Weiwei felt very aggrieved. Who was she spending money for? Wasn't it to let Li Kui enjoy it? Could this be blamed on her? Talking and talking, wasn't it just because she couldn't give birth? Before they got married, they didn't say these things, and adopting a child was also their suggestion; how come now she was the one with the problem?

Li Kui was also very aggrieved. He worked hard to earn money just for his wife and child to be happy. As a result, the wife was happy, the child didn't feel anything, and the money was spent no less. If he scolded her, it was because he didn't love her anymore, and it was because he was blaming her for the miscarriage. Damn it.

So naturally, less than a year after they got married, they divorced.

Li Kui wasn't a fool; love couldn't be eaten as a meal. So when they got married, he didn't add Lan Weiwei's name to the property deed, only giving a lot of bride price. Although Lan Weiwei admitted she loved money at the time, to show she dared to love and hate, she didn't make a scene about adding her name. So after the divorce, all Lan Weiwei got was the previous bride price, a closet full of clothes, bags, and shoes; nothing else. But compared to her income from working, she had earned, and earned big.

Lan Weiwei naturally wouldn't want the adopted child; that child was innocent and couldn't be abandoned again. Li Kui worked all day and had no time to take care of him, so in the end, he was handed over to Li Zhaoxian to raise, and Li Kui took time to come over to accompany him.

Handing that child over to Li Zhaoxian was almost the same as handing him over to Xue Sumei, because after such a long time of contact, the two of them had already registered their marriage. It was just that both of them were embarrassed, only notifying some close relatives and friends, inviting them to a meal, and didn't make too much of a fuss.

Xue Sumei's life was quite happy; the two little ones hadn't grown up, and now there was an older one to accompany her. The key was that old Brother Li was considerate, and her precious son-in-law was filial. Besides needing to worry about Su Qing, there was nothing else she needed to be busy with.

As for her old rival Lan Caiping, after experiencing a series of blows, she naturally stopped trying to get involved. After her daughter's failed marriage, she no longer cared whether Lan Weiwei got married or not. The main thing was that Lan Weiwei currently had no market value; not only was she a divorcee, but she also couldn't have children, making her truly difficult to marry off.

After Lan Weiwei divorced, she became a yoga instructor again. She knew her conditions and wasn't in a hurry, just meeting people. Like Li Hongli, she occasionally dated boyfriends, and it looked quite good. Whether it was actually good or not, that wasn't for outsiders to know.

After the divorce, Lan Weiwei basically didn't hang out with Yang Tao, Jiao Yang, and Li Hongli much. She always knew she couldn't fit in, being above friends but far from the position of good friends. Now that she had experienced these things, she asked herself that she wasn't as shameless as Li Hongli, so she didn't come up to let people see her jokes.

Regarding this, Yang Tao knew, but had no thoughts. If she had any, it was just to reminisce about the distant childhood and the things that happened to everyone together. But her distant childhood was far less important than her own son's childhood now, so that was that; there was no one who couldn't live without anyone.

Since finishing her postpartum recovery, although she still spent most of her time at home, Yang Tao still couldn't stay idle and ran to the wedding dress shop to get busy, leaving Wang Yan at home to watch the child and do post-production work. When the child got a little bigger and could be exposed to the wind, and the weather was just right, and the new home wasn't far from the wedding dress shop, Wang Yan would take the child for a stroll to feed, and then stroll back home, basically becoming a homebody.

This situation only got better after weaning. Most of the time, he took the child to the shop for Yang Tao to take care of while busy, and a few times he gave him to the restless Xue Sumei to take care of, and only then did Wang Yan find time to do photography and work for free on film crews. The difference was that because his level had improved, plus his ability to make friends, he had already mixed into the film crews of big directors to work for free, making considerable progress.

What was fed back from this was that the level of the photographers in the shop improved accordingly, and the photos taken were better-looking. The most intuitive thing was that the price was higher year by year, but the business was simply too busy to handle.

Wang Yan had absolutely no thoughts of making it big and strong, so he never thought about opening branches or anything. Yang Tao was the same; she wanted to make the most beautiful wedding dresses, not open the biggest and most profitable wedding dress shop. So the shop was still that shop, not expanded at all. And after the wedding dress shop broke even and stopped losing money, Yang Tao didn't even care about the specific operations of the shop, but promoted her subordinate to be the store manager, while she focused on designing wedding dresses and also made many designer friends, immersing herself in the career she loved; this was one of her happinesses.

After the child started school, the two of them had more time, and plus they were an old married couple, Wang Yan also started not to be in a hurry. A few times, he would take Yang Tao, who had no inspiration and couldn't find the feeling, and their son, who didn't want to go to school and wanted to stay in bed every day, out for a trip. Of course, the place they traveled to was the city where the film crew was located. Most of the time, he went out to run around by himself. Anyway, transportation was developed, and he often went out to wander for three or five days, and his little life was quite comfortable.

This time, he really didn't do anything; besides developing photography and related skills, the rest was just his wife, children, and a warm bed. He didn't have a feeling of being tired of it, and it was quite comfortable. He hadn't been idle for such a long time for many years. Although when he managed the company, he was mostly a hands-off manager, he still had to divide his energy and participate in the research of various projects. Although he looked quite idle, that was for his strength; his energy hadn't been consumed less.

Just like this, seven years passed in a hurry, and it was New Year's Eve of 2020 again.

In Xue Sumei's home, the TV was turned on, but no one was watching.

"Just now I sent a message to Li Kui's wife, saying they haven't woken up yet. Xifeng is snoring inside, and Brother Li is also confused there. I've finally seen it; these men really need Wang Yan's good drinking capacity. Every year, it's him helping us get busy."

Xue Sumei looked at her precious son-in-law rolling out dumpling wrappers and gave a thumbs up.

Wang Yan held the rolling pin, his hands moving without stopping, and said with a smile: "It's just that they can't drink, not that my drinking capacity is big."

Li Kui naturally couldn't stay single. Later, through an introduction, he found another wife, from Beijing, an only daughter, with good family conditions, and she was also quite good. Not to mention anything else, at the very least, she had no opinion about the child Li Kui had adopted before and took very good care of him. Over the years, she had also given birth to two children for Li Kui.

Because of Li Zhaoxian's relationship, everyone visited quite frequently, so they simply ate lunch together at a restaurant during the New Year, and it was quite good to be lively. In the evening, Li Kui went to his father-in-law's house to eat, while Li Zhaoxian, Xue Sumei's legal partner, was on this side.

Cousin Su Qing was wrapping dumplings, nodding in approval: "That's true, every year Wang Yan is the one who stays sober until the end."

"Don't be low-key at this time; didn't you always say you were powerful before? Now that you're really powerful, you still won't admit it." Yang Tao, who was already forty years old and still as beautiful, not eroded by the years, looked at her man with a chuckle.

"Dad is powerful!" Not far away, sitting on the carpet, playing with toys with Duan Qinglan, who was two months older than him, Wang Yang, who was already in the first grade, gave his dear father the highest evaluation.

Duan Qinglan was unconvinced from the side: "My dad is also powerful."

"If he's powerful, why is he sleeping?"

Duan Qinglan was speechless, got up, trotted over, and hugged Yang Tao's thigh: "Little Aunt, he's bullying me."

"Hey, you unlucky child." Su Qing looked at her daughter, not knowing whether to laugh or cry: "Yang Yang didn't do anything, just bullied you? Is your butt itching?"

Duan Qinglan stuck out her tongue and quietly ran to the side.

Wang Yang didn't care about his sister's false accusation at all, threw the toy to the side, ran over, dragged a chair, stepped on it: "Grandma, Big Aunt, Mom, I'll help you wrap dumplings."

"I want to wrap too, I want to wrap too." Hearing the movement, Duan Qinglan, who had just sat down, ran over again.

Yang Tao waved her hand: "Go, go, go, you two don't make trouble, go watch TV."

"It's fine, let them wrap. Come, Grandma will teach you." After all, it was affection across generations; Xue Sumei had always been various kinds of protective of these two little guys, spoiling them to no end.

Fortunately, Wang Yan was first-class at raising children. Whether they studied well or not, they weren't the kind who made unreasonable trouble and cried loudly for no reason. Mainly, he didn't care about the children's academic performance, and he didn't care about hobbies or anything; if the children wanted to learn, they learned; if they didn't, they didn't.

For so many years, with so many children, not talking about other aspects, he only cultivated two in the general direction: one was the habit of reading and thinking, and the other was exercising the body. As long as they maintained these, they wouldn't be too bad.

Mainly, it was also because he, as a father, had money and could guarantee the children's future life. If it were his current living environment, or the environment he grew up in, then there would be no question; if they didn't study, what were they waiting for? Study hard, get into a good university, choose a good major, and find a job steadily; that was better than anything.

Laughing and talking, they finished wrapping the dumplings, woke up the confused Li Zhaoxian and Duan Xifeng, and after they sobered up, the dumplings were also boiled. There was no intention of waiting until twelve o'clock to stay up for the New Year; they weren't allowed to set off fireworks, the Spring Festival Gala wasn't good to watch, and the great abundance of material goods didn't have the original feeling; eating early and sleeping well was better than anything.

The family didn't have much to say; after all, they were always eating and drinking together when they were free, and it wasn't much different during the New Year. What made the New Year's Eve dumplings delicious were the childish words of the two little guys, Wang Yang and Duan Qinglan.

After eating, Wang Yan's family of three didn't stay long; there wasn't enough space to sleep, and it wasn't far away. Yang Tao drove Wang Yan and his son, and amidst the lights of ten thousand homes and the neon lights of the whole city, they returned home smoothly.

Wang Yang was young after all, and his vigorous energy was consumed quickly, so he had long fallen asleep. Wang Yan carried him upstairs, didn't wake him up to wash, but put him directly on the bed and covered him with a quilt. He and Yang Tao, after washing, lay back in the quilt of the master bedroom, talking aimlessly about midnight gossip. On such a day, the main content of the gossip was nothing more than reviewing the past and looking forward to the future. Just like this, unknowingly, Yang Tao, who had been busy all day, also fell into a deep sleep.

Borrowing the faint light from outside, Wang Yan gently got up to cover Yang Tao with the quilt, then left the bedroom, stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window on the balcony, turned back to scan the home he had stayed in for several years, and finally fixed his gaze on the large family portrait of the three on the wall.

That was taken when Wang Yang was one year old. The little guy was quite spirited, nestled in his arm, looking at the camera with curious eyes. Yang Tao leaned on his shoulder, stretched out a slender jade finger, poking her own son's little face, familiarly revealing a mouthful of small white teeth, and in her smiling eyes, there was satisfaction, happiness, and the feeling that having you in this life was enough, and there were no regrets in this life.

Wang Yan's deep eyes were frighteningly bright in the dark night. He pulled up the corners of his mouth and smiled slightly.

While smiling, he didn't hesitate, skillfully pulled out the panel, operated the selection...

A mysterious blue light was born out of thin air, instantly magnified from a point, and swallowed Wang Yan, who still had a smile on the corners of his mouth... ===== CHAPTER 333 =====