Chapter 132: A Miserable Childhood Without Enough to Eat

The relationships here are truly a bit complicated; the proprietress is indeed Sheng Hanyu's maternal aunt, and the biological younger sister of Wang Yingzhi.

But the two sisters have vastly different personalities, completely unlike each other.

Back then, Sheng Hanyu's grandmother had her eye on the younger aunt, favoring her gentle personality and calm, unflappable way of doing things; originally, after Sheng Jiang met her, the two of them also got along quite well.

But later, for reasons unknown, Sheng Jiang suddenly proposed marrying Wang Yingzhi.

Before Wang Yingzhi was married, her personality wasn't very obviously exposed, and since his own son liked her, there was no reason for the old lady to disagree.

The younger aunt never married, and later she came to Jiangnan.

Originally, Sheng Hanyu didn't have much of an impression of this aunt, having only met her a few times, and Wang Yingzhi guarded against her as if she were a thief, refusing to let her husband and son have any contact with her at all.

But after that incident occurred, when he was in the most pain—pain so intense he was nearly driven mad—he suddenly received a text message.

The text was sent by his aunt, offering him advice and telling him to pull himself together as quickly as possible; even his pretending to be a Xiazi to hide his strength was all thanks to his aunt.

From then on, the two of them stayed in contact; whenever there was something inconvenient to say to others, Sheng Hanyu would tell his aunt. She is an elder who is different from his grandfather, yet just as important.

Both mother and friend.

Only, to avoid unnecessary trouble, he never told anyone else about the contact between them.

The food here is delicious, and the crab roe buns are truly peerless; Shi Youxuan, who had never drunk alcohol before, had a surprisingly high tolerance, and after half a jar of low-alcohol wine, her little face was only flushed.

Being slightly tipsy is the best state to be in.

Shi Youxuan started to become talkative: "Sheng Hanyu, do you know why I can eat so much in one meal?"

"Why?"

This was also a question that had been circling in his mind.

Although the Shi Family is not a wealthy elite, their standard of living isn't bad, not enough to let a child go hungry.

Of course, in this day and age, even for the poor, there shouldn't be anyone in the country who can't get enough to eat.

Yet every time Shi Youxuan eats, she clears the plate like a whirlwind, eating very quickly, and she never leaves a single grain of rice in her bowl, just like the way people from the famine years described by her grandfather used to eat.

Shi Youxuan raised her eyebrows: "I was too smart when I was little, learning everything as soon as I tried; Shi Yuke was jealous of me and always went to Dad and Jiang Yadan to badmouth me, slandering me for stealing her things."

"Dad would investigate, and when he found out Shi Yuke was lying, he would criticize her severely, but Jiang Yadan never asked or investigated; as long as my sister complained, she would hit me."

"I would complain too, and every time I got hit, I would go crying to Dad when he got home, and then Dad would argue with Jiang Yadan... later on, Jiang Yadan stopped hitting me and switched to starving me."

Shi Youxuan's expression began to turn pained: "The feeling of being hungry is really hard to bear, especially uncomfortable, as if a hundred cat claws are scratching at your heart and liver... later on, I stopped complaining."

"Although I stopped complaining, they found a shortcut to deal with me; whenever they were unhappy, they would starve me for a meal, or two."

"And later, I developed this habit; when Dad was home, I would eat quickly and eat a lot during meals, so even if he wasn't home, I wouldn't be afraid of having no food to eat; eating one meal could last me for three..."

The person speaking seemed to be telling someone else's story, but Sheng Hanyu felt very uncomfortable inside.

He hadn't expected that the optimistic, innocent Shi Youxuan had actually suffered so much unfair treatment in her childhood.

After the meal, Shi Youxuan had eaten too much as expected, and having just had a nap, she was now full of energy and urgently needed to go out for a stroll.

The aunt called for a boat, and the two of them sat on it; Shi Youxuan admired the scenery along the way, while Sheng Hanyu watched her.

Shi Yuke's engagement banquet was a great success.

Bai Xue boasted to her sister-in-law: "You didn't know, did you? Your daughter-in-law isn't stupid at all, and she didn't really go missing; in fact, she has been living perfectly well in Jiangzhou under a different identity the whole time, it's just a pity for you, being disliked by your son and nearly forced by the old man to divorce..."

If it hadn't been for the old man's sudden death, he had wanted Sheng Jiang and his wife to divorce at the time.

If Wang Yingzhi had discovered this first, it would mean her own daughter-in-law was better than Bai Xue's!

But since Bai Xue discovered it first, the meaning was completely different when it came out of her mouth.

It was just that Sheng Hanyu didn't have her as a mother, neither on the surface nor in his heart; it was useless for her to boast about her son and daughter-in-law to Bai Xue in the future.

Since others didn't take her seriously, what was there for her to boast about?

Especially when Bai Xue told her that the daughter-in-law had actually given 150 million as a gift for her sister's wedding!

Wang Yingzhi nearly fainted from anger.

She didn't even finish her meal before she angrily dragged her husband away.

The two of them didn't go home, but went straight to the Sheng Hanyu Villa to find their son.

Sheng Jiang didn't want to go, as going was just asking for humiliation, but his wife insisted on dragging him along as company, and he couldn't refuse her.

After arriving at the Villa, they didn't even get through the main gate; the butler blocked them outside and told them not to come here again, as this was the Eldest Young Master's order.

Wang Yingzhi pestered them relentlessly, so Sheng Jiang went back alone.

Even if she pestered them by herself, it was useless; the butler only left one sentence: "In any case, I cannot let you in; if you are willing to wait, you can wait outside."

The daytime sun was scorching, and there was no shade in front of the gate; the butler sat comfortably in the air-conditioned house, yet let her bake outside.

As soon as Wang Yingzhi got angry, she stopped waiting and went straight to the Dingsheng Company to find him.

The result was the same as at the Villa—she didn't even get through the main gate!

According to Bai Xue, the daughter-in-law was the Yingzi who had been the talk of the town recently; Wang Yingzhi wasn't discouraged after being rejected twice, and ran to the Tianma Company to find her.

The receptionist at the Tianma Group didn't have such a nasty attitude toward her, but she still didn't see anyone; the front desk said the Chairman didn't usually come to the company, and of course, she wasn't there now, and no one knew where she had gone.

After going around in circles, she hadn't found anyone.

Wang Yingzhi went home and complained to her husband; her husband said she was worrying blindly, that their son and his wife were traveling out of town just to avoid attending the wedding.

He also said the sky-high gift money was fake, just a screenshot forged by Shi Yuke herself to add prestige to her own face.

Only then did Wang Yingzhi breathe a sigh of relief, as long as she wasn't outdone by Bai Xue, but she quickly reacted and asked her husband how he knew such details.

Sheng Jiang's expression was a bit flustered; no matter what, he refused to tell the truth, but later, unable to withstand Wang Yingzhi's constant questioning, he told the truth, saying their son and daughter-in-law were with Wang Yinghao.

Wang Yingzhi went crazy on the spot and called Wang Yinghao to give her a good scolding.

She cursed her for seducing her husband, attempting to monopolize her son, and having bad intentions and not keeping her word...

She even slandered her younger sister, saying that the gift money Shi Yuke received was her idea, just to play the good person.

Letting her own daughter-in-law give such a huge sum of money to an outsider instead of to her!

Wang Yinghao hung up the phone in silence; she did not care about her sister's verbal abuse, for the mouth grew on her, and she could curse whatever she pleased.

However, from the abuse, she also heard a piece of useful information—the gift money was 150 million!

Something was not right.

Sheng Hanyu and Shi Youxuan did not avoid her when they chatted, and she knew the purpose of their outing; would they really take out such a large sum of money to save face for her when they were not even attending the wedding?

This was not a matter of money, but rather that Shi Youxuan seemed to have been used by someone.