Chapter 375 - 374: The Living Can Never Compare to the Dead

Lying in bed that night, Xue Yue couldn’t figure it out for the life of her.

"What do you think is wrong with my dad? The moment he saw Uncle Zheng, he was like a completely different person—so nasty and harsh."

He Lang chuckled and wrapped an arm around Xue Yue’s waist.

"It’s understandable. It’s a man thing. No guy can stand his wife’s heart belonging to another man, especially when there are kids involved. It’s normal for him to feel resentful."

Xue Yue frowned. "But he already knew all of this when he took my mom away with him. Why is he so bitter about it now?"

He Lang said lazily, "Knowing is one thing, but accepting it is another. What can you do? He loved her. But that doesn’t stop him from feeling awful about it. Judging from Dad’s reaction, he probably had this whole confrontation planned before he even came to Beijing City. Poor Uncle Zheng was completely blindsided. Not only did the woman he loved marry someone else, but now he finds out it was someone he knew—and someone he never used to give the time of day. Wouldn’t that make you furious? If it were me, I’d have died from anger."

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. I’m really curious. Was my mother-in-law some drop-dead gorgeous beauty, or did she just have this incredible charm? She’s been gone for so many years, yet she can still make two men come to blows over her."

Xue Yue shot him a look. "Of course my mom was beautiful, and she had a good personality too. At least, in my memory, she never said a single harsh word to us. I think they just can’t let it go."

He Lang snorted. "Being unable to let it go means they haven’t moved on. Look at Liu Hongxing’s reaction today—she looked like she’d been struck by lightning. She probably had no idea about any of this. Your dad is really something else, keeping secrets from the woman sleeping right next to him, treating her like a total stranger."

Xue Yue thought about it. ’He’s right, it does seem that way.’

Meanwhile, Liu Hongxing was finally starting to piece things together. She clung to Xue Xingjun’s arm, laughing and crying at the same time.

Xue Xingjun couldn’t bear to watch. "Mom, what’s wrong with you? If you’re sick, we should go to the hospital."

Liu Hongxing wiped her teary, runny nose and looked at Xue Xingjun. "Oh, Little Jun, my life has been such a waste. But at least I still have you. You have to make something of yourself. When you’re successful, married, and have kids, bring me over. I’ll cook for you and watch the children."

Xue Xingjun’s mouth twitched. "You don’t have to do that. I’m still young. I’m in no rush to get married."

Liu Hongxing sniffled. "I’m serious. I’ve been a fool for half my life. I used to compete with a dead woman, but now I understand that the living can never win against the dead. From now on, you’re my only reason for living. Everyone else can just get lost."

Xue Xingjun asked, confused, "You’re not going to care about Dad anymore?"

Liu Hongxing’s eyes were red. "Care? I’ve been with him for almost twenty years, and I’ve never once had a place in his heart. It wasn’t until today that I finally understood why he was so reluctant to come to Beijing City, why he wouldn’t even let you and me come. It’s because this city was *that woman’s* home. It’s filled with their memories. Li Wan Yi... oh, Li Wan Yi! You may be dead, but the living haven’t forgotten you. But what about me? What am I?"

Xue Xingjun knew that Li Wan Yi was his older brother and sister’s mother. He had never met her, but he’d heard her name come from his own mother’s mouth whenever his parents fought. Each time, his father would get furious.

Xue Xingjun more or less understood what had happened today. Seeing his mother in such pain, he couldn’t help but feel she was pitiful. ’But who’s to blame for all this?’

It was a night destined for sleeplessness for many.

The next morning, when Xue Yue got up, she saw her father was already in the courtyard.

"Dad, are you going back today?"

Xue Changlin nodded. "Yeah, it’s time to go back. Things are settled."

After breakfast, Xue Xingjun brought Liu Hongxing over. Liu Hongxing looked terrible, likely from a lack of sleep. She kept her eyes downcast and didn’t speak to anyone, not even sparing Xue Changlin a single glance.

Xue Changlin glanced at her and sighed inwardly. "Let’s go."

Xue Yue and Xue Xingjun saw the two of them off at the train station. Just before he entered the gate, Xue Changlin stopped in his tracks.

Xue Yue ran over. "What’s wrong, Dad? Did you forget something?"

Xue Changlin’s gaze was deep. He hesitated for a long time before finally saying slowly, "Tell Zheng Guofeng I’m leaving. I... will never come back to Beijing City. Your mother and I never got a marriage certificate. So legally, I wasn’t her husband."

By the time Xue Yue snapped out of her daze, Xue Changlin had already gone through the gate.

It took a long moment for Xue Yue to process what he had said. She gazed in the direction of the train with a complicated expression.

Half a lifetime had passed. No one could say for sure who was right or wrong back then. But what was lost was lost, and regrets were pointless now.

Xue Yue found Zheng Guofeng and relayed her father’s message. A fleeting light sparked in Zheng Guofeng’s eyes, but it was quickly extinguished, and he fell silent again.

Seeing him lost in thought, Xue Yue left without disturbing him.

Back at the office, Guo Zhaoyang approached her as soon as he saw her.

"Team Lead, the market analysis report you asked me to collect is ready. Please take a look."

Xue Yue took it and spotted a problem right away.

"Is this really all the bicycle sales for this year?"

Guo Zhaoyang nodded. "That’s what the data says."

Xue Yue frowned. "You and I are going out this afternoon."

After lunch, Xue Yue took Guo Zhaoyang to several major department stores to check on bicycle sales.

"You need a bicycle ticket to buy a bicycle," the manager of a state-owned department store explained to Xue Yue. "The price of bikes hasn’t gone up much in the last couple of years, but the tickets are incredibly hard to come by. The distribution of bicycle tickets is controlled by the state. For the most part, only employees of state enterprises—and usually high-level ones at that—can get them. It’s very difficult for ordinary people to get a bicycle ticket. You have to pull strings. And because the market has been opening up these last few years, the black market has been shut down, so a lot of people have lost their channel for buying tickets."

"Our store generally orders based on demand. A while ago, I took a trip to Han City. An old classmate of mine is a sales manager at a department store there. He told me their store has a surplus of over two hundred thousand bicycles, along with other goods. It’s all because of the ticket system."

Xue Yue was stunned. She and Guo Zhaoyang spent the whole afternoon investigating the market.

When He Lang came home that evening, he found Xue Yue hunched over her desk, scribbling furiously.

"Been busy with work lately?"

Xue Yue turned to look at He Lang and asked, "He Lang, how are the sales for appliances and bicycles at the supermarket?"

He Lang was a little surprised by her sudden question but answered anyway. "They’re okay, I guess. Those things are mostly sold to wealthy families. And wealthy families usually have someone working at a state-owned enterprise or they’re self-employed, so they’re not short on tickets or money. Imported appliances are expensive, but they sell well. As for the foreign exchange certificates you need for them, they haven’t been too hard to get these past couple of years, thanks to the market opening up."

After he finished, he saw Xue Yue looked pensive. "What’s wrong? Why the long face?"

Xue Yue didn’t hide it from He Lang. "I was looking at our department’s market analysis data for this year. Bicycle sales are sluggish. I heard that in some places, department stores have a surplus of over two hundred thousand bikes they can’t sell, while many people who want to buy one can’t."