Chen Xiliang wore a bitter smile.
This was the trouble with arranged marriages.
In Yangcheng, they placed great importance on having sons. Once a woman bore a son, she was considered to have made a great contribution. No matter how badly Chen Xiliang’s wife behaved, since she had given him a son, she was considered a great contributor to the Chen family. Even if she turned the house upside down, the Chen family had to tolerate her.
Chen Xiliang wasn’t incapable of tolerance. Although they had little in common, once married, he was certainly responsible for supporting his wife and child. He provided substantial money to the household. If his wife had been slightly more sensible, Chen Xiliang wouldn’t have minded handing over all his earnings for her to manage, as was the custom in his hometown.
But after he quit his job and started earning money, when he needed capital for business operations and asked his wife to provide funds, she refused!
Chen Xiliang’s newly established wholesale business nearly failed. It was only because his brother-in-law He Congsheng was a garment factory manager who allowed him to take goods first and pay later that he managed to survive that period.
Chen Xiliang was completely baffled until two months later when he discovered that his brother-in-law got married. Not only did they provide the four major household items to the bride’s family, but they also bought a motorcycle. Being from the same family, everyone knew each other’s financial situation. Since his father-in-law couldn’t possibly earn that much money, Chen Xiliang finally understood why his wife wouldn’t provide the funds.
She had been funneling all the money to her maiden family – how could she have any left to give?
After a huge argument, Chen Xiliang’s wife took their son back to her parents’ home, using the child as leverage to make Chen Xiliang yield.
At first, Boss Chen was anxious, visiting his in-laws every few days. Their condition was that all his earnings should be managed by his wife. How could Chen Xiliang agree when his business had nearly collapsed due to a lack of funds? Even his promise of providing sufficient monthly household expenses wasn’t acceptable. Despite offering over ten thousand yuan annually for household expenses – an amount few men could earn in several months during the 1980s – nothing was acceptable unless they could control all of Chen Xiliang’s business funds.
Unable to reach an agreement, they could only temporarily set aside their disputes.
His wife stayed at her parent’s home with their son, and Chen Xiliang provided 500 yuan monthly for living expenses.
Given the current prices, 500 yuan per month was more than enough to support not just an adult and child but could sustain her entire maiden family. This arrangement continued peacefully for two years. While Chen Xiliang’s marriage wasn’t completely dead in name only, they were only holding on for the child’s sake… Until this time, when Chen Xiliang was preparing to launch a women’s clothing brand and running around handling procedures. Word got back to them that Chen Xiliang had made big money and was going to open a factory to become a big boss. His wife’s family began instigating their daughter to return and “take control.”
Opening a factory was fine, but the financial authority couldn’t fall into someone else’s hands.
It wasn’t just a factory, but a clothing company.
That was the same thing – the company would need to hire people, and they wanted to place her younger brother in his brother-in-law’s company. After all, any available position shouldn’t go to outsiders.
The crucial problem was that Chen Xiliang’s company was a partnership with Xia Xiaolan. Although the money came from Zhou Cheng, who was an active official, the contract was signed by Xia Xiaolan, who had a separate agreement with Zhou Cheng privately. On the surface, Xia Xiaolan was Chen Xiliang’s partner. Chen Xiliang’s wife refused to believe that a woman would invest so much money in business, and hearing that Xia Xiaolan was extremely beautiful, she became more convinced that Chen Xiliang had developed feelings for someone else, using the company as a legitimate excuse to give money to Xia Xiaolan.
Exposing family problems was always embarrassing.
However since Xia Xiaolan had raised questions, if Chen Xiliang didn’t explain clearly, it would plant hidden dangers for their business.
“…That’s how things are. It’s quite ridiculous to talk about it.”
Chen Xiliang was animated when discussing business, but when it came to family matters, he deflated like frost-bitten eggplant.
After hearing this, Xia Xiaolan knew that Boss Chen’s marriage was likely doomed. Chen Xiliang wasn’t the type to be controlled – he was bold, daring to dream and act, how could he let others make decisions for him?
Although Xia Xiaolan had never been married, she knew Chen Xiliang’s wife wasn’t handling things properly.
It wasn’t wrong for women to want financial control due to insecurity – most families were like this in this era. Men earned fixed salaries and handed them over upon receipt, and wives managed all household expenses. With fixed salaries and relatively fixed monthly expenses, there were no means or excess money for financial management. The money saved through careful budgeting could only be kept in the bank.
Little by little, they saved for celebrations and funerals, buying major furniture and appliances. Every household lived this way. Chen Xiliang’s wife might have thought that since Chen Xiliang wouldn’t hand over his money, who would believe he didn’t have someone else?
It happened to be in the initial years of Reform and Opening Up, and Chen Xiliang and his wife had mismatched perspectives. His wife hadn’t updated her old mindset – salaried workers were different from self-employed entrepreneurs. The latter handled much more cash flow. While handing over all earnings wasn’t a problem, whoever managed the money needed to facilitate business operations with immediate access to funds.
Whoever managed the money needed to be responsible for financial management – money sitting idle would only depreciate.
Chen Xiliang’s wife didn’t understand financial management. It would have been fine if she just kept the money in the bank, but she secretly sent it all to her maiden family – no one could tolerate that.
It wasn’t that Chen Xiliang was stingy or wouldn’t allow his wife to help her maiden family. From what Xia Xiaolan knew about marriage, “respect” and “communication” were the two most important lessons between spouses. Respect came first, communication second. Disrespecting your partner’s opinions and arbitrarily taking family money outside – whether man or woman – was wrong.
Once it happened, it would cause the other party to lose trust.
How could Chen Xiliang dare to hand over money after that?
Ten or twenty thousand yuan might not matter much, but what about one or two hundred thousand, or even more?
Xia Xiaolan felt frightened thinking about it – the money she had invested was Zhou Cheng’s.
“This matter needs a solution. If she suspects something between us, can we continue our business partnership?”
Xia Xiaolan didn’t want to get involved in others’ private affairs.
She had been traumatized by some mentally disturbed people, the most recent being Ji Ya. Some people only follow their thoughts, living in their world, and refusing to listen to others’ explanations. Xia Xiaolan feared encountering another obsessive person.
Such an unpleasant business wasn’t worth pursuing.
In the cold winter, Chen Xiliang was so anxious that steam rose from his head.
Suspecting him and Xia Xiaolan?
For heaven’s sake, he called her “sister” – forcing such suspicions about him and Xia Xiaolan was like pushing him to jump into the sea!
The previous Boss Ke was a bloody example, losing face and remaining dejected for a long time.
“It definitely won’t affect our business. If there’s no other way, divorce is the only option… Before coming to Beijing, I had already proposed divorce.”
Chen Xiliang didn’t want to take this step. They had a child together, and it wasn’t possible to have any feelings at all. Separating now would be painful for everyone involved.
Xia Xiaolan opened her mouth but couldn’t say anything useful. Thinking of the legal news she had seen in her previous life, Chen Xiliang would be killed by his future young wife. Could preventing his divorce now save Boss Chen from his tragic future fate?
Xia Xiaolan felt this was more than just Chen Xiliang’s family conflict. Could foreknowledge change the destinies of those around her?
What right did she have to decide Chen Xiliang’s fate? Even if preventing his divorce could change his future fate of being kidnapped and killed, like the flutter of a butterfly’s wings, wouldn’t Chen Xiliang face new tribulations?
If Xia Xiaolan intervened, it would be like taking Chen Xiliang’s fate onto her shoulders – did she have that right?