Chapter 224: Habits
Translator: Lonelytree Editor: Millman97
Ye Shuang’s ability to read people’s lips was actually not bad, but she was not in the mood to challenge people’s privacy that day. What was there to read? It was definitely some shameless words as the man tried to push the failure onto the woman and vent on her.
Ye Shuang leaned against the wall to look at the café and helped raised the general good looks of the citizens in Chaohai. Eventually, she saw the man slam his palm on the table. He had probably finished venting. He picked up his box and left. Ye Shuang cursed the man silently—he actually had the gall to make the woman pay for the bill!
After the horrible man left, Mrs. Zuo still sat where she was. However, her gaze moved blankly to the window like she could not understand how things had devolved to this situation.
Ye Shuang narrowed her eyes. Even though she was looking from a far, she understood Mrs. Zuo was still in the middle of shut-down. Her mind probably did not know how to respond to the scenario ‘my lover doesn’t love me’. Therefore, when it happened, the mind could not process the situation… and went into shut down.
After a while, the lover stumbled out of the building with rain clouds all over him. Mrs. Zuo seemed to have noticed him as well as her body leaned subconsciously toward the window. Her palm stuck to the window, and her eyes widened as she focused on her lover downstairs. What if he turned around? What if it was all a joke earlier?
Alas, the lover did not once turn around as he disappeared around the corner. Hope slowly dwindled in Mrs. Zuo’s eyes. She lowered her head and slowly moved back to her seat.
“Brother Ye!” A Lamborghini stopped by the road, and Zuo Feiyang leaned across two seats to poke his head out the window. He waved his hands at Ye Shuang happily. “How come it’s you today? Where’s the girl? And what were you looking at?”
Zuo Feiyang sounded quite excited as he fired off the series of question. Without waiting for Ye Shuang to answer, he crawled back to the driver’s seat, followed Ye Shuang’s earlier gaze, and turned to look. “Hmm, it’s sister-in-law?”
“Former sister-in-law now,” Ye Shuang corrected.
“So soon‽” Even Zuo Feiyang was shocked by this news. “Brother is moving faster and faster these days.”
“Hmm.” Ye Shuang sighed softly. Realizing certain things were not meant to be discussed by the roadside, she opened the door of the pa.s.senger seat and crawled into it. “Earlier, I saw the lover break up with your sister-in-law, probably because she is of no value to him anymore. Now you’re the only one still fis.h.i.+ng, right?”
“Yes, the person on my sister-in-law’s line has already been exposed, so there is nothing for them to do there. I’m currently discussing the contract with people from the Xi Hwa Organization, and they are already planning to send over their business. Brother will then find the perfect opening to block it. Are you going for lunch? Since I have time, do you mind if I join you?”
Zuo Feiyang then started the engine and very naturally gave Ye Shuang zero chance to say no. While he was driving, he did not stop talking either and used his big brother’s business to fill up the conversation. “My brother surely has tripped on himself this time. I’ve already said it is not that simple to have a contractual marriage just for the sake of having children. Compatibility is more important, and on top of that, there has to be an emotional basis as well. At the time, he called me juvenile, but see? I’m right, aren’t I?”
“Your brother has a different way of seeing things compared to you.” Ye Shuang sighed. “In your mind, a couple has to show each other support, but with your brother’s personality, he must have already a.s.signed a role for his wife. For example, number one, to have children; number two, to welcome the guests; number three, take care of the family… Actually, the first responsibility is the most difficult—the rest can be done by hiring a professional butler.”
One of the most difficult things in life was not getting things that one asked for. From the very beginning, Zuo Yuanhang did not ask for a wife—it was just that there was such a need to have this person in his life to complete a goal that he had set for himself. Since there was no ‘asking’ from the beginning, then what was there to be sad about?
Zuo Feiyang placed himself in his brother’s shoes and sighed. “You’re right.”
Ye Shuang tried to not laugh.
Zuo Feiyang looked at the rear-view mirror. “Were you feeling sorry for my sister-in-law earlier?”
“A bit.” Ye Shuang nodded in admission. “I mean, it’s quite pitiful that she has fallen to this state, chased out of the marriage with nothing, unable to go back to her maternal home, and the person that she did all this for has revealed his real ident.i.ty. Furthermore, I hear your brother has stripped her of the right to visitation.”
Technically speaking, in terms of the law, this was a null clause. Parents always had the right to visit their children, and no one had the power to remove that right.
However, since Zuo Yuanhang had listed the clause, it was probably not for outsiders and the judge’s benefit but was used to warn Mrs. Zuo of the things that she could not do.
You wish to betray me? Fine. In this world, there is more than the law that could be used to organize some things. When the security comes to chase you out, even if you’re the biological mother, you’ll have no choice but to weep at the corner. Want to complain? Then you have to be prepared to fight it out with me.
Zuo Feiyang shrugged and said, “This is because of what she did on her own. I know you pity her, but do not reach out to help her. I’m not cruel, and I’m not trying to mock people behind their back, but my sister-in-law is a bit… how shall I put this? She’s like a leech, not because she is greedy, but when she finds someone that she can rely on, she will stick to you until you’re all empty and dry.”
“How so?” Ye Shuang asked. Even though Zuo Feiyang might have plenty of complaints about his brother, he would always stand on his brother’s side to defend against outside threat.
As annoying as my family can be, he is still my family, and no one can bully him.
Before Mrs. Zuo’s extra-marital affair, Zuo Feiyang had always been kind to her.
Zuo Feiyang thought about it and came up with a serious explanation. “It’s also got to do with her personality—you should know this about my sister-in-law. She’s the type that was molded by the traditional education, expected to follow the father before marriage, follow the husband after marriage, and follow the son after the husband’s death. Even though our current society has softened, the core is still the same. She is always reliant on others to survive. If you help her, then she will rely on you and treat you as her religion and so on. You might just be there to help her in an emergency, but it is different from her perspective. If you help her once, she will stick to you forever. Tell me then, what else can you do other than continue to help her? Kick her out to die after helping her? In that case, better to not help her at all.”
Ye Shuang understood what Zuo Feiyang was trying to say. In conclusion, Mrs. Zuo’s personality could be summed up with ‘being resigned to destiny’.
If there was someone there for her, she would stick to said person; if there was not, she would die. If someone pitied her and lent her aid once, she would treat them as the light of her world. Then what would Ye Shuang do? Help her forever? Being nice had its limit too.
Ye Shuang thought about it. “To put it simply, this is a forced habit, a form of reaction that is cultivated and not something that cannot be changed.
“For example, when someone scolds you with a curse word and your reaction is to slap said person, you’re a person with a fiery personality; if the reaction is to hide, you’re cowardly; if the reaction is to smile while coming up with a revenge plot, then you’re cunning.
“With someone permissive of your habit, there’s no need for it to happen many times, just three times of every ten times, then the habit will continue. However, if the habit is not cultivated, as dumb as some people can be, the habit will eventually be changed.”
This was a method to change someone’s personality. Why would a university student’s personality get more rounded after they enter the society? This was because a communal lifestyle would slowly exhaust their original personality, and this was normally called societal experience.
After one wore the mask long enough, it would become real. It was the same with habit and personality. If someone continued it long enough, it would adopt into a new rhythm.
Zuo Feiyang hummed. “You might have a point there, but who has the time to slowly educate her? She’s not a child anymore, you know.”
Furthermore, rearing a child was simpler than this. A child’s habit was nurtured since they were young, meaning they started with a blank page. However, Mrs. Zuo already had a fixed personality, and to correct that, one had to wipe out the original personality first. That would take years.
“In any case, I’m not that free, but for the sake of my nephew and nice, I moved 2,000,000 into sister-in-law’s personal account. If she does not waste it, she’ll be able to survive on the interest alone—that’s the most I can do.”
While the light was red, Zuo Feiyang leaned on the steering wheel and sighed. “Before the marriage, my brother told her that the marriage was just a cooperation. The benefits and status that the Zuo family gave her were not great, but she was not allowed to intervene into the family business, and my brother would have no time to cultivate relations.h.i.+p with her. To be fair, the terms were quite harsh, but such is life. No one will be able to gain all the good benefits. The husband has wealth, looks, a good background, and is kind to the family? That only exists in fiction. Since she didn’t say anything back then, why regret it now?”
“Humans are emotional creatures.” Ye Shuang sighed. “Since you’ve already given her the money, I suppose that’s that.”
What would happen to Mrs. Zuo in the future would depend on herself. People could live on bird nests and good wine, but people could also live on buns and vegetables. She would have to choose her own path. Even if life became difficult, that was her own choice, and if she really was not satisfied with her current situation, she would need to depend on herself.
Zuo Feiyang pouted and raised his head to look at the light. It was green. He sat up and continued to drive. “By the way, Brother Ye, let’s not talk about sister-in-law anymore. My dad told me to confirm with you, you have access to a talent storage, right? Is it possible to find someone to be his daughter-in-law?”
Ye Shuang gave him a side-eye. Who would be able to withstand the weirdoes at your family? Furthermore, that’s not the correct way to use the talent storage!
…
When Brother Shuang finished the three days in Chaohai and she changed back into Sister Shuang, she booked a ticket and returned to San Lin City. Coincidentally, she ran into Mrs. Zuo with luggage at the airport. It looked like she was leaving Chaohai as well.
Since she did not leave on the day of her divorce and there was nothing for her to pack, it was worth wondering what she had done during those past three days in Chaohai.
Returned to the Zuo family with regret? Tried to fight for her love?
Ye Shuang followed Mrs. Zuo and saw her walk to the hall that would lead her to the plane back to Jing Hu City. If that was the case, she was probably going to return to her maternal family. The result of that… it was hard to say, but the path would be difficult.
Ye Shuang tossed Mrs. Zuo out of her mind. She had her own problems to deal with back in San Lin City. The first thing was not going to Yao Zhixing’s home but to face Han Chu and the promo flyer that he tossed her.
“Voice acting training cla.s.s?” Ye Shuang looked at the flyer and was stunned. “Why do you want me to learn this?”
Han Chu was so relaxed sitting in Ye Shuang’s living room. He looked at her. “Your plan is too juvenile.”
She did not get it at all.
Ye Shuang rubbed the corner of her eyes and sighed. She placed her luggage in her room and changed before returning to the living room. “Brother Han, if you have something to say, just say it. I really don’t quite understand with just one sentence like that.”
Han Chu’s dark eyes stared at Ye Shuang for half a minute. His expression was one of sadness and worry. “I’ve put myself in your shoes to a.s.sess your situation. If people don’t know about your unique situation, it is hard for them to realize that the arrangement between you and Mr. Shuang has some issue to it. However, this doesn’t mean that it will not attract suspicion over time. Indeed, you ‘two’ always leave the city for work, and there is only one that will stay in San Lin City. There is nothing wrong with that, but the two of you share one phone number—that is the real issue.”
Could people share one phone number? Yes. It was an illegal method of copying sim card—it was not something legal. Therefore, this became the loophole. How did the two Ye Shuang’s manage to have one phone number? Did they rotate the usage of the phone?
Was anyone really that free?
“You need to go apply for a new sim card.” Han Chu was too lazy to explain his reasoning and told her the plans directly. “Go change for a new phone that can support dual sim card and then go train the skills necessary to switch between your male and female voice. Since you’re sharing the same body, finding the voice for the other persona shouldn’t be that difficult. Speaking on the phone has electrical distortion, so you only need to be sixty percent similar. This way, no matter who calls, you can use it to prove your existence and don’t need to come up with ridiculous excuses to explain the other person’s disappearance.”
How come I did not think of such a perfect plan‽ Ye Shuang’s eyes almost fell out of her skull.
If she had thought about this, she would have saved herself so much trouble! Controlling the vocal chords was a small matter!