The divorce of Cui Anhua and Liu Shichu caused an uproar in the capital. After all, there had never been any rumors about their bad relationship before, and Liu Shichu was a very qualified mistress and had a good reputation among the women in the capital, so everyone was wondering why they divorced.
Liu Shichu moved out of the Cui Mansion early and lived in the house she had bought before, avoiding those who tried every means to get the inside story from her.
But there is always someone she cannot avoid, and that is her mother's family.
Liu Shichu agreed to divorce Cui Anhua without informing her parents' family in advance. The Liu family only found out about it after the divorce. Naturally, they were extremely shocked and hurriedly called Liu Shichu back to ask what was going on.
Liu Shichu's parents had passed away long ago, and the person in charge of the Liu family now is her eldest brother Liu Jian. Although she is a concubine's daughter, she has a good relationship with Liu Jian, and they visit each other during the holidays. Therefore, after Liu Shichu divorced without prior consent, she had to go back and explain the situation to her eldest brother.
As soon as Liu Shichu returned to the Liu family, Liu Jian and his wife Wang were waiting for her. When he saw her come in, Liu Jian couldn't wait to ask, "What's wrong with you? Why did you divorce Cui Anhua out of the blue? Did Cui Anhua force you to do that?"
"Brother, he didn't force me. Although it was he who proposed the divorce, I don't want to continue living with him. Isn't this just perfect?" Liu Shichu replied quickly.
"What's good about it? Is divorce a trivial matter? Do you know how many people are laughing at you now? You said you have been married to Cui Anhua for twenty years and even have grandchildren, but Cui Anhua wants to abandon you when he is old. He has lost his conscience!" Sister-in-law Wang said indignantly.
Liu Shichu touched his smooth and delicate face and said, "Sister-in-law, I am not old at all, I am still young."
Wang looked at her with a look of disappointment: "Can you listen to the point? The point is not whether you are old or not, but that he abandoned you when you did nothing wrong. He is ungrateful and heartless!"
Seeing that his sister-in-law was really thinking about her, Liu Shichu hugged her arms and comforted her in a gentle voice: "Sister-in-law, you don't have to fight for me. I get annoyed just looking at Cui Anhua. I usually wish he would stay in Liangzhou and never come back. But this time he came back and wanted to divorce me, and I was relieved. I felt finally free and didn't have to face him anymore."
Liu Jian looked at her radiant appearance at this moment, without any of the sadness and resentment that ordinary women would have after divorce, so he couldn't help but believe some of her words, but he still wanted to investigate: "You really don't have any feelings for him anymore? Are you willing to divorce?"
"Of course! I'm absolutely willing!" Liu Shichu nodded hurriedly, "I've long been tired of managing his large group of concubines and illegitimate children."
"And I also took the opportunity to ask for a lot of compensation from his family..." Liu Shichu said with a smile and blinked his eyes.
"You deserve compensation. You've worked like a slave for the Cui family for twenty years. No amount of compensation is enough." Wang pouted and said with some worry, "Even if you get compensation, you'll have to face those ugly rumors outside. I'm afraid you won't be able to accept it."
Liu Shichu sneered, "Why should I be afraid of rumors? I am not a girl of seventeen or eighteen years old. My skin has become much thicker and my heart is more resilient. You know, I have been the wife of a military commander for twenty years. In the past twenty years, I have been mentally prepared to become a widow at any time. What are these rumors now?"
Wang and Liu Jian were relieved to see that she was so open-minded, but they started to worry about their nephew again: "What about Cui Ying and his son?"
"Cui Ying already has a son and has entered officialdom. How can his parents' divorce affect him? At most he will just hear some unpleasant words, which won't bother him at all. Besides, I took the opportunity this time to let Cui Anhua split up the family and divide up all the property. He can live a free and comfortable life with the property he gets in the future. I don't know how comfortable it will be. Why should we worry about it?" Liu Shichu said indifferently.
Liu Jian and Wang had complicated expressions after hearing this. Wang opened her mouth and finally managed to utter, "You are very thoughtful. It is a good thing to divide the family in advance, so that Cui Anhua won't have to fight over the family property after he marries a new wife and has a new child."
"Yes, yes, that's why I thought of this and let Cui Anhua split the family business once and for all." Liu Shichu said with a smile, feeling proud of his foresight.
"Then you can move back home. The yard where you used to live is still there. I'll have someone clean it for you." After Wang understood the whole story, she began to worry about her future life.
The age gap between Liu Jian and Liu Shichu is quite large. Liu Jian was seventeen or eighteen years old when Liu Shichu was born. Liu Shichu's aunt was also the confidant of Liu Jian's mother, so the brother and sister did not have the conflicts between legitimate and illegitimate children that ordinary families have.
Even when Wang married into the Liu family, Liu Shichu was taken over by Wang because his aunt was too weak to take care of the child. Therefore, Wang basically treated this sister-in-law as her own daughter, and the relationship between the two was very good.
"Sister-in-law, don't bother me. I have a house in Guihua Lane and I can live there comfortably." Liu Shichu said quickly. How could living in her parents' home be as comfortable as living alone
"No! If you live alone outside after the divorce, others will definitely think that your family dislikes you. You have to come back and live here, so that others know that you still have your family supporting you." Liu Jian frowned and said to Liu Shichu earnestly.
Liu Shichu was a little touched. This elder brother was really good to her. After she divorced her husband without authorization and in an extremely treasonous way, he not only did not blame her, but supported her and considered her in every way. He was truly a model of a good brother.
Faced with such good intentions, Liu Shichu could no longer say no, so he could only say, "Then I'll live here for a while, but I won't stay too long. I'll have to move out and live alone in the future."
Wang was annoyed with her: "Why are you moving? This is your mother's home, you can stay as long as you want! Is there anyone who wants to chase you away?"
Liu Shichu hurriedly patted her shoulders and said nice words to coax her, and the two sisters-in-law became happy again.
Just like that, a major event like divorce, which would have caused a huge uproar in most families, passed by peacefully in the Liu family.
Liu Shichu moved back to the Liu family and lived there for a while. The Liu family was much quieter than the Cui family. The people of Liu Jian’s generation had separated long ago, and now only Liu Jian’s descendants were still living in the Liu family.
Liu Jian and Wang had a very good relationship, so Liu Jian had no concubines or illegitimate children, only two sons and two daughters born to Wang. The two daughters had already married, and the two sons had each married and had children.
The family relationships in the Liu family were not as complicated as those in the Cui family and were much simpler, so Liu Shichu felt quite comfortable living there.
Cui Ying came to see her several times and was completely relieved to see that she was much happier than when she was at Cui's house. She even looked radiant and looked several years younger than before.