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墨書 Inktalez
He had been mingling in the officialdom for decades and was absolutely unwilling to sink into oblivion like this. Those who stood with him in the same faction would soon be filtered out under various pretexts during the upcoming Institutional Reform, either reassigned to idle positions, expelled from the political arena, or imprisoned by the supervisory authorities.
Therefore, if he wanted to survive this calamity and make a comeback, he had to leave a glimmer of hope within the system. It was impossible to rely on his colleagues, but by chance, my immediate superior noticed my existence after stepping down due to this war without gunpowder.
I was powerless and influential, a person of integrity, like a blank sheet of paper yet untouched by the ink of officialdom. At the same time, I possessed a bit of cleverness and wit, making me a suitable candidate for cultivation. Naturally, I became his target, and the only way he could bind me was through his daughter, Liu Ya.
These were insights I gradually comprehended as my experience grew. After I agreed to accept his assistance, he began to help me plan both openly and secretly. However, he never involved me in illegal or unethical matters; instead, he helped me build achievements and expand my connections, allowing me to become familiar with various people from different circles.
I felt like a fool who had received a pie falling from the sky, dazedly letting him arrange everything while reverently admiring and being grateful to him as if he were a talent scout. I also tried my best to please Liu Ya, but she remained indifferent and cold towards me.
She was a rich girl, while I was just a poor boy who lost his parents early on; I should have worshipped her. Therefore, I did not harbor any dissatisfaction with her attitude. About six months later, my father-in-law was investigated by the Disciplinary Inspection Commission for embezzling public funds and sentenced to twenty years in prison. Those involved were also dealt with and fell from grace. After more than half a month of interrogation confirming that I had no connection with his actions, I regained my freedom.
At that time, I had been married to Liu Ya for less than two months. Life after marriage had nothing to do with happiness; it was purely a union based on interests. Liu Ya was a contradictory character who passively accepted her fate while considering herself noble; her way of resisting her father was to live separately from me.
Meanwhile, in the company, without my father-in-law as support, although my actions were not exactly difficult, they were not as smooth as before—overall quite unsatisfactory. The lack of success in both life and career left me extremely frustrated.
In this dilemma, I began to entertain other thoughts. My father-in-law belonged to an old-school mindset; he understood human relationships well but misjudged two points: first, an individual's strength is insignificant in the vast tide of times; he did not anticipate that with the Institutional Reform, human connections would gradually fade away and be driven solely by visible interests. Second, he underestimated my ambition.
As private enterprises sprang up overnight like mushrooms after rain and state-owned enterprises had no choice but to change their models to adapt to social trends, I couldn't help but look beyond the walls of the system towards the outside world. Thanks to the connections he helped me establish, without consulting my mother-in-law or Liu Ya, I rashly resigned from my public office and successfully registered a real estate company with the help of friends from the Land Reform Bureau.
My father-in-law's assets were entirely controlled by my mother-in-law, who looked down on me immensely. As a woman with narrow vision and limited perspective, she believed that my humble background made me unworthy of Liu Ya; thus, this marriage was nothing but an insult to Liu Ya from start to finish. Consequently, both mother and daughter never treated me kindly.
This was also one of my father-in-law's means of guarding against me. If I were to reach out for money from her as startup capital for the company, one could imagine what kind of scorn and disdain would come my way. As a man, I certainly would not humiliate myself.
Thus, the first funding came from leveraging certain information left by my father-in-law to pressure a company into contributing without compensation; details are inconvenient to elaborate on. After establishing the company and receiving assistance from various friends, I successfully acquired a piece of suburban land that the municipal committee advocated for development. As I ventured into business for the first time, handling interactions proved challenging; I lived at the company during that period and worked tirelessly.
I remember it was March when I arranged to meet a government official at a hotel. Holding housing planning maps in hand, I asked him to draw a circle anywhere on them; everything inside would be considered benefits for him—this was an established practice that needed no further explanation.
After getting into the car, Driver Lao Liu drove me to the hotel. I lay in the back seat, resting with my eyes closed, when suddenly my phone in my pocket vibrated. I took it out and saw that it was a call from my mother-in-law.
She had never contacted me directly before; even speaking a few words to me seemed like an insult to her. Seeing her call made my temples throb involuntarily.
I took a deep breath and answered the phone. On the other end, she said coldly, "Hurry to Central Hospital, Obstetrics and Gynecology. Xiao Ya is going to have an abortion."
I was momentarily stunned. Liu Ya? An abortion? When was she pregnant? The next thought that crossed my mind was whether the child was mine.
After a long silence without my response, my mother-in-law probably guessed what I was thinking and angrily said, "What are you? How dare you question my daughter's character! Whether you want this child or not is up to you. If it weren't for Lao Liu, I would prefer Xiao Ya to break up with you." With that, she hung up the phone.
I sat there in shock for a while before instructing Lao Liu, "Go to Central Hospital!"
In the car, I called government officials to apologize profusely. They expressed understanding and we rescheduled a time and place before hanging up, but I still couldn't wrap my head around everything.
To be frank, I no longer cared about appearances. Ever since we got married, I had rarely been intimate with Liu Ya. She looked down on sharing a bed with me, and I had no need to force anything on her.
That day, it had been nearly half a month since I last saw her. If she really had cheated on me, I wouldn't be angry or ask for a divorce; she could do as she pleased, which I considered a repayment to my father-in-law.
Upon arriving at the hospital, I found Liu Ya waiting outside the operating room. She sat alone on a bench flanked by young women with gloomy expressions; some were even quietly crying. Yet she sat upright, calm and composed. If I didn't know her better, I might have suspected that this wasn't her first visit to such a place.
As I walked over to her, I noticed her lips were tightly pressed together; she must have been nervous too.
When she saw me, she looked surprised but quickly understood. "Did my mom tell you?"
I nodded. "Let's talk outside."
This wasn't a suitable place for conversation. After hesitating for a moment and glancing at me, she stood up and walked out of the hospital with me.
Lao Liu drove us to a nearby café.
"Is the child mine?" I asked bluntly after we sat down.
There had never been any real feelings between us; family matters were handled like business transactions. I was used to it, and she should have known that too.
But to my surprise, after hearing my question, she glared at me in anger, biting her lower lip as if deeply wronged.
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