Upon seeing their mother, both Guo Jianzhong and Guo Jianguo perked up. "Mom! We caught this guy for you! You're just in time, he was just telling some tall tale about how you forced him to get married!"

When Lu Feng glimpsed the old lady walking in, his tone turned anxious. "Aunt Wang, I beg you to tell the truth. There's really, truly nothing between us. I've never coveted your money or your home. If I've ever done you wrong, I apologize to you now. Please, I beg you, don't humiliate me any further. I've got no money, no background, nothing. I just want to be happy."

The two Guo brothers had already had the benefit of hearing Lu Feng's previous explanation, but Guo Jianguo's wife had not. When she heard this, she placed her hands on her hips immediately and raised her voice. A din once again arose within the office, and helpless, Ning Wan could only once again play her trump card and take out her loudspeaker, finally managing to press the pause button on the whole farce.

She didn't dare to waste the ensuing brief calm. Hurriedly, she made her way to old Wang Liying, briefly summarized Lu Feng's explanation, and finally asked, "Aunt Wang, what is going on? Marriage isn't child's play. Being married requires the consent of both parties. Even if one of the two manages to coerce the other, a divorce or annulment can be obtained afterward..."

Ning Wan had been going to explain the advantages and disadvantages of the situation to Wang Liying. But before she could finish, the old woman burst into tears. She threw off her daughter-in-law's hand and plopped down on the ground--

"Xiao Lu, the one who should be telling the truth is you! We're in love! How could you go back on your word just because of other people's opinions? Why would you say that I forced you into this?! Wouldn't it be nice for us to get married and have the three of us live together under one roof? I'll take good care of your Jiao Jiao, and the two of you could become legally registered as residents here in this city¹She is offering him the chance to change his legal status from 'foreigner' by having him registered into her family.... "

Lu Feng couldn't have won the argument against her if he had a hundred mouths. Seeing the elderly woman collapsed and crying on the ground, his whole being seemed to deflate. "Aunt Wang, when did we fall in love!" He thumped his chest incoherently. "I... why didn't I know that we had feelings for each other?!"

When Wang Liying heard this, she became even more hysterical. "Are you going to dally with a woman and then abandon her? God in heaven! How could I, Wang Liying, have had the misfortune to meet such a man? If you won't marry me, I'll go to your hometown and lay it all out before your parents! They can make the final call for me!"

When Lu Feng heard this, he broke down completely. His parents were younger than Wang Liying, and he came from an isolated little hamlet out in the country. If such rumours spread about his village, his parents would be utterly humiliated. When he thought of how careful and cautious he had been to avoid the stereotype of a poor foreigner, how hard he had worked since coming to Rong City, how he had tried to be helpful and had never done anything bad... yet in the end here he was! His heart overflowed with regret. He wished with all his heart that he had minded his own business and turned a blind eye to his elderly neighbor. If he had never known her and never become familiar with her, he wouldn't be in this predicament now...

The more he thought about it, the more aggrieved and resentful Lu Feng felt. Not only was Wang Liying inexplicably forcing him to marry her, but he had also been beaten up in public by her two sons. He could no longer hold it in, and weeping bitterly, he cried out--

"Aunt Wang, just leave me alone!"

Suffice to be said the confrontation was at a standstill. Both sides had broken down. One was howling loudly, the other weeping silently, and neither would budge from their versions of the story...

No matter how much Ning Wan wanted to know the truth, she wouldn't find out anything more from here. She could only appease them both and have them reach a temporary truce. Lu Feng took back his luggage and daughter, and the two brothers brought their old mother home...

When everyone was gone, sweet silence was restored to the office. However, neither Ning Wan nor Fu Zheng could calm down.

Who knew that Ning Wan would turn out to be a prophet? Doing all that extra legwork really was unnecessary.

"Guo Jianhong requested that we submit a request to appraise her mother's civil competence, but you witnessed the confrontation just now. Aunt Wang is nowhere even near senile. She managed to swing from coaxing to threatening Lu Feng until he could hardly say a word in his own defense. Her speech is clear and her mind agile. It would be a waste of our time and Guo Jianhong's money to continue with the appraisal. Let's contact her to explain the situation and terminate the contract."

Fu Zheng was quite efficient. It didn't take long to bring Guo Jianhong in to explain the situation.

After hearing the entire story, Guo Jianhong looked genuinely flabbergasted. "I... I really didn't expect all this..."

"What do you think of this matter?" Ning Wan asked, quite curious.

"From what I understand, Lu Feng attempted to escape overnight, he really wasn't trying to cheat my mom into marriage, and he says that he never wanted to marry her in the first place... this... I don't have any words..."

Awkwardly, she said, "But if what Lu Feng said is true, then why is my mother doing this? She's always taught us to reciprocate kindness. If Lu Feng helped her out often, she ought to be very grateful to him, so why would she force him to marry her?"

Although this matter had nothing to do with her, Ning Wan felt some sympathy for Guo Jianhong's dilemma. "We don't know much about Lu Feng," she suggested. "Whether he told the truth or not, there's no one to vouch for him, but perhaps we could inquire into what was going through your mother's mind. Perhaps you could have a sit down conversation with her and figure out what is actually going on. If she isn't telling the real story for some reason, Lu Feng might actually be completely innocent."

"But... as you know, my mother hasn't wanted to see any of us for awhile now, let alone have a heart-to-heart with us.“

"Then we should take the opportunity to find out why. What misunderstanding is behind her refusal to see you? If she happens to have any old sisters in this community, perhaps you could check with them? Sometimes one might tell one's girlfriends things that you wouldn't tell your children. Does your mother have any good friends?" Having come this far, Ning Wan paused, then added, embarrassed, "Well, but you did live far away for a long time. Perhaps you wouldn't know..."

But unexpectedly, Guo Jianhong interrupted her with a smile. "I do know. When I got back to Rong City and couldn't meet my mother, I was quite worried about her situation. I went out to the community and chatted with a few neighbors. Before mother was diagnosed with cancer and had to take chemotherapy, she loved square dancing and was quite close to Aunty Xiao, who leads the dance group. Unfortunately, I was never able to find her, though I tried several times."

When she thought of her mother's serious illness, tears welled up in Guo Jianhong's eyes. She went through the contract with Ning Wan and Fu Zheng, then left.

At that point, there was nothing more that the two of them could do. Ning Wan glanced at the clock - it was almost time to get off work. She nudged Fu Zheng, who was perched beside her on his elegant, Mediterranean-blue plastic stool. "You've done well recently, so I've decided to reward you today."

Fu Zheng looked up curiously. "With what?"

"I'm going to let you eat at my house this whole week!" she announced proudly.

“……”

She looked at him. "Well? Excited, aren't you? Thrilled, right?"

Fu Zheng seemed to be back on the straight and narrow nowadays. After having stayed at Ning Wan's for two nights, he had caught back up financially and moved out, renting a different place in another inexpensive neighbourhood. Ning Wan had gone with him to see the place and confirmed that it was a good deal before leaving him there.

Ning Wan bit a lip. "You're getting a salary now, but with rent and all, I know your living expenses must be pretty tight. I'm doing pretty well this week, and it's really not a big deal to add another person to the table if I'm cooking for myself. Don't worry about it, no need to thank me, haha..." she felt quite pleased with herself. "But I'm pretty cool, aren't I, so if you do praise me, I'll accept gracefully, heh...."

“……”

It was just too bad that Ning Wan was so busy being impressed by herself that she overlooked the forlorn feelings currently in Fu Zheng's heart...

Honestly, he really didn't want to eat whatever it was Ning Wan was cooking...

During those two shameful nights when he had had to sleep on the floor of her living room, he had swallowed down her roughly-made food with tears in his heart. Ning Wan's cooking had just about reached the level of "edible", and Fu Zheng was very picky about his food. He had had nothing but luxurious meals since childhood, and his eating habits built up over time allowed him to distinguish even such things as the freshness of shrimp. However, at Ning Wan's, he felt like his ability to taste shrimp freshness was now a necessary survival skill...

In order to avoid the 'honor' of sleeping on her living room floor, he had had to beg around until he finally found a friend who would lend him their old house, which he could then pretend to be renting. After Ning Wan had 'accepted' this, he had had to convince her that he had truly 'turned over a new leaf', and would never again seek out Gao Yuan. Only once she eventually believed him had he finally, finally been able to move back to his five-star hotel...

Fu Zheng tried to stay calm. "No need, really, I would just be imposing on you. I can figure it out."

But Ning Wan insisted. "It's all right! It's not going to be very expensive for me. I buy all the vegetables and meat for my meals at a discount the night before. Many of them I get for only half price!"

“……”

That just makes it even worse...

"No, really, you don't have to..."

"Don't be shy!" Ning Wan made the decision for him. "Come on, work's over, let's head over to my place! I mean, what were you going to eat tonight, anyway? Discounted fast food from the supermarket? I've already done the math for you - you'll save at least 200 yuan for your daily necessities if you just eat dinner at my place this week. You have to plan your finances well!"

Fu Zheng followed Ning Wan with a dead heart. In his pocket was his phone, ready to be taken out to send a message to Gao Yuan at any moment. Hopefully his friend-in-name could give him a call, and he could make some excuse to slip away.

But he never got the opportunity to act. As Fu Zheng and Ning Wan approached the community gate, they were cut off by a BMW 7- Series.

frostcrystal

It's 2am, I'll edit tomorrow :)