Just as Li Manshu was feeling nostalgic, her mother, Kang Huizhi, also got out of the car.
She had long been accustomed to riding the Wenjie M9, especially since her husband had driven the car home more than two months ago.
However, every time she got out of this car and then saw the small cars parked nearby, she couldn’t help but feel a sense of superiority.
Kang Huizhi was not as materialistic as her daughter Li Manshu, but she did have vanity, especially since she had the least successful marriage among her siblings.
Previously, at family gatherings, she could never hold her head high because her sisters would subtly compare themselves with one another during conversations.
The only things Kang Huizhi could boast about were her daughters’ academic achievements and attractiveness.
Li Manshu and Li Manni had both performed well academically and had been admitted to university successively.
In the first few years of Li Manshu’s marriage to Yang Hao, Kang Huizhi had a brief period of pride.
After all, her son-in-law, Yang Hao, was a small business owner, and her daughter, Li Manshu, was leading a good life with him.
But later, Yang Hao’s hotpot restaurant closed down, and her once proud son-in-law ended up working as a delivery driver.
Her daughter even chose to get divorced.
Since then, Kang Huizhi had stopped talking about her daughter and son-in-law at her parental home.
Meanwhile, sitting in the driver’s seat, Li Baojun didn’t rush to get out of the car. He took a cloth from the storage box and leisurely wiped the dashboard, occasionally glancing in the direction of the apartment door.
As Kang Huizhi’s son-in-law, Li Baojun had endured years of belittlement, especially in the first few years of marriage when the People of the Kang Family were kind to him.
At that time, he was a permanent employee at a state-owned enterprise. Although his income was not high, having a stable job in a state-owned enterprise was quite prestigious back then and had a certain social status.
But after Li Baojun was laid off and suffered from poor health, he couldn’t earn much money, and his status in the Kang Family plummeted.
This situation is a true depiction of most sons-in-law in their in-laws’ households.
If you are capable, you are respected by everyone, and even your father-in-law might wish to lower his glass to you when drinking.
If you are unremarkable, anyone might step on you. At family gatherings, they might start dining or drinking even before you arrive, not paying any attention to you.
In today’s society, whether or not you are capable means whether you can make money!
There’s no choice, in today’s societal context, 95% of people have become slaves to money.
The remaining 5% control 95% of the world’s wealth, and in a way, they are the masters of money.
The ideology of money above all else has long become the mainstream value!
As some women always say: “I don’t want your incompetent kindness!”
Without money, what’s the use of gentleness?
However, when you have enough money in your pocket, the narrative changes to: “I’m not with you for the money, I just wish you’d spend more time with me, even if you accomplish nothing!”
Li Baojun had deeply experienced such double standards in one of the Kang Family.
Therefore, these years, he rarely visited the Kang Family, but he clearly remembered the double standards he had faced.
And now, Li Baojun had risen again!
Even his posture was more assertive than when he worked at the state enterprise.
So, naturally, he wanted to regain the respect he had lost.
At the very least, he wanted to hold his head high in the Kang Family!
Thus, although they had already arrived at his father-in-law’s house, he was in no hurry to get out of the car; instead, he wanted to see if he could encounter someone familiar.
Perhaps Li Baojun’s wishful thinking had an effect; as he pretended to wipe the dashboard, someone he knew indeed walked out of the apartment door.
And it was not just any neighbors of his father-in-law, but his brother-in-law Kang Zhichao and brother-in-law’s wife Wang Huixin.
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Upon leaving the apartment, they first saw Kang Huizhi and Li Manshu.
“Third Sister?”
“You’re already here!”
Kang Huizhi is one of six siblings, ranked third, while Kang Zhichao is the youngest child in the family.
“Yes, just arrived.”
Kang Huizhi hadn’t expected to meet her brother and sister-in-law at the apartment entrance. She nodded at them as a greeting.
“Uncle, Aunt!”
Li Manshu also greeted the two.
“Manshu is back too!”
Wang Huixin sized up Li Manshu. She had long heard rumors that her niece had divorced and was secretly pleased by the news.
“Third Sister, did you drive here?”
Kang Zhichao’s gaze instinctively landed on the nearby Wenjie M9, a car he was well aware of because Li Baojun had shown it off in their family group chat.
Therefore, he had specifically looked up this car’s details and price online.
At the time, Kang Zhichao bitterly complained to his wife: “The brother-in-law of the third sister hit jackpot, being able to drive such a nice car as the Wenjie M9!”
He was naturally very jealous, though Li Baojun was not boastful by nature and later stopped showing off the car in the family group chat.
So, Kang Zhichao thought that Li Baojun had merely driven “son-in-law” Yang Hao’s car home and had returned it afterward.
He hadn’t expected that the family would drive the same car over today!
At that moment, Li Baojun finally deigned to get out of the car. As he closed the door, he casually pressed the lock button.
“Zhichao, did you come over today?”
The 80th birthday celebration of elder Li Jingchun is tomorrow, and Li Baojun’s family, living far away, had come early.