A Girl Traveling Through Troubled Times

Song Tingting suddenly interrupted, "Mother, I'm afraid you're mistaken. I have a classmate in Nanjing who knows some people. She says Director Wang made a killing marrying his current wife. If he doesn't get much when he marries Yulan, I'm afraid he won't be satisfied and might marry someone else."

"Bah, he's a second-married man with a bunch of kids. How could a rich girl like him? Don't dream. Although Yulan has a poor background, she's still eighteen or nineteen years old. He likes her every day, isn't that enough? What? You still want to quibble about the dowry?"

As the lady said this, she was unsure in her heart. In the end, she sighed and gritted her teeth. She made several sets of gold jewelry for Yulan and prepared more than 100 silver dollars as a dowry. After that, she kept nagging about this matter all day long, wishing that the whole city of Nanjing knew that she had spent a lot of money to marry this adopted daughter.

Yulan was very happy. Every time the lady mentioned her, she would express her gratitude very tactfully. She even said that the lady's compassion was not even comparable to that of Guanyin Bodhisattva. The lady felt a little better after hearing that.

A few days later, my wife and Song Tingting came back from outside one day and said with great joy, "When we went to the Women's Club today, we heard that Mrs. Wang passed away last night, and Director Wang is busy with the funeral arrangements now."

Yulan stood up excitedly after hearing this and said, "Really? My good day has finally come."

When Sha Yanyao came back that night, he told them, "Yes, it's true. The director of the general affairs department even said that they would organize a group to attend the funeral."

Madam, Yulan, and even Song Tingting were all very happy. Guier couldn't help but feel pity for Mrs. Wang, whom she had never met before.

After that, they attended the funeral and paid their respects according to normal procedures. This time, to show her importance, the lady even asked Guier to take leave to attend.

When Miss Shen heard that Gui'er wanted to take leave to attend the funeral, she asked in shock, "Who died?"

Guier smiled helplessly and said, "She's Director Wang's wife."

Miss Shen finally breathed a sigh of relief and said, "My mother seems to be attending as well. Although she's not familiar with Mrs. Wang, my father was quite close to Director Wang for a while when he was alive."

When we arrived at the funeral venue, perhaps because he was a government official and the political impact had to be taken into consideration, there were no traditional funeral personnel such as monks and Taoist priests.

Instead, it was more like a modern ceremony, with a farewell ceremony for the body. However, everyone knew that Mrs. Wang died of tuberculosis, so no one dared to step forward and just stood far away and walked around.

There were so many people coming that Guier even saw a few classmates she was not very familiar with from the same school. Even Xu Wenjie came. He was led by a tall, thin man in his 40s who wore glasses and a Zhongshan suit and looked relatively gentle.

Turning around, Miss Shen and Mrs. Shen also walked in. It was the first time that Guier met so many acquaintances in the same place. However, this was someone else's funeral, so everyone tacitly nodded without saying hello.

Gui'er followed the lady and Sha Yanyao and bowed three times before sitting down at the reception table. More guests came in one after another.

Guier heard someone whisper behind her: "As expected of a high-ranking official's wife, she's quite impressive."

"What? Do you know how Mrs. Wang died?"

"Didn't they say he died of tuberculosis?"

"Yes, but Director Wang didn't want her anymore, so he didn't do anything to treat her. What's the point of having such a good reputation? It's just for show."

"Is there such a thing? That's really unethical. It seems to me that only Director Wang's wife's funeral had many people. If it were Director Wang's own funeral, there would definitely be few people."

"Hush, you're courting death! Don't you know Director Wang is incredibly petty? He's vindictive."

Guier glanced at Director Wang. He had a heavy expression on his face, as if he was very sad. When he turned around, he found that Yulan was secretly winking at him. Guier was startled and had an urge to get up and run away to avoid embarrassing herself here.

Fortunately, Director Wang didn't pay much attention to her.

At this time, most of the guests had arrived. A girl wearing the uniform of Jinling Girls' High School walked up to the guests with a piece of paper and began to read the eulogy. It turned out that this was the eldest daughter of Director Wang and Mrs. Wang. She looked a few years older than Gui'er and should be in a higher grade than her, so Gui'er did not recognize her.

The people behind Gui'er started talking again.

"Is this Director Wang's eldest daughter? She looks about sixteen or seventeen years old?"

"Yes, it seems that there are three girls in their family. Director Wang must want to marry another one and have a boy."

Yulan seemed to have heard such discussions as well, and became more and more proud. Whenever Director Wang looked in their direction, she would greet him with a smile. Later, Sha Yanyao couldn't stand it anymore and coughed, and only then did Yulan restrain herself a little.

Then the funeral was over and people were leaving one after another. Guier saw that Miss Shen and Mrs. Shen had already left, so she became curious about Xu Wenjie. She looked back and found that he was following Director Zhou, who was talking to Director Wang. Director Zhou actually had a smile on his face. Guier suddenly felt a little strange.

At this time, the people nearby were also whispering, "Don't Director Zhou and Director Wang get along? What's going on? Director Zhou not only showed up himself today, he also brought all his trusted aides along. He's really trying to give face."

"Is that what he calls giving face? That's called showing off. The Military Commission was recently established, and he's a core member. He brought his closest confidants to attend the funeral of his sworn enemy's wife just to show Director Wang how powerful he is."

"No way, this is too inappropriate."

"What's inappropriate about that? Director Wang doesn't care much about his wife anyway, but Director Zhou is almost the same in this regard."

"Hey, what's going on? Is there a story behind Director Zhou's family?"

"Of course, but I wouldn't dare say anything. Director Zhou's Military Commission is a secret service, just like the Jinyiwei in ancient times. If they knew I was gossiping about their boss, that would be disastrous."

Guier sighed and thought to herself, "What a mess this is."

After attending the funeral, Yulan looked like she was getting married and even bought a lot of clothes.

However, Director Wang rarely came to visit during this period, which is understandable as his wife just passed away.

But two months passed in the blink of an eye, and Director Wang still seldom came to visit. He only came to eat occasionally and then left after dinner. He did not go to Yulan's room with her right after dinner like before. Yulan began to worry. Every day after work, Sha Yanyao would ask him how Director Wang was doing and whether he was busy.

If Sha Yanyao said he was not busy or that he was fine, Yulan would ask why he hadn't come over yet?