Reborn in the 90s, I traded my ex-husband for eight apartments.

"Comrade, have a smoke."

Pei Xiangyang took out another pack of Zhonghua cigarettes, gave one to the male staff member at the marriage registration office, and kept one for himself.

He lit another fire for that comrade, then sighed:

“I don’t want to divorce either. You don’t know, I’m away from home all year round, and she’s just living like a widow at home. I want to take her to enjoy a better life, but she’s a country woman who can’t read a single word. If she goes to the city, she’ll be completely clueless. She can even get lost while buying groceries. It’s just not going to work.”

“I thought it would be better to divorce her while she’s still young, give her a large sum of money, and let her find a good man to live with. I’m doing this for her own good.”

Pei Xiangyang looked troubled.

Bai Zhenzhu had attended high school. If Pei Xiangyang hadn't coaxed her into dating, she might have been able to get into a teacher's college and become a teacher like her third brother, Bai Jingsi.

She let Pei Xiangyang make her sound completely worthless without offering any explanation.

The harsher he criticizes now, the more painful it will be for him to pay up later.

The two staff members at the registration desk looked at Bai Zhenzhu and saw that the woman was rubbing the hem of her clothes with her head down and her shoulders were trembling slightly. They felt sorry for her.

The woman rolled her eyes at Pei Xiangyang; they had just seen the red car parked outside and the woman inside.

This man talks a good game, but now that he's rich, he looks down on the plain-looking women in his rural hometown.

In this day and age, divorce is not only a major event, but also a disgrace, something that brings shame to one's ancestors for generations.

The marriage registration office has been established for so many years, but it has handled only a handful of divorce cases.

If a man gets divorced, it won't have much of an impact on him as he ventures out into the world, but how will the woman left behind in the village survive?

The opinions and spittle of others can drown a person. This nonsense about doing it for the woman's good is clearly just forcing a woman to die.

"Girl, tell me, did you agree to the divorce?" Women have strong empathy, and no matter how she looked at Pei Xiangyang, he seemed like a heartless man: "The law protects women and children now. If you don't want to divorce, we will mediate and persuade your husband."

Bai Zhenzhu raised her head, her face already covered in tears.

The two staff members at the registration desk were both taken aback when they saw her face.

I initially thought this woman was ugly, assuming the man must have found a beautiful woman after making money outside. But to my surprise, the woman in front of me was not only not ugly, but actually quite beautiful.

From the moment she walked in until now, even though she's about to be divorced, she's only sobbing. If it were any other woman, she would have screamed so loudly that the whole township government could hear her, and it would be a miracle if she didn't scratch Chen Shimei's face.

She's beautiful and has a good personality, yet this man still complains about her.

"Comrade, thank you. I divorced voluntarily," Bai Zhenzhu said, tears streaming down her face.

She doesn't shout or cry out, yet she evokes even more sympathy in people.

Not to mention others, even Pei Xiangyang felt sorry for her, and couldn't help but feel smug, because the unpleasantness caused by Bai Zhenzhu's agreement to divorce had subsided considerably.

Bai Zhenzhu wiped away her tears with a handkerchief, forcing a smile that was even more painful than crying:

"Comrade, I don't understand the procedures for divorce. Could you please explain them to me?"

Seeing her like this, the woman felt even more sympathetic and asked again, still worried:

"Are you really doing this voluntarily? I'm telling you, you need to think this through. Women are not like men. No matter what, divorced women are at a disadvantage."

She then glared at Pei Xiangyang again:

"Besides, your man has clearly made more money. Wouldn't you be at a huge loss if you divorced him now?"

“I really did this willingly; no one forced me. My husband’s heart isn’t with me, so life is meaningless. I agree to the divorce.”

Bai Zhenzhu's eyes were red from crying. She was crying so that she could get better terms for herself when signing the agreement later. It wasn't because she was reluctant to part with the scoundrel. Right now, she wanted a divorce even more than he did.

It's not easy to get a divorce these days. First, you have to register and submit an application, then there's the mediation process, then the review and approval, and finally you can get a divorce certificate.

Pei Xiangyang didn't want to make several trips to get a divorce, fearing someone might sabotage things, so he dropped his fake smile and revealed his true colors:

"Comrade, we really can't go on like this anymore. I own a big company outside, what help can a country woman like her give me?"

"Don't try to persuade me. Even if you don't process it for me, I'll just leave for ten or eight years and not come back or give her any money. What can you do about it? If she ends up living a life of widowhood and suffering, it will be your fault."

Upon hearing this, the woman's face darkened, and she slammed her hand on the table:

"How can you talk like that? Where is your fidelity to your marriage? Where is your responsibility to your family? Now that you've become successful, you're abandoning your wife and children. Such behavior is shameful and immoral. People like you should be severely criticized and tried!"

Pei Xiangyang slammed his mobile phone down on the other person's desk with a thud, and gave a sarcastic snort:

“If I weren’t going to take responsibility, I wouldn’t have come back to get a divorce. You’re just clerks; we’ll do whatever we can when we have a job. We’ve asked you all, we’ve mediated all the time, so stop dawdling and hurry up and get the divorce certificate for us. You can’t afford to lose my big business.”

After saying that, he picked up the mobile phone again, poked it a few times, and then put it on his face to make a call:

"Mr. Zhao, I'm busy right now. Let's put the two million project on hold for now and talk about it when I get back."

The two staff members at the registration desk exchanged a glance, their expressions turning serious.

If Bai Zhenzhu hadn't been reborn, she might have been fooled by Pei Xiangyang's pretentious behavior.

Mobile phones weren't widespread at that time, and the signal towers in the county weren't built until four years later.

Pei Xiangyang's cell phone's signal light was red, indicating that there was no signal at all.

After finishing the call, Pei Xiangyang looked at the colleague in the office with displeasure:

"As you can see, I'm very busy. I have so many big deals waiting for me to make decisions. Don't waste time on this little thing."

The woman wanted to speak, but the man who was smoking stopped her:

"Why don't we ask them what their agreement is?"

The men were also taken aback by Pei Xiangyang's demeanor. A Santana, let alone in the countryside, would probably be a big deal even in Chengdu.

He dared not advise such a person. Just as Pei Xiangyang himself said, if he left, what would happen if the woman and child couldn't survive without anyone to take care of them and came looking for trouble?

Pei Xiangyang's expression was arrogant:

“I don’t want anything. I want all the savings in the house and her dowry, and I want my son too. I’ll give her 200 yuan a month for child support.”

Two hundred yuan is no small amount; it certainly sounds generous.

However, Pei Xiangyang's behavior of not even wanting his son earned him a few more eye-rolls from the female comrades:

"Is there nothing else besides child support? She's a perfectly good young woman who's been married to you for years, given you a son, and now that you have money, you just want to throw her away? Does she deserve to be bullied by you?"

Who gets divorced these days? Some women endure being beaten at home every day without ever getting a divorce, and many people in rural areas don't even have the concept of divorce.

The woman in front of me, named Bai Zhenzhu, looks so young and has done nothing wrong; she's clearly being forced into a divorce.

Since she was willing to divorce, the woman wanted to try to get as much as possible for her:

"Didn't you just say you'd give her a large sum of money? How much?"

Bai Zhenzhu looked gratefully at the woman opposite her; in her past life, this woman had also helped her secure divorce compensation.

She was too naive back then; it was just a formality. Pei Xiangyang not only didn't give her a single penny, but he also swindled away the money Xia Lili had given him.

In order to get a divorce as soon as possible, Pei Xiangyang kept making empty promises, otherwise, with the involvement of the women's director, the divorce might not be finalized today.

"Twenty thousand, isn't that generous of me?"

Both comrades were stunned when they heard the number. The lumber mill in town paid eight yuan a day, and the workers there only earned about two hundred yuan a month. It would take a dual-income family ten years to save up twenty thousand yuan.

For rural people who toil in the fields for a living, 20,000 is an astronomical figure.

Even if Bai Zhenzhu had the money, she wouldn't be able to spend it all on building a single-story house.

Divorced women who have money or own a house will not have too much of a hard life.

The woman sighed and looked at Bai Zhenzhu:

"Do you agree to this condition? You should think it over carefully, because once you're divorced, you'll have nothing to do with each other anymore."

The main reason is that this man is so rich. Even if Bai Zhenzhu relies on her beauty to find someone else, she definitely won't be able to find someone like him again with a child in tow.

I felt sorry for her and also felt sorry for her.

Bai Zhenzhu nodded, her eyes red.

"I agree, but I have one request."

"You said."

“I want him to pay ten years’ worth of child support in one lump sum, and both payments must be made immediately.”