AMRWFA -Chapter 396 After Marriage

She was still in her breastfeeding period—what kind of decent job could she possibly find? It couldn’t be too far from home, or she wouldn’t be able to return to feed the baby. The working hours couldn’t be too long either, or she wouldn’t have time to take care of her child.

Companies weren’t charities.

After searching for a long time, Xiong Shilan could only find a temporary dishwashing job. It paid just over ten yuan an hour. Working two or three hours a day was barely enough to cover daily food expenses.

Xiong Shilan thought this “hardship” was only temporary. She believed Pan Weize had simply been hit by a setback and would soon pull himself together to shoulder the responsibility of supporting the family.

But she had been too optimistic.

What Pan Weize showed her was utter lethargy. If he could sit, he wouldn’t stand; if he could lie down, he wouldn’t sit. The gentleness, attentiveness, and willingness to share housework he once showed were all gone.

Even when she went out to do part-time work, he couldn’t take care of the child at home. He would just play video games, letting the baby cry on the sofa. When Xiong Shilan came back, the child’s voice was already hoarse from crying.

When she touched the child, she realized the baby had a fever.

Panicked, she rushed the child to the hospital, only to discover upon arrival that he hadn’t enrolled the baby in medical insurance. The little money she had wasn’t even enough to cover the medical expenses.

She called him, but he didn’t answer.

Holding her child, Xiong Shilan cried in the hospital. After crying, she picked up her phone and called her parents to borrow money for the child’s treatment. Only then did her parents realize how miserable her life had become after marriage.

Of course, her parents were furious. They went to confront Pan Weize and demanded an explanation.

But what explanation could he give?

He let them shout and cry while he sat there like a lord, unmoving. Ask him about work? He couldn’t find any. Ask him for money? He had none.

“Then how do you expect to support my daughter?”

“How am I not supporting her? Didn’t I support her before? But now I don’t have a job. What, you look down on me just because I’m unemployed?”

“That’s not what we mean. What we mean is, the family has no money now. Whether it’s easy to find a job or not, you have to try. Even if it’s just guarding a gate, you still have to go—your wife and child are waiting on you.”

…

Heh.

They were overthinking it.

Even when Xiong’s father found him a job as a security guard, he worked on and off—three days fishing, two days drying nets—and was fired within days.

Xiong Shilan worked part-time while taking care of her daughter. Seeing how hard it was, her parents came to help.

And once they came, they naturally took over housework and daily meals.

But it wasn’t just cooking—they even used their retirement savings to buy groceries.

Soon, the rent came due again.

Xiong Shilan was shocked. “Isn’t this your house?”

“If I had said it wasn’t mine, would you have married me? You’re so materialistic—I had no choice.” Pan Weize spread his hands, looking completely justified.

Either they would be kicked out, or they had to find a way to pay the rent.

Seeing this wasn’t working, her parents decided to force Pan Weize into action. Right there and then, they told Xiong Shilan to pack up and return to her parents’ home with the baby. They loudly declared they wouldn’t pay his rent—but secretly paid it anyway and even asked the landlord to help stage an act.

The landlord agreed, being a kind person.

But Pan Weize was even more “decisive.”

The very next day, he sold everything in the rental apartment and ran off with the money.

No one knew where he went.

When Xiong’s parents received the landlord’s call, they were furious. They called Pan’s parents to question how they had raised their son to turn out like this.

But Pan’s parents were no better. They claimed it was Xiong Shilan who had led their son astray and demanded compensation from the Xiong family.

They argued for an entire month, but Pan Weize never showed up.

Meanwhile, Xiong Shilan’s life finally began to stabilize. She entrusted her daughter to her parents and, through a friend’s introduction, found a new job. Though exhausting—leaving early and returning late, even having to pump milk at work—it at least gave her a way forward.

Hearing this, Ruan Zhihe and Lu Lingling both breathed a sigh of relief for her.

Xiong Shilan hadn’t just encountered a scumbag—she had been completely set up and ruthlessly exploited.

Meeting a man like that was truly disastrous.

“Sigh…” Ruan Yaoyao sighed. “But this is only the beginning. She may have found a job, but don’t forget—Pan Weize still owes a massive amount of high-interest loans.”

“No way… they’re not going to make Xiong Shilan pay that, are they?” Lu Lingling felt a sense of dread.

This wasn’t a joke.

Loan sharks were terrifying.

With compound interest, tens of thousands could snowball into millions.

No one knew how much Pan Weize had borrowed to marry Xiong Shilan. With interest piling up like that, how could she ever repay it?

She couldn’t.

Even if she sold herself, she wouldn’t be able to come up with that money.

One day, when she came home from work, she saw the grim expressions on her brother and sister-in-law’s faces, along with her parents’ awkward looks. It turned out the loan sharks had contacted them, demanding repayment of five million.

“Your husband owes the money—why should we pay it?” Her sister-in-law had already been unhappy about Xiong Shilan returning home with a child. This call became the final straw, and she exploded on the spot.

Her brother and sister-in-law had their own children. The elderly parents were already taking care of grandchildren, plus Xiong Shilan’s infant daughter. The baby was only a few months old and required constant care, forcing her sister-in-law to adjust her work schedule and stay home.

Her work was affected. Her life was affected. And now there was a five-million debt looming over them like an endless abyss.

She forced Xiong Shilan’s brother to choose—his family or his sister.

With reddened eyes, Xiong Shilan left her parents’ home, holding her child, along with the one thousand yuan her sister-in-law chased after her to give.

“I’m not trying to drive you away,” her sister-in-law said. “But I really can’t watch my children get dragged down. That’s five million in loan shark debt—it can never be repaid… I don’t want those people showing up at our house.”

How could Xiong Shilan not understand?

Her sister-in-law wasn’t a bad person. If she had simply returned home temporarily, her sister-in-law wouldn’t have been so heartless. But once it involved five million in loan shark debt—and those lawless debt collectors—there was no other choice.

After all, she had her own family to protect.

Xiong Shilan spent the night in a cheap hotel. The next day, she took leave from work and hurriedly searched for a place to live.

Though her parents didn’t show up, they gave her an address, saying the rent there was cheap.

Sure enough, it was through an acquaintance. As soon as she arrived, there was an available room, and she moved in that same day. It cost only a few hundred yuan a month. Then again, it was just a single room without a bathroom, located in a remote area—of course it wouldn’t be expensive.

That night, her mother called, telling her to bring the baby to the company entrance the next morning—her father would come pick the child up.

Even though she had expected it, the loan sharks still found her. Only then did she learn that all the money for their wedding had been borrowed by Pan Weize—including their living expenses during the early days of marriage.

After hearing this, her best friend advised her to get a divorce.

Xiong Shilan thought the same—but she couldn’t find Pan Weize. Divorce required both parties to be present; she couldn’t do it alone.

Even going through litigation would take a long time.

Still, she made up her mind.

She wanted a divorce.

As expected, Pan Weize refused. He shouted that he had taken out loan shark debts for her sake, and she couldn’t just leave him after getting both the money and the marriage.

Once again, he turned to the power of the internet, portraying himself as an “innocent, devoted man who had been deceived.” He even claimed he had taken out high-interest loans just to marry her. But after finally getting married, the moment she realized he couldn’t support her “lavish spending,” she threatened divorce while holding their child.

Now he had lost both his money and his wife—and was buried in debt.

Once again, Xiong Shilan was left unable to defend herself.