Chapter 1 The Rues And Humiliation of A Matrilocal Son-In-Law

• “Lin Jue, come and take this foot wash away!” The mother-in-law, Wang Yuzhen nudged at the rim of the water basin. The disdain in her voice was leaching into the air.
• “Please wait for a moment, Mum. I will pour the water away once I am done with the dishes.” Lin Jue who donned an apron responded from the kitchen, playing his part as a house husband by tending to domestic chores.
• “For goodness sake. Are you deaf?! Put away the foot basin RIGHT NOW!” It seemed that something must have angered Wang Yuzhen so much that she came home today with a look of absolute annoyance.
• Lin Jue’s body trembled in response to his mother-in-law, coupled with anger mounting inside of him. He clenched his fists tightly. Even before he could respond, he heard his wife, Shen Peibai calling out to him from the living room. 
• “Lin Jue, did you not hear what my mum said? Do you have to infuriate her?!” Lin Jue’s wife accused him coldly, with a hint of immense hatred and disappointment in her tone of voice. 
• Shen Peibai had attractive features. She was overall an extremely beautiful woman. With a height of 1.68 metres, she had a fair complexion and a pair of beautifully slim, long legs. After soaking her feet, she applied some moisturising skin lotion on her well-carved legs. While doing so, she shouted at her husband in the kitchen.
• “You are such a piece of trash! You can’t seem to do anything right! Today, I went to play mahjong with Auntie Wang. Her son-in-law is in the senior management of a big company. He drives an expensive car and owns a luxurious house. Well, look at you, you cannot even be compared to him! In fact, you cannot even be compared to a dog. Such a worthless person! Trash! I would rather own and raise a dog.” Wang Yuzhen kicked the foot basin away, causing the basin to topple and the water inside to spill all over the place.
• “Lin Jue! Are you planning to annoy the hell out of my mum? What are you waiting for? Come and clean up the floor right now! Being married to you is the biggest mistake of my life!” Shen Peibai also grew angry with her husband. Ever since moving in with her in the past year, he has not been going to work, causing great embarrassment to her family. She did not even dare to let her friends know that the man she was married to had been such an utter disappointment. How embarrassing!
• While busying himself with the dishes in the kitchen, Lin Jue’s body shook terribly upon listening to his wife’s remarks. He could not take this lying down any longer and neither could he control the anger welling up from within, so he smashed the plate that he had just washed onto the floor, causing a huge commotion.
• “SHUT THE HELL UP, YOU BOTH!” Lin Jue snapped at the duo who were in the living room.
• It was the first time Wang Yuzhen and Shen Peibai witnessed Lin Jue blew his top. They were both taken aback and unable to utter a word.
• Seething with anger, Lin Jue clenched his fists. He was, to all appearances, the Shen’s’ matrilocal son-in-law. But the truth was, he was the heir to the business empire of a low-profile yet prestigious family in Yanjing! Indeed, there was a reason why he had agreed to become a matrilocal son-in-law of the Shen’s despite his substantial status.
• It all started back in his high school days. Lin Jue and Shen Peibai had been classmates then. In order to test his mettle, Lin Jue’s family had let Lin Jue live off meagre allowances. And, for most of the time he was left to his own means. Lin Jue had to scrape through living during those days and he often had to starve, for he had always been targeted by thugs for the meagre allowances that he had received from his family. At that time, Shen Peibai had sympathized on his situation and had shared her meals with him. Owing to a mix of gratitude and innocence, Lin Jue had fallen for Shen Peibai.
• After graduating from college, Lin Jue had inherited his family’s business empire. Just a year ago, Lin Jue came to Nanjiang City to pursue Shen Peibai with plans to repay her kindness with the promise of a prominent life. He then came to learn of Shen Peibai’s father, who had been lingering on his deathbed, had a dying wish for Shen Peibai to inherit the family wealth so that his beloved daughter would be well taken care of after his death. A part of the dying man’s plan was to marry his daughter off to a matrilocal marriage. Riding on this opportunity, Lin Jue had accepted the offer and moved in to be the matrilocal son-in-law among the Shen’s.
• Over the one year of their marriage, Lin Jue had been secretly pulling strings to the benefit of the Shen’s. It was because he was concerned that Shen Peibai could not recover from the loss of her father so he had decided to put his family business aside in order to take care of her. He had attended to her needs and had seen to it that everything was well taken care of for her.
• Lin Jue had thought that all his efforts in their relationship would one day be appreciated. But that was not the case. All that he had done for Shen Peibai and her family had been repaid by unrelenting ridicules and contemptuous treatments. He suddenly came to realize that love should not be about ingratiating one-self with another. With that realization came determination and that was when he decided to quit playing nice.
• As much as Lin Jue loved Shen Peibai, the love he had for her was matched, if not exceeded, by the pain the latter had inflicted upon him. Lin Jue took a deep breath, tossed away the apron in his hand, and proceeded over to the living room.
• Wang YuZhen had just recovered from the shock of Lin Jue’s outburst earlier when she noticed his presence in the living room. Overcome by rage, she leveled her index finger at Lin Jue’s face and bellowed, “Y-you… who do you think you are?! Son of a b*tch! How dare you take it out on me?! You’ve got balls, haven’t you? I dare you to divorce my daughter and get the hell out of here for good!”
• Lin Jue paid no attention to Wang YuZhen’s rants and turned to face Shen Peibai. With tears welled up in his eyes, Lin Jue said to his wife, “Shen Peibai, I thought you’d come to appreciate and reciprocate my love for you after everything I’ve done. Ha…. I didn’t expect what I’d get from you and your mother in the end is nothing but unceasing disdains and ridicules… Hmph! I, Lin Jue, a scrounger? You want me to get out of this house? Alright, if a divorce is what you want, then so be it!”
• Shen Peibai gazed at Lin Jue coldly, her brows furrowed. “Lin Jue, think before you speak. Are you saying you want a divorce?”
• “Well, now that we’ve come to this, do you think we can still mend our marriage?” said Lin Jue quietly, sorrow emanating his eyes.
• “OK, let’s go to the Civil Affairs Bureau tomorrow morning and get it done there and then...” Shen Peibai nodded.
• Wang Yuzhen chimed in unison, “That’s right, daughter. Fortunately, this piece of junk has always been bunking in the living room, and you have not let him lay a finger on you ever since the first day of marriage. Don’t you worry, my daughter. I have many connections to tap into and am sure that with your looks and figure I can hook you up with someone with prominent background! Rest assured your next wedding will be all pomps and splendors!”
• Then Wang YuZhen turned to Lin Jue and let out on him, “Aha! Know your place, Lin Jue! You’re just a f*cking vermin who lives at the mercy of our family! You think you can ask for a divorce? No way! It is us who want you to b*gger off! You want a divorce?! Sure, can do. I remember Peibai’s dad gave you ten thousand dollars when you agreed to marry into our family. Pay us back that money if you want a divorce… Have you got that kind of money, scumbag?!”
• Upon hearing such abusive remarks coming from Wang Yuzhen, Lin Jue pulled his gaze away from Shen Peibai and fixated his glare on the former. He had had enough of this evil-hearted woman. He could not even make out now how Shen Peibai was actually brought up by such an utterly vile and sycophantic person as Wang Yuzhen.
• With his glare still fixated upon Wang Yuzhen, he flicked a debit card out of his pocket and flung it right at her face. “A hundred thousand? Here is two hundred thousand. Keep the change! The passcode is Shen Peibai’s birthdate…”
• “Stop boasting. Heaven knows if there’s any real money in the card. How could a vermin like you get so much money?!” Wang Yuzhen scoffed, incredulous of Lin Jue having so much money.
• Lin Jue shot a deadly stare at Wang Yuzhen and said, “Wang, you should be thankful that you are Shen Peibai's mother!”
• Wang Yuzhen suddenly had shivers ran down her spine and realized that she had broken out cold sweat.
• Lin Jue paid no further attention to Wang Yuzhen. He turned to face Shen Peibai, with mixed emotions clouded up in his eyes, and said, “I’ll wait for you at the entrance of the Civil Affairs Bureau tomorrow morning...”
• As soon as he finished the line, Lin Jue turned around to leave. But as he approached the door, he paused and without looking back, he said to Shen Peibai, “Oh, before I forget, just throw all my belongings away. I don’t need it anymore. I won’t set foot in this house ever again.”
• Lin Jue then took a deep breath and continued, “Shen Peibai, I… How I wish we never met...”
• With those parting words, Lin Jue slammed the door shut and left.