After Marrying the Evil God - Chapter 37

Zheng Fang returned to her home with a face full of joy.

In the narrow corridor, trash was piled haphazardly in corners, emitting a pungent, putrid stench. The ground was uneven and pitted, with sewage flowing freely through the cracks, and occasionally, scavenging rats could be seen scurrying across without a care for anyone. The walls were covered in layers of graffiti and small advertisements, looking like mottled scars. Dilapidated furniture had been abandoned randomly by the roadside—some were missing parts, with broken-legged chairs and cabinets missing doors leaning precariously against each other.

Overhead, a chaotic mess of electrical wires crisscrossed like a spiderweb, looking as though they might fall at any second. Most of the houses lining the old alleyway were in disrepair, with broken windows barely covered by a few rotting wooden planks. When the wind blew, they creaked and groaned, teetering on the verge of collapse.

Four or five families were crammed into a single three-story building. The floors were covered in dust and litter; crumpled wastepaper, plastic bags, and empty bottles were scattered everywhere, and there were even patches of long-dried phlegm in the corners. The corridor railings were rusted through, feeling rough and abrasive to the touch. Old shoes, worn-out boxes, and discarded furniture made the already cramped passageway even more restrictive, leaving only a narrow path barely wide enough for a person to squeeze through. One slight lapse in attention would lead to tripping or knocking something over. The entire corridor was like a forgotten landfill—chaotic and crumbling.

She had originally come from an enviable family background. Had she chosen to live in any other city, her life would surely have been quite comfortable.

Yet, she had resolutely decided to come to the bustling metropolis of Huating. In this city, land was as precious as gold, and prices were high enough to make one gasp. Transportation, schooling for the children, daily life—everything required money. To save, she could only rent the cheapest two-bedroom apartment in an urban village.

She had also unhesitatingly resigned from her stable, well-paying job in her hometown. She had assumed she could find a satisfactory, respectable job in Huating, but reality had dealt her a heavy blow. Restricted by fierce competition and her own limited abilities, she never achieved her wish. A prolonged state of unemployment caused the family’s financial situation to grow increasingly tense, and pressures began to mount one after another.

Worse still, as time passed, internal family conflicts began to intensify. Her husband gradually lost himself in the glitz, glamour, and debauchery of the big city, and his once-steadfast heart began to waver. Ultimately, he betrayed his wife, becoming entangled with a beautiful young woman. To please his mistress, he even squandered the family’s meager savings, plunging the entire household into unprecedented hardship.

Originally, everyone in this place was like this all of them struggling for a living. But everything changed once she learned about Lili. Lili worked at a state-owned enterprise; while her salary wasn’t high, her job was stable, and she and Liu Yi had bought a home near the university. Though it was only a second-hand apartment, this was Huating.

Zheng Fang’s heart began to lose its balance. Why was it that she had fought until her late thirties and still had nothing to show for it, while Jiao Lili was only in her late twenties and already had a perfect family? Why did she deserve a job? Why did she deserve such a good husband? Her own life was a mess why did Lili get to live so well?

One day, she accidentally overheard a conversation between neighbors. They mentioned a distant relative who had been tricked by a fraud into moving their ancestral graves. Following that, disasters occurred one after another. Only after seeking a master did they learn the new location was inauspicious and was bringing calamity to the entire family.

A plan suddenly formed in Zheng Fang’s mind. Her first thought wasn’t to move a grave or find someone to change her own luck, but rather how to make Jiao Lili’s family live just as miserably as she did.

She woke up early and went specifically to the antique market to hunt for a tattered book regarding occult arts. After studying for a week, she finally found a method: feed a rat with her own blood, and once the rat grew large, stuff it into a vase. By placing that vase in Jiao Lili’s home and keeping an identical one in her own, she could borrow their family’s wealth and luck.

The vase had to have a “large belly and a small mouth” to gather wealth. She meticulously selected a vase and sent it to Jiao Lili’s new home, claiming it was a lucky decoration for the house. Jiao Lili hadn’t thought twice about it and placed the vase in the living room.

Zheng Fang hadn’t expected it to actually work. Three days after the vase was placed, a construction team of over a hundred men suddenly appeared at the spot where she set up her stall. They ate at her stall every day, and eventually, the team leaders discussed it and let her contract their canteen directly.

This time, her business was an extraordinary success, and she suddenly earned a considerable sum of money. This wealth not only changed the family’s economic situation but also caused a world-shaking transformation in the household atmosphere.

Once there was enough money, the smiles on her two lovely children’s faces grew more frequent by the day. Sometimes, the children would even take the initiative to help with simple chores.

As for her husband the mistress he had regarded as his true love vanished into thin air like she had been erased from the earth once she had swindled him out of every cent. It was only then that the man woke up as if from a dream, realizing who truly treated him well. But since he had lost his job, was penniless, and had nowhere else to turn, he could only shamelessly return home to live off his wife, Zheng Fang.

Zheng Fang held the family’s financial power, and her status in the household was at its zenith. Facing the husband who had betrayed her, she still harbored a bit of resentment, but for the sake of the two children, she chose to take him back. she provided him with a certain allowance to maintain his life, but from that moment on, all matters great and small in the house were decided by Zheng Fang. Her husband could no longer act as willfully as he had in the past.

Life was getting better every day. Specifically, after learning Jiao Lili had broken her leg, Zheng Fang felt an indescribable sense of liberation. She went to the hospital ward and began brainwashing her. To Zheng Fang’s surprise, Liu Yi even stood on her side.

Just thinking about the once-glamorous Jiao Lili in the future with disheveled hair and a bloated stomach, washing clothes and cooking for her husband, Zheng Fang couldn’t suppress her joy. Jiao Lili had to live through the days she had endured!

Zheng Fang suddenly felt that this dilapidated corridor wasn’t so unbearable anymore. She quickened her pace toward home; by this time, her husband should have finished cooking dinner.

In her excitement, Zheng Fang did not notice that the heavy objects piled in the corner were teetering on the edge of collapse.

“Damn it, there’s so much here serves them right that I’m taking it!” Zheng Fang cursed under her breath while habitually reaching out to pull a cardboard box from the middle of the pile.

The balance was suddenly lost. The items above gave way and fell straight down.

“Ah!” Zheng Fang panicked, instinctively trying to dodge, but there was nowhere to hide in the narrow corridor. Her foot missed its step, and she tumbled directly down the stairs.

Crimson blood seeped out from the back of her head. It was several minutes before she was discovered, and Zheng Fang was rushed to the hospital.