Good Man Operation Guide

With this in mind, Old Lady Lin refreshed her spirit and hurriedly went to the Lin’s with her crutches, despite the gloomy sky.

But when she got to the door, she learned that Mother Lin was taken away by Lin Shiheng to live a good life in Shanghai.

She then set her eyes on Ke Jialing, who was supposedly in a relationship with Lin Shiheng. Although Ke Jialing was currently at school, her family still had people here.

Since she has already become their Lin family’s daughter-in-law, then, of course, they had to be filial to this grandmother.

Old Lady Lin started walking with her crutches again, this time going to the Ke’s house.

Before she even met Mother and Father Ke, she saw a bunch of old ladies sitting in the sun, chattering away while sewing soles for shoes.

They began to laugh once they saw her. No one actually said they were laughing at her, but everyone’s sight always fell on Old Lady Lin.

Old Lady Lin looked down at her still torn shoes and her body, which had odd smells drifting about because she hadn’t bathed for days and at times couldn’t control her bowel movements due to age.

For the first time, she felt what it was like to not be able to hold her head up.

She took a step forward and opened her mouth, but before she could speak, Grandma Ke spoke first. “Isn’t this the old lady of the Lin family? What are you doing standing at my door?”

Old Lady Lin’s face flushed, she opened her mouth, “My family’s Shiheng…”

“Bah!”

Grandma Ke directly stood up and threw her needle and thread on the ground.

“Don’t say about ‘your family’s, your family’s’! When Shiheng was so young and so hungry that he couldn’t eat, you just tossed him out. Now when the person has grown up and became promising, you went and accused him of stealing chickens. Anyone with eyes could see you’re not one family!”

“You can get the hell out of here! And don’t let me see you again! You don’t have anyone to take care of you anymore, if I happen to find you an eyesore and go beat you up, no one would care! So quickly get out!”

Old Lady Lin was scolded until she couldn’t catch her breath, her face was livid.

She could be shameless in front of her juniors, but she couldn’t lose face in front of her peers.

“If I’m not welcomed then I won’t come! Do you think I care about trash like Lin Shiheng? He’ll go to jail sooner or later!”

“Go to jail? You’re talking about yourself ba? Hahaha!”

Amid the laughter of the group of old ladies, Old Lady Lin left with a pale face.

Wasn’t it just a grandson? She doesn’t care.

The only thing she regrets was that she just kicked him out at the beginning. If she was given another chance, she should have just strangled him to death when the little brat made a move.

And avoid the disaster of being in this state now.

But it doesn’t matter, Lin Shiheng was a ruffian since he was a child, and something will happen to him sooner or later. It’s also a good thing to not be in a relationship with him now.

With this thought, Old Lady Lin angrily turned, took a glance at Grandma Ke, who was smiling under the sun, and coldly snorted.

Only a blind person like this would treat trash as a treasure. Only when Lin Shiheng finally gets in trouble, will this old woman of the Ke family know what regret is.

Without her sons’ financial support, Old Lady Lin continued living in the village.

After all, she was old and so the country would still send some money every month, which if she lived frugally was still be able to keep her alive.

In order to have enough to eat, she had to go to the market early in the morning to pick up unwanted vegetables to eat. And she couldn’t even afford new clothes, instead, she had to pick them up from the garbage dump.

Then because she felt that those who used to talk to her before, after falling to this end, would laugh at her now; Old Lady Lin refused to interact with them, and only lived each day by herself with difficulty.

Strangely enough, she didn’t hate her sons who refuse to be filial to her, but only hated Lin Shiheng.

Old Lady Lin also insisted that Lin Shiheng would get into trouble sooner or later.

But things were not as good as she thought.

***

In the first year that she had returned to the village, Lin Shiheng was only the boss of a company. In the second year, she heard that he had a big piece of land in Shanghai. And instead of building tube-shaped apartments like the current businessmen in Shanghai, he built one big villa after another.

[E/N: for those interested in understanding those apartments, google image this: 筒子楼]

And these villas, at numbers that Old Lady Lin never dared to think of in her lifetime, were quickly snatched up.

When the first person of high status moved in, so did the people who wanted to maintain a relationship with him, and in the end, the area had become known as an area inhabited by powerful people.

Those who had enough money but can’t live in the villa area because they lacked certain conditions, with the idea that special advantages fall to a person in a favorable position, settle for the next best thing and live in the surrounding area to the villas.

[E/N: there is an idiom here that colloquially can be understood as ‘the closer you are, the likelier is it to get benefits’. Therefore people flock as close as possible.]

The land in the surrounding area was also under Lin Shiheng’s name.

Lin Shiheng had a good reputation in the village, which might be because he was happy to help introduce some of the young people in the village to jobs when they couldn’t find any.

Of course, introducing a job doesn’t mean that they will always have that job. If they don’t follow the rules or don’t work diligently, they will still be fired.

At that time, Old Lady Lin became the only one in the whole village who wished ill of Lin Shiheng.

In the third year, Lin Shiheng donated money to repair the roads in the village.

It’s just that whether intentionally or unintentionally, that beautiful asphalt road purposely bypassed the place where Old Lady Lin lived, and for this reason, the eldest daughter-in-law who lived close to her even mocked and ridiculed this mother-in-law.

Soon after the road was built, it was the wedding of Lin Shiheng and Ke Jialing.

Old Lady Lin didn’t receive an invitation, so naturally, she didn’t attend the wedding. However because it was held in the village, she silently snuck off to see it anyway.

Ke Jialing wore a white wedding dress, which she was not accustomed to, and a veil on her head, which was obviously an inauspicious color, but it made her as beautiful as a princess.

With a smiling face, a very happy and sweet sort of smile, she stood there with Lin Shiheng, wearing a beautiful diamond necklace around her neck that shone splendidly in the sunlight.

Old Lady Lin’s gaze stayed on her for a moment and then fell onto Mother Lin.

She became like a noble lady, wearing luxurious clothes and a long pearl necklace around her neck. Even her previous obviously-old face seemed to be much younger because her days were easy, her son was filial and she didn’t have to do anything every day except play mahjong and go for beauty treatments.

Even the daughter, who she despised the most and was reluctant to communicate with, so she had casually married off to a disabled man for a small sum of money, was laughing happily at the moment.

Aunt Lin has really been well in recent years. Widow Zhang had been missing for several years and never came back. It was as if a mountain was suddenly removed off her and her husband’s head. The days were getting better and better, her nephew would take care of her, and now her daughter’s grades were improving as well. She was very content with this life right now.

Grandma Ke was even more cheerful sitting on the high seat, wearing festive clothes, hair combed neatly, and both hands wearing gold bracelets, thick and large. They may not meet the aesthetics of the young but very quite envied by the older people.

One by one, they gathered around Grandma Ke with envy, congratulating her on having a new grandson-in-law to receive filial piety from.

“Shiheng, this child, is truly capable. Later, you can have a good life ah…”

“No, that’s not the case. Look at this big gold bracelet on my hand. This is what Shiheng bought for me as his grandmother, and he even said he would buy more for me in the future. I didn’t want this gold bracelet, but accepted it because the boy was so thoughtful.”

“Ai yo, truly thoughtful, such a nice bracelet ah. My grandson won’t even mention buying one for me. Still, Old Sister, you are blessed, approaching the old age, but still blessed with a grandson-in-law.”

A group of old ladies smiled from ear to ear. When Old Lady Lin, who was hiding at the side, heard them, every word was like a knife stabbing her in her heart.

Gold bracelets, filial piety from a grandchild… These all should have been hers.

If she had let him stay instead of driving him away, she would be the one who was living that glamorously good life right now. Old Lady Lin’s eyes reddened. Looking out at the scene of their happiness, her heart was filled with envy and jealousy as well as indignation.

Why was she the one living such a bitter life? Every day, she could only pick up rotten food that others don’t want to eat, while Grandma Ke, who wasn’t related to her grandson, could enjoy her grandson’s filial piety.

She was Lin Shiheng’s true grandmother!

Right!

She should step out! Even if she can’t get Lin Shiheng to welcome her back, she definitely can’t let them feel comfortable!

Old Lady Lin’s foot had just stepped out when suddenly, she saw a group of people laughing and smiling, moving towards this side.

“Shi-ge, happy marriage!”

“Congratulations, Shi-ge!”

Each one of them was tall and muscular, seemingly as if just one of their arms could directly lift a short and thin little old lady like Old Lady Lin off the ground.

Ke Jialing curiously looked at these new faces and glanced towards her new husband, “Shiheng, are these your friends?”

“The bodyguard company’s staff. I was in charge of training them for a while, so I expressly sent them invitations for this wedding to give everyone a break, but also to keep an eye out for any trouble.”

Ke Jialing smiled, thinking that his last sentence was a joke, “Who will make trouble at a wedding?”

The man wore a sharp suit, who became more handsome after these few years of stability, raised his eyebrows and took a look at the place where Old Lady Lin was previously hiding, “Just in case.”

At this moment, there was no longer anyone there.

Even until Old Lady Lin froze to death one winter, she still hadn’t dared to appear again in front of Lin Shiheng, who owned a bodyguard company.