Chapter 365: SugarfreeCola, You’ve Been Deceived
Chapter 365: Chapter 365: SugarfreeCola, You’ve Been Deceived
SugarfreeCola pulled her mask down to her chin and smiled. "Yeah, I’m out walking the dog."
"Why are you walking the dog so late?" Renee Jennings raised an eyebrow. "Did you just get off work?"
SugarfreeCola crouched by the side of the road and sighed. "No. I just didn’t want to be at home, so I made an excuse to get out."
"Why didn’t you want to be home?" Renee Jennings asked.
SugarfreeCola replied, "It’s too crowded at home."
[Could it be more chaotic than Fallon’s place last time?]
[Yeah, she had three married couples living there!]
SugarfreeCola pursed her lips. "I saw Fallon’s stream, too. And I have to say, my place is even more of a mess than hers."
Renee Jennings raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Are you serious?"
[No way. Just how many people are living at your place?]
[Unbelievable!]
SugarfreeCola explained, "My husband’s parents live there, along with his aunt, uncle, and two younger cousins. Then there’s me and my husband. Isn’t that more complicated than Fallon’s house?"
Renee Jennings nodded. "It certainly is. Is there enough room for everyone?"
"Not even close." SugarfreeCola shook her head. "They partitioned off half the balcony for his female cousin to live in, and his male cousin sleeps on the living room sofa."
[That really is a mess. How can you even live like that?]
[Can’t the aunt and uncle just rent their own place...?]
[Is your mother-in-law obsessed with helping her sister? I can’t take it.]
"I know, I don’t get it either." SugarfreeCola sounded completely helpless. "I’ve brought it up with my husband in private, but he just said this is how it was before I married him. I didn’t know what to say to that."
Renee Jennings asked, "So have you considered moving out?"
"If it comes to that, we’ll have no choice but to move out." SugarfreeCola sighed again. "But it really bothers me. Why aren’t *they*—his aunt, uncle, and cousins—the ones moving out?"
[Seriously, I’d be bothered too if I were her.]
[Maybe the aunt and uncle have some dirt on the in-laws...]
Something occurred to Renee Jennings. She chose her words carefully. "Does that apartment belong to your husband’s family?"
"It does," SugarfreeCola said. "The apartment belongs to my father-in-law. My parents asked his family about it before we got married."
[It’s one thing if they were there before the wedding, but you’re married now. For the aunt’s family to still not move out is just so inconsiderate.]
[Relatives like that are impossible to deal with.]
Just then, Renee Jennings suddenly heard a voice from off-screen.
She frowned slightly and asked again, "SugarfreeCola, are you sure the apartment belongs to your father-in-law?"
"I’m positive." SugarfreeCola nodded.
Hearing this, Renee Jennings grew pensive. "Who owns the dog you’re walking?"
"It’s his cousin’s." SugarfreeCola patted Thomas White’s head. "I heard he found him on his way home from school one day."
She flipped her phone’s camera around to face the little dog, adding, "This dog is really well-behaved and cute, but I still think it’s a bit much to keep a dog when you’re already living off someone else..."
[That sounds so suffocating.]
[Girl, I’m telling you, the two of you should move out ASAP. You’ll discover that living alone together is the best!]
Before SugarfreeCola could say anything, Renee Jennings said softly, "SugarfreeCola, you’ve been deceived."
SugarfreeCola froze for a few seconds, then asked suspiciously, "Renee, what do you mean by that? How have I been deceived?"
[The host must have heard the dog talking!]
[Something’s going on!!!]
[So what was SugarfreeCola deceived about?]
Renee Jennings had indeed heard Thomas White speak.
She frowned, her tone growing serious. "SugarfreeCola, if your husband’s family didn’t own that apartment, would you still have married him?"
"That’s hard to say." SugarfreeCola said pensively. "We’re in Haelon. Even though that apartment isn’t huge, it’s still eighty square meters, and my husband is an only child..."
She paused, then continued, "If his family didn’t have that apartment, my parents would most likely have required him to buy a small place in Haelon, with both our families splitting the down payment."
Renee Jennings said, "A down payment in Haelon would be several hundred thousand, maybe even close to a million, right?"
"It would." SugarfreeCola turned the camera back to her own face and nodded. "We looked at a sixty-square-meter apartment before, and the down payment alone was seven hundred thousand."
"So why didn’t you buy it?"
"My in-laws told us not to buy it. They said that after we got married, they’d transfer the deed of the apartment we’re living in now to my husband’s name. My parents thought that was a good deal, too, since the location is even better than the sixty-square-meter place we saw."
Renee Jennings gave a slight nod. "How long have you been married? Has the title been transferred?"
"We’ve been married for a little over six months." SugarfreeCola shook her head. "Not yet. I asked about it a while ago, and my in-laws said they want to wait until we have a child before they transfer the title."
"I was thinking that once the title is in our name, we could renovate the place. It would also be the perfect opportunity to get his aunt’s family to move out."
[That actually sounds like a good plan.]
[Making her wait until she has a kid to transfer the title... so calculating.]
[So why did the host say SugarfreeCola was deceived?]
[Renee keeps circling back to the apartment. Is there something wrong with the apartment?]
"Your plan isn’t bad." Renee Jennings pressed her lips together, about to reveal a cruel truth. "But his aunt’s family isn’t the one that needs to move out."
Hearing this, SugarfreeCola’s brow slowly furrowed. "What’s that supposed to mean?"
[Don’t tell me...]
[The apartment doesn’t belong to Cola’s husband’s family??]
Renee Jennings’ expression became deadly serious. "SugarfreeCola, the apartment you’re living in now wasn’t bought by your father-in-law. It was bought by his aunt. You’re the ones living under someone else’s roof."
SugarfreeCola stared at her phone screen in shock, her eyes trembling, her mouth hanging slightly open in disbelief.
It was a long moment before she found her voice. "Renee, are you serious?" she asked, her voice filled with disbelief.
"I am." Renee Jennings nodded, then added, "I heard it from the little dog next to you. But the truth still needs to be verified."
"IceCream said it?" SugarfreeCola’s face turned grim. "Renee, what did IceCream tell you?"
Renee Jennings replied, "It wasn’t speaking to me directly. It probably spoke up after hearing our conversation. It said the apartment doesn’t belong to your father-in-law; it belongs to the aunt. But so your husband could marry you without any hitches, your in-laws made an arrangement with the aunt’s family to borrow the apartment for your wedding."
"Before you married into the family, your husband was the one sleeping in the living room, the male cousin slept on the balcony, and the female cousin had the bedroom."
"The room you and your husband are in now is the one his female cousin moved out of for you."
SugarfreeCola’s brow was knitted tightly, her face deathly pale. "How could this be? How could they do that? This is outrageous!"
[This is seriously messed up. It’s basically marriage fraud!]
[I’m speechless!! Is your husband’s family that pathetic? To put his aunt’s family through all that trouble.]
[Anyone else think the female cousin is actually pretty nice for being willing to give up her room?]