Chapter 69
“Why are you here?”
“I heard you got beaten up, so I came to see you.”
Yang Jiabo looked at the fruit basket in Li Guizhen’s hand, and his tense mood eased slightly.
“I’m fine.” Politeness and detachment were the best ways for them to interact as mother and son.
“I heard someone came to the restaurant, got into a fight with you, what happened?” Li Guizhen looked at Yang Jiabo reproachfully. Though she didn’t know the details, she had already mostly decided it was Yang Jiabo’s fault.
Yang Jiabo knew exactly what she was thinking, it had always been like this. Feeling irritated, he replied impatiently, “Nothing much. Zhang Yi’s mother just seized the chance to make trouble. After all these years, she’s still holding a grudge and deliberately retaliating.”
“Flies don’t bite seamless eggs. You need to fix that temper of yours, or sooner or later, you’ll suffer for it.” Li Guizhen immediately launched into lecturing him.
[苍蝇不叮无缝的蛋 (cāngying bù dīng wú fèng de dàn): lit. Flies don’t bite seamless eggs; fig. Trouble arises from underlying flaws.]
“If you came here just to say this, then you can leave.” Yang Jiabo’s expression turned cold.
Li Guizhen couldn’t accept her son giving her attitude. Her voice sharpened as she said, “You—I’m your mother! Can’t I even say a few words to you?”
Yang Jiabo didn’t want to argue with her. He knew Li Guizhen too well, she never visited without a purpose. So he changed the subject. “Aside from checking on me, what else did you come for today?”
“I’m getting married.”
“Congratulations.” Yang Jiabo was surprised. Not long ago, she had been pestering his father to remarry, and now suddenly she was marrying someone else. Still, this was probably a good thing.
“Uncle Li and I have finally gotten together. All these years haven’t been easy for either of us.” Li Guizhen’s expression carried a mix of nostalgia and joy.
“Oh.” Yang Jiabo realized right away that the man she was about to remarry was the same one she had an affair with back then. “He’s willing to divorce and marry you now?”
Li Guizhen hesitated, fidgeting before finally saying awkwardly, “His family died in a car accident.”
That answer was completely unexpected. Yang Jiabo froze for a moment before asking, “When did that happen?”
“Three months ago.” Li Guizhen sounded somewhat guilty.
Yang Jiabo was at a loss for words, unsure how to respond. “Well, in that case, you two should live well together.”
“Of course.” Li Guizhen hesitated for a while before speaking haltingly, “You know, back when I married your father, we had nothing. Your grandmother never liked me, she always favored your uncle.”
“So?” Yang Jiabo waited for her to continue.
“I’ve never had a good life all these years, but now I’ve finally gotten what I wanted. We’re not holding a wedding, just traveling abroad together, treating it as both a honeymoon and a marriage trip. But… I’m a little short on money lately. Since you’re doing well now, you should show some filial piety to your mother.”
Yang Jiabo fell silent. She wanted him to pay for her and her affair partner’s honeymoon abroad? Was she insane, or was he? His money was earned through hard work with his father. He had no problem covering her living and medical expenses, but anything beyond that was out of the question.
When he didn’t respond, Li Guizhen cautiously added, “It’s not much, just twenty or thirty thousand. Consider it your wedding gift.”
“You focus on living your life. I’ll only cover your living and medical expenses.” Yang Jiabo felt like every encounter with his mother pushed him closer to a breakdown.
Their values were too different to ever align. At first, Yang Jiabo, not understanding the full picture, had thought Li Guizhen was the problem. But after learning about the ingrained beliefs of the village she grew up in, all he felt was speechlessness.
In their worldview, marrying a man meant marrying for food and clothing—once a woman married, the man was responsible for providing for her. That might sound reasonable in a traditional sense, where men worked outside and women managed the home.
But it didn’t mean the man should support you while you did nothing, leaving him to handle chores and childcare alone. A family required cooperation and division of labor. If one side only took without contributing, the balance would collapse.
As for children, the village belief was that everything a child had came from their parents, so children had to be filial. That wasn’t entirely wrong, but there was a limit. Excessive exploitation of children was treated as natural.
So Li Guizhen believed Yang Jiabo’s filial piety was only right and proper. If she asked him for money, and he could afford it, why not? As for her affair, it was only because Yang Jianjun couldn’t provide her a good life, so it wasn’t entirely her fault. With such clashing values, what Yang Jiabo saw as wrong or unreasonable, Li Guizhen saw as perfectly justified.
“Now that you have money, you’re just going to watch your mother live in hardship? This is the one rare happiness in my life.” Li Guizhen started crying as she spoke.
“My money was earned through hard work with my dad. I won’t give it to you so you can enjoy yourself with the man you had an affair with.” The memory of Li Guizhen and that man together still disgusted him.
In his past life, his illness had worsened, and after his father passed, he hadn’t bothered with Li Guizhen’s personal life. He didn’t even know if she had ended up with that man.
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