"divorce?"

Zhou Jiuzhen stared at the divorce report in front of him, the coldness in his eyes almost piercing through the thin paper. He raised his eyes and asked coldly, "Zhao Tingguo, who are you to me?"

"What?"

Zhao Tingguo, holding the paper, was puzzled and even more shocked by his cold and intimidating attitude. He angrily shouted, "What kind of attitude is this?"

Seeing that the father and son were about to start arguing again, Chu Mei stepped between the two men, anxiously trying to persuade them, "Er Gou, you don't understand, your father and I are doing this for your own good. The situation is very serious right now. You can't get involved with capitalists. Besides, do you know? She can't have children..."

Before Chu Mei could finish speaking, Zhou Jiuzhen interrupted her loudly, "If you can't have children, you can't have children. I haven't said anything yet, why are you all in such a hurry?"

The sound was so loud that both Chu Mei and Su Haiting instinctively flinched.

Even so, Su Haiting still timidly retorted, "That Ling Huanwu is lying to you. She knows she can't have children, yet she still wants to marry you. She's committing marriage fraud!"

Zhao Tingguo nodded in agreement, "Xiao Su is right. I used to think this daughter-in-law was great, but now I realize she only took advantage of your status and deliberately lied to you. Otherwise, what young woman would knowingly marry someone she can't have children? Isn't that bullying an honest person and deceiving people?"

Immediately afterwards, Chu Mei and Su Haiting echoed, saying in unison that Ling Huanwu was a deceitful vixen.

Listening to the gossip about Ling Huanwu around him, and looking at the divorce report in Zhao Tingguo's hand, Zhou Jiuzhen felt a surge of anger rising to his head. Unable to contain himself any longer, he roared, "Shut up! Even if she's lying to me, I'm happy to accept it!"

"During the time I was in a vegetative state, she took care of me day and night, and what about you? Where were you?"

"With all of you like this, why should I give up the woman I deeply love?"

Zhou Jiuzhen's words were piercing to the heart, each one a sharp veil.

Both Zhao Tingguo and Chu Mei were stunned, their eyes filled with despair.

"We didn't know you were Er Gou back then, how can you blame us like this?"

"That's right, you've been your parents' pride since you were little. We've placed all our hopes on you, Er Gou, you can't treat us like this!"

Zhou Jiuzhen scoffed at their words, “That’s right, you did see me as your hope and your pride when you were little. You said this to me every day when I was only five years old, telling me that my brother had a disease, that he had no feelings, and that he would never be filial to you in the future. You said that I was your pride and your hope!”

"What can I do with such a young child? I can only try my best to satisfy you, to give everything to your eldest son to fulfill your pride and hopes, but what about you?"

"Yet you deliberately said in front of our eldest son that he is no better than me in any way! Are you doing this to incite resentment between us brothers? Do you wish for us to kill each other?"

Zhou Jiuzhen practically roared out the last sentence.

From a young age, he never understood why his parents favored one over the other. They clearly loved the big dog and subtly encouraged him to give up his things, yet they favored him while belittling the big dog. In the end, the big dog resented him, abandoned him, and even pushed him into the lake.

Now he finally understood the reason and directly exposed the selfish thoughts in the hearts of these parents: "Actually, you just want your two sons to listen to you for the rest of their lives and control their lives. You are the most despicable parents. You don't love anyone else, you only love the sense of power that you have created, that you have everything under your control..."

Before Zhou Jiuzhen could finish speaking, Zhao Tingguo slapped him hard across the face. Zhou Jiuzhen's face turned red and he pointed at Zhao Tingguo, his lips trembling, "You unfilial son, where did we..."

Zhao Tingguo's voice cracked with anger, but he couldn't utter another word.

Because he did realize that he had indeed indulged his wife in doing so when their two sons were young.

He was worried that the two brothers would harbor resentment towards each other, but Chu Mei said that by doing so, Da Gou would try even harder to please them because of his younger brother's excellence.

And Er Gou will be more obedient and sensible so that they can be proud.

When he first learned that Er Gou had been taken away and abandoned by Da Gou, he had already guessed that their parenting methods had ruined the two children.

However, over the years he has listened to Chu Mei in everything, and even when something happens, he can't bear to blame Chu Mei.

In retrospect, it was indeed them who harmed the two children.

Zhao Jingxiang, standing behind Zhou Jiuzhen, also turned pale upon hearing his words.

He never knew that while he was suffering all those years, his brother was also suffering just as much.

He always believed that his parents loved his younger brother the most.

But the truth is that the younger brother, under the coaxing of his parents, was already more mature and tired than his older brother at a young age, giving up everything he had to his older brother, only to be rejected by his older brother in the end.

That same year, when a photo of a little girl who looked like a princess was placed on the table, and one of them was asked to become a child husband, his younger brother also saw that little girl as his only lifeline and thought about leaving that home.

In the end, Er Gou escaped, but he was trapped in that house, still trying to crave his parents' selfish love!

By this time, it was already broad daylight, and all the aunties around had peeked out to eavesdrop.

They saw Battalion Commander Zhou, who usually only smiled at his wife and was polite and distant to others, lose control in front of everyone for the first time.

Chu Mei turned her head to look at her husband's questioning gaze and her two sons' resentful eyes. Finally, she could no longer hold back her sobs and shook her head frantically, denying everything. "I...I didn't, I didn't. I was just afraid that Da Gou would do something stupid and hurt himself every day, and that Er Gou would listen to me!"

“Ergou, you can’t talk about us, your parents, like this just because we made you get a divorce. You’ll be parents someday, and you’ll understand us eventually…”

Zhou Jiuzhen glanced at the sky and coldly interrupted her, "I don't understand. Huanwu and I will never have children in this lifetime. You all know what you're thinking. In short, I will never divorce Huanwu unless I die! I will never let anyone who ruins our marriage get away with it!"

As he said this, his sharp gaze fell on Su Haiting, startling her so much that she almost jumped up.

Looking around at the group of people with complicated and awkward expressions, Zhou Jiuzhen snatched the divorce report from Zhao Tingguo's hand, slowly tore it to shreds, and threw it into the air, saying word by word, "It's not because you've retired that I don't want to acknowledge you. I don't want to acknowledge someone like you who only cares about his wife and not his son for the rest of my life!"

Amidst the astonished gazes of his comrades and aunties in the family compound, Zhou Jiuzhen pushed through the crowd and rushed towards the police station, completely disregarding the people behind him and unsure how to face the stares of the crowd.