Chapter 173 Old Wounds
"A person should not always think about enduring, always think about saving face, always be afraid of losing face or being talked about by others. Doing so will only rot your heart, and in the end you won't even dare to cry out loud."
"Xiaomei, let's go together."
She gently reached out her hand.
"Auntie will accompany you. On the road to the underworld, through wind, frost, snow, and rain, I won't let you walk alone."
Song Xiaomei panicked instantly.
"No! No! Aunt Cuifen, please don't do this!"
She shook her head frantically, waving her hands wildly.
"I won't jump anymore! I really won't jump anymore! Please come back! Please! Please come back! You can't die! You can't do this for me!"
“If you leave, what will happen to Zhongshun? He’s still lying alone in the hospital, with no one to talk to.”
“When I came to find you, he was almost in tears, and he begged me to come and see you.”
Shen Cuifen's lips just curved into a slight smile before she quickly suppressed it again.
She wasn't laughing at Song Xiaomei's stupidity.
Instead, they are laughing at the state of the world, at the rules that trap women in the word "love".
She walked a similar path when she was young.
They thought men were everything, their destiny.
But in the end, the sky falls, life ends, and there's no one to wipe away your tears.
"Isn't your dad lying in a hospital bed too? You had the guts to try to kill yourself, but I've lived longer than you, so why would I be afraid of dying?"
She knew that Song Xiaomei was soft-hearted and pure-hearted.
It's not that I'm heartless, it's that I'm trapped in this cycle and can't get out.
Once she calms down, she'll understand why she jumped.
Will jumping down solve the problem?
Will that man regret it?
Won't.
He was able to chat and laugh with others the very next day, saying she was too extreme.
But she ruined her whole life.
Upon hearing this, Song Xiaomei froze on the spot.
The world before my eyes suddenly became blurry, and a buzzing sound filled my ears.
It was as if hundreds of voices were questioning her at the same time.
What gives you the right to leave?
Have you ever thought about them?
She looked down at her hands.
These hands once served medicine to my father and washed my mother's feet.
How could she let those hands end up with nothing but a cold suicide note?
Zou Qiuyue's eyes lit up; she understood.
Shen Cuifen's words were hardly persuasion.
This is like trying to force words into someone's heart.
“Xiaomei, if you leave, your father and I won’t live either. Your brother can support himself now, so we have nothing to lose.”
Zou Qiuyue finally spoke.
She watched Song Xiaomei's retreating figure and said, word by word.
“If you jump, Mom will go with you tomorrow. We’re just an old couple who’ve endured this for you. What’s the point of us living if you’re gone?”
“Your brother will have to live on his own from now on. We won’t be a burden to him when we’re gone. But if you’re gone, our lives will have been wasted.”
Upon hearing this, Song Xiaomei's knees buckled, and she almost knelt on the ground.
She turned around abruptly, tears welling up instantly.
Zou Qiuyue stood there, her hair gray, her hands still trembling slightly.
That's her mother.
The mother who carried her on her back since she was little, fed her, and sheltered her from the wind and rain.
How could she bear to let her elderly parents outlive their child?
"Auntie! I'm not jumping anymore! I'm not jumping anymore! Please come back!"
She cried and shouted.
"I was wrong! I was really wrong! Please come back!"
As she spoke, she knelt on the ground, covered her head with her hands, and tears streamed down her face.
She finally realized how much of a jerk she had been.
She almost ruined everyone for a man.
As soon as Zou Qiuyue saw someone coming, she rushed up and grabbed Song Xiaomei's hand tightly.
"Don't go...don't leave Mom...Mom only has you..."
Shen Cuifen stood at a distance, watching all of this, and finally breathed a sigh of relief.
He then jumped from the edge of the rooftop to the ground.
When Zou Qiuyue saw Shen Cuifen return, she raised her hand to slap Song Xiaomei.
She was trembling with anger.
I'm angry that this child is so immature, and I'm angry that she almost ruined the whole family.
But his hand remained raised in mid-air, unable to fall.
She looked at Song Xiaomei's face, distorted from crying, and her body curled up in a ball.
This is her daughter, whom she held in her arms and lulled to sleep when she was little.
She couldn't bear to say a single harsh word.
How could she possibly do it now?
That anger was eventually suppressed little by little by a mother's love.
Finally, the slap landed lightly on her arm.
She didn't want to hurt her; she just wanted her to remember.
This slap was delivered on behalf of everyone who loves her.
"You reckless girl! If you really jump, your mother's life will be over with you!"
Zou Qiuyue cried out, her voice filled with heart-wrenching pain.
She put her arm around Song Xiaomei's shoulder and shook her violently.
"Don't you understand? If you're gone, what's the point of Mom living?!"
Song Xiaomei threw herself into Zou Qiuya's arms and burst into tears.
"Mom...I'm sorry...I was stupid, I was a jerk...I shouldn't have thought that way...I shouldn't have let you down..."
The mother and daughter hugged each other, crying their hearts out.
Shen Cuifen stood to the side with her hands behind her back, neither speaking nor stepping forward.
Looking at the mother and daughter, she felt as if she were seeing herself from decades ago.
At that time, she had also thought of ending it all in despair, and it was in this way that she was pulled back.
Their generation lived their entire lives with extreme caution.
She treats men like her life, children like a task, and herself like a sacrificial cog.
But who has ever felt sorry for them?
Looking back on her life, she suddenly found it all laughable.
From childhood, she had heard the phrase "Daughters will eventually belong to someone else's family."
My mother said it, my father said it, and all the relatives and neighbors said it too.
But she refused to believe it.
She also studied hard, hoping to get into a better place and forge her own path.
But reality repeatedly pushed her back to square one.
Forced to drop out of school, she married young, bore children for her husband, did laundry and cooked, and toiled day after day.
Now, she is finally tired, and finally awake.
We're all born of the same parents, so why should men be allowed to hold up the sky?
Why should women have to bow their heads, bend their backs, and accept whatever comes their way?
Just because men have more things, does that give them the right to rule everything?
The more she thought about it, the more absurd it seemed.
But upon closer reflection, it seems utterly ironic.
Aren't all men in this world born of women?
Without women carrying a child for ten months and enduring hardships, where would men come from to support the sky?
Now she understands.
Life is one's own; it is not given by one's parents, nor bestowed by one's husband.
Heaven should be its own servant.
It is not due to anyone's grace or pity.
Instead, they relied on themselves to walk out step by step, creating a new world with each step they took.
She looked at Song Xiaomei, who was crying and trembling, and silently said to herself.
Girl, you need to figure this out quickly.
You are still young, you still have time, and you still have energy.
Don't end up like me, wasting your whole life in tears and silence.
The two of them cried for a long time.
They cried until their voices were hoarse and their hearts were at ease, then they helped each other up, shakily standing up.
"Aunt Cuifen, let's not die, okay?"
Song Xiaomei wiped away her tears and looked up at Shen Cuifen.
She dared not speak loudly, afraid that if she said the wrong word, she would hurt the other person's feelings.
Shen Cuifen smiled and gently wiped away the tears on Song Xiaomei's face.
"Okay! Auntie won't die! Auntie is going to live a life worthy of herself!"
"I want the whole world to know that I can live a more illustrious life than anyone else, even without a man!"
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