Chapter 21 Baby, don't cry, don't cry
"You now think that divorce isn't so bad, right?" Seeing his sister still looking at the problem and reflecting on the past while suffering, Li Songshi felt much relieved.
"At least I don't have to consider my partner's needs anymore, I don't have to spend time and energy accompanying and taking care of him, I can do whatever I want, and no one is pressuring me to get married or pointing fingers at my life."
It feels kind of good.
“Exactly, why get married and become someone’s maid?” Li Songshi sighed. “I think girls really suffer. Except for a very few who gain a lot from marriage, the vast majority of girls lose out when they get married.”
Men are the beneficiaries in marriage.
Even if his sister hadn't been cheated on by Chen Li, he still felt that his sister had made a bad choice in marriage.
From now on, she will no longer have to take care of her family and children, and will have enough freedom and time to do what she wants and realize her dreams. Isn't that a good thing?
"I lost my marriage, but I am free."
"Thinking about it this way, divorce isn't suffering, marriage is." Li Songshi, who is afraid of marriage and having children, couldn't help but make a self-deprecating joke, "You seem pretty miserable now, but my misery is yet to come."
“Don’t say that,” Li Chi’an said. “I was young back then, and I dated and married based on my feelings. I didn’t know how to weigh the pros and cons, which is why I’m facing risks today. Now that you’re more mature, you can open your eyes wide and find someone who matches you when you look for a marriage partner.”
Marriage is a match.
The higher the compatibility score, the happier the relationship; the lower the compatibility score, the harder it is to make the relationship work out.
After so many years of being immersed in married life, she was still schemed against so badly by Chen Li.
As Li Chi'an's worldview was shattered, his perspective on many things also changed.
"If only you had this awareness before."
"People always have to go through these experiences; awakening isn't just something you can talk about."
As Chizuko Ueno once said, if a woman is spiritually impoverished, she will become fixated on loving and being loved. In reality, life offers much more than just romance; there's no need to be obsessed with love. The vast world, the boundless sea of books, and the expansive realm of life are all worth exploring.
This was a light shining on her path as she suffered betrayal and felt immense pain.
There are two sides to everything. Without a family, she will have the whole world.
...
That night.
Li Chi'an, dressed in pajamas, sat cross-legged on the bed. After his mother packed away the items she had shown him one by one, he pulled her to sit down on the bed. "Mom, I have something very important to tell you."
"What is it?" Li's mother couldn't help but smile, thinking of how happy her beloved nephew would be to receive her gift.
"Chen Li cheated on me." Li Chi'an dropped a bombshell on his mother in a calm tone. "I'm getting a divorce."
The air seemed to freeze.
Li's mother's body seemed to have been struck by an invisible giant hammer. She froze on the bed, like a plaster statue that had suddenly cooled down. The color drained away from her once rosy face in an instant.
"How could this be?" she exclaimed in disbelief.
"I caught him on the spot." Tears streamed down his face uncontrollably. Li Chi'an was still trembling with anger as he recalled the scene. "The day before yesterday afternoon, at home."
Two intense emotions collided and churned fiercely in Li's mother's chest, almost tearing her apart. But when she saw the tears streaming down her daughter's face, she straightened her body and stroked her daughter's snow-white face with her slightly rough but warm hands.
She hurriedly wiped away her daughter's tears, wishing she could take her daughter's pain away. "Baby, don't cry, don't cry."
Her eyes were bloodshot, and her voice, as she comforted Li Chi'an, was filled with heartache and love, but her voice cracked as she spoke the next sentence, "Divorce, divorce, we'll get a divorce tomorrow! This bastard, he's utterly inhuman, we absolutely cannot let him get away with this!"
Towards the end, each syllable sounded like a spark bursting from between his teeth.
“Their family is all dead, to raise such a beast.”
“Baby, you should have called us the day before yesterday afternoon to tell us.”
"If we had known you would suffer so much, we would never have let you be so sad."
Thinking about how her daughter had been suppressing her emotions and maintaining a calm facade these past two days so as not to worry them, and then thinking about her son-in-law's betrayal, Li's mother was furious and heartbroken.
A surge of anger overwhelmed the mother and daughter, and they embraced and wept bitterly.
As their frenzied emotions gradually subsided, Li Chian closed his eyes, rested his head on his mother's shoulder, and remained silent.
Li's mother took a deep breath and hugged her daughter tightly, her voice trembling slightly. "You can live at home from now on. I'll go to school with you tomorrow and the day after and bring Zui Zui home. It doesn't matter if he misses kindergarten classes. You should rest well at home during this time. I'll help you take care of the child. You should focus on getting a good divorce from Chen Li. Don't worry about anything else for now."
Li Chi'an looked up at his mother's face, which held an undeniable firmness and protectiveness. "Mom."
"I thought you would try to persuade me."
Her voice was slightly hoarse, and tears streamed down her face uncontrollably. But undeniably, she felt relieved when she heard her mother's firm stance on her divorce, especially since her mother had offered to help her take care of the children.
"Why should I advise you, my dear?" Li's mother released her daughter's shoulder, looking at her daughter with red eyes. "You are my daughter. If Chen Li were a good person, of course I wouldn't want you to get a divorce. But now that she has another woman outside, how can I not let you get a divorce? I'm not that cowardly to demean my own child."
“You weren’t like this before.” Li Chi’an thought of some things from the past and accidentally blew a bubble in his voice. “When Chen Li and I had conflicts before, you always said that he was under a lot of pressure and told me to be more tolerant and understanding.”
"Sigh... just pretend I was blind before." Chen's mother sighed deeply and said earnestly, "You've been dating Chen Li since college. You chose him yourself. We think he's handsome, intelligent, and has a good job. With such a son-in-law, what more could I ask for? Your father and I have been arguing for so many years. We had a tough time when we were young, but we've made it through. What young couple doesn't have disagreements? Am I supposed to tell you to get a divorce every time you have a disagreement? I always try to persuade you to understand and support each other and live a good life together. When you argue, if I don't say anything to you, can I say anything to him?"
Living room outside the door.
The television hanging on the background wall, which had only been painted with a few layers of blue-gray artistic paint, had its volume turned down extremely low.
Lee Song-shi leaned back on the sofa, arms crossed, watching TV with a calm expression.
Mr. Li, with a cigarette between his fingers, paced back and forth in the living room.
Every now and then, he would stand by the window, staring blankly at the darkness outside.
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