Shang Wu walked over with two Americanos and placed one of them in front of Cheng Zhou.
Cheng Zhou thanked him in a low, hoarse voice, staring at the dark brown liquid in the glass without moving.
"Cheng Zhou".
Shang Wu sat down opposite him, her voice calm.
I know you're in a difficult position right now.
"On one side is my mother, and on the other side is my wife."
Cheng Zhou raised his head, his eyes bloodshot.
"I……"
He choked up for a moment, seemingly unsure where to begin.
“I’m not blaming Youyou, I know my mom said something excessive.”
"but……"
He rubbed his face vigorously.
"She's my mom after all. Seeing her collapse on the ground like that, I didn't know what to do..."
Shang Wu listened quietly without interrupting until he finished speaking, then gently stirred the coffee in front of him.
She spoke.
"Cheng Zhou, it's only natural for you to feel sorry for your mother, but have you ever thought about how painful it must have been for her when she criticized Sister You?"
"You know Sister You's personality better than I do. She's proud, direct, and can't stand being wronged in the slightest."
"She married you despite the pressure because she valued you as a person, and the respect and understanding you promised her, not because she wanted to marry into the Cheng family and become a breeding machine."
Cheng Zhou's lips moved as if he wanted to explain, but he ultimately fell silent.
Shang Wu continued, "You say she can speak calmly, but how many people can remain calm in the face of such accusations and insults?"
"Sister You's reaction may have been intense, but it was by no means unreasonable. It was her most direct counterattack when she was cornered."
She looked into Cheng Zhou's eyes.
"You only see the pain of your mother fainting, but can you see the helplessness and isolation she felt when you stood silently by, letting her face those embarrassing situations alone?"
"Afterwards, you blamed everything on her overly harsh words. Why wasn't she disappointed and heartbroken?"
Cheng Zhou's body jolted violently, as if he had been struck hard by something.
He recalled Lu You's cold gaze as she left, and his heart ached as if it were suffocating.
He suddenly realized how cruel his previous silence and accusations had been to Lu You.
"I……"
His throat tightened. "I didn't expect it. I was just too flustered at the time..."
Shang Wu sighed softly.
“Cheng Zhou, husband and wife are one. When you encounter storms in the outside world, you should be each other’s strongest support, instead of letting the person you love most bear the conflicts from your family alone, even if the source of the conflict is your mother.”
She paused, then raised her voice, "In this matter, your mother was wrong first, and Sister You was right to defend her dignity. The one who really needs to reflect and apologize is not her."
These words were like a wake-up call, completely waking Cheng Zhou up.
yes.
He was preoccupied with his mother's fainting and Lu You's overly harsh words, but selectively ignored the root cause of the conflict: his mother's boundless coercion.
He didn't stand up for his wife immediately; instead, he gave her the cold shoulder and blamed her after she was hurt.
What exactly did he do?
Cheng Zhou suddenly stood up, his face filled with regret and urgency.
“A-Wu”.
"Thank you."
"I know where I went wrong, I'm going to find Youyou right now!"
He must find her immediately, apologize to her, and tell her he was wrong.
Shang Wu watched his hurried departure and breathed a slight sigh of relief.
It's good that you can figure it out.
The rest is up to fate.
Cheng Zhou practically ran out of the coffee shop.
As he walked out, he kept dialing Lu You's number.
At first, no one answered the phone, and later it was simply switched off.
His heart sank little by little.
He knew Lu You's temper; this time, he had truly hurt her.
Cheng Zhou forced himself to calm down and thought about where Lu You might have gone.
Her own apartment?
still……
He suddenly remembered that Lu You had a high-rise apartment in the city center that she rarely visited but still kept.
She bought it herself before she got married. When she was in a very bad mood, she would occasionally go there to be alone.
Clinging to a sliver of hope, Cheng Zhou drove to the apartment.
His heart was in his throat the whole way, both hoping to find her and afraid to face her cold eyes.
Upon arriving at the apartment building, Cheng Zhou parked his car, quickly stepped into the elevator, and pressed the button for his floor.
As the elevator slowly ascended, his heart pounded faster and faster.
Standing outside the apartment door, Cheng Zhou took a deep breath and was about to knock when he vaguely heard Lu You's voice coming from inside.
She seemed to be on the phone, her tone agitated, still tinged with anger.
Cheng Zhou's movements stopped, as if by some strange twist of fate.
He didn't knock, but instead gently pressed his ear to the crack in the door.
"...Yes! I did say that! So what?!"
Lu You's voice came through clearly, carrying a sense of catharsis.
"His mother is sick. She was the one who begged me to marry her, and now she's the one forcing me to have a child."
"So, in the eyes of the Cheng family, I, Lu You, am just a high-class womb?!"
"Extinction of the lineage? That's laughable! Does the Cheng family have a throne to inherit?!"
"That bastard Cheng Zhou didn't utter a single word at the crucial moment. He watched his mother pointing her finger at me and yelling, and then he blamed me for speaking harshly? Did I make his mother faint because I was angry?"
"It's clearly because her heart can't take it and she can't stand the truth. Her whole family is weird!"
Outside the door.
Cheng Zhou felt as if a bucket of ice water had been poured over him from head to toe, leaving him feeling icy cold all over.
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