Chapter 55
You Yuanming walked out of the room with his hands behind his back, looking like he was in his seventies or eighties.
You Congxi immediately stopped smiling the moment she saw him.
Neither of them spoke first.
The air was silent for two seconds.
"Hey, what are you all standing there for?" Yu Junya finally broke the awkward silence. "Let's eat, let's eat."
Yu Youyi never sees the bigger picture; she cheers and is the first to rush to the table and sit down.
"Youyou, sit still." Yu Junya glared at her and gave the command like she was training a dog.
You Congxi, who was preparing for battle, couldn't help but smile when he saw this.
It has to be the biological mother, who knows that her daughter's true form is a wild golden retriever. This kind of concise and clear command language is the most suitable.
She glanced at Yu Junya, who had come out of the kitchen with chopsticks, and felt that if she told Yu Junya that her daughter was a golden retriever in her past life, Yu Junya would just smile indifferently on the surface and feel that she had found a kindred spirit in her heart. But if she said this to You Yuanming, You Yuanming would just think that she was jealous of her stepsister for calling her stepsister a dog.
You Congxi looked away, finding the scene rather ridiculous.
A biological mother knows her own daughter well, and she also knows a fair bit about this fake daughter.
The biological father doesn't understand his own daughter, and he's even more of a stranger to this fake biological daughter.
Seeing the smile on her lips, You Yuanming assumed that this meal was for reconciliation and felt relieved.
People start putting on airs as soon as they feel at ease.
He leaned back in his chair, picked up the teacup on the table, brought it to his nose and sniffed, then put the cup down, snorted through his nose, tilted his chin up, glanced at his eldest daughter, and said in a deep voice, "You still know how to come back."
“Didn’t you tell me to come back?” You Congxi said.
As a corrupt and feudal liberal arts professor, You Yuanming was gentle and refined in front of outsiders, but within the confines of his family, he was approachable and shared joy with the people when he was in a good mood, but when he was in a bad mood, he acted like a local tyrant, as if the chair he sat on was a dragon throne and the pajamas he wore were dragon robes.
You Yuanming slammed the teacup down on the table: "Is this how you talk to your father!"
You Youyi's hand holding the chopsticks trembled, and under Yu Junya's glare, she reluctantly put down the chopsticks, her lips pouting so much they could hold an oil lamp.
"Do I need to kneel down and kowtow before I can speak to you?" You Congxi said calmly.
"You!" You Yuanming's eyes widened as he pointed a finger at her.
You Congxi sighed.
I should have known better than to change my shoes.
Tonight was the first time she looked at You Yuanming. His deep frown lines, like the Mariana Trench, and his thin lips hadn't changed much from half a month ago.
If I had to point out a change, it would probably be that I have a few more wrinkles and my crow's feet are a bit more noticeable.
“Dad,” You Congxi said, “you’re getting uglier and uglier.”
Especially the eyes.
The only thing on her face that resembled You Yuanming was her eyes. Ever since she could remember, her eyes had always been praised by relatives and friends, especially her father's relatives.
She remembered that when she was little, You Yuanming liked to gently touch her eyelashes and say in a soft voice, "My daughter is so cute. Our Xiaoxi is the cutest child in the world. Xiaoxi is Dad's favorite."
At that time, You Yuanming's eyes could still reflect her image; they were dark, yet very bright.
Now, You Yuanming's eyes are like atrophied muscles, a withered life form. No one knows when it started, but no one has said that her eyes look like her father's anymore.
"Enough!" You Yuanming's patience had reached its limit. He had thought that his rebellious eldest daughter had come to admit her mistakes and repent, but he did not expect her to be so willful and even more outrageous. "If this is your attitude, you don't need to eat this meal. Get out!"
Yu Junya wanted to persuade them, but both father and daughter were stubborn mules. Whether as a second wife or a stepmother, there was no place for her in this conflict.
“No wonder your mother was so eager to do IVF abroad,” You Yuanming said, panting, his hand on his chest. Pointing at You Congxi, he continued, “Early romance, talking back to parents, disobedience—she was utterly hopeless! But she finally had a moment of wisdom. She secretly married that foreigner abroad without telling you, and did IVF many times. This time she finally succeeded, giving herself something to look forward to when she’s old!”
"Mom, what is IVF? Who is my sister's mother? Isn't a wedding only for married couples? My sister's mother got married again, so how can my sister..." Yu Junya tightly covered You Youyi's mouth.
That familiar feeling of detachment returned, like a ghost floating in the air, seeing her body sitting in a chair, watching this laughable farce.
The You family was like a huge quagmire; once you were in, you couldn't get out. The more you struggled, the deeper you sank, until the filthy, foul-smelling mud covered your chin, flooded your mouth, nostrils, ears, and eyes, and finally submerged your head, swallowing you whole into this bottomless abyss.
She didn't want to continue struggling here, and she didn't want to carry the filth and stench of the previous seventeen years on her shoulders for every second of her life. Sometimes she would wake up in the middle of the night and feel an unusual weight on her shoulders, making her dizzy and unable to breathe.
At this time, she would sit up, draw back the curtains, and look at the deep blue night sky outside the window. Occasionally, there would be a few bright stars. When she was a little younger, she would wonder if there was Chang'e on the star. Chang'e might be carrying the Jade Rabbit and flying from one star to another. Where would the other Chang'e go? Would they fight? Or since they were already here, why not just sit down and eat hot pot together?
Whenever she thinks about eating hot pot, You Congxi lies down again, closes her eyes, and imagines herself sitting next to the moon goddesses. She imagines putting mutton in the first dish to fill her stomach, and then adding more in the second dish... She falls asleep while thinking about it, so she always dreams of eating hot pot with the moon goddesses.
But as they get older, the mud on their backs doesn't decrease but increases, getting heavier and heavier... Life isn't a TV drama; it doesn't allow all the conflicts to erupt at the same time, and then let the protagonist solve them all with their intelligence, resulting in a happy ending.
Life is like being cut with a dull knife, intermittent and relentless, this resentment will never end.
Everyone is changing, and conflicts are like weeds that can never be extinguished, like a hangnail on your finger. It hurts when you tear it, but it's an eyesore if you don't. There are no earth-shattering conflicts, only a thin, short fishbone stuck in your throat all year round. With every swallow and every breath, you can vaguely feel its presence.
You Congxi grew tired of this kind of life.
She didn't want to continue struggling in the mud, didn't want to continue carrying mud that didn't belong to her forward, didn't want to be unable to sleep, and didn't want to wake up in the middle of the night staring blankly at a few distant stars.
Even a dull knife will hurt when cutting flesh; a hangnail on your finger will always remain if you don't tear it off; a fishbone stuck in your throat will remain in your ashes forever if you don't remove it, until you are cremated.
Her steps were too heavy; she couldn't go any further.
“Dad,” You Congxi said, “that’s fine.”
Let's leave it at that. Let's leave all the past events, all the grudges and disputes, behind.
She was about to move forward.
Let's leave all the grievances, anger, disappointment, arguments, and fantasies behind.
If reconciliation is impossible, how can a tangled mess be straightened out? In that case, the only thing she can do is give up.
Give up the obsession with finding the thread, give up the pursuit of seventeen years of family ties, give up the sense of belonging that you are always looking for.
What you seek, you will be bound by.
To get rid of the mud clinging to your body, you have to learn to let go.
You Congxi shed tears for the first time at You Yuanming's house.
She no longer had to withdraw to protect herself; she was finally able to confront her emotions.
After taking the tissue from You Youyi, You Congxi said "thank you".
She stood up, looked down at You Yuanming, and said, "That's fine."
She changed out of the slippers that You Yuanming's family had just bought, put on her favorite pretty shoes, opened the door that always witnessed her embarrassing moments, and walked into the pitch-black stairwell.
The door closed, and You Congxi stood in the darkness, feeling more at peace than ever before.
It was as if she had finally truly grasped herself, that she had finally begun to belong to herself, that she would no longer feel the emptiness of having nothing, no longer feel the delusion of taking a wrong step. She stomped her foot, and she finally stood firmly on the ground, without floating or being detached.
Only by being down-to-earth.
Down-to-earth and practical.
You Congxi pulled the hood of his coat over his head and started walking outside.
The streetlights faithfully shone, casting the shadows of the roadside trees that swayed gently in the wind.
As she walked the familiar road to the underworld, for the first time, she didn't feel the urge to call Jing Ling.
You Congxi took his phone out of his pocket, opened Jing Ling's chat window, and moved his fingers.
Mom, happy wedding! Take the baby back to China to play with after it's born.
Jing Ling should have her own life, and so should You Yuanming. She has always been the only one who stayed in the same place, holding onto the memories of the past and drawing a circle around herself, imprisoning herself in it.
You Congxi sniffled, and tears fell again.
She didn't want to cry, but perhaps because her inner knot had been untied, or perhaps because she broke her habit of crying and couldn't stop, in any case, when she stepped into the elevator, her face was covered with tear tracks that had been dried by the wind.
bite.
The elevator doors opened, and You Congxi took a few steps outside. Feeling a bit stuffy on her head, she simply reached out and took off her hat.
Before her hand could even touch the door lock, she sensed something was wrong. After a few seconds of silence, she turned around—
"What are you doing sitting here?" You Congxi was stunned.
Shen Yue was so sleepy that he nodded with his eyes closed and didn't even hear the elevator ring.
Upon hearing You Congxi's voice, he immediately opened his eyes and his first reaction was to reach out and touch his mouth to see if there was any saliva.
Thank goodness nothing happened, he felt relieved... Wait a minute!
"What happened to your face? Did you cry? What happened? Who bullied you...?"
"Stop," You Congxi's ears hurt from his noise, so she gestured for him to stop, but she didn't want to answer him, so she abruptly changed the subject, "You still haven't answered me, what are you doing sitting here?"
She was so frightened that her heart is still pounding.
"I...I came out for some fresh air," Shen Yue rubbed his face, "and waited for you."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
