Nan Yuanman and Feng Jingcheng were taken aback.
Li Yuzhen's mother seemed dazed, as if lost in a distant memory: "My name is Gu Jiashi. I only brought Yuzhen to Beijing six years ago. Before that, I was just an ordinary stay-at-home mom from a small county in the south..."
Gu Jiashi was raised with strict discipline from a young age. From kindergarten to university, her parents strictly controlled every aspect of her life.
She was raised to be rather timid and indecisive. After graduating from university, she followed her mother's arrangement and went on a blind date with the son of one of her friends.
Her friend's son was a student who had returned from studying abroad. His personality was very different from hers. He was enthusiastic, sunny, bold, had a sweet tongue, and was very good at getting along with people. He quickly won her favor.
It can be said that Gu Jiashi tasted a freedom with him that she had never experienced before.
He led her to do many things she had never dared to do before, making her gradually realize that she was a living, breathing person, not a puppet controlled by her parents.
So soon, she married him.
After marriage, her parents-in-law treated her very well, letting her sleep until she naturally woke up, and even cooking three meals a day for her. Her husband handed over his salary on time and occasionally took her out to play.
She truly enjoyed a sweet and happy period of time.
Before having children, Gu Jiashi believed that she would continue to be happy like this.
She became pregnant and gave birth to twins.
Her peaceful life was turned upside down by the arrival of the children. Her in-laws, who had previously treated her very well, couldn't help but show some disdain when they saw the two little girls, muttering under their breath, "What a useless piece of trash..."
Her attitude towards her also changed completely. Not only did she deliberately cook spicy and greasy food during her postpartum period, but she also deliberately made loud noises while the baby was sleeping, waking the baby up.
Gu Jiashi complained to her husband, seeking his help, but he said impatiently, "Mom didn't do it on purpose. It's not easy for her to take care of you and the child. Just bear with it."
"Either you take good care of yourself, and once you're better, give me a son."
Listening to his cold, indifferent words, and looking at this man who she thought was perfect before marriage, Gu Jiashi felt that he had changed.
She no longer recognized him.
What could Gu Jiashi do?
She had just given birth, and the pregnancy hormones made her feel depressed. The C-section made her feel pain all over her body, and she had no energy to argue.
Left with no other choice, she endured it.
However, when she was trying to soothe her two crying children, she would uncontrollably feel resentment and even hatred towards them.
"At the time, I felt that it was all their fault. If it weren't for them, my life wouldn't have changed so much. I even hated them, hated them for being girls instead of boys," Gu Jiashi said with a bitter smile.
Feng Jingcheng frowned and couldn't help but say, "It's not their fault. They were young at the time, and crying was just their instinct."
Nan Yuanman nodded in agreement, then asked, somewhat puzzled, "Didn't you choose to bring them into this world? Didn't you have children because you loved each other? Why then do you make them bear the burdens and emotions between you adults?"
Gu Jiashi picked at the dead skin on her fingers, forcing a bitter smile: "Yes, it wasn't their fault, but..."
How could she have possibly thought of that at the time?
Having finally tasted the sweetness of freedom, she was eager to restore her drastically changed life to its former state.
so……
Instead of protecting them, she joined her mother-in-law and husband, standing on the same side as them, genuinely hating and despising them.
Why not a boy? Why a girl?
She began to take care of them less meticulously, ignoring their crying and pleas for comfort.
She began to take good care of herself, focusing on improving her health and obsessively preparing for pregnancy, hoping to have a son with her husband after she recovered.
Once she gives birth to a son, her life will return to normal, and her mother-in-law and husband will no longer secretly complain that she is a woman who cannot lay eggs.
Her parents wouldn't feel ashamed that she didn't give birth to a son for her husband's family.
Gu Jiashi felt trapped in a vicious cycle where she had to have a son to have a good life, and she kept sinking deeper into this cycle, with no one able to save her.
In order to give birth to a son, Gu Jiashi accepted all the fertility secrets her mother-in-law gave her. By the time she became pregnant again, her neglected twins were already two years old.
Their family's lack of attention resulted in them having two very simple names: Li Xiaohua and Li Xiaocao.
They seemed to know that they were not loved by their parents at home, and they behaved unexpectedly well.
She doesn't cry or make a fuss, and occasionally helps with housework. After playing with her toys, she cleans them up neatly, trying her best not to cause trouble for her family.
During Gu Jiashi's pregnancy, she treated them better than usual. She unconsciously brainwashed them: "When your little brother is born, you must be good to him. He will be your support in the future. You are the older sisters, so you must take good care of him."
Li Xiaohua and Li Xiaocao nestled in Gu Jiashi's arms, filled with anticipation for their soon-to-be-born little brother. Faced with her brainwashing, they nodded earnestly and replied in their childish voices, "Mommy, don't worry, we'll take good care of our little brother."
Looking at her two well-behaved and sensible daughters, Gu Jiashi felt in a daze that if she could live like this forever, it wouldn't be so bad.
Until, she gave birth to a daughter, not a son.
The arrival of her third daughter shattered her dream of having a son, and her in-laws' attitude towards her returned to its previous hostile state. Her husband even stopped coming home at night and cheated on her while she was in postpartum confinement.
When she caught him, he said in a high-sounding manner, "Since you can't give birth to a son, then let another woman give birth to one for me."
No matter how much she acted up, they all watched her coldly, as if she were a clown performing a one-woman show.
Those dark days drove Gu Jiashi to despair, and she even thought about jumping into the river with her three daughters and dying.
To avoid leaving them in the world to suffer as well.
But before she could jump into the river with her daughter, Xiaohua and Xiaocao were killed.
On the day of the accident, her mother-in-law told her to take Xiaohua and Xiaocao out to play, while she stayed home to take care of her unnamed third child.
That evening, her mother-in-law rushed back in a panic, telling her that Xiaohua and Xiaocao were missing.
The whole family went out to search, and after searching all night, Gu Jiashi found them in the septic tank.
Two small figures, still clutching lollipops tightly in their hands, floated on the septic tank like weeds.
Gu Jiashi's mind went blank; she had no idea how to retrieve the child or how to conduct their funeral.
She only came to her senses when her mother-in-law was about to take their urns out to throw them away, and grabbed her mother-in-law to stop her from taking the urns away.
Gu Jiashi begged her mother-in-law to leave her something to remember her by, but she heard her mother-in-law say something that chilled her to the bone.
She said, "Those two children were meant to bring bad luck to our family. Now that they're gone, you'll definitely be able to give Weitao a son!"
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