Chapter 507 Divorce Agreement
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Li Wangtian remained silent while Zheng Meiniang and Li Xiatian argued.
Upon hearing Li Xiatian's question, he lowered his head, not daring to look at Zheng Meiniang or Li Xiatian.
Li Wangzheng's letter didn't mention anything about this.
Li Wangzheng didn't mention this issue at all, and of course, he didn't give an answer either.
In the letter, Li Wangzheng only wrote about his endless pain and guilt.
Those words stabbed at Zheng Meiniang's heart like knives, yet strangely brought her a sliver of comfort—at least, Li Wangzheng was still alive and hadn't forgotten her and her two daughters.
Zheng Meiniang gently shook her head at Li Xiatian, tears streaming down her face: "Xiatian, it doesn't matter anymore... it doesn't matter anymore."
Knowing that your father is still alive, with all his limbs intact, is enough...
"mother!"
Li Xiatian looked at Zheng Meiniang in disbelief, "Mother, how could you say that?"
So what are we?
You, me, my older sister, and my Pingping and An'an, what are we?
Zheng Meiniang's heart was breaking at that moment.
Yes, what are they?
"My father only wrote this one letter to get rid of us?"
"Mother, wake up!"
He doesn't want us anymore!
Tears welled up in Li Xiatian's eyes, and the mother and daughter finally hugged each other and cried again.
Pingping and An'an outside couldn't hold back any longer. They abandoned their cakes, put them back on the plate, and the two siblings pulled and tugged at each other as they ran into the side hall.
While running, she kept calling out, "Grandma, Mother."
The family of four hugged each other tightly, the adults holding the baby, and they all sobbed and cried for a quarter of an hour.
Pingping and An'an cried until their voices sounded just like Li Wangtian's, so hoarse they could barely speak.
In the end, it was the lamb that took Zheng Meiniang and the other three home.
After returning to the council hall, Yangzai took a lantern to the side hall to check on Li Wangtian. He wanted to touch Li Wangtian's forehead to see if he had a fever.
Who knew that he had just reached the edge of the low couch when he came face to face with Li Wangtian, who had his eyes wide open!
Luckily, the lamb was brave, otherwise he would have been so frightened by that eye contact that he would have cried out twice.
However, the lamb still swallowed hard and looked at Li Wangtian: "Uncle, why aren't you asleep yet?"
I was even thinking of coming over to check if you had a fever.
My master said that if you get a fever at night, he'll have to brew you some medicine.
"Your qi and blood are severely deficient right now; you absolutely cannot let this fever continue."
Zheng Meiniang and Li Xiatian, who had already returned home, heated the kang (a heated brick bed) and helped Pingping and An'an wash up before lying down on it.
It was late at night, well past midnight.
Pingping and An'an were curled up in the warm quilt on the kang (a heated brick bed). To their left was their mother, Li Xiatian, and to their right was their grandmother, Zheng Meiniang.
Before long, Pingping and An'an were breathing evenly and sleeping soundly.
The two children were already asleep, but even though Zheng Meiniang and Li Xiatian wanted to sleep, their minds were filled with thoughts, so how could they fall asleep?
Zheng Meiniang turned to the side and gently stroked the hair of the two children before looking at Li Xiatian, who was lying down.
Li Xiatian's eyes were still red and swollen, but she stubbornly kept them open, refusing to close them.
Zheng Meiniang sighed and said softly, "Xia Tian, light the lamps."
Li Xiatian pursed his lips, but finally got up and fumbled to light the oil lamp.
The dim light spread throughout the room, illuminating Zheng Meiniang's tired yet serene face.
She took out the few pages of letter paper that Li Xiatian had crumpled but which she had smoothed out, and carefully spread them out on the kang table.
"Mother, why are you still looking at it?"
Li Xiatian's voice was hoarse, tinged with resentment.
Zheng Meiniang did not answer Li Xiatian's question. She simply lowered her head and, under the dim light, read those familiar words over and over again.
Her fingertips gently traced Li Wangzheng's words, as if she could touch that man through the paper.
Some of the ink on the letter had already smudged, whether from Zheng Meiniang's tears or from the sweat that Li Xiatian had squeezed out.
After looking at her for a long time, Zheng Meiniang finally raised her head and looked at Li Xiatian: "Xiatian, your father... thought we were all dead, that's why he married a new woman."
"But he didn't see it with his own eyes!"
Li Xiatian gritted his teeth, "How could he..."
"He joined the army, but he had his own reasons for it."
Zheng Meiniang interrupted Li Xiatian. Her voice was soft but firm as iron, "The fact that he asked someone to look for us... already shows that he cares about us, the three of us."
Li Xiatian turned his head away, refusing to listen to what Zheng Meiniang was saying.
Zheng Meiniang continued, word by word, "Your father wrote in his letter that he had just married a new wife the year you gave birth to Pingping and An'an."
By calculation, that child is actually a year younger than Pingping and An'an.
So, it's clear your father waited for us for five years.
"So what?"
Tears welled up in Li Xiatian's eyes again. "He knows now that we're still alive!"
Why didn't he clearly state in his letter what he was going to do?
he......"
"Because he didn't know either."
Zheng Meiniang gave a bitter smile and said, "Xia Tian, your father doesn't know what to do either."
He... has a new home now.
These words were like a biting winter wind, slapping Li Xiatian hard across the face twice.
Li Xiatian opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but no sound came out of her throat.
Silence fell over the room, broken only by the occasional soft crackling of the oil lamp.
After a long while, Zheng Meiniang took a deep breath and took out a writing brush, ink, paper, and inkstone from the kang cabinet.
She laid the paper flat and asked Li Xiatian to grind the ink for her. Zheng Meiniang picked up her brush, dipped it in the ink, and slowly wrote three words on the envelope: "Letter of Divorce".
Li Xiatian's eyes widened immediately: "Mother!"
Zheng Meiniang's hand was very steady, but her brushstrokes were extremely heavy, and the ink almost penetrated the back of the paper.
Zheng Meiniang didn't look up at Li Xiatian. She kept writing with her head down and whispered, "Xiatian, your mother doesn't blame your father."
Your father... has his own difficulties and his own unavoidable circumstances.
How could I not know what kind of person your father is?
He's a good person.
Mother knows everything, but... Mother doesn't want to make things difficult for herself.
Zheng Meiniang looked up and smiled at Li Xiatian.
"You are all I need. Your mother can't stand being mistreated."
Under Li Xiatian's stunned gaze, Zheng Meiniang wrote on the letter paper, stroke by stroke:
"The author, Zheng Mei Niang, was married to her husband, Li Wang Zheng, for more than ten years and they had two daughters."
Later, due to the war, my husband was conscripted into the army, and I fled with my two daughters and my clan. My husband and I were separated and went our separate ways, with no news of each other.
Later, I heard that my son-in-law was serving in Youzhou, and I had planned to meet him again someday.
Unexpectedly, you have already married another woman and have children.
At first hearing, I was heartbroken, but upon reflection, I realized the helplessness of war and the uncertainty of life and death.
Since you mistakenly believed that I and my two daughters had all died in the chaos of war, it is only natural that you would establish another family.
Zheng Mei Niang voluntarily agrees to this divorce agreement.
From this day forward, Zheng and Li shall dissolve their marital contract and part ways amicably.
The two daughters returned to their mother's clan in autumn and summer, and were forever considered daughters of the Zheng family.
From this day forward, life, death, marriage, and other matters will be none of our concern!
As she wrote this, Zheng Meiniang's pen trembled slightly, but she quickly steadied herself.
Zheng Meiniang added a sentence at the end of the divorce agreement: "May you cherish your new wife and raise your young child."
"I will never see you again in this life!"
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