After a moment of silence, Shen Dingkun suddenly posed a question to Jiang Tian.
Jiang Tian retorted, "You can't get the answers you want from your wife, so you come to me? Have you discovered that your wife doesn't love the child as wholeheartedly as you expected?"
Shen Dingkun, having been hit where it hurt, remained silent.
After a long while, he lowered his head and said, "They're all right. I just don't understand why my wife would say that about our daughter. She thinks our daughter must get married and have children."
“I don’t understand why she has those thoughts. I won’t judge; it’s none of my business. You want the answers you need from me, but I can’t raise your child for you. I’m An’an’s mother, not someone else’s mother. Can you let me go now?”
“My wife has changed a lot lately. She's increasingly unable to find balance in our life, she's always getting angry with me, and she always wants to be superior to everyone else. Have you felt the same way since you married Su Hanze?”
Shen Dingkun began to recount his troubles as if no one else was around.
"I'm sorry, Su Hanze and I were only husband and wife in name. I was... In short, we never truly loved each other; I was his subordinate. So, I have no vanity. May I leave now?"
"You look much better." Shen Dingkun scrutinized Jiang Tian's expression and suddenly said, "Perhaps, once you leave the source of the poison, everyone will feel much better, including you, including..."
He didn't finish his sentence.
Clearly, Jiang Tian had no interest in listening.
“Mr. Shen, if you came to me just to say these nonsensical things, then you have achieved your goal. I am in a very bad mood right now.”
"Your family conflicts are none of an outsider's business. You and I are just strangers who met by chance. If you hadn't bullied my parents and hadn't been so scheming, we could have maintained a relationship that was slightly closer than that of strangers, which would have been normal. If you can't find the right person to confide in, you can go to a psychologist. They can give you professional advice and provide considerate service. I don't need to be here as a chatterbox."
Jiang Tian finished speaking in one breath, and it seemed that her patience had reached its limit. She was so angry that her face turned red.
Shen Dingkun's gaze lingered on Jiang Tian's face for a few more seconds without him noticing.
The afterglow of the setting sun shone through the car window onto Jiang Tian's face.
She frowned, her pale face full of impatience.
Clearly, her disgust for him transcended the difference in their social status and overshadowed his previous threats, becoming her strongest emotion.
This aversion only made her more stubborn.
Because he loathed her, yet the sunlight bathed the woman in a soft glow.
Shen Dingkun's hand twitched, and as if possessed, he actually intended to reach out and brush away her fallen strands of hair.
Her hair looked great, smooth and shiny.
However, his movements froze in mid-air, and he snapped out of his daze and withdrew his hand.
—The sudden thought just now startled even himself.
Shen Dingkun clenched his fist unnaturally.
Jiang Tian did not notice his unusual behavior.
She took out her phone and looked even more displeased: "It's getting late. If you have anything to say, say it now. If not, let me out of the car. Please stop bothering me. No one is obligated to care about your life, please understand that."
Jiang Tian was the first to break the strange silence.
Shen Dingkun lost the mood to speak for a moment.
After what seemed like an eternity, he finally managed to say, "I'll take you to the supermarket; it's on my way. Consider it an apology."
Jiang Tian frowned and looked at him, her questioning gaze causing Shen Dingkun's expression to tighten involuntarily.
In the end, Shen Dingkun did not deliver the gift to Jiang Tian; she refused him.
Jiang Tian got out of the car and walked towards the mall.
Watching her retreating figure, Shen Dingkun slammed his fist on the steering wheel.
The pain brought him to his senses.
The strange feeling he had just experienced was like countless ants crawling all over his body.
Has he gone mad? What just happened? Has he really lost his mind?
"Why would I feel pity for a woman other than my wife, or even have that strange feeling? Actually, nothing happened between us, we just exchanged a few words. I knew her before, but back then I just thought of her as a puppet who could be manipulated, someone who worked as a nanny and didn't even get paid. I looked down on her."
“I’ve always been very good to my wife. I give her almost everything she wants, help her plan her life, give her advice, and meet all her needs. But lately she’s been hitting my sore spots and not being good to the kids either. I’m starting to get impatient. Today I ran into that woman and couldn’t help but confide in her, and then… I had that strange reaction.”
"She told me to see a therapist, so I came. I still don't understand. Can you tell me what's wrong with me?"
The therapist's gaze was calm yet sharp: "Mr. Shen, you need to understand one thing: a person's emotional changes often stem from the projection of their inner needs. Have you ever really thought about what you truly want?"
Shen Dingkun remained silent for a long time, his knuckles unconsciously tapping the armrest.
After a long while, he finally spoke, his voice low and steady.
"I……"
“Mr. Shen, you need to face your true inner self.” The therapist’s tone was gentle yet powerful.
Shen Dingkun tugged at his collar, and before he knew it, a fine sheen of sweat had appeared on his forehead.
After a long silence, he finally said, "I want to go back to the way things were, to rekindle the love I had for my wife, and to get back the life I loved most. Right now, we're having problems in many ways; our values are diverging. She doesn't understand my thoughts, and I can't agree with her parenting views; I even think she's abusing the child."
At this point, his voice deepened, carrying a hint of suppressed frustration: "Before, I could experience the sweetness of love, and I could control my work, my family, and even my own emotions. I thought I was omnipotent."
He stared at his clasped hands, knuckles white from the force: "But now... I can't tell whether I feel more responsibility or more affection for my wife..."
“Okay.” The therapist’s pen stopped on the notepad. She said, “Mr. Shen, your current confusion indicates that the boundaries between your responsibilities and feelings towards your wife are becoming blurred. This blurring may mean that your inner needs are unconsciously shifting.”
She continued writing something, her tone still calm: "Then let's change the subject. Please think carefully about the woman you mentioned earlier, the woman who made you lose your composure. Does she possess a quality that you crave in your marriage but have lost?"
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