Jiang Tian stood up and shook her head.
"Auntie, you don't need to apologize."
Clearly, she couldn't accept the idea of a mother apologizing for her son.
As the person involved, Jiang Tian obviously did not want Jiang Xiuyu to be subservient to her former daughter-in-law for the sake of her son.
Su Hanze's eyes were also filled with surprise.
In his heart, his mother was a proud woman; she was always the most radiant and the most right.
But at this moment, she is apologizing for herself.
"This is my problem, and you don't need to take responsibility for my life. What's wrong with you today? Why are you here?"
As people grow up, their feelings for their parents undergo deeper changes.
Although Su Hanze loathed his parents arguing around him, he also knew very well that he was their only son, and neither of them had any more children or went out to have children with other people.
In a wealthy family, they are already a very normal couple.
It was precisely because they had been entangled for years and never had any second thoughts that Su Hanze felt a complex mix of pain and something indescribable.
Why could a couple who were at odds with each other last for so many years?
Jiang Xiuyu shook her head as she looked at her son.
She continued speaking to Jiang Tian: "Actually, this is something I owe my son. Do you think I'm a mother of a boy? In fact, if a child can truly live a good life, gender doesn't matter. For parents, they only want their children to be happy; they have no other thoughts."
"But I must admit that at first, I was happy that he was born a boy, happy that he could be spared the pain that many women have to endure, such as childbirth and the pressure from their in-laws when they get married."
Jiang Xiuyu suddenly opened up to her former daughter-in-law.
Jiang Tian's eyes also showed surprise.
“Actually, when I first married his father, I felt very unbalanced and I was in so much pain. I didn’t understand many things. It’s normal for me to call the woman who raised me for many years ‘Mom,’ so why should I call someone with no blood relation ‘Mom’? Moreover, the title ‘Mom’ carries a much deeper meaning.”
"Society places far higher demands on women than on men. Once I became someone else's wife, I had to take care of my husband's family; not only that, I couldn't even go back to my own family often, but had to live with my husband's parents—this made me very irritable at one point. After all, I just wanted to get married, I didn't expect to face such complicated issues."
"Not long after, I regretted it and even considered separating from my child's father and living our own lives. Don't think I couldn't do it; I could have. It's just that I cared too much about what society would say."
"Society always prioritizes the man's worth in its evaluations. I married an excellent husband, and it seemed like I became excellent too. But in reality, life is like drinking water; only the person drinking knows whether it's hot or cold. My life has never been smooth sailing because I married an excellent man; on the contrary, it has been full of ups and downs. Because my husband never considers my situation."
“I didn’t adapt well to my husband’s family. My children had to take his family name. I had to contribute to the family and treat my parents-in-law as more important than my own parents. Even the property I inherited automatically became my dowry, which both sides had to spend together. Of course, my family didn’t accept any bride price. In short, there were so many troubles at that time, which left me with indescribable confusion. I didn’t understand why things were like this.”
Jiang Tian's eyes widened in surprise.
Jiang Xiuyu seemed to have ripped off her fig leaf.
She gave a wry smile: "But when it came to choosing a daughter-in-law for my son, I still had the same thought. I still hoped to choose someone with less burden and who could take care of my son wholeheartedly—I'm just a hypocrite."
Jiang Xiuyu seemed to have never spoken her true feelings to anyone before. But when she finally met her former daughter-in-law, a woman who wanted to break free from constraints and would rather escape from wealth and luxury than compromise her dignity, she felt an extraordinary respect for her.
She was willing to share her experiences with Jiang Tian.
"Many people think that a woman is 'complete' when she gets married. But what is this kind of 'completeness' when she is perfectly fine in her original family but has to leave her hometown to live with the man? Is brokenness a kind of perfection? That's too far-fetched."
"Your idea is very forward-thinking."
Jiang Tian finally said something.
After all, Jiang Xiuyu didn't mention her son and kept talking about her own life. Everyone has their own difficulties, so Jiang Tian was still welcoming of her mother-in-law confiding in her.
Jiang Xiuyu smiled and said, "Yes, but in other people's eyes, my thinking has always been very 'pretentious.' It is precisely because it is ahead of its time that it is not accepted by the world and is refuted by more people. They think I am too hypocritical and why I always complicate the issues. Why can others accept what I cannot? All of this makes me indignant, so I have been arguing with my child's father—until I discovered the existence of Su Hanze."
Su Hanze was stunned for a moment.
“Su Hanze is my son, the fruit of love. At least when he came into my life, his father and I still loved each other. Even though we were arguing, we still loved each other. It’s a complicated feeling, and those who know me should understand.”
“From the moment I had a child, I accepted my fate. I still believe that my child is the most important thing. I need to give up a part of myself for my child, even if this part of myself includes my perception of my original family, the heartache of not being able to see my parents all the time, the fact that my child cannot take my surname, and the fact that I have to give up some career advancement, etc. These reasons are too complicated. The more complicated they are, the more Waterloo I have experienced in my life. So I must get my revenge through my child.”
Jiang Xiuyu's "finding a way out" doesn't mean finding a girl worse than her son, but rather finding a girl who won't argue with him.
She hopes her son can live a good life and that her tragedy will never happen to anyone else.
Jiang Tian's dowry was indeed meager, but that doesn't mean she was someone who could be bullied at will.
If someone always looks down on others, who knows what problems might arise? After all, in this world, some people suddenly become poor, and some people suddenly become rich.
Love that isn't tied to money might last longer.
Jiang Xiuyu looked at Su Hanze: "After you got married, I was quite surprised when you took on the responsibility of the family right away. Because in my mind, you hadn't grown up yet, and you weren't ready to take on the responsibility of a family, but you surprised me. You really have grown up. After having a wife and children, you have learned to dedicate yourself to the family. Do you know how happy I am?"
"As your mother, I am gratified to see my son grow into a strong and upright man. But now, your family is broken again."
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