Chapter 24 Telling You a Secret【VIP】
Growing up seems so far away, yet it also seems to happen in a moment.
The moment I understood the difficulties of adults.
At that moment when I felt sorry for the difficulties faced by adults.
——"Chronological Diary"
Early Saturday morning, Zhen Hao was still asleep when he vaguely heard a familiar voice.
Zhen Mei was also still asleep, and must have heard the noise, as she whimpered. However, children fall asleep quickly, so she turned over and soon fell silent again.
It was already bright outside, Zhen Hao opened his eyes and glanced at the wall clock.
It was already eight o'clock in the morning.
In the past, the two sisters would have been woken up by He Yunlian's loud voice to make breakfast and feed the ducks.
So what happened today?
Zhen Hao thought for a moment, but gave up thinking when he found nothing.
And the familiar voice came again: "Where are Haohao and Amei? I miss them so much."
It’s my aunt who’s back home!
Now Zhen Hao's mind was completely clear.
Realizing this was true, she sat up from the bed and shook the sleeping Zhen Mei: "Amei, wake up, my aunt is back."
Their little sister-in-law has a very unique personality. She often comes and goes without a trace. She may be chatting and laughing with her family at the dinner table in the last second, and then riding her cool motorcycle to nowhere in the next second.
Even getting married didn't change her at all.
Grandpa Zhen named my aunt Zhen Wenrou, but she was not gentle at all, but rather tigress (a Taiwanese dialect meaning similar to "tiger mother").
Because he was afraid that his sister-in-law would come and go in a hurry, Zhen Hao tried very hard to wake Zhen Mei up.
She rubbed her sleepy eyes and murmured, "Sister, is it time to get up and cook?"
Looking at her subconscious reaction, Zhen Hao couldn't help but feel sad.
What kind of life would make her instinctive reaction become cooking...
"It's my aunt who's back!" Zhen Hao suppressed the bitterness in his heart and said to Zhen Mei with a grin, "I'll go wash up first, you hurry up too."
After hearing her words, Zhen Mei's eyes lit up: "My aunt is back!"
The two sisters seemed extremely excited about their aunt's arrival, and soon they both appeared in front of Zhen Wenrou.
Zhen Hao called out sweetly, "Aunt, you're back."
"Aunt, Amei misses you!" Zhen Mei is even better at acting coquettishly.
Zhen Wenrou squatted down, hugged one of them with one hand, and the smile on her face was brighter than the sunshine at this moment: "Auntie misses you too."
At this time, Zhen Dongcheng came out of the kitchen and saw three people huddled together, with an indescribable light in their eyes.
Seeing the two female Ls being so close to their own sister, he felt relieved but also a little bitter.
As for what the bitterness was, he couldn't put it into words for the moment.
Unable to figure it out, he simply gave up thinking about it and quickly and gently called out, "Arou, bring the two little ones in for breakfast."
Zhen Hao turned around and looked at her father wearing an apron. The reason why she and her sister were able to sleep in was obvious.
Their father took over their duties and did the work that was theirs.
This breakfast was a rare happy moment for the whole family since Zhen Hao could remember.
Even He Yunlian seemed gentler than usual. Not only did she pick up food for her sister-in-law from time to time, she also peeled two boiled eggs and gave one to each of the Zhen Hao sisters.
Zhen Li, who had always been naughty, also drank his porridge quietly, and did not need He Yunlian to chase him to feed him as usual.
He just opened his big eyes and looked at Zhen Wenrou from time to time, and then looked at the silent Zhen Dongcheng.
After breakfast, Zhen Wenrou called the two sisters over in a mysterious tone, "Okay, Amei, I'm going to perform a magic trick for you called creating something out of nothing."
"Wow, my aunt can do magic!" Zhen Mei blinked her round almond eyes and clapped her hands, "Amei wants to see it."
"If you want to watch, go to the room with your sister. My aunt's magic will start soon." Zhen Wenrou rubbed the little head with one hand and said with a smile.
The two sisters returned to the beech head excitedly, and when they saw the table piled with boxes and handbags, they exclaimed in unison.
Receiving gifts always makes people happy, especially since they received gifts for two consecutive days.
Zhen Hao looked at the familiar sports brand logo and couldn't even believe that all this was true.
Her aunt bought her new shoes in a larger size and new clothes. They were expensive brand-name clothes that her classmates in the city often wore.
Zhen Hao's eyes instantly turned red and sour, and he felt an unprecedented urge to cry.
She never dared to tell her family that her two-year-old shoes were not only torn and leaking, but also a bit tight. So she wore her old shoes to the new school and met new classmates.
What her aunt bought her was not just a pair of shoes and clothes, but also satisfied the vanity of an adolescent girl.
The aunt also told her: "Little girl is bright, and she will become more and more beautiful as she lives."
This was the first time in thirteen years that she owned branded clothes and shoes, and it was also the first time she experienced a love she had never experienced before.
Not from parents, not from family.
A tear quietly slipped down from the corner of her eye.
.
This is a very rare thing for the Zhen family.
Since getting married, Zhen Wenrou has never stayed overnight at home again.
There are two reasons for this.
First, a married woman named L no longer has her own room, not to mention that Zhen Wenrou didn’t have her own room before she got married.
Secondly, in the Minshi region, it's not customary for a daughter-in-law to visit her parents' home every day. If she does, too often and for too long, she'll be gossiped about. Even her family members think a married woman shouldn't go home too often.
In Min City, married women no longer have their own homes.
They were forced to transform from daughters-in-law into wives overnight, and were forced to transform from girls into mothers in a year.
Zhen Wenrou has been married for many years but has not had any children. In a small place like Minzhen, this can be considered a "return" to put it bluntly.
After all, Grandma Zhen had eaten more salt than these young people had eaten rice. She could tell at a glance that something was wrong with Zhen Wenrou: "Arou, tell me honestly, did something happen when you came back this time?"
"Yes." Zhen Wenrou didn't intend to hide it and said straight to the point, "I want a divorce."
These four words were like a bolt from the blue, shocking everyone in the Zhen family.
Grandma Zhen even grabbed little girl L's ear and kept chattering, "Do you want to listen to what you're saying? What will you do after you get divorced? Who would dare to marry you? Huh? You've been married for so many years, and not only do you not have children, you even dare to shout about getting a divorce? Are you possessed by a ghost?"
"It hurts, it hurts—" Zhen Wenrou moved her body along with Grandma Zhen's force to reduce the pain, but she did not forget to refute, "What's wrong with divorce? Is divorce a big deal? What era is this!"
"What's wrong with a divorce?" Grandma Zhen sneered, her hands tightening. "You're already 28! Do you think you're still 18, with all the good people you can choose from? Huh?"
In the small village where Zhen Hao lives, girls are considered old maids if they are over 23, let alone 28, and are half buried in the ground if they are over 25. If they don't get married, it's as if they are going to die.
The noise about Zhen Wenrou wanting to divorce was a bit loud, and Zhen Hao's two sisters hid aside and watched when they heard the noise.
This scene reminded Zhen Hao of two things that happened before he went to elementary school.
It was a small matter, but she remembered it for many years, and as time passed, it became clearer and clearer in her mind.
The first thing was that when adults asked her what she wanted to do when she grew up, the five-year-old girl answered without hesitation: "I want to go to the best university, buy the biggest house, and drive the most expensive car."
The adults laughed out loud when they heard this. No one knew how she learned these words and just thought they were just innocent childish talk.
When Zhen Hao grew up, he didn't understand why he knew what the best university, the biggest house, and the most expensive car were at such a young age.
The second incident was when Zhen Hao, who was about to start elementary school, was standing at the village entrance with her grandmother. She followed her grandmother's gaze and saw a neighbor's sister carrying a lot of bags and placing them on a slightly worn tricycle.
Six-year-old Zhen Hao looked up and asked Grandma Zhen: "Grandma, where is the neighbor sister going?"
Grandma Zhen replied, "If you're not good at studying, you can only work in a factory. After earning money for a few years, you can find a good family to marry and have a few children. That's how you'll live your life."
"What do you mean by finding a good family to marry into?" Zhen asked, seemingly asking a million questions one after another. "And what do you mean by having a few children?"
"We will be like her in the future." Grandma Zhen was clearly looking at the neighbor's sister, but her eyes seemed to be lost in the void, "We will also study for a few years, work in the factory for a few years, and then get married and have children..."
Although Zhen Hao didn't quite understand what she was saying, she remembered the phrase "If you don't study hard, you'll have to get married." She didn't know why her little mind was thinking so much, but she clenched her fists and vowed to herself that she would study hard and not marry young like her neighbor.
These two little things, plus the scene before his eyes, made Zhen Hao even more certain that he didn't want to live the traditional life of being trapped in marriage and bound by children.
She didn't want her short 30,000-day life to become a tool for bearing offspring.
Zhen Hao didn't know how the farce of Zhen Wenrou's divorce ended.
She only knew that her aunt was still the heroic aunt, and didn't seem to be embarrassed at all because she almost had a fight with her mother.
She still ate and slept as usual, and the smile on her face was even brighter.
Thirteen-year-old Zhen Hao didn't understand why this happened, but she knew that if someone wanted a divorce, it must be because they couldn't live together anymore.
When Zhen Wenrou was braiding her hair, she couldn't help but ask, "Auntie, are you ever afraid?"
In her impression, her aunt was always fearless, and the men in her family were not even half as cool as her.
Zhen Wenrou didn't stop combing her hair, but she really thought about it for a moment before saying, "I used to, but not now."
Zhen Hao seemed to understand but not quite.
Twenty-eight-year-old Zhen Wenrou seems to have really become gentler.
It is not the kind of gentleness prescribed by the world, but a kind of gentleness that is different from others, with a calmer state of mind, a better understanding of what you want, and a better understanding of how to love yourself.
That night, Zhen Wenrou and her two sisters slept on the same bed, chatting and laughing. Later, when Zhen Mei fell asleep first, Zhen Hao and her sister-in-law were still awake.
Zhen Hao leaned close to her ear and whispered, "Aunt, I want to tell you a secret."
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