Chapter 15: Are These the Real Reasons?
Outside, Tang Zhijun angrily relayed the incident of Sang Lan leaving without waiting for Tang Yuxin to Tang Zhinian. The more he talked about it, the angrier he became.
"Brother, do you think she's still fit to be a mother? Even if she had to leave, shouldn't she wait until Yuxin is okay before she leaves? How could she be at ease when her child has been injured like this?"
"She had to catch the bus."
Tang Zhinian still tried to defend Sang Zhilan, but no matter how much he tried to explain, he couldn't even convince himself anymore.
Even if she had to work in the city, couldn't she leave a day later in the evening? Did she have to wait until tonight? Even if it was early tomorrow morning, would there be no buses then, would she be too late?
Which factory shifts start at midnight? This is clearly a lack of responsibility.
What kind of mother does this?
"Brother, you can't give Xinxin to her," Tang Zhijun sat down on the chair, suddenly, he seemed to recall something -- a thought that terrified even him.
"Brother, do you think, if she took Xinxin away, would you provide child support?"
"Yuxin is my daughter," Tang Zhinian turned and looked at his younger brother, "no matter where she is, she is my daughter, I would willingly support her for her entire life."
Tang Zhijun gritted his teeth.
He didn't utter his speculation, because it was too cruel for his simple-minded older brother.
Brother, do you think, if she took Xinxin away, is it because she knows your character and that you'd support Xinxin? You would never remarry, and any money from your toil would go to Xinxin. If she remarries and has another child, would you have to support them too?
He clenched his fists, feeling utterly useless. If Xinxin really went with that woman, she was only three years old, how would she live her future days, and how would his older brother live?
The noise from outside faded significantly. Finally, the sound of footsteps gradually disappeared, fading into the distance until they could no longer be heard.
Only then did Tang Yuxin touch the bump on her head. Her young face lost its childlike innocence and instead took on a weary worldliness. She never understood why Sang Zhilan brought her away in the first place. It was only later that she understood she was not only Sang Zhilan's means of receiving child support, but also a way for Wei Jiani to get a free nanny and a tool for her to save face.
She didn't know if this scheme was Sang Zhilan's doing or Wei Tian's.
From the outside, Wei Tian always appeared to be a good person, always smiling at everyone. However, behind the smiles was a chilling insincerity. He knew everything, yet he never intervened.
Whether it was Sang Zhilan hitting Tang Yuxin or Wei Jiani bullying Tang Yuxin.
After she was taken away by Sang Zhilan, her father would send her money every month. Even when she and Zhang Yong'an were paying their mortgages, her father, despite his old age, worked the dirtiest and hardest jobs at the construction site on top of tending to his farmland. Yet in the end, the house didn't end up in her hands.
Who was really good to her and who wasn't, could not simply be discerned by words alone. She spent a lifetime seeing clearly, only to get blinded in the end.
She had given up so much in her lifetime, yet all that she had given was not worth her life.