Chapter 213: Chapter 200: A Lifetime Together Doesn’t Seem So Hard (Part 2)
The gap, when spoken of, is not felt by oneself, but by others, and only after hearing it often can one truly feel it personally.
Yin Meng was initially discussing economic issues with her aunt, Yin Shilan, when she noticed Su Xiaomeng looking somewhat despondent and awkward on the side. Quickly, she wrapped up the topic and approached Su Xiaomeng.
"Why so down?"
She casually rubbed Su Xiaomeng’s face.
Su Xiaomeng scratched her head, unperturbed about losing face in front of Yin Meng, and whispered in her ear, "Do you Yin Family people chat about these topics all the time?"
Yin Meng burst into a sudden laugh, then whispered in Su Xiaomeng’s ear, "Don’t be fooled, they’re just pretending in front of my grandparents! Once outside this door, they all become gossipers."
Su Xiaomeng was taken aback, not expecting Yin Meng to say this, and blinked her eyes, somewhat incredulous.
Seeing her disbelief, Yin Meng continued whispering, "You don’t believe it? Just think about Zhu Lan as an example. Don’t you know how annoying that woman can be? But look now, what’s she chatting about with my cousins? Even Lin Huiyin and Xu Zhimo..."
Su Xiaomeng followed Yin Meng’s gaze, and with this example, she immediately believed.
Quite right!
Yin Meng chuckled but reminded Su Xiaomeng, "She’s fond of stirring up trouble. Previously, because of you, my elder cousin was stuck at the police station for over a month and had to compensate money, right?"
"Yeah, I know."
"It’s obvious she’ll try to sideline you in front of my cousins."
Su Xiaomeng sighed lightly, feeling heartache too.
Yin Meng patted her shoulder, "But don’t worry, I can’t speak for others, but my mom has always been on your side. She really likes you."
"Really?"
Su Xiaomeng propped her cheeks with her hands and smiled widely.
That evening, CCTV was also hosting a Lantern Festival gala, and Yin Shaohui and Zhou Mengqin watched it in the living room.
The rest of the group returned to their respective gardens.
Su Xiaomeng and Yin Shixiu, seeing it was also about time, prepared to return to the gardens holding Shuangshuang and Huanghuang.
Unexpectedly, Su Xiaomeng was asked to stay...
"Don’t worry, I won’t eat her up."
Seeing Yin Shixiu’s worried face, Zhou Mengqin gave him a glance and said.
Su Xiaomeng gestured with her eyes for him to go ahead, reassuring him it was okay.
Yin Shixiu didn’t linger, and took Prince Huang back to the garden first.
With Shuangshuang asleep, Zhou Mengqin took her from Su Xiaomeng’s arms and held her, inviting Su Xiaomeng to sit beside her.
Zhou Mengqin gently patted, gazing at Shuangshuang’s features, rarely revealing a kindly expression in front of Su Xiaomeng...
"Though they’re twins, Jinxi still feels more like you, while Huaiyu looks more like the fourth child."
Su Xiaomeng nodded.
"Little Shuangshuang should be very cute when she grows up."
Su Xiaomeng naturally agreed, but after agreeing, she suddenly realized... Mrs. Yin’s implication was... she’s cute too?
Zhou Mengqin looked up, meeting Su Xiaomeng’s somewhat confused expression, and chuckled softly, "Why? Did I say something wrong?"
"No, not at all..."
"Alright, I know you just want me to scold you a bit more."
Su Xiaomeng quickly shook her head like a rattle, "No, no. This is fine, just fine."
Zhou Mengqin chuckled lightly, while Yin Shaohui also appeared amicable, taking a sip of tea.
"Your mom won’t return to Chengdu and will help with the children?"
"No, my mom won’t come over after the New Year, she has her work..."
"Then what do you plan to do about Shuangshuang and Huanghuang after?"
"Hmm, Shixiu and I have discussed it. There aren’t many professional courses next semester, I’m mainly preparing for IELTS and TOEFL exams. We’ll rent an apartment near the school."
"Rent an apartment?"
"Yeah, this way I can go to the apartment after class. During my classes, Nanny Wang will take care of the kids. Most of the time, I’ll still be with them."
"Finding out firsthand the struggles of being a mother now?"
Su Xiaomeng nodded.
"Shixiu mentioned you plan to become a translator?"
Su Xiaomeng pursed her lips, "Just striving towards that direction, whether it can really happen, I don’t know..."
"Translating might not be difficult, but becoming a translator, that’s not easy at all. You should be mentally prepared,"
Yin Shaohui said.
Su Xiaomeng nodded, "Yeah, I understand."
Zhou Mengqin looked at her, "Do you blame me?"
"Huh?"
"Blame me for being so harsh on you? Blame me for giving you too much doctrine?"
Su Xiaomeng quickly shook her head, "Is it that I don’t blame or that I don’t dare to blame?"
Su Xiaomeng was at a loss for words...
Zhou Mengqin chuckled softly, "Su Xiaomeng, experiencing some hardship when you’re young, making things a bit difficult for yourself, there’s no harm in it."
"I won’t use outsiders as examples, just take Yin Bowen and Zhu Lan, who almost hit you earlier, as examples. Bo Wen’s father, in terms of conduct and dealings, there’s nothing to criticize. But after the eldest went out to struggle and created excellent conditions for his children, what kind of behavior do the children have now?"
Su Xiaomeng listened quietly... This was probably the first time Zhou Mengqin talked to her so calmly.
"What’s the use of driving a Ferrari, wearing custom-made clothes, looking glamorous on the outside? What’s the use of carrying the wealth and capital given by your parents? In the end, it’s not really yours."
"It’s not just you, I’m harsh on everyone in the Yin Family... This harshness has its pros and cons, so some people learn to be two-faced, some pretend to agree while secretly opposing, those who are truly willing to endure some hardship and make things difficult for themselves are few."
"Since you’ve married into the Yin Family, you’re just like one of my children. I hope for your good, but just hoping is useless, all I can do is spur you on. If you view my spurring as torture, truly unable to bear the pain, then you and the fourth can not come back forever. If it’s not that unbearable, can you try to make yourself better and stronger?"
Su Xiaomeng held Shuangshuang as she sat on an electric scooter, heading towards Jun Garden.
The Yin Mansion under the night sky was very quiet, but the ancient trees on both sides of the path rustled in the cold wind, fortunately, the streetlights were quite bright.
The sleeping Shuangshuang in her arms slept soundly, occasionally smacking her small mouth, sniffing.
The words of Mrs. Yin echoed in her heart...
At this moment, she finally understood why she never truly disliked Mr. and Mrs. Yin...
A person doesn’t know how many people they’ll interact with in a lifetime, doesn’t know how many kinds of relationships they’ll establish.
The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law relationship has always been one of the more complicated types, often making people fearful to the point of looking at the other party’s parents before picking a man to marry.
Zhou Mengqin’s constant pressure on her almost crushed her, broke down her original confidence.
Made her think she might have the world’s most difficult mother-in-law to deal with, sometimes in extreme emotional states even using the words "evil mother-in-law" to describe her.
However, at this moment, Su Xiaomeng felt ashamed for once using the words "evil mother-in-law" to describe such an old person.
Everyone has one face, but a thousand masks, those who are kind and amiable to you aren’t necessarily truly wishing you well, those who speak harshly to you may be truly giving you good medicine.
Many years later, Su Xiaomeng stood before the gravestone where the elder rested with her children, saying to them, "It’s this person who changed me. Otherwise... your mom might have been just a small flower shop owner all her life, or maybe a teacher teaching kids to dance in kindergarten."
There are no distinctions of noble or humble in occupations, living out one’s unambitious and ungrand ideals, one might spend life comfortably and leisurely.
But in this life, you’ll never taste the sense of achievement that comes from striving with all your might in a field and reaching a point where you’re admired.
And then, because you haven’t tasted that sense of achievement, by the end of life, you’d still be complacent about this life without worries, this life of comfort and leisure...
It might not be bad, but... doesn’t something feel lacking, doesn’t it?
Back at Jun Garden, Yin Shixiu had just finished his shower, and when he saw Su Xiaomeng coming in with the child, he was pretty silent, a sense of worry rising in his heart...
"You’re back? What did they talk to you about?"
Su Xiaomeng placed the sleeping Shuangshuang in the small crib beside them, took off Little Shuangshuang’s coat, and covered her with a blanket.
Then she walked to Yin Shixiu with her head very low, so low that he couldn’t see her eyes under her brows, couldn’t see her emotions.
This made Yin Shixiu a bit anxious.
Just as he bent down to look at her face, Su Xiaomeng grabbed the towel from his hand, braced against his chest, and pushed him back to the bedside to sit him down.
Su Xiaomeng silently dried his hair with the towel...
At this moment, Yin Shixiu truly realized something was wrong.
"What did they say to you?"
Yin Shixiu asked in a calm voice again, yet still didn’t receive an answer from Su Xiaomeng.
He pressed his lips tightly, grabbed the phone from the bedside table with his long arm, intending to call Zheng Garden.
Su Xiaomeng hurriedly took his phone, "What are you doing?"
It wasn’t so bad when she wasn’t speaking, but now that she spoke, Yin Shixiu got really anxious, what’s with crying now?
He looked at her reddened eyes, her nose a bit red too, and his heart clenched.
He was originally confident that his parents wouldn’t make it difficult for her, but now...
At that moment, all the previous arguments flashed in his mind, thinking of the possibility of his parents saying those words as they had before made him nervous.
Yin Shixiu stayed silent for a while, then said, "It’s okay, no matter what they say, you don’t need to mind, you’re great, okay?"
As soon as Yin Shixiu said this, Su Xiaomeng couldn’t stop her tears...
"I’ll get dressed, you go dress Little Shuang, Little Huang, we’ll go home, we won’t stay here."
As he spoke, he was about to stand up.
Su Xiaomeng closed her eyes, wrapped her arms around Yin Shixiu’s neck, her face pressed into his neck nook.
The small face still had the coolness from outside, in comparison, her tears became hot.
"Uncle..."
At this point, Yin Shixiu’s mind was only thinking about how much grievance she had suffered, and just thinking about it made his heart hang in suspense, regretting a bit for listening to Zhou Mengqin and taking Prince Huang back first, leaving her there alone.
Su Xiaomeng wasn’t unwilling to speak, it’s just that her throat felt a bit choked, she couldn’t get the words out.