Public Revelation Part 2

As Xiao Man and her mother left the store, Mother Xiao couldn’t help but comment, “He’s really good at putting on an act, buying clothes for the child.”

“Yeah,” Xiao Man thought that if Lin Chengshan really cared about the child, he would have done something earlier.

Xiao Man didn’t consider that Lin Chengshan had either been in the military or working after his discharge. If Lin Chengshan hadn’t worked hard to earn money, Xiao Man wouldn’t have had such a good life.

Ultimately, since Xiao Man’s life was better now, she had many grievances against Lin Chengshan.

“Just pamper your two stepchildren,” Mother Xiao said. “Once you’re pregnant, you’ll give them a child of the Dong family, and you won’t have to worry about them.”

Mother Xiao knew that having her daughter become a stepmother would make her unhappy. But it was also hard for her daughter to find a partner. Dong Weixin was good, and her daughter would not suffer any loss if she married him. The Dong family’s situation was much better than Lin Chengshan’s, and no matter how venomous Mother Dong was, she couldn’t be worse than Lin Chengshan’s mother.

Xiao Man used to write to her parents about the problems with the Lin family, and now that she was back in the city, she had further shared her grievances, making her mother very sympathetic.

“I don’t know when I’ll get pregnant,” Xiao Man said.

“Once the wedding banquet is over and you’re living together, it will come soon,” Mother Xiao said.

“Don’t worry. Drink more medicine and adjust your body. It will be fine. Don’t be too anxious.”

“Yeah, Mom,” Xiao Man said, feeling a bit frustrated. “Let’s go to another store.”

“Buy better clothes,” Mother Xiao said.

Lin Qingqing tried on several sets of clothes in the store, and Lin Chengshan bought them if he thought they were okay. Besides this store, he bought six or seven sets of clothes from other stores. This shocked Lin Qingqing; there were so many new clothes.

“Daddy, Daddy, if we keep buying, I won’t be able to count my fingers,” Lin Qingqing said. “We’ve spent so much money.”

“It’s not much,” Lin Chengshan said. “There are seven days a week, and you can wear one set per day.”

“Is that really okay?” Lin Qingqing asked.

“Really okay,” Lin Chengshan answered. “See, we’ve bought them all. We also need to buy a few more pairs of shoes.”

Lin Chengshan felt that shopping with his daughter was a very joyful thing. Sometimes, he was afraid it was a dream, afraid that when he opened his eyes, his daughter would disappear. Seeing his daughter happy made him happy.

In the evening, Xiao Man and her mother returned home, and Mother Xiao complained to her husband.

“Lin Chengshan is really persistent,” Mother Xiao said. “We went to buy new clothes for the Dong family’s children and ran into Lin Chengshan and his daughter.”

Father Xiao was reading the newspaper. When he heard his wife’s words, he said, “He was buying clothes for the child. The child’s clothes were so patched up. It’s expected he’d buy a few new pieces.”

“Who knows if he’s just putting on an act,” Mother Xiao said. “When a man dies, a woman usually stays single for a while. When a woman dies, a man remarries quickly. Divorce is the same. I think Lin Chengshan will remarry sooner or later. He says the money is for the child, but in the end, it will just become the stepmother’s.”

“…” Father Xiao was silent.

“He only has one daughter. How could he not remarry?” Mother Xiao said. “He has a house in the city. Next, he needs to find a job and get the household registration in the city. Lin Chengshan will remarry a younger woman and have a son. That girl will just be a tool for him to gather wealth. You really should have given less money.”

“Our family isn’t short of money,” said Father Xiao.

“It’s not about the money, but giving him so much money to raise his children with another woman makes me feel bad,” said Mother Xiao. “It’s clear that he wronged our daughter, yet he still gets to live well.”

“Don’t always think negatively,” Father Xiao said, seeing his wife’s sad and distressed face. He was also helpless.

The issues from those special times, although in the past, have left scars.

Father Xiao has always been more indulgent toward his wife because he felt she had suffered a lot.

“It’s just a coincidence, meeting…”

“He will remarry sooner or later,” Mother Xiao said. “He might even marry a college student who wants to settle in the city.”

“Don’t overthink,” Father  Xiao said.

“I just feel that our daughter has suffered too much, and the bad guy hasn’t been punished,” Mother Xiao wiped the tears from the corner of her eyes. “To keep him quiet, we still have to give him money to settle things peacefully.”

“Enough,” Father Xiao said. “Didn’t our daughter already get her marriage certificate?”

“You didn’t see how those two children looked at our daughter, as if she had already been involved with their biological father,” Mother Xiao said. “They looked at our daughter very unfavorably and even gave her dirty looks.”

“Being a stepmother isn’t easy,” Father Xiao said. “If she really doesn’t want to be a stepmother, then she shouldn’t divorce. If she doesn’t divorce and brings her husband and kids to the city, the days…”

“Wouldn’t that be like letting those people drain her?” Mother Xiao said. “Lin Chengshan only graduated from elementary school. What does he understand? The cultural gap between them is so huge that he doesn’t understand what our daughter wants.”

Father Xiao thought it was better to say less because the more he said, the more mistakes he might make. His wife had already decided that Lin Chengshan was wrong, so she wouldn’t listen to anything else.

Honestly, Father Xiao thought that when Xiao Man came back after the college entrance exam, she didn’t necessarily have to divorce. There could have been other options. Xiao Man didn’t want to live with Lin Chengshan, and Father Xiao didn’t stop her. He respected his daughter’s decision.

But they couldn’t expect to have everything. You can’t have your cake and eat it too.

Wanting someone powerful, rich, educated, and single…

How is that possible? Xiao Man’s age is a factor.

Nowadays, most quality men around Xiao Man’s age are already married. Xiao Man herself has been married and has a child. If there is a quality man who has never been married, how could he be interested in Xiao Man?

It’s not that Father Xiao looks down on his daughter, but his daughter isn’t exceptionally outstanding. If she were truly exceptional, he would definitely try to marry her off to a better family.

“Talking to him is like playing the lute to a cow. How much can he understand when our daughter talks to him?”Mother Xiao said. “I think he pretends to understand when he doesn’t and just makes a fool of himself. If our daughter stays with him, what will she say when she’s out with her classmates and friends, and they’re talking about how great their husbands are? Will she say that she’s being drained dry, that she’s supporting a whole family?”