Chapter 1289: Chapter 1280: Downturn (Part 4)
Divorced, yet still spending Spring Festival with them as “one family.”
Actually, it’s not that miserable, not like the little match girl at all, on the brink of death. She’s sitting in a warm car, with genuine leather seats beneath her, snacks in hand. It’s also not like those so-called court intrigue novels, where if you’ve displeased a big shot, you’re forced to kneel in the rain or snow, while others slap you.
In fact, it’s not even as bad as before their return to the country, when some people took advantage of local protests and riots to come to their home, wrecking havoc. Her mother held her, surrounded by shattered glass, arrogant shouting, and drops of blood dripping from her mother’s head.
Xia Siyu glanced at her mother; there’s a scar on her forehead, left from that incident. Her mother’s decision to return from abroad was influenced by that destructive event.
It’s progressed since that time, then what?
Clearly a legitimate wife with a marriage certificate, yet confined behind iron bars. In the snowy day, New Year’s Eve, they can only watch inside where it’s brightly lit, the family gathered together, what do they count for?
The car didn’t have its lights on, only the heater. The warm breeze in the car made her body not cold, but her heart felt icy.
While waiting, there seemed to be movement at the front door. Xia Siyu was seated next to her mother, noticing her mother’s tightly clenched molars relax slightly. Although her eyes didn’t turn towards the door, Xia Siyu could tell her mother’s brows had eased a bit.
The temperature difference inside and out made the car windows fog up.
She used her finger to wipe away the fog and leaned against the window to look outside. It was still snowing, a silhouette appeared from the door. At first, it was backlit, and the front couldn’t be seen, but as the person came closer and closer, each step they took extinguished a bit of the light in Xia Siyu’s eyes.
Sitting there, she also heard the argument inside. Amidst the laughter, Xia Youbiao’s slightly discontented protest could faintly be heard, “Why can’t they come in? Xiaoxiao is my wife, Siyu is my daughter, we are officially registered! Moreover, she’s already twenty years old now, even if for their mother-daughter bond, they should be let in!”
Inside, another elderly voice sounded slowly, like the endless snowflakes, seemingly insignificant, yet weighty: “I said, I didn’t stop you from marrying, nor from having children. Outside, you can marry as many as you want, have as many as you want. Now it’s a democratic society; we didn’t force you to stay when you divorced back then, did we? But as long as I’m in this family, that woman isn’t allowed back.”
Afterwards, there were pleas, among the calls, Sicai’s voice calling “dad” was the loudest, most piercing, stabbing into her eardrums, into her heart.
Then, came hurried footsteps, as if someone was about to leave. Then again, that elderly voice, slightly heavier this time: “You can leave, but after you leave, you’re no longer my son, Shengxia Furniture will have nothing to do with you. I’d rather leave it to Ju’an to refine than hand it to you.”
After these words, there was silence. Inside, there were more attempts at persuasion, but outside the car, Xia Siyu heard none of it, all she knew was that the door never opened again.