224 Habits (1/2)
Ye Shuang's ability to read people's lips was actually not bad, but she was not in the mood to challenge people's privacy that day. What was there to read? It was definitely some shameless words as the man tried to push the failure onto the woman and vent on her.
Ye Shuang leaned against the wall to look at the café and helped raised the general good looks of the citizens in Chaohai. Eventually, she saw the man slam his palm on the table. He had probably finished venting. He picked up his box and left. Ye Shuang cursed the man silently—he actually had the gall to make the woman pay for the bill!
After the horrible man left, Mrs. Zuo still sat where she was. However, her gaze moved blankly to the window like she could not understand how things had devolved to this situation.
Ye Shuang narrowed her eyes. Even though she was looking from a far, she understood Mrs. Zuo was still in the middle of shut-down. Her mind probably did not know how to respond to the scenario 'my lover doesn't love me'. Therefore, when it happened, the mind could not process the situation… and went into shut down.
After a while, the lover stumbled out of the building with rain clouds all over him. Mrs. Zuo seemed to have noticed him as well as her body leaned subconsciously toward the window. Her palm stuck to the window, and her eyes widened as she focused on her lover downstairs. What if he turned around? What if it was all a joke earlier?
Alas, the lover did not once turn around as he disappeared around the corner. Hope slowly dwindled in Mrs. Zuo's eyes. She lowered her head and slowly moved back to her seat.
”Brother Ye!” A Lamborghini stopped by the road, and Zuo Feiyang leaned across two seats to poke his head out the window. He waved his hands at Ye Shuang happily. ”How come it's you today? Where's the girl? And what were you looking at?”
Zuo Feiyang sounded quite excited as he fired off the series of question. Without waiting for Ye Shuang to answer, he crawled back to the driver's seat, followed Ye Shuang's earlier gaze, and turned to look. ”Hmm, it's sister-in-law?”
”Former sister-in-law now,” Ye Shuang corrected.
”So soon‽” Even Zuo Feiyang was shocked by this news. ”Brother is moving faster and faster these days.”
”Hmm.” Ye Shuang sighed softly. Realizing certain things were not meant to be discussed by the roadside, she opened the door of the passenger seat and crawled into it. ”Earlier, I saw the lover break up with your sister-in-law, probably because she is of no value to him anymore. Now you're the only one still fishing, right?”
”Yes, the person on my sister-in-law's line has already been exposed, so there is nothing for them to do there. I'm currently discussing the contract with people from the Xi Hwa Organization, and they are already planning to send over their business. Brother will then find the perfect opening to block it. Are you going for lunch? Since I have time, do you mind if I join you?”
Zuo Feiyang then started the engine and very naturally gave Ye Shuang zero chance to say no. While he was driving, he did not stop talking either and used his big brother's business to fill up the conversation. ”My brother surely has tripped on himself this time. I've already said it is not that simple to have a contractual marriage just for the sake of having children. Compatibility is more important, and on top of that, there has to be an emotional basis as well. At the time, he called me juvenile, but see? I'm right, aren't I?”
”Your brother has a different way of seeing things compared to you.” Ye Shuang sighed. ”In your mind, a couple has to show each other support, but with your brother's personality, he must have already assigned a role for his wife. For example, number one, to have children; number two, to welcome the guests; number three, take care of the family… Actually, the first responsibility is the most difficult—the rest can be done by hiring a professional butler.”
One of the most difficult things in life was not getting things that one asked for. From the very beginning, Zuo Yuanhang did not ask for a wife—it was just that there was such a need to have this person in his life to complete a goal that he had set for himself. Since there was no 'asking' from the beginning, then what was there to be sad about?
Zuo Feiyang placed himself in his brother's shoes and sighed. ”You're right.”
Ye Shuang tried to not laugh.
Zuo Feiyang looked at the rear-view mirror. ”Were you feeling sorry for my sister-in-law earlier?”
”A bit.” Ye Shuang nodded in admission. ”I mean, it's quite pitiful that she has fallen to this state, chased out of the marriage with nothing, unable to go back to her maternal home, and the person that she did all this for has revealed his real identity. Furthermore, I hear your brother has stripped her of the right to visitation.”
Technically speaking, in terms of the law, this was a null clause. Parents always had the right to visit their children, and no one had the power to remove that right.
However, since Zuo Yuanhang had listed the clause, it was probably not for outsiders and the judge's benefit but was used to warn Mrs. Zuo of the things that she could not do.
You wish to betray me? Fine. In this world, there is more than the law that could be used to organize some things. When the security comes to chase you out, even if you're the biological mother, you'll have no choice but to weep at the corner. Want to complain? Then you have to be prepared to fight it out with me.
Zuo Feiyang shrugged and said, ”This is because of what she did on her own. I know you pity her, but do not reach out to help her. I'm not cruel, and I'm not trying to mock people behind their back, but my sister-in-law is a bit… how shall I put this? She's like a leech, not because she is greedy, but when she finds someone that she can rely on, she will stick to you until you're all empty and dry.”
”How so?” Ye Shuang asked. Even though Zuo Feiyang might have plenty of complaints about his brother, he would always stand on his brother's side to defend against outside threat.
As annoying as my family can be, he is still my family, and no one can bully him.
Before Mrs. Zuo's extra-marital affair, Zuo Feiyang had always been kind to her.
Zuo Feiyang thought about it and came up with a serious explanation. ”It's also got to do with her personality—you should know this about my sister-in-law. She's the type that was molded by the traditional education, expected to follow the father before marriage, follow the husband after marriage, and follow the son after the husband's death. Even though our current society has softened, the core is still the same. She is always reliant on others to survive. If you help her, then she will rely on you and treat you as her religion and so on. You might just be there to help her in an emergency, but it is different from her perspective. If you help her once, she will stick to you forever. Tell me then, what else can you do other than continue to help her? Kick her out to die after helping her? In that case, better to not help her at all.”
Ye Shuang understood what Zuo Feiyang was trying to say. In conclusion, Mrs. Zuo's personality could be summed up with 'being resigned to destiny'.
If there was someone there for her, she would stick to said person; if there was not, she would die. If someone pitied her and lent her aid once, she would treat them as the light of her world. Then what would Ye Shuang do? Help her forever? Being nice had its limit too.