Chapter 417: Rural Absurd Past Events Chapter 417: You Never Thought of Me

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Protagonist:

Li Xiulan

After Zhou Aidi left, Wang Xiaohua still sighed with emotion inside.

Wang Zhanggen just kept smoking with a sullen head.

Zhou Aidi's current miserable plight inevitably gave him a feeling of "rabbit dies, fox grieves," and he secretly wondered if he himself would one day fall into such a state.

Everyone says raising sons prevents old-age hardship, and those who raise sons won't fear having no one to care for them when old.

But is it really so in reality?

Nowadays, raising sons and raising daughters both seem unable to prevent old-age hardship.

How many rural elders, when old, sick, or even dead, cannot even have their own sons return to care for them.

Actually this cannot be blamed on them; who made life so difficult these days? Staying in the rural hometown makes it impossible to make a living; to make a living, one must go to the city to work, and going to the city to work means eating others' food and listening to others' orders—how could one run home every few days?

Sometimes even when attending a funeral, asking the leader for leave, the leader still gives a bad face, and even casually deducts salary.

Birth is easy, living is easy, but life is truly not easy.

Look, now Wang Dashan and Wang Erhai went to Guangzhou to work, and they rarely return home anymore.

Only during the Spring Festival and holidays do they come back for a day or two.

This son raised for over ten years—after going out for just a year or two, he has already become a stranger.

They have anything happen, they don't tell the family.

If you go ask them yourself, they're even impatient, answering or not as they please.

I'm also tongue-tied; what I ask, originally meant to show concern, ends up changed in flavor, seeming like blame, giving people a sense of oppression.

"That beast Liang Xinghua, truly has no conscience!"

After Wang Zhanggen finished the last puff of smoke, he pressed the cigarette butt into the ashtray; his myriad thoughts finally turned into this one sentence.

"Heh, can only say every family has a hard-to-recite scripture."

Wang Xiaohua casually replied with a sentence.

Wang Zhanggen then looked at Wang Xiaohua, coldly saying:

"If in the future you three brothers are like Liang Xinghua in character, I will absolutely break your hands and feet!"

Wang Xiaohua gave a dry laugh, thinking to himself that by then you'd probably be too old to move, still break our hands and feet?

But he didn't refute anything, just said:

"Rest assured, we're not such ungrateful people."

Although Wang Xiaohua said this with his mouth, in his heart he was thinking of another matter.

He thought, his father is so stubborn and has such a bad temper; if he really finds a daughter-in-law in the future, he doesn't know how to let his wife get along with him.

If it really comes to the point where his wife and this old man fight to the point of being irreconcilable, what choice would he have to make?

Thinking of Liang Xinghua's current situation, he actually sympathized with Liang Xinghua quite a bit.

Sandwiched in the middle, it's hardest to be a person.

But then he quickly brushed away such thoughts.

He just graduated from high school, hasn't even started university yet; talking about marriage is still who knows how many years away, very far off—why think about so much?

"You'd better walk the talk; now the news says, many who study their way out of the countryside don't care for their parents, especially those who study abroad—they never come back at all, simply raised for nothing!"

Wang Zhanggen was born in the countryside, but now television news information is well-connected.

He saw such news on TV once or twice and felt that many who study their way out of the countryside don't care for their parents; actually, that's just an isolated case.

Wang Xiaohua's heart trembled slightly.

To be honest, as soon as he leaves this Shangou Village, he really doesn't want to bother with this old man anymore.

If not for his mother Li Xiulan's sake, he would have left far away after the college entrance exam and never come back.

The reason he still returns to this home is not because he gives this old man face, but because he can't let go of his mother.

"Raised for nothing, then raised for nothing; those parents who feel they raised a white-eyed wolf don't think about what they themselves did to their children."

Wang Xiaohua replied coldly with such a sentence.

"Even if you did something, you can't abandon your parents; parents are greater than heaven—don't you understand this principle? If you become a white-eyed wolf in the future, I will absolutely break your leg!"

Wang Zhanggen coldly said.

Wang Xiaohua felt annoyed just seeing him:

"My classmate asked me to hang out in town; I'm not going to the construction site this afternoon."

After saying this, Wang Xiaohua turned around and left.

Actually no classmate asked him to go to town; he just wanted to find an excuse to avoid his father.

"Where are you going again? Didn't you hear what I said?"

Wang Zhanggen's aggressive voice came from behind.

"I heard; I'll come back early."

Wang Xiaohua had just walked out the door when Li Xiulan returned from feeding chickens outside, still holding a basin of chicken feed in her hand.

"Xiao Hua, did you argue with your dad again?"

Li Xiulan's face was full of concern.

"No, he wanted to argue, but I'm too lazy to argue with him." Wang Xiaohua was expressionless.

Li Xiulan sighed mournfully:

"Xiao Hua, don't blame your father. He's all bark and no bite. Don't let it bother you that he often scolds you; actually, he's always seen you as his pride. You don't know this, but when you're not around, he's always boasting to outsiders about how capable you are: 'My son got first place! My son is the smartest in the whole village! My son is destined to be a high official! My son is someone your sons can't even hope to catch up with!' He keeps saying things like that, and whenever he does, he looks so proud."

Wang Xiaohua gave a cold laugh:

"He says those things just to gild his own image. What does my academic success have to do with him? Nothing at all? Oh, wait, not nothing at all—it's actually a very negative relationship. If it weren't for him, I might have done even better."

Wang Xiaohua's words were very sharp.

But they did seem to make some sense.

From childhood to adulthood, the role his father played was nothing but suppression and obstruction.

It was no exaggeration to call him a stumbling block on the path of growth.

When he was young and wanted to buy a tape recorder to learn English, his father flatly refused to buy one for him. Later, in junior high, he went to the mountain himself to gather wild goods, and after great difficulty dug up some poria to save money, buying an MP3 to learn English. But that old man smashed his brand-new MP3 to pieces.

These past events, one by one, were all pain and hatred, without a shred of love or understanding.

"I know you're in your rebellious phase of adolescence, but don't always think the worst. He actually means well for you."

Li Xiulan didn't want her quarrel with Wang Zhanggen to extend to their son.

So she advised peace rather than taking sides.

After all, no matter what, Wang Zhanggen was Wang Xiaohua's biological father—that was a fact that could never be changed.

"Means well for me? When has he ever meant well for me? When has it not been for his own face and dignity?"

Wang Xiaohua became more and more excited as he spoke.

He had already graduated from high school and was about to go to university.

The negative emotions long suppressed in his inner heart were gradually becoming impossible to contain.

"What are you saying!"

Wang Zhanggen came out of the house; he had heard what Wang Xiaohua said.

"You've got guts to say that again! Damn it, did I raise a white-eyed wolf!"

Wang Zhanggen was huffing and puffing with anger.

His emotions were very unstable.

Especially when facing his youngest son.

Because Wang Xiaohua always gave him the feeling that he could be easily oppressed and dominated.

Facing Wang Zhanggen coming out with a dark face to question her, Li Xiulan was immediately shocked and dismayed.

She was afraid the situation would spiral out of control and the father-son conflict would escalate.

Wang Xiaohua was also seething inside, and besides, he was indeed in his rebellious phase of adolescence.

So when facing his father's dark-faced pressure, he was not afraid at all; instead, he coldly retorted:

"I say, you've never considered me at all. You're only doing this for your own face and dignity."

As soon as he said this, Wang Zhanggen exploded immediately.