Chapter 60: Your Husband Has Your Back

“When I saw how indifferent you were towards Lu Xingguang today, it was like I was looking at myself standing there. My grandmother preferred boys to girls. My mother had always been in poor health, so after I was born, she didn’t have any more children. My grandmother consistently ridiculed her for being a hen that couldn’t lay eggs.”

Lu Zhanxiu paused in his work and raised his head. He looked quietly at Yan Susu, unsure of what she had to say.

Seemingly oblivious to his glance, Yan Susu just kept talking.

“Life at home was like being in a war zone, not a moment’s peace. Grandma’s constant nagging and criticism influenced my father. He also began to blame my mother for letting him down, for not giving him a son and making him a laughingstock because he hadn’t been able to produce a son.

“So he brought another woman into our home, claiming that it was the price of my mother’s failure to give him a son. But the woman he brought home already had a son, who was six months older than me. Apparently, my father had been unfaithful to my mother even before I was born.

“When my grandmother found out that the other woman had given birth to a son, she welcomed the woman into our home like a revered guest and forced my mother to divorce my father. When my mother refused, my grandma and the other woman ganged up on my mother.

“For my sake, my mother endured the humiliation. However, when I came home one day from kindergarten, they told me that my mother had committed suicide. A month later, that woman married my father.

“From then on, my father, who never liked me anyway, treated me as though I was invisible, giving my grandma, stepmother, and sister free rein to abuse me. Six years ago, when I was hospitalized due to an accident, he never visited once, and he did nothing when my grandma kicked me out of the family. I haven’t heard from him in six years.”

When she finished talking, tears streamed down Yan Susu’s face.

No one, except for her best friends, knew her story. She hadn’t told anyone because she didn’t want their pity.

Pity would only make her feel sorry for herself. She didn’t want to feel sorry for herself because to her, they were just a bunch of strangers that didn’t love her.

“Come here,” Lu Zhanxiu ordered quietly, his expression unchanged, as though he had not heard anything that she had said.

Wiping haphazardly at her tears, Yan Susu took a big step towards him.

Brushing away her tears with his warm hand, Lu Zhanxiu said in a voice loaded with authority, “The Lus are the ones who give other people grief; we do not suffer abuse from other people.”

Yan Susu was stunned.

“In the future, do not allow yourself to take such treatment from anyone, despite the fact that you are family in name only.”

“OK.”

“If they try to give you trouble again, you should return the favor a hundred times over. Now, your husband has your back!”

“OK.” Yan Susu nodded, feeling the tears coming on again.

For the past six years, she had kept her sufferings deeply buried. She had always compromised, holding on to a sliver of hope while enduring the continuous torment of Ling Xiusi, the humiliation of the Ling family, and entrapment by Yan Tingting.

And yet, no one had ever told her, “Don’t be scared. In the future, if you are bullied, you must return the favor a hundred times over because your husband has your back!”

It didn’t matter if Lu Zhanxiu had said that just to protect his own reputation or for any other reason; the words emanated warmth.

Just for that warming sensation, she would give Lu Zhanxiu and Lu Xingguang her full attention and care a hundred or even a thousand times over. She would do anything and give everything to repay their kindness!

“Have you eaten?”

“I had pizza with Xingguang earlier.”

Frowning, Lu Zhanxiu said, “Mrs. Lu is not being fair.”

“Huh?”

“You feed your son pizza, but only congee for your husband?”

Seeing the jealousy in his face, Yan Susu’s sadness dissipated instantly as she burst into laughter.

Lu Zhanxiu looked totally different from the cool, emotionless person at the meeting that afternoon.

“Mrs. Lu, are you happy, mistreating your husband like this?’

“No. It’s just, you have a weak stomach, and since it’s so late already, congee will warm up your belly. If you want pizza, I can make it for you tomorrow.”

As she finished talking, Yan Susu flushed involuntarily. Somehow, that had seemed like…yes, it did seem like a wife pacifying her whining husband.

But what they had between them was clearly just a contractual arrangement…