Chapter 1809: Regret

To Zhai Sheng, Qiao Nan’s status had never been a problem. But Qiao Nan herself minded, and Zhai Sheng was indeed afraid that Qiao Nan’s fears would be realized. It did not matter what outsiders said, but his family’s att.i.tudes and opinions did matter indeed.

Zhai Yaohui’s first reaction was to rejoice before he lowered his voice, afraid that Miao Jing would hear him. “Is your marriage partner a woman?” Zhai Yaohui knew that there were men who did not like women. It was not entirely impossible for his son, who had been hurt by women, to suddenly change his orientation.

Since their son refused to get married, Zhai Yaohui and Miao Jing would flip through relevant books while they were free in a bid to understand their son and help him walk out of his shadow. Zhai Yaohui’s question evoked a laugh from Zhai Sheng, who nearly got frustrated. “Of course it’s a woman!”

If he had no interest in women, would he have any interest in men? His dad was getting confused because of his age!

“Of course there’ll be no problem if it’s a woman!” As for anything else, Zhai Yaohui could not care less. “Is she still single?” That was right. He would not agree to anything immoral either.

“She’s always been single. She’s never been married.” It was her first marriage.

Zhai Yaohui was pleasantly surprised. Not only had his son finally decided to get married, but he was even getting married to a young lady! “How old is she?” Did his son prefer younger ladies? Hearing that it was her first marriage, Zhai Yaohui thought that the other party would be rather young.

“She’s forty, so she’s five years younger than me.”

“She’s forty and she’s never gotten married? Could it be that…” There was something wrong with her?

Zhai Sheng frowned. “Fine, then I won’t get married.” He truly could not understand his parents. At his age, his children should already be in junior high school. Perhaps it was because he was not a parent himself that he could not understand his parents’ mentality.

When he said that he did not want to get married, his parents told him that they simply wanted him to have someone by his side, whether it be a male or female. Now that he said that he had someone in mind for marriage, they asked about the person’s gender, age, whether he or she had a partner, and whether he or she was sick. They sure had a whole lot of concerns.

Apart from things concerning the military, Zhai Sheng had very little patience for anything or anyone else. Since the Zhai family hardly spent time together nor contacted each other regularly, they did not have a close relations.h.i.+p. They had never tried to have heart-to-heart talks in the past. Now that their parents were trying to do so, both Zhai Sheng and Zhai Hua detested it.

If they agreed to it, they should say so. Otherwise would be fine either. They were all grown up and did not need to listen to their parents when making their own decisions as long as they themselves thought that it was all right. Why did their parents have so much to say? Had this not been the way they had grown up?

While they were younger, it was true that they had needed someone to supervise them. But neither of their parents had done so. Now that they were grown up and had their own families, why did their parents have to interfere? Who could stand having parents like these?

“Don’t.” Zhai Yaohui laughed bitterly. He had angered his son yet again. “All right. As long as you’re happy and think that she’s suitable for you, I won’t have any questions. If I agree to it, your mom will agree as well. Your opinions are the most important.” Initially, he had already lost all hope about his son’s remarriage.

Not getting remarried was fine with him too. If his son got lonely in the future and wanted company, he could still adopt a child even if he did not have a woman by his side. Not forcing his son to get married and have children to continue the Zhai family’s line was already the greatest change in Zhai Yaohui’s and Miao Jing’s mindset.

Zhai Hua was already married, but she had given birth to a daughter. Besides, her daughter’s surname was not Zhai. To traditionalists like them, Zhai Sheng’s child was different from Zhai Hua’s child, after all.

Now that something as hopeless as this had a spark of hope, Zhai Yaohui could not possibly have so many things to nitpick at. “When are you getting married? Are you going to hold the wedding in Qingshui Town or in the capital? Don’t worry. I understand what you mean and what you’re worried about. There won’t be any problems of this sort.”

There might not be any major issues with a lady of forty, but there were bound to be other minor problems. If the other party had a good background, she would already have gotten married and have had children of school-going age. Zhai Yaohui had no choice but to make plans while expecting the worst.

In the end, Zhai Yaohui could only comfort himself by telling himself that it was certainly true that the other party had never had a boyfriend or a husband, given his son’s temper. Neither would the other party be a terrorist. She might have some weaknesses, disabilities, or perhaps might even be a little ugly. But as long as his son accepted her and liked her, nothing else mattered.

When Zhai Yaohui told Miao Jing about what their son had said, Miao Jing was happy and sad at the same time. She was elated because her son would not remain single for the rest of his life. Based on their son’s att.i.tude, it seemed that that woman’s background was truly not ideal. Their son had such an outstanding background, and there were throngs of women willing to marry him. But why had their son settled for someone like that?

“All right, if our son himself doesn’t mind, why should you? Our son might not like those women that you think are good for him. On the other hand, our son may be satisfied with those women whom you think are not suitable. Do you want our son to be satisfied, or do you want to be satisfied yourself?” Zhai Yaohui persuaded his sobbing wife gently while pa.s.sing her a piece of tissue.

Miao Jing wiped her tears. “This is evil! This is too evil! When I think about Zhai Sheng and Hua Hua, I regret ever going out with you, Old Zhai!” If she had known that her life would turn out like that by getting together with a handsome and das.h.i.+ng soldier, she would never have agreed. She would much rather have eked out a living for herself under the control of her relatives.

She had gotten lucky and had married someone of a higher social status. It was true that there had been good times, but there had been many more painful moments in her life. In the end, she had even dragged her children down. Neither of them had enjoyed a blissful marriage.

If the person beside her had not been Zhai Yaohui, even if she had only had one child, her only child might have had a better life than Zhai Sheng and Zhai Hua!

She had not figured it out in her youth and had allowed her world to revolve around men. Now that she was old and wanted grandchildren around, her daughter refused to get close to her. As such, she had a distant relations.h.i.+p with her grandchild, much less any opportunity to take care of her. Her son was even better. After getting divorced, he simply refused to get remarried and was thus childless.

Outsiders always spoke well of the Zhai family, but she knew that there were many people who were mocking the Zhai family. So what if they were successful in their careers and had a high societal status? Once it reached Zhai Sheng’s generation, the family did not even have a child to light up their lives.

No matter how good the family background was, because of the lack of good familial ties and the lack of a child, there was always some joy missing in the family. Whenever other people started talking about their grandchildren, the Zhai family would never partic.i.p.ate in the conversation.

As time went by, Miao Jing simply chose not to a.s.sociate herself with those old ladies who liked to poke fun at her.