Chapter 561: Chapter 560: Love-Struck at Home 42

At this time, it was right during the summer vacation, and in a few days, Jiang Maochuan’s family would also return.

The Jiang Family was unaware of what was about to happen, but with family reunions being rare, everyone who could return home was quite pleased.

Su Man’s behavior seemed a bit obvious, as the Jiang Family noticed she was radiating a certain joyful energy recently, though they didn’t know why.

Lu Yan always felt that Su Man was peculiar, but since she hadn’t done anything wrong over the years, he didn’t pay much attention to her.

The roads in the village were well-paved. Ah Chen and Lu Yan were out for a walk and coincidentally bumped into Jiang Hongyu learning to ride a bicycle.

Knowing they wouldn’t stay here for long, when Jiang Hongyu wanted a bicycle, Su Man agreed without hesitation.

Jiang Maohua was also there, mainly to teach Jiang Hongyu how to ride and to keep an eye on him, afraid he might fall. However, Jiang Hongyu was full of impatience; he didn’t let Jiang Maohua teach him and just rode off on the bicycle.

"Hongyu, when did you learn that?" Jiang Maohua was a bit taken aback because Jiang Hongyu wasn’t even ten yet, and his cycling skills were really proficient; Jiang Maohua had no idea.

"Been learning for a long time." Jiang Hongyu still sounded impatient, pedaling away, but when he saw Ah Chen and Lu Yan, he rode back and greeted them, "Auntie, Uncle."

Ah Chen and Lu Yan responded mildly. While Jiang Hongyu had no patience for Jiang Maohua, he showed closeness to the couple and Jiang Maochuan’s family. Even if Su Man disapproved, Jiang Hongyu wouldn’t listen.

"I’m going out to play with my classmates," Jiang Hongyu announced, though it wasn’t clear if he was talking to Ah Chen and Lu Yan or to Jiang Maohua; he rarely referred to Jiang Maohua as "Dad."

But Ah Chen had observed that Jiang Hongyu probably didn’t know his parentage; he just inherently looked down on Jiang Maohua as a person.

It was quite ridiculous, given that without Jiang Maohua, would Jiang Hongyu have such good days now?

"Go ahead," Jiang Maohua replied.

Despite his best efforts to conceal it, he couldn’t hide his bitterness, disappointment, and confusion.

He didn’t know how much longer this life would last. Would it continue for a lifetime? If it could last a lifetime, it wouldn’t be too bad; at least Su Man was his wife in name.

Recently, Su Man seemed very happy, but he always felt this life couldn’t be sustained, living each day with anxiety and not knowing what to do.

Snapping back to focus, he glanced silently at Ah Chen beside him.

Over the years, the Jiang Family had tried to persuade him countless times, but his younger sister never did, as if she knew that no matter how much they tried, they couldn’t change his mind, and she also knew the truth between him and Su Man.

One could say she was indeed the smartest in their Jiang Family.

Upon reflection, he felt fortunate that the Jiang Family still had his younger sister; otherwise, he might have really done something harmful to his blood relatives for Su Man.

Like when Su Man initially wanted to start a business and lost most of their savings, she even wanted to borrow money from others.

He couldn’t borrow any, and Su Man quarreled with him for a while, barely speaking to him.

Later, when someone in town succeeded in a similar business, Su Man would always complain in front of him, saying if he could have borrowed money back then, they would be the successful ones. She considered him too timid and shortsighted, incapable of great achievements, as doing business inherently involved taking risks, and by being afraid of this or that, he would be stuck in this village for life.

Since then, his relationship with Su Man only got worse.

Now it seemed that without his younger sister, he might have begged the family for money.

His parents weren’t satisfied with him, but they wouldn’t truly abandon him either, and the eldest brother repeatedly expressed his willingness to help, as long as he was willing to venture out.

But if he did borrow money, the family would probably have a debt he couldn’t repay. His relatives wouldn’t press for the debt, which would harm his blood relatives, wouldn’t it?

He had to admit, Su Man didn’t care for him; marrying him was merely out of necessity.

Su Man cared even less about the Jiang Family.

Yet it was something he had pleaded for.

What pained Jiang Maohua was that Jiang Hongyu was increasingly impatient with him. When he was younger, he used to call him "Dad," but as he grew older, he rarely called him Dad and disliked him going to school functions, always clamoring for Su Man to go instead of him.

He felt rejected.

Nowadays, it’s easy to be shunned with such a demeanor.

Even though he was just a child who didn’t understand, Jiang Maohua still felt chilled to the heart.

He had talked to Su Man about it a few times, but Su Man didn’t take it seriously, so he stopped mentioning it.

Is this really how I’m going to live the rest of my life? But if not this way, does it mean separating from Su Man?

Today’s events were witnessed by his younger sister. Jiang Maohua thought Ah Chen would ask something, but after waiting a long time, she said nothing.

Instead, he found himself wanting to say something.

"Hongyu doesn’t seem close to me anymore," he said.

Ah Chen replied, "I noticed."

Jiang Maohua: ...

"You rarely interact with him, so naturally, you’re not close," Ah Chen added, "Most children’s behaviors mirror adults."

Jiang Maohua sighed, "I don’t have time to interact with him."

After saying that, he met Ah Chen’s beaming eyes and quickly averted his gaze.

He brought it upon himself.

He also understood the deeper implication of his sister’s words: Hongyu’s upbringing was related to Su Man.

A sudden wave of bitterness came over him. Su Man had grown to look down on him more and more over the years, and it had been ages since she called him "Brother Mao Hua."

Today, Ah Chen seemed in the mood to talk a bit more, "Do you think you can live like this for a lifetime, Second Brother?"

These words filled Jiang Maohua with fear. If not this, then what?

Su Man currently had no job; he was the one supporting the household. Even if she looked down on him, she couldn’t leave him.

Ah Chen knew what Jiang Maohua was thinking and chuckled, "Second Brother might have forgotten someone."

Jiang Maohua was momentarily stunned, but quickly realized who she meant, freezing where he stood.

Gu Lingfei?

No, since Gu Lingfei left, he couldn’t possibly return here.

Besides, Gu Lingfei didn’t know about Su Man’s pregnancy.

Being able to go abroad back then indicated that the Gu Family wasn’t simple. A decade had passed; he didn’t believe that Gu Lingfei, who left Su Man behind, would still remember her. By now, he had probably married and had children.

Yet, deep down, Jiang Maohua felt uneasy, hastily bidding farewell to Ah Chen as he hurried towards the old house.

"Is Chenchen trying to scare Second Brother?" Lu Yan had somewhat understood. He was shocked when he learned from his wife about the lack of intimacy between Jiang Maohua and Su Man.

Come to think of it, Jiang Maohua was quite the infatuated one, just that he ended up with someone like Su Man, receiving no return, yet stubbornly hanging on.

Ah Chen shook her head, "It’s the truth, but he’s deluding himself now, unwilling to listen, thinking that maintaining the status quo is good enough."

She didn’t plan on persuading Jiang Maohua about anything.

Wasn’t this just a chance encounter and an exchange of a few words?

The past few days, Jiang Hongyu had been riding his bicycle out to play every day.

That day, as he went to wander around town, just as he reached the village entrance, he saw a particularly impressive sedan, and his eyes widened. This car was better than the one his aunt and uncle drove back; he recognized it because someone in the village had driven a similar one back before, rumored to cost hundreds of thousands.