Chapter 443

For Zhou Nan, she was extremely fortunate in this life.

Although she was from a farming family, due to a coincidence, her grandfather at home once saved a wealthy household in the city, and thus secured an extremely good marriage for her, which was envied and craved by everyone.

When she first met An JingZhi, he was already like a young master from a wealthy family.

She was uneducated and did not know how to describe it, she only knew her own thoughts at the time, that if she could really marry such a man, not to mention that he was the young master of a well-established wealthy family, even if he was from a farming family more impoverished than her own, she would still be willing.

The two met only once before holding their wedding ceremony.

Zhou Nan could clearly feel that the other party looked down on her.

More than a month after their marriage, he had only touched her on their wedding night. Her mother-in-law did not make things too difficult for her, but she also clearly did not like her.

Fortunately, her womb was strong, and she conceived in one try, giving birth to a boy. After giving birth, her days became slightly better, probably also because of the child, as his attitude towards her also began to soften.

Zhou Nan was born with the physique to conceive easily. Within a few years of entering the An family, she had already given birth to three big grandsons for them, which also completely reversed her status within the household.

For the women of that era, to be able to bear children was the greatest blessing.

Zhou Nan also felt that her suffering had turned into joy. Relying on these three sons, there would only be endless blessings for her to enjoy in the future.

What’s more, heaven always favored her, as she became pregnant with twins again.

But it was also at this time that her good luck seemed to run out all at once.

Her in-laws were continuously targeted by others. Her grandfather-in-law visibly grew older and older by the day. Her parents-in-law also wore worried frowns all day long.

Rumors spread that the An family could not hold on any longer. Servants were dismissed, family businesses were donated completely, yet there were still people who kept coming to cause trouble.

In order for her to nurture the twins in her belly properly, Zhou Nan was sent back to the Zhou family home.

But the unease in her heart still affected her body. She was absent-minded all day, looking very distressed.

Finally, one morning, she accidentally tripped and fell. At eight months pregnant, the impact caused her to go into premature labor, giving birth to a pair of twins.

It was frightening but safe in the end. She was still quite fortunate.

Her mother and grandmother had both given birth to twins before, so it was not uncommon for her.

Fortunately, although the An family’s big house was gone, and their fortune worth tens of thousands had been completely dispersed, everyone in the family was still around. A thin camel is still bigger than a horse. Her father-in-law was a war hero. Now retired, he still had a pension. Her husband became a university president, which was also a very good job.

She was originally a girl from a farming family. Doing housework was not difficult for her at all. Without servants, she simply picked up the tasks she used to do every day again.

Perhaps because the dragon and phoenix twins were born during the most difficult time for the family, and conditions were also very harsh, she always felt that the two children were aggrieved. In addition, since they were the youngest in the family, she inevitably favored them a little more.

Especially her daughter. She was born very thin, clearly suffering from malnutrition.

Plus she had injured her own body this time, and probably would have difficulty conceiving again in the future. This was likely their one and only daughter, which also made her and An Jingzhi cherish her even more, inevitably spoiling her, catering to her every wish since she was young.

Who would have expected this planted the seeds of disaster.

Her younger daughter was excessively mischievous and unruly, offending all four brothers. Even her twin brother, the fourth child, disliked her. Later it even escalated into violence.

It is said that the child who cries gets fed. The more troublesome a child is for the parents, the more they will be doted on. An MeiYun was exactly that kind of situation.

Even clearly knowing that she was the one stirring up trouble sometimes, they still could not bear to reprimand her when seeing her pitiful appearance after being punished.

As for the fights between the children, parents would always think that it’s normal for kids in any family to have conflicts. When they grew older and became sensible, they would understand the deepest kinship between siblings.

This was indeed how things turned out as the parents expected. As An MeiYun grew into a young lady, she did become sensible and well-behaved.

But her older brothers who were older did not become sensible at all. And the third brother still held a grudge against his sister over things from when they were young. This gave the couple a big headache.

Although days were full of chaos, with family safe and sound, they could still be considered happy.

Until one day, they suddenly learned that their cherished daughter, whom they had doted on excessively, was not their biological child. Instead, she had been maliciously switched at birth. Their poor biological daughter was actually at another family, suffering all kinds of mistreatments.

When Zhou Nan heard this news from An Jingzhi, she was completely dumbfounded. Her first reaction was that it was impossible.

But he said the person who provided the news was his own elder brother. And that they had found the girl from the Zhou family looked almost exactly like her.

It did not take long to investigate the truth. The next two days were spent trying to come to terms with the facts and prepare to accept this reality. Since An MeiYun still relied on them to live, it was not difficult to find out what she had done.

It was just that they did not dare to believe it. They were unwilling to believe it, preferring to deceive themselves.

Zhou Nan did not even dare to meet that girl. She let An JingZhi and her fourth son go bring the girl back.

She said she stayed home to prepare to welcome her back, but in reality her heart was trembling the whole time until this moment, still wishing desperately for all of this to be false.

Because when she raised her head to look at the daughter she had raised with her own hands, she really could not accept the fact that she was not her biological child.

When she saw that face which indeed resembled her own, as well as that emaciated body with her own eyes, Zhou Nan had to admit that in that moment she hated them. She hated the couple who had exchanged her child and wished she could hack them into mincemeat. She also hated that she could not send An MeiYun back to return her to them.

But every time she faced the child she had raised, she still could not bear to be ruthless. So she desperately pretended to be muddled, telling herself that the child was innocent. She was still little at that time and it wasn’t that she was willing to be swapped.

She was willing to compensate her biological daughter with everything, also because of that guilt, which made her constantly waver and be conflicted between the two children, even thinking that she could have it both ways.

It wasn’t just her. An JingZhi thought this way too. It hurt whichever hand you pricked.

But they overlooked the principle that one cannot have the best of both worlds.

The contradictions eventually reached an extent that could not be ignored. They finally steeled their hearts and made a choice.

But in that short time it was already too late.

One was hurt and moved to her grandmother’s place. Another was rushing to marry herself out, but ended up falling into an abyss of eternal damnation.

No one could understand their pain. In others’ eyes, it even seemed like they deserved it.

Indeed, they did deserve it.

If they had been firmer in making a choice in the first place, perhaps the tragic outcome of one dead and one injured could have been avoided. This was also Zhou Nan and An JingZhi’s biggest regret.

Knowing that Pei Jing and Pei Jing’s marriage was very sudden, they could guess that there were still things they did not know behind this marriage.

But from their standpoint, they no longer had the qualifications to question it.

Fortunately, the outcome of this marriage was not bad. Pei Jing was a responsible man, and KnowXia also found lifelong reliance.

The deceased should always give way to the living. Sometimes, the truth was no longer so important, but the survivors were what they should cherish.

This was what An JingZhi told her, it was also a reality that she had to accept.

So for the rest of her years, she did her best to make up to KnowXia, even though she did not feel like she needed it anymore.

She could feel her daughter’s estrangement, but all this was created by her own doing, without even any right to complain.

An JingZhi also said that constant dripping can penetrate stone, and blood ties of kinship cannot be severed. It was their original mistake. No matter whether she was willing to accept compensation, they must do it, even if it was just to comfort themselves, it would still be better than regretting not having a chance to make up when it was too late in the future.

Luckily, the result was beautiful.

Although they did not achieve the desired intimacy between mother and daughter, at the very least they made it to when she was willing to open her heart.

For the rest of her life this was good enough. Although not intimate, they were also not estranged. She did her best, and KnowXia no longer resisted.

An JingZhi passed away several years after Zhou Nan.

Lying in his sickbed, looking back on his life, there were regrets, and there was contentment.

But overall, compared to most people, he was still quite fortunate and happy.

The only thing he couldn’t let go of was his disobedient third son.

What do young people nowadays call it?

Oh right, staying single, open-minded thinking.

In the present society, being single has become the mainstream. Those young people are shouting about not marrying or having children all day, and the younger generation at home even praises him for being at the forefront of society...

An JingZhi was very dissatisfied with this. If everyone in the world thought like this, wouldn't mankind be extinct?

It was said and scolded, but this boy was impervious to counsel or scorn. His grandmother coerced him with death before she passed away, and he did bring a woman home.

At that time he was already forty, they didn't care about anything else, they just wanted a woman to hurry up and get married and have a child, at least to settle one thing before it was too late to have children.

Who would have thought that this boy only pretended to agree but actually disobeyed. After the grandmother closed her eyes, they realized that the woman was specially brought by him to perform in order to reassure the grandmother before she passed away. They were so angry they almost died.

Since then, the couple knew they couldn't control this child anymore, so they simply didn't interfere anymore. They could only teach the other younger generation to respect and take care of Third Uncle San Bo, so that he wouldn't regret it when he got old and lonely later.

But this world, it changed too fast, making him feel deeply that he couldn't keep up with the times.

Their famous Dr. An didn't even reach 60 years old before he retired early and traveled around the world by himself.

Compared to his other married children, he was indeed the most free and unrestrained, without constraints. At least he didn't shortchange himself living in this world for a lifetime. As for the future, he couldn't control it anymore. Right now he himself was lying in bed waiting for someone to come back so he could close his eyes in peace.

He also opened up. People live one lifetime, just be happy and carefree, if you think it's not good, there are more people worse off than you.

Without even talking about others, Pei Yong that bastard passed away even earlier. Huang Lian's life was even more miserable, he never had a few good days in his life. His son finally matured, but his daughter started acting up again.

It was said that she married a man with two children from his second marriage, but ran away with someone again after a few years. She came back after running away for less than two years...

Fortunately the social trends became more and more open, if it was like the situation years ago, a whole family would have been implicated by her.

Even a strong woman like Wang Yue had a stroke from anger, which showed how infuriating she was.

Wang Yue also never lowered her head in her life. She almost got eaten by maggots when she died.

When Pei JianGuo was away on a business trip, his daughter-in-law did something outrageous. Fortunately Pei JianGuo came back early.

But if you really think about it, she deserved it. When she was young she even bullied her daughter-in-law, so of course she would get retribution when she was old.

Pei JianGuo also knew about these matters. Even though their days had become like this, he didn't get a divorce. Later he hired a caregiver to take care of the old lady, and didn't let Liu Chunhua get involved anymore.

An JingZhi also didn't know what was going on with himself, suddenly remembering so many things.

Maybe because his time of death was approaching, so he started having random thoughts.

Faintly, noises of arguing came from outside, it seemed like the children had all gathered.

An JingZhi squinted, but couldn't see clearly. It was all a blur.

In the blankness of his mind, it seemed like he returned to that cold winter.

Someone was talking to him, saying Zhou Nan had given premature birth to boy and girl twins, but it wasn't time yet. That's right, this foolish woman tripped and fell, causing herself to go into premature labor.

Someone wanted to switch his children, he had to hurry over to stop it...

Blurrily, he saw Zhi Xia's face.

His youngest daughter was no longer young either, but she maintained herself well and was still so beautiful.

He was thinking, if...if he could live life again...

He definitely wouldn't let her be switched away, and she wouldn't have so much sorrow left.

Even if it was back to that autumn when she first returned, they would have firmly chosen her, and wouldn't have left a lifetime of regret that could no longer be repaired...

"Dad is gone..."

Zhi Xia removed her hand from underneath An JingZhi's nose and calmly announced this news.

Her life this time around, it could be said she didn't live in vain.

All the wishes from her previous life were fulfilled in this life.

Although her biological parents didn't love her as much as she had imagined, there were also many beautiful and unexpected surprises in her life that she had never thought of before, for example...

Zhi Xia looked back, and just happened to look into Pei Jing's no longer young eyes, and the several children behind him.

In a year or two Pei Jing would retire. The children had all grown up, each having their own careers and pursuits, shining brightly in their own worlds.

They were all outside of her expectations, yet appeared beautifully, leaving no more regrets in her life or irreparable rifts...

Zhi Xia was also busy arranging things for the company. The children didn't go into business, so if she wanted to retire she could only hand over the company to professional managers to run it.

The rest of their lives, they wanted to fulfill the promises of their youth to travel around and see the great rivers and mountains of their motherland.

Speaking of this, she was quite envious of Third Brother. Able to pick up and put down things easily, leaving as soon as he said he would.

Second Brother finally came back in recent years, having achieved success and reputation, not failing the efforts of all these years.

Eldest Brother was also about to retire. Speaking of Eldest Brother, there was an especially amusing incident. A few years ago when he bought a house, Big Sister discovered it. At that time in the 90s when real estate was developing rapidly, housing prices here had risen to 5-6 million.

Because of this, Big Sister often sighed with regret, regretting missing the chance to get rich suddenly, and almost regretting herself sick.

Later when tidying up one day, she discovered the property ownership certificate hidden away in a very secretive drawer, only then finding out how stupid she had been.

At that time, she was excited yet angry, that kind of expression was simply unimaginable.

Fortunately she didn't make a scene. She was probably more excited than angry.

Now everyone was older in age, and lived together, so running into each other when going out was extremely rare harmony.

It's said there is no regret medicine in life, yet she was more fortunate than everyone. Heaven gave her the chance to relive one lifetime, fulfilling all the hopes from her previous life, and also gaining the love of many people.

...

[End of Book]