Killing Marriage [ABO] - Chapter 25

Chapter 25; Highlight

“I heard from Chong Chong that Xiao Zhang’s condition has improved a lot, and he’s been going out to work recently.” Shang Liwei sat on the floor, surrounded by children’s educational toys. “Where did you find these little gadgets for Mi Li? They’re so interesting.”

She was originally helping to put the toys away, but as she tidied up, she started playing with them herself.

“The ‘good wife’ is already back at work. How long do you plan to stay unemployed?” Lawyer Mai looked at her sister-by-another-father-and-mother as if she were a dead fish that couldn’t flip over.

Shang Liwei wasn’t unemployed for no reason; she had her own explanation.

“I go to work hoping to create social value, which is an important way for me to achieve self-realization. I hope my research can improve people’s lives. Right now… I don’t know if other things can fulfill that wish. I need to settle down and think.”

Lawyer Mai shook her head. “With a record of being disciplined and fired, it will probably be difficult for you to find a job at a research institute or university again.”

She put it tactfully, but it was the cruel reality—Shang Liwei could no longer engage in any formal scientific research.

“I know,” Shang Liwei continued to fiddle with the little gadgets in her hands. “The current academic atmosphere isn’t great, and I can’t achieve much with research anyway. I’ve actually wanted to change careers for a while; I just couldn’t bear to let go of my professional knowledge.”

For so many years, Shang Liwei had never seemed to deviate from her life plan.

She was like a marathon runner, taking the landmarks along the way as small goals. As long as she ran hard in the planned direction, she would continue to achieve small victories and a sense of accomplishment until she reached the finish line.

But now, her life had been hit by a major earthquake. All her reference points had collapsed, and the road ahead was twisted, cracked, and buried by gravel and earth.

She still had the strength to run and the ability to sprint, but now she had no direction and didn’t know where to exert her effort.

“Take it easy!” Lawyer Mai snatched the blue box from her hand. “This is a toy blind box I bought for Mi Li. She hasn’t even opened it yet, and you’re already doing it.”

Shang Liwei had been busy talking, and only after Lawyer Mai said this did she notice the content of the box. She tapped the box with her finger and said, “You’re too careless. Why did you buy the blue version of the blind box for Li Li?”

This toy blind box gift set was a very popular item among children recently. The manufacturer had placed a lot of advertisements on TV and the internet, and the brand was even featured in many TV shows and animated films.

The pink blind box gift set was for Beta girls, Omega girls, and Omega boys, while the blue one was designed for Alpha boys, Alpha girls, and Beta boys.

“I didn’t buy the wrong one,” Lawyer Mai said firmly. “I specifically bought the blue version.”

She did this simply because she didn’t want to pay the “pink tax.”

“I’ve watched other parents’ unboxing videos. The pink blind box only contains cheap little things like children’s cosmetics, small mirrors, and dolls. The blue blind box contains new educational toys with much better technology, gameplay, and playability.”

It was one thing that the contents were biased, but the key was that the pink blind box was much more expensive than the blue one.

“That’s a bit hard to justify, isn’t it? Tsk tsk, even a small toy blind box has two faces,” Shang Liwei sneered.

The sound of footsteps “thump-thump-thumping” came from upstairs, and they knew Mi Li was about to make a grand entrance.

“Vivian! I request to play with the tablet!” Mi Li jumped down the last two steps, raising her hand as if saluting or launching a light beam like Ultraman.

Shang Liwei also made a launching gesture, and the two of them “da-da-da,” “bo-bo-bo,” and “biu-biu-biu” at each other for a few rounds. She said, “Request under review. School starts tomorrow, and your summer homework…”

“It’s done!” Mi Li dodged Shang Liwei’s “light beam” by rolling on the floor.

At that moment, Mi Tong also came downstairs. She nodded to Shang Liwei’s questioning gaze, indicating that Mi Li had indeed completed all her summer homework under her supervision.

“Review passed,” Shang Liwei continued to ask. “What about your school bag?”

Mi Li used the sofa as cover, peeking out with her two big, black eyes. “It’s packed!”

“Review passed. What about your school uniform?”

Mi Li bounced off the back of the sofa and jumped into Shang Liwei’s arms. “It’s folded!”

“Congratulations, all reviews passed.” Shang Liwei hugged Mi Li and kissed her little cheek. “Request granted. I’ll get a tablet from the inventory for you.”

Mi Li happily went to her mother and got a chance to play on the tablet.

She held the tablet and made a new request. “I want to go next door and play with Uncle Zhang!”

Mi Tong stroked her head and said, “Li Li, Uncle Zhang went to work today, so he’s not home. Only Uncle Ren is there.”

“Why would Uncle Zhang go to work?” Mi Li asked naturally. “Isn’t he unemployed and at home like Mama?”

This simple, factual statement caused Mi Tong’s expression to change for a moment.

A sensitive nerve had been touched, awakening a deep-seated pain in her heart.

In her child’s mind, her mother was just an idle “leech” who stayed at home, living off others.

Children speak their minds. Mi Li was only stating the facts as she saw them, and she didn’t have any malicious intent.

Mi Tong held back her sensitive emotions and forced a smile for her child. “Uncle Zhang has a job; he just spends more time at home to take care of Uncle Ren. Mama is also at home to take care of you!”

She kept up the smile and patted her child’s back. “Remember to call Uncle Ren over for dinner later when it’s time to eat.”

Mi Li stood at attention and saluted, saying, “Copy that,” then said “goodbye” to everyone in the room before scampering away on her long little legs to find Ren Zhong.

After the child left, Mi Tong no longer had the strength to smile. She stared blankly at the door for a while, lost in thought. When she turned back to face Shang Liwei and Lawyer Mai, she had put on her gentle, smiling mask again, concealing the turmoil in her heart.

“Sister Liwei, I just checked Li Li’s summer homework. A lot of her journals and essays are about you. Do you want to see them?”

Shang Liwei played along, feigning surprise. “Really?”

“Mhm.” Mi Tong nodded. “I’ll go get them for you.”

After bringing the journal and essay notebooks downstairs, she put on an apron and went to the kitchen to prepare the food.

Shang Liwei opened the small notebook filled with tiny squares.

“The essay requires more than 150 characters and is about a family member you respect the most… ‘My Alpha Mother’?” Shang Liwei smiled helplessly, reading the childish text mixed with pinyin.

In Mi Li’s eyes, Shang Liwei was an amazing scientist, a strong and independent female Alpha who loved life, wasn’t arrogant with kids, and was always approachable.

“‘Approachable’?” Shang Liwei couldn’t help but let out a soft laugh. “I’m not a high-ranking official or a noble. Where did this child get that word from?”

Lawyer Mai lowered her eyes and said, “Many Alpha men have a condescending, old-fashioned parenting style toward children, showing little concern even for their Alpha sons, let alone a ‘mediocre’ gender like Beta females. From her perspective, that word is very fitting.”

Becoming the person a child respects most was, of course, something to be happy about, but as she flipped through the pages, Shang Liwei’s smile disappeared.

“Li Li didn’t write about Tong Tong,” she said, furrowing her brow slightly. “In her journal, she wrote about me, about Chong Chong and Xiao Zhang, and even you made an appearance. But Tong Tong never appeared, not even once.”

In all the happy, interesting, and memorable events, Mi Tong was as if invisible, a background character omitted within the short 200 words.

In Mi Li’s homework, Mi Tong only appeared in the parent signature section, like a dutiful “nanny robot.”

Shang Liwei was a little worried. She didn’t think this was a good sign. “Do you think it’s because Tong Tong is very strict about her studies and life, and since she’s so young, she only likes to be close to people who make her happy, play with her, and indulge her?”

“That might be part of the reason, but not entirely,” Lawyer Mai said, sensing something acutely. “Maybe it’s just a child’s nature to be drawn to strength.”

In a child’s simple emotions and cognition, what is bigger, taller, stronger, and more abundant is “beautiful” and “good.”

Compared to value judgments like “right and wrong,” a human child’s choices are more like an innate avoidance of harm and a pursuit of benefits.

“You have a point,” Shang Liwei sighed, putting the toys on the floor into their respective categories. “Tong Tong has a hard time being a mother.”

Lawyer Mai helped get a toy storage box and tidied up with her. “You’re a pretty good stepmother.”

“Of course! The three of us are a happy and auspicious family!” Shang Liwei said and then started singing.

However, Lawyer Mai had never been very optimistic about her sister’s marriage.

“You met this mother and daughter at a low point in your life. They also came to you when their lives and emotions were in disarray. I always feel that people who seek you out at this time can’t help you reverse the decline in your life.”

She left the other half of the sentence unsaid, but Shang Liwei understood.

“Are you trying to say that they took advantage of my vulnerability and had ulterior motives? Or that I was desperate and blindly sought them out?” Shang Liwei said with a smile, putting the toy storage box back in its place.

Lawyer Mai shrugged. “You said that yourself. I didn’t say anything!”

People always make the worst decisions and meet the worst people when they are in the worst state. Putting your hope of getting out of a slump on others or external things will only push you further into the abyss.

“But Maggie, I think if we look at it from a different angle, things might be completely different,” Shang Liwei said seriously. “What I mean is, I don’t think we were attracted to each other on the brink of collapse. The opposite might be true.”

She looked into Lawyer Mai’s eyes, and there was a resolute light in her own.

“Mi Tong may seem like a soft person you can easily take advantage of, but her heart is actually very, very strong. There’s a lot more energy hidden inside her than we can imagine.”

Shang Liwei smiled. “The day I met her, I knew she was very brave.”

“When her partner, who was stronger and more dominant than her, tried to harm Mi Li, this small woman actually managed to hit that Beta man so hard he was bleeding from his head. Her anger shows that she still has a fire in her, that she’s not willing to be a weakling.”

Shang Liwei recalled what she looked like that day.

“Her anger unleashed unimaginable power. When she had that fierce look in her eyes, no one could get past this powerful mother to harm her child. In that moment, she was absolutely unwilling to be manipulated or to compromise; she was ready to fight to the death.”

“In comparison, I was the one who was set in my ways and only sought to protect myself, a coward. I only did things that I was confident I could do well and was fully prepared for. I never stuck my neck out. I’d rather stay out of it and be numb than get myself into any trouble.”

“But in that moment, I made the first decision in my life that could be called an ‘adventure.’ I stopped being so cautious and timid. I stopped passively accepting things and making excuses for my cowardice. The moment I stood up, I was braver than I had ever been.”

Mi Tong, who was crouched behind the kitchen door, heard every word they said.

Mi Tong heard Shang Liwei say…

“I think… our meeting was our highlight.”