Free Web NovelChapter 209: Chapter 209: Hanging
Mrs. Tang had already broken down after hearing what Tang Yuanxiao said earlier.
When she then heard that Tang Yuanxiao intended to restrict her freedom for Su Li’s sake, the floodgates opened.
"A son marries a wife and forgets his mother... So this is how it is... A son marries a wife and forgets his mother..."
She sobbed, her face a mask of despair and sorrow.
"What’s the point of living anymore..."
"Just get some rest." Tang Yuanxiao closed his eyes, listening to her cries. His fists trembled, but he turned and walked away.
He slammed the door shut. Ignoring the sound of his mother’s wails, he stormed outside.
His heart was bleeding.
He was furious—angrier than he had ever been in his life.
Furious with his mother, and furious with himself for being so powerless.
He knew his mother couldn’t accept his arrangement, but he had to do it.
What happened today was enough. It could not be allowed to happen again.
He couldn’t let his mother go out and cause another scene, couldn’t let her go to the school and stir up even bigger trouble that would affect Su Li.
For his sake, Su Li was keeping their divorce a secret, and yet his mother...
After what happened today, Tang Yuanxiao was already too ashamed to face her. If his mother caused another scene, he really didn’t know what he would do...
Tang Yuanxiao recalled what Su Li had said when she first arrived and they had discussed getting a divorce.
"Marriage is never just about two people. Your mother and I... we can never get along. The best solution is for us to be apart for good."
He had thought that as long as they loved each other, they could solve these problems. After all, one was his mother, and the other was Su Li.
They were both good people—the two most important women in his life.
But what was the result?
A single meeting, and it had come to this.
He no longer had any confidence that he could persuade or change his mother. When he had visited home on leave before, she had been just as frantic. It wasn’t that he hadn’t tried, but what had come of it?
His mother was still the same; all his efforts and all his words had been for nothing.
Could anything be more hopeless than this?
Tang Yuanxiao felt he had no other choice. Since he couldn’t persuade his mother, he could only take this drastic measure.
He stormed out of the house, eyes bloodshot, with nowhere to vent the violent rage boiling inside him.
He wanted to scream, to go to the parade grounds or the training field to vent his frustration, but he couldn’t.
Tang Yuanxiao’s hurried footsteps came to a sudden halt at the main gate.
He stood like a statue for a moment before finally turning around.
Step by step, he walked back.
He couldn’t just abandon his mother like that.
Yu Le, who had escorted Mrs. Tang back, hadn’t gone inside. Too worried to leave, he had been waiting outside the whole time. Seeing Tang Yuanxiao return, he felt both a pang of sympathy and a sense of relief.
Watching Tang Yuanxiao’s retreating figure, Yu Le was so frustrated he nearly tore his hair out.
Tang Yuanxiao went back into the house and into the room, stationing himself by his mother’s bedside.
Mrs. Tang, who had been sobbing uncontrollably, saw him return. Her eyes lit up for an instant, only to dim just as quickly at the sight of his expression. frёeweɓηovel.coɱ
Her sobs slowly subsided.
She stopped shouting and cursing. With her back turned to Tang Yuanxiao, she wept silently on the bed for two hours.
His jaw clenched, Tang Yuanxiao kept watch over her, never leaving her side but not saying a single word.
Yu Le brought back some food. Tang Yuanxiao tried to persuade his mother to eat, but she refused, just kept crying. Little Tang Mo came to coax her, but it was no use. Even Little Tang Mo’s own tears had no effect.
She cried until nightfall before finally falling asleep from exhaustion.
Tang Yuanxiao breathed a sigh of relief and quickly heated up a meal for Little Tang Mo.
Before bed, Tang Yuanxiao checked on his mother and was relieved to find her still sleeping soundly.
After putting Little Tang Mo to bed, however, Tang Yuanxiao couldn’t sleep.
’How could he possibly sleep?’
He was worried about Su Li.
The memory of how Su Li looked today made Tang Yuanxiao’s heart twist in agony.
After tossing and turning for who knew how long, Tang Yuanxiao thought he heard a noise from the next room. When he listened carefully, however, it was gone.
Still worried about his mother, Tang Yuanxiao grabbed a flashlight and got up to check.
The moment he opened the door, he was met with the sight of two dangling legs. His eyes widened in horror.
"Mom!"
Mrs. Tang had hanged herself.
She had been so heartbroken and desperate, so convinced she couldn’t go on living, that she had decided to hang herself.
Fortunately, Tang Yuanxiao had found her in time.
When he got her down, she hadn’t stopped breathing yet.
"Just let me die! Why did you save me? Since you hate me so much, I’ll grant your wish and die so I won’t be in your way! What’s the point of me living anymore..."
Once she was down, Mrs. Tang burst into loud sobs.
Her voice, hoarse and shrill, shattered the silence of the night.
The commotion from the Tang family’s home alerted all the surrounding neighbors, startling many children awake. Those who came to see what was happening gasped in horror.
The old mother had only just arrived to join her son at his post. She hadn’t even had a chance to properly greet anyone, and she was already causing a scene by trying to hang herself.
Everyone looked on, utterly horrified.
If they were all terrified, one could only imagine how Tang Yuanxiao and Little Tang Mo felt.
Little Tang Mo had been jolted from a dream by Tang Yuanxiao’s shout. He shot up in bed and scrambled to the floor to see what was happening.
He arrived just in time to see his father rescuing his grandmother—to see her hanging from the ceiling.
Little Tang Mo clapped a hand over his mouth to keep from crying out, his whole body trembling with silent sobs.
As for Tang Yuanxiao, he was scared out of his wits, his eyes bloodshot.
The man who had once seemed capable of holding up the sky was now just a picture of utter desolation.
He was filled with lingering fear, regret, and despair.
’If his mother had actually hanged herself, would he—the son who had driven her to her death—still have the gall to live in this world?’
Tang Yuanxiao rescued his mother, and as she beat and cursed him, he collapsed silently to the floor, completely devoid of his usual vitality.
Overcome with dejection and despair, he didn’t even notice Little Tang Mo.
’He never thought his mother would actually try to hang herself.’
’If he had fallen asleep tonight, or had been careless and hadn’t gone to check... was she not afraid of dying just like that?’
His mother wasn’t afraid. She truly felt there was no point in living like this.
When she steeled herself to do it, she was fully intent on dying.
She wanted to use her own life to force Tang Yuanxiao to his senses—to save him by making him stay away from Su Li.
’What was her life compared to saving her son?’
She had gone to her death with righteous conviction, but having been rescued, she was nearly scared to death by the experience.
After she calmed down and the neighbors had all come in to comfort her, Mrs. Tang finally stopped crying.
She looked at Tang Yuanxiao, his face a mask of lingering fear and regret, then glanced at the assembled neighbors. At once, she began stroking the terrifying marks on her neck and launched into a tirade about all of Su Li’s failings.
She was frantically determined to achieve her goal.
She didn’t mention the incident from earlier that day, instead just complaining that Su Li was an inadequate daughter-in-law.
She wanted to force Tang Yuanxiao to declare his stance in front of everyone, but in the end, he didn’t say a single word.
The drama continued for half the night until the neighbors, exhausted from their attempts to mediate, dispersed unhappily.
Aunt Chang, who was the last to arrive, said nothing. She simply scooped up Little Tang Mo, who had been forgotten in the chaos and was on the verge of crying himself unconscious, and carried him away.
Only Mrs. Tang and Tang Yuanxiao remained in the house.
Mrs. Tang resumed her quiet weeping.
Looking at her red, swollen eyes, Tang Yuanxiao finally spoke, his voice hoarse.
"Mom, if you ever try something like this again... the moment you’re gone, I’ll follow right behind you. If I drive my own mother to her death, I’ll have no right to go on living."
Mrs. Tang’s sobs hitched. She pointed a trembling finger toward the door. "Get out! I don’t want to see you!"
Her son. The son she had carried for ten months, the son she had risked her life to birth, the son she had raised through every hardship imaginable. And now, for that woman, Su Li, he was willing to cast aside even his own mother’s life.
Mrs. Tang drove Tang Yuanxiao out and shut the door, her face a mask of resentment.
"Fine... just fine... A son marries a wife and forgets his mother. He’s been completely bewitched by her. Fine. Just fine. I won’t be an eyesore to you. I’ll get out of your sight..."
