My Alleged Husband

Chapter 744: Chapter 714: Unsung Hero_1

A year later...

Time had completed another cycle, with spring, summer, autumn, and winter taking their turns once again. Yet, during this year’s school celebration, Xia Jing was still receiving her husband’s efforts just like before, without feeling any touch of emotion.

Throughout the year, he had continued to endure it all, and Zhang Zhentian had also kept on giving silently without any reward. For him, however, it had been the happiest year.

Because during the year, his wife had chosen to stay by his side, to inquire every day about his well-being, to care repeatedly about his health, and to accompany not just him but the entire family, showing great concern for every relative.

In this year, Old Master Zhang had watched his son giving foolishly just as he always had, while his daughter-in-law seemed indifferent. But in the end, none of it ever received an answer.

Old Master Zhang felt that he should perhaps not get involved in so many affairs. The more he was involved, the more his son would feel he was still being controlled, making him believe he did not deserve to continue his life together with him.

Zhang Yichen repeatedly saw his father making such dedicated efforts towards his mother, while his mother just reaped the benefits without ever thinking of reciprocation. This made him feel somewhat imbalanced inside. He didn’t want his father to continue to suffer without any resolution in the end.

Time and again, Zhang Yichen had wanted to have a proper talk with his father, but each time his wife had stopped him.

Ran Zhihan told Zhang Yichen, ”You really shouldn’t intervene in these matters. No matter what, you can only silently observe. It’s up to your parents to resolve their own issues. If their reconciliations are only due to our meddling, what meaning would their continued life together have? Maybe someday your mother will actually see the love your father has for her?

Yichen, you know as well that discord in a family isn’t good for anyone. If our relationship was strained, it would sadden our parents and grandfather, wouldn’t it? And isn’t it the same when our parents’ relationship is tense? It would also sadden Grandfather and make us, the children, feel heartache.

Some things can only have a good outcome if he figures it out himself. Once he realizes the crux of the matter, he will feel that he knows how to live his life with benevolence. If we keep intervening in their lives, wouldn’t we be forcing a response from them?”

”I know you’re right, but when I see my own father giving so much time and again, only to be met with silence from my mother—that’s something no one can accept. I too wish for harmony in my family. I want my parents to be together every day, not just because they are bound by duty, but to live a happy and fortunate life as a family, united.

Am I wrong for wanting that?

I know as a younger generation, I shouldn’t meddle in these affairs, but I really can’t bear to see my mother’s coldness towards my father, to watch my father repeatedly trying to please her. Isn’t that a source of pain for me too?

I can forget everything they have done to me in the past, but this situation unfolds before my eyes day after day, and I can’t bear it!

A year has gone by, and throughout it, my mother seems to have not changed one bit for my father, despite all he’s done for her. She just waits for my father to serve her time and again. Could it really be that my father owes her something?

I only want my father to live happily. I don’t want him to keep feeling sorrowful and so weary. After all, he will always be my biological father, always my elder—facts that will never change in this lifetime!

”Whatever you are thinking, your parents’ issues ultimately need to be resolved by them!

I know what you’re feeling, and sometimes I can hardly bear it either—I see the sincerity of his efforts, yet all he gets in return is her silence. Do you know what kind of pain that is? Nobody can truly understand it. Maybe only your father knows that pain. So why should we interfere and make him feel as if his marital happiness depends on his children’s intervention?

Husband, if you truly have your father’s best interests at heart, then don’t think of getting involved in this matter. Let your father do what makes him happy.

For him, even if his wife isn’t by his side, as long as he can contribute to our mother, he feels content. Let’s not disrupt his perceived happiness; it might shatter his last bit of hope!”

In fact, both Zhang Yichen and Ran Zhihan were unaware that Zhang Zhentian and Xia Jing had grown closer, for the changes were subtle. Although to others it always seemed that Zhang Zhentian was the one tirelessly providing for his wife, with Xia Jing returning nothing but silence.

Yet, only Zhang Zhentian knew in his heart that his wife was no longer as averse to him as before. She had begun to communicate genuinely and to slowly try loving him. He could feel the changes over the year; they might not be significant, but even the slightest shift was already good.

One cannot demand too much from life. Too many demands could make everything different from what it once was. Now, he knew that if his efforts could earn a hint of change from his wife, even if it meant giving his all just for a bit of love in return, he found it worthwhile, because to him, it felt gratifying.

However, to onlookers, it all seemed as if Xia Jing was just silently enjoying the care and efforts of her husband, never acknowledging him directly.

Perhaps it was precisely because of their mutual unspoken understanding—an understanding others were oblivious to—that people could misjudge their relationship, wondering if Zhang Zhentian was truly foolish, knowing only to give and not to take, and if Xia Jing was too shrewd, enjoying without reciprocating...