Chapter 318: She was a young widow herself and knew that it wouldn’t be bad for her to be with someone else. (2)
“I am not young any more and had been through a lot. I had always thought that I would remain single for life but, somehow, I’ve ran into someone that I like. I would have left her alone if she is still married but she’s divorced. We are both single. That’s heaven wanting us to be with each other. Both of her children are very well behaved and I truly like them. I will grow on them eventually.”
“Being a stepfather is not easy.” At the old lady’s age, she had experienced a lot of people and incidents. It wasn’t easy being either a stepfather or a stepmother. If he was too strict. People would say that he was mean because he was the stepfather. If he was too lenient. Others would say that he didn’t care because he was the stepfather.
And those were nothing. There would always be conflicts in life. When he had conflicts with the children, the mother would, of course, side with her children. Then what about Feng Zeyu? The feelings that they had for each other would be grinded off over time. And, if they were to have another child, the mother would worry whether the stepfather would be nicer to his own child. And that would bring about even more conflicts.
“By the way, how old is she now? Planned parenthood was very strict a few yeas back and anyone who had two children would be take away and had tubal ligation performed on them.” If she had tubal ligation in the past, then Feng Zeyu would not be able to have his old child. From the perspective of those from the older generation, it didn’t matter how good one’s adopted children were, one’s own children would always be better.
This was the second time that Feng Zeyu had heard about that. Last time he heard it from Mao Weiping.
“What’s with this real or not real parent talk? Was I not born to my parents? And how did that turn out? I didn’t think that far. If the kids are nice to me in my old age, great. If not, we don’t need to be close to them. I’ve made enough over the years for us to retire on. Shu Yan and I can travel after the kids get married and have their own families. With the change in policies, we can travel all over the country. We might even be able to travel overseas in the future.” Feng Zeyu was not worried.
As for whether it was easy to be the stepdad, he didn’t want to be with Shu Yan to be a stepdad. He would become a stepdad because he wanted to be with Shu Yan. He would try his best to be a good stepdad for Shu Yan so she would be stuck between a rock and a hard place.
The old lady sighed. She could tell from his words that his mind was already made up. She wasn’t his real grandmother and had already said all that she could. She only wished that Shu Yan, too, was serious in this relationship.
Shu Yan went over to the bird and flower market the next day. She walked around the place and picked out two camellia plants, one climbing rose, some sunflower seeds, and some lawsonia alba.
It was said that lawsonia alba can keep snakes away and that it is super easy to grow. All one needed to do was to plant the seeds and they would germinate and grow on their own. After the flowers were wilted, they would regrow again the next year. There was practically no work involved.
When she arrived home, the two kids had been brought home by Aunty. With the addition of Aunty this year, the children no longer ate their lunch at school. Aunty would go and pick them up from school in the afternoon every day. Shu Yan went with the children to plant in the backyard after lunch.
“Each of you will plant of the camellia plants. You will come and water and weed it in the future. It will grow into a big tree with beautiful flowers,” said Shu Yan as she dig holes with the kids.
“Mom, will there really be flowers?” asked Tianbao curiously.
“Yes, as long as you water it frequently and weed it. It won’t flower otherwise.”
“I will come and water it daily!” said Tianbao as he raised his hand.
“Then I will come and weed every day,” said JingJing.
“You can’t dig like this. We need the holes to be deeper. Else it will be difficult for the plant to survive.” The wall, standing 1.5 meter in height, just reached Feng Zeyu’s shoulder. He could see clearly what was going on over at Shu Yan’s side.
Shu Yan took a look at the holes that she and the kids had dug and they did seem a bit shallow. But the person who sold her the seedling said a little shallow would be alright.
Feng Zeyu put his hand on the wall and leapt over. “Here, let me.”
The two children looked at Shu Yan.