The more Xiao Mei listened to him, the more she felt that something was amiss. The crew, who were about to get off work, halted when they heard their argument and quickly stopped him. “Cao Yang, calm down. Don’t spout nonsense. You might have mistaken her for someone else.”

  She saw that Sister Wei’s hair was combed neatly. Although her legs were a little lame, she was quite energetic and she was dressed decently. She couldn’t associate her with the word ‘crazy’.

  “I’m not spouting nonsense. I couldn’t have mistaken her for someone else either. How could I possibly misidentify her? I’d be able to recognize her even if she turned into ashes.” Cao Yang sneered. “Xiao Mei, didn’t you ask me before why you didn’t meet my mother when we got engaged? She’s the woman who gave birth to me.”

  Mu Jingzhe was shocked and suddenly looked at Sister Wei. Sister Wei closed her eyes and looked at Mu Jingzhe. “Boss, I want to go back now.”

  “Okay.” Mu Jingzhe was also very surprised by the relationship between Cao Yang and Sister Wei. When she recalled Cao Yang’s attitude toward his biological mother previously, it was obvious that the mother-and-son duo didn’t have a good relationship. Sister Wei had never mentioned her family before either. Previously, when Mu Jingzhe had asked, she had said that they were all dead.

  She hadn’t expected her son to still be alive and hate her so much. Seeing the pain and despair in Sister Wei’s eyes, Mu Jingzhe agreed without saying anything.

  Sister Wei thanked her in a low voice. Regardless of whether Mu Jingzhe would fire her in the future, she had lived a peaceful, stable life for many days. She had thought that she could continue living in peace like this, but she hadn’t expected that…

  Sister Wei laughed bitterly and got ready to leave. Cao Yang looked at her back and sneered. “Why are you running away? You can feel shame? Are you afraid that I’ll tell them what you did?”

  The way Cao Yang was speaking, it sounded like Sister Wei had let him down. The onlookers couldn’t help feeling curious. “What did she do?”

  Everyone looked at Mu Jingzhe. They all still remembered the argument about whether the kindness of giving birth was greater than the kindness of raising the child. They all suspected that Sister Wei had also abandoned her son.

  Cao Yang looked at Sister Wei’s back. “Back then, I almost died before I was born. When she gave birth to me, she was asked to choose between protecting herself or the baby, and she chose to protect herself and kill me.”

  \r \r \r

  Cao Yang sneered. “You’ve never seen such a selfish mother before, have you? All the mothers in this world would have chosen their children. Only she chose to protect herself. Is she worthy of being a mother? She’s not!”

  Everyone looked understanding. So that was the reason for his attitude.

  Sister Wei’s departing back trembled, as if she was holding something back. Her eyes were filled with despair. Here they came again. Here they came again. She could never escape these selfish shackles.

  No one spoke for a moment. Only Mu Jingzhe looked like she had heard wrong. “What are you talking about? Cao Yang, you’ve been scolding your biological mother, not because she abandoned you or abused you, but because it all came down to protecting the mother or the baby?”

  Cao Yang felt that Mu Jingzhe’s tone and question were a little strange, but he still nodded fiercely. “Yes, she chose to live alone. She’s a selfish woman.”

  This was what Cao Yang had heard since he was young. His grandmother had said this, and his father, uncles, and aunts had also told him as much. They had said that he was pitiful and he had nearly died before being born.

  When she had given birth to Cao Yang, Sister Wei had experienced a difficult labor. When the midwife had seen that something wasn’t right, she had asked her if she should save the adult or the baby. Grandma had told her to save the baby. Before her father, who was smoking a dry cigarette, could say anything, Sister Wei, who had fainted from exhaustion, woke up. When she heard her mother-in-law tell the woman to save the baby, she got scared and answered herself.

  “Keep me safe, keep me safe. I can give birth again. I want to live…”

  Her mother-in-law had told the midwife to save the child. Sister Wei wanted to live, so she mustered all her strength and held the midwife tightly, saying that she wanted to live.

  Her mother-in-law scolded her outside, saying that she was selfish and that Sister Wei would die if she lost her grandson.

  Fortunately, she hadn’t died in the end and the child had been born safely. Unfortunately, the mother-in-law would forever remember her words about protecting the adult. This had made the mother-in-law feel very dissatisfied. She’d called her ruthless and vicious for even having the heart to harm her own son.

  Whenever she saw her precious grandson, the more the mother-in-law thought about it, the more frightened she’d become. Later on, she’d refused to let Sister Wei see her son even though she wanted to. She had said that a selfish person like Sister Wei had no right to carry the child and that she should act as if the child was dead.

  She had still been in her confinement period, and the people nearby had already known what she had said and done. Everyone had accused her of being selfish, especially the mothers-in-law. They would scold her whenever they had free time and remind their own daughters-in-law not to be as muddle-headed as her.

  Cao Yang had been brought up by his grandmother. From a young age, he had been told not to get close to his mother. He had also heard his grandmother say that his mother wasn’t a good mother. Even his father, aunties, and the entire village had said so.

  His grandmother had told him that his mother hadn’t protected him back then and had selfishly chosen to save herself. There was no need to be filial to such a heartless mother.

  Ever since Cao Yang could remember, he had never interacted with his mother. He had grown up being pitied by the villagers. Later on, his mother had gone a little crazy. Ever since he’d started living with his grandmother, he had always hated her.

  That’s right. She was a mother. Why couldn’t she be like other people’s mothers? The mothers in the movies fought to protect their children. Only mothers like that were normal and good.

  They weren’t at all like his mother. Cao Yang hated Sister Wei more and more as time passed. He would never call her ‘Mommy’ usually or take her to the hospital when she got sick. He felt that she deserved it. Who had asked her to be so selfish?

  However, even though she had gone crazy, he hadn’t expected this woman to run. The woman who had abandoned him the day he was born had never washed his diapers or fed him milk once. In the end, she had even run away. Hence, Cao Yang hated her even more.

  He was really envious of people who had a good mother and was so close to Mu Jingzhe because he felt that she was a good stepmother.

  Upon seeing his mother, who had been missing for three years, Cao Yang vented his hatred again. He was determined to let everyone see her true colors.

  However, for some reason, when everyone heard that, they looked at each other, but no one scolded or despised that bad woman like the villagers.

  Mu Jingzhe looked at the indignant Cao Yang and clenched her fists. “I thought it was a big deal. This is it?”

  “Isn’t this a big deal? She chose to save herself instead of her child!” Cao Yang thought that Mu Jingzhe hadn’t processed it and wanted to explain it to her.

  Mu Jingzhe sneered. “So what if she chose to save herself? Is it wrong of her to want to live? She should be the one deciding about her own life. Who made this rule that women have to sacrifice themselves for their children? The mothers who protect their children are very noble, but one can’t say that not protecting your children is selfish, right?

  “It’s fine to promote maternal love, but we should stop before we go too far. Why should we sacrifice ourselves? Mothers are also human. Before she was a mother, she was first and foremost a human!”

  “Isn’t this selfish enough? Everyone in the world saves their children. Why couldn’t she do it? Since she couldn’t, what right does she have to be a woman? And why did she get pregnant?” Cao Yang retorted.

  Upon seeing Cao Yang’s indignant expression, Mu Jingzhe sneered. “If she didn’t protect her life, should she have protected you, the unfilial son of a gun? Everyone in the world can criticize her, but you, Cao Yang, don’t have the right to do so!”