Back To The 80s-Chapter 493 - 504: The Inside Story_1
Lu Zhanguo and Ji Xiangdong came back with a disheartened Lu Aiguo.
Lu Aiguo entered the east room without a word and lay down on the bed. After a while, suppressed sobs could be heard from inside.
Gu Xiaobei looked at Lu Zhanguo with concern, his eyes asking, Is Lu Aiguo okay?
Lu Zhanguo, holding Xiaopang, shook his head, then led Mo Wang into the west room first, asking the two children to stay there for a while as he went to freshen up.
Gu Xiaobei followed him into the west room, and Bai Xiaolan asked with concern, "What’s wrong with third brother? Why is he crying so sadly?"
Gu Xiaobei thought that Lu Aiguo had likely been having a tough time lately, and he guessed that he had probably agreed to the divorce with Fang Jing out of anger.
Among all brothers, Lu Aiguo was the most family-oriented. Now that he was divorced and had made their father so angry that he had to be hospitalized, he must not be able to bear it. Even a grown man can sometimes be more fragile than a woman.
Bai Xiaolan sighed and said, "I don’t understand why they divorced. They seemed to have a good relationship. I don’t know what could have happened to make them decide to divorce."
Like Bai Xiaolan, Gu Xiaobei also shook his head, hugging the Xiaopang leaning against his chest, and his heart felt a bit heavy.
After Lu Zhanguo and Ji Xiangdong had freshened up, instead of going back to their rooms, they stood in the courtyard. Ji Xiangdong took a cigarette out of his pocket and handed it to Lu Zhanguo.
Lu Zhanguo accepted the cigarette and lit it with the match that Ji Xiangdong had struck. He took a deep drag, then lightly exhaled a plume of smoke.
Ji Xiangdong, holding his own cigarette, took a puff before saying, "I’ll take a leave from work for a while. If you’re busy here, don’t take leave. The army needs to be on alert during the New Year, you as a leader can’t be absent."
Lu Zhanguo nodded. He hadn’t noticed before, but the reality of his job was full of helplessness only came to him when something happened.
Ji Xiangdong exhaled a stream of smoke towards the sky and stretched his neck to say, "Don’t stress too much. At least our third brother is here. After our father’s illness, we have to be careful. The doctor said if he bleeds again, his life could be in danger."
Lu Zhanguo stayed silent, continuing to smoke. He hadn’t smoked for a while, and the taste of the smoke in his mouth was bitter than he remembered.
Having finished his cigarette, Ji Xiangdong flicked the butt into Grape Gully, then patted Lu Zhanguo’s shoulder, "Let’s talk properly with our younger brother later, to find out what happened between him and Fang Jing. As for our mother, I’m worried that she’s holding up now only because of worry about our father. Once our father gets better, she might fall ill."
Lu Zhanguo nodded: "I’ll go to the hospital first later. You go to your unit."
Gu Xiaobei was standing inside the doorway, listening to the conversation between his brothers, feeling a sour sting in his eyes. A family has to go through some hardships to strengthen its bond.
It wasn’t until everyone had finished their breakfast that Lu Aiguo came out of the room with red eyes and went into the kitchen to freshen up.
Gu Xiaobei poured a bowl of porridge for Lu Aiguo and picked up a pair of chopsticks before sitting down holding Mo Wang.
Lu Aiguo finished his meal in a few bites, threw the bowl aside and asked Lu Zhanguo, "Second brother, do you have a cigarette? Give me one."
Lu Zhanguo looked at the three children in the room and said nothing.
Ji Xiangdong took out a cigarette and threw it to him, "Go outside and smoke a couple."
Lu Aiguo caught the cigarette but didn’t leave the room. Instead, he looked around at everyone and said, "Do you all want to know why Fang Jing and I divorced?"
Then, Lu Aiguo started to slowly explain what had led to their divorce.
Lu Aiguo loved to play mahjong. Often, he and his buddies would play all night. Sometimes, they’d even play two nights in a row. Fang Jing had argued and fought with him over this many times, but Lu Aiguo didn’t think it was a big deal and didn’t take it to heart.
On one occasion, he was out playing mahjong, and it started to rain heavily. Yueyue caught a cold and had a fever. In her panic, Fang Jing rushed with Yueyue to the hospital, twisting her ankle on the way. This led to the biggest fight they ever had, with Fang Jing storming off with a feverish Yueyue to her parents’ home in anger.
Lu Aiguo apologized time and again. At first, Fang Jing’s parents were also angry that Lu Aiguo was unreliable. When their child was sick, he was nowhere to be found. But Lu Aiguo was persuasive and good at handling things, so over time, Fang Jing’s parents calmed down and even tried to persuade Fang Jing to go home.
Stubbornly angry, Fang Jing hadn’t genuinely considered divorcing. Now, when she had an opportunity to climb down from the tree, she chose to follow Lu Aiguo back home with Yueyue.
Just a few days after things had calmed down, one of Lu Aiguo’s childhood friends invited him to a birthday dinner. After the dinner, they ended up playing mahjong again, which lasted over a day and night. Time doesn’t exist at a mahjong table.
As it happened, while Fang Jing’s mother was picking up Yueyue from school, a drunk motorcyclist knocked her down and dragged her for tens of meters. She wasn’t even breathing by the time she was taken to the hospital.
When Lu Aiguo found out about this, it was already the next day. Fang Jing wouldn’t forgive Lu Aiguo. She blamed him, and more importantly herself. If only he hadn’t been playing mahjong, if only he had been there to pick up Yueyue, her mother wouldn’t have died. She held herself responsible for her mother’s death and found it impossible to forgive Lu Aiguo.
When Fang Jing proposed a divorce, she was completely adamant. No matter how the local community office or factory union tried to persuade her, she was determined to go through with the divorce.
Telling his story, Lu Aiguo rubbed his face and said, "No matter how I pleaded with her, she wouldn’t agree. I swore to her, ’If Lu Aiguo touches mahjong one more time, may I be struck dead by a car as soon as I step outside,’ but Fang Jing said that even if I died right now, she wouldn’t feel sorry for me.
I humiliated myself in front of the people of her factory, I knelt before her, promising that if she wouldn’t divorce, I would do whatever she asked for the rest of our life. But even after that, she still didn’t agree. In a moment of desperation, I agreed to the divorce. Fang Jing threw all the money I had given her back at me, took Yueyue, and left. On New Year’s Day, I went to see Yueyue, and she was crying and saying how much she missed me. Tell me, how could I be such a bastard? I’m less than a human being, I managed to lose both my wife and my child." Unable to continue, he covered his face and began crying silently.
Both Gu Xiaobei and Bai Xiaolan shed tears upon hearing this. Were they in the same situation, they would probably have done the same thing as Fang Jing—taken the child and resolutely divorced, even though not all the blame should go to Lu Aiguo.
Looking at the sobbing Lu Aiguo, Ji Xiangdong frowned and asked, "Do you think there’s still a chance for you and Fang Jing?"
Lu Aiguo shook his head, his muted voice came from under his hands, "There’s no chance. No matter how much I pleaded she wouldn’t agree. I’ve ruined my life with this mahjong addiction. When the eldest brother told me to cut down on the playing, I didn’t take it seriously. But now that something has happened, I realize some mistakes just can’t be undone."
Gu Xiaobei and Bai Xiaolan didn’t know what to say to comfort Lu Aiguo. Even if they were to reconcile, would Fang Jing ever truly get over this?
Lu Aiguo wiped his face and said, "I’ve been thinking, I’ll earn more money, make Yueyue’s future better, and never touch mahjong again. The thing that breaks my heart the most right now is Yueyue. Every night, I dream of Yueyue crying and begging, ’please don’t divorce, mom and dad!’"
