Later, when natural disasters struck, their family was also affected. They had originally been staying in their hometown, but the calamity made it impossible for them to remain there.
The whole family began to move south, along with many others. The elderly and children were the first to suffer.
Some bodies couldn't even be buried and were left where they fell. Others walked on, numbed, in wave after wave of people.
Wang Xiaoping was deeply concerned for her eldest grandson. Seeing her daughter-in-law walking closely with other men, she urged her son to discipline her.
Unfortunately, her son was only focused on moving forward, not wanting to waste any energy on other matters.
Wang Xiaoping couldn't stand it, believing her daughter-in-law was trading her body for food. She didn't share her secretly stashed food with her daughter-in-law, but she also couldn't bear to see others giving her food.
By this point, there were even those who resorted to cannibalism when hungry on the road, and trading bodies or children for food was commonplace.
Finally, one day, Wang Xiaoping couldn't find her son, but her daughter-in-law was still within sight. She panicked and started urging her daughter-in-law to search for him.
Hungry and exhausted, her daughter-in-law didn't want to search. Wang Xiaoping began to fight with her, hurling vulgar insults.
At this moment, her eldest grandson started to help his own mother. The daughter-in-law held the child in her arms and smugly revealed the truth.
Wang Xiaoping watched the mother and son continue walking forward, while she collapsed to the ground. She couldn't believe that the grandson she had raised from infancy wasn't actually her own flesh and blood.
She thought her daughter-in-law must be lying, but who would smear themselves like that? Unless it was true.
She was going mad. If her grandson wasn't her son's biological child, what would happen to her son?
At this moment, she saw her husband catching up with her son. It turned out they had gone to find food.
Wang Xiaoping felt as if struck by lightning. She hugged her son and repeated what her daughter-in-law had said. Now, both father and son fell silent.
Zhang Jiale held his mother's hand and looked at her seriously: "I knew I couldn't have children even before I lived with her."
Before they planned to live together, his then-prospective wife had asked if he was infertile.
Zhang Jiale had of course denied it, but his wife directly requested that both parties undergo examinations to check if there were any problems with their bodies.
Zhang Jiale had never considered it might be his issue. Even when his ex-wife hadn't conceived after a year, he didn't think it was her problem. But his mother and wife had a very sharp conflict.
His ex-wife's proposal for divorce wasn't because of the child issue, but simply because she didn't want to be with him. Not having children was actually a good thing in that case.
Zhang Jiale didn't dare tell anyone about the examination results, and the woman didn't ask. She directly proposed finding someone to help him have a child.
Zhang Jiale went home saying he didn't want to get married, but none of his family members would listen to him. After all, what had they pampered him for since childhood?
Wasn't it because he was male? But now, even his little tadpoles were all dead, ruling out even in vitro fertilization.
In the end, Zhang Jiale chose to marry the woman. She found a complete stranger to get pregnant, and the child would be considered his.
This wasn't something the woman could have done alone; Zhang Jiale had to help to make it all work out.
If not for the natural disaster, Zhang Jiale thought things could have continued this way. But now everything had been exposed, and his wife had left with the child.
Wang Xiaoping felt she was going mad. She couldn't believe that her son, whom she had raised from childhood to adulthood, was infertile. This was absolutely unbelievable to her.
Zhang's father accepted it a bit faster than her. After all, the grandson still carried their family name. If he ran away, there would be no heir. The family hurriedly moved forward and finally found the mother and son.
Regardless of what Wang Xiaoping thought, Zhang Jiale wanted to be with his wife and child, so the three of them stayed together.
Only Wang Xiaoping was left behind, questioning her entire life. She didn't believe her son couldn't father children, but Zhang Jiale no longer had the paper examination results to show his mother.
Wang Xiaoping didn't speak, and Zhang Jiale tried to persuade her from the side, only to find that he could no longer capture his mother's attention.
He wanted to ask if his mother would have treated him differently if he had been born without that ability.
But he didn't dare ask. He had experienced absolute favoritism, initially thinking it was because of his gender advantage. Now, though his gender remained the same, he lacked a certain function. He couldn't help but overthink.
He imagined if he had been judged unable to have offspring from the beginning, what would his parents have done? Would they have discarded him like the third or fourth daughter?
The reason he had kept this secret with his wife from everyone was that he felt he couldn't bear the consequences of revealing it.
Now, with the truth exposed due to the conflict between his wife and mother, Zhang Jiale felt his parents' judgment should also come to light.
This might be for the best.
His father quickly calmed down. He inquired about the process of finding a sperm donor back then, and upon learning that everything had been part of his son's plan, he said no more.
As for Wang Xiaoping, she hadn't spoken much to anyone, always moving forward in silence.
She couldn't process it all at once, always thinking that when peace returned to the world, she could find an Old Gentleman to divine for her or seek an old doctor for some medicine. Perhaps there might still be a chance to turn things around.
But in the current situation, she had no options. If her son really couldn't father children, at least the current grandson was still their family's boy, certainly enough to continue the family line.
But she also knew she couldn't swallow her pride, and no one was giving her a way out. She had been silent for too long, long enough for her husband and child to think she couldn't accept it.
Wang Xiaoping prayed countless times in her heart, hoping that heaven wouldn't be so cruel, that any retribution would fall on her instead of her son.
As she thought about it, she wondered if it was because of her own sins that her son couldn't have children.
The little grandson, after all, had been raised by his grandparents. When his parents seemed to be back to normal, he felt the arguments were over and would still be close to his grandparents.
However, his grandmother seemed to have changed, never smiling at him anymore. He didn't understand why.
Those who could accept it remained as before, while those who couldn't accept it now lived in a daze. Wang Xiaoping imagined countless possibilities, wanting to help her son out of his predicament.
But at present, even survival had become a problem. Though Wang Xiaoping had thought of solutions, she had no means to implement them.
After enduring numerous hardships, Wang Xiaoping finally arrived in the south with her family. But before anyone had a chance to catch their breath, Wang Xiaoping died.
Whether it was due to the unfamiliar environment or because she had been barely clinging to life, Wang Xiaoping fell gravely ill as soon as they arrived. Zhang Jiale desperately searched for an experienced doctor who could treat her. However, Wang Xiaoping insisted that the doctor check her son's pulse first.
In the end, as the Old Gentleman shook his head, Wang Xiaoping's last breath never came, and she passed away just like that.
For Zhang Jiale, this became an immense shadow looming over his life. Every time he thought of his mother, he felt as if he had been the cause of her death.
