Trip to the past..."Congratulations President Sheng! You"ve been blessed with such a healthy baby boy!"
"He looks just like you."
"No way! Don"t you see the way his eyes are shaped, well rounded like those of Madam Sheng."
"Let me tell you, he looks more like President Sheng."
"Ha! Don"t you dare look down on our daughter, my grandchild looks like his mother!"
"Now, Now Judge Luo Fei no one is saying that the baby doesn"t look like your daughter, it"s just that everyone see things differently."
Sheng Henian the current President of Sheng Pharmaceuticals Sheng Henian, a man in his mid fifties spoke with much patience with his in-law, his son Sheng Weijing stood by the side of his wife who laid on the bed looking as her in-laws and parents were about to go into a war of words.
Luo Yu now Sheng Yu was the daughter to parents that were both Judges, Judge Luo Fei her father and Judge Luo Xue her mother. They looked about ready to go head to head with the Shengs who weren"t looking like they were about to back down either.
Luo Xue was five years younger than her husband, a very ambitious woman who worked hard to balance both work and family, it wasn"t easy but she had to make it work with only one child and an husband to look after. Dressed in a teal tastefully cut skirt suit and sporting a red handbag on one hand and tan colored heels, the attractive middle aged woman didn"t let anything stop her from looking as good as she could possible be, given the money she made from working as a Judge at the highest court in the country. Her husband Luo Fei chose to work more on international law, unlike the civil and criminal cases that his wife usually dealt with on a daily basis.
Luo Fei wore a s.h.i.+rt of midnight blue and dark pants with a leather brown she to go. His grey hair was neatly cut with a small mustache across his mouth.
"Then what was Madam Ying implying by saying that he looks like your son and not my daughter."
"Darling, let"s not argue over something that isn"t worth the time and energy, why don"t we s.h.i.+ft our focus on how Yu is doing, she just delivered our grandchild and here we are making her feel uncomfortable over who looks like who."
"I"m not going to let them look down on our daughter, if we don"t put our feet down, that is how she would continue to get mistreated by her in-laws! Honey, I know it may look like a trivial matter, but we have to protect the only child we have!"
"How dare you! I didn"t say that your daughter wasn"t the one that gave birth to little Xi, you are just being petty!"
"Madam Sheng you better choose your words carefully, you are disrespecting me in the presence of my wife and daughter!"
"Everyone please calm down! No one is disrespecting anybody. Judge Luo Fei, my wife is only being sensitive since it is our first grandchild, please try to be more understand."
"Ha! You said understanding? So I am now the unreasonable one here!"
"Darling please..Liena is here and she is sees what we are doing. Let"s not scared her, okay?"
Judge Luo begged her husband to conduct himself appropriately in the presence of both their grandchildren.
"So what?! Even if she is here, she is already at the age where she needs to know how her paternal grandparents treat us. This is not the first time that we have been looked down on, fine! It is something as little as how our grandson looks, but have you considered that it have may some hidden meaning behind what Madam Sheng said!"
Sheng Ying saw red when she heard what Luo Fei accused her of doing to his daughter, there was no way she would let him twist her words in the presence of her husband!
"What! Who do you think you are?! Putting words into my mouth, if not because my son agreed to an hasty wedding to your daughter, do you think that you are in any position to speak to us that way?!"
"Excuse me?! So you are saying that the child I raised with my sweat and blood is not good enough for your son?! You are one dimwit to say such utter rubbish to my face!"
Luo Xue that was the peace maker, suddenly lost control of her emotions, her cheeks flushed from anger and embarra.s.sment. No matter how well she tried to bring her daughter up, there were things that no matter how hard parents may try, it was just beyond their control and her daughter"s pregnancy to Vice President Sheng Jinzhe was one of them.
"Mom! please!"
Sheng Yu looking so tired from her recent child birth, pleading with her mother not to get upset with the Shengs. Her mother-in-law Sheng Ying was a spit fire, the homemaker didn"t care for anyone"s opinion and would quickly shoot down what she felt to be unfavorable to her even if it was the truth, of course her husband President Sheng Henian was very indulgent towards his wife, even when it was evident that she was in the wrong. Sheng Yu, the daughter-in-law of three years had come to accept the type of person her in-laws were and chose not to fuss over anything they did.
"Yu, I"m so sorry."
Luo Xue bent to hold the hand of her daughter, her eyes burned with unshed tears, for a moment she had allowed her emotions to control her and she terribly regretted doing so, "What if they get back at her for what we did?"
The thought crossed the mind of Luo Xue, she couldn"t bear for her daughter to be treated harshly by her in-laws.
"WAHHHH....WAHHHHHHHH!!!!"
Sheng Ying had the newborn swaddled in a white blanket that was dotted with blue teddy bears, she kept hopping from one leg to the other in a bid to comfort the newborn that was crying, probably from the disturbance in the room.
"Now the baby is crying because of all you and your husband!"
Sheng Ying stared daggers at her in-laws, she made her intense dislike for them very visible. Her son, Sheng Jinzhe chose not to take sides with anyone, he silently watched his parents and in-laws go at each other.
"Ha! See this crazy woman?! If not because we are in-laws, I would have charged you with verbal a.s.sault!"
"Hehn?! You think you can scare me with all your law nonsense, let me tell you, my husband has a team of lawyers who would look out for me. So, save your threats for someone!"
"She this buffoon! I blame myself for allowing my daughter to marry into an ignorant family like yours. You are no different from a pepper seller at the market stall!"
"Pepper seller! You dare call me a pepper seller to my face! If not because of the baby that I have in my hand, I would have hit you in the face!"
"Dear, please don"t do this here."
"He started it, rubbing it in my face that I don"t have a better education. He and his wife are too much! See! I told you not to let our son marry their daughter, how are we sure that Liena is even his child?"
"Come again! You said what?! My daughter was fooling around with other men and not just your son?!"
Furious that his daughter was spoken to in such a manner and not once did his son-in-law speak up when his mother was bad mouthing her. Judge Luo Fei was about ready to beat up his annoying in-law, not minding being sued for a.s.sault, his hand tightened into a fist as he fought not to give in to his raging emotions.
When Luo Xue heard the way her daughter chewed by her mother-in-law, she slowly rose from where she sat by the bedside of her daughter, to face the woman that was getting on her nerves.
"You really are stupid aren"t you?! We all agreed to have a DNA test carried out and the result came back as my granddaughter being the child of both your son and my daughter! That is what happens when a person marries into a brain dead family like yours! Now I see why my husband wasn"t so keen to have our daughter wed into your family, if not because she hasn"t cried to us that she wanted to divorce your son! We would have had their marriage annulled a long time ago!"
"W..Wh...Who...What...are you saying?!
"What I am saying Madam Sheng, is that my daughter does not have to stay married to an incompetent excuse for a husband who watches as his wife gets insulted by her mother-in-law. If only she could grow a backbone! Maybe you wouldn"t be as pompous as you are now! Instead you would be begging to have her back!
"See this moron oh! If your daughter was as good as you said then why did she get herself pregnant in the first place?! Only loose and useless girls like her would do something as low as getting pregnant before finding themselves an husband! My son is way too good for her!"
"I see you are still in the stone age, I really pity you! You better wake up! There are women like my daughter who are great parent to their child without the child"s father being there to help out."
"Mom, it"s okay. I made the decision to stick by Jinzhe, I don"t regret having Liena nor marrying him."
"Why are you so naive!"
Luo Xue began to cry when she saw how defenseless her daughter looked while lying on the bed, even though she tried to appear confident in her manner of speech, Judge Luo Xue could see through her daughter to the uncertainty that was buried within.
President Sheng Henian stood by his wife, while looking on the chubby pink faced infant, whose face was scrunched as though about to let out a wail, his wife being a mom before sensed that the newborn was going to cry another round, began hopping again from one foot to the other, swaying gently while holding the swaddled baby against her chest.
"Shus.h.!.+ don"t cry, grandma is here my sweet little Xi."
The couple looked completely besotted by their newest grandchild, they both found it hard to take their eyes away from him.
"Mama, pee!"
Little Liena tugged at the bed covering of pink that lay across her mother"s hospital gown of white and blue polka dot.
"Jinzhe, Liena needs to use the potty, can you take her to the restroom?"
Sheng Yu turned to the left side of the bed where her husband quietly sat on an hospital chair. Sheng Jinzhe was not much of a talker and many that knew the two often wondered how they met, Luo Yu at the time see was seeing him had a very bubbly personality, but within a short time of her marriage to him, she became almost a different person entirely.
This puzzled her parents, that their daughter was not the outgoing person that she once was and the more they kept digging the more some unusual things began to turn up about the Shengs. It was said that couples that are "connected" tend to use endearing words with each other, but in the case of Sheng Yu and Sheng Jinzhe it was the total opposite, as the two went on a first name basis with no pet name or flowery words to each other.
"Okay, I will take her to the restroom."
Sheng Jinzhe reached out to pat is wife briefly on the right hand that laid atop the bed cover, before turning to lift his child off her seat, rising from where he sat to head in the direct of the bathroom which was on the left side of the room.
"Father-in-law, Mother-in-law."
The young man curtsied to his in-laws in a respectful way meant to excuse himself. The Luos sat together and neither of them returned their son-in-law"s greeting. Sheng Jinzhe resumed his walk to the restroom with his daughter in hand.