Though her daughter was already in university, she would still blush easily – some might find this affected. Tang Hongen thought differently entirely.

It was because Liu Fen’s personality was too genuine. She had never encountered such situations before – no one had ever said the things to her that Tang Hongen did!

These were all her most natural reactions, without pretense or masks. Tang Hongen found them incredibly precious. His earlier thoughts about their compatibility – that Liu Fen was quiet and caring, suitable for domestic life – had long been cast aside. While she indeed embodied the traditional Chinese ideal of a virtuous wife and good mother, she wasn’t limited to just that.

Before being labeled as a virtuous wife and good mother, Liu Fen was first and foremost an individual with her thoughts.

Tang Hongen didn’t want to limit himself to just domestic bliss – where she would hand him his clothes when he got home and have dinner ready for him. Though valuable, this kind of domestic warmth was something he had originally sought but couldn’t obtain.

People are just too greedy. Now Tang Hongen pursued intellectual exchange between them as well.

He needed to understand Liu Fen’s thoughts and wanted to share his own with her!

Seeing Liu Fen blush, Tang Hongen pressed further:

“Ah Fen, are you not jealous? Or are you unhappy but keeping it to yourself without telling me?”

Liu Fen hesitated, “Am I allowed to be unhappy?”

No woman would be completely unbothered in such a situation.

Sheng Xuan was so beautiful and deeply in love with Tang Hongen.

But she hadn’t come to curse at Liu Fen, and their few interactions had been perfectly polite before saying goodbye. Liu Fen couldn’t point out anything wrong – she wanted to dislike Sheng Xuan but couldn’t find any reason to.

After all, Sheng Xuan had been polite throughout. If Liu Fen made an issue of it, she would be the one in the wrong.

When Xia Xiaolan said she would tell Tang Hongen, Liu Fen stopped her.

Her heart was conflicted.

On the one hand, she trusted Tang Hongen deeply, but on the other hand, she didn’t want him to think less of her.

As if she couldn’t even handle this small matter!

Now that Tang Hongen had brought it up, that bit of unhappiness surfaced, impossible to suppress.

Tang Hongen thought to himself that this was indeed the case. “Of course, you can be unhappy. Didn’t I tell you before? Whether or not to deal with someone depends entirely on your mood. If someone makes you unhappy, you can ignore them. You need to let others know when they’ve done something wrong and upset you. Then, to avoid angering you again, they won’t do such foolish things anymore. This includes me! Of course, I hope I can have some special privileges – don’t wait until next time to let me correct myself. Let’s discuss things openly and resolve any issues immediately, without leaving any hard feelings, okay?”

Tang Hongen spoke as if giving a lecture.

His reasoning was clear and easy to understand – who couldn’t grasp it?

Liu Fen had been like a blank sheet of paper when she left the countryside. Xia Xiaolan taught her about business, Grandmother Yu taught her about dealing with people, Li Fengmei told her women needed to be fierce, and even the customers in the clothing store – everyone she met had something to teach her… She absorbed and integrated all these things, which was why she could grow so quickly.

From others’ teachings, Liu Fen had absorbed the good aspects.

Until she met Tang Hongen.

At first, Tang Hongen had liked her honesty and kindness, but now he seemed to worry that she was too honest, afraid she might be taken advantage of. He was teaching her to be cunning, teaching her to be willful!

Liu Fen caught on: “Are you teaching me how to tattle?”

No, that wasn’t it – he was teaching her to communicate more when issues arose, not to keep grievances bottled up until they exploded into a delayed reckoning. If grievances accumulated bit by bit, when anger became too intense, she might end up kicking him out… Others might not dare to kick him out; whether they liked him or not, being married to him meant being the mayor’s wife.

But Liu Fen would dare to kick him out. If he weren’t the “mayor,” Liu Fen probably wouldn’t have hesitated so long before accepting him!

However, Liu Fen’s mention of “tattling” had some truth to it – what woman doesn’t like to share her grievances when she gets home?

I am troubled by the mother-in-law today.

Colleagues gossiping about her.

Friends comparing themselves to her.

When women face various grievances outside, don’t they need to come home and act a bit spoiled?

It’s not necessarily expecting their men to go out and fight battles for them – just standing together and showing a united front is enough.

Tang Hongen nodded firmly: “Yes, I am teaching you to tattle! If someone makes you unhappy and you don’t tell me, I can’t always guess correctly. If you tell me, isn’t that saving time and effort for everyone?”

The logic made sense.

It conflicted with what Grandmother Yu had taught – that women should maintain some reserve when faced with men’s sweet words.

When men are interested in a woman, they find every little detail fascinating, every word and action interesting.

But when feelings cool, the same small matters become annoying when mentioned too often, and they’ll find the woman nagging!

Liu Fen couldn’t judge whose advice was right yet, but since Tang Hongen was so sincere, she decided to try following his way first. When he grew tired of it, she would stop talking.

“I am a bit unhappy that you never mentioned Sheng Xuan to me before she showed up herself, and I only learned who she was when Min Xiaoju reminded me. But even if you had mentioned her specifically, I might still have been unhappy, thinking you cared about her, wondering why you didn’t choose Sheng Xuan instead – she’s beautiful, well-educated, has a good job, and has never been married… Sheng Xuan’s conditions are too good. With someone like her as an option, how did you end up choosing me?”

Was this jealousy?

Then she indeed was jealous.

Liu Fen hadn’t noticed that as she continued to learn and enrich herself, her speech had become increasingly well-organized.

She had felt this way before – the Xia family had given her enough grievances – but she couldn’t express it!

Even if she had expressed it, no one would have taken it seriously. Having become accustomed to accepting whatever came her way, she didn’t know how to express her anger and grievances.

“Yes, how did I end up choosing you? Sheng Xuan, a great beauty, publicly declared she would marry no one but me is more than ten years younger than me and has never been married. I’ve spoken less with her than in one phone call with you, and most of our interactions were when she was a child, playing at the Song family’s house. What do you think she sees in me? If I weren’t the mayor, just an ordinary worker, would she still be interested in a divorced man more than ten years her senior?”

Liu Fen thought carefully about Tang Hongen’s words and agreed it was unlikely.

“If you were an ordinary worker, whoever tried to match you with Sheng Xuan would be making an inappropriate match.”

Liu Fen spoke bluntly, and Tang Hongen looked at her with a smile: “So don’t you understand now? I chose you because I’m confident that even if I weren’t the mayor, as long as we were right for each other, you would still marry me. I’m not saying you’re inferior to Sheng Xuan, but that you’re easier to satisfy.”

Power is like strong liquor – it can intoxicate men.

Tang Hongen naturally knew his words carried weight, not because he could please everyone, but because of his position.

Most people around him tried to curry favor with him, and Tang Hongen certainly didn’t want his bedmate to turn away at night, still scheming against him!

This was Liu Fen’s most precious quality. You couldn’t say she was naive – her daughter was in university, and she had experienced hardships before, having seen the dark side of human nature.

She could have logically become cynical – the world had let her down first.

But had she changed?

Tang Hongen felt that Liu Fen’s changes were for the better – her ability to maintain her true nature was invaluable.