1
"Take her away! She's been born for so long! Can't she feed herself yet?"
At my niece's one-month celebration, my sister-in-law Li Jiayin looked displeased, signaling for my mom to take the loudly crying niece away.
Facing the puzzled looks of friends and family, she began to boast about her parenting methods—
"Our family has a baby girl! All that talk in books about pampering girls is wrong! The most important thing to cultivate in a girl is her independence!"
"The plan I have for my daughter is that she'll feed herself at one month old, and do her own laundry, cook, and sleep on her own by six months!"
The relatives were all shocked. They all advised her, saying the child is so small, how can she be without careful adult care?
She dismissed them: "What do you know? Nowadays, men like independent women the most!"
"If you don't believe me, look at Zhou Yuqiao, she's always home and calling out for her mom, a total mommy's girl! Now she's in her thirties and no man wants her!" "Zhou Yuqiao, you're an elementary school teacher and know a lot, do you think I'm right?"
As she spoke, her gaze turned to me. Facing the familiar scene before me,
a chill ran through my heart. I suddenly realized, I had been reborn. In the past life at my niece's one-month party, she formally practiced a three-no policy.
A refusal to hold the niece, no feeding the niece, and no physical contact with the niece!
In her words: "This is for her own good! Children need to be trained from an early age! Especially in independent awareness!"
"When she grows up to be an independent woman, a bunch of men will be fighting to have her!"
"She'll be too busy thanking me then!"
2
Although my sister-in-law acts like a delicate wife all the time, I really didn't expect her to be so "strict" with her own daughter.
As an elementary school teacher, I've seen too many children who are sensitive due to lack of love.
They fall behind others in areas like interpersonal communication and language system.
In my past life, when my sister-in-law asked me, I immediately presented facts and made sense to educate her about how ridiculous this approach to education was.
And told her that to cultivate a child's independence,
she must care for the child more, which is beneficial to the child's physical and mental health!
As a result, my niece not only grew up healthy but also got into a prestigious school and had a good job!
Yet my sister-in-law kept harping on the fact that my niece hadn't married even after graduating from university!
"I was married and pregnant at nineteen, and you're twenty-three and halfway to being buried, and still no man wants you!"
For this reason, she forced my niece to go on a blind date with a scumbag. During the relationship, the scumbag cheated in various ways, and my niece, unwilling to suffer, broke up with the scumbag in anger.
Upon finding out, my sister-in-law felt humiliated. But she blamed everything on me.
Complaining that I intervened back then.
"It's all your fault! If you hadn't intervened back then! Xuanxuan would already be an independent woman and the center of attention!"
"Now look, Xuanxuan is twenty and no man wants her!" I fully understand my sister-in-law's character and am too lazy to argue with her.
Unexpectedly, my sister-in-law intensified her actions, thinking my silence was due to guilt.
She hated me even more! After once tricking me into coming home, she used a packet of rat poison to kill me.
In my dying moments, my niece stood over me, looking down. I was like a rat in a gutter, begging my niece to take me to the hospital.
To think that all these years, for my niece's physical and mental health and academic success, I kept giving her extra coaching and financial support.
What I got in return was—
"If it weren't for you, this bitch! Liu Yunian wouldn't have broken up with me!"
"Better destroy ten temples than spoil one marriage!"
Liu Yunian is my niece Zhou Xuanxuan's scumbag boyfriend.
Turns out she's just like her mother, caught up in romance.
On my deathbed, I finally learned a lesson.
Turns out even the best postnatal education can't match prenatal genes!
And so, with deep regret and hatred, I died cursing.
Now, a brand new opportunity lies before me.
Thinking of this, I looked at my smug sister-in-law and complimented her.
"How would I know! Sister-in-law, you're Xuanxuan's birth mother, whatever you do must be from the perspective of what's best for her!"
Whether it's right or not, that's none of my business.
She was very pleased to hear this.
"To think you're actually a teacher with that ghostly look! Can't even understand such a simple truth, everything you teach is pointless!"
"Just wait and see, my daughter will become an independent woman and the center of attention!"
She was as smug as a victorious hen.
Indeed, this time, I want to see if my niece can grow into an independent woman and enchant men.
3
After the banquet, my mom secretly pulled me into the room.
"Yuqiao, you're an elementary school teacher, is being an independent woman really as amazing as your sister-in-law says? Now she's even shouting about making her daughter drink papaya soup! Letting your niece sleep on her own? I, an old woman, don't get it, but how can such a small child not drink milk? How can she sleep alone?"
In my past life, my mom also first put a halo on my head, praised me a bit, and then asked me to pay and contribute.
She often brainwashed me, "You're the only one with a stable job in our family! The greater the ability, the greater the responsibility!"
But after dying once miserably, I finally understood—
All of this was just lies they told to make me pay.
She even twisted the truth with the police, knowing my cause of death, all just for my money.
Making me out as someone seemingly sunny and cheerful but inwardly dark and distorted, a self-destructive maniac!
So this time, I easily saw through their lies.
"Mom, if sister-in-law wants my niece to sleep on her own, perhaps she's trying to cultivate Xuanxuan's sense of independence!
If she keeps holding her to sleep, what if Xuanxuan becomes dependent?" I said deliberately loud.
As my mom's smile completely froze, my sister-in-law came over cursing.
"What are you getting at? My Xuanxuan is going to be an independent woman, and it's only right for an independent woman to sleep by herself!"
Immediately, she spoke confidently.
"Zhou Yuqiao, you'll be responsible for Xuanxuan's every need from now on!"
I didn't show any dissatisfaction but instead puzzled.
"I pay to support Xuanxuan? What if she ends up dependent on others, how will she be a self-sufficient independent woman then?"
"In my opinion, sister-in-law, you should prepare a ledger now, and clearly record every expense for Xuanxuan! Make her pay you back when she grows up! That's how you'll cultivate Xuanxuan's independence!"
To prove my genuineness, I casually made up several contrary examples.
My sister-in-law furrowed her brows, pondered a while, then gave up. She then directed my mom to use an electronic ledger to track every expense for my niece.
But my sister-in-law's dream of an "independent woman" didn't last long; it cracked for the first time after six months.
