Chapter 1730: Miss Nice Girl (End)

Thus, all these years, the young couple's earnings had gone toward repaying debts.

And the money Li Meixue and Tang Chenghai gave their grandson had become the living expenses for the entire family.

The truth only came out when the economy worsened and Tang Xiaokun, due to his own lack of ability, was laid off by his company.

Once he lost his job, repaying the debt became a serious problem.

With no other choice, Tang Xiaokun confessed everything to Li Meixue.

The news sent both old couple straight to the hospital in anger. This time, however, Tang Xiaokun personally attended to them, and his wife cooked soup for them every day.

No matter what, they couldn't bear to see Tang Xiaokun suffer, nor could they bear to let their grandson endure hardship.

After leaving the hospital, they helped repay the debts.

Although Tang Xiaokun's wife was sweet-tongued and knew how to coax people, her heart had always been with her younger brother.

The old couple could only swallow their bitterness in silence.

If they refused to help, their son and grandson would suffer. Divorce was out of the question—at Tang Xiaokun's age, how could he find another wife?

By then, they were old and could only do manual labor.

One winter, Li Meixue accidentally fell and ended up partially paralyzed.

The expressions of Tang Xiaokun and his wife changed immediately upon hearing the news.

Had it not been for Li Meixue's pension, they might truly have wanted to throw the useless old woman out.

Caring for Li Meixue fell to Tang Chenghai. He could no longer work either, though fortunately, most of the debt had already been paid off.

With their pensions, they could still manage to live.

Now that they were old, they could no longer live independently and continued staying at Tang Xiaokun's home.

Tang Xiaokun and his wife had no intention of driving them out either. After all, the old couple still had pensions that could supplement the household income.

Without a stable job, Tang Xiaokun was still living off his parents even at forty.

At this time, Great-Uncle celebrated his ninetieth birthday, and Tang Guo and Baili Sheng handled everything personally.

Many relatives were invited, except for Li Meixue, Tang Chenghai, and Tang Xiaokun's family.

Seeing Great-Uncle's current life, the relatives were astonished.

Then they saw Tang Guo, radiant and elegant, and learned that she owned many nail salons. Countless people were secretly jealous.

They also heard that Tang Guo had bought a house for Great-Uncle, hired people to care for him, and was supporting him in his old age.

No one understood why.

Naturally, Tang Chenghai and Li Meixue heard about all this and couldn't help rushing over. Catching Tang Guo, they immediately berated her as an unfilial daughter. Had she forgotten her parents, who had worked so hard to raise her? Yet she was supporting an outsider instead.

"Because when I was cornered and burdened with a million yuan of debt, Great-Uncle transferred three hundred thousand yuan to me without hesitation. That's how I got where I am today."

Whether that statement was true or not, the old man's sincerity was real.

"And as for you, you were afraid I would take what belonged to Tang Xiaokun. You said it yourselves—you didn't need me to take care of you, you only asked that I not snatch anything from Tang Xiaokun. Everything you've asked for, I've done."

"And don't bring up the matter of raising me. If I really started recounting everything from the past, the ones losing face would be you. In front of all these relatives, do you want me to tell everyone how you treated me as a child, during university, and when I was left with nowhere to turn?"

The moment they heard that, the couple shrank back.

In the end, they muttered "unfilial daughter" under their breath and slunk away in disgrace.

They believed they would eventually find an opportunity to make that unfilial daughter spit out some benefits.

Unexpectedly, after that day, they never saw Tang Guo again.

But they heard news about her every day. Someone even suggested they take the matter to television and let the public condemn Tang Guo for being unfilial.

What they hadn't expected was that once they appeared on television, Tang Guo publicly played numerous recordings and displayed chat histories on the spot.

After learning the truth, the audience didn't curse Tang Guo.

Instead, the son-preferring couple became the targets of criticism.

After giving everything to their son, they still expected their daughter to support them in old age? Dream on.

Although their pensions were substantial, their attempts to demand support from Tang Guo ended in failure. They received not a single cent.

Eventually, after exhausting themselves with endless schemes, the couple lost the energy to struggle anymore. Like living corpses, they merely existed in Tang Xiaokun's house.

Tang Xiaokun and his wife wished only that they would live longer, so that their pensions would continue coming.

Li Meixue and Tang Chenghai felt nothing but endless sorrow.

Whenever they lost their appetite, Tang Xiaokun and his wife fed them nutrient solutions. No matter what, they had to stay alive.

After learning all this, Tang Guo never paid attention to them again.

"Xiaoguo," Baili Sheng asked one night, "from the way you've acted, I feel like they must have done something even more vicious, which is why you planned all this."

Tang Guo looked at him with her bright eyes. "Do you want to know?"

"If Xiaoguo is willing to tell me, then I want to know."

"Brother Sheng, go to sleep. I'll tell you everything in our dreams."

---

✦ Translator's Note

Okay, this arc made me think about something I've been wondering about for a while:

What does it actually mean to be a “nice” person?

Because sometimes I feel like being genuinely nice has become... surprisingly difficult. 😭

When I was younger, I was much more willing to help people with pretty much anything. But as I grew older and saw how people sometimes responded to that kindness, I slowly became less accommodating.

And I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing.

Because there's a difference between being kind and being someone people can endlessly take advantage of.

You help someone once.

You help them twice.

And then suddenly the third time becomes an expectation.

“But you helped me last time. Why can't you help me now?”

And if you say no, suddenly you're being cold, selfish, narrow-minded, rigid, or even inhumane.

And sometimes the person doesn't even realize how much effort it took for you to help them the first two times.

But if you actually tell them that—

“Honestly, that was really difficult for me to do.”

Suddenly you're the bad guy for making them feel guilty after they received your help. 😭

It's such a strange situation.

And I think that's part of what I found interesting about this arc.

Tang Guo is still perceived as a “nice girl,” even after becoming much more assertive. She's learned how to protect herself without necessarily abandoning that image of kindness.

But it also made me wonder:

At what point does being nice stop being kindness and start becoming self-sacrifice?

And on the other side, at what point does protecting your own boundaries stop being “being cold” and simply become being reasonable?

I don't think I have a perfect answer to that.

Maybe being a nice person doesn't mean saying yes to everyone.

Maybe it means being willing to help when you genuinely can, while also being able to say no when you can't.

Maybe kindness without boundaries just teaches people that your boundaries don't exist.

I don't know. 😂

I think I've definitely become less “nice” as I've gotten older, but maybe I've just become better at distinguishing between being kind and being a doormat.

What do you guys think?

How do you draw the line between being a genuinely kind person and letting people take advantage of you?

Because honestly, I feel like that's one of those things nobody ever really teaches us.

—Cy