After Forty, I Stopped People-Pleasing

On her fortieth birthday, Li Xia went to the hospital alone for an IV after coming down with acute gastroenteritis.

Her husband, Zhang Lei, replied on WeChat: “You’re forty already. Stop being so dramatic.”

For twenty years, she had been a devoted wife and mother, wearing herself out to please the whole family,

only to be told, “A free housekeeper should know her place.”

Her daughter secretly slipped her a note: “Mom, leave. I support you.”

After the divorce, she moved into a tiny rented room and started over as a supermarket cashier.

When her ex-husband lost his job and begged her to remarry him, and her in-laws fell ill and asked her to care for them,

Li Xia looked at the savings in her bank account and smiled.

“At forty, I’ve finally learned to please myself.”