At divorce, my wife left me the dowry house; only after meeting again a year later did I realize how foolish I had been.

(From a reader's submission, images in this article are from the internet)

At divorce, my wife left me the dowry house; only after meeting again a year later did I realize how foolish I had been.

How great a woman's desire for revenge can be, I have now experienced firsthand, utterly overwhelmed as I am. But all of this was my own choice, so now even if I wanted to shift the blame, I could not. Besides, I no longer have the right to complain about or accuse her of anything. After all, she did not force me to do this.

Compared with my own difficult family circumstances, my ex-wife's family was fairly well off. Although they could not be called truly wealthy, they were at least comfortably middle-class. We met back then while traveling, and as we got along well, we reached the point of talking about marriage. When she insisted on marrying me, she even had a huge falling-out with her family, and it took a great deal of effort before we persuaded her parents. Her parents were actually good people; probably mainly because they doted on their daughter, and seeing that my family circumstances were indeed poor, they helped us pay the down payment on a house. Because of this, when we got married, we could actually move into a new home, which surprised and moved me quite a bit.

But after marriage, the situation made her somewhat unhappy, because my mother lived in the countryside and I had a younger brother below me who was not yet married. My mother was always asking me for money to subsidize the family, and since I was a filial son, I obeyed her in everything. As a result, the money I had was basically all used up, while most of the mortgage and household expenses were covered by my ex-wife. Over time she grew resentful and argued with me endlessly every day. I thought she was completely unreasonable. My family situation was poor, and she had known that beforehand. Marrying into my family meant she had to share hardships with me. My money was not spent recklessly on outsiders, only on my mother and my younger brother, so what was wrong with that? But she could not accept it. Our negotiations failed, and in the end we divorced.

When discussing the details of the divorce, my ex-wife actually took the initiative to say that the house could be left to me. Her parents' home was here, she said, so she did not need to buy a house and could just move back home. But I needed a place to stay, and this way I could also bring my mother from my hometown to live with me. When I heard this, it made sense to me too, and at the time I was tempted. But she also said at the same time that she still insisted on the money she was owed. In addition to my having to pay back the original down payment, she also wanted 100,000 yuan in compensation, because she had repaid part of the mortgage after marriage. After careful consideration, I saw that she was not taking advantage, so I agreed. At the time I borrowed some money from others and gave it to my ex-wife. After she left the home, I suddenly realized that now every month I had to repay the mortgage, repay other people's money, and support the whole family at home. Life was unbearably bitter, and I was simply living too tiredly.

Now we have been divorced for a year. A few days ago, when I ran into her on the street, she was driving a nice car and stopped not far from me. After getting out, she was dressed beautifully from head to toe, and the famous watch on her hand and the necklace around her neck sparkled in the sunlight. Looking at how carefree my ex-wife was, I regretted it deeply. If I had not divorced her so arbitrarily, maybe my life now would be a bit easier. Then, on second thought, I became very angry, thinking that maybe my ex-wife had deliberately left the house to me back then. She knew the pressure of repaying the mortgage was heavy, and by doing this she was tormenting me just to see me in such a miserable state. Am I not too foolish? Tell me, how hateful is she?