Man proposes, Heaven disposes; you can't force it.
Zhuge Liang, Kongming, did his utmost, then sat and waited for the right moment.
Only at the very end did he help Liu Bei establish Western Shu, passing through two generations, and Liu Bei still only guarded his tiny corner of land, never fulfilling the grand wish of reviving the Han Dynasty.
Does that count as success?
Even sages and wise men dare not force things—let alone ordinary folk.
You are not a fish; how can you know the joy of fish? What is honey to me is arsenic to another.
So sometimes, whether it's doing things or being a person, you really can't force it.
Zhou Jiao had figured it out. She wasn't going to force her children's wishes, but she couldn't just ignore them and toss the matter out of her mind, either.
