Fang Zidu nodded, "Yes, that's true. So I'd like to invite you to come and keep her company when I'm not around."
"Of course," Deng Yifan readily agreed. "A friend's company is one thing, but she's pregnant now. You're a scientific researcher, so you must know that pregnant women's emotions are different from ordinary people. They need their partner's company and emotional response even more; otherwise, they're prone to... well, you know—"
"Prenatal and postpartum depression?"
"Look, you know much more than I do."
Fang Zi nodded, "I've been reading books on this topic online recently."
"Yes, that's right, and also, children need their fathers' involvement throughout their growth—"
Fang Zi ignored Deng Yifan's nonsense and asked Xiang Lan directly, "Xiang Lan, how long do you need me to stay with you every day?"
How long can you stay with me?
"Ten hours is already the maximum guarantee. If your emotional needs are really high, I can consider allocating another hour to you."
Xiang Lan felt a surge of anger welling up inside her, and said, "Of course I want you to be with me anytime, anywhere."
"That's impossible." Fang Zi refused without even thinking.
Deng Yifan cursed inwardly again, then turned to look at the two of them. Fang Zi's eyes were clear, indicating that she was rationally considering the issue. Xiang Lan's eyes were full of grievance and anger, clearly indicating that emotions had dominated her mind.
"You could be more tactful," Deng Yifan suggested to Fang Zidu.
"I'm sorry." He apologized readily, looked at Lan's expression, walked over and put his arm around her waist. "I also really want to be with you forever, but that's not realistic. I have to work, right?"
"I have a job too," Xiang Lan said defiantly.
Fang Zi laughed, "That's right, you also have work, so I have to set aside some time for you to be alone."
"But what if I can't find you when I want to?"
"How could you not find me? With this here, you can find me anytime."
"But I want to see you in person."
"The lab is very close by; I guarantee I can get there within fifteen minutes."
Xiang Lan wasn't comforted, but with Deng Yifan around, she couldn't throw a tantrum and make things awkward for both of them, so she had to keep it to herself.
Fangzi thought that once she calmed down and her emotions returned to normal, everything would be fine. He also thought that the two of them had reached an agreement on how to get along in the future, and that he could return to the United States with peace of mind to handle his own affairs.
Both of them have misunderstandings about each other's thinking patterns.
The next morning, Xiang Lan saw Fang Zidu off.
Facing the empty house and the running equipment, she felt wronged and, for some reason, had a pent-up anger that she couldn't shake off, so she simply turned off the system power.
When Hu Li and Liu Zewen rang the doorbell, Xiang Lan, looking angry, opened the door.
"Why do you look unhappy?" Liu Zewen put down the large bag he was carrying and looked around the house. The decoration was relatively clean, and the furniture and household items were all new, barely acceptable. "Zi Du has already left?"
"I'm leaving." Xiang Lan slumped onto the sofa. "You guys sit here, I'm not feeling well right now."
Hu Li opened the large bag and said, "Mom brought you something today, various soup ingredients, already divided up, just put one packet in each time."
"I don't know how to do it."
"Zi Du has already learned it; we can just wait for him to come back from America to do it."
Xiang Lan hugged a pillow and punched it, looking dejected.
Hu Li looked at her expression and asked, "What's wrong? Did you two have a fight?"
"We didn't argue." Xiang Lan sighed. The other person had been patiently explaining things to her the whole time, so how could she argue?
"What happened?" Liu Zewen was also confused.
"When you came to my house, didn't you see anything unusual?" Xiang Lan pointed to the cameras in various places.
The two looked up, and after a moment, laughed. Hu Li said, "A surveillance system?"
“Yeah!” Xiang Lan sat up, looking refreshed. “He said he was too busy with work to spend time with me, so he installed this thing to monitor me. Oh, and there’s also management software to plan my schedule and movements.”
“He definitely didn’t say that.” Liu Zewen sat down next to her and said, “Tell me his exact words. If he’s wrong, I’ll tell your brother and have him deal with him.”
“He said he’ll be very busy with work in the future, only able to stay home for ten hours a day, and spend the rest of the time in the lab, so he won’t be able to take care of me. He got this thing, even set up a bathroom, just so he can get there within twenty minutes if I slip or fall when I get pregnant.” Xiang Lan looked aggrieved. “But I only get to sleep for 30 hours a day, and when I wake up I have so many chores to do, so he can’t spend any time with me at all.”
Hu Li and Liu Zewen exchanged a glance, and Hu Li said, "Lanlan, are you asking us to reconcile them, or to break them up?"
"Of course, we should try to reconcile them!" Xiang Lan said indignantly. "Also, don't tell my brother that this is a problem between the two of us, and don't let him interfere."
"Then why are you still looking so aggrieved? Have you thought of a solution?"
“I told him I didn’t like it anymore, and he said he could only give me one more hour at most. Now I feel like I’m not the most important person to him at all; work is his wife. And—” Xiang Lan felt a little embarrassed saying it, “Am I supposed to compete with the lab for a man?”
Chapter 34
"That's the difference between dating and marriage. Who told you to make a decision so hastily and without thinking it through?" Liu Zewen said with heartache. "Is marriage so fun? Being a girl is the happiest thing—"
"What are you trying to achieve by complaining about this?"
“He’s smart, and he can make perfect sense no matter what he says. I can’t argue with him, so I have to use facts. Mom, tell me how much Dad loves his wife and family; Sister-in-law, tell me how humble and subservient my brother was when he was pursuing you. I’ll use these two specific examples to bombard him.”
"Are you stupid?" Liu Zewen poked her head. "Trying to reason with him? You can't reason with someone when you're married."
Xiang Lan touched her forehead. "What's the point of reasoning if we can't be reasonable?"
"Aren't you the best at acting cute?"
"Oh—" Xiang Lan said to herself, "If Deng Yifan had been there, I wouldn't have been able to say anything. Otherwise, I would have made him weak in the knees. But I still insisted on learning from other people's married life. "Mom, tell me quickly."
"What's there to talk about?" Liu Zewen said unhappily. "If Fangzi can deliver on his promises, he's far better than your father."
"How could that be?" Xiang Lan exclaimed, "My dad is a well-known good man."
“Those are just compliments from others, and I can’t say them out loud. Your brother should still remember that when he was little, your dad was a workaholic. He would come home late at night and leave before dawn. He would never eat a meal at home. Sometimes your brother and I wouldn’t see him for half a month.”
"No way?"
"How could it not be?" Liu Zewen was still a little angry when she spoke of it. "Do you think your dad got that big belly from drinking and eating? I thought to myself, being married is worse than not being married. If I wasn't married, people would just laugh at me for being an old maid. But if I was married, I would only have the title of having a husband, and I would still have to raise a child on my own. Later, I couldn't take it anymore and argued with him about getting a divorce. That's when things got a little better."
The harsh reality of life hit Xiang Lan hard; her face turned pale. "No way?" she asked Hu Li for help. "Sister-in-law, what about my brother?"
Hu thought about it for a moment. It seemed inappropriate to speak ill of someone in front of their mother and sister. But to her surprise, Liu Zewen patted the back of her hand and said, "Little Hu, just say what you want today. I'll pretend I didn't hear anything. I know my own son; I know what kind of person he is—"
"Sister-in-law, is my brother really that much of a jerk?"
"Well, it depends on how you look at it," Hu Li said, lowering his eyes. "Your brother and I usually get up around six or seven in the morning to go to work. I get home around six in the evening, but it's not always the same for him. It's good if he gets off work on time one day a week; most of the time he gets home around ten at night, takes a shower, and goes to sleep without really talking. On weekends, if I'm lucky, I can sleep in; if I'm unlucky, something happens at the construction site, and I have to deal with it immediately. Oh, and I also have to find time to maintain various relationships—"
"He's actually doing well; he has so many people helping him. Your father and I had it so tough in the early days—"
“If you calculate it this way, after deducting sleep time, your brother and I can only have a proper conversation for less than an hour a day,” Hu Li said gently. “Our situation is already considered relatively good. I have a few friends whose spouses are both high-level executives, with one working in the east of the city and the other in the west. If they were to live together, one of them would definitely have to cross the city to work every day, which would take about four hours. Their work is demanding, and they often work overtime, so they can’t afford to waste any more time. Therefore, they choose to rent apartments near their respective workplaces and visit each other on weekends, enjoying a weekend of married life.”
"Then why get married at all?"
"So, why did you get married?" Liu Zewen asked rhetorically.
Xiang Lan chuckled dryly, unable to speak. She had simply agreed in a moment of excitement; who knew there would be so many problems after marriage?
"So there's no way we can be together every day?"
“Of course you can,” Hu Li laughed, “but you don’t meet the requirements.”
"Why?"
Liu Zewen pinched her chin. "Think about it carefully. What are you studying? You've been studying for three or four years, running around every year, doing field research and internships. How much time have you actually spent in class? If you abandon your major now and stay home as a housewife, you can stay with him. If you continue your studies, you'll definitely have to keep running around. Do you expect him to abandon his work in the lab and accompany you to the ends of the earth?"
Xiang Lan struggled desperately, "But when he said that on his own initiative, I felt very uncomfortable. He could have comforted me."
“Then you have to tell him that you need him to comfort you,” Hu Li laughed. “You’ve only known each other for a few days. He might not know what you need; and do you know what he needs?”
"I wanted your comfort and support, but all you did was tell me how dark marriage is." Xiang Lan was getting a little irritated. "How could you let your lives turn out like that?"
Hu Li and Liu Zewen exchanged a smile; reality will teach you how to be a person.
Xiang Lan was not comforted. Watching her mother and sister-in-law help her arrange the things in the refrigerator, clean the house, and organize the bookshelves and wardrobe, she felt a deep sense of crisis. She must not lose herself.
She greeted them, picked up the two fist-sized obsidian head sculptures, and jogged to the school to find Liu Nanyang.
During their free time these past few days, the two of them would sit together and carve stone. Both were strong and fast, their cuts casual and leisurely, and they finished quickly. His carving wasn't particularly meticulous; some parts were even a bit chaotic. However, after the transitions, the facial features and the contours of the stone blended exceptionally well. When the portrait was displayed, the light seemed to focus on the eyes, making it impossible to look away. After seeing it, she compared it to what she had carved, and it looked like garbage. She still had the same old problem: her facial features were meticulously carved, but when placed side-by-side, it was clear that her work lacked spirit.
Several teachers and students were standing in Liu Nanyang's office. Several small sculptures were on the table, and someone was moving several large boxes, indicating that a large piece was about to be completed. He and his assistant, Teacher Wang, checked the list item by item, and asked the students to write down their creative thoughts and ideas for their works.
Xiang Lan knew that these were outstanding graduation projects selected by various teachers, to be displayed at the art exhibition by her uncle, and possibly even submitted to a competition. She looked down at the meager portrait in her hand and, for the first time, began to reflect on her actions. Was she really going to settle for being a housewife and completely abandon her profession?
"You're here?" Liu Nanyang saw her standing there dumbfounded and called out, "It's a mess here, go stay over there and wait for me to finish."
She looked at the male classmates who were being bossed around by the teacher, and she was actually envious.
"You finally decided to come see me?" Liu Nanyang finished his work, picked up his water glass to drink, and poured her a glass as well. "You seem to have been very busy these past week or so."
"Well, I've finished carving it. Please take a look." Seeing that most of the people had left, Xiang Lan reached into her bag, touched the two figures, and said, "There are two. Which one do you think is more suitable?"
"OK."
Xiang Lan took out hers first, and Liu Nanyang took it, looked at it over and over for a while, then put it on the table without saying anything. "Isn't there another one?"
"Tell me about this first, how about it?"
Liu Nanyang pondered for a moment, then said, "It's better than your previous work. You still haven't completely given up on pursuing aesthetic form while neglecting what you truly want to express. If that's the case, you might as well make handicrafts—"
How could they be so cruel to a pregnant woman? Xiang Lan closed her eyes even more. "Has there been absolutely no progress?"
"Of course not. There has been progress, but it's not enough to make me feel like I'm suddenly struck by something. You know, it's the kind of feeling that can attract you at first glance and make you forget all your distractions."
Xiang Lan understood, of course. The first time she saw Fang Zidu, she was shocked. But her hands couldn't express her feelings. Was the tearing sensation not deep enough?
"And the other one?"
She quietly took it out and placed it on the table.
Two tiny figures face each other, their features identical, their proportions the same, yet in that instant, one can clearly distinguish which is the genuine article and which is the fake.
"Wow—" Liu Nanyang sighed, reaching out to grab the one behind him. "This one is quite interesting."
“You can look out the window—” Xiang Lan suggested.
He rushed to the window, pointed to the sun-drenched windowsill, and after a long pause, exclaimed in admiration, “It’s absolutely wonderful! The light refracted at such a subtle angle seems to contain its entire soul. The knife work isn’t particularly delicate, but every stroke is necessary. Hmm, a very strong personal style. It’s so fresh; none of the existing masters have used this method of creation—”
"Xiang Lan, where did you find this talented person?"
She sighed deeply, and after a long while said, "I carved this."