"When have I ever worked voluntarily? I'm forced to work all day long!"
In the evening, Lijuan packed her unfinished business into her bag and went home when it was time.
Tonight, a pot of braised pork belly, which had been half-cooked and turned off yesterday, appeared on the table. Perhaps it was because she hadn't smelled the aroma of meat for a few days, but although this pot of braised pork belly didn't taste quite right and couldn't compare to her father's secret recipe, Lijuan still happily ate quite a few pieces. "Mom, did you put star anise and Sichuan peppercorns in this braised pork belly? Actually, my dad said that good braised pork belly doesn't need any seasonings, just soy sauce, sugar, and Shaoxing wine. I don't know the specifics, but I'll ask my dad next time!" Lijuan ate happily, completely ignoring her mother-in-law's increasingly gloomy expression. With each bite Lijuan took, her mother-in-law's expression grew more serious, and by the time the braised pork belly was almost gone, her mother-in-law's face was practically raining. "Eat some vegetables, eating meat on its own is too salty," her mother-in-law subtly reminded her.
"Just drink some water later."
"Eat more food."
"Rice is full of starch, which makes it easy to gain weight."
The mother-in-law hesitated, picked up her chopsticks and put them down, but didn't touch the rice in her bowl. "Mom, you should eat too!"
“Mom won’t eat. If Mom eats one less bite, you children can eat one more bite. That’s a mother’s heart.” The mother-in-law only ate plain rice in front of the father-in-law and Yaping. She even put the meat Yaping had placed in her bowl back into Yaping’s bowl, and the two of them struggled over a piece of meat the size of a fingernail like they were fighting. Lijuan glanced at her mother-in-law, paused with her chopsticks, and decided to continue eating, pretending not to see anything. Lijuan thought: So dramatic! If you really cared about your mother-in-law, you should just say that Mom doesn’t like meat. Isn’t this clearly meant for me? I’ll eat it anyway!
After finishing her meal, Lijuan went upstairs to surf the internet and write her article, leaving Yaping downstairs to keep his mother company.
It was rare for Yaping to be home and talk to his mother, so the old lady should have been overjoyed and chattering away. But Yaping's mother remained silent, focused only on her work, ignoring Yaping's attempts to provoke her. Yaping leaned against the kitchen door, watching his mother work. "Don't you have anything better to do? Can't you go read a book or do some business instead? What are you doing standing at the kitchen door? You're like a telephone pole, getting in the way. A grown man shouldn't be always in the kitchen. Look around the world, how many men are like you? Get out of my way, don't hang around in front of me!" Yaping's mother snapped, her anger seemingly unfounded.
"Mom, I just wanted to spend some time with you. I've been busy all day and haven't had a chance to chat with you."
"What's there to chat about? I'm not chatting!"
Yaping was being scolded, while Lijuan, upstairs, was oblivious to the situation. Perhaps she had eaten too much meat and was very thirsty, but not wanting to go downstairs and see her mother-in-law's attitude, she stood on the second-floor stairs and called out, "Yaping, could you get me a glass of water? Thank you!"
Yaping was about to grab a cup when he saw his mother's face had already contorted into a raging inferno, her eyes fixed on him with the intensity of a hundred-watt light bulb. Yaping suddenly flinched, peeking out from the kitchen and saying, "Come down and pour it yourself. Don't you have hands?"
The current situation at home is like this: Lijuan, Yaping, and Yaping's mother are in a straight line, with Yaping sandwiched in the middle, a bit further from his wife and a bit closer to his mother. Yaping feels like a bomb, with lit fuses at both ends, but based on the level of danger, it seems like his mother's side is about to explode a little faster. He should put out one end first.
Lijuan rushed downstairs and stood directly in front of Yaping.
"So hot it's burning." That's how Ya Ping feels. This idiom probably means that both hands are on fire.
Now Lijuan is a little closer to Yaping, and the danger has shifted.
“Li Yaping! I wouldn’t dare trouble you. I have hands, I can pour it myself. But I might have a bad memory, I don’t remember who was crying and insisting on massaging my hands and feet and pouring my foot bath and tea a couple of days ago. I originally thought you were willing to do it. Since you’re not willing, now that you’ve made it clear, I won’t trouble you anymore. Li Yaping, let me tell you, don’t think I care about you, I’m afraid you’ll still be unhappy when someone else pours it for me.” Lijuan banged open the cupboard and took out the teacup. As she passed by her mother-in-law, she didn’t even glance at her.
Yaping's mother's chest heaved like a tsunami, unable to swallow her anger. She lowered her voice and said, "What kind of talk is this! This is outrageous!..." Lijuan pretended not to hear, went straight upstairs, and locked the study door. As long as her mother-in-law didn't say it to her face, she would pretend not to know.
After Yaping and his mother had fallen asleep, he tiptoed to the study door, knocked once, paused, and then knocked again. "Juan, Juan, open the door." His voice was barely audible.
Lijuan pretended not to hear.
"Juan, open the door! I want to talk to you!" Yaping said in a very humble voice.
Lijuan refused to open it.
"Juan, come inside and talk. Do you hear me?" Yaping didn't dare raise her voice, afraid her mother would hear.
"What are you doing? Why aren't you asleep in the middle of the night? Aren't you going to work tomorrow? Don't you want the elderly to rest? How can such a big kid be so insensible?" Ya Ping's mother stood at the bedroom door, hands in her pockets and wearing a coat, scolding Ya Ping.
Yaping had been crouching down, calling out to Lijuan, when suddenly he straightened up, stood up, and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Lijuan, open the door! My book is inside, let me in to get it!" He also pounded harder on the door.
There was no response from inside.
"Open the door!" Ya Ping pounded on the door and even kicked it.
"She won't open it, but you insist on making her open it! What important book is it? Can't we get it tomorrow morning? Go back to sleep!" Ya Ping's mother ordered, raising her voice significantly.
Yaping went back to her bedroom.
Lijuan lay on the sofa in the study, reading a novel while sucking on a preserved plum. Her expression was stern. Her current concern was how she would sleep that night; the April weather was still quite cold, and without a blanket, she would freeze to death.
"It's my home, I can sleep wherever I want. I'll go back to my bedroom as soon as the old lady falls asleep," Lijuan thought.
It was two in the morning. Lijuan could barely keep her eyes open. She turned off the light and headed to the bedroom. She thought to herself: If Li Yaping dares to lock the door, I'll divorce him tomorrow! Who's afraid of who?
With a turn of the handle, the door opened silently. Lijuan felt a surge of joy, a warm feeling welling up inside her. What a wonderful husband! If her mother-in-law weren't here, she'd kiss him to death!
Lijuan tiptoed into bed and placed her cold little feet on Yaping's stomach. Yaping, still half-asleep, grasped Lijuan's feet, rubbed them gently, then pulled her head to his chest and kissed her forehead. Everything was understood without words.
"I want to be a good wife, just to make Yaping happy," Lijuan told herself.
The next morning, Lijuan happily ran downstairs and saw her mother-in-law bent over tidying the refrigerator. She unusually greeted her warmly, "Mom! Good morning!" The resentment that had been building up in Yaping's mother's chest vanished with just that one "Mom." She had initially resolved to be rude to her daughter-in-law, but suddenly her heart softened. "She's such a child, she doesn't hold grudges!" Yaping's mother's expression, which had been like 8:20 a.m. moments before, suddenly changed to 10:10 a.m., and she turned around with a smile, saying, "Get up! Have breakfast! The porridge is still warm! Yaping just left."
"It's too late, I'm going to be late! I'll get up early to eat tomorrow."
"How can you go without eating something in the morning? You'll get sick from hunger!"
"I have cookies in my office! Bye-bye!" Lijuan hurried out the door.
Yaping's mother said to Yaping's father, who was sitting at the dining table, "At the end of the day, she's just a child. She doesn't know any better and needs to be taught. She's really naive. She just says what she means and then forgets. We adults shouldn't stoop to her level, right?"
"What did she say?"
"Last night, when you went out for a walk, she wanted Yaping... Never mind. It's a small matter. But our Yaping, he's not manly enough, he can't really keep his wife in check."
“No one should try to control anyone else, just live a good life. Your words are biased. If it were your daughter, you'd be worried that she wouldn't be able to control her husband. A mother's heart is always biased,” said Yaping's father.
Early one weekend morning, Lijuan went back to her parents' home. As soon as she entered, she collapsed onto the large bed, pretending to be asleep. "It's exhausting! Between work and home, I wish I could stay home and be a daughter, with my parents supporting me and not having to worry about anyone else's attitude," Lijuan said with a sigh.
"What's wrong? Did Grandma upset you?" Lijuan's mother was particularly sensitive.
"No, that's not true. My mother-in-law is very good; she takes care of everything. When I came over today, she was still at home taking down and washing the curtains. She didn't need my help at all. I was talking about her workplace; the boss is difficult to deal with. The second boss's demands are like Zhu Jianhua's high jump—they're constantly changing."
"It's normal to be paid to be bossed around. Now you know how hard it is to keep your job, right? We've been supporting you and letting you spend your parents' money, and you think their money falls from the sky like snow, without knowing how hard it is. Young lady, you need to be quick-witted and keep up with what the leader is thinking, and it's best to think ahead of the leader."
"Thinking you're ahead of the boss? You don't want to live anymore! Even if you think of it, you have to pretend you didn't. If you're higher up than the boss, who would dare hire you?"