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1. My in-laws came.

Xiao Lijuan's online name is "Give Me a Little Sunshine and I'll Shine." She loves to laugh, and when she laughs, her pink gums peek out from her thin lips, revealing her slightly yellowed tetracycline-stained teeth. She laughs because there are so many things to be happy about every day. For example, last month, after a spring rain, the ground was damp, and she could see the grass seedlings, which had been dormant for a year, stirring with anticipation even through the cold road. Or, for example, the newspaper's canteen will reopen next week after renovations. Although the food might be as bad as ever—the decor is different, but the chefs and the soup are the same—at least she won't have to travel five miles to find a clean noodle stall, which makes her quite happy.

Xiao Lijuan's good mood suddenly turned gloomy. Ever since her mother-in-law and father-in-law arrived, they've been like a dark cloud under the sun—not too big, not too small, just right to block out the sun. And this cloud has just happened to block out all the brilliance.

Before leaving get off work, my colleague, carrying his bag and locking his drawer, was on his phone making dinner appointments. While dialing and waiting for the call to end, he said to Lijuan, "I'm so envious! I can go home and eat a ready-made meal! Bye-bye!" Mosu grinned and said, "Bye."

II. First Arrival

Before her in-laws arrived, her husband, Yaping, had informed Lijuan. Yaping said, "My parents want to come and visit. Last time I told them we were so busy with work that we didn't even have time to eat a meal, so they came to help us out. They haven't come to see the new house since they helped with the down payment!" Lijuan happily replied, "Great! Come on over! It'll be easier to have someone at home while I'm at work. Just say you're welcome!"

Yaping said, "I knew you were nice. I told them a long time ago, and Lijuan has been looking forward to their arrival! They'll be here tomorrow afternoon." "Huh?...! What's this all about? My welcoming is my own decision, why do I need you to represent me? You should at least have informed me beforehand!" Lijuan suddenly felt her enthusiasm was somewhat presumptuous. Actually, whether she welcomed them or not, they could come and go as they pleased. Their parents generously donated 20,000 yuan for the down payment of 150,000 yuan, so naturally they had the right to that 20,000 yuan. If that right were viewed in isolation as 20,000 yuan, it wouldn't seem like much, but that 20,000 yuan was part of the down payment. Adding the entire loan, that's 500,000 yuan. If she lacked that 20,000 yuan, she could only afford a 430,000 yuan house. And if she could only afford a 430,000 yuan house, she couldn't choose the large 6th or 7th floor apartment on the east side; she could only live on the second floor on the west side. And this 20,000 yuan was such a timely, farsighted, and timely solution to an immediate problem. Even if it had been six months later, after the Expo site was chosen, the house wouldn't have cost 500,000 yuan, but 1 million! So, for Lijuan's new home, this 20,000 yuan is more than just 20,000 yuan. From an economic perspective, it's a huge return on a small investment, potentially 500,000 yuan or even more. From a historical perspective, it's a turning point, playing an irreplaceable role in a crucial battle. From a mechanical perspective, it's a case of using minimal effort to achieve maximum results. From an emotional perspective, it's a lifetime of gratitude. The difference is immense!

This was certainly not Lijuan's idea. Lijuan thought that 20,000 was 20,000. They had decided to buy a house, and his parents had agreed to sponsor 20,000, which she was very grateful for, and she planned to repay it with interest later. However, from the time they bought the house to the non-stop renovations, running themselves ragged and climbing stairs at a snail's pace, the two of them lost a total of 8 kilograms. In the year and a half leading up to their move-in, the words Lijuan most often heard Yaping say on the phone were: "Consider the house a joint-stock company! You're the original major shareholder! Come over and visit as soon as we're done! Stay whenever you want, this was originally your home. This 20,000 has covered the entire living room floor! If it weren't for your 20,000, we would be..." Later, Lijuan discovered that... The invitation remained largely the same, except for the phrases: "The wiring for the house will cost 20,000!" "The lighting and bathroom fixtures will cost 20,000!" "A set of kitchen cabinets will cost 20,000!" "The wall paint will cost 20,000!" and so on. Then, the elderly couple on the other end of the phone probably grinned, happily imagining Lijuan's house. They bought the lights, the flooring, the doors, the furniture—even the paint, nails, handles, mirrors, sofa cushions—anything that could add up to 20,000 yuan, was paid for by them. Lijuan listened to Yaping's humility and patience as he chatted with his mother, and the increasingly opulent house made her feel guilty as she looked around. A sense of unease crept in, making Lijuan wonder—did she really save up for every single wire and brick in this house?

Yaping kept excitedly reporting the latest housing prices: "That unsold apartment across the street, nobody wanted it, but it sold last week! And it cost over 800,000 yuan! It's only 80 square meters!" "They've developed a residential complex on that wasteland three streets away! The location is worse! It's all in Nanhui County, and they dare to ask for 7,000 yuan per square meter!" Lijuan, having heard this many times, knew exactly what her in-laws were going to say: "Luckily, we made the decisive move and scraped together 20,000 yuan! Look! Look! Good heavens!"

Yaping's parents clearly had the right to not only discuss but also notify, not to give advance notice but to conduct random inspections, visiting their son's home at any time. From the far-off Northeast, across the Great Wall, over the Yellow River, and across the zero-degree isotherm, they headed straight for Shanghai on the banks of the Yangtze River.

In other words, while Lijuan was bent over, sweating profusely in the chilly April weather, cleaning the two-story house in the middle of the night, her parents-in-law had already been on a two-day journey and were about to arrive the next afternoon!

“Let’s go to the train station together tomorrow,” Yaping said to Lijuan as he cleaned the refrigerator and sorted through the old stuff inside, such as apples that had been sitting out all winter, dried-out celery, and expired soy milk. It was 1:30 in the morning, and the two of them were still doing a thorough cleaning. As Yaping put it, his mother couldn’t tolerate any imperfections. So, Lijuan had no choice but to keep cleaning with a rag in her hand.

"No way! Why didn't you tell me sooner? I have a manuscript to finish tomorrow afternoon, and the pages are all waiting. How can I just not go? You can handle it by yourself, why do we have to go together?"

"How could you do this? This is our parents' first time visiting! If you don't even welcome them, they'll start to have second thoughts. Do they think you're not welcoming them? Work-related matters, no matter how big, are minor; family matters, no matter how small, are major. As their daughter-in-law, you should at least make a good impression for the first couple of days!"

"Hey! Hey! Let me make this clear, whose parents? Your parents! Don't use the word 'we,' it's ambiguous. My parents even came over to play mahjong last week! Yes! My job isn't important, your parents are. No problem, I'll quit my job tomorrow to pick them up. It's just two or three thousand yuan a month! It's nothing compared to how happy they are!"

"Look at you! What kind of attitude is that! Come here, let me kiss you. After tomorrow, I'll have to hide in the bathroom to even kiss you! Come on! Hurry up!..." "Go away! Your head and face are covered in dust, people think you're filthy, don't come near me!"

The next day, Lijuan still met Yaping at the south exit of the train station on time, anxiously waiting for the train that was already 50 minutes late. Of course, she didn't quit her job, and she finished her work; what she sacrificed was Lijuan's precious sleep that morning.

So, while waiting for the bus, Lijuan's mouth, like a fish washed ashore by a huge wave, kept yawning, opening and closing. "Why aren't we here yet? What time will it be? Can I lean on your broad shoulder and sleep for a while, my dear husband?" Lijuan was a typical Shanghai girl, shrewd and capable in public, but coquettish and delicate in private, with a stutter or deliberately sticking her tongue out a little longer. Husband—she didn't say "husband," she pronounced it as "brain work."

three.

This wasn't the first time Lijuan had seen her in-laws. Every time she saw them, she felt like they were bears that had just crawled out of a cave in the dead of winter.

Last time I went back to Northeast China with Yaping, it was right around the Lunar New Year, and it was so cold! My parents were bundled up in layers upon layers, so thick you couldn't even see their eyebrows. This time in Shanghai, it's already April, and they're still wearing padded jackets and trousers, looking so heavy. Especially my mother-in-law, whose build doesn't look like that of a Northeasterner to begin with; she looks thin and frail, and with all that stuff, she looked like she was about to collapse under the weight of her padded jacket. My father-in-law, as always, swung his arms ahead, leaving my mother-in-law carrying large and small bags, her back drooping as she walked.

Compared to her mother-in-law, Lijuan, dressed in leather boots, a leather miniskirt, and only a thin cashmere coat, seemed to live on the equator.

"Mom! Let me do it! Lijuan, help Mom carry the bag!" Yaping not only took care of everything himself, but also fully mobilized his wife's enthusiasm. "Mom, give me your bag!" "It's not heavy, I can carry two in one hand! Thank you, thank you, I'll carry it myself, I'll carry it myself!" The two were like they were fighting, and in the end, Lijuan was given the lightest black shoulder bag by her mother-in-law.

As soon as they entered the house, the mother-in-law threw her bag on the ground and began to carefully examine the house. Yaping was very attentive, holding his mother's hand and introducing everything one by one, as if he wanted to tear open the painted wall so his mother could see the electrical wires buried underneath or take apart the cabinet to see the toilet pipes.

Lijuan wasn't used to Yaping's excessive attentiveness. It wasn't like he was treating her own parents; it was more like he was treating some important client. Besides bowing and scraping, he always addressed her with the honorific "you," saying things like, "Please be careful!" "Look!" "This way, it's bright here!" It seemed too hypocritical to her own mother. Anyway, as soon as Lijuan got home, she'd shout, "Mom! I'm starving! I want braised chicken feet!" If her mother put chicken feet in her bowl, she'd scold her playfully, "What are you doing? Can't I pick them out myself?!"

Yaping's mother also had a naturally smiling face, with a pointed chin that would squint into a kind slit when she smiled, much like the movie actress Zheng Zhenyao. When Lijuan first visited Yaping's home, Yaping's mother held her hand and scrutinized her closely, as if she wanted to wrap her in a large blanket from head to toe, afraid she would catch a cold. She kept asking, "Are you cold? Hungry? Tired?" Lijuan hadn't said much to Yaping's mother when Yaping's mother turned to Yaping and said, "You're quite something, lad! Such a beautiful daughter-in-law, pretty and caring, and a girl from Shanghai. You can't mistreat her, I won't allow it! Lijuan is a good girl, I like her!" This first encounter between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law went incredibly smoothly, and both sides had a very good impression of each other. When Lijuan returned home, she told her mother, "I don't want you anymore! I have a new mother, she's so good to me, she treats me even better than her own daughter. I don't want to live with you anymore, I want to live with my mother-in-law." As she spoke, she hugged her mother's neck and shook her back and forth.

Her mother maintained her cold expression and replied indifferently, "Hmph, a thousand days of kindness are not as good as a smile from someone else. Daughters can't be tamed, they're so cheap. Go away! I just hope you don't come back crying to me later. Hmph! You probably haven't experienced the suffering of a mother-in-law. If you're really lucky, it's my good fortune from my past life. But I'm afraid she's a smiling tiger who'll devour you without spitting out the bones."

Lijuan's mother was a typical Shanghai lower-middle-class woman, raised in the alleyways, and always swearing. Even when expressing affection, she used vulgar words. "You little brat!" "You spoiled brat!" "You filthy bitch!" Lijuan grew up surrounded by these ever-changing nicknames from her mother, all revolving around the word "bitch." Basically, apart from teachers, classmates, and colleagues calling her Lijuan, she didn't have a proper name at home.

"Don't call me that!" As Lijuan grew older, she forbade her mother to call her that. She felt incredibly embarrassed. Although her mother was careful not to call her by her real name in front of her classmates, everyone in the alley knew how her mother addressed her. As a grown girl, she couldn't help but feel ashamed. When Yaping first visited Lijuan's house, Lijuan's mother, taking advantage of Yaping's inability to understand Shanghainese, talked about her daughter's boyfriend with an old neighbor in the communal kitchen on the first floor of the alley, calling him "bitch" repeatedly. Lijuan, fearing Yaping would eventually understand, locked the door and warned her mother as soon as Yaping left: "If you call me 'bitch' again, I won't acknowledge you!" Lijuan's mother was unfazed and retorted: "Having a boyfriend is nothing! Even if you become First Lady Hillary, you're still a little filthy slut from my vagina! I'll still call you that, I'll still call you that!" Lijuan turned and left, not returning home for a month.

Lijuan brought Yaping home out of necessity. That day, their neighbor Xiaohua's mother saw them walking arm in arm on the street, and Lijuan knew that her mother would find out before she even got home.

"This girl's got guts now! Walking around with a white-haired guy, who is she? She won't even tell anyone when she gets back. She might lose money and her boyfriend." "What nonsense are you talking about? I knew you weren't serious. She was just having a proper boyfriend-chasing." "Who is she? A boss? A green card holder? A rich kid?" "Why are you so materialistic? All you talk about is going abroad, money, no questions asked. Just a working-class person. An ordinary person." "Hey! Help me out! Are you out of your mind? If you threw a brick down Huaihai Road and hit 10 people, 5 bosses, 4 foreigners, how come you managed to take the only one home? Xiao Fang, who looks like a chamber pot, even hooked up with a foreigner. I bet she's only ever saying 'I love you'." "Yo, bye-bye, hello, you can't do anything. Girls like that all end up marrying in America. I raised you to college, and you can't even wash a handkerchief. And you're going to end up with some country bumpkin?! I think all your education went to your ass. The more you read, the more rusty your brain becomes. What does he do?" "He works in computers. He graduated from Jiaotong University." "So what if he graduated from Jiaotong University? Throw a brick down Huaihai Road, and you'll see five computer guys, four in foreign trade, either from Jiaotong or Fudan. Does that blind you?" "It's none of your business how I date! I like what I like. Find someone you want! Don't you even look at your belly? You buy three XLs of pants! Someone like you, and you still have standards for men? If you're so capable, you can seduce foreigners. How did you end up with my dad? All you do is brag."

"You brat, do you even know what it means to keep up with the times? Back in our day, your dad was considered well-off! He had a stable job, skills, and no mother to rely on. When I found him, people were envious! Going abroad wasn't common back then. If it were, do you think I wouldn't have found someone? If I had, would I have a spendthrift like you to waste money? I'm giving you guidance and setting requirements, isn't it all for your own good? Isn't it because I'm worried you'll suffer after you marry him? How much does he earn?" "It's not time to ask yet! How could I possibly ask him?" "That's all..." "You dare talk without asking him anything? Just look at his clothes, his eyes narrowed, and I can pretty much guess what he's got. Do you have savings? Is there a valve on your house?" "I don't know. Write down what you want to know on a piece of paper, and I'll ask him point by point. Once I've got it all, I'll have him sign and fingerprint it and send it over for you to see." "No need, just bring it over next week. I'll interrogate him for you, and I'll understand everything." "Go away, you'll scare him away." "Don't worry, I've been through so much in my life. If I can't handle this, I'll crawl like a tortoise."

When Yaping first visited, Lijuan's mother even went to the small shop near the entrance to spend 10 yuan to have her hair blow-dried, and Lijuan's father happily cooked his signature eel soup and salt and pepper yellow croaker. Yaping, head down, climbed the steep wooden stairs, smelling the musty odor of a mixture of stray cat feces and urine, and arrived at Lijuan's pigeon coop. The room wasn't large, a large room with a small partitioned room. It was crammed full of things, but not cluttered, and quite tidy. The furniture was clearly pieced together from different eras; there were camphor wood chests perched on the small attic, and a 29-inch color TV stacked in the gap between a chest of drawers and a general store cabinet. It was obvious that the family wasn't well-off.

"Come, come, sit down! You must be Xiao Li?" "Auntie!" "I'm sorry, our place is small. That's how houses are in Shanghai! Our place is considered good, though. It's the Liu family on the first and a half floor, three generations have lived together for decades! But our location is great! We can walk all the way to Huaihai Road. Now the demolition is even reaching the site of the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and in less than two years it will be our house! Don't underestimate this house! I wouldn't move here unless they gave me a three-bedroom apartment!" Ya Ping smiled.

"Judging from your accent, you're from out of town?" "Yes, I'm from Mudanjiang." "Which river?" "Mudanjiang." "Where is Mudanjiang? Is it far from Beijing?" Lijuan's father couldn't help but interject, "Peony! Henan peonies! The place where Empress Wu Zetian said all the peonies would bloom! Don't you know that?"

Yaping quickly interjected, "It's not the peony from Henan, it's from Mudanjiang City in Heilongjiang Province."

"You think you're so smart! You know what a peony is? Or did you mispronounce it? Go cook your meals properly, stop running up and down! Oh my! Heilongjiang! Where is that? That's so far! How did you end up here? It must have been tough! Do you have relatives here?" "No, I came here after passing the university entrance exam." "That must have been tough! If you didn't have connections in Shanghai, you definitely wouldn't have been able to stay." "No, I got the job through a job fair." "What company do you work for? I know you work with computers, that's a popular job, but too many people study it." "Shanda Company, a computer game company." "Oh, games? For kids? I know, there are so many internet cafes near my house, a bunch of hooligans play those. Murder games, shooting games, bang bang bang, it makes my head spin just walking by! How can they make money like that?!" "I don't know." "I'm a tech guy, I really don't know much about the market." "Technologists make a living through hard work, just like Lijuan's father, always busy, but happy when things are slow. At his shipyard, whenever a ship comes back for repairs, he doesn't sleep for days and nights! But the income is decent, not rich, but not starving. What about you? Are you busy?" "Pretty busy." "Young people, being busy is good, you learn something that's yours, and you earn more! These days, people aren't afraid of being busy, they're afraid of being idle. How's the pay where you are?" "It's alright, about 5000 a month." "5000? That's not much! Is that all you get after graduating from university? Xiao Wu next door drives a taxi, he works hard and earns about that much a month! Studying too much is a waste! It's better to start working and earning money early. What's the point of studying so much? Don't you think so?" Yaping nodded awkwardly, unsure how to respond.

“If studying doesn’t make money, then why did you absolutely refuse to let me go to a vocational school back then?” “Oh dear, you can’t say that! Your mother has such good foresight. If you had really gone to a vocational school back then, wouldn’t every factory you were assigned to have gone bankrupt? Girls, the higher you study, the higher you can climb! If you can study, of course I’ll let you study. If you can’t continue studying, you’ll have to become a factory worker.”

"Where are your parents? What do they do for a living? Are they in good health?"

"An ordinary worker. The factory was in a bad situation, so my mother took early retirement, and my father will retire in a year. My mother runs a small business in our hometown, making Spring Festival couplets and New Year pictures. I also have an older sister who works in Harbin."

"oh."

After Lijuan's mother said "oh," her face suddenly darkened. She stopped trying to make conversation and started working on her own tasks. "Lijuan, tell your dad to finish up! What time is it? The guests are getting impatient. Don't keep cooking so many dishes; just make sure there's something to eat. They're not some big shot."

Lijuan rolled her eyes at her mother. "Rice soaked in hot water is fine, it's the cheapest." "There's nothing wrong with rice soaked in hot water. Don't be so naive. You're not in charge of the household, so you don't know the value of money. When you get married, you'll have to pay for the house and furniture. Every penny will be saved from what you eat. You're lucky if you can eat rice soaked in hot water in the future. You chose this yourself." Lijuan's mother said this in Shanghainese.

"You blind little brat! Picking and choosing this guy, what's so good about him? He's just a bit short and looks good, and a bit tall?" No sooner had Yaping left than Lijuan's mother yelled, before the door was even fully closed. "You'll be living a life from now on. What good is good looks? I'll pass on my life experience to you for free: A man should be capable, not just good-looking! Good looks cause trouble! Wasn't Napoleon short? He was a king! Wasn't Deng Xiaoping short? He was a chairman! A handsome man is a useless piece of trash, a beautiful woman is just a vase, understand?"

"Isn't Yao Ming tall, handsome, and rich? You're just bringing up the short ones." "Yao Ming? I'd love to marry him. Are you even good enough for him? Ye Li is over 1.8 meters tall and she's still being squeezed under his armpits, while you, even in stilts, could barely reach his waist. Stop talking nonsense. Let me tell you! Don't even think about this marriage. Break it off as soon as possible!"

“It’s fine to cut it off. You can support me and my grandson.” Lijuan said, watching TV and cracking sunflower seeds without blinking.

"Huh?! What did you say?! You bastard! You...! Ugh! I've raised a money-losing brat! She's such a clingy thing. What am I going to do now?!"

Lijuan got married smoothly, even carrying 100,000 yuan—the wedding money her parents and brother had scraped together—in her pocket. Of course, the baby in her belly was a lie to her mother. By the time her mother realized what had happened, Lijuan had already obtained her marriage certificate and paid the down payment on a house. Everything was already set in stone.