Jia Xiufang was still on the phone going and on about it. Xiaoqian sat by her side observing the vestige of time on her mother’s face.
Her mother was a beautiful woman. She and Chen Lin had a romantic past. The dating scene in those days was very different from now. They were working in the production team. Those days they could only secretly send each other something to eat or a flying kiss. That was already considered ahead of their time.
“Fourth aunt, my daughter has done well…”
Jia Xiufang was just laughing and now she was crying.
Xiaoqian handed her a tissue. Jia Xiufang blew her nose with it and continued the conversation.
Xiaoqian looked at her mother. She was getting older and she never spent much on taking care of herself. She bought clothes from the street vendors. The cheap clothing faded after being washed and worn many times. She did not like to be wasteful and even ate the leftovers.
She gained weight because of that and even got sick later. She was constantly worrying and caring for others, but who has ever thanked her for it.
Jia Xiufang was not stupid. She was just a slave to traditional values. Most women believed that if they gave their all to the husbands and the families, they would be rewarded. Thus, losing themselves in the process.
In an imaginary world, you would receive the same amount of love that you gave. However, reality was cruel. Women sacrificed their youth for the family and were dumped in the end. Sometimes they were even left with nothing. Xiaoqian saw many cases like that.
Many upper-class women, who went to her seeking consultation, would cry and ask. They got together when they were young and she worked hard for him. The heartless fellow found a mistress and kicked her out. Why!
Xiaoqian always said, do not ask ‘why’ when a crisis happens in a marriage. Instead, you should ask ‘what should I do now’. Do not take the invisible conscience to measure against desire, which was visible.
Love is intangible, it can vanish just like that.
Money on the other hand is tangible. You can buy many things with it.
It is human nature to be bored with the old but fascinated with the new[1].
When people are in love, they say it is tacky to talk about money. When they fall out of love, they fight over this ‘tacky’ thing. Nobody remembers that they were once in love.
When Jia Xiufang sent food to Chen Lin secretly back then, did she ever think that Chen Lin would treat her so ruthlessly tens of years later?
Xiaoqian would like to know that if she married Yu Minglang in her previous life, what would they be like tens of years later.
They were both intelligent beings. She believed that if they were to fight it would be more intense than how her parents fought. Although Xiaoqian could be very crafty, she did not want to use them on Yu Minglang. That was her baseline. Furthermore, she strongly believed that If she were to be with Yu Minglang he would not betray her.
In her previous life, Yu Minglang spent his life looking for her. If Yu Minglang was undependable, she would not know who she would be.
When she thought about Yu Minglang, the urge to wash her hands popped up. She quickly went to the faucet and turned it on. She felt her daughter’s blood stained her hands and it was as though it was questioning her heart. A sinner like her did not deserve to have a new life.
She realized that her symptoms worsened when she came across Yu Minglang. It seemed fate kept bringing them together. She noticed that when she was with Yu Minglang, she had a harder time controlling her emotions. Thus her OCD would worsen, and could only control with medicine.
Xiaoqian knew very well that even if she takes the medicine, her OCD would still worsen. She could not treat her own OCD. There would be no use seeking help from other psychologists. As psychologists were just like doctors, once they got sick it would be untreatable. As they knew too much.
Chen Lin came down stairs with an angry face and stared at Xiaoqian with hatred in his eyes.
Xiaoqian wiped her hands with a towel and said, “Why don’t you look happy that I was admitted to the university?”
You do not say.
He was livid! Chen Ling wanted to slap Xiaoqian very badly.
“There’s no use being unhappy now. Mother called granny and told her about it. She was exhilarated.”
It was difficult to estimate the size of the shadow in Chen Lin’s heart.
Now that granny knew about it, he needed to do it.
Granny was different from Chen Lin, who favors the boys. She was rather open-minded. Granny used to take care of Xiaoqian when she was younger. Granny cared about Xiaoqian very much.
Chen Lin was stingy but he listened to granny. Now that granny knew about the admission, there was no turning back.
He stared angrily at Xiaoqian, turned and went out.
Jia Xiufang covered the phone and shouted, “Xiaoqian father, where are you going?”
All she got was a slam of the door.
Jia Xiufang hung up the phone.
“Qian’er, why is your father unhappy?”
It was such an auspicious moment that the daughter was admitted to a prestigious university. Why was Chen Lin not happy about it?
“Go upstairs and see if the passbook is there.”
Jia Xiufang was still confused about what was happening. Xiaoqian pushed her upstairs.
If she was right, Chen Lin would not come back for a few days.
Chen Lin had all the weaknesses of a man. Pervert, greedy, stingy, bullied the weak but feared the wicked[2], abusive, loved to gamble, and hid from problems.
He must have either gambled the money or spent it on his little lover. Then he was going to use the betrothal gift for something. Who knew that the engagement would dissolve. Plus, Xiaoqian played her trump card, the admission notice.
Chen Lin was not able to provide the tuition fee. He did not want to face the scolding from the relatives. Thus, he ran away. Maybe to play mahjong, maybe to see his little lover. Anyway, he would not be back before Xiaowian starts university.
“Ah!” Xiaoqian heard Jia Xiufang shout from upstairs. Xiaoqian raised the corner of her mouth and closed her eyes.
She was right! It’s the dark side of human nature.
Xiaoqian handed her some tissues, Jia Xiufang blew her nose vigorously while bawling uncontrollably.
She made a small mound of tissue.
“What do we do now? Your irresponsible father took the cash and passbook with him. There are only a few hundreds in the cupboard, how am I supposed to give you a party…”
Xiaoqian rolled her eyes: “You are worried about a party at a time like this?”
Her husband ran away and she was thinking about a party. The best thing that her mother did in this life was giving birth to a dependable daughter like her. She always missed the most important point of a matter and lived her life muddleheaded.
“Why not? When your cousin got into a college, your uncle had a party for two hundred people. He was cocky…and a few days ago, your aunt was talking in a disparaging tone about you. How dare she!”
“Shouldn’t you think about divorcing my father?” Xiaoqian could not stand it anymore.
Based on her mother’s intelligence, there must be something that caused her gene to mutate while being pregnant with her.
“Xian’er, what are you talking about?”
“Divorce! Provide the court with the evidence of him running away with the money, fight for the asset that you deserve!” Great change was about to happen. Xiaoqian would not let her mother go through this muddleheaded like previous life and left her with nothing.
“… What are you talking about!!! I would never divorce your father!” Jia Xiufang was stupefied.
She never thought about divorce.
[1] An idiom.
[2] An idiom, expressed how people oppress the good and timid but fear the stronger people.