A surreal silence enveloped the car as they left the city, driving up the winding mountain road lined with sturdy junipers towards the summit. Xie Jiayi reclined his seat and lay back like a drifting leaf. Through the tinted window, the outside world looked gray; with a press of a button, he could see clearly in seconds, but he found he lacked the courage. He lacked the courage to seek the truth; a visit back home could reveal if Aunt Yun’s illness coincided with their argument. If so, how would he deal with this answer that was four years late? Forgetting the harm Lai Fei had caused him was something he prided himself on. When he had crawled out from under the influence of cigarettes and alcohol, cleaned himself up, and stood before others, he felt everyone should praise him: look how hard he had tried! He had always thought so, believing his cool-headedness, rationality, and quick recovery from wounds were his pride. When he met Lai Fei again after returning to the country, he forgave her from the perspective of the wronged, feeling he deserved commendation for his magnanimity. But if it turned out he was just fooling himself, what would become of his pride? How laughable would his magnanimity be? He had no desire to hate himself. Let’s just pretend we know nothing! With that thought, he started the car. At the junction, the signpost directed left to the city center, right to the airport highway. His heart swung like a pendulum, left, right. He felt sick; he had convinced himself after so much psychological preparation, only to waver at the sight of a signpost. He decided not to give himself the chance to regret, turned the steering wheel right, and merged onto the city route. But after driving for just a minute, he slammed on the brakes, reversed back, called his secretary to retrieve his car from the airport, and then sped off towards the airport.
The relationship between Zhou Yuqian and Li Yueqin had been tumultuous this past month, turning their home into a battleground, with kitchen utensils now serving as weapons. This latest quarrel was sparked when Li Yueqin asked, “Why didn’t you come home last week?” Zhou Yuqian didn’t respond. She lowered her voice and asked again, “Don’t you love me anymore?” Zhou Yuqian still didn’t answer. Feeling she had humbled herself to talk to him, and he was still indifferent, she slammed the bowl down with a “bang” and resorted to her old lines: “I gave up my career for you, willingly became a housewife, and this is how you treat me. People say once you have something, you stop valuing it, and I didn’t believe it…” Zhou Yuqian picked up a napkin, gracefully wiped his mouth, and interrupted, “In our first year of marriage, you said you didn’t believe it. Now, in our seventh year, if you still believe it, that would be a ghost.” With an angry swipe, the tablecloth was flung aside, and an expensive set of Versace tableware shattered on the floor, but she didn’t care; there was still a set of Hermès in the kitchen. The war resumed; the German Zwilling knife and fork transformed into weapons. Zhou Yuqian snatched them away, but Li Yueqin took the opportunity to slap him across the face. Zhou Yuqian stood far away, the air dropping below zero, each word he spoke freezing into ice: “Do you think you’re worth my love?” He moved to the Nanling villa, abandoning the last of his hopes and deciding to divorce. Li Yueqin had finally succeeded in driving Zhou Yuqian to his mistress and received the divorce agreement sent by Zhou Yuqian’s lawyer. Besides a generous alimony that allowed her to indulge herself, she also got a house. Suddenly, she woke up to reality: Zhou Yuqian was no longer the man who proposed to her with a diamond ring before marriage; she was not the precious gem more valuable than diamonds, nor the admired Li Yueqin, now thirty, fading in beauty. Over the seven years of their marriage, they had spent six years arguing, what could be more wasteful than that? She did not sign the divorce agreement but had her lawyer convey to Zhou Yuqian that they should both calm down for a while. Clearly, she did not realize that the one who most needed to calm down was herself. This war had no winners, including Lai Hui, although in the eyes of others, she seemed to have gained a great deal. In reality, she was quite depressed; previously, Zhou Yuqian visited only two or three times a week, but now he was there every night. It was like a laid-back employee suddenly getting a strict new boss; besides not being able to slack off, she had to work overtime day and night, the only benefit being overtime pay, which she didn’t need. By the weekend, Lai Hui woke up, clutching her forehead in agony, with Zhou Yuqian’s arms around her, making her reluctant to get up for fear of waking him. Her Saturdays used to be her day off, but now… She couldn’t remember how many nights Zhou Yuqian had spent here; if this continued, she was considering telling her benefactor, even at the risk of offending him, that she didn’t want to work overtime anymore.
“Are you awake?” Zhou Yuqian loosened his grip, stretching.
“Hmm, just woke up!” Lai Hui quickly got up, opened the wardrobe to get her clothes.
“You can sleep a bit more; I’ll call you when breakfast is ready!”
“No need, pass me my clothes!” Zhou Yuqian sat up, rubbing his hair.
“Do you have any business to attend to today?”
“No.” Lai Hui handed him a set of beige casual clothes, then went to the door to retrieve the morning newspaper from the mailbox, placed it on the coffee table in the living room, brewed coffee, and then turned to the kitchen to prepare breakfast. On this sunny morning, Lai Hui poured soaked rice into a pot simmering with red beans and lotus seeds, took out ham, cucumber, and kelp from the refrigerator, and skillfully sliced them into thin strips. Zhou Yuqian, sitting in the living room with his feet propped up, sipping coffee, and reading the newspaper, looked very natural, as if it were home. However, Lai Hui felt she was just fulfilling her duty, while Zhou Yuqian thought — this place was much more serene and peaceful than home!
After breakfast, Lai Hui was washing dishes in the kitchen when Zhou Yuqian, for the first time, walked in and stood behind her, saying, “A bowl is broken!”
Lai Hui picked up the bowls from the water, inspecting each one. “No, they all seem fine.”
Zhou Yuqian found the bowl he had just used, pointing to a chipped edge. “Isn’t this one?”
“It’s not broken, just a little chipped, hardly counts as broken.” Lai Hui took the bowl back, rinsed it, placed it in the sterilizer, and started cleaning the kitchenware.
“Let’s go buy a new set of tableware later.” Zhou Yuqian felt that since she was cooking personally, it was necessary to buy a decent set of tableware, which shouldn’t be worse than what was broken at home.
Lai Hui paused her wiping, looking at him in surprise. “You’re coming with me to buy tableware?” Seeing Zhou Yuqian looking a bit embarrassed, she thought he must have been kicked in the head by a donkey, his mind clouded, and quickly added tactfully, “Even if this bowl is broken, in an ordinary household, a chipped bowl is still used; it’s just for eating, as long as it can hold food, there’s no need to buy a new one!”
“Don’t women believe that eating with beautiful brand-name tableware increases their appetite?” This was something his wife used to say; even the toilet paper had to be a brand name, otherwise, it was to blame for her constipation.
“Would you have a bigger appetite if I served you raw pork on a VERSACE plate, eating it with the skin and all?” Had he been stepped on by a horse? He was actually discussing tableware and appetite with her in the kitchen, a topic typically reserved for women.
