Chapter 19: What Kind of Creature Did You Marry?

When Xia Xiaoqi heard Qiao Ran was going back to her parents’ home, she insisted on going along, despite not being fully recovered.

She was like a child clamoring to visit someone else’s house.

It wasn’t that Xiaoqi couldn’t bear to be away from Qiao Ran. Lying around at home all day was driving her out of her mind. No television, no phone, and no social life. She could be a lazy fish, but not a dead one.

“Let her come,” Qiao Ran told Lu Xiangnan. “Look at her. She’s pitiful.”

In all his life, Xiangnan had never heard of a married couple bringing the husband’s sister-in-law along on a visit to the wife’s parents.

Liu Chunhua objected too. “Why are you going? People will laugh at us. Who ever heard of a younger sister-in-law tagging along when her husband’s elder brother visits his wife’s mother?”

“I’m going with my elder sister-in-law,” Xiaoqi retorted. “You village people have such dirty minds.”

Whatever they said, Chunhua refused to agree. She was afraid the villagers would laugh and point fingers behind their backs.

“Let’s put it to a family vote,” she proposed. “The minority follows the majority.”

As if that were fair. Leaving aside which side Xiangnan would take, she and her two daughters already outnumbered Xiaoqi and Qiao Ran.

Who did the old woman think she was fooling?

“No need for that nonsense. I’m going to my own home, and I’ll take whoever I want.” Qiao Ran turned to Xiaoqi. “Go wash your face and put on something pretty.”

“All right!”

Those two really were united. Chunhua could only pin her hopes on her son. “Xiangnan, say something.”

“Then let her come with us.”

Chunhua was speechless. So now the three of them were on the same side?

After washing, Xiaoqi applied Qiuyue face powder in front of the mirror. Cosmetics in 1978 contained no fluorescent agents or carcinogens; the powder was fine and fragrant, like baby powder. It made her skin look fair and felt comfortable too.

What a shame, she thought. Why had they stopped making it later?

As she applied lipstick, Xiaoling stood on tiptoe, gripping the cabinet with both hands and watching enviously. “Second Aunt, can you put some on me?”

“Of course.”

Xiaoqi bent down and applied it. Xiaoling kept her lips puckered for the entire morning.

Chunhua scolded her in irritation. “You little rascal, learning bad habits from your second aunt.”

Shanghe Village lay at the upper reaches of the Xiangshui River. Walking there from Geshi Village meant passing through two villages and three hamlets, a journey of more than an hour.

Xiangnan pushed his bicycle, with several mooncakes wrapped in brown paper and a bottle of liquor hanging from the handlebars.

Qiao Ran and Xiaoqi walked behind him, deliberately slowing to put some distance between them.

“Sweetie, going back could give you away,” Xiaoqi said.

“It’s fine. I’ll deny everything. I’m Qiao Ni now. No matter how I’ve changed, I’m still Qiao Ni.”

The moment she finished, Xiangnan stopped ahead of them.

“Why aren’t you walking?” Qiao Ran asked.

He looked calm. “I can’t find the way. You two go ahead.”

Qiao Ran stared at him. *Well played.*

“Bestie,” Xiaoqi whispered, “what kind of creature did you marry?”

Facing the fork in the road, the friends looked at each other. Which way? Rock-paper-scissors, or a counting-out game?

“Go right,” Xiaoqi whispered in Qiao Ran’s ear.

“Why?”

“Men go left, women go right.”

“Get lost!” Qiao Ran rolled her eyes. Her silly friend was only making things worse.

Her mind raced for several seconds. Then she folded her arms and turned angrily to Xiangnan.

“You don’t love me,” she said reproachfully.

His eyelids twitched. He had a bad feeling about this.

“I’ve been married to you so long, working like an ox for your family without complaint, and you can’t even find the way to my parents’ home. Your heart isn’t with me at all. What’s the point of living like this? You’ve never loved me.”

Xiaoqi watched in awe. Her friend was astonishing at turning a small matter into a matter of principle. No wonder her family had been in politics for generations.

Xiangnan applied his scientific mind to the problem for a long moment, but still couldn’t understand how finding a road had become a question of love.

He sighed helplessly. “Go right.”

“You walk in front. I want to see whether you can actually find my home.” Qiao Ran spoke with such confidence that she sounded as if she really were testing him.

Xiaoqi secretly gave her a thumbs-up. Her best friend was incredible!

Shanghe Village was poorer than Geshi. The crooked mud-and-thatch houses made that plain.

Someone like Xiangnan, pushing a bicycle laden with gifts into the village, immediately attracted the attention normally reserved for a rich man. Everyone sitting or standing outside a courtyard turned to look.

“Oh, isn’t that Qiao Ni?”

“It is. She looks thinner.”

“She must not be doing well with her husband’s family.”

“I hear her husband’s educated, a teacher. He must look down on her.”

The gossips’ voices drifted in and out with the autumn wind.

Explaining a rumor was useless. The way to defeat one was to start another.

Qiao Ran smiled at one of the women. “Auntie, how is your husband doing after that business?”

The woman stared. “What business?”

“You know. That business.” Qiao Ran was deliberately mysterious.

Xiaoqi added fuel to the fire. “I heard you mention it. What a misfortune for the family.”

Shaking their heads, the friends walked past the gossips.

At once, the women found a new subject.

“Lihua, what’s wrong with your Fugui?”

“I thought he was acting strange a few days ago, laughing all the time. What happened?”

Lihua looked ready to cry. “Nothing happened.”

“Could he be hiding something from you?”

Lihua thought about it, then stormed home. Had that wretched man been carrying on with Widow Wang in the village?

The whole village was poor, but Qiao Ni’s home was especially so: a low, sagging thatched hut that looked as if a strong wind could blow it over.

The courtyard wall was built of mud and straw, and the woven willow gate had warped from wind, rain, and sun.

Looking over the wall, Qiao Ran saw a middle-aged woman sitting by the door washing clothes.

How should she behave naturally once inside? Throw herself into “Mom’s” arms and wail? Or jump up and down with excitement?

When they entered the courtyard, Ma Xiuyan looked up at the sound.

“It’s your mother,” Xiangnan told Qiao Ran.

Her peach-blossom eyes widened. “Do I need you to tell me? Wouldn’t I recognize my own mother?”

“Mom…” She’d only just begun in a coaxing voice when the woman threw the clothes into the basin with a sour face, got up, and went inside.

Qiao Ran was speechless.

What was that look for? She looked constipated. Was she a stepmother?