Mid-Autumn Festival.
In the eastern room of the Zhao family home on Guosheng Hutong, the dining table was steaming with hot dishes.
The housekeeper brought in food, smiling as she said, “The four treasures meatballs that the elderly madam loves.”
Madam Zhou reached with her chopsticks and placed one in the elderly madam’s dish. “Mother, please try it.”
Zhao Ping Jin noticed the housekeeper still bustling about serving them. “Auntie, stop being so busy, sit down and eat with us.”
The elderly master sat at the head position, with the elderly madam beside him in the secondary seat. On the left was Teacher Zhou, and across from her sat the couple Zhao Ping Jin and his wife, along with Shen Min. One seat remained vacant.
The housekeeper’s Auntie acknowledged with a smile. For many years now, during festivals and holidays, the elderly master had always invited Auntie to join them. As she had aged, she no longer declined, taking the lowest position at the edge of the table. Her manners remained impeccable, never changing over the years. She now wiped her hands on her apron. “The crabs are steaming in the basket. I’ll check on them to make sure they don’t overcook.”
Madam Zhou called out, “Auntie, come back after you check, okay?”
For the Mid-Autumn Festival, Madam Zhou had returned from Nanjing, and the family was having a reunion dinner. Halfway through the meal, Teacher Zhou glanced at her son and daughter-in-law across the table. “You two have been married for almost half a year now. Any news?”
The elderly master had high cholesterol and had undergone several medical checkups in the first half of the year. The health doctor had strictly regulated his diet to be light. Now, during the festival, he was enjoying half a braised pork knuckle as a rare treat. While his daughter-in-law supervised his grandson, he remained silent, but his ears had long perked up.
Zhao Ping Jin merely glanced at his mother and casually replied, “What kind of news are you hoping for?”
Teacher Zhou placed her chopsticks on the table, neither too lightly nor too heavily, and glared at her son. “Your grandparents are waiting to hold a great-grandchild!”
The elderly madam looked up upon hearing this, showing a confused smile. “Zhou’er has married already? How did I not know this?”
Zhao Ping Jin laughed.
Yu Xiao Ying’s perpetually smiling face suddenly stiffened.
Madam Zhou, caught between laughter and exasperation, explained, “Mother, he got married at the beginning of the year. You’ve forgotten again. Your grandson’s wife, Ying’er, is sitting across from you.”
The elderly madam heard this and smiled happily. “Good, good, good.”
With the elderly madam’s interruption, Madam Zhou couldn’t pursue the topic further.
Yu Xiao Ying considerately smoothed things over. “Mother, please don’t worry.”
Teacher Zhou glared at Zhao Ping Jin. “I’ll spare you only for my daughter-in-law’s sake, otherwise I would give you a piece of my mind.”
The elderly master understood but didn’t speak, sitting unmoved. After some thought, he asked his daughter-in-law, “How is everyone in Nanjing, the second son?”
Madam Zhou answered, “Very well. Division Commander Fang from the 31st Group Army has been transferred to the Shanghai Garrison, and the Political Commissar has also been replaced.”
The elderly master had been retired for many years, but he was still well-informed about personnel changes in the military. “Is it the third son of the Fang family from the Joint Logistics Department?”
Madam Zhou replied, “Yes.”
The elderly master pondered for a moment. “He’s not that old, is he?”
Madam Zhou said, “Not young either, he’s even a few years older than Zhu Guo.”
The elderly master suddenly fell silent.
Madam Zhou, being perceptive, immediately understood. A few years older than Zhou’er’s father meant the elderly master was certainly reminded of his deceased eldest son, causing him sorrow.
Madam Zhou changed the subject with a smile. “Father, Pin Dong called home this morning. What did he tell you?”
Yu Xiao Ying respectfully listened as her mother-in-law and the elderly master chatted about matters from the south to her sister-in-law’s newly purchased house in America. These were matters in which she had no part to speak, so she turned to look at her husband beside her.
Zhao Ping Jin’s brows were slightly furrowed, his mind elsewhere.
After dinner, the young couple returned to their own home.
On the way back, Zhao Ping Jin drove with complete concentration, saying nothing throughout the journey.
Yu Xiao Ying sat in the passenger seat and suddenly said to him, “Zhou Zi, let’s have a child.”
Zhao Ping Jin’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. He had heard her, but he didn’t respond.
That evening, after Yu Xiao Ying had bathed, she went to the study where Zhao Ping Jin sat wearing a white shirt and glasses, focused on his computer screen.
Yu Xiao Ying embraced him from behind, wrapping her arms around his waist and resting her face on his shoulder.
Zhao Ping Jin turned his head to kiss her cheek and said, with restrained patience, “Don’t play around, I’m busy.”
Yu Xiao Ying didn’t stop. Her chest pressed against his back, the white peaks of her breasts gently rubbing against him through her silk nightgown. Her hand slipped inside his shirt, teasingly pinching his sensitive spots.
Zhao Ping Jin sat motionless.
Yu Xiao Ying felt the man’s skin was cold in her hands, with a slight tremor.
She was not an unromantic woman. During her time studying abroad, she had initially been reluctant to go, finding the coursework difficult and annoying. It was her father, Yu Wei Min, who, seeing the children of relatives and friends going overseas one after another, felt that his only daughter would bring shame to the Yu family without a gilded foreign degree. Unable to resist her father’s insistence, she had agreed. Once freed from the constraints of home, in the international student circles in Los Angeles, Yu Xiao Ying felt as free as a happy bird. She had dated both Asian and Western boyfriends and rarely failed at using her feminine charm to arouse a man’s desire. Her confidence came from understanding male reactions well—the natural physiological responses of virile young men were impossible to suppress. Yet most surprisingly, after marriage, her husband proved to be the biggest exception.
Since they had moved in together after marriage, unless Zhao Ping Jin was willing, no amount of her seductive efforts could ignite his passion.
Full of discontent, she twisted her waist and fell into his embrace.
Zhao Ping Jin turned around, grasped her hands, and stopped her advances.
Yu Xiao Ying looked at him with a mixture of sorrow and resentment, her lips slightly pouting, a misty gleam rising in her eyes.
Their wedding had been grand. Yu Xiao Ying knew her parents were very satisfied, which also indicated the Zhao family’s satisfaction with their new daughter-in-law. There had been a minor incident on their wedding night when Zhao Ping Jin suddenly fell ill. After the ceremony, before even entering the bridal chamber, he was taken to the hospital. But he was discharged quickly, and on the third day after the wedding, he accompanied her to visit her parents’ home, showing proper respect. Relatives from both families gave generous gifts, giving Yu Xiao Ying ample face.
After marriage, the couple moved into Xia Gong Fu, purchased by the Yu family. It was in the center of the city, bustling and convenient, and only a ten-minute drive from Yu Xiao Ying’s parents’ home. The Zhao family had prepared a marital home for Zhao Ping Jin in Dongcheng, but Yu Xiao Ying disliked that area. Her mother went to discuss this with her mother-in-law, Teacher Zhou. Teacher Zhou had reservations, wondering what it meant for a married couple to live in the wife’s family home. When she mentioned this to Zhao Ping Jin, she was surprised that her picky son agreed without a word, so Madam Zhou had to let it go.
When Yu Xiao Ying learned of this, she was secretly delighted—he still cared for her.
Zhao Ping Jin was busy with work, with engagements four or five evenings a week. At first, Yu Xiao Ying would wait at home for his return, but after a few instances, Zhao Ping Jin explicitly told her she didn’t need to do this. So she resumed her previous lifestyle, sometimes going out shopping or to bars with girlfriends, visiting her parents. When she returned at night, sometimes Zhao Ping Jin would already be home, sometimes not, but no matter how late, he always came back.
In the mornings, they each left for work, and at night they returned, quickly settling into a bland married life.
Her mother told her that all married couples lived like this, and things would improve once they had a child. So she thought it was indeed time to have a child. She had hinted and explicitly mentioned this to him several times, brought home a pile of literature on healthy childbearing from the maternal and child health center, and placed it in the living room, enthusiastically making various preparations.
Zhao Ping Jin neither objected nor agreed; he was just indifferent, almost as if it didn’t matter.
Their once-a-week lovemaking seemed like fulfilling a task.
He still never forgot to use protection.
Zhao Ping Jin said politely, “I still have work to do. You go to sleep first.”
Yu Xiao Ying angrily pulled her hand away, pushed him hard, and stormed out, fuming.
Zhao Ping Jin got up and followed her. “Don’t be angry.”
Yu Xiao Ying looked at his calm, resigned face. He was always like this—he never argued with her. When she lost her temper, he would silently endure it. People outside said Zhao Ping Jin had a terrible temper, was arrogant and overbearing, and difficult to get along with.
Yu Xiao Ying had gone abroad for high school, and her impression of Zhao Ping Jin was limited to the reputation of a bully and a thug that circulated in the military compound. Their first formal meeting was arranged by her aunt, who worked at the Education Commission and was a former colleague of her mother-in-law, Teacher Zhou. They had a meal together and chatted a bit about studying abroad, and that’s how they met.
They dated for half a year. Zhao Ping Jin was extremely gentlemanly. For every date, he would pick her up and drop her off. On Women’s Day, Children’s Day, and Labor Day, he never failed to provide romantic flowers and gifts for each holiday. As a boyfriend, he could not be said to be anything less than devoted.
After knowing each other for over half a year, her mother had a birthday dinner, and her father, Yu Wei Min, said to his daughter, “Bring Zhou Zi along.”
A week later was the Dragon Boat Festival, and Zhao Ping Jin took her to have a meal at his grandfather’s place.
And just like that, the relationship between the two families was established.
On the rare occasions when she went out with him and his childhood friends, she saw Zhao Ping Jin completely relaxed, an entirely different person from how he was with her. Like a spoiled young master, Beijing dialect flew loosely from his mouth, nothing serious, with a thin smile on his handsome face.
With her, he was always proper and formal.
She had described her confusion to her girlfriends, and her friend Da Huan’er had said, “He likes you! When he likes you, he becomes serious!”
She believed it.
One day, Yu Xiao Ying was at her in-laws’ home in Guosheng Hutong and overheard the auntie from the neighboring Qian family chatting with the Zhao family’s old housekeeper. The Qian family’s auntie was picking pea shoots and saying, “People say that after Zhou young master got married, he became like a different person. That unruly rascal image is gone. He’s steady in front of others now, and he treats his wife well.”
The old housekeeper heard this and was stunned for a good while, then suddenly put down the beans in her hand, took out a handkerchief, and wiped the corners of her eyes.
The Qian family’s auntie asked curiously, “It’s a good thing that the young master has become more steady after marriage. Why are you crying?”
The old housekeeper smiled and said, “Just the wind in my eyes.”