On their way home with her husband, Xun Xun dozed off. She was truly exhausted; dealing with Chi Cheng had been quite draining. After returning home and going through the motions of washing up, she didn’t feel like talking – in fact, she rarely spoke as much in a week as she had today. Xie Pingning had a cold temperament and disliked noise. Between his busy work schedule and their limited communication about household matters after work, the couple had never even quarreled – after all, arguments require some common topics to discuss.
Perhaps because Xun Xun had been in a relatively weaker position from the beginning of this marriage, combined with her upbringing that emphasized gentleness, respect, and frugality, she showed additional reverence toward her husband. As a result, the authority in their household largely resided with him. Given Xun Xun’s personality, she was rather unprincipled about small matters; whatever you told her, as long as it didn’t cross her bottom line, she usually wouldn’t strongly object. As for major issues, none had occurred since their marriage, so she didn’t know how far her boundaries could stretch.
Xie Pingning never actively tried to touch her sensitive areas. In his view, his wife was a fundamentally reliable woman, though when they first married, he found her extremely intense sense of crisis difficult to tolerate. For instance, she insisted that every 304 stainless steel bar in their anti-theft window grilles should contain solid iron rods inside, and the spacing between bars had to ensure that no human could pass through even with the aid of light tools. She had also arranged an emergency exit in the most suitable escape location, with only family members (actually, only she) knowing where the key was kept. All the windows in the house were replaced with tempered glass, and she added an infrared alarm system. Emergency supplies were stored under the bed, and important documents were always organized in the safe for quick retrieval if needed. However, after getting used to it, these precautions didn’t affect their quality of life and could be dismissed as a woman’s particular neurosis. Besides these quirks, she was filial to her in-laws, respectful to her husband, well-behaved, neat in appearance, and skilled in housework… Although deep conversations with her were impossible and they lacked common interests, her other merits more than made up for these shortcomings. He married a woman for companionship, not for the so-called meeting of souls. Sparks shouldn’t occur day after day; otherwise, they become a safety hazard. He had never expected Hegel’s soul to reside in Liu Huifang’s body.
Before bed, Xun Xun habitually checked all the doors, windows, water, and electricity in the house. When she returned to the bedroom, Xie Pingning was already leaning against the headboard, browsing a magazine. She lay down, closed her eyes for a moment, then couldn’t help saying to her husband, “I never knew you had such a young aunt.”
“She rarely comes back, and I don’t really think of her as an aunt. It’s just the elders in the family being particular about generational hierarchy,” Xie Pingning said.
“I remember you mentioned living with your grandmother for a while…”
“That was during school; grandmother’s house was closer to school.”
“So you actually grew up with Jiaquan? That’s quite nice,” Xun Xun said cautiously.
“What’s nice about it?” Xie Pingning put down the magazine, turned to embrace Xun Xun, and switched off the bedside lamp on his side. This was their marital signal, and Xun Xun silently complied. She neither particularly liked nor disliked this matter, and coincidentally, Xie Pingning wasn’t obsessed with it either. However, they weren’t young anymore, and with the elders urgently pressing for grandchildren, they were planning to have a child, so these “homework sessions” needed to be consistent.
Though Xie Pingning said nothing, Xun Xun could sense an unusual restlessness in his movements. His palms were burning hot and damp with sweat. Xun Xun kept her eyes tightly shut. Soon, that illusory image appeared in her mind again, consuming her nerves. Unlike the fumbling hidden in darkness of reality, it was young bodies floating in clouds, real physical combat, intense gasping, covered by an indefinable golden haze – unclear but permeated with the fragrant scent of desire… Xun Xun wasn’t a casual woman, and her experience in this area was unremarkable, yet this image seemed to grow from deep within her heart, flourishing without cultivation. Perhaps every woman harbored such an erotic dream; she permitted this dream’s entanglement, but this time, through that golden screen, she vaguely saw a face.
Xun Xun’s internal alarm bells rang loudly. Just as she was secretly alarmed, Xie Pingning unexpectedly stopped his movements. She came to her senses and realized the alarm bells hadn’t disappeared – the sharp siren was still ringing. This wasn’t her virtuous housewife’s moral conscience awakening, but the infrared alarm on the balcony being triggered, accompanied by several cat meows.
“I don’t even know what use that infrared security system has!”
Xie Pingning sighed heavily, his mood completely gone, and fell back heavily onto his pillow.
Xun Xun adjusted her slightly disheveled clothes and got up to check. Sure enough, their cat had been playing wildly at night and accidentally jumped too high, entering the infrared scanning range. She turned off the alarm, and the cat, seeing its owner rise, circled her feet begging for food.
Actually, Xun Xun had been resistant to keeping pets since childhood. Besides hygiene concerns, the important thing was that cats and dogs lived at most just over ten years. Under normal circumstances, no matter how much you loved them, they would eventually leave their owners, inevitably causing heartbreak. Better to keep one’s distance from the start and preserve that bit of feeling and tears.
What she hadn’t expected was that Xie Pingning kept a cat, an old one at that, with a weary expression and slow movements, reportedly brought from his grandmother’s house. He was busy with work, so over the three years, it was actually Xun Xun who spent more time with the cat, and gradually, the cat became closer to her.
As she stroked the cat’s skeletal back, the silenced alarm seemed to still ring in her ears. Many unpleasant, grey thoughts rolled like balls of yarn, while countless wild cats ran frantically through her mind. Whenever she felt she had grasped a thread of understanding, it tangled into an even more difficult knot. She didn’t know how long she had crouched there until the night draft passed through, making her shiver. The cat had disappeared somewhere, and she suddenly remembered her husband in bed. Hurrying back to the bedroom, she found Xie Pingning already sound asleep on his side of the large bed.
Xun Xun carefully returned to her position, half-lying down, studying the man beside her in the faint light from outside. She had lain beside him for three years, yet had never really looked at his sleeping face. That proper face still appeared pleasing, but it was like… like that of a stranger.
Indeed, all partners in the world were once strangers. Three years ago, Zhao Xun Xun didn’t even know someone named Xie Pingning existed.
Xun Xun’s stepfather’s sister was an old classmate of one of Xie Pingning’s relatives. Originally, he had been formally introduced to Ceng Yu as a golden bachelor by her aunt. At that time, Ceng Yu had just returned from abroad, and her family had started planning for her lifelong happiness. Born into a civil servant family, Xie Pingning, with his outstanding talents, looks, and career, was viewed as her ideal match. However, an unexpected contender emerged – none other than Xun Xun’s mother. This story needs to be told from the beginning.
Unlike Xun Xun’s mundane life, her mother was a legendary woman. Now exactly fifty years old, she still maintained her peach-blossom complexion and graceful bearing, remaining a goddess in the hearts of middle-aged people in her area. She was passionate about ballroom dancing, often appearing in gorgeous long dresses with heavy makeup, secretly nicknamed “Glamorous Sister” by Ceng Yu. This nickname, originally somewhat mischievous, seemed quite fitting even to Zhao Xun Xun when she accidentally overheard it. When it finally reached “Glamorous Sister” herself, she quietly accepted the title. After all, being glamorous wasn’t a crime, and “Sister” carried more weight than “Auntie.”
Glamorous Sister had been a wildflower in the suburban countryside, desired by all within miles.
Before she turned twenty, she defied her family and followed a sweet-talking man into the city. Only after giving birth to her daughter did she discover that this man wasn’t the successful person he claimed to be, but a professional con man who made his living by deceiving people through supernatural schemes. The enraged Glamorous Sister finally couldn’t take it anymore and left that man with her five-year-old daughter, seeking her path. She found factory work, got laid off, fell in love, was abandoned, fell in love again, then abandoned others… living day by day without a thought for tomorrow. But the material poverty couldn’t obstruct Glamorous Sister’s spiritual pursuits. When Xun Xun was ten, Glamorous Sister became obsessed with the then-fashionable ballroom dancing, quickly transforming from an awkward toe-stepper to the queen of the dance floor. Through dancing, she met Ceng Yu’s father, then a professor at G University’s School of Architecture.
Professor Ceng at the time still had a wife, one son, and two daughters, with Ceng Yu being the youngest, and her brother and sister being five and seven years older respectively. Whether by coincidence or some kind of spell, this distinguished university professor met the glamorous laid-off worker, and sparks flew immediately, beginning their two-year affair.
When Xun Xun was twelve, the affair couldn’t be kept secret any longer and was discovered by Professor Ceng’s intellectual wife, naturally resulting in a tumultuous family crisis. Just as Professor Ceng had decided to painfully part with Glamorous Sister and return to his wife for the sake of traditional morality and family unity, the unexpected occurred. Professor Ceng’s wife suddenly fell ill and passed away within half a year. After observing a year and a half of mourning for his late wife, Professor Ceng formally married Glamorous Sister, bringing her and her daughter into his home. Ceng Yu was fourteen then, still dependent, but her older siblings, already away at university, cut off all contact with their father.
Xun Xun also despised homewreckers, but she could understand her mother. Glamorous Sister, who hadn’t even finished junior high, was only looking to pick a shopping basket from among her admirers while spinning on the dance floor – who knew she’d end up with a Louis Vuitton? How could she be held to higher moral standards? Within two years of successfully marrying Professor Ceng, fortune smiled upon her as he became the deputy dean of the School of Architecture, and Louis Vuitton became Hermès. Even long afterward, Dean’s wife Glamorous Sister would wake up and pinch herself, wondering if it was all a dream.
By then, the graceful Professor Ceng was aging and had settled down, dedicating himself to life with his second wife. Glamorous Sister’s vulgarity and vivaciousness brought much joy to his rigid scholarly life. However, the improvement in living standards widened the gap in Glamorous Sister’s mind. Fearing she might fall short compared to other professors’ and deans’ wives, after pursuing beautiful clothes, she began pursuing cultivation. Her priority was to mold her biological daughter Zhao Xun Xun into a natural lady, determined to eliminate any trace of her origins as the offspring of a con man and laid-off worker. She wanted Xun Xun to excel at everything, at least not falling behind the dean’s legitimate daughter Ceng Yu.
Xun Xun was about the same age as Ceng Yu, and the two were constantly compared. Under Glamorous Sister’s relentless efforts, Xun Xun matched Ceng Yu in appearance, cultivation, and studies. The only exception was when she declined the opportunity to study abroad after college graduation. Glamorous Sister saw this as filial piety, and since her daughter stayed nearby and found a respectable job, she was satisfied. The final task remained: finding her daughter a husband better than Ceng Yu’s.
When Ceng Yu’s aunt mentioned Xie Pingning to Professor Ceng, Glamorous Sister’s sky brightened. After conducting a thorough investigation into Xie Pingning’s family background and personal conditions, she believed he was the perfect marriage candidate. Though not extremely wealthy, his family was respectable, well-off, and well-bred. Xie Pingning himself was talented and promising. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and the time had come to triumph over Ceng Yu and her aunt, representing all the relatives who looked down on Glamorous Sister!
The bold-hearted Glamorous Sister struck when the time was right. First, she discovered the meeting time arranged by Ceng Yu’s aunt with the Xie family. That morning, she repeatedly harassed Ceng Yu’s aunt with public phone calls until the latter gave up and left the phone off the hook. Then, posing as Ceng Yu’s stepmother, she informed the Xie family that due to certain circumstances, they hoped to move the meeting two hours earlier. The Xie family, unaware of the situation, respected the request. Glamorous Sister used this time difference to proudly present her reluctant daughter Zhao Xun Xun to the Xie family, half-forcing and half-coaxing her along. She was confident that as another daughter of Dean Ceng, Xun Xun would be more likely to win the Xie family’s son’s heart than Ceng Yu.
The two families thus sat together. When the surname Ceng became Zhao, the Xie family was thoroughly confused, especially upon learning that Xun Xun was the dean’s stepdaughter from his second wife. Though they didn’t embarrass her on the spot, they felt they had been misled by the matchmaker. Moreover, that day Xun Xun was in remarkably poor condition, pale-faced and lifeless. Worse still, she was absent-minded, speaking awkwardly and seeming lost in a daze. Even though the frustrated Glamorous Sister pinched her thigh black and blue under the table, Xun Xun showed no signs of coming to her senses.
Before the two hours were up, before Glamorous Sister could retreat, Ceng Yu’s aunt, who believed in the virtue of early arrival, descended from heaven with the legitimate Miss Ceng, discovering they had nearly been deceived. She pointed at Glamorous Sister’s nose and cursed her as someone who would forever remain a low-class character. The Xie family, now understanding everything, also turned ashen-faced.
Glamorous Sister lost both face and dignity, finally realizing her carefully planned scheme had been foolish. She led Xun Xun away in defeat, spending several days in depression, unable to eat or drink from frustration.
No one expected that a week later, the Xie family would completely reverse their attitude and actively contact Glamorous Sister. It turned out that the ghost-like Zhao Xun Xun had accidentally caught Xie Pingning’s eye that day. His parents proposed that if Xun Xun was willing, the young people could date on their own.
The dawn of victory always arrived at Glamorous Sister’s darkest hour. Her ailments miraculously healed, and she exercised all her persuasive powers on her typically obedient daughter. Though Xun Xun wasn’t enthusiastic, she didn’t want to go against her mother and agreed to meet Xie Pingning. As they met more, she seemed unable to find a reason to stop. And so, like normal couples, they drank coffee, ate Western food, watched movies, held hands, walked along the river, took wedding photos, and held a grand wedding banquet – meticulously following all the steps couples typically take. Then, just like this night three years later, Xun Xun found herself lying beside Xie Pingning.
When she first married into the family, the Xie family, including Xun Xun’s in-laws, weren’t particularly warm toward their new daughter-in-law – polite on the surface but distant in reality. Xun Xun understood; given the farce of their first meeting, any reaction from them seemed justified. Later, as they saw how sensible Xun Xun was, how well she managed the household, and how well their son got along with her, they gradually became satisfied, though their faces still showed strange expressions whenever her extraordinary mother-in-law was mentioned.