She didn’t go home but went directly to Ke Yu’s school gate—his evening self-study was about to end. When she arrived, she ran into Zhou Yu leaving the school. The two chatted briefly, and she patted Zhou Yu’s shoulder, urging her to go home.

Before long, Ke Yu came out. She waved at him. Ke Yu responded faintly, asking why she had come. Sun Jingfei asked with a smile, “Can’t I come?”

“That’s not what I meant.”

Sun Jingfei linked her arm through his, saying there was meat stewed at home that morning. Ke Yu wasn’t quite used to her being so affectionate, but he didn’t resist. He just said he didn’t want to eat meat—eating it every day, the same two dishes over and over, he was sick of it.

“Then what do you want to eat?” Sun Jingfei asked.

“I want to eat instant noodles and drink soda.” Ke Yu said as if being contrary. Everyone at home said he was growing and wouldn’t let him eat these things.

“Okay, we’ll eat instant noodles!” Sun Jingfei didn’t take it seriously.

“I want to go back this weekend to see Grandpa.” Ke Yu looked at her.

“Okay.” Sun Jingfei agreed. “Either your dad can pick you up or your uncle can take you.”

Ke Yu didn’t want his dad to pick him up, but he also didn’t want to keep troubling his uncle. Then he asked her, “Can’t you take me?”

Sun Jingfei was stunned for a moment, then quickly replied, “Sure, I’ll take you.” She was unwilling to go back and see Ke Yu’s grandparents, nor did she want to hear their nagging. These past few months they had called intermittently—sometimes she answered, sometimes she pretended not to see.

It was always the same words: apologizing on behalf of their son, hoping to salvage the marriage.

Her relationship with her in-laws couldn’t be called harmonious, but it wasn’t bad either. Because they hadn’t lived together year-round, there were rarely any direct conflicts. But she knew her in-laws had complaints about her work—they thought she was too busy and didn’t have enough energy to take care of the family.

She didn’t want to go back and face them. An important reason was that they were about the same age as her own parents—both sets of elderly people powerless when it came to their children. When they looked apologetic, even somewhat pleading, she couldn’t be hard-hearted and ignore them. So she simply didn’t go back. She completely understood her in-laws’ unreasonable demands, because all parents in the world were the same—no matter what mistakes their children made, they would try every means to protect and save them.

After buying instant noodles and soda and returning home, she hurried to the kitchen to cook. When it was ready, she called Ke Yu to eat. He said he had already showered and washed up and didn’t want to eat anymore.

…

With her usual temper, she really could have dragged him out and given him a lecture. But this time she held back and replied, “I added ham and fried egg. If you don’t eat it, I will.” She said this while slurping loudly.

Actually, eating it occasionally was really delicious.

Ke Yu came out with his water cup. Sun Jingfei picked at the noodles and looked at him. “Want to have a few bites? Just rinse your mouth afterward.”

Ke Yu reluctantly sat down. As he ate, he talked about how delicious his aunt’s cooking was, how it was different every day, going on and on. Sun Jingfei didn’t respond. He often brought up his aunt—either about how patient and gentle she was with people, or how good her cooking was, and most importantly, how she respected people and didn’t treat them like three-year-old children.

Simply perfect in every way.

Speaking of respecting people, she just wanted to dump the soup from her noodle bowl over his head, but because he was her son, she exercised some control. For the past two months, whatever he wanted to do, whether it was losing his temper for no reason or speaking disrespectfully, she had accepted it all.

“You’re talking to me about respecting people—have you respected your mom?” Sun Jingfei said. “I cook for you and you’ve never said a word of thanks, and you compare me to your aunt. At least I’m better than you—in every aspect, I’ve never compared you to anyone else.”

Ke Yu put down his chopsticks, somewhat annoyed. “You adults are really strange. When I was little, you didn’t fulfill your parental responsibilities and accompany me. Now suddenly you all act like you love me so much. When you don’t get the feedback you imagined, you label me as a rebellious child.”

“So you can be self-righteous, capricious and emotional, and disrespectful to me?” Sun Jingfei asked calmly.

“I didn’t!” Ke Yu got up and returned to his room.

Sun Jingfei sat in her chair for a while, then cleared the dishes and washed them. Then she sent him a message: “Mom is very sorry. I did neglect you because of work and didn’t give you enough care and trust in time.” Actually, she had written a long string of text after that, but in the end only sent these two lines.

It wasn’t until very late, just as she was about to go to sleep, that Ke Yu messaged her: “I just want to ask you two things. I hope you can answer me honestly.”

Sun Jingfei replied: “Ask away.”

Ke Yu asked: “Are you and Dad negotiating a divorce?”

Sun Jingfei replied: “Yes.”

Ke Yu asked again: “Why?”

Sun Jingfei thought for a moment: “Because he had an affair.”

Ke Yu stared at his phone screen, tears falling drop by drop. He asked: “You can’t forgive him, can you?”

Sun Jingfei replied: “Yes.”

Ke Yu asked: “What if I want you to be together forever?”

Sun Jingfei replied: “All along I’ve been restraining myself, worried about becoming a hateful mother. My indulgence toward you in various aspects isn’t due to laziness in discipline or lack of energy—it’s based on trust in you. Ever since you turned twelve, I’ve treated you as an independent person.”

Ke Yu didn’t ask anymore.

Sun Jingfei didn’t reply anymore either.

Sun Jingcheng had been on a business trip for several days and returned on their fourth wedding anniversary. Originally he had forgotten about the anniversary too—it was only mentioned by Sun’s mother at the dinner table before his trip.

That day at noon, he went to the school to find Zhou Yu for lunch. Zhou Yu was obviously very surprised because Sun Jingcheng had told her he would return tomorrow.

The two ate in the cafeteria. For a moment there was nothing to say. They hadn’t seen each other for three or four days and suddenly didn’t know what to say. After they both smiled with tacit understanding, someone from the Academic Affairs Office came looking for Zhou Yu. Sun Jingcheng urged her to go, saying, “Let’s talk tonight.”

Zhou Yu followed her colleague out of the cafeteria. The colleague asked, “That’s your husband?”

“Yes.” Zhou Yu nodded.

“I saw you two weren’t talking.”

“He just got back from a business trip.”

“Oh.” The colleague didn’t ask anymore. It was said that Teacher Zhou’s marital relationship was average. Looking at it this way, it was indeed average.

Zhou Yu went to the Academic Affairs Office on the fourth floor. With each floor she climbed, she looked at the cafeteria building. When she reached the third floor, she saw Sun Jingcheng coming out. She shouted to him loudly, “Sun Jingcheng!”

Sun Jingcheng looked up. Zhou Yu waved at him, instantly feeling somewhat choked up. She should have asked if his business trip went smoothly, or hugged him.

Sun Jingcheng called back to her, “Teacher Zhou!” He also waved at her.

He suddenly felt very regretful. He should have just asked her if she was afraid staying home alone. She was very timid—any little disturbance at night and she couldn’t sleep well. Thinking about it, he shouted: “I’ll come pick you up tonight!”

“Okay!”

Only after he couldn’t see Zhou Yu anymore did he exit the school gate. Standing by his car, he edited a message but found it too sentimental and didn’t send a single word.

On the drive back to the clinic, his emotions gradually calmed down. He messaged Zhou Yu: “How many people are in your office?”

Zhou Yu asked: “Why?”

Sun Jingcheng replied: “I’ll treat you all to cold drinks.”

Zhou Yu replied: “Eight people.”

Sun Jingcheng asked: “What do you want to drink?”

Zhou Yu replied: “Heytea.”

Sun Jingcheng asked: “How come I didn’t know you love Heytea?”

Zhou Yu replied: “It’s the style of treating people.”

Sun Jingcheng found it amusing. He selected the flavors she sent over and gladly placed the order.

When he arrived at the clinic and parked, he took quite a few things from the trunk—besides some local specialties, there were things bought for the children, for Sun’s mother, and for Sun Youping.

For his mother was a nude pink pearl necklace; for his father, several cakes of Pu’er tea. It happened that Uncle was also sitting there idly, so Sun Youping gave Uncle half of the tea.

Sun’s mother wore the necklace happily, asking repeatedly if it was too youthful. Sun Jingcheng said it wasn’t—it went perfectly with her colorful dresses.

In summer, Sun’s mother especially loved wearing dresses, all gaudy colorful ones. She didn’t wear dresses to look good—she wore them because they were convenient for the bathroom. Just lift up the dress—so convenient!

Sun Jingcheng didn’t stay long before returning to the new district. Seeing the house was a bit messy, he called an hourly worker to come up. He wasn’t idle either, selecting a set of bedding from the closet and changing it piece by piece.

It wasn’t that he didn’t know how to do housework—he knew many basic household tasks. To put it shamelessly, it was that after marriage Zhou Yu was too capable… causing his life skills to deteriorate.

After tidying up the house, he drove to the school to pick up Zhou Yu, buying a large bouquet of flowers on the way. It was their wedding anniversary after all—the gesture was still necessary, even if a bit clichéd.

When he arrived at the school, he felt foolish. He shouldn’t have driven here. Before long, Zhou Yu and several teachers came out together. Those teachers had a clear purpose—under the pretext of thanking him for the Heytea, they wanted to witness the bearing of Teacher Zhou’s husband.

Zhou Yu’s husband was very mysterious—they had never seen him before. Upon seeing him, they jokingly teased him about treating them to dinner another day. Sun Jingcheng readily agreed, “No problem.” After they left one after another, Zhou Yu received a group message—unanimous praise that Teacher Zhou’s husband had amazing charisma!

Zhou Yu didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Sun Jingcheng looked at her. “What are you replying?”

Zhou Yu got in the car. “Leave my car at the school for now.” She smelled a strong floral fragrance, turned her head to look, and saw a large bouquet of roses in the back seat.

Sun Jingcheng took the opportunity to say, “Happy fourth wedding anniversary.”

Zhou Yu replied, “Happy anniversary to you too.”

The two looked at each other and smiled.

Sun Jingcheng had originally arranged to go to a Western restaurant, but Zhou Yu said they should just cook at home. A simple two dishes, drink a little wine, and go through the ceremony would be fine.

When they got home, Zhou Yu cooked while Sun Jingcheng helped on the side. The two chatted in detail about the past few days. Sun Jingcheng’s business trip had gone smoothly. He said that at dawn he had even gone out to sea with fishermen and caught a huge fish. Because the fish was too big, the fishermen were alarmed and immediately released it.

“This big—bigger than Yuyan’s height.” Sun Jingcheng gestured.

“What kind of fish was it?”

“The fishermen hadn’t seen it before either. They only catch common fish. Anything beyond their knowledge, they release.” Sun Jingcheng said mysteriously, “At that moment I thought of a folk tale.”

“What tale?”

“The fisherman’s tale. He caught the Sea King’s son, who promised that if he released him, he would grant the fisherman three wishes!”

…

“I wished for my family to be healthy, to eat well, and sleep well!”

Zhou Yu was shocked. “The fish asked you for your wishes?”

“It didn’t ask. I extorted it!” Sun Jingcheng said self-righteously.

“Look how capable you are!” Zhou Yu was dying of laughter, then asked, “Didn’t you wish for anything else?”

“I did.” Sun Jingcheng washed the cauliflower, saying very casually, “I wished that we two would be like the swallows on the beam, meeting year after year.”

…

After that, neither of them spoke, quietly embracing each other. Originally Sun Jingcheng had wanted to say so much, and Zhou Yu also wanted to tell him that seeing him at noon made her very happy, especially happy, but when it came to emotions, she was someone who wasn’t good with words. She tried to speak several times but swallowed it back.

Sun Jingcheng seemed to suddenly understand some emotions—emotions beyond words that were far more intense and genuine than words.

They said nothing, did nothing. All the words melted into this tight embrace.

Afterward, as a wedding anniversary gift, Sun Jingcheng put a plain gold ring on her finger, with his name engraved on the inside. The inside of his plain ring also had her name engraved.

Sun Jingcheng didn’t tell her that this was a pair of rings with history and a story. The origin—it was originally a gold ring that Grandmother had worn all her life, later left to Sun’s mother. Sun’s mother had endowed it with a beautiful love story and promised in front of all four sisters that in the future, whoever was most filial would receive this gold ring.

Obviously the future hadn’t arrived yet, but recently when she took it out to wear and found her deformed knuckles could no longer fit it… Sun Jingcheng stole it and then destroyed it, following the goldsmith’s instructions to forge it into the current pair of rings.

Just as they were embracing, everything understood without words, the clinic was in chaos. Sun’s mother couldn’t find her gold ring anywhere and blamed Sun Jingfei, who had come to mooch food once again.

Sun Jingfei swore she hadn’t stolen it.

Sun’s mother didn’t believe her at all. “You’ve been a bad seed since childhood, always instigating your brother to steal money. When the money box was locked, you instigated him to steal cardboard boxes and bottles from the house to sell…”

Sun Jingfei was exasperated. Afraid she would nag endlessly, she confessed under duress, “I stole it, it was me!”

After she admitted it, Sun’s mother had more to say. There were gold bars in the jewelry cabinet, gold bracelets, and a large gold necklace with a phoenix pendant… She didn’t steal so many valuable things, but specifically stole a gold ring? She said she was shallow, worthless, only capable of petty theft that couldn’t be brought to light.

She had said everything there was to say. Sun Jingfei ate her meal and stopped responding.

As Sun’s mother busied herself, she talked to herself about how today was the fourth son’s wedding anniversary, and the couple was probably being affectionate right now.

Sun Jingfei picked up her words. “It’s only seven or eight o’clock. Not going to bed this early.”

…

Sun’s mother scolded her for having no propriety. “I meant they’re affectionately having dinner.”

…

“Fine, Mom, whatever you say!” Sun Jingfei surrendered. “Please just let me eat first!”

“Am I blocking your mouth and not letting you eat?” Sun’s mother was also puzzled.

…

As Sun Jingfei ate, Sun’s mother muttered again, saying she didn’t know if Ke Yu’s grandparents would instill some unpleasant ideas in Ke Yu. After speaking, she looked at Sun Jingfei who wasn’t responding, sighed inwardly, and changed the subject. “The fourth son and his wife have only just realized they should have children. By the time she gets pregnant and gives birth, it’ll be a year later. By then, I don’t know what my health will be like.” She clearly felt that this year she was increasingly unable to cope with things. She hadn’t done anything, just hearing the children jumping on the sofa made her feel exhausted.

Sun Jingfei naturally understood her concern. Since eldest brother’s death, their parents had visibly aged day by day. Although they didn’t show it, their condition was much worse. She casually responded, “If you don’t have the energy, don’t help. Later they can hire someone.”

“Tsk, listen to how lightly you say it. The fourth son earning that eighty thousand a year can’t even afford a nanny… I don’t trust nannies. That arson case by a nanny two years ago made me so angry I couldn’t sleep for days!”

“Mom, stop constantly mentioning eighty thousand. These two years are special circumstances. When he was eating meat, you didn’t see it—you selectively only saw him drinking soup?” Sun Jingfei said to her. “If you hire a nanny you don’t trust them, if you don’t hire you don’t have the energy—what, should they both quit their jobs? Stop thinking about all these things every day. Everything will work out when the time comes.”

Sun’s mother was left speechless and said nothing more.

Tonight Jiarui had been picked up and taken back to the restaurant, and the sister-in-law had also taken Yuyan back to her parents’ home. With the house empty, her heart felt anxious. She always wanted to find someone to talk to, but if she talked too much, it annoyed people. Afterward she sat there silently, rolling up the collected socks in pairs, then returned to the bedroom.

Sun Jingfei realized her tone had been harsh and softened it, saying, “Mom, don’t overthink things. When you have nothing to do, go play mahjong or dance. Don’t always worry about us—how old are we?”

“Oh.” Sun’s mother acknowledged.

“If you and Dad are healthy, that’s our family’s greatest blessing. Stop pondering this and that all day. What if you worry yourself sick? Won’t we still have to take care of you?”

Sun’s mother didn’t make a sound.

Sun Jingfei washed the pots and bowls, came to the bedroom to remind her, “Don’t overthink, okay? I’m leaving.”

“Drive carefully.” Sun’s mother said.

“Okay!”

Not long after Sun Jingfei left, Sun’s mother also went downstairs and sat in the chair beside the clinic. When Sun Youping saw her, he took the time to ask, “Why aren’t you watching TV?”

“Huh? You said something?” Sun’s mother hadn’t heard clearly.

“Why aren’t you watching the drama?” Sun Youping asked again.

“Nothing worth watching.” Sun’s mother told him to keep busy. “I’m fine sitting here.” She didn’t want to stay upstairs alone—she always saw the eldest standing at the top of the stairs.

After sitting for over half an hour, she began to doze off with her head down. Sun Youping finished what he was working on, closed the door early, and went upstairs with her to sleep.