Before arriving at the Fei household, Fei Ni instructed Fang Muyang that if her parents mentioned anything about a wedding banquet, he should remain silent and let her refuse.
Though Fei’s parents weren’t entirely satisfied with Fang Muyang, they had still cleaned the house thoroughly before his arrival. Usually, they would deliberately make extra porridge and dishes at lunch to save for dinner, but today they had prepared lunch to be just enough, leaving nothing over. The evening meal was all fresh dishes, ingredients specially bought from the market early in the morning where things were cheaper than at the grocery store. They had bought live fish, killed it at home, and steamed it, arranging it on the plate just as Fei Ni arrived.
Fei Ni’s room was also decorated with popular wedding slogans of the time.
Upon their arrival, Mother Fei asked if they had taken a wedding photo at the photo studio after completing the registration.
Fei Ni knew her mother would be unhappy if she said no, so she said they had. Fang Muyang didn’t expose her lie, though earlier when they had passed by the photo studio, he had suggested taking a photo, but Fei Ni had directly refused. She thought to herself that Fang Muyang had quite accurately grasped her parents’ mindset.
Besides presenting the cloth materials, Fang Muyang also brought out a stack of papers – furniture design drawings – asking for his parents-in-law’s guidance.
“I bought some wood in the countryside, and once it arrives in a few days, I can start making furniture.”
His in-laws, who initially had low expectations of him, now saw that he could draw and had specially bought wood from the countryside. They suddenly felt he was a reliable young man, hurriedly invited him to sit down for dinner, and frequently offered him more food throughout the meal.
Before Fang Muyang’s arrival, the elderly couple had agreed that no matter how dissatisfied they were with him, they would endure it and try to be as polite as possible – smile more, offer more food, complain less – after all, their daughter had already married him, and further complaints would only harm family unity. Now, they didn’t need to pretend; their smiles were genuine as they sincerely urged Fang Muyang to eat more.
Old Fei praised him: “Young Fang, these drawings are quite professional. You must have studied art.”
“I learned a little before.”
“I think you could work as a designer at a furniture factory right away. I haven’t seen these styles in anyone else’s home.” Old Fei took charge, “When the wood arrives, you don’t need to worry about anything. I’ll find the carpenter, and I’ll supervise the furniture making – I have nothing else to do now anyway.” The money would naturally come from him. If Fei Ni had married someone else, this expense could have been saved, but since she chose Fang Muyang, this money had to be spent. Now seeing him more reliable than expected, they were willing to spend it.
While serving Fang Muyang food, Mother Fei examined the drawings, turning them this way and that, and couldn’t help discussing with him, “The furniture factory doesn’t have this sofa style. It looks good, but carpenters might not know how to make it. Should we change the design?”
“I’ll make it myself.”
One surprise followed another.
The elderly couple asked in unison: “You know how to make furniture?”
Fei Ni couldn’t help but poke Fang Muyang with the back of her chopsticks. Although she had told him to tell some kind of white lies before coming, there was no need to make such big claims. If her parents believed him, how would they handle it?
Unexpectedly, Fang Muyang didn’t understand her meaning at all, and instead put the fish meat he had deboned into her bowl, “I just finished deboning this, for you.”
Fei Ni cursed him as a fool in her heart – who wanted his deboned fish? She had hands of her own.
Fang Muyang smiled and answered the elderly couple’s question: “I did some carpentry work while in the countryside.”
His modest answer made Fei’s parents believe he was truly skilled. If Fang Muyang had demonstrated these skills before marrying Fei Ni, the elderly couple wouldn’t have found him particularly remarkable, as Fei Ni had many other options then – she could have married a man with a ready house and furniture. But now that the die was cast, Fang Muyang’s purchase of wood and his ability to work with it was a pleasant surprise.
Mother Fei, besides being pleasantly surprised, felt some sympathy for him, “Young Fang, you went to the countryside at fifteen, didn’t you?”
Although her son had also suffered in the countryside, he was already twenty when he went. The year they canceled the college entrance examinations was her son Fei Ting’s final year of high school. After that, classes were suspended and then resumed, accumulating too many graduates. The city couldn’t provide enough jobs for them, so they had to be sent to the countryside. Even though Fei Ting was twenty when he went to the countryside, his mother still thought of him as a child – as for fifteen-year-old Fang Muyang, he was truly just a child.
Fang Muyang said yes.
“You must have suffered a lot.”
“Not really, I lived pretty much like everyone else in the village.” He hadn’t felt he suffered much because other young people in the village lived the same way. It was just that staying in one place for too long, unable to go elsewhere, felt too restrictive.
To Mother Fei, this meant he had suffered, so she offered him more food to make up for the nutrition he had missed in those years.
“Your cooking is really good.”
“As long as you enjoy it. Since you and Fei Ni’s house hasn’t been allocated yet, why don’t you stay here for now? I’ve made new bedding for you, it was just aired out today.”
Mother Fei had previously prepared a dowry quilt. Fei Ni had said she was getting married, not being given away, and there was no need for dowry items, especially making quilts in the height of summer. While Fei Ni had made the major decisions, she couldn’t disagree with her mother on small details. Finally, unable to dissuade her mother, Fei Ni said she would make the bedding herself, not wanting to watch her mother sweat through making cotton quilts in the summer heat. Mother Fei insisted on using satin for the quilt cover, so Fei Ni had chosen a ginger-yellow base with white gardenia flowers from among the bright greens, reds, and pinks at the fabric store. The flowers were machine-embroidered, somewhat rough, but unnoticeable unless examined closely. After work, Fei Ni made quilts for Fang Muyang at home. She used the coarse cloth originally intended for the quilt cover as a dust cover, protecting the ginger-yellow gardenia quilt cover. Mother Fei criticized her, saying for someone so clever, she didn’t know how to make things look presentable and removed the dust cover to display the new quilt cover. Now this quilt lay neatly on Fei Ni’s bed.
“I’d love to stay here and eat your cooking every day.”
Fei Ni kept her head down while eating, casually poking Fang Muyang with her chopsticks again, but like before, he failed to understand her meaning and simply put more deboned fish in her bowl.
Fang Muyang added a “but”: “But I’ve already asked someone to help me find temporary accommodation, and since they’ve done me this favor, it wouldn’t be right not to use it.”
“That’s fine too, but if you’re not comfortable there, you can always move back here.”
When Mother Fei brought up the wedding banquet, Fang Muyang agreed but suggested waiting until they got their house, making it a double celebration. The unspoken reason was that he couldn’t afford to host guests now.
Fei Ni’s parents praised him for being so considerate and naturally agreed.
At the end of the meal, Fang Muyang apologetically said that since he had no new house, on such a day he could only have Fei Ni stay with him at a guesthouse.
The elderly couple exchanged glances and said staying at a guesthouse was a good idea. The inner room was too cramped to serve as a bridal chamber, and they hadn’t had time to install a proper door, only a curtain that didn’t block any sound. Even if the young couple weren’t uncomfortable, the elderly couple would be.
However, guesthouses required introduction letters, and finding a single room was very difficult.
Fang Muyang said he had already obtained the introduction letter, and the room was a double, where they could push the two beds together.
Fei Ni’s parents had nothing more to say, as this son-in-law far exceeded their expectations, and they felt quite satisfied.
Fei Ni hadn’t heard Fang Muyang mention the guesthouse before, and now hearing that she would have to stay with him that night, she naturally disagreed, but couldn’t say so at the table in front of her parents. After dinner, she pulled Fang Muyang to help her wash dishes in the water room.
Mother Fei stepped on Old Fei’s foot and whispered something in his ear. Old Fei, enduring the pain, smiled and said, “I’ll go with Young Fang, let your mother have a private word with you.”
Normally, they shouldn’t let guests wash dishes, even if he was their son-in-law, but if they didn’t talk now, there wouldn’t be time once they went to the guesthouse.
After Fang Muyang left, Mother Fei pulled her daughter into the inner room, held her hand, and spoke about things to be mindful of at night. She said it was embarrassing to discuss, and if her second daughter hadn’t been busy today, she would have had her talk to Fei Ni instead.
Fei Ni’s face instantly turned red, and after enduring a few sentences, she couldn’t bear it anymore: “I know, please don’t say more.”
Mother Fei became suspicious: “How do you know about these things?”