Flash Marriage

Chapter 18.2

The Fight (2)

…..


When I returned home, my mother was glued to the TV in the living room. When she saw me there, the first thing she did was pinch her thigh to make sure that she was not disillusioned then sprang up from the sofa and rushed towards me with gleaming eyes: “this girl…why did you come without telling me first?”

I smiled and said: “I just wanted to surprise you.”

We, mother and daughter, had not seen each other for about one month so ideally we should have first hugged and then asked about each other’s well-being. Of course this scenario was apt only for an ordinary family and my mother was far from being normal or ordinary.
 

Xiao Yan's dream about mother-daughter reunion

After an emotional moment, she again sat back on the sofa. While completely neglecting her daughter she restarted watching TV. Oh God, she was such a heartless mother.

Resentfully, I walked over and sat beside her and pulled her arm like a baby, I whined: “Mom, are you not happy that I am back?”

Exposing my true intention in one sentence she said: “you heartless girl, if not due to your and Jiang Li’s fight, will you still have come here?”

I exclaimed internally how come all of a sudden my mother was possessed by Zhuge Liang* but I was more or less guilty of the crime.  These past few days had been very chaotic for me since I was really busy with job-hunting, did not find even a little bit of time to visit my mother for a while. Oh God, I was truly reprehensible! Children must not learn from me, I did not have filial piety; I had become a villain in my own eyes……

*Zhuge Liang: A highly intelligent man who was an accomplished military strategist, statesman, scholar & inventor in the Three Kingdom Period. 



My mother finally pulled away her eyes from TV to look at me, rubbed my head a bit and said: “So, what happened between you and Jiang Li?”

I tried to play dumb: “Everything is fine between us. I just wanted to give you a surprise visit. Why are you asking……”

Suddenly, my mother lightly knocked my head to express her doubt about my words. Then she said: “Xiao Yan, you are still too young to fool your mother.” Gee, even her posture resembled that of a triad boss.


I finally realized that my normally crazy mother knew me really well and she could see my heart like a mirror, crystal clear!

I was thinking about how to explain the whole matter to my mother and at the same time create a heinous image of Jiang Li in mother’s eyes, when home phone rang. My mother left me to pick up the phone.

Then, I sadly noticed that the phone call was from Jiang Li. If this wicked guy had called to complain about me then my old lady was going to denounce me.

There was such a stark contrast between her attitude towards me and towards Jiang Li; it made me wonder once again, whether this old lady and I truly shared the same DNA or not? At this moment, she was smiling and chatting pleasantly with Jiang Li, occasionally interjecting one or two sentences like ‘I know that Xiao Yan is over pampered and naive, she does not understand.’ ‘Tomorrow I will send her back to apologize to you.’ on and so on. Should a real blood mother use such kind of words for her only child……
 

the Old lady is back 

My mother hung up the phone and turned to reinstate my ideological education. From how difficult it is for a mother to give birth to a child, to how we only get one life to live so we must cherish all the happiness regardless of circumstances, then how lonely her precious son-in-law must be feeling at the moment and then she went through all the big and small mistakes, every single of them, that I had committed in the last twenty years followed up by exchanging views (Of course, it was only her opinion) about the reason behind mine and Jiang Li’s fight. Finally she reached the conclusion:  Xiao Guan Yan, you really deserve to be thrashed!

I felt like an ashen cactus plant, shrunk in the corner of the sofa, enjoying the watering from my mother’s mouth. Of course cactus, good or bad, is prickly so I also fought back: “Mom, it takes two to tango, Jiang Li is also wrong.”

My mother said: “when a person is attacked, it’s only justified to fight back or else should he wait till he is beaten to death.”

Me: “He attacked me first, he threatened me.”

My mother: “Fortunately, there are some things with which he can threaten you; otherwise you intend to listen to Heavens only.”

Me: “Mom you have been deceived. Since he wickedly made the complaints first so you are prejudicially siding with him.*”

*Xiao yan wants to say that the first impression holds an important role. As the first person to make a complaint he has already ingrained his image as the victim in her mother’s mind which Xiao Yan is unable to change now with her words.




Mother: “Nonsense, when Jiang Li called he kept on apologizing to me, saying he did not take good care of you. So why is he wicked? I think the one who is whining and throwing weight around is you, you are wicked. You are a sinner…….”

 Me: ……………

Jiang Li had done a very good job as a villain and I had once again successfully failed.

Mother in law shared an unbreakable bond with son in law but the birth mother did not even trust her own daughter, this was such a human tragedy, ah!

My mother ultimately announced: “Jiang li will come tomorrow to pick you up.”

Aggrieved, I said: “I won’t go back.”

My mother nonchalantly said: “That will be all the more better. Tomorrow when he comes, he need not go as well then both of you can stay here with me.”

Me: !!!

As if falling was not enough, now I had to lie down flat as well.  I promptly thought of He Zhi.

Even my real mother did not want me. Would He Zhi be willing to take me in or not? I was wondering about it and then started imagining how I could express my misery very deeply and vividly in front of her, when my mobile rang.

Sure enough, twin hearts have telepathic connection. Just as I was thinking about calling her, she called me. I happily picked up the phone: “He Zhi, I was thinking about you only.”

He Zhi did not even acknowledge me and just started shouting from the other side: “Damn it, Xiao Yan, you still run away from home?”

Me: ????

Without any delay He Zhi started to preach me about my ’running away from home’ problem: “As a couple, whatever problem both of you have with each other, you should sit together and talk about them clearly. How can you think that running away from home will solve everything? I did not expect this from you.”

Me: “That is, how did you come to know..”

He Zhi: “Jiang Li was afraid if you were in any trouble or anything so he called me up to check if you’re with me or not.”

I sneered: “He has such a big mouth.”

He Zhi: “Shut up, he was really worried about you.”

Me: “so why didn’t he call me?”

Smirking, He Zhi said: “looks like you are simply jealous? Of course he will find it embarrassing to call you considering how you two had just quarreled. Well…See your husband is so concerned about you. What are you so unsatisfied with?” her last sentence was in a completely menacing tone.

I shivered…..concerned? He called to instigate everyone, right? My real mother, my best friend, he turned everyone against me, forcibly made me homeless so that I was left with no other choice but to return back to his home obediently! What a conniving jerk, this guy war really too bad!