Flash Marriage

Chapter 4: Being a dutiful son (2)

Because of the stimulus of marriage certificate, my mother was sleepless at night. The consequence of her insomnia, caused by her flaming fire of glee, was that her daughter who wanted to sleep also could not sleep.
The old woman constantly asked about Jiang Li and each question was repeated at least ten times. I was getting whirling dizziness, not to mention I had only met him twice, how could I know so much about his life? I really wanted to cuddle in my blanket without any restriction in my room to sleep, but…but I dare not, as I already said I could not sleep alone. Brilliant, bullying people like that!


Finally, I also learned the method to master the invincible sleep, although in the middle of it my mother stumbled and fell asleep whereas I was still drowsy. I thought, if an earthquake strikes at this moment, I was positive that the first person to be buried would be me. Years later my mother said, she was there, how could she let her daughter to be buried? I heard that, immediately moved to no end, whatever anger I had against her vanished. See, my mother was like that, always making me feel neither completely loved nor angered.

Because of a certain old woman’s fuss, I slept till ten a.m. without waking up. Next morning, I woke up to see my mother left me a note saying she went out for morning exercise, would be a little late. I really did not know what type of exercise could take an entire morning causing her not to return until it’s so late, really speechless.
I went to the kitchen to find something to eat, since the old woman still had a conscience, she left breakfast for me, I had no appetite, so only I ate two pieces and came to the living room to look at my  mobile.


Because I slept in the same room with my mother, afraid that old woman’s body could not stand it, I usually would put my mobile in the living room in the evening, anyways I did not have anything important to do at night, also who was going to look for me.


Mobile displayed a few missed calls, I looked at them, all were from Jiang Li, from six to nine o'clock in the morning, did not know what was his urgency. I opened the text messages, glanced at them.


Jiang Li: is it not convenient to answer the phone?


Jiang Li: My parents have a ten o clock flight to city B this morning, can you come over?
 

                                            dutiful D-I-L afraid of her would be M-I-L...:D


This filial kid was really in a rush to bring his wife to meet his parents already. Also, I did not know if his mother came to know that her daughter in law was just a nominal whether she would give him or me a slap on the face.

I looked at my watch, it was already half past ten, did not have enough time to go to the airport, unless I was Superman or Doraemon, unfortunately I was neither. I pressed Jiang Li’s number, wanted to call him but did not have the nerve. How to call him and talk; just tell him that I overslept? Then if he very obediently and truthfully reports this to his mother, the daughter in law she has yet not even met and would already have annoyed her, it’s not right. I did not care if Jiang Li hated me or not, but I knew if mother in law hated me, it would be hard to survive.


So I hesitated, embarrassed but still sent him a message: ‘you tell your parents, I wanted to go, you did not let me go anyway.’


A moment later, Jiang Li messaged me: ‘you’re the best.’


I wanted to send him a message like ‘The compliment is flattering’ or ‘typically normal,’ but considering that I was in fact a modest person, so did not bother him.


I threw my phone on the sofa, took out a key from the drawer, and went to find He Zhi. This He zhi was particularly conscious of suffering tribulations in future; she always feared that someday she would find herself suffering from some acute illness or something and since she lived alone, in case she dies at her home, how no one would know. So she gave me a spare key, so that I could go either to talk or not talk as well as to check if she was alive or dead!


Yesterday She really drank a lot [of course I also drank a lot, but I never got drunk ha ha ha], feeling certain that she did not has to work on that day, so using my spare key I sneaked into her house. When I went in, He Zhi was lying in the bed, whined: “Devil Xiao Guan, do not say anything looking at me!”

I went over, pulled aside her quilt, smiled and said: "The devil, I have not become one, yet­­­?"

She opened her eyes to glance, feebly said: "I feel uncomfortable; you have to wait on me.”
I poured her a cup of warm water, ran home to bring the dish my moth­­er and I graced in the breakfast, warming it well before placing in front of her. She gave me her standard expression, then sniffed and delightedly ate her breakfast.
I leaned my chin on my hand and not without concern asked: “He Zhi if you will ravage your job, you will not be fired, right?”
She stared at me, sternly said: "He dare!"
He Zhi’s boss was her boyfriend, unless she offended her boss’s boss, the probability of being fired was close to zero. But people do not think wrong, in fact, He Zhi was not the type of people who take advantage of this and that, she caught the young man’s hand first and then he became the department’s boss. Naturally somewhat spoiled He Zhi, in the company was very graceful, not domineering; only her occasional small mistakes were forgiven.

I continued to ask: "Then you two got married?"


I already knew the result but still couldn’t help to create opportunities for He Zhi to despise me; indeed, she glanced at me and disdainfully said: “your mind is always on heat regardless of weather.*"

* her mind was single tracked


I smiled fondly. I remembered back in high school, teachers and political language arts teacher liked to mention that "meet the challenge and seize the opportunity", now I had the opportunity to seize moreover I did not even had to meet any challenge, what a perfect outcome! Of course, later I discovered that I was wrong, the term "No need to meet the challenge," the person from hell, whose name was Jiang Li, himself, was a challenge!



I ensnared He Zhi through meaningless chatter then coaxed her back to be happy, she did not even eat lunch and again fell asleep. Yesterday she drank a lot, today she should sleep a little, so I did not bother her sleep, I sneaked out of her home and came back to mine.


It was almost twelve o clock; I thought my mother must have returned already. I admitted myself I really had no prospect, already reaching thirty, still had to rely on mother for feeding, primarily I was not lazy, but in my mother’s eyes the food I cooked was, naturally, unsavory for an elderly person’s mouth. In fact I always felt that my cooking was not that terrible, at least I thought it was not that bad, someone should rather tell my mother that she’s really too picky!