Chapter 3

Mom paused.

“That’s not what I meant.”

She remembered something, rubbed my head, and sighed.

“Darling, when I was young, I was as beautiful as Joey Wong.”

“Once, a man wearing a gold chain kept pursuing me and promised he’d give me a big villa. But he was so ugly I didn’t like him.”

“He wouldn’t leave me alone. In the end, your dad saw that he was picking on me and beat him off. I fell in love with your dad at first sight. Why would I care whether he had money? I insisted on going with him, and I’ve loved him ever since.”

“Oh…”

I nodded. “So in the end, a person should marry for love.”

“You can’t! You have to marry into wealth and glory. Don’t be like your mother. I can barely sleep in once a year.”

A gust of hot, dusty air swept over us. The bus was almost there.

As I saw her off, I said, “Mom, when I grow up, you and Dad won’t have to work so hard anymore. You can close the breakfast shop, sleep in every day, and get your nails done!”

She was small, and the crowd pushed her onto the bus. In the blink of an eye, she disappeared inside.

But before the bus left, I saw her squeeze her way to the window and call out to me with a big smile.

“But darling, I’m already very happy!”

“You have to be happier than me, because you’re the heroine!”

I stood outside and waved as the bus rattled away.

Only after I could no longer see her did I realize my eyes were damp.

Tears had welled up without my noticing.

5

Middle school was boring. There was nothing but studying and gossip. The story about Mom causing a scene at school quickly spread everywhere.

In many people’s eyes, I went from a quiet, well-behaved girl to a violent girl who struck mercilessly.

Mom became the “she-devil” who’d raised a violent daughter.

But being feared was better than being bullied.

I covered my ears and read my classics. My grades stayed in the top three of my year, and every so often I brought home an award or scholarship.

I was the kind of student teachers pointed to when they said, “Learn from her.”

My family’s business kept growing.

By ninth grade, my parents finally replaced the old, dilapidated home we’d lived in for over a decade and bought a new one.

This time it really had three bedrooms and a living room. They no longer had to sleep on a mattress on the floor or the sofa.

On the day we moved in, Mom sat in the bright, spacious living room and cried.

She cried as she touched the beautiful floor-to-ceiling windows.

“Old Lin, I never dreamed I’d see a day like this.”

“I want to see who dares laugh at Su Meihe now! Who dares say I married badly! I’m living better than either of my younger brothers!”

Dad didn’t cry out loud, but he stood in a corner sniffling, his hands trembling.

I went over to see what he was doing.

Oh. He was writing another glowing review for that author.

【Thank you, Great Author! I’m back to report that my wish came true! Following your guide step by step, I made money and even bought a house. Once my daughter gets into Tsinghua or Peking University, I’ll come back to report again!】

Hey, did you have to make getting into Tsinghua or Peking University sound so easy?

There probably wouldn’t be a third wish to report.

I coughed softly and wiped both their tears. “All right. Moving into a new home is happy news. Let’s think about the housewarming party and cheer up.”

My extended family wasn’t large, but my parents thought a housewarming party was almost as important as a college acceptance banquet. They invited whoever they could.

Even my maternal grandparents, who had always been at odds with Dad, came.

Only after they arrived did we understand the real reason for their visit.

After the meal, my grandparents walked around the house.

“Meihe, you have a spare room?”

Mom explained, “Yes. Old Lin and I share one room, Aitu has her own, and we were going to use this one as a study.”

Grandma shook her head and sighed. “Aitu isn’t home most of the time anyway. It’s a waste to leave it empty. Meihe, to tell you the truth, your father and I haven’t been in good health lately…”

Mom hurriedly lowered her voice. “No, Mom. Old Lin won’t agree! And back when you told me to go work for others, you said you and Dad would live with my younger brother, and I—”

“Be quiet! Is that how you speak to your parents?”

Grandpa angrily cut her off. “You’re a daughter. You finished vocational school. What more do you want? Have we mistreated you? Your two younger brothers have so many burdens. As their older sister, shouldn’t you help?”

They put on the airs of elders and began lecturing her. By reflex, Mom lowered her head, looking flustered and helpless.

Meanwhile, my aunt had taken Dad out to the balcony.

I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but I watched Dad pull a thick stack of red bills from his pocket and hand them to her.

Our family had made money in the past few years, but every cent had come from hard work.

Besides, buying the house had nearly wiped us out.

What had happened that made my aunt borrow money from Dad?

Uneasy, I wanted to pull my parents out of the crowd, but Mom stopped me with a look.

She mouthed, “Go to your room.”

I had no choice but to shut myself in there. By the time they called me out, evening had come.

My parents silently cleaned up the mess after the party. No one was smiling.

Fruit peels and scraps of paper covered the floor, piled up in heaps.

The silence weighed like a mountain.

I couldn’t understand then why a lively gathering could leave behind such loneliness.

“Mom, Dad, we don’t have a study anymore, do we?” I asked softly.

Back when we were cramped into that little old house, I was the only one who had a proper bed. I had a bookshelf on the wall.

Their books were piled haphazardly under the coffee table or used to prop up a wobbly table leg.

They had looked forward to having that room for so long.

But they looked at me and moved their lips for a long time without saying anything.

That night, everyone went to bed early. But even with the living room between us, I could still hear the faint sound of an argument.

I was used to my parents having a little squabble every few days.

This time, they chose to avoid each other.

It turned out that they had never wanted me to know about their real arguments.

6

The next day, the break was over. I returned to school to keep preparing for the high-school entrance exam.

Mom couldn’t win against my grandparents, so Grandpa moved in for a while.

As for my aunt, apparently her husband had gambled up a debt, and that was why she’d come to ask our family for help.

Dad didn’t want to give up the study. Mom didn’t want the family’s money flowing “outside.”

For once, they were giving each other the cold shoulder.

Even the breakfast business suffered.

Regular customers said they felt a chill over their heads while eating.

The conflict was clearly hard to resolve, but I was so busy studying for the exam that I was dizzy half the time. I had no chance to get involved.

Fortunately, I made no mistakes in the exam. In the physical fitness test, I even got full marks in several events.

The teacher leading our group asked curiously, “Have you trained before?”

“No.” I shook my head shyly. “I’ve only studied a little taekwondo.”

“Really?” She was even more surprised. “Not many families let their daughters learn that. Your parents are very forward-thinking.”

Hearing that took me back to an afternoon in my childhood.

I’d been practicing kicks at the martial arts school, while my parents secretly watched from a corner.

“Oh my, honey, our daughter looks so cool!”

“What’s cool about it? Aren’t you afraid she’ll be all muscle someday? What kind of girl is that?”

“So what? I still love you even though you’re strong.”

“She’s not like me! And she’s… so sharp-tongued!”

I couldn’t help smiling.

That’s right. My parents loved me very much.

They loved each other too.

But outside our little family, they still had their own blood relatives.

Those ties were hard to cut, even when they brought pain.

In the end, everything only got more tangled, impossible to unravel.

When I got home, the scene of flying pots and barking dogs I’d imagined never happened. Instead, the house was strangely quiet.