Chapter 9
A chaotic Saturday passed just like that, and then came Sunday. The night before, Huang Ruoyu slept on the sofa in the living room as usual, and this morning, Chengshi and Huang Ruoyu hadn't exchanged a single word since they got up.
Right now, Chengshi sat on the massage chair, which was dubbed a "paid torture device," scrolling through her phone restlessly, hoping to relax. The two children, far away from Chengshi, were quietly playing with Lego in a corner of the living room. Meanwhile, Huang Ruoyu was repeatedly washing the dishes by hand in the DK dishwasher, just like she usually did during her cold war with Chengshi.
Narumi scrolled through her phone out of boredom, and every ten to five minutes she would come across a female live streamer selling lingerie. The girl on the screen was tall and voluptuous, with an arrogant and disdainful expression on her face. But that wasn't the most striking thing; what really caught Narumi's eye were her enormous breasts that seemed to overflow the screen—the size was much larger than the largest Narumi could imagine—D? E? F? G? Actually, Narumi's imagination had reached its limit when it came to D.
Looking at the girl on his phone, Narumi suddenly thought of Candy from the 15th-floor secretarial team. Of course, the female anchor on the phone was far more beautiful than Candy, and she also seemed much smarter. However, Narumi still felt that this female anchor resembled Candy in some way, perhaps it was her impressive breasts. So, as Narumi's eyes lingered on this alluring, feminine female anchor, he began to have sexual fantasies—though Narumi couldn't quite explain whether the object of his fantasies was this female anchor or Candy; perhaps at some point he had already merged the two women into one.
This fantasy was practically happening in public, so Narumi felt very uncomfortable with what he was doing. When the fantasy ended, he casually tossed his phone aside, lit a cigarette, and completely unaware that another cigarette, which he had only taken a puff of, was lying in the ashtray next to him.
The cigarette didn't dispel the restlessness. Perhaps it was just because it was a bright afternoon, the children were quiet, and Huang Ruoyu didn't continue arguing with him. So Cheng Shi put down his cigarette, which he had only taken two puffs of, walked into DK, and hugged Huang Ruoyu from behind, who was frantically cleaning the range hood.
"Little Fish," Cheng Shi whispered in Huang Ruoyu's ear, "No matter who's right or wrong, no matter how this whole mess started, let's just leave it at that. We still have to get back to normal life."
"Are you saying this is the end of it, and you'll go back to messing around outside next time? Are you saying we should pretend we're doing really well, that we're in love, and that we're living a comfortable life? Thank you, but I can't play along. I'm tired of this game."
"What do you mean?" Cheng Shi's voice rose, and he tightened his grip on Huang Ruoyu's arm. "What the hell do you want from me?"
"Now, I only need you to do two things. First, take your dirty hands off me; second, stop yelling at me."
"Okay, I'll take my hand off. But can you tell me what the hell you want?"
"Of course I can tell you that I want to clean the range hood."
Cheng Shi returned to the living room in a fit of rage, only to hear Cheng Yushan calling him "Dad".
"What's wrong?"
"Could you tell my younger brother the story of this book?"
Cheng Shi was almost brought to tears by Cheng Yushan's shyness when she made the request and the trusting look in her eyes. So he quickly replied, "Of course, come on, you come here too. The three of us can sit here, and then I'll tell you a story."
When Narumi opened the picture book and read the story aloud, the two children pressed their little heads against his sides, their legs stretched out on the sofa cushions, warming Narumi's heart and soul. Narumi's tone involuntarily became tinged with a heavy sadness; he felt that these two little ones understood what forgiveness was, that they were willing to accept him, good or bad, and that they loved him.
Why can't Huang Ruoyu understand something so simple? Why does she always complicate simple things? Cheng Shi thought with dissatisfaction.
Parent-child time is so wonderful! The only problem is that this picture book seems to have no end. Turning page after page, each page is filled with all sorts of childish pictures and words. Chengshi is gradually losing patience. He feels his voice getting hoarse and his speech getting faster and faster. Moreover, sitting on the hard floor has made his long legs go numb.
"Dad, you skipped a few pages just now."
"No, I didn't jump." Cheng Shi didn't want to admit it, but such a simple trick couldn't fool Cheng Yushan, who was about to turn 8. So he just argued, "Those pages were boring, you didn't like listening to them."
"But I want to hear it."
"I want to hear it too."
"But those few pages were really boring."
"Tell us about it too."
Cheng Shi gritted his teeth, feeling the nerves in his teeth roots and brain nerves intertwined and tied in a knot, making him feel extremely irritable.
“Cheng Yushan, you’re about to be in third grade,” Cheng Shi said angrily. “Don’t you recognize the words in this book? Can’t you do something this simple? Why can’t you read this book to your younger brother?”
Chengshi felt himself sinking endlessly, sinking into the sofa cushions, picture books, and the bodies of children, like a man being swallowed by quicksand.
Then, ignoring the children's cries, Narumi struggled to his feet, panting heavily, and paced back and forth in the living room for several minutes. He put his clenched fists into his pockets to prevent himself from doing anything he couldn't control—like grabbing a chair and throwing it out the French windows into the yard.
What the hell is this bullshit life? What meaning or value can this bullshit life possibly have?
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