Grandma, I don't want to be the mountain anymore; Grandma, the mountain is on my shoulders.
It seemed the sun had come out; the transparent glass windows let in the yellowish sunlight, which streamed in at an angle, but it didn't feel glaring in my eyes, and it was still cold on my body.
Zhang Xia thought in a daze—
He passed the college entrance examination and was admitted to a university in Lizhou that ranked in the middle to upper range. At university, he met people from all over the country, each with their own talents. Even if they were not born in Lizhou, they had eyes that had seen more of the world than he had; even if they were not born in Lizhou, they had family backgrounds that he could not match...
One day, his mother-in-law came over without telling him to bring him fruit she had grown herself, as well as dishes she had cooked. She stood not far from him, waving and calling him Xiaoshan.
What was his reaction? His past with his mother-in-law was buried by later events. All he knew was that his "friends" surrounded him, chuckling. Some of them raised their eyebrows and leaned in to tease him, saying, "Xiaoshan? Is that you, Zhang Xia? Hahaha... How could anyone have such a name? It's so corny."
"I can't stand it anymore. I really want to see who this 'little mountain' is. Could he be someone who came from some remote mountain village? Is there really someone like this in our school?" A friend stood on tiptoe, chin held high, looking around with a disdainful, amused smile.
He hesitated to step towards his mother-in-law, then mingled with the group of "friends," looked away, and head held high, mimicking their dismissive tone: "Who knows? Anyway, they're not calling me, so I don't care. Let's go, let's go eat, we're starving."
He deliberately raised his voice, hoping that his mother-in-law would be perceptive enough to hear him and quickly move away from his world.
The dorm supervisor brought the vegetables and fruit to his room. He felt lucky because he had returned first and had the chance to pick them up and hide them in his spot. All he could think about was—please don't let her find out.
As the holiday approached, he rushed home and yelled at his mother-in-law, telling her not to go to her school anymore and not to call him "Xiaoshan" anymore. He disregarded her feelings and said that the name was very shameful.
Memories of the past seem to have faded, but the memory of being mocked as "Little Mountain" remains incredibly vivid.
After graduating from university, I met my current wife at work, and our wedding day was such a wonderful day.
The grandmother, who was invited to the stage to give a congratulatory speech, wiped away her tears and said, "My little mountain has finally grown into a big mountain..." He couldn't hear or hear the rest of what she said. He almost lost his temper on stage because his "friends" from college were sitting in the audience.
Even though it seems that no one remembers the "little mountain" who was ridiculed, most people were moved by the mother-in-law's emotions and wiped away tears in the audience.
After toasting, he found his mother-in-law alone and took her to a quiet spot outside the banquet hall.
Unable to suppress his emotions, his eyes bulged outwards, and a roar was squeezed out of his throat: "Why do you still call me by that name? Can you please stop saying 'Little Mountain' and 'Big Mountain'? How many times have I told you not to call me that? Are you trying to ruin my wedding?" He left through gritted teeth, his tone threatening.
The elderly mother-in-law stood awkwardly and helplessly in front of him. Her two hands, rough and wrinkled from years of hard work, were clasped together and trembling in front of her lower abdomen. She smiled ingratiatingly and said, "How could your mother-in-law want to ruin your wedding? I won't recite it anymore. I won't recite it anymore. You should live a good life."
"Zhang Xia, why did you bring your mother-in-law out? What are you whispering about?" His wife, dressed in a toasting outfit, walked over to them.
Putting away the fierce look he had given his mother-in-law, Zhang Xia softened his gaze and looked at his wife beside him. He smiled and said softly, "I didn't say anything. Are you tired?"
The wife reached out and took her mother-in-law's arm. She looked up and met Zhang Xia's eyes, then glanced at her mother-in-law a few more times, and sighed, "I'm not tired. I'm happy, and I'm also envious. Mother-in-law really loves you. Her wedding speech just now made me cry. It's a pity that my grandmother passed away so early."
The feeling of a stiff smile was still familiar. Zhang Xia remembered patting his wife's shoulder and saying, "It's okay, from now on my mother-in-law will be your mother-in-law."
He took his wife's arm and supported his mother-in-law's arm, saying gently, "Mother-in-law, let's not just stand here. Let's go eat and see if there's anything you like."
He casually dismissed the matter; his gaze shifted between warmth and coldness, the warmth directed at his wife, the coldness conveying a threat.
When did this change begin?
Countless things filled the emotional rift between him and his mother-in-law.
The sunlight flashed in his eyes again, and they became the shape of his former grandmother's eyes. His eyelids, which had drooped with age, were forcibly held open, and he stared blankly at the old lady standing not far in front of him.
Her death was still vivid in his mind, but the old woman in front of him was just old. When she walked outside, she would blend in with the other elderly people he rarely paid any attention to—those people were the same as him.
When did my mother-in-law start to age?
Zhang Xia was horrified to find that he couldn't remember anything. He kept searching his memory, but all that surfaced in his mind were the raised eyebrows and magnified features of those people when they laughed, as well as the apple cheeks squeezed up by the corners of their mouths; it seemed as if their deep laughter, which he found sharp, was still echoing in his ears.
Tears welled up before her voice could be heard. Zhang Xia pulled her hands back from behind her back, her wrinkled palms covering her face, tears wetting her skin.
He sobbed, choking out, "I'm sorry... I'm sorry..."
The old woman, who had stopped not far in front of him, finally mustered the courage to approach. She floated up to him and her outstretched hand pierced through his head.
Even ghosts seem to tremble.
The old woman withdrew her hand tremblingly. She stood in front of him, listening to his sobs in silence for a long time before finally speaking: "Xiaoshan has grown up. Now, Dashan doesn't need Grandma's comfort anymore."
However, Zhang Xia suddenly shook his head, raised his face with tears streaming down his cheeks, and his already bloodshot eyes became even redder. "No, Grandma, I don't want to be a mountain anymore."
“From ‘small’ to ‘big’, every step I’ve taken has been so difficult… Mother-in-law, I’m almost forgetting who I am. I am a wife’s husband, a child’s father, and a father’s son. I have to bear a responsibility as heavy as a mountain. Mother-in-law, I can no longer be the mountain; Mother-in-law, the mountain is on my shoulders.”
The middle-aged man cried like a half-grown child, with muffled sobs coming from his throat.
The screen window rattled twice in the breeze. Wen Dai and Chen Sizhe stood silently behind them. The old lady in front of them sighed softly, "Then you won't be the big mountain anymore. Now you'll be Grandma's little mountain. Little mountain—you've always loved to keep things to yourself since you were little. Do you remember when you hid in the woodshed and cried as a child? Grandma found you then and stayed with you in the woodshed. You told Grandma so many things... You can do that now too."
However, the sorrows of childhood are clearly vastly different from those of adulthood, and the sorrows of middle age are a new kind of sorrow.
So, all Zhang Xia could confide in his mother-in-law was his tears.
The sunlight shifted quietly, and the sun outside the window climbed higher. Noon was the beginning of the time when yin energy was at its heaviest. Wen Dai cruelly separated the grandmother and granddaughter who missed each other.
After closing Zhang Xia's third eye, Wen Dai crossed her arms, raised her chin, and said, "If this stays open for too long, an ordinary person like you won't be able to handle it. It's something that affects a person's magnetic field. Now that we've reached the point where the yin energy is at its strongest, let's stop here."
The old woman who suddenly appeared in Zhang Xia's field of vision just vanished just like that.
He was in a daze, his neck slumped and his head hanging low for a while before he slowly propped himself up to stand up. After calming down, he looked at Wen Dai and said in a seemingly sincere tone, "Thank you."
The gaze shifted to Chen Sizhe again, and Zhang Xia pursed her lips twice before raising them again: "Thank you."
The raised hand was meant to interrupt, and Wen Dai glanced at him. "Don't thank me yet, we haven't finished dealing with things. Your mother-in-law's resentment isn't actually that strong, it's mainly that she has an obsession; but this house is a bit different, this house has a lot of yin energy, we will help you clean it up. As for letting your mother-in-law leave in peace and stop disturbing your life, all you need to do is for you and your family to do what I said before, have a reunion dinner with her."
She gave Chen Sizhe a look, then pulled out several mini plastic bags from her bag, the red powder inside swaying with her movements.
She distributed several bags to Chen Sizhe's palms. "You recognize it, right? Vermilion powder. Apply it to the corners of this house, and to every corner of every room. Let's divide the work."
After the cinnabar powder, Chen Sizhe, who was in charge of the ritual, took the stage. Wen Dai, who had nothing to do, glanced at Zhang Xia, who was standing in the corridor with his back against the wall.
The man still seemed unable to shake off the previous situation; his empty eyes drooped, his forehead tilted forward, and the muscles in his face appeared to be in their most natural state.
She took a few steps forward, tilted her head and leaned close to him, forcibly interrupting Zhang Xia's dazed state before smiling and saying, "It's time to pay the final installment."
I thought that after having a heart-to-heart talk with his mother-in-law, Zhang Xia would change his annoying personality, but I never expected that human nature is hard to change.
The man who had been lost in thought a moment ago suddenly straightened his back, even his shoulders stood up, and his empty eyes became bright. He stared at Wen Dai and said, "Why are you settling the final payment now? My mother-in-law hasn't left yet, has she? Doesn't the contract say that the final payment will be made after the contract is completed? Not now. I can only give you the final payment after my mother-in-law has completely passed away."
His voice was exceptionally strong, with the tone rising, showing no trace of the previous listlessness.
The smile that had been forced onto her face finally crumbled. Wen Dai's lips were still stretched taut, but the laughter in her eyes had vanished. Her tongue traced the flesh of her cheek near her lips, and she finally spoke through her teeth, "You really are a beast—"
Chen Sizhe, who had just performed a simple ritual, walked over. He glanced at Zhang Xia, who was still displaying a firm attitude, and said, "We've finished the ceremony. The rest is your responsibility and has nothing to do with us. You should settle the remaining payment now. Do you intend to violate the contract terms?"
Now that his shoulders and back were relaxed, Zhang Xia looked around and gestured for them to follow him out of the house.
The corridor was bathed in soft, warm sunlight. Zhang Xia emerged, his face contorted with disdain. He held his head high and said, "So what if I want to break the contract terms? Don't think I'm ignorant of the law. What you're doing is nothing but feudal superstition. The contract you drafted has no legal effect whatsoever."
He pulled his phone from his pocket, his wrinkles and facial features converging into a smug smile. The phone screen, which he was shaking in his hand, displayed a recording interface. "I recorded the whole thing! This is fraud, spreading feudal superstition. I'm being lenient by not suing you. You want money from me? Ha—keep dreaming!"
Wen Dai pinched the bridge of her nose and took a few deep breaths. She turned her head closer to Chen Sizhe, gritted her teeth and whispered, "Can we beat him up? I can't take it anymore."
However, Chen Sizhe remained calm and composed. He raised his hand and placed it on Wen Dai's shoulder, gently pulling her back slightly. "Violence is unacceptable. This is a society governed by the rule of law."
Lifting his leg and stepping aside to block Wen Dai, Chen Sizhe lowered his eyelids, his gaze, tinged with disdain, fixed on Zhang Xia, who remained defiant.
The imposing presence created by Chen Sizhe's height of 1.9 meters, combined with his own temperament, forced Zhang Xia to instinctively take two steps back. However, he remained defiant, staring at Chen Sizhe with his eyes wide open, and warned, "You yourself just said that this is a society governed by law. If you dare to lay a hand on me, I will call the police."
With a snort of a smile, Chen Sizhe scrutinized him with interest, his fox-like eyes darting mischievously across his face. He spoke with an air of nonchalance: "We provide traditional cultural services. The contract clearly states that our services fall under the category of folk culture, and the client—that is, you—acknowledges this. Now that the ceremony is over, you're turning around and accusing us of feudal superstition."
"If you want to back out of the deal, just say so. You may not be ignorant of the law, but you are certainly arrogant. You can show this contract to any lawyer and see if they will help you with this case after reading it. Besides, you probably can't even afford to hire a lawyer; or rather, you can't even afford to consult a lawyer. You can report it to the police, go ahead."
The contempt in his words was clearly not meant to be hidden. Chen Sizhe glanced down at him, and at the end, he even raised his hand in a gesture of acknowledgment.
Zhang Xia blushed, his eyes gleaming, his lips trembling as he said, "How...how can you be so sure? What makes you think I'm unwilling to spend money on a lawyer? Let me tell you, I'm willing to spend money on lawyers. I wouldn't even give you money to consult a lawyer myself. You're all liars! And you're so sure other lawyers can't find problems with this contract? Do you think you're a lawyer?!"
His words made him blush and turn red, like a red chili pepper.
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