She was only thirty, but her hands looked like those of a fifty-year-old peasant woman.
In the sink, the bowl suddenly slipped and hit the wall of the sink, making a crisp "dang" sound.
Feng Yulan snapped back to her senses and quickly turned off the water. She glanced nervously at the door—even though she knew Zhang Shumin had already left, she was still reflexively afraid.
The room was eerily quiet.
—————————————
Zhang Shumin didn't go far.
She took a walk in the small park downstairs and returned a little before 7:00. By this time, Feng Yulan should have gone out to work at the supermarket, and Zhang Shuo would of course be at work, so the house became her kingdom once again.
She opened her door and locked it.
The ties on the wall showed richer colors in the morning light - the wine-red one looked like a pool of dried blood in the sunlight, and the dark green one looked like a bottomless pool of water.
Zhang Shumin walked to the wall and reached out to touch the latest dark blue silk tie.
"You're better than any of them," she whispered, twisting the fabric between her fingers. "At least you knew how to keep quiet."
She dragged the old shoebox out from under the bed and opened it. Inside, besides a few "special collections", there was also a small notebook - this was her "tie diary".
Turning to the latest page, she picked up a ballpoint pen and wrote:
"April 26, 2025. A new dark blue silk tie has been added. The coffee stain has been removed. My son is still as useless as ever, and my wife is still as stupid as ever."
After finishing writing, she stared at the line of words for a long time, and then suddenly crossed out the last sentence with force, and the tip of the pen almost tore the paper.
"Why should I care about them?" she said to herself. "You are all I have."
She looked up at the wall of ties, and a strange smile slowly appeared on the corner of her mouth.
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