Chapter 411
Wang Jiazhi set up her easel by her bedroom window, painting. Just beyond the window stood a large sycamore tree, now bearing seeds. Between its large, heart-shaped leaves, slender strands of green seeds dangled, dotted with a few pale yellow flowers. It resembled the combs worn on the temples or at the back of the head in period dramas, a horizontal row of small flowers and dense tassels dangling from the bottom.
She thought it was very beautiful, especially when she saw it through the window on a rainy day, it felt like a mirage.
This blurry effect of rain running down the glass is really hard to draw. I spent the whole day yesterday only to draw one flower.
She laid a large mat and a small stool next to it. The kitten played quietly beside it, and when it got tired, it lay down on the mat and fell asleep.
The room was quiet, with only the occasional meow from a kitten. They seemed like a beautiful young mother and a lovely daughter, surrounded by furry pets, encased in a glass dome. The sycamore tree curiously clung to the outside of the glass, peering in.
After a few loud bangs, it really started to rain. The glass windows became blurry, and the sycamore trees outside became misty.
This painting was too demanding, and she felt exhausted after working on it all morning. She picked up her child and forced him to take a nap with her.
She held the kitten in her arms, not like a big cat holding a kitten, but like a kitten holding her stuffed animal. The child looked older than other children of the same age, and she was also larger than the average person of the same age.
Old Wu always teased Old Yi about his height. Actually, Old Yi was of average height for a man, but Wang Jiazhi wasn't. Old Yi was quite proud of her height.
Wang Jiazhi, however, was deeply concerned. In a previous life, she suffered from hunger and cold, which halted her growth and caused her height to remain fixed. Now that she was feeling better, her growth had resumed, and she was terrified of growing any taller.
Now that he is not at home, she often stands under the ruler used to measure the children's height to make sure she doesn't grow any taller.
When he was young, some girls in his hometown got married and had children at the age of fourteen or fifteen. At that time, he saw a fifteen-year-old girl with a long braid behind her head, smiling innocently, and holding her sweet and soft daughter in her arms. Oh my God, he sighed at that time, what a sin it was.
Although Wang Jiazhi was quite large now, she held the babies in her arms, their big eyes fluttering like kittens, and smiled innocently. He remembered that when he was in school, he always loved to feed a beautiful calico cat, like a lovely little girl. One day, it took him to see its babies! Oh my god, seven big gray tabby cats! It was already the mother of seven big babies.
Wang Jiazhi didn't fall asleep at all. She was very tired, but couldn't fall asleep. The child was snoring. After resting her eyes for nearly an hour, she got up and continued painting.
It was already one o'clock in the morning. The child was sleeping soundly in the middle of the big bed, hugging the purple rabbit. She turned on a table lamp next to her, forming a halo around her, isolating her from everything around her.
Wang Jiazhi hadn't seen Mrs. Liao's daughter for a while. The last time she saw the Xiao sisters, they told her that Mrs. Liao's daughter had become religious. No wonder she hadn't called recently; it seemed her spiritual sustenance had shifted from her novels to religion.
She didn't feel lost, but rather relieved.
This time, it was Mrs. Ma who insisted on treating them to a meal. She wasn't one for socializing much, so it was Mrs. Xiao's eldest daughter who called and said, "Actually, she wants to treat you. It would be bad if you didn't go."
"I?"
Wang Jiazhi wasn't surprised, but she still found it incredible. If it were her, she wouldn't have bothered to try to please him after such an embarrassing situation.
I have to admire Mrs. Ma for her adaptability.
"It's just right to invite them. She rarely has the opportunity to socialize now."
"OK."
Mrs. Xiao's daughter meant to invite Mrs. Liao's daughter, and now she has been automatically blocked from all social events. This time, she said it was her daughter who wanted to invite her, and Wang Jiazhi had no objection.
Mrs. Xiao's daughter and Mrs. Liao's daughter were in the same class in middle school and had some friendship.
The decoration of Mrs. Ma's house is a little too delicate, like a cosmetic box full of rose-red European roses. A small one looks very delicate, but a big one looks gaudy.
The walls are covered in rose-red wallpaper, the tablecloths are rose-red, the curtains are rose-red, and the carpet is emerald green. She has the taste of an eleven or twelve-year-old girl, but she's never grown up. Some aspects of her personality do resemble that of an eleven or twelve-year-old girl, throwing all her arrogance and pride out in one go, then facing setbacks and changing her expression faster than anyone else. Not all girls are like this, though; personality is innate. While some people with this personality type may try to hide it as they grow older, some simply don't.
Before Wang Jiazhi had children, she'd hear people discussing their own children, saying they could burst into tears without warning and then laugh the next moment. But after she had the kittens, she didn't feel that way. Her daughter isn't moody and has always had a gentle personality.
Now she felt it in Mrs. Ma. She had been so covetous at first, and now so fawning. Wang Jiazhi felt that the most embarrassing and humiliating idiom was "arrogant at first, then respectful later."
Mrs. Liang had told her before that Mr. Ma was not doing well in his job, and Mrs. Ma was afraid of offending her and getting into trouble.
Wang Jiazhi thought, is she afraid that she will lose her job of managing the rice at home like you?
At first, Wang Jiazhi was curious about how he could manage the rice issue, considering he was a spy. Later, she realized he was only in charge of the spies, not just the agents. It made sense, considering all those high-ranking officials held multiple positions.
Mrs. Ma was so attentive and fawning, as if she had never suppressed or ridiculed Wang Jiazhi before. Wang Jiazhi was very embarrassed.
Oh God, I will never be such a person.
Knowing that she can't eat spicy food, none of the dishes are spicy at all.
Mrs. Ma smiled and said, "The cook at home can't cook Cantonese cuisine well, but he is very good at Shandong cuisine."
Half of the dishes were ordered from the Guangdong restaurant that Wang Jiazhi often went to.
The family's chef was a rare talent, and both Cantonese and Shanghainese cuisines were excellent. However, he always felt that the chef's Cantonese cooking wasn't authentic enough, as he'd learned it later. He wanted to find another one, but she stopped him.
"We don't usually eat out. Oranges grown in Huaibei, the ingredients are different, but they still taste the same no matter how you cook them."
Mrs. Ma was very favored at first. There were many Cantonese people in this circle. Old Ma and his first wife were also Cantonese. Mrs. Ma was favored and hired a Shandong cuisine chef. She said this to let people know that she was still very favored in front of her husband and that her taste was mainly in the family.
The truth was, she had fallen out of favor, and Old Ma was thinking of firing the Shandong cuisine chef. Mrs. Ma threw a tantrum, and for the time being, he had to give up.
Those accompanying us today are Mrs. Liang, Ms. Qiao, Mrs. Liao’s two daughters, and Mrs. Xiao’s eldest daughter.
Mrs. Ma usually just wants to spend a decent amount when entertaining guests, but today she was very willing to spend money.
Mrs. Liao's daughter spoke of her recent religious insights and discussed stories from the Bible. Everyone responded with a few "hmm"s and "ahs." Her sister simply lowered her head to eat, unlike in the past when she would try to stop them with small glances.
Wang Jiazhi thought, as expected, most people who convert to religion are of two types: one is extremely happy and has nothing else to ask for; the other is extremely unhappy and also has nothing else to ask for.
After dinner, Wang Jiazhi escorted the two Liao sisters home. Mrs. Xiao's daughter arrived in her own car. After dropping off Mrs. Liao's eldest daughter, the younger one said helplessly, "My sister is really going crazy. She's become religious again. She says it helps her calm down. She goes to church every Sunday and studies with the nuns at the convent. She spends all her monthly allowance on this."
Although Mrs. Liao's eldest daughter's in-laws were prominent, their monthly allowance was modest. The other daughters-in-law were all daughters of well-matched families, naturally receiving generous dowries to support their daily needs. Mrs. Liao's dowry was limited, and she couldn't expect to use any money to support her daughter on a regular basis.
Later, Mrs. Liao's daughter's husband owed her a large sum of money. The amount wasn't that significant, and the family would have paid it back. However, Mrs. Liao's daughter and her in-laws had already fallen out. The in-laws claimed that the money used to pay the debt was from the public account, and they would deduct it from their monthly salary. They were deliberately trying to embarrass her. The official announcement of a reduction in their son's salary was the only official reduction; in reality, it remained the same. Only her, the daughter-in-law, had her salary reduced. Mrs. Liao's daughter had a huge fight over this, and the rift had completely broken down. Even before this incident, the rift had already begun.
Mrs. Liao could only humbly go to the house to apologize in a meaningless manner.
"I don't even bother to care about her anymore. She's crazy and out of control. Everyone has a life like that, but none of them are like her. She's bringing shame to the family."
Sister Liao said the last sentence in a very soft voice.
Wang Jiazhi felt a wave of sadness. Now even her sister had no sympathy for her. Sister Liao shared Mrs. Liao's sentiments. Her sister's various antics had ruined her reputation, and her family and sister were now ashamed in her husband's family.
Most families, regardless of whether they favor boys over girls, prioritize their first child. However, the Liao family placed great value on their sons. As the eldest daughter, Sister Liao never felt any love from her parents, even though she was the only child. This meant that she had harbored a seed of indignation at injustice since she was a child. Although her younger sister faced the same fate, she felt no resentment. As the saying goes, the older one is favored, the younger one is loved, and the one in the middle suffers. Since she was born to be the one who suffered, and her older sister wasn't favored either, Sister Liao was more open-minded from a young age. Faced with an unhappy marriage, she didn't go crazy like her older sister did.
The two sisters were subtly influenced by their mother since childhood and believed that a woman's only future was to get married and the only way to change her fate was through marriage. However, they never expected that the marriages they were waiting for would be so miserable. Her natal family didn't even offer a word of comfort. Instead, they scolded her just like her in-laws, twisting right and wrong. At first, her in-laws were just sarcastic. Mrs. Liao was afraid that her in-laws would think she was protecting her daughter, so she started to curse. Sister Liao had always hidden that anger in her heart, which opened the door to Sister Liao's madness. But she was powerless, and the more she went crazy, the worse her situation became. In the end, even her only sister despised her and looked at her the same way as her mother.
Wang Jiazhi couldn't imagine how it was to live her entire life without ever feeling loved since she could remember.
She had felt her father didn't love her since she was little. But her mother loved her, as did her grandparents and uncle. And there was her pride and the bright future she imagined.
After my mother passed away, I met only bad people, had nightmare experiences, and then lived a numb and hopeless life.
Seven years of wandering, without relatives or friends, and endless torture.
The good times of the past always made her more miserable. Sometimes she thought, if only it had never happened, it would have been hopeless from the beginning, without hope, she would never have to suffer disappointment or pain, but that was just out of spite.
A girl who worked as a copyist with me at the time smiled calmly and said, "As long as he can support a family and isn't too mean to me, I don't mind. I'm open to anyone anyway."
"Why?"
The girl smiled playfully and said, "Life is just like that anyway. I've seen it a lot."
The girl talked about her mother's unhappy marriage, the marriages of her two sisters, and her grandmother's marriage.
"In the end, whether it's free love or parental orders, it all ends up in the same place."
Wang Jiazhi thought to herself: if she hadn't fantasized about love like that, at least she wouldn't have fallen into that terrible trap. She could have married someone of good character. There would have been no love, just the daily necessities of life, but it would have been clean and peaceful.
But she soon thought that it was her own stupidity that led to her current situation, and what did it have to do with her desire for love? Was that the life she wanted?
Later she became more certain that that was not the life she wanted.
She had been afraid of the night-blooming cereus since she was little, perhaps because she felt that its fleeting beauty was too tragic. What she wanted was a lifetime, a beauty that would last for thousands of years without being affected by dust.
At that time she understood that the reason she was so afraid was perhaps because that was her destiny.
His wet hair stuck to her bosom, and she became even more convinced that she would rather live only 23 short years than lead such a bleak life.
If a person's youth and life never blossom in his life, and he is buried in the daily necessities of life, what's the point of living to be a hundred years old?
I have never felt love, never achieved anything of my own, no hope or future. And then I live in chaos.
Oh my god!
Only Mrs. Liang was left, sitting on the sofa with Mrs. Ma, drinking black tea.
"Old Ma still doesn't come home every few days." she asked with concern.
"No, he's just a little upset about the things at the government office," said Mrs. Ma.
Mrs. Liang was always unpretentious. Mrs. Yi and Mrs. Ma were both very concerned about their reputation, so such blatant exposure of someone's shortcomings, even in a tone of concern, would make them angry.
But Mrs. Ma can always tell lies without blushing or beating her heart.
Wang Jiazhi increasingly disliked Mrs. Ma, as she increasingly discovered that she bore a striking resemblance to Lai Xiujin. The only difference was that she was prettier. This unashamed devotion to fabricating lies, this unbridled jealousy and viciousness towards women, and this collective fawning over of men.
It's so disgusting and nasty!
"That's right. Among them, officials might be promoted today, demoted tomorrow. Things change over and over again, but things will always return to their original state. Look at Mrs. Yi. She was once so successful, but now she's all alone in the countryside. Who could have imagined that? But you never know. Maybe one day, she'll come back."
Mrs. Ma laughed and said, "That's right. Look at Old Zhu. He married his wife and only three days later he took his concubine out to work as an official. That concubine relied on her favor to not even pay attention to the first wife. After more than ten years, she still fell out of favor and was kicked out. The first wife is still the first wife. No one can be good forever, and I don't believe anyone can be in power forever."
Mrs. Liang laughed and said, "Isn't it? She's a concubine after all. She has no sons or daughters. A man's heart is hard to predict. He might say he doesn't like her and then he doesn't. Take Lao Liao for example. He was with her for three years before. They were so happy. But a month ago, I saw them going out together in love, and then they had a falling out. They even didn't want the child they had. They're really hard to predict."
Mrs. Ma said, "They say they're looking for her to have a baby. Are they looking for her to have a baby?"
Mrs. Liang also agreed and quickly added, "That's right. If you want to keep a successor, you should look for a girl with a clean background. As the old saying goes, once unfaithful, you won't use her again. If a woman who is unfaithful can find you behind her husband's back, she won't find someone else behind your back. And she's a young girl who has never seen the world, how can you trust her to keep her promise?"
Mrs. Ma said, "Perhaps Mr. Yi doesn't dare to be away from home like before. He should just go back and watch over her. I think this is all she can do. Two years have passed, and she hasn't hatched a single egg."
Mrs. Liang smiled and said, "Who knows? If one really hatches one day, I'm afraid it would be strange."
Mrs. Ma said, "If she were a lady from a well-known family, it would be fine. But why would she rush to curry favor with a country bumpkin who has never seen the world and is not very good-looking?"
Mrs. Liang said, "That's exactly what I said. I'm so angry just thinking about it. This person, when she's successful, it's better not to go too far. Look at her. You gave her a favor, but she still doesn't know how to appreciate it. How many times did you invite her before she finally came? As if she's really of some noble status. Even if Mrs. Yi hasn't officially married, does it mean she's going to get her turn?"
Mrs. Liang revealed the truth too directly, and Mrs. Ma was unhappy again.
They both felt the same way. Mrs. Liang had helped Mrs. Yi protest against Wang Jiazhi several times, and Old Yi had, in a fit of rage, dismissed her husband from his position in charge of rice. Although Mrs. Liang and her husband had a good relationship, she couldn't avoid his complaints and criticisms. To regain their income from the grain depot, the couple flattered the two.
Mrs. Liang thought that she was old enough to be Wang Jiazhi's mother, but now she had to bow down and fawn over such a little girl. How could she not hate her?
Mrs. Ma was in the same situation this time. Old Ma, for the sake of his reputation, wouldn't divorce her. But if she didn't want to become another Mrs. Liao, she couldn't let things get too heated with Old Ma. Especially since she broke up with Old Yi, she hadn't been idle. Old Ma had heard some rumors recently, and although he had no evidence, he'd gotten angry at her without any reason when he got home.
In particular, he heard from somewhere that she and Wang Jiazhi were not getting along. Old Ma had been demoted recently. No one understood Mrs. Ma's arrogance better than him, and no one knew better than him how much it offended others.
There are many good things when you are foolishly doing things, but everyone will dislike them when you are watching from a cold perspective.
When I first liked her, I thought her temper was irritating. Now I don't like her anymore. I think she offends people everywhere and stands out everywhere. It's really annoying.
Old Ma was afraid that Mrs. Liang's husband would follow in his footsteps, so he forced her to invite Wang Jiazhi to dinner as an apology to Old Yi.
Old Ma had a point. In the past, Old Yi and Madam Yi had a distant relationship. Currying favor with Madam Yi might have yielded some benefits, but not currying favor with her, or even offending her, would have had little impact on his official career. But ever since Madam Liang's husband lost his job managing rice supplies, people realized the power of their new favorite and no longer took them lightly.
Mrs. Ma said, "I just can't stand it. What on earth do I like about her? She's so proud and arrogant. A concubine is even more powerful than the main wife."
Mrs. Liang said, "There's a lot of time left. Let's just wait and see."
Mrs. Ma has always been unwilling to accept that she is prettier than Wang Jiazhi and can attract men more than Wang Jiazhi. Why does Lao Yi like such a country bumpkin?
She looked at Wang Jiazhi looking at Lao Yi. She didn't even flirt with him, she just stared at him blankly with her eyes open.
To Lao Yi, it looked like a pair of bright little cat eyes were looking at him.
Wang Jiazhi's first encounter with Ma had also ignited a strong sense of failure. He had only met her once, and that time had been bad. He had gotten angry for no reason, treated her badly, and then ignored her.
Mrs. Ma's gorgeous appearance and charming temperament were exactly the type she imagined he would like. She couldn't learn to be like that, she was not that type of person.
She thought that maybe he was just looking for something new to amuse himself occasionally, and that he would never do that again, so she went back to Mrs. Ma. Even when they soon became inseparable, she would still wonder if he had also gone back to Mrs. Ma when she saw her at the card table.
In her life, she had never thought that one day she would become someone's mistress and have to worry about whether she would share a man with other women.
The world is ridiculous.
He truly liked her. Ever since his youth, his ideal of love was to meet a girl like her. But he never met her. She was different from his imagination. She would have straight long hair, wear a light blue or ivory-white shirt, be simple and plain without makeup, and wear a delicate flower in her hair—jasmine, a lily of the valley, a gardenia, or something similar. She could read and paint. She smiled a shy, sweet smile at him.
But now the woman in front of me is wearing red lipstick, has a head of curly hair, is not wearing any flowers, but is covered in jewels. She is not reading or painting, but playing mahjong with a group of boring women.
But when she looked up, she smiled shyly and sweetly at him, just as he had imagined. Then he watched her lower her head guiltily, pick up the teacup and take a sip to hide her expression, leaving a red lipstick mark on the cup.
She just likes to use this cheap lipstick that fades.
At that time, he was detached for a moment, as if he was back in his twenties.
But soon, he returned to reality. It had been like this so often lately, and even he found it ridiculous. He hadn't thought about these things when he was younger, but at this age, it was like this.
He motioned for her to go out. Then he watched her panic, shyness, and then she made up a lie to several ladies to get out on her own.
He turned around and left with a smirk.
Zhou Minlin once told the girls that if a boy likes to play a little teasing on a girl, then he must like her.
Except for Wang Jiazhi, all the other girls agreed with this.
Meihui laughed and said, "No way, you've written so many romance scripts, but you don't even know such a basic theory?"
"I really don't know."
At that time, she felt that she should understand better than them. She had already experienced a passionate love and even lost her life. Why did it seem like she had never been in love before?
He had never been in love before, and he didn't know what love meant, or what people in love did. He saw people around him, infatuated with each other, but in the end, they either broke up or returned to a dull life after marriage.
However, it should be a pure spiritual love at the beginning, and then as the feelings heat up, they begin to desire each other's body.
At that time, he couldn't even imagine anything having to do with her. Their idea of simply having a romantic relationship was out of the question. It had already been that way from the beginning, and there was no way he could take her anywhere other than the apartment. It would have been wrong not to sleep there.
She is always clingy like a cat.
That time she felt like a kitten with its neck and body strangled, with only four paws to wave around, but it was all in vain. She could only let him hold her whole body down and do whatever he wanted.
Soon she gave up, holding him tightly with all four claws, and he pupated very hard.
She really is like a kitten. When you first catch her, her four paws struggle very hard, but when you hold her in your arms, she becomes very obedient and hugs your arms with her four paws.
She whimpered a few times and slowly opened her eyes. His eyes were so bright and she closed them again, feeling dizzy.
At the time, she couldn't understand why he sometimes looked like a little boy, especially his eyes, which were so dazzling. She had always been avoiding him in her heart. She didn't want to admit that she didn't dare look into his eyes, afraid of being bewitched. But she couldn't help it.
I saw her curled up in a ball, her paws clenched into fists against her chest, sleeping in sorrow, a tear in the corner of her eye. I remembered back in Hong Kong, when he said the food was terrible. She was embarrassed at first, then smiled broadly, revealing two rows of white teeth. She was like a cheerful kitten. Now she's become like this. I wonder what she's been through these past few years?
He reached out his big hand and smoothed her hair.
She opened her eyes and looked at him blankly, as if her eyes were just open but she was still half asleep.
She moaned, buried her head deeper in his arms, and soon closed her eyes and fell asleep again.
Once she seemed to say casually: Heaven and earth are not benevolent, and treat all things as straw dogs.
He was shocked by what he heard. They were both silent for a long time.
For the first time in his life, he barely had any time to himself. Besides work, he'd spend every spare moment with her. At first, he'd told himself to control himself, saying it was embarrassing and wrong. But he couldn't help himself.
Old Wu pretended to be clueless, as he wasn't surprised that Old Yi liked her so much. The one who was most surprised was Kuang Yumin.
Wang Jiazhi had never seen the two girls who died earlier, but Kuang Yumin had. They were prettier and more charming than Wang Jiazhi. However, they were quickly discovered, captured, and killed.
Let's just say they'd been looking for her, Lai Xiujin tirelessly waiting for her at the cinema day and night, hoping to use her to change their circumstances. Or rather, given the experience of the previous two, they didn't hold much hope for her. They simply hoped she'd end up like the two before her, using her misfortune to make them feel less unfortunate.
Kuang Yumin had a crush on her, the kind of crush a man would have on any woman of some beauty. In his eyes, the only girls truly worthy of being his girlfriend were those like Jin Qiaochu and Meng Shunying, with stunning looks and noble family backgrounds.
Kuang Yumin's favorite is still Jin Qiaochu, but he has never told anyone because he knows there is no hope. Meng Shunying is a bottom line for him.
In his eyes, Wang Jiazhi wasn't bright enough and too petty. She wore a shabby, washed-out, pale blue shirt, hadn't had her hair permed, didn't dress up, wasn't interested in socializing, and just sat there reading, bored. He had a thousand peeves against Lai Xiujing, but she was more fashionable and stylish than him.
At that time, Kuang Yumin thought to himself, rich people are really strange. When they get tired of delicacies, they also like to change to simpler meals. People say that some women please men by being understanding, but he couldn't imagine how Wang Jiazhi, who was so incapable of flattery and charm, could impress such a seasoned lover. In the end, he thought, maybe it was just like what the others said, that Wang Jiazhi was good at sleeping with men. After all, she looked so serious, but in fact she was very shameless. If she had any dignity, she would not have agreed to such a shameless thing.
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