63.063 A Little Lesson
Su Yu grabbed the man's shoulder blades, trying to steady herself as she was about to hit the bedpost. Through the half-open window, she saw trembling leaves and a blurry roof.
"Don't be so rough, it's making me uncomfortable." Su Yu was forced to arch her upper body, her neck stiffened and a little sore. Beads of sweat sliding down from the peak licked her tight skin, flowing up and down with each movement, like raindrops hitting the surface of a lake, creating ripples with uncertain patterns. The itch seemed to flow into the depths of her heart.
"What are you doing?" Su Yu exclaimed. She hooked an arm around her waist, using it to straighten her back. The window was pushed against the wall, and the moon, which had been blocked, was now revealed.
"I noticed you seem quite curious about what's outside the window, so I'll carry you to see it." The man leaned against the windowsill, completely uninterested in the courtyard shrouded in night.
"Woof!" Little Black barked softly, resting its head on its front paws, its eyes fixed blankly on the male owner peeking out of the window, its taut fingers resting on its scratch-covered back.
It tilted its head and growled again, its knuckles loosening. A head with puffed-up fur passed through the crack in the window. Little Black stood up, wagged its tail, walked to the windowsill, propped itself up, and just as its paws touched the windowsill, the window in front of it slammed shut.
Su Yu shifted from lying down to sitting up, turned to the side, grabbed a handful of her hair, and slowly tied it into a small bun. She then grabbed a pillow, covered her chest, and put her legs together, asking the man who was breathing softly, "Are you angry?"
"It's alright now."
"So you were angry before?"
The man tilted his head, his hand stroking her ankle, staring at the barely visible area, and said with a wandering gaze, "I feel like you tricked me before."
Lately, all they've been talking about is having children. Although he hasn't explicitly said no, her attitude has made it clear. A long time span could have blurred her stance, but now it's all happening at once. He's not a stupid man; he can naturally sense it. Moreover, Su Yu recalled his sudden cold face on the day Xiao Ya turned one month old, and then, on the way back, he suddenly asked the two children for their opinions on having more children. Su Yu confirmed, "You went to the bedroom at Third Sister's house."
Ning Jin neither spoke nor denied it.
This time, Su Yu didn't try to get away with pleading or acting cute. She pulled the thin blanket over herself and drew the man's gaze to her face—
“I really don’t want to have children. It has nothing to do with you, and even less to do with my ex-husband. It’s purely my own consideration. What I said before was true. I’m afraid of pain. I panic just thinking about how much blood I’ll bleed down there. Also, I’m not young anymore. If I get pregnant again, my belly won’t shrink back. I don’t want to live the rest of my life in a loose and unhealthy way.”
"So Xiaoyuan isn't your biological son?" the man asked jokingly. Perhaps having already accepted that he wouldn't have any more children and having just finished a vigorous workout, he didn't feel angry at her explanation.
"If he wasn't my biological son, how could I remarry? I was young when I gave birth to him, and my mind was in turmoil. I just did whatever my parents told me to do. My parents thought I was old enough to get married, so I went on blind dates and got married. After marriage, I followed the path of my ancestors, busy with housework and then working in the fields to earn work points. I didn't find out I was pregnant until I hadn't sewn a mortar in over two months. I continued to work in the fields with my big belly, barely making ends meet, and in the end, I almost died to have a child." Su Yu thought about the life of the woman in her memory and mentioned some unimportant things. "But things are different now. I married you and have a job. I can earn money. My current job is good, the salary is high, and there is room for advancement. I don't want to sell my job and stay at home to raise the baby and have a child. I don't want to find a job as a dishwasher when the child is a little older."
"It turns out it was my fault after all. I shouldn't have bought you a job." The man glanced at her sideways.
"That's definitely not true, but thanks to you, I've tasted the sweetness of earning my own money. Think about it yourself, would you be willing to quit your job now, drive me to and from work every day, stay home to take care of the baby after it's born, do the grocery shopping, laundry, and cooking for our family of five, and then look for a job when the little one is old enough to go to school? You wouldn't even earn half of what you have now, and you'd have to put up with people who are worse off than you?" Su Yu asked, resting her chin on her hand. He immediately lowered his eyelids and stopped looking at her.
"Hmph, say something." Su Yu slapped his stomach.
"I can't have children, so it's definitely better for the mother to take care of them," he argued, indirectly admitting his unwillingness.
"Didn't you raise Ping An? You're willing to take care of the older one, but not the younger one?" Su Yu said angrily, pinching his waist and cursing, "With your biased attitude, you still expect me to have children for you? You're a load of rubbish!"
The man frowned and endured the pinch, already annoyed by having to take care of only one child, Da Ping'an. He was finally free from this burden and was determined not to take on a second one.
Seeing her eyes gleaming with anger, and her demeanor completely lacking the composure expected of a mother, and thinking of the exhaustion her sister and her sister had experienced after giving birth, he quickly begged for mercy before her temper flared up further, "Didn't I promise not to have any more children? Just stay like this and live to be a hundred years old, so you can be friends with your two sons."
"If I had known you were biased, I would have said I wasn't going to have kids. It's biased and unfair to me." Su Yu complained, throwing a tantrum, and leaned forward to pinch his neck.
"Don't get excited, don't hurt the baby." Ning Jin smiled and helped her up, then sat up himself.
"What child? You're dreaming." Su Yu panicked for a moment, thinking he was playing a trick on her.
"You're so jealous, it's like you're pregnant. You didn't even give me a chance to take care of the baby." Ning Jin wrapped the blanket around her, sat on her lap, and said, "It's not that I'm biased, I just had no choice. If someone had taken care of the baby for me back then, or if Ping An's mom had been alright, I wouldn't have been tied up at home by the little brat. I couldn't even do odd jobs in peace. It was so annoying."
Su Yu felt relieved, but then bit him again. "You're not even willing to quit your job to stay home and raise the kids, and you want me to do the things you find annoying. You don't like me as much as you say you do."
"..." Why are they suspecting him again? The man was speechless, feeling uneasy. The more he talked about it, the more he felt guilty. He immediately surrendered and said, "It was my fault. Fortunately, I've changed. Let's let this matter go and neither of us will mention it again."
Su Yu was secretly delighted, but on the surface she was still dissatisfied. She reluctantly said, "Then you can't push the reason for not having any more children onto me in the future. We have the same idea. Neither of us wants to quit our jobs to stay at home to buy groceries, cook, do laundry, and take care of the children. It's not that I didn't give you a chance."
"It's not like you've given me a chance."
"It's not like you'd be willing to go home and do housework and raise children."
The two glared at each other, neither willing to give in.
The eye-straining activity of comparing eye sizes ended with the man putting on his pants and getting out of bed.
"Where are you going?" Su Yu asked.
"Now, I'm hungry, do you want some?"
"Then cook a little more, I'll share a bowl with you, I'll only eat two bites. The chicken I left for you is in the cupboard, don't cook just noodles, I won't eat that," she babbled on.
"Not eating anymore?" She really meant just two bites? Ning Jin took the chopsticks she handed him and confirmed, "Then I'll eat it all?"
"Hmm, I'm not hungry anymore." He suddenly left the table, and she hadn't finished eating.
He slurped up half a bowl of noodles, then suddenly looked up and asked, "Did you give me a chance? Did you ever think about having a baby?"
"Aren't you done yet?" Su Yu looked at him, and seeing his insistence on an answer, she nodded and said, "After you left last time, when you were mean to Ping An, I saw that you wanted a child and had the idea." Seeing his sudden agitation, she quickly added, "I don't have that idea anymore. First, there are policies, and second, your attitude is problematic. Otherwise, I would be angry if I had a child and saw Ping An, whom you raised single-handedly."
Ning Jin breathed a sigh of relief. She had thought about having a child with him. If it weren't for policy obstacles and family reasons, he would have a child with her, even if he quit his job. He was no worse than the previous man.
"I won't have any more children, and I won't mention it again," he said casually, before continuing to eat his noodles with gusto.
"That's weird," Su Yu muttered, looking at the man who suddenly became happy.
After handing the bone to Xiao Hei, the two brushed their teeth and went to bed around 11 or 12 o'clock. They fell asleep as soon as they lay down and closed their eyes.
The next morning, Ping An and Xiao Yuan were woken up by Xiao Hei scratching at the door. Ping An opened the door and let it in. While getting dressed, he asked, "Why did you come to see me today? Did you get scolded for scratching at the door over there?"
"Woo—" Little Black ran out anxiously and stood at the gate to wait.
Ping An ran out first, glanced at the closed door on the other side of the main room, and opened the door amidst Xiao Hei's urgent barking. He then ran out as well. Xiao Yuan came out, saw the dog leash in the yard, picked it up, and chased after them.
"Why didn't you put a leash on it?" Xiao Yuan panted as he wrapped the leash around his wrist twice, then whipped the dog's rear end twice with a stick after finally catching up with it. "You really deserve a beating. If you run off and don't come home again, I'll abandon you and throw you away."
"I didn't notice." Ping An tugged at the dog's ear, and the two of them and the dog walked home along the street. Seeing that there was no smoke coming from the chimney and no voices coming from inside the house, Ping An pushed open the door first. Sure enough, his parents hadn't gotten up yet.
"Dad, Mom, get up and cook, everyone... we're going to be late for school." He didn't know what time it was, but there were already people eating on his way back.
Ning Jin opened his eyes when he heard the sound. He had closed the window last night, so the sun outside didn't wake him. "Get up, stop knocking on the door."
"What time is it?" Su Yu asked.
"It's almost 7:30." Ning Jin picked up the tin clock, got out of bed, got dressed, and went out, closing the door behind him and telling the two children not to come in.
"Give them some money and coupons, go to the restaurant and buy some steamed buns. Don't cook," Su Yu called out from lying in bed.
Outside, Ping An took the money and casually asked, "Why did you and your mom sleep in?"
"Go to sleep if you want to, don't worry about it."
"You're so stingy. I was just asking." He took the schoolbag from Xiao Yuan, was about to leave but then turned back and asked, "Dad, you're not having any more children, are you?" He had wanted to know the answer to this question since he opened his eyes.
Xiao Yuan looked up and waited.
Ning Jin narrowed his eyes, his lips moved, and seeing Ping An's unhappy face, he said, "Your mother and I discussed it for half the night, and we still decided to have one. You two shouldn't talk about this outside."
Ping An's mood immediately plummeted. She threw the money on the ground and shouted, "I'm going to tell them! I'm going to tell the police and the Women's Federation!"
"Pick it up." Ning Jin said sternly, grabbing his collar and making him pick up the money.
"Xiao Yuan, don't pick it up. Whoever threw it should pick it up. Who are you giving me attitude for? You're still relying on me to support you, and you dare to give me attitude. What will I do when I'm old? Will I have to beat you with a stick?" He glared at Ping An, making him pick up the money himself.
This was the first time Ping An had ever been scolded. Seeing his father's suddenly changed face and fierce tone, he felt wronged and scared. He bit his lip, squatted down and picked up the money notes one by one, tears falling to the ground, but he didn't dare to cry out loud.
"You've been spoiled since life got better. Your temper is getting weirder and weirder every day, and you have a lot of ulterior motives. If you're so full of yourself, then let me go hungry." Ning Jin snatched the money from Ping An's hand and gave Xiao Yuan's share to him. "Xiao Yuan should buy his own food. He's going hungry for breakfast, so don't give him any."
"You two better go to school obediently." He watched them leave, then turned back to ask Su Yu at the door, "What are you having for breakfast?"
"Pink noodles, with greens and a poached egg." Su Yu didn't mention what had just happened; Ping An should have someone keep a close eye on him.
Xiao Yuan used the money he could have used to buy a meat bun to buy two steamed buns. He handed one to Ping An and said, "Eat this, I'll share one with you. Don't tell Dad."
"I don't want to eat it, you eat it yourself." Ping An sniffled and continued wiping away her tears.
"Then I'll save it for you. You can ask me for it when you get hungry." Xiao Yuan didn't know what to say, so he could only follow Ping An toward the school, chewing on his dry steamed bun while stealing glances at the person who was crying.
When they reached a deserted alley, Ping An blew his nose, bent down to wipe his hands on the soles of his shoes, and tears streamed down his face as if they had found an outlet. The tears were so heavy he couldn't get up, so he simply sat on the ground, tugging at Xiao Yuan's pants and sobbing, "Waaah, my dad has never scolded me! He even said I have a weird temper, but I don't! Waaah..."
"He only started yelling at you because you threw the money on the ground, and you're going to report us to the police." Xiao Yuan looked around; seeing no one, she still whispered, "I told you not to tell anyone—"
"He did some petty theft and I can't even talk about it?" He got up and hugged Xiao Yuan, saying indistinctly, "I told you we couldn't have a younger brother or sister, but he doesn't like me now that we don't even have one. We'll definitely have to wash diapers like Xiao Dan, and we can only eat at the table after they've finished eating. We'll go hungry and won't be able to go to school."
"No way, my mom loves me the most." Xiao Yuan glared at him and shoved his hand away. "You got scolded because you went against your dad."
"You big idiot." Ping An wiped away his tears; this argument would stop him from crying. He touched his stomach and reached out, "Where's the steamed bun? I'm hungry."
"I don't want to give it to you." Xiao Yuan frowned.
“You already said you’d save it for me.” Ping’an grabbed his backpack, took out a steamed bun and took a big bite. Seeing that he was unhappy, she laughed and ran off with both backpacks on her back.
"You're the big idiot."
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