Chapter 11
Two pool tables stood at the south gate of Dongfanghong Park. Street billiards is a nationwide craze, a popular pastime for the elderly. At either end of the table, an old man and a young man engaged in a passionate match, the onlookers occasionally bursting into applause. Fifty meters from the south gate, you'll reach the snack street, dotted with mobile stalls selling mutton dumplings, sour soup wontons, flat noodles, fried oysters, soup dumplings, and steamed buns. The aroma was mouth-watering. There were also vendors selling melons, peaches, pears, dates, pots and pans, lanterns and firecrackers—everything was available. The bustling crowds, hawking and bargaining, created a vibrant and unprecedented atmosphere.
After Mo Daoyan and Tong Yufei arrived, they bought some sweet and delicious sugar-roasted chestnuts, red-heart sweet potatoes that were roasted to a crispy outside and tender inside, and small vegetarian steamed dumplings with thin skin and large fillings. They strolled along the path to the water lily pond in the garden. The water lilies were withered and the broken lotus leaves were floating alone on the pure water. Under the sunlight, there was a unique elegance. There was a group of stone horse statues by the pond, echoing the upcoming Year of the Horse. People placed blessings on it for immediate success and prosperity, and it has been promoted to a photography holy land.
Mo Daoyan adjusted the focus and directed Tong Yufei to stand in the middle of the horses for the best photo position to take pictures. She cooperated obediently, laughing and jumping when asked, like a robot with monotonous perception. He took two proofs, and after reviewing the photos to try to figure out the composition, his judgment of her became more and more certain. She was a top-notch wooden beauty model with graceful manners. The only flaw was a chestnut crumb on the tip of her nose, which stuck to her like a stubborn mole.
As he snapped the next picture, Mo Daoyan pointed at the tip of his nose. Tong Yufei misunderstood and, with her right ring finger pointing horizontally at the tip of her nose, gave a playful smile and simultaneously lifted her left foot back. She rarely showed herself so much, but her movements were fluid, without the slightest affectation and yet still agile. Mo Daoyan thought to himself that she had chosen the wrong path. She would have been a better student if she had been classmates with Chen Jueyao. He snapped a few pictures, then stepped forward and extended his hand toward her. Tong Yufei, unsure of what he meant, stepped back repeatedly, but he grasped her forearm and pulled her back, wiping away the crumb with his pinky finger. The movement was gentle, and to others, it looked like a couple's playful nose-scratching.
After determining the composition angle, he snapped six or seven more. A man playing with a spinning top nearby looked at his digital camera and asked where he bought it and how much it cost, as he wanted to buy one for his daughter. Mo Daoyan told him the little thing was worth several thousand. The man marveled, "How did you make your fortune, little brother?" He kindly offered to take a photo for them. "A photo of them together, please!" he asked, "It would be a beautiful scene to see them living together and flying together."
Mo Daoyan refused. This was not home and he was not an actor. He did not need to pretend to be a loving couple with Tong Yufei all the time. Using those photos to ease his grandmother's nagging was enough. Some of them were as good as those taken in a photo studio and could be kept as a souvenir for her.
While he was talking to the uncle, Tong Yufei was still squatting on the stone beside the water lily pond, looking confused, and he hadn't called for a stop yet.
Mo Daoyan shortened the camera strap and walked over to hang it around her neck: "I'm done shooting, take a look."
Tong Yufei glanced at it briefly and asked, "Do you want me to take a picture of you?"
“No.”
"Wait a minute, I'm going to buy something and I'll be back soon."
Tong Yufei returned the camera to Mo Daoyan and blended into the warm yellow twilight. When he ran out of the twilight again, he was holding large and small bags in his hands. The Mo family only chose regular large restaurants when dining out and never ate food from roadside stalls. They ate preserved fruits and roasted nuts, such as the persimmon cakes eaten by old lady Mo and the almonds recommended by Mo Changlin. Meng Ruqing and Mo Daoxing had the same taste and both liked pumpkin seeds. Mo Daoyan was not interested in these, so she bought two more bags of pecans that were good for the brain.
Mo Daoyan hooked one end of the bag, took the things from her hand, glanced at the sweat on her forehead and said, "Actually, you don't have to do this."
"Um?"
"The origin of the fertility issue is that Lao Mo is unhappy with me for changing jobs without my permission and is using this as an excuse. It's not directed at you. Grandma was protected by Grandpa and has been a daughter all her life. It's hard for her to put herself in other people's shoes. Mom is used to arranging things for people at work. You can ignore some of their words. Taking them too seriously will only add to your worries. They are as clear-minded as a mirror. I am the one who tied the bell. With me here, they won't make things difficult for you if you don't obey. Besides, we are getting divorced soon, so you don't have to cater to their emotions. Regardless of whether they give you a perfect score or not, I will give you everything you deserve."
It turned out that in Mo Daoyan's eyes, she did all this with all her heart and soul just to get his family to give her a perfect score. This was indeed the case when she first entered the Mo family, but people are not plants. After four or five years of getting along, how could there be no sincerity at all? Just like she was closer to Mo Daoxing than to Tong Yi, her blood brother.
Tong Yufei stopped and asked in a muffled voice, "Can we not divorce? I don't want to divorce. I want to continue being your wife."
Mo Daoyan seemed to be listening to a fairy tale: "What are you talking about?"
She said word by word: "I won't divorce."
"Didn't we agree on that at the beginning?"
"It's been five years. Times have changed."
"Don't you want to know what I can give you?"
"You've already given me what I wanted."
"You want a loveless marriage in name only?"
"Does Mr. Mo think love is important?"
Mo Daoyan never expected to be outmaneuvered. He always put his career first and gave way to all other unfavorable factors. He traded his marriage for a smooth path to studying abroad. Everyone could say that love was important, but he alone could not say it. This included the various girls in West Germany who did not mind his marital history and hoped that he would stay for love and future. Among them were many classmates he admired, but he held on to the belief of returning to China to fight for his country and never gave others hope.
Love may be important, but before that, he kept it all to himself.
His answer was undoubtedly in the negative, but this was a different matter from what Tong Yufei asked. Whether it was important or not, they could have similarities and differences. Living in two separate countries, they could turn a blind eye to each other. Now they were living together under the same roof day and night. A long-term relationship between husband and wife was not a simple one where they just went out and said hello. It was about living a married life and taking the responsibility of having children. Having no love was like exhausting the resources, even worse than being strangers. How were they going to face each other?
Mo Daoyan turned around and faced Tong Yufei. "Whether it's important or not, it doesn't mean I want to continue this marriage with you. Things in the world are always developing and changing. What I thought was unimportant yesterday might be important tomorrow. What do you want from marriage?"
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The Little New Year's Festival on the 23rd day of the 12th lunar month is also known as the "Kitchen God Festival". Every household cuts window flowers, sweeps the house, and eats hemp candy.
Tong Yufei was at work as usual. The latest housing quotas were posted on the newspaper's blackboard. She and several colleagues stopped behind the crowd to watch, reading from the first line to the last. Cao Ge, the leader of the proofreading group 2, was full of complaints. The first and second-level cadres had independent houses, the mid-level cadres below level three and above level six had high-end houses, the seventh-level cadres could get an old-style pillared house, and those below level eight at least had a rough-cut house. They were unknown and invisible in the proofreading position, and only made a short-lived appearance when they eliminated major errors. No one knew what they did or how much they did at other times. The benefit of housing allocation would never fall on them.
Liu Hong, who has been an editor for eight years, is not on the list either. Editors are often teased by colleagues in other departments as making wedding dresses for others, but their situation is much better than that of proofreaders who cannot even touch the front of the wedding dress. She was originally eligible for housing allocation, but unfortunately, she divorced before the housing allocation. In addition to years of work and contribution awards, marital status is one of the key factors affecting housing allocation. The company has clearly stipulated that welfare housing allocation is only for married employees, and unmarried or divorced employees are not eligible for this benefit. Liu Hong has been working hard for so many years, but her chances of success fell through at the last minute.
Sister Xin distributed the oranges she bought to everyone: "I don't have a house, but I have oranges. Every bite is sweet."
Brother Cao ate an orange slice, and the sourness made his face look disoriented: "Damn, it's just right for the occasion!"
When it was Tong Yufei's turn, Sister Xin teased her, "Xiao Tong, you still have time to run now."
Colleague He Yanjun said: "Maybe Xiao Tong's family has too many private houses to live in, so they don't need these three cores and two dates."
He Yanjun worked in Cao Ge's second group, having joined the newspaper two years before Tong Yufei. With her charming, triangular eyes, she was known as the editorial "He Xifeng." She was a smooth talker, but she occasionally had a few sarcastic remarks about Tong Yufei, which made it hard not to mention a past event. He Yanjun's younger brother, who had come to the company to deliver something for his sister, took a liking to the newly arrived intern, Tong Yufei, and asked his sister to act as a matchmaker. He Yanjun thought it was a sure thing; after all, her husband was the head of the grain station's inspection room, and her younger brother had been assigned to the station as a quality inspector. He had both money and prestige, and Tong Yufei was a bit pretty, but her family was very poor, so her younger brother was more than a match for her.
But on the day of the matchmaking, no matter how He Yanjun persuaded him, Tong Yufei refused to meet him. He Yanjun was ridiculed by his colleagues because they always praised his brother to the skies, but now he refused to meet her even if he was offered to her.
He Yanjun was humiliated, and she and Tong Yufei were at odds. Two months later, someone introduced Tong Yufei to someone else, but Tong Yufei, uncharacteristically, admitted to being married and even distributed wedding candy. He Yanjun was furious. She had to prove her marriage required a marriage certificate and a leader's signature, something she couldn't fake. Tong Yufei looked down on her brother, absurd! She wanted to know who Tong Yufei had married. She asked around, but could find very little useful information. She only heard that her husband's family was well-off and her husband was a top student who had studied abroad.
Some people said Tong Yufei was low-key and disdained to show off. He Yanjun scoffed. There is no impenetrable wall in the world. Even if there is no shadow, it can be blown up to the sky. It's like the emperor's new clothes. Tong Yufei is still the same Tong Yufei, dressed simply and dressed with reserve. He Yanjun suspected that Tong Yufei was vain and made up a lie, because those rumors didn't stand up to scrutiny. A learned young man would not look for a rich girl of equal status, but for her. Is he blind? There is also solid evidence. A colleague saw her hand in hand with a man at the Tianhua Street Wholesale Market. He said that the man was tall and handsome, but he didn't seem to have a bright mind.
He Yanjun smiled secretly, the lie was exposed by itself. Maybe Tong Yufei's man was not studying abroad, but was not presentable.
The less she could show it, the more He Yanjun wanted her to reveal it: "Which unit's leader is Xiao Tong's lover from? How many houses were allocated to him?"
Tong Yufei always ignored He Yanjun's sour words. Perhaps He Yanjun hated her because he abandoned her. She was too lazy to say anything to He Yanjun. Instead of talking to him, she could have read a few more pages of a reference book. She just walked away without paying any attention.
He Yanjun punched the cotton and was furious: "Why are you so arrogant?"
Sister Xin was Tong Yufei's leader, so she naturally protected her. "You should have known she was arrogant, so stop it. Is it honorable to bring up the past when you've pushed her to the limit? In this new society, love is free, and you're not allowed to refuse? Your brother already has three children, so why can't he get by?"
He Yanjun was embarrassed: "Who can't get through this? Can't I just make a joke?"
"Is it funny? Look who's laughing? Don't mention it again."
While waiting for the article to be published, Tong Yufei went to the press department.
The Mo family owns a house, but the title deed doesn't mention Mo Changlin and Meng Ruqing, and the Mo brothers are also heirs, so it's not her turn. Old colleagues at the newspaper are lining up for a house, like fish crossing a river. She doesn't covet a new house, but she wants a vacant house. What is a vacant house? When the company's profits are sufficient, new houses are built. The old houses that employees give up after receiving the new houses are called vacant houses. These vacant vacant houses are then allocated to employees with smaller apartments. When employees give up their vacant houses, they can be sold at a low price to employees without houses. Most vacant houses are old and dilapidated, significantly compromising the quality of life for families. However, for two people, with some tidying up, they can become a very warm home.
If she wants to fight for a shelling room, she can't just do proofreading.
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