26. New Year, New Bad
After Christmas comes New Year's Day. For those who work in self-media, holidays are the busiest time. It is already past ten o'clock when I get home from get off work.
There was a violent storm on New Year's Eve. Wenhua forgot to close the window when she went out, and the clothes hanging on the balcony were blown all over the floor. She picked them up and threw them back into the washing machine.
Wen's mother sent her a video and asked her how she spent the holiday. She said she was working overtime on a business trip, and the house was bustling with activity. Her older nephew was playing nearby, while her younger nephew was crying in the living room.
"Why are you hanging around like this all day long? Wang Meina has brought her boyfriend home, why don't you bring a boyfriend back? And the Wang family's little daughter has also brought her boyfriend back."
Wen Hua smiled and didn't know what to say, "Okay, okay, I got it. I'm looking for one. Next year, I will definitely bring you a boyfriend."
"You're just talking! I'm not even urging you to get married now. The key is that you haven't even thought about finding a partner!"
"Of course I didn't think about it. I was thinking about it," Wen Hua quickly expressed her determination.
"Is there no suitable person in your company? You can't find one online? Last year, your sister went to Shanghai to take her child to see a doctor. She said that young people in the subway were holding their mobile phones and were very indifferent. You don't know anyone, so you have to develop among your colleagues," Wen's mother said again.
Wen Hua wants to say that most of my male colleagues are either gay or on the way to becoming gay, which is probably difficult.
"My colleagues are all married, really, really, I'm really looking for one"
"How did you find it? Tell me, I want to listen."
"Mom, look how heavy the rain is outside. It's going to storm tonight. Look," Wenhua went to the balcony with her mobile phone and switched the camera to show her, "I'm going to open the window now to see if it can blow something in for me."
I heard my mother laugh, but she continued to give instructions after she finished laughing.
"I understand. I've really kept it in mind. I'll go out and look for her when the rain stops. Tomorrow morning I won't take the bus to work. I'll go on the way and ask who's free to marry me."
After talking nonsense for a long time, Wen's mother finally saw through it. She didn't intend to take this matter seriously. Her face suddenly changed. "You'll be 30 in two years. There are so many kids your age in the yard who are not married now. Doudou is already engaged. Where will your father and I put our faces? I'll be embarrassed if people ask me about it!"
After finally hanging up the phone, Wenhua really wanted to run wildly in the rain and let out a long roar to the sky.
I knew it was like this. They urged me to get married because I couldn't hold my head up in front of my neighbors. It was always like this. Wen Hua thought about how she didn't do well in the high school entrance examination that year and her grades could only get her into an ordinary class. The moment she checked the results, Wen's father didn't have time to scold her. His first reaction was to call Doudou's father next door who was in the same grade to ask about Doudou's scores. After hearing that the other person's scores were enough to get him into a key class, Wen's father's face turned so ugly that it could kill someone.
She was expecting a storm for the whole family, but it happened that some guests came to the house for dinner, so she put it on hold. At the dinner table, the guests asked about the grades. When her father said that he did not do well in the exam, the guests comforted her and said that it did not matter, that the college entrance examination was the key, and that she just needed to study hard in high school.
Wen's mother brought out pork rib soup and put a bowl in front of her first, "Here, drink more. It's not easy for you to get such a small score."
Everyone laughed. After dinner, her parents went out with the guests and came back for dinner. Wenhua stayed in her bedroom alone for the whole afternoon, feeling relieved that she had survived.
My parents came home at dinner time, their faces ashen. My father was sitting in the living room, having difficulty breathing due to the low air pressure. My mother was cooking in the kitchen, throwing plates and bowls and shouting sarcastically, "What a shitty meal you're cooking! You're served delicious food and drinks every day, but you got such a low score in the exam, it's so embarrassing! You'd better not go to school anymore and go out to work. Don't waste money on high school."
Wen Hua cried, and Wen's father looked at her and said the first sentence, "You still have the nerve to cry!"
When dinner was served, it smelled like giving alms to a beggar. She didn't dare refuse to eat it, or she would be scolded again.
That night, Wenhua hid in bed and cried all night. She called her grandfather, but she couldn't say anything and could only cry.
She lived for fifteen years before moving to live with her parents, away from the home and friends she had been familiar with since childhood. In her last semester of junior high school, she slept through the entire semester in the new school, didn't attend a single class, and cried all night long.
How could she not have the right to cry? She didn't understand, but that year, she understood that her parents' face was more important than anything else. In fact, this was not difficult. Their face was only among the 200 or so people in this family compound. So, that year of the college entrance examination, she fought hard for her parents.
The host of the New Year's Eve party was counting down on the TV in the living room. Wen Hua looked at the starless night sky and sighed deeply.
The new year brings new bad things. The end of the year is approaching. What excuse can you find for not going home?
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