Chapter 2 (2/2)
Lost in the fervent pa.s.sions of her husband, she clutched his neck and gasped for breath by his ear. Her broken, hoa.r.s.e voice was filled with feeling. “I love you too.”
To be ready and willing to face the unknown, stepping into marriage to replace the life she’d grown used to, to accept another person into one’s life and then live with them as companions until this life ended. She used her greatest courage and her greatest faith in exchange for the person she loved the most.
【5】
Mr. Chen’s jealousy wasn’t without basis.
Mr. Chen could spend three days and three nights detailing the entire process of chasing after Mrs. Cheng. The things he’d done were enough to fill a mug full of bitter tears. The simple reason lay in the fact that Mr. Chen was one year younger than Miss Cheng. They attended the same university and studied the same major in the same department, but Mr. Chen was just one grade lower than Miss Chen.
Actually, Mr. Chen had held secret feelings for Miss Cheng long before enrolling in university. But at that time. Miss Cheng was already someone else’s girlfriend, so Mr. Chen had been beating himself up since freshman year for disgraceful thoughts like making her his wife. But the more he beat himself up, the stronger his feelings grew.
Finally, he turned to the dark side…
You had to chase after your own happiness. The mighty principle of s.n.a.t.c.hing a woman for himself granted him an opportunity just when the senior Cheng Yiran was about to graduate…
In those day, Yiran had frequent falling-outs with her boyfriend Yi Nan. He wasn’t to be blamed. It was natural that two anxious people on the eve of setting out on separate ways would generate some degree of friction together. After waging war for three years against all resistance, Mr. Chen had graduated to being “good friends” with Miss Cheng.
One Monday, Mr. Chen used their relations.h.i.+p as an excuse to ask Miss Cheng out for a meal. Afterwards, they two of them took a stroll on the dimly lit streets outside the campus grounds. Unfortunately, they happened to spot Yi Nan walking along with a career woman by his side. Miss Cheng’s expression changed. She was prepared to confront him right then, but Mr. Chen managed to hold her back and pretended to be mysterious. “Doing that isn’t so good. Men still need to preserve some face.”
Miss Cheng thought that the words made sense and decided to call him instead. “Where are you?”
Yi Nan gave a start. “Mm, outside.”
“By yourself?”
“Mm.”
“Yi Nan, let’s break up.” Miss Cheng hung up the phone and suddenly started crying.
Mr. Chen took the chance to pull the heartbroken Miss Cheng into a park, where he bought her a beer and offered his shoulder to wipe her tears.
Cheng Yiran cried as she drank, before finally coming to her senses to poke Chen Youlin’s head. “Why did you call me out for a meal today? Why did you ask me for a stroll today? Wouldn’t it be better if I hadn’t seen a thing? Wouldn’t it be best?!”
Chen Youlin obediently accepted a few jabs before speaking. “Mm, I have to admit that I’m very happy seeing such a situation.”
“Are you a deviant? You like seeing girls cry?”
“I like seeing you disappointed in love,” Chen Youlin scratched his head. “This way, I’ll have a chance.”
Cheng Yiran was stunned. She only recovered after a long while, spitting saliva as she asked, “You…you couldn’t be that…that whachamacallit, right?”
Chen Youlin took a deep breath and shouted, “Cheng Yiran, you’re the one I like!”
Cheng Yiran momentarily lost her senses and forgot all about the snot dribbling down her nose. Chen Youlin couldn’t stand to watch, so he used his sleeve to wipe her face before hanging his head. “I’ve held it back for many years…before finally working up the nerve today. If you want to hit me, be gentle.”
Of course Cheng Yiran didn’t want to hit him. She only yelled at him all in a muddle. “You men are all jerks. Whether it’s one or two of you, every one’s a jerk!”
But soon enough, Cheng Yiran caught wind that Yi Nan gave Chen Youlin a good beating.
We won’t tire you out with tales of old scores between men and their woman, but from this it can be seen that Mr. Chen’s feelings for Miss Cheng brought about a high degree of misery and hards.h.i.+ps from the very start. As soon as he sensed something even slightly off about Mrs. Cheng, he’d act like a spoiled child, rolling around and being cute in move after move until Mrs. Cheng obediently surrendered.
But the ultimate results of this man who had fallen in love at first sight by accident was–Mr. Chen happily ate his fill, Mrs. Cheng slept very comfortably, and Mr. Chen got seriously sick.
That’s right, after acting cute and engaging in excessive physical activity all night, he…got sick.
In the words of Mrs. Cheng, it would be something like this: ‘You useless guy!’
【6】
When Mrs. Cheng took Mr. Chen’s temperature, he was 38.6 degrees[3]. Mr. Chen was in an uproar. “Wife, wife, send me to the hospital. I’m going to die, I’m going to bur my wits silly. In the future you’ll have no one to cook for you wash your clothes compete or for the washboard.”
Cheng Yiran pinched Mr. Chen’s arm. “Are you made out of mud? Do you think you’ll be burned to nothing?”
Mr. Chen’s eyes were filled with tears as he looked at Mrs. Cheng. “I’m made of chocolate, so I have a low melting point…”
Mrs. Cheng sighed. “You’re just a Lin Daiyu, ah, a Lin Daiyu[4]. We’re not as wealthy enough to spend as freely as the Jia estate[5]. What hospital? Can people still go to hospitals nowadays? I’ll go down and buy you two antipyretic pills. Make the best of it and eat them. If your fever doesn’t come down, I’ll take you to for an infusion[6].”
Mr. Chen dragged at the hem of her clothes. “Come back soon.”
Mrs. Cheng stubbornly refused to pity Mr. Chen, but started to run as soon as she was out the door. When Mr. Chen saw her leave, he didn’t mope, but quietly lay on the bed to recuperate.
After a while, Mr. Chen’s hands began to itch for something to do. He called Mrs. Cheng and said, “Wife, I want to eat tomato stew with spare ribs.”
After the other end answered, Mr. Chen hung up, but he was quick to call her a few minutes later. “Wife, I want to eat sweet and sour spare ribs.”
The other side answered in the affirmative again. Satisfied, Mr. Chen hung up. A few more minutes pa.s.sed before he called for a third time, but got a stern lecture before he had any chance to speak. When her tirade was done, Mrs. Cheng still asked in a huff, “What else do you want to eat?”
“I…saw your purse on the living room table. Did you bring any money with you?”
Silence reigned on the other end of the line before Mr. Chen was thoroughly cursed at again.
Mr. Chen had a healthy body, so his fever abated soon after eating the medicine. Towards evening, Mrs. Cheng brushed his forehead and found out it had returned to normal temperature. She gave a relieved exhale from her heart and stroked his hair. “Next time I get sick, I’m going to give my all and bother you so you can repay me.”
Mr. Chen nuzzled beneath her touch and grinned. “Okay. It’s best if you torment me as much as you can. I like being tormented by you. I want you to keeping tormenting me for the rest of my life.”
Though they’d been married for awhile, Mrs. Cheng still felt her face turn red at these words. She gave a light cough before changing the topic. “Chen Youlin, will you turn bald in the future?” Mrs. Cheng poked the top of Mr. Chen’s head. “Your hair is longer on the left side, enough for the grease to s.h.i.+ft to the right.”
“Will you mind if I’m bald?”
Mrs. Cheng considered the question. “I probably won’t. I’ll give you my hair to use as a wig. As long as I’m not bald, you won’t be bald, either.”
“Wife! I’m really touched! Kiss me, kiss me once!”
“Move aside, you still have the virus inside your body. Don’t touch me!”
-o-
[1] Yi Nan (易南) – Yi is a surname that means “easy, amiable, change,” Nan means “south.”
[2] I scrammed (我滚了) – wo gun le, in Chinese, the word for “scram” is the same as the word for “to roll.”
[3] 38.6 degrees – about 101 degrees Fahrenheit
[4] Lin Daiyu (林黛玉) – one of the t.i.tular female characters in the Chinese cla.s.sic novel Dream of the Red Chamber, p.r.o.ne to being sickly and apt to cry. More info in Wikipedia article here.
[5] Jia estate (贾府) – the rich family who took Lin Daiyu in, and the focal point for Dream of the Red Chamber.
[6] infusion (输液) – shuye, a type of hospital treatment where the patient is linked up to an IV drip to get their medicine. Rather common treatment in China.
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