45 The Picture 4 (1/2)
After ending the call with Xiu Ling, with a smile on her face, Joann turned to see her husband who was grinning at her brightly and widely. It seemed like the man had won a billion dollars.
”Xu Jing, what is the happy occasion? Why are you smiling so widely?” Joann could not help but ask. To be honest, she was rather unsettled by the apparent happiness showcased by her husband considering the scandal she was facing. Shouldn't Xu Jing be mad at her?
What Joann did not realize was Xu Jing had heard all the explanation he needed from her phone conversation with Xiu Ling. If anything, this was even better than Xu Jing getting the explanation from Joann directly because Joann had less of a reason to lie to Xiu Ling compared to Xu Jing.
Of course, this whole phone conversation could just be a show put forth by his wife and his wife's best friend but Xu Jing did not think Joann nor Xiu Ling could be so calculative.
Instead of answering his wife's question, Xu Jing sidled close to Joann and sneakily hugged her from behind.
Trapped in his sudden bear hug, Joann laughed while jokingly slapping her husband's arms that surrounded her. ”Xu Jing, what are you doing?” She asked with the silvery tingle of a laugh in her voice.
Xu Jing hugged her tighter in place of an answer. He then leaned closer to her ear and breathed out satisfactorily, ”Joann, I love you.”
The sudden proclamation of love stunned Joann. Like most Chinese couples, they were not prone to public display of love so this came as quite as a surprise to her.
She was touched but she could not help but deflect it by saying, ”Xu Jing, stop kidding.”
Xu Jing smiled noting the discomfort that arose within his wife. Joann was rarely unsettled and Xu Jing appreciated these rare moments of vulnerability in his wife. A sense of bliss bubbled out of his heart, he hoped nothing would ruin it… Especially not the mistakes that he had unfortunately committed in the past.
If he could turn back time, he would have stopped himself from making those stupid errors, but there is a reason why regret is the bitterest medicine in the world.
…
One of the main sources of conflict between mother-in-laws and their daughter-in-laws is generation gap. In a way, the two generation of women live in a different world because their worldviews differ greatly, constructed by the experience and surroundings that they are exposed to.
The most defining reason that contributes to the varying worldviews between modern day mothers and daughters-in-law has to be the advancement in science, especially in terms of proliferation and ease of procurement for information.
Nowadays, most information are just clicks away while for the previous generation, people had to go to library or consult professionals should they require certain information. This could be a source of friction because the mass spreading of information has debunked most of the traditional views and methods that some older generation still swore by.