In the end she still could not bring herself to smash the phone.
With the phone she had once spent an entire month’s salary to buy tucked in her pocket, Wen Ya managed to find the Rongxin Hotel mentioned by her mother before six o’clock.
“Since when did they suddenly become willing to spend money on a place this fancy?”
She muttered to herself while taking out her phone to call. “Mom, I’m here. Where are you?”
The other side was noisy, with what sounded like shouting in the background. Even her mother’s voice sounded unfamiliar amid the noise. “You’re here? Then wait at the front desk. I’ll have someone come pick you up.”
The call ended. Wen Ya looked around the hotel suspiciously. What kind of gathering was happening tonight that it was so lively?
As she wondered, a man about one meter seventy tall with dark skin appeared in her line of sight and showed her a wide smile.
Yes, at her.
The man looked simple and honest, with thick eyebrows and large eyes. His smile was energetic. “Are you Wen Ya? I’m Yu Maosheng. My aunt is your aunt.”
My aunt is your aunt.
My aunt is your aunt.
My aunt is your aunt.
The sentence echoed three times in Wen Ya’s mind before it finally connected with something.
Her blind date.
Wen Ya’s expression slipped slightly out of control, her face faintly turning green. Wonderful. They had actually arranged this meeting without even informing her first, and had tricked her into coming.
“Hello.”
Yu Maosheng nodded and gestured ahead. “Come on. You just got off work and came straight here, so you must be tired. Let’s go sit down so you can relax for a bit.”
Wen Ya opened her mouth. Facing his enthusiastic manner, she could not bring herself to say that she had been tricked into coming and had no intention of going on a blind date with him. After hesitating for a few seconds, she remained silent and followed him to a seat.
She did not speak, but the other party was quite talkative.
“H City and Y County seem quite close, but it still takes several hours by car to get here. When I came over, I was thinking that if the Y County train station could be completed earlier and the high speed rail opened, it would only take a few dozen minutes. Going back and forth every day would be totally fine.”
“Mm, I heard you are a civil servant in Y County… then why would you need to travel between two counties and cities every day?” Wen Ya curled her lips slightly. “Is there some official business that requires constant communication between the two places?”
Yu Maosheng looked at her with a doting expression. “In the future it will all be necessary.”
Wen Ya shuddered. The slight goodwill she had felt when they first met vanished completely.
She did not respond to that remark.
“When I saw your photo, I thought you looked very thin. I did not expect you to be even thinner in person. Why do you not eat more?”
She had actually gained quite a bit of weight recently. Her chin had even become a little chubby.
Wen Ya suppressed the urge to roll her eyes and replied calmly, “Being a bit thinner looks better in clothes. I like being thinner.”
Yu Maosheng laughed. “What is nice about being all bones? I think it would be better if you gained another ten jin. In the future you should eat more. Eat whatever you want, do not restrict yourself for the sake of your figure.”
Am I eating your family’s rice that you get to decide how many pounds I should gain to look good? This is our first meeting, okay brother. Making demands already, demands my foot!
Wen Ya forced a smile. “Sorry, I do not have much of an appetite.”
Yu Maosheng frowned. “Is work too exhausting? I heard from Auntie that your job is very tiring and you are always working overtime. Girls do not need to push themselves that hard. Why work so painfully? Why not find a more relaxed job, nine to five, and it would also make it easier to take care of the family.”
The hand resting on her knee slowly clenched into a fist. Wen Ya’s smile twisted slightly as her back teeth gradually pressed together.
Endure it or not?
“Seriously, girls really do not need to work this hard. I think when a girl is single she only needs to earn enough to support herself. If she gets married, she does not need to work so hard at all. The man can handle earning money and supporting the family. The woman can just stay at home, take care of the kids, and go shopping. That is already quite good.”
Damn it, I am not enduring this anymore!
Wen Ya straightened her back, leaned against the chair, and narrowed her eyes slightly. “Mr. Yu, may I ask what your current salary is?”
“Why call me Mr. Yu, that sounds too distant. Just call me Brother Maosheng.” Yu Maosheng smiled, quite confident about his income. “My salary is not very high, but including the year end bonus it is about eighty thousand a year. Other benefits and allowances are not included. It is neither high nor low.”
Wen Ya nodded. “Alright, that means roughly seven thousand a month. Then do you know how much it costs to raise a child?”
“Three thousand a month should be enough, right?”
Wen Ya raised her eyes. “Barely. Then there would be four thousand left. How much would monthly household expenses be?”
“Two thousand is more than enough. That still leaves two thousand to save.” Yu Maosheng smiled brightly. He had clearly come prepared. “I already have a house and a car, so there is no loan to repay.”
Wen Ya also smiled and asked her final question. “Then do you know how much a woman needs in a month just for shopping?”
Without waiting for Yu Maosheng to guess, she stated it word by word.
“My monthly salary is six thousand, and on average I cannot even save two thousand each month. Of course, do not misunderstand. I am not doing this calculation to say that you earn too little. I just want to tell you that not every man can give a woman the life of a full time housewife. At the very least, when your annual income is under one hundred thousand, it is not possible.”
Yu Maosheng’s face flushed red from the obvious and implied mockery in her words, and his tone became stiff.
“In our county, there are plenty of families earning less than three thousand a month. They still live quite well. Not to mention someone with a salary like mine. As long as you do not waste money, it is enough.”
“What do you mean by wasting money?”
“Not buying things you should not buy. For example, cosmetics. Is there really any need for a set that costs over a thousand?”
Wen Ya sneered. “Unfortunately, one bottle of my essence already costs more than five hundred, and I think it is absolutely necessary. Everyone has their own way of living. There is no such concept as wasting money in that regard.”
Yu Maosheng leaned forward, frowning as he unconsciously adopted an aggressive posture.
“Alright, alright, I will not argue with you about that. The dishes will be here soon. Let us talk about something else.”
Still want to talk?
Wen Ya waved her hand. “Our values do not match. I do not think there is anything left to talk about.”
Yu Maosheng raised his eyebrows slightly, but eventually calmed down and put his smile back on.
“These small issues can all be worked out. Our conditions are similar, so we are fairly well matched. Let us get to know each other a little more. Maybe we will both discover the charming parts of each other.”
“Besides, I came all the way from Y County. It would be better to part on good terms, do you not think? Do not be angry. Just consider what happened earlier as my fault. Do not hold it against me.”
Those words were truly disgusting.
Wen Ya loosened her grip on the table she had almost flipped over and forced out a smile. “Alright.”
Do not swear. Just endure it. You cannot lose your composure.
The dishes finally arrived. Two dishes and one soup. Salt and pepper lobster, spicy chili pork intestines, and loofah soup, plus a bowl of rice.
That was all.
The portions in a hotel were nothing like the generous servings from small street corner restaurants. Aside from the large soup bowl, the other two dishes sat pitifully in the center of their plates, just a tiny amount.
Even if Wen Ya ate alone, it would not feel like enough.
Yu Maosheng enthusiastically urged her to eat, thinking he was being amusing. “Go ahead and eat. Let the food ease the tense atmosphere. Eat first, eat first. If it is not enough after we finish, we can order more.”
Perhaps because the portions were small, the meal ended quickly. It was finished in ten minutes.
As soon as Yu Maosheng put down his chopsticks, Wen Ya called the waiter over to settle the bill. She took out the money swiftly and decisively, leaving Yu Maosheng no chance to stop her.
The total came to one hundred and eight yuan. Wen Ya handed the waiter sixty yuan.
“I will split the bill with this gentleman. Let him make up the rest.”
After saying that, she turned to Yu Maosheng again.
“Sorry, I am not feeling well, so I will head back first.”
She grabbed her bag and left, her high heels striking the ground with sharp, forceful steps.
Yu Maosheng was stopped by a waiter and could not even catch up to her.
The moment she stepped out of the air conditioned hotel, a wave of heat crashed down on her without mercy. The air pressure was so heavy and stifling that it was hard to breathe.
Wen Ya stood at the entrance, growing angrier the more she thought about it.
She walked for a while, then stopped under a streetlight at a corner. Taking out her phone, she dialed a number.
As soon as the call connected, the person on the other end began speaking enthusiastically.
“Finished already? Wen Ya, what do you think? I think that young man speaks very politely, and he looks quite spirited too. He is not very tall, but you are only a little over one sixty. A difference of ten centimeters is fine…”
“What do you mean?” Wen Ya interrupted her. “What exactly do you mean?”
“What do you mean what do I mean?”
Wen Ya took a deep breath. Her eyes felt swollen and painful. “Are you really my mother? Why do you always make things harder for me? I have been in a terrible mood lately, can you not see that? Why do you never consider how I feel?”
There was a sharp intake of breath from the other end. Wen Ya’s mother seemed angered by her words, and her tone grew agitated.
“What do you mean I am making things harder for you? Wen Ya, do you even have a conscience? Who do you think I worry so much for? And you say I am making things harder for you?”
“Do you really think what you did tonight was right? If you want me to go on a blind date, I do not object. You could have told me so I could choose a suitable time to meet him.” Wen Ya softened her tone, trying to reason with her. “But you lied to me. You did not communicate with me at all. You just arranged this kind of meeting on your own…”
“I arranged it on my own?” her mother snapped. “Since you were little, what has there ever been that I did not arrange for you? Oh, now you think I am annoying, now you think I make decisions on my own? Let me tell you, Wen Ya, your mother is exactly this kind of person, someone who makes decisions on her own. Either you accept it, or do not acknowledge me as your mother!”
Wen Ya opened her mouth. “Mom…”
The call ended.
What else was she supposed to do? What more could she possibly do?
Slowly, Wen Ya lowered the hand holding her phone.
She had clearly tried so hard.
Drip. Drip.
Suddenly the rain came pouring down. Huge raindrops struck her body painfully, soaking through her thin summer clothes in an instant.
It was even raining now?
Wen Ya lowered her eyes.
The next second, the porcelain white phone was raised high into the air, then smashed heavily onto the ground. It bounced into the middle of the road and was crushed by the tires of a speeding car, shattering into pieces.
The rain grew so heavy that the world blurred. The street emptied almost instantly, with only the occasional umbrella hurrying past.
Lin Xuehe walked out of a supermarket that had turned into a temporary refuge for passersby, carrying a bag of items. He leisurely opened his umbrella and stepped into the rain.
It had been unusually hot and stifling since evening. As expected, it had started to rain.
Because the road was slippery from the heavy rain, he kept his speed at around thirty kilometers per hour and maintained an absolutely safe distance from the car ahead. At the intersection in front, the drain seemed clogged and some water had accumulated. He switched on his right turn signal and slowly drove into the right turn lane where the water was deepest.
After successfully turning and driving nearly thirty meters, Lin Xuehe glanced at the rearview mirror. Suddenly he stepped on the brake and reversed more than ten meters.
He opened the car door and stepped into the murky puddle.
Rain fell against the surface of the umbrella, gathering into thin streams along the folds.
He tilted the umbrella forward, covering the unlucky person crouching on the ground and crying loudly.
“Why are you crying again?”