Jou-chia sighed and said, “Call it my rotten luck! Now I’m forced to call people like that my sisters and even have to put up with their insults. They looked over the furniture and made remarks implying that we had paid too much for it. Since they’re such capable mistresses and so concerned about me, why didn’t they come over before and help me buy it!”
Hung-chien asked nervously, “Did you tell them we’d bought the furnishings for that room?”
“Yes, why?”
Hung-chien slapped himself on the back of his head and cried, “Damn! Damn it all! I should have told you that day,” and he explained how his mother had asked what the in-laws had given them.
Jou-chia also became upset and said, “Why didn’t you tell me before? How can I face your family now! They’re certain to gossip and compare notes on everything when they get back; they’ll even think we bought the furniture my aunt gave us. You are so stupid. If you’re going to lie, you should at least tell me about it. Ever since that business with our marriage, you always like to show how smart you are and then end up making a mess of it every time.”
He knew he was in the wrong, but wouldn’t submit to a scolding and argued instead, “I had good intentions in telling that lie. I didn’t tell you about it later because I was afraid you’d get mad.”
“Well, you were right,” she said. “Now that I know about it, I am mad. Thanks for your good intentions in lying in order to save my family’s face. You should have told your mother truthfully that I bought it with an advance on my salary at the factory. We Suns are poor. When a daughter gets married, there’s not much to give her. Did you Fangs pay out any betrothal money when their son got married? Did they give their son and daughter-in-law anything? Huh, these two rooms, which we still pay rent for—oh, and I forgot, there’s that clock—” She noticed his long face and gave him a mirror. “Take a look at yourself. Isn’t your face just like that clock? I wasn’t the least bit mistaken.”
He couldn’t refrain from smiling.
All these unpleasant little incidents eventually made Jou-chia afraid to go to her in-laws’ home, often lamenting, “We haven’t even lived with them yet, and already so many disputes have started. It takes training to live in a big family. One has only to see how quick-witted, keen-eyed, and sharp-tongued your two sisters-in-law are. I could never get the better of them, nor have I any interest in trying. Let them be little filial daughters-in-law. What I can’t figure out is why someone like you, who grew up in a big family, know nothing about all the scheming and plotting that go on there.”
“A bachelor would never know about such things,” he explained. “Your eyes aren’t opened until you get married. Sometimes I think a family is really just a nest of scandal like San Lü University. Maybe if I’d been married for a few years before going there, the training would have made me more sensitive, and I wouldn’t have been plotted against.”
Jou-chia said quickly, “What good does it do to talk about that? If you’d gotten married before, you wouldn’t have married me, unless you’re sorry you married me.”
Hung-chien, in no mood to pander to Jou-chia, merely muttered to himself, “A School for Scandal, it’s all a School for Scandal. Whether it is a family or a school, it’s all the same.”
Though they both considered the family a “school for scandal,” it wasn’t so easy to play hooky. The day Tun-weng brought the clock over he gave his son a list of the anniversaries of the deaths of the ancestors and indicated that during those days of family sacrifices both son and daughter-in-law should return home to take part in the ceremonies. When Jou-chia saw it, she screwed up her lips. Fortunately, she had her work as an excuse, since she couldn’t make it home in time during her lunch hour. Some of the anniversaries, however, fell on Sundays. If she decided to forget on purpose, Tun-weng would tell his Second or Third Daughter-in-law to telephone the landlord and ask her to come. What was particularly annoying was that every time a relative came to the Fangs and happened to mention that he hadn’t met their Eldest Daughter-in-law, Mr. or Mrs. Fang would immediately call up and summon Jou-chia, no matter whether it was six o’clock in the evening when she had just returned from the office, Saturday when she wanted to go out and have a good time, or Sunday when she was prepared to go to her aunt’s or parents’ home.
Dead ancestors along with living relatives ran Jou-chia ragged, and she often groused to Hung-chien, “You Fangs sure are an old family with all those ancestors! Why don’t you include the anniversaries of the Yellow Emperor’s birth and death?”4 Or, “You Fangs sure are a big family! What’s the use of having so many relatives?”
After politely complying with them a few times, she could no longer be bothered and told Mama Li to answer the phone and say she wasn’t home. After refusing to go four or five times, she gradually began to feel guilty and didn’t dare go for fear of having to face their ugly looks.
While Hung-chien sympathized with his wife, he dared not offend his parents, and so he just had to return home alone. From their faces, however, it seemed as if the family blamed him for not bringing his wife under escort as in the opera Yu-t’ang-chi’un.5 Unable to hand her over, he only offered lame excuses and was unwilling to come home very often.
If the definition passed down from the T’ang and Sung dynasties, “Loyalty means the heart is in the middle,” is correct, then Mama Li was not loyal because her heart was too one-sided. Whenever Hung-chien told her to do something, she would always have to get Jou-chia’s approval first. For example, if Hung-chien told her to buy vegetables, she would say, “Young Lady likes spinach, so I’ll have to ask her about it first.” Jou-chia would of course tell her to do what Hung-chien said.
Once Hung-chien said to her, “The weather’s turned colder and I won’t be wearing my unpadded clothes any more. It’s sunny today so would you take them out and sun them for me? You can store them up later for the mistress.” She insisted that Jou-chia’s unpadded clothes hadn’t been put away yet, and he needn’t be in such a hurry, that it would warm up again. When Jou-chia sunned her clothes, she argued, they could all be done at once. Jou-chia had already left, and there was no way he could get Mama Li to understand that young women dressed differently from men. Women had only to put on a heavier overcoat and could then wear unpadded clothes on into winter.
Mama Li then said, “Master, sunning clothes is woman’s business. You needn’t worry about it. Young Lady left early this morning to go to work. Why don’t you go out? Wouldn’t it be nice if you left now and came back a little earlier this evening?”
Incidents of this sort exasperated and amused him. When amused, he would call her “Madame Li” or “Her Majesty”; when exasperated, he wished he could just ask her to leave. If she overheard a quarrel between them, her face would tense up just as tightly as her master’s and mistress’s, and she would not look Hung-chien directly in the face. If she gave him something, she would merely shove it at him. Afterwards he would grumble to Jou-chia, “This is absurd! With the mistress and servant joining forces, you’ll both torment me to death.”
Jou-chia said with a smile, “I’ve spoken to her about it several times. If she wants to help me, what can I do? She says all women suffer wrong from their husbands. She herself suffered from Old Li’s wrongs—from the raw rice dumplings. But then, I’m alone and helpless in your family. Now you have a taste of what it’s like.”
Jou-chia’s father treated his son-in-law with polite reserve. When her brother discovered his brother-in-law had neither the athletic prowess to play soccer or basketball nor the scholarly refinement to fix a radio or drive a car, he felt his sister had married the wrong man. In an effort to fulfill his duty as son-in-law, Hung-chien paid occasional visits to the Suns. Fortunately, Jou-chia seldom went to her parents’ home, going only to her aunt’s house every second or third day.
One day more than a month after moving into their apartment, the couple went to the Lus for lunch. When they had finished and were about to leave, Mrs. Lu smi
led stiffly and said, “Hung-chien, I’m going to incur your dislike by giving you a word of advice. You must not bully Jou-chia any more.” And then as if the force of her native language were not enough, like one drawing up a diplomatic treaty, she gave both a Chinese and an English version: “I won’t allow you to bully her any more.”
When Hung-chien heard her say she had something unpleasant to say to him, he bristled up like a porcupine at the sight of an enemy. When she had finished, however, he didn’t understand what she meant, and was just about to ask, when Jou-chia said quickly, “Hung-chien is very nice to me. Who said he bullies me? I’m not so easily bullied after all.”
Mrs. Lu said, “Hung-chien, you see how good Jou-chia is. She still sticks up for you!”
Fuming with rage, Hung-chien said, “How do you know I bully her? I—”
Jou-chia pulled him along, saying, “Come on, let’s go! It’s getting late. The movie’s about to start. Auntie is only teasing you.”
When they had left the house, Hung-chien said, “I don’t feel like going to the movies. Why don’t you go by yourself?”
Jou-chia said, “Well, for heaven’s sake. I didn’t offend you. At least you must know I wouldn’t tell her anything.”
“That’s why I don’t want to go to the Lus with you,” he exploded. “As if I don’t suffer enough at my own home, I have to go out and be lectured by your family! I bully you! Humph. If I’m not bullied to death by your aunt or wet nurse, I should live a long life! And you talk about us Fangs being hard to deal with! Every last one of you Suns is just like that goddamned little turtle-egg of a Pekingese. My reputation is bad anyway. I might as well bully you a little today. I’m going my way and you can go yours. See the movie or go back to your parents, whichever you want!” and he pushed away Jou-chia’s arm, which was crooked around his.
She had not actually cared about seeing the movie, but when her husband acted so rudely as to ignore all biological impossibilities by making a dog into a crustacean in order to compare it with members of her family, she too was incensed. As she could not very well start a quarrel right there on the street, she said, “What’s wrong if I do go to the movies by myself? I don’t care for your company,” and with a toss of her head, she abandoned her husband and crossed the street to the tram stop alone.
Hung-chien stood there by himself, feeling lost and forlorn. As he watched her back, so helplessly delicate, appear and disappear in the crowds on the street, from somewhere arose a feeling of pity and protectiveness, and he ran after her.
As she was walking along, Jou-chia felt a tap on the shoulder and jumped with fright. When she turned her head and saw it was Hung-chien, she felt a mixture of surprise and delight and asked, “Why did you come?”
“I was afraid you’d run off with someone, so I came to keep an eye on you.”
Jou-chia said with a smile, “The way you quarrel, the day is bound to come when I do run away, but I’d never run off with someone. You think I don’t put up with enough from you? I’d really be a fool to go looking for another man.”
“One thing I’m not mistaken about today is that your aunt accused me unfairly.”
“OK, so someone in my family accused you falsely. I apologize. Today’s movie will be on me.”
Hung-chien groped around with both hands in the various pockets of his overcoat, vest, and pants for his money.
“The tram’s about to come,” said Jou-chia, laughing at him. “Don’t try to catch lice here in the street. Since you have a wallet, why don’t you put all your money together? You don’t have much anyway. When I straighten out your clothes for you, I find a dollar bill in one pocket and a postage stamp in another.”
“Before I got married,” he explained, “I used to put my money in my wallet when I took a friend out to eat. When I paid the bill I’d pull it out to make a good impression. Now my wallet’s gotten old, and I threw it somewhere.”
“It makes me mad just to talk about it. Before we got married, you never invited me out properly for one single meal. Now that I’m your wife, I may as well forget about your ever inviting me out to have a decent meal.”
He said, “I can’t afford to take you out today. I gave this month’s pay to my father the day before yesterday. I have enough left to treat you to a snack. After the movie we can find a place to have some tea.”
“We didn’t have lunch at home today, and Mama Li is expecting us to come back for dinner. If we have a snack, we won’t be able to eat dinner, and everything left over will be wasted. Let’s skip the snack—ha, ha, you see how frugal I am, how well I take care of the house. Your mother is the only one who says I don’t look after the domestic chores.”
Halfway through the movie, Hung-chien suddenly distracted her attention by whispering, “Now I get it. It must have been that old devil Mama Li who told tales. Didn’t you send her over to the Lus with something the other day?”
She had already guessed as much but had kept it to herself. She merely said, “I’ll ask her about it when we get home. Don’t you go quarreling with her on any account. I’ll talk to her myself. If we dismiss her, we won’t be able to find a replacement. A small family like ours which doesn’t play mahjong or give parties6 and pays low wages can’t keep a servant very long. As for my aunt, naturally I’ll explain to her. Now watch the movie and don’t worry about all that. I’m not going to talk any more. We’ve already missed some of the movie.”
As soon as Hung-chien was out of the way, Jou-chia questioned Mama Li. Mama Li denied it at once. “I didn’t say anything. I just said that Master has a very quick temper.”
“That’s enough,” said Jou-chia and warned her not to say anything again. For the next couple of days, Mama Li obeyed Hung-chien’s every word. Jou-chia had considered telling her aunt everything about the Fangs herself. Fortunately, she hadn’t let anything out; otherwise, Hung-chien really would have raised cain. He was so concerned about saving face. As for her own family’s trifles, she knew Hung-chien would never speak of them to the Fangs. Of that she could be sure. After marrying Hung-chien, she had remained a Sun at heart. After Hung-chien married her, on the other hand, he gradually grew away from the Fangs. Obviously girls are better. It is just that fathers are so stupid that they side with their sons.
From then on Hung-chien refused to go with her to the Lus, and Jou-chia didn’t dare force him. Whenever she returned from a visit there and mentioned meeting someone or hearing about something, Hung-chien, feeling envious and left out, would make sarcastic remarks.
One Sunday morning after breakfast Jou-chia said, “I want to go out. Will you permit me, Hung-chien?”
Hung-chien said, “Are you going to your aunt’s? Humph, if I don’t permit you, won’t you go all the same? What’s the point of asking me? Can’t you go in the afternoon?”
“I’m free to come and go as I please. I show you a little respect by asking you, and you turn around and get angry. Winter days are short. There’s no point going in the afternoon. Now the sun’s nice. I want to take some yarn along to knit a wool vest for you and discuss with her how it should be.”
Hung-chien snorted. “You won’t of course be coming home to eat. We finally have a Sunday when both of us are home at noon, and you have to leave me and go out for lunch.”
“Oh! How pitiful you make it sound! It’s as if you can’t live without me for a minute! Do you have anything to say to me when I’m home? You pace up and down heaving sighs, and when I ask you what’s on your mind, you don’t even pay any attention—Today is Sunday, so let’s not quarrel, OK? I’ll be back soon,” and without waiting for a reply, she turned and went into the bedroom to change her clothes. When she had changed her clothes and come out, Hung-chien was sitting completely still in the chair with a newspaper over his face.
She stroked his hair and asked, “Why so lazy? You didn’t even comb your hair when you got up this morning. You can go get a haircut today. I’m going.”
Hung-chien ignored her. Jou-chia threw him
a glance, but it didn’t penetrate the newspaper. She then turned and left.
In the afternoon as soon as she came in, she asked Mama Li, “Did Master go out?”
“He just got back from a haircut,” said Mama Li. “He hasn’t gone to the newspaper office yet.”
She went upstairs and said, “Hung-chien, I’m back. Papa and my brother, as well as two cousins, were all there today. They wanted to take me shopping, but I was afraid you’d get impatient waiting, so I came home as soon as I could.”
Hung-chien gave the clock on the wall a meaningful look, then hurriedly held out his arm to look at his watch, saying, “It’s getting late. It’s almost four o’clock. Let me think. You left at nine this morning, didn’t you? I’ve been waiting for you to eat. . . .”
Jou-chia said with a smile, “What a shameless rat you are! You knew perfectly well I wouldn’t come home to eat. Besides, when I left the house, I told Mama Li to serve your lunch at twelve—not twelve by that precious heirloom of yours, but twelve by the alarm clock.”
Hung-chien had no answer to this, and having lost the first round, he tried another tack, “Have you finished knitting the wool vest yet? I want to put it on and go out now.”
“No, I haven’t,” she said impatiently. “If you want to wear one, go out and buy one yourself. I’ve never seen anyone as nasty as you! I’m busy six days a week, yet you won’t allow me half a day of fun. When I come back, I have to see your long face.”
“Oh, so you’re the only one who’s busy six days a week,” said Hung-chien. “I’m not! Of course, you have your rewards for being busy. You have great ability and good connections. You earn more money than I do—”
“Thank goodness I am able to earn a little money; otherwise, you’d really bully me to death. My aunt wasn’t a bit unjust when she said you bullied me.”
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