“Xu Xun, you’re the one who’s being unreasonable! When will you ever learn to actually listen to people? Is that what I meant? Why won’t you let me go to work?”
Kang Zhimiao couldn’t stand Xu Xun’s attitude every single time. She had wanted to talk to him properly, but he just had a knack for igniting her temper, making her unable to stop herself from arguing with him.
“So you’re perfectly fine staying at home—why do you have to go to work?”
This was something Xu Xun simply couldn’t wrap his head around: “If I were a woman and someone was out earning money to support the family, I would never think about running off to work.”
“Am I not giving you enough money? Every month when I get my paycheck, I keep a little for cigarettes and give you everything else. What more could you possibly want? Why do you insist on going out there and having to deal with other people’s attitudes!”
“You were already exhausted working at the cultural performing arts troupe before, and that dance school is bound to be just as demanding. Can you really handle it?”
“I know you don’t want to give up dancing. If you love to dance, then dance! Dance at home, dance in the courtyard—if you think there’s no audience, Rui Rui and I will watch. Isn’t that enough? Do you really have to go out and dance for other people to be happy?”
“Xu Xun, I genuinely cannot talk to you! I don’t even know how your brain is wired—how do you even come up with these things?”
Kang Zhimiao took several deep breaths before she managed to push down the anger rising in her chest.
Xu Xun waved his hand dismissively: “I can’t talk to you either! I don’t know what you’re all fired up about day after day! The moment I come home, you’ve got a sour face on—like I owe you something!”
“If you want a divorce, then let’s divorce—but Rui Rui stays with me! He’s my son, and his surname is Xu!”
“I’m the one who gave birth to Rui Rui! Can you pop out a child yourself? And besides, all these years, I’ve been the one taking care of him. Do you even know what he likes to eat and what he doesn’t? Do you know what shoe size he wears?”
Kang Zhimiao didn’t want to become a shrew, but some men just had a way of turning their wives into this hideous, unrecognizable version of themselves.
“Without me, you couldn’t have had Rui Rui either!”
Xu Xun pointed at Kang Zhimiao: “I won’t agree to you going to work! If you dare go, then it’s divorce!”
Kang Zhimiao didn’t continue arguing with Xu Xun, because she caught sight of Xu Rui eavesdropping outside the door.
She walked over and opened the door. Xu Rui was standing there in his tank top and shorts, clutching a little toy car, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand, sobbing so hard he could barely catch his breath: “Mommy, Daddy, please don’t get divorced! I’ll be good!”
Kang Zhimiao wiped his tears and said, against her own heart: “Mommy and Daddy just had a fight, we’re not getting divorced.”
“Mommy, I heard everything.” Xu Rui threw himself into Kang Zhimiao’s arms: “Mommy, if you and Daddy get divorced, I want to stay with you. Please don’t leave me.”
Hearing this, Xu Xun felt a surge of frustration. He couldn’t help but step forward, pointing at his own nose, and asked Xu Rui: “Rui Rui, why don’t you want to stay with Daddy?”
Xu Rui’s little shoulders trembled with each sob: “Daddy has never cooked for me, never washed my clothes, never taken me to the hospital when I was sick. Daddy doesn’t know anything. I don’t want to stay with Daddy, I want to stay with Mommy.”
Xu Xun responded: “Daddy can learn all of that—it’s not that hard.”
Kang Zhimiao suddenly felt that maybe she really should let go a little. She scooped up Xu Rui and plopped him into Xu Xun’s arms: “Since you think it’s not that hard, then starting tonight, you take care of Rui Rui.”
“You heard him too—if we get divorced, Rui Rui wants to come with me. If you want a divorce, go ahead. But I am absolutely going to work.”
Kang Zhimiao turned and went to the bathroom. After washing up, she went straight to bed and fell asleep.
Xu Xun, sulking at Kang Zhimiao, carried Xu Rui back to his room to coax him to sleep.
Xu Rui had cried his eyes out, his nose was stuffy, and he wasn’t sleepy anymore.
Xu Xun told him stories and gently patted him, but Xu Rui just couldn’t fall asleep.
Instead, Xu Xun was the one getting drowsy. Just as he was about to doze off, Xu Rui pushed him hard. Xu Xun opened his eyes to find Xu Rui sitting beside him, his little face full of puzzled bewilderment: “Daddy, why won’t you let Mommy go to work?”
“If your mom goes to work, who’s going to take care of the house? Who’s going to take care of you?”
Talking about this woke Xu Xun up completely. He sat up too and counted off on his fingers, one by one, all the reasons why Kang Zhimiao going to work was a bad idea.
Xu Rui listened, only half understanding. He tilted his head: “But Mommy will be happy if she goes to work. Isn’t Mommy being happy more important than anything? As long as Mommy can be happy, I’ll do anything.”
“Daddy, I can go to the cafeteria by myself. Mommy took me to buy things at the cafeteria before—she taught me how to buy stuff and how to talk to the cafeteria ladies.”
“I did really well. All the ladies praised me for being polite and well-behaved.”
When he mentioned this, Xu Rui was especially proud.
“I even took Ya Ya and Jiu Si to the cafeteria to buy donuts. Ya Ya said I was really amazing.”
“Your mom going to work will make her heart wander.” Xu Xun finally revealed the real reason he didn’t want Kang Zhimiao to go to work.
“Daddy, what does ‘make her heart wander’ mean?” Xu Rui shook his head: “I don’t understand what you’re saying.”
Xu Xun thought for a moment, then explained to Xu Rui: “It means after your mom starts working, she won’t care about the family as much, and her heart won’t be full of just the two of us anymore.”
“Mommy won’t do that.”
Xu Rui shook his head: “Mommy will never not care about me. I believe in Mommy.”
Xu Xun knew perfectly well that Kang Zhimiao would never stop caring about Xu Rui. What he was afraid of was that Kang Zhimiao’s heart would no longer have room for him.
Kang Zhimiao’s recent attitude had given him a serious sense of crisis—he felt like she could leave him at any moment.
He hadn’t managed things well with Xu Wan. If his wife ran off too, he’d become a laughingstock.
“Daddy, just let Mommy go to work.”
Xu Rui grabbed Xu Xun’s hand and shook it: “I love watching Mommy dance. Mommy looks so beautiful when she dances—she sparkles, just like Auntie Ye.”
At the mention of this, Xu Xun couldn’t help but resent Ye Zhiqiu a little: “Your mom—she was led astray by that Auntie Ye of yours.”
“Auntie Ye didn’t lead Mommy astray. Mommy is so happy when she’s with Auntie Ye. I like going to Auntie Ye’s house to play too.”
“Ya Ya has so many toys and so many snacks. Ya Ya is so pretty and cute, and Jiu Si is really nice too.”
Xu Xun’s eyes suddenly lit up: “Rui Rui, do you want a little sister of your own?”
“A little sister as cute as Ya Ya?”
“Yes, as cute as Ya Ya—and she’d be your very own little sister.”
Xu Rui nodded vigorously: “I want one! I want one!”
Now that they had a son, naturally they’d want a daughter too. It was just that back then, Rui Rui was still little, and Xu Xun had been entirely focused on his work and climbing the career ladder, so he hadn’t thought about it.
But now this matter needed to be put on the agenda.
Their family was an ethnic minority with preferential policies—they were allowed to have two children. The only downside was that he wouldn’t get the one-child allowance anymore.
