Chapter 11 American son-in-law meets Chinese mother-in-law

American son-in-law meets Chinese mother-in-law —The Story of Waverly Gong one I accompanied my mother to lunch at a favorite Chinese restaurant, hoping to refresh her mind, but it often turned out to be an ordeal that ended in unhappiness. We met at the "Four Squares" restaurant.When my mother saw me, she immediately said: "Oh, what happened to your hair?" She looked at my hair dissatisfied and said in Chinese. "What's the 'how'?" I said. "I just had a haircut." It was a new haircut that Mr. Rolley had made for me, straight, with a row of thick bangs in the front, asymmetrical on the sides Her hairstyle is very fashionable, but by no means trendy.

"Looks like a piece of it was cut off there," Ma said. "You should ask them for your haircut money back, and let them pay you back!" I sigh. "Mom, let's just have an ordinary lunch." She kept silent, pursed her lips tightly, and pondered over the menu with her eyes, then murmured: "There is nothing delicious on this menu." Then, she raised her hand and patted the waiter's arm , wiped the chopsticks with her fingers, shook her head, and said, "Look at this greasy one, do you want me to use this to pick up vegetables?" Then, she re-ironized her own bowls and chopsticks with hot tea, while persuading our neighbors Virgo, be sure to follow her example.Then, she told the waiter that the soup must be boiling hot. Of course, the hotness must be judged by her own tongue.

"You shouldn't be nagging like this." I stopped her.At this time, she was struggling with the waiter for the extra two yuan because she only ordered chrysanthemum tea instead of green tea. "Besides, it's not good for your heart to be so excited." "My heart is not sick at all!" She angrily denied. This is true, doctors have long claimed that the 69-year-old mother has normal blood pressure as a 16-year-old, and is as strong and powerful as her zodiac horse.Born in 1918, she was also destined to be as stubborn and loyal as her zodiac horse.I am a rabbit, born in 1951.Rabbits, as the name suggests, are naturally restless, active and sensitive, thin-skinned and quick-moving.Therefore, my mother and I seem to be destined to overcome each other.

After barely making it through that lunch, I finally bit the bullet and told Mom: I was going to marry Rich Shelton.I'm ready, she won't give me a good face after hearing the news. My friend Marlene once asked me in puzzlement: "Why are you so nervous? Rich is not a person who is not on the table. You know, he is a tax broker anyway, a tax broker like you. .My God, why is she so fussy?" "You don't know my mother," I said. "She doesn't like anyone anyway, and she can find a lot of bad things about everyone." "Then you can just elope," Marlene said.

"That's how it was with Marvin," I said.Marvin was my first husband and I fell in love with him in high school. "Oh, so you're gone." "That's right. When my mother found out that I was dating him, she immediately took off the shoes and threw them in the face. Just right, she threw us away." Mom hadn't actually met Rich.In fact, every time I need to mention Richie—for example, Richie asked me to go to the symphony, Richie took my four-year-old daughter Suzanne to the zoo, anyway, whenever I mention him, Mom always wants Hastily diverted it with words.

While we were at the restaurant waiting for the checkout, I had to carefully bring the conversation up to Richie: "Oh, Mom, did I tell you? Suzanne and Richie were having a great time. He ,At once……" "By the way," Mom interrupted immediately, "I haven't told you yet. It's your dad. The doctors said that he might have to do an angiography first. But it's all right now. They said there's no need for it. Because of the secret knot of the Tao." See, what else can I say?I am willing to bow down. I paid the bill, one ten-yuan bill and three one-yuan bills. Mom raised her hand, swished the three one-dollar bills down, and then took out thirteen cents, one cent not more, one cent not less, and put them Put it on the plate, and then said flatly: "There is no tip!" When it was over, he turned around and smiled at me proudly.But while she was going to the bathroom, I slipped a five-dollar bill to the waiter, and he nodded knowingly.

"It stinks, it stinks!" Mom came out wrinkling her nose, pushing me gently and stuffing me a pack of tissue paper, "Do you want it?" She never used tissue paper outside. "Before we break up, go to my place for a while, soon, I'm just showing you something." Mom hasn't been to my house for several months.When I was married last time, she often came to visit casually without calling or saying hello in advance. Until one time, I couldn't stand it anymore, so I suggested to her that if she wanted to come to my house anytime, she should at least notify her in advance. say hi.Since then she never came to my house unless I made a formal invitation to her.

So as soon as she came in, I watched her reaction carefully-after the divorce, I still lived in the original apartment. At that time, there was too much free time to keep the living room in order.To this day, my home is full of life and love again, and as a result, the mess is repeated: Suzanne's toys are strewn in the hallway; Pets; two dirty, used wine glasses on the coffee table that were too late to wash; and a gutted telephone that Suzanne and Rich dismantled one day to study where the sounds were coming from . "Look in the back," I said, leading her further into the back bedroom.My bed was not even made, and the dresser drawers were ajar, revealing men's socks and suspenders.Mom's foot, either stepped on a sneaker, or kicked Suzanne's toy, or Richie's loafer...

Mom's face was livid and distorted in pain. Now, she had to face up to the reality that Richie and I were living together, and that was a serious matter, and she couldn't pretend to be deaf and dumb anymore.She must say something. I took out of the closet a mink coat that Rich had given me for Christmas, and it was the most luxurious present I had ever received. I put on the fur coat and admired myself, and said coyly, "But, this gift is somewhat silly, San Francisco, no mink coat is required. But it seems to be a fashionable way to give a fur coat to your wife or girlfriend."

Mom didn't make a sound, and peeked into the closet, where Rich's tie and suit were hanging with my clothes.She touched the mink coat with her hand and said: "It's not very good. It's made of broken skins. Besides, the hair is a little too short." I feel deeply hurt. "How can you criticize a gift like that!" I protested. "He's showing his heart." "That's what worries me," she said. After her criticism, the fur coat seemed to be dimmed all of a sudden, losing its original brilliance and luxury, looking shabby, old and vulgar.

"Is there anything else you want to say?" I asked feebly. "what do you want me to say?" "Here, all of this." I raised my hand and drew a big circle, pointing to all the traces left by Rich. Mom looked around the bedroom, then the living room, and finally said, "You have your career, you're busy all day, and you've made such a mess of the house, what can I say?" Mom is that good, she always knows how to hit the nail on the head.With such a mother on the stand, I can imagine how painful I am.Every surprise attack she made on me is deeply embedded in my memory. two When I was ten years old, although I was still young and ignorant, I knew very well that I had a talent in chess, and I could beat my opponent on the chessboard without any effort.This greatly enhanced my self-confidence, and also cultivated my aggressiveness and bravery. Mom likes to show off to everyone like me as a prize.She would often come in and talk about my chess skills, as if she wanted to pose as my chief of staff. "I reminded my daughter to copy the horse behind the opponent. No, she won!" She would brag to others so carelessly.Of course, she said this before, but even if she said this a hundred times, it had nothing to do with my victory. She would also brazenly say to those friends who came to our family: "This game of chess is just about tricks. As long as you master the tricks, even if you walk with your eyes closed, you will win." I just hate her showing off and bragging.Once, on Stockton Avenue, I got into an argument with her on the spot. I yelled at her in front of a crowd of passersby. I said she didn't understand anything at all, why did she have to An insider?She should be silent and speak less.Unexpectedly, it worked. That night, and until the next day, she ignored me, as if I was not at home at all. I know she is using aggressive methods, so I won't fall into her trap.So I ignored her and waited for her to speak first. In this way, we passed a few days without answering each other.That day, I was sitting in my room, staring blankly at the big chessboard with sixty-four squares drawn on the bedside.Suddenly I had an idea: I decided not to play chess anymore. Of course, this is just a trick, not really that I gave up playing chess.So at night, I no longer hid in the room to study chess as usual, but swaggered to the living room, squeezed in between my brothers and watched TV, and purposely rattled my knuckles to make them loud complained: "Mom, look at Waverly, tell her not to make trouble and let her go out." But mom just pretended not to hear. Although I was not in a hurry, I realized that I had to do something more drastic, so that Mom would have to speak to me first.I secretly decided to sacrifice another big game next week.Now, Mom has to speak up.Because the initiator of this chess game is a charity organization of the church, if I express my refusal to participate in this game, the convener will definitely call her, and then she will definitely coax me to participate. Unexpectedly, there was still no movement from her side.When the game time came and passed, she still stood still and didn't even ask me: "Why don't you play chess anymore?" But I locked myself in the room and cried all night.Because I learned that the winner of this competition was actually the boy whom I easily won twice. I finally tasted it, the ginger is still old and spicy, I can't beat my mother.But now, I'm tired of this game of "wits" too, so I decided to pretend that she won, and let me speak first, which is not a big deal. "I'm going to play chess again," I tell her, imagining her smiling and asking what I want her to cook. However, she just frowned and stared at my eyes for a long time, then said in a sharp voice: "Why did you tell me this? You think it's very simple, don't you? Play chess if you are happy today, and if you are not happy tomorrow, Don’t let it go, and after another day, when you get interested, you will go down again...you are like this for everything, fishing for three days, drying the net for two days, and you have to change it several times a day.” "I said, I'm going to play chess now." I murmured. "No!" She yelled suddenly, and my scalp exploded. "It's not that easy!" I froze, not understanding what she meant.I returned to my room, staring at the sixty-four squares on the chessboard in a daze, unable to figure out how to move my next move, until the black and white squares overlapped and confused in my field of vision, and I also believed , things will get better eventually. God help me too!That night I suddenly developed a high fever, and my mother sat by my bed and took care of me all day long, blaming me for going to school without a coat, and feeding me the chicken porridge she had strained herself... I am so happy, my mother again It's the same as usual. But when my fever subsided, I found that my mother had really changed completely.When I was practicing chess, she no longer followed me around in circles, she no longer wiped my prizes, and she didn't pay attention to whether my name was on the newspaper, nor did she cut newspapers to save them... There seemed to be a relationship between me and her. An invisible wall, every day, I quietly reach out and feel for this wall, thinking about how high and wide it is... In the next game, even though I had prepared very well, I still lost.What makes me even more embarrassed is that my mother still didn't say a word about it, and she seemed to be complacent, as if all of this was the result of her own planning. I hate myself.Of course, this is not a unique game, and there will be opportunities in the future.I began to ponder over chess skills again. The strange thing is that the sixty-four square chessboard was suddenly unfamiliar to me. The tacit understanding and induction they had had for me, the confidence and feeling of controlling the overall situation were gone. As if I had lost the magic wand that directed it.All of a sudden, facing the chessboard, I felt so uncertain, so alienated, and everyone saw my fatality! Although I will continue to play chess in the future, I no longer have that kind of self-confidence and extreme good feeling.I thought carefully and weighed every move, and sat in front of the chessboard tremblingly and desperately.Every time I win a game, I feel lucky and comforted, but every time I lose, I feel that a kind of boundless terror overwhelms me; I am no longer a prodigy, my genius has left me, I am gradually Become that kind of very mediocre and ordinary person. Until later, I was defeated by the same boy twice in a row-but I used to beat him easily a few years ago. At this time, I stopped playing chess completely. I happen to be fourteen years old. three That night, after being ridiculed by my mother about the mink fur coat, I called Marlene to complain, and Marlene immediately said on the phone: "I really don't understand, you can tell the people from the National Finance and Revenue Supervision Office to go away." , but you dare not say 'no' to your mother." "I wanted to speak several times, and the words came to my throat, but when I was stirred by her few light, knife-like words, I..." "Then just tell her to shut up!" Marlene said, "Tell her to stop meddling in your business, tell her to shut up!" "Are you joking or what?" I smiled wryly, "Tell my mother to sniff?!" "Of course tell her to shut up!" "Well, I don't know if there is such an obvious regulation in Chinese law, but anyway, you can't tell a Chinese mother to shut up, it's almost as treasonous as murder!" But what scares me even more is that I don't know what Mom is going to do to my Richie.How she will reprimand him, judge him, embarrass him... At first she will keep silent, and then she will talk about a small matter, sentence after sentence, counting its various wrongs upside down, darkly, upside down, From time to time, after a while, I take it out to review it again, and count it all over again, until his appearance, personality, and soul are all described beyond recognition.Even though I have learned her tricks a long time ago, I am still afraid, afraid that some invisible truth will fly into my eyes with her words, change my own vision, and remove Rich from my mind. His outstanding image has become mediocre and unpleasant. In my first marriage, Marvin Chen, my husband, was only eighteen when I eloped with him, and he was only nineteen.He was almost flawless when I was in love with him.He graduated from Lowell, where he was always the top three in his class, and then entered the prestigious Stanford University with a scholarship.He is a good tennis player, has prominent calf tendon-like muscles, and has one hundred and forty-six black hairs on his chest, which symbolize masculinity.He could make everyone laugh, and he laughed the loudest and longest, and his laugh was captivating and luscious. He lived happily and lively every day of the week, seven days a week.All he had to say back then, "Wednesday afternoon," was enough to drive me crazy. At this moment, my mother warned me: I think a slob has grown out of this guy's head.He loves golf and tennis so much, it's just to escape his family responsibilities.He can take advantage of this time to glance at the thighs of girls in short skirts, throw out ten dollars ostentatiously as tips to strangers, but to his family, his purse is particularly stingy.He'd rather spend the afternoon fiddling with his red racing car than taking his wife for a drive. In all fairness, I have never hated Chen Mawen until now.But in a sense, this is even worse. It shows that my feelings for him are so indifferent that I can't even produce disappointment and contempt.Before we broke up, in the dead of night when Suzanne fell asleep, I felt utterly alone.From this, I would suspect, maybe my mother ruined my marriage? Thank god, fuck the spoils, haven't hurt my daughter Suzanne yet.Although I almost had an abortion at the time. When I found out I was pregnant, I really hated it.I immediately dragged Chen Mawen into the bathroom and lashed out at him.Immediately we were ready to abort the fetus.Unexpectedly, by mistake, we found a clinic that opposes abortion and hopes to give children the right to have children.They showed us a movie on the spot, like brainwashing to persuade us.In the movie, I saw that even a seven-week-old fetus has already grown tiny fingers.Their translucent fingers actually wriggled.The narrator said: They are climbing the door frame of life, they are going to come to the world-thanks to their movie, I saved Suzanne!Suzanne is really cute, especially when she bends her fingers into a fist and stuffs them into her mouth to cry. Those slender fingers always remind me of the slender fingers of the fetus. I'm still worried about Rich.I understand that I am so fragile, and I am afraid that the image of Rich in my mind will be destroyed by my mother's random comments and words with guns and sticks.Because Rich loved me and Suzanne dearly.His love is so honest and unambiguous.He doesn't ask for anything else from me, as long as I exist, that's enough. He told me that he has become more perfect because of me, and he said that no woman has ever made him feel this way.Such a confession made all the little tricks he made to express his love seem infinitely meaningful. For example, when he was at work, his duty was to staple the materials I needed and pass them on to me.Usually, there is always a note with FYI① pinned in front of the materials.But he put his own meaning at the bottom of the FYI - Forever You and I②.The company doesn't know about our relationship, so he can often play this kind of love game. I am very touched and happy that he is like this. ①For Your Information, your information. ——Translator's Note ②You and I will never be separated. ——Translator's Note Sex is really the most unpredictable and changeable thing.I think he belongs to the kind of gentle man. Indeed, in this respect, he is really gentle but clumsy.He often wants Xu Xu to ask me: "Is this okay? I didn't hurt you, right?..." He is so gentle with my actions, and pays so much attention to cooperating with me. I think he is concentrating on protecting my self-esteem.But he didn't restrain himself at all, he just aroused my passion carefully, so thoughtful and meticulous, like discovering a small treasure.I had completely exposed myself to him, naked, and I did not only mean my body, but the most hidden, veiled parts of my personality—I had completely exposed myself to him.He insisted that only at this moment is the true nature of man exposed.He won't allow me to cover up myself. Whenever he senses this, he will forcefully pull my hands off my eyes, then look into mine, and murmur to me All the love stories. I never thought that there would be such a sincere love in the world. I cherish and value it very much. I am really afraid that my mother will tarnish it.I do not want to. After using his brains enough, he finally came up with a clever plan.I devised a plan for Rich to win my mom over.To put it bluntly, let my mother cook a good meal for Rich, and Rich will definitely be full of praise, so everything will be easy.In this regard, thanks to Aunt Suyun for helping me a lot.Aunt Su has been my mother's old friend for many years. They are inseparable and come and go frequently—I mean, they have been secretly comparing and boasting, and I have given Aunt Suyun a chance to boast. When I came back from the northern beaches that Sunday, I suggested to Rich that we should go to Aunt Suyun and Uncle Canning's.Aunt Suyun's house is only a few roads away from my mother's.It was already evening, and it was time for Aunt Suyun to prepare dinner. "Stay for dinner, stay!" She tried her best to keep us. "We just walked in and sat down..." I said politely. "It's all prepared for you. Look, four dishes and one soup. If you don't stay, you won't be able to eat it. It's a waste!" Of course it cannot be wasted.Three days later, Aunt Suyun received a thank you letter from us, and I wrote: "Rich said this is the best Chinese food he has ever tasted!" One day, my mother called me and said she would treat me to dinner, in order to make up for my father's delayed birthday.Brother Vincent is bringing his girlfriend Lisa, so I can bring a friend too. I just guessed that she would do this, because cooking is her best move, and it is the cohesion point and total expression of all her talents, strength, and wisdom.She must try her best to prove that she is much better than Aunt Suyun.Therefore, before going to the dinner, I repeatedly told Richie, just like teaching a three-year-old child: "After the meal, you must tell her that the dishes she cooks are the best Chinese dishes you have ever tasted. It’s better than Aunt Suyun’s craftsmanship. Thousands of thousands!” I spent that night cooking with my mother in the kitchen, waiting for an opportunity to tell her about our plans to get married next July, which is about seven months away.While busy, Mom didn't forget to scold Aunt Suyun: "She only cooks by looking at the recipes. My recipes are all in my fingers." I wish she would talk about Richie.When Rich rang the doorbell, she forced a smile to welcome him in, covered him from head to toe with her eyes, and must have been secretly verifying what Aunt Suyun had told her about Rich in advance. evaluate.I'm waiting to hear her review. Not only was Rich not Chinese, but he was several years younger than me, and what was more troubling was that he had curly red hair and a nose dotted with orange spots.He was short, stocky, and dressed in a dark company uniform. He looked polite but unremarkable, easily overlooked, like a distant nephew of the deceased at a funeral.That's why, even though we worked together in the same company, I didn't pay any attention to him during the first year.But Mom paid attention to everything about him. I finally worked up the courage and asked her softly in the kitchen, "Mom, what's your impression of Rich?" She only cares about frying her eggplant in a hot pan.Accompanied by bursts of violent oil explosions, came her cold words: "The spots on his face are really lively." For a moment, I just felt a thorn in my back. "That's freckles, Mom. Freckles represent luck, you know that..." I was so excited that my voice also rang out. "Really?" Ma asked innocently. "Yes. The more freckles, the better luck, as they say." She thought about it, and said in Chinese with a smile: "I'm afraid it makes sense. Remember? You had chickenpox once when you were a child, and you were covered with spots. Look, didn't your luck just come? You have been lying at home for ten years. God, what a blessing!" In the same way that I couldn't save Rich in the kitchen, I couldn't save him at the dinner table. He bought a bottle of French wine specifically.He didn't understand, my parents didn't appreciate this kind of wine at all, my parents didn't even have wine glasses at home.Then he made another big mistake, that is, he drank two full glasses of iced wine in a row. I handed Rich a fork, but he insisted on the ivory chopsticks, which he held in a figure eight, like the stupid, clumsy figure eight feet of an ostrich.Once, when he clumsily picked up a piece of eggplant in thick oil sauce and put it into his mouth, the juicy and delicious thing slipped to the fork of his legs. He also refuses to eat green leafy vegetables.He doesn't think it's rude to refuse the second chopstick on a Chinese table. Worst of all, he criticized my mother's cooking, which he didn't understand, which is always Chinese modesty.For example, Ma served her signature steamed pork ribs and pickled vegetables, which have always been her delicate creations.After taking a sip, she deliberately complained: "Oh, this dish is not salty enough, it's bland." She shook her head dissatisfied, "It's simply unpalatable." It's always been a family tradition in our family: take a bite first, then compliment Mom's cooking, but this time, before we could start, Rich said, "All it needs is some soy sauce." He picked out a soy sauce bottle from the basin, and under Mom's horrified gaze, poured a jet of black liquid into the ribs. Even so, I hope that Mom finds a little bit of Rich's kindness and easygoing, his humor and lovable boyishness. It's just that Rich is unaware of all this.After returning home that night, he sweetly approached him: "Well! I get along well with your parents. Everything is fine." After that, he began to pant like a poodle , waiting to be caressed. I put on my nightgown, implying that I'm not in the mood tonight.I thought about how Richie was shaking my parents' hands tightly just now, patting them on the shoulders like he usually treats customers, and saying in his mouth, "Goodbye, Lin Da, Gong Ding, we will come to see you again." She even called my parents Linda and Gong Ding respectively, but except for a few old relatives, few people have ever called them by their first names.When I think back to that scene, I'm still terrified. "Uh, what did your mother say?" Rich asked.He meant our marriage.I had told Rich a few days earlier that I was going to mention this to Mom before Mom told Dad. "I didn't get a chance to tell her about it," I said.That's the truth.There is really no right opportunity.Anyway, Mom was talking about Richie not planning to live, drinking such expensive wine, and then saying that he looked bad, looking too pale, and that Susannah looked sad. Rich laughed. "How long will it take? Just one sentence, Mom and Dad, I'm getting married, it's fine!" "You don't understand. You don't understand my mother." Four That night, I lay in bed and couldn't fall asleep for a long time.Rich has muddled everything up, and what's worse, Rich doesn't know why, poor Rich!I will always be just a pawn in my mother's hand. The next morning, I woke up late with pain in my temples.Richie was up early, reading the paper after showering. "Morning, baby!" he greeted me, chewing popcorn.I dressed in a hurry and drove to my mother's house by myself. Marlene was right, I really had to be honest with Mom that she stop playing tricks on me, it hurts so much.Along the way, the more I thought about it, the angrier I became, and when I stopped the car and went upstairs, I was almost in the posture of asking the teacher for a crime. It was Dad who opened the door, and he was surprised to see me. "Where's Mom?" Adjusting my breathing, I tried to calm myself down, and Dad pointed to the living room behind. Ma was lying on the sofa, sleeping soundly, with her head resting on a white embroidered cushion, her lips were no longer tightly pressed, her sleeping face looked very peaceful, as if even the wrinkles had disappeared, Looked like a young girl: frail, innocent.One of her arms was limply drooping by the side of the sofa, and all the majesty and strength I usually felt disappeared all of a sudden.The current mother looks so weak, thin, and helpless. A sudden panic overwhelmed me, she looked like a lifeless body, she was dead!I have repeatedly prayed that she would not enter my life, hoping that she would live outside of my life, but now she has silently obeyed, leaving her body and leaving. "Mom!" I screamed, crying mournfully. She opened her eyes slowly, and with a flick of her eyelids, all her strength came back. "What's the matter? Oh, my sister is here." I choked up all of a sudden. "Sister" was my childhood nickname, and it's been a long time since my mother didn't call me by my nickname. Mom sat up from the sofa, and the wrinkles on her face came back, but now it was no longer such a tough and thick line, but a little more melancholy and sentimental. "What's wrong? Why are you crying? What's wrong?" I don't know what to say, but just for a moment, my enthusiasm for asking questions to her has long since disappeared, and I was surprised by the other side she showed: weakness and innocence. , Confusion, this kind of too fast emotional change, made me feel numb and dejected, just like a lamp that was suddenly unplugged, and my mind was just blank. "It's nothing, nothing, I don't know why I'm here." I deliberately said in an indifferent tone: "I just want to tell you... Rich and I are getting married." After finishing speaking, I resigned myself to my fate and closed my eyes, waiting for her overwhelming insults, objections, and reprimands... "I knew it a long time ago." She just said very calmly, as if wondering why I had to tell her again. "You already know?" "Of course. Even if you don't tell me, I know." She still said calmly. Oops, this could have been worse.Turns out she already knew that we were getting married when she teased me about my mink coat, about his drinking and about his freckles.She doesn't like him, doesn't like him. "I know you don't like him," I said in a trembling voice, "I know you hate him and don't think he's good enough. But I..." "Hate him? Why do you think I hate your fiancé?" "You never mention him. That time, as soon as I mentioned that he and Suzanne had a good time, you... you immediately diverted the conversation... and started talking about Dad having a surgical imaging Surgery... and then you..." "But what do you think is more important? Dad's surgery or Rich and Suzanne's game?" This time, I don't want to let my mother slip by. "Later, you ridiculed the pockmarks on his face." She looked at me, a little confused. "Really, am I like this?" "Yes, yes. You're always trying to sting me, to make me unhappy, you're playing tricks..." "Oh, why do you think so badly of me!" She suddenly looked old and in pain. "Do you really think your mother is so bad? What do you think I'm trying to do? That's just what you think. Hey, think of me so badly!" She sat upright on the sofa, and squeezed her lips tightly. He pursed his lips, tears came out of anger. Alas, she is so strong and yet so weak!I sat down next to her on the couch. I feel very tired.I lost another round, but I don't know who the opponent in this round is. "I'm going back," I said at last, "I don't feel well." "Are you sick?" she said softly, pressing my forehead. "No." I got up and said, "I'm so confused." "Then, listen to me," she said slowly, "you have half of your father, they are the Gong family in Guangdong. The Gong family are good people, upright and honest. Although sometimes they have a bad temper and are too generous. Little. You can see this from your dad. If I hadn't reminded him often, he would be even more tempered. " I was wondering why my mother told me this, and my mother went on to say: "You still have half, of course it comes from me, Sun's family in Taiyuan." She took an old envelope, wrote a Chinese character, and Forget that I don't know Chinese at all. "Our family is strong and smart, known for being good at fighting. Do you know Sun Yat-sen? Ha!" I nod. "He also belongs to the Sun family. But their family moved to the south a long time ago, so they don't belong to the same clan as our Sun family. My family has always been in Taiyuan, even before Sun Wen." I shook my head. Although I didn't understand the content of this conversation, I was relieved that this seemed to be a heart-to-heart conversation that our mother and daughter hadn't had in many years. "He fought against Genghis Khan. Hey, he invented a kind of armor, which is invulnerable to swords and guns. It made the arrows of the Mongolian soldiers shoot up like hitting a stone. Even Genghis Khan admired it!" "Really? Then Genghis Khan must have invented a kind of arrow that penetrates all holes," I interjected calmly, "otherwise, how did he conquer China in the end?" Mom just pretended not to hear. "So, you see, the Sun family in Taiyuan is really amazing. Therefore, the materials that make up your brain are also from Taiyuan." "However, I think now, various advantages of Taiyuan have been developed into the toy market and electronic market." I said. "How do you say that?" "Didn't you notice? Every toy is engraved on it, Made in Taiwan!" "Oh, no," she shouted, "I'm not Taiwanese." The tacit understanding that was so easily established broke down again. "I am from Taiyuan, China," she said. “哦，我一直以为你这是在说台湾①。” ①台湾与太原的发音在英语上很接近。 ——Translator's Note “根本发音完全不同，而且地方也完全不同。”她怒气冲冲地说，“只要你是中国人，那你一辈子也放不开中国这两个字。” 我们又陷入了沉默无言的僵局。顷刻，她眼睛一亮，又开口说：“听好，太原还有一个称谓，就是'并'，太原城的人都这样称自己的城市。你发起这个音很容易的。” 她又工工整整地写下这个字，我郑重其事地点点头，表示明白了。然后妈又用英语接下去说：“这好比你把纽约称为大苹果，把旧金山称作弗里斯可一样的道理。” I laughed. “没有人这样称旧金山的。有人这样称它，只是因为不知道该如何发好这个音。” “现在懂了吗？”妈得意洋洋地说。 I laughed. 说实在，我还是没有懂。不只是她说的那一套，而是对发生过的一切。 我一直在苦苦抗争的，究竟是什么？好久好久以前，在我还是一个孩子时，我就想躲到一道更安全的屏障后边，我要躲避的，就是妈的闲言碎语，妈对我的不足之处的寻觅和挑剔……曾几何时，那个我所躲避的，时时搅得我心烦意乱的，竟成了一个坏脾气的老妇人。多年来，她只是以她的绒线披肩为盾，编结针为剑，貌似张牙舞爪地，却在耐心等着自己的女儿，将她请进她的生活中。 Fives 里奇和我，已经决定把婚期推延一阵。因妈说过，七月份不是去中国度蜜月的好季节。她之所以知道，是因为她和我爸刚从北京、太原观光回来。 “那边的夏天太热，你只会长出更多的斑点，然后，你的脸会晒得通红通红！”她对里奇说。里奇则高兴地哈哈大笑，一边朝我妈伸出大拇指，一边回头对我说：“你看你妈多会讲话，多体贴人。现在我可明白了，你那套甜甜的善解人意的小伎俩，是从哪来的了。” “你们得在十月份去。那是最好的时光，气候不冷也不热。我也想再回去看看。”她颇带权威性地说了一通后，又忙忙加了一句：“当然，我不会跟你们一起去的。” 我进出一个不自然的笑容，里奇则说着笑话：“你要跟我们一起去可真太妙了，你可以为我们翻译菜单，使我们不会稀里糊涂地吞下蛇肉和狗肉。”我几乎要狠狠踹他几脚。 “不，不，我没这个意思要跟你们去。”妈一再表示，“真的没这个意思。” 我知道她其实喜欢和我们一起结伴去。我讨厌她跟着去。这一去，整整三个礼拜就得听她抱怨一日三餐的肮脏，半冷不热的汤——得了，那三个星期的蜜月会给她搅掉的。 但从另一方面想想，我们三个各不相同的人，登上同一架飞机，并排坐着，从西方飞向东方，倒也挺有点意思的。