Chapter 32 Ordinary

Chapter 32: Just Another Day

Xie Chong poured himself a glass of wine at this point and said, "I want to raise a glass too."

"First, tell me—why are you toasting?" Liao Xiaohua asked, knowing the answer perfectly well. She had understood Mou Wen's words and wanted to hear Xie Chong's true feelings. She'd lived half her life and seen plenty of fake people, and she wanted her own family to be above that kind of phoniness.

"I got married, so of course I want to toast. My wife already did, so now it's my turn." Xie Chong leaned toward Mou Wen and nudged her with his shoulder. "Don't judge us by what's conventional. I obviously wouldn't marry someone I didn't like."

He turned to look at Mou Wen. "Didn't you know that?"

Mou Wen had never heard Xie Chong say such things. In front of his parents, he said it with total certainty: they got married because of love.

She was shocked. Deep down, she didn't buy it. But she saw Xie Chong's eyes—he was looking at her with a smile. His eyes were so sincere.

Mou Wen felt happy again. Her happiness came rushing back from everywhere.

Then she said boldly, "Then I'll match you—bottoms up!"

"With your tolerance for alcohol, just take a sip!" Xie Chong laughed and clinked glasses with his parents.

"No, I'm drinking a full glass, and that's final!" Mou Wen raised her chin proudly.

Xie Dongfeng and Liao Xiaohua exchanged a glance and smiled.

They didn't come back to Beijing much.

Partly for fun, partly for work—there weren't many relatives in Beijing worth coming back for, and their business was mainly in the south and abroad. This time they'd come back to Beijing on the fly because Xie Chong got married.

They'd planned to come back when he got the marriage certificate, but Liao Xiaohua had a minor surgery that held them up. Now they were there to see Xie Chong's new place. After meeting Mou Wen, they felt she was the type to make a house feel like a home, so they got why Xie Chong chose her.

Who's to say that choice wasn't made out of love?

Warmth is what feeds love.

After the four of them finished eating, Liao Xiaohua and Xie Dongfeng were ready to leave, and Xie Chong and Mou Wen walked them downstairs. Mou Wen figured they might want to talk alone, so she made an excuse and headed back upstairs.

"What do you mean, 'like your grandmother'?" Xie Chong said to Liao Xiaohua after Mou Wen left. "So I married my own grandma? I can't tell if you're insulting me or her!"

Liao Xiaohua was so angry she smacked him hard. "What nonsense are you talking? You ungrateful brat!"

"I'm just telling it like it is. Why'd you have to bring up my grandma and great-grandma at my wedding, and go on about hiring a maid... I don't want to hear that!" Xie Chong said. "If Dad hadn't held me back, I'd have gone at it with you right then."

"Oh, big man, aren't you!" Liao Xiaohua laughed despite her anger and smacked him once more before leaving.

When Xie Chong came back in, he saw Mou Wen cleaning up the kitchen and followed her in.

He pulled Mou Wen aside and took over the dishes at the sink. Mou Wen stood there watching him.

"What are you looking at?" Xie Chong asked.

"You just said you married me for love."

"And you didn't?" Xie Chong countered. "If not, then I've got to hand it to your acting." He shot Mou Wen a glare.

Mou Wen let out a deliberate "hmph" and said, "Of course I know." Then she stepped forward and hugged him. "Oh, I'm so happy."

"Happy about what?"

"Happy that you had my back, that you stood up for me in front of your parents." Mou Wen had been so afraid that Xie Chong would stay silent at that moment. She'd have blamed him for not even being able to fake it, and it would've broken her heart.

"Don't talk like that!" Xie Chong said. "I don't like hearing it."

That night before bed, Xie Chong came over with a comb and insisted on brushing Mou Wen's hair.

Mou Wen didn't know why he wanted to do that, so she sat quietly, waiting for him to bring up what happened that morning. She wanted to know why Xie Chong had been arguing with someone out front, if something was bothering him.

"I went to see a friend today. She married a guy none of us could stand, and a few days ago she ran off, fell into a ditch, and broke something." Xie Chong said simply.

"Kind of like how you married someone your friends didn't like?" Mou Wen joked with a smile.

"What do you mean?" Xie Chong asked.

Mou Wen said, "I know that guy from today is your good friend—Qian Song, right? You two used to talk on the phone all the time, and you brought him to the company thank-you dinner once. I've never met him, but I know he's real."

"He doesn't dislike you," Xie Chong said. Qian Song just thought Mou Wen was a con artist; as a friend, he was worried about Xie Chong. But Xie Chong knew that once the bias faded, Qian Song wouldn't hold it against her.

Mou Wen didn't pursue it further.

That morning, when Qian Song stood downstairs and looked up, there was disgust in his eyes—Mou Wen could sense it. In fact, she could understand Qian Song. Even her own company made up stories about her, so why wouldn't Xie Chong's best friend?

But the worst part was that Mou Wen couldn't honestly say, with a clear conscience: "I married Xie Chong purely out of love. I just love him. I didn't consider anything else."

No, she had considered it.

Xie Chong set the comb on the table, turned Mou Wen's body toward him, looked into her eyes, and asked seriously, "If I had nothing at all, would you still marry me?"

That was a loaded question. Mou Wen was trying to figure out where to even start. Xie Chong had expected her to answer "yes" without hesitation, but seeing her hesitate, he said, "I knew it!"

He didn't blame Mou Wen.

"Let me tell you something," Xie Chong said. "I need to go abroad for about two months."

"Mm-hmm, I know. Your work requires frequent travel. That's fine," Mou Wen said. "Don't worry, go ahead. I'll take good care of the house. Though there's not much to take care of."

"?" Xie Chong's face darkened. "Is that what I wanted to hear?"

"Then what should I say?" Mou Wen looked utterly confused. "Should I cling to your leg and beg you not to go?"

"Shut up," Xie Chong said. "Say another word and I'll really get angry."

He wanted Mou Wen to show a hint of reluctance and longing, but Mou Wen was so... sensible. He didn't need a sensible wife. He needed a wife who truly loved him.

Seeing Xie Chong sulking, Mou Wen reviewed their conversation, trying to find her mistake. Unfortunately, she felt her words were a perfect answer—she was a perfect wife. So she put her hands on her hips and told Xie Chong not to be unreasonable, saying, "If you keep this up, I'll get angry too!"

Their first argument after marriage happened under such inexplicable circumstances. At first, they both just pretended to be angry, but somehow the pretense became real. Xie Chong felt Mou Wen didn't care whether he was around; Mou Wen felt Xie Chong was being overly demanding. Neither of them spoke to the other.

Mou Wen kicked Xie Chong and went to her own room to sleep. Xie Chong was so upset he stayed awake all night.

The next day, Mou Wen came home from work and started cooking, making a racket in the kitchen. Xie Chong snuck past the kitchen several times to peek at her—he was hungry, waiting for Mou Wen to finish cooking and call him to eat. He thought, "If she calls me to eat, I'll make up with her."

But Mou Wen brought out two dishes and a soup, and served one bowl of rice—none for him. They both had big appetites and usually needed at least four dishes per meal. Two dishes meant he should find his own food elsewhere.

So Xie Chong called a restaurant and had them deliver a feast of "mountain delicacies and sea treasures." Mou Wen had a hearty appetite and loved food. Seeing Xie Chong with all that delicious food that he wouldn't share made her even angrier.

That night, before going to bed, Xie Chong stood at his bedroom door and coughed. Hearing no sound from Mou Wen's room, he went to her door and coughed again before returning to his room.

He lay in bed, waiting for Mou Wen's little head to poke through the door crack, say "I'm coming," and then fly onto his bed. But Mou Wen never came.

Xie Chong waited until one in the morning. Hearing noises outside, he went to check. He saw Mou Wen in the kitchen making toppings for noodles. In the middle of the night, she was making three kinds of toppings, all to pour over noodles and mix together.

Man, that must have smelled amazing!

Xie Chong tried to look stern and said, "What are you messing around for in the middle of the night?! You don't sleep, and you don't let anyone else sleep either."

Mou Wen turned around and grinned at him, then immediately put on a serious face: "Not for you!"

Xie Chong reached over and put her in a headlock. She squirmed and said, "I just won't give you any! Go eat your own fancy feast! You hog it all!" She forgot she was the one who'd refused to feed him first.

After all that fuss, they realized it wasn't even a big deal. The real highlight was Mou Wen's noodles—three kinds of toppings, and they looked incredible. Xie Chong's mouth started watering, and he said he'd help Mou Wen taste-test for poison.

Mou Wen snorted, handed him the bowl she'd fixed up, then, like magic, whipped out another bowl of noodles, looking all smug and proud of herself.

Xie Chong suddenly wanted to "destroy" her.

He couldn't explain it—that urge to crush Mou Wen up and stuff her inside his own body.

"I forgive you," Mou Wen said. "I'll reward you, you old beggar, with a bowl of noodles."

"Then I thank you."

The two sat at the table eating noodles, each with one leg hiked up on a chair. Mou Wen asked Xie Chong if he wanted a garlic clove. Xie Chong wasn't into raw garlic and shook his head: "I don't eat that. It stinks."

"Then I'll eat it!" Mou Wen actually started eating garlic.

Xie Chong asked if she was doing a renovation for a client from Shaanxi. She was surprised: "How did you know?"

Xie Chong pointed at the noodles. He understood Mou Wen. She was like a newborn, curious about everything. When she worked with clients, she'd dig into whatever they mentioned or liked—which is why she made Western-style breakfasts, and why she made this late-night bowl of "three-topping" noodles.

She was so curious about the world that Xie Chong's life was always full of something new. Their meals, their home decor—always changing.

It was fun. Life was fun.

Xie Chong had never felt life was this fun before.

As he ate the noodles, he asked Mou Wen, "Are the grasslands in Hulunbuir all green now? Have the flowers all bloomed?"

"They're green! And they've bloomed! Flowers everywhere, all over the mountains and plains! The trees in the Greater Khingan Range are all lush too—it's gorgeous and so cool!" Then she asked, "Why are you asking about that?"

Xie Chong said, "Before I head abroad, I want to go see your family."

Mou Wen froze, chopsticks in mid-air. She hadn't expected Xie Chong to think that way. She figured Xie Chong would never want to go on his own—of course, if she brought it up, he wouldn't say no. But she'd never brought it up because she thought Xie Chong wasn't interested, that he didn't want to go.

She didn't want Xie Chong to feel like visiting her home was a chore, and she didn't want her parents to feel awkward. So she'd never mentioned it.

"Going to see my parents?" Mou Wen asked. "As your son-in-law?"

"What else? As your side piece?" Xie Chong shoveled a big bite of noodles into his mouth. It was really good—he wondered if Mou Wen's mom's buns were even better.

Mou Wen stood up and smacked him, her eyes getting red: "When do you want to go?"

"I want to go tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Mou Wen was surprised. "That's cutting it too close."

"So I've decided we leave next Monday. You get your work sorted first."

Mou Wen asked how Xie Chong planned to get there, and he said he'd drive. Mou Wen had never road-tripped that far before. When she heard "drive," her eyes went huge: "Drive from Beijing to Yakeshi? In a car?!"

"What else?"

"Fly, take a train..." Mou Wen said. "Can a person really drive that far?"

"Yep. That person's right in front of you."

The day they hit the road was pretty funny.

Mou Wen was dressed like a little bee, all decked out in a bunch of colors. Xie Chong asked, "Why are you dressed like that? Going to go collect some nectar?"

She spun around him twice and said, "Yep, collecting nectar from you, you poppy flower."

Xie Chong put his hand over her face and shoved her back, telling her to back off. He needed to double-check the luggage. This time he was driving a big SUV Mou Wen had never seen before.

"Did you rent this car?" Mou Wen said. "I've never seen you drive this one."

"Haven't you ever checked the garage at home?" Xie Chong asked her.

"What do you mean?"

"My cars. I've got a lot of cars."

Xie Chong loved cars—he'd been into them since he was a kid. What he'd said at the event was true: he had a ton of cars. SUVs, sports cars, sedans—all lined up neatly in the garage, and he'd pick which one to drive based on his mood. It just so happened that the one Mou Wen saw him drive was always the same one.

"So you're even more loaded than I thought." Mou Wen nodded. "I've got great taste."

She didn't care what Xie Chong thought anymore. She'd made peace with it—since Xie Chong thought that way, she wouldn't go out of her way to avoid it. Like now, she said on purpose, "I love that you're rich."

Xie Chong shot her a glance when he heard that, grabbed her suitcase, and loaded it into the car. Mou Wen saw five cases of Moutai, two cartons of Zhonghua cigarettes, some tea gift sets, and a few boxes she couldn't see inside in the trunk, and asked, "What's all this for? My dad doesn't even smoke or drink."

"Don't worry about it," Xie Chong said. "You don't know anything. If you don't know, keep your mouth shut."

Mou Wen felt a pang of guilt.

She hated waste, and that didn't change no matter who or what was involved. Xie Chong wouldn't let her interfere, stuffed her into the car, and off they went.

Mou Wen set off in the spirit of a spring outing, so she'd made a ton of good food herself. She carried a big bag with six or seven lunchboxes in it, hugging it like it was a treasure.

Xie Chong asked her, "What's all that?"

"Hehe." Mou Wen was deliberately keeping him in suspense. "You'll see in a bit."

She'd also bought herself some snacks: fries, chocolate, spicy sticks...

The second she opened the spicy strips, Xie Chong started complaining: "Damn, my car—it's gonna smell like spicy strips! Put that away!"

Mou Wen pretended not to hear, ate one, and said, "So good! Want some?"

"I don't eat that crap..."

Mou Wen shoved a spicy strip into his mouth. Xie Chong chewed a couple times and shut up. After a moment, he said, "Eat less of that junk. I'll help you take some of the load."

Mou Wen cracked up and gave him some more.

At the rest stop, they parked, and Xie Chong went to find some food. The rest stops heading north didn't have anything good to eat. He didn't want anything, so he came back empty-handed. But he saw a row of little boxes laid out on the hood of the car, and Mou Wen standing there playing "hostess": "Welcome, dig in."

She'd braised chicken feet, made saucy beef, stewed pork ribs, washed cucumbers and tomatoes, made her own pickles, and steamed some buns.

Holy crap.

When had Xie Chong ever been treated like this on a trip? He almost got on his knees for Mou Wen. Mou Wen was thrilled: "You were just yelling at me. Now apologize to me. No—apologize to this food!"

"I sincerely apologize," Xie Chong said.

They laughed all the way north, heading for Mou Wen's hometown!