Clearing one’s name: Double the happiness.
Su Xiaoman still did not know about the misunderstanding among the surrounding neighbours. Xue Tingting and Chen Xingwei, however, actually reconciled for a while because of it. Previously, the Chen couple had always been brought up by the people in the communal courtyard and compared against the Xie couple next door.
They said how loving the Xie couple were as newlyweds, how considerate the husband was toward his wife, how prosperous and lively their small household was, and so on…
At the time, Chen Xingwei had held a breath of anger in his heart, feeling indignant. He thought that when he had just got married, he had also been a very considerate husband. He and Tingting had also had many happy and sweet days together.
How exactly was he inferior to Xie Mingtu next door?
Xue Tingting also held a breath of resentment in her heart. Hearing those aunties, grannies, and uncles tell them to learn more from the Xie couple next door, saying that Su Xiaoman was beautiful, gentle, considerate toward her husband, and did not put on airs, while she, Xue Tingting, was not even as pretty as Su Xiaoman yet had a bigger temper than her…
Both husband and wife felt unbalanced and secretly competed with that comparison. Today, just after returning, they heard the people in the communal courtyard saying that the Xie couple next door had quarrelled. Not only had they quarrelled, but Su Xiaoman had even cried several times.
Many people sighed and said:
“Sure enough, even the most loving couples quarrel.”
“The young Xie couple next door has also started making trouble.”
“All men under heaven are the same. They don’t know how to cherish young women.”
“After marriage, men change.”
“That Su family girl cried so pitifully. Her husband doesn’t even know how to dote on her.”
“They haven’t moved in for long. Why have they already quarrelled? Such a beautiful fairy-like woman — if I married her, I’d go along with everything she wanted.”
“I bet their meat has run out. They’ve been eating it for so many days. Their household stock must be gone, right?”
…
There were all kinds of guesses, while Su Xiaoman, who lived in the siheyuan, still had no idea what the neighbours next door were discussing.
After Xue Tingting and Chen Xingwei heard all these discussions, their hearts felt much more balanced.
Look, everyone had told them to learn from the Xie couple next door, but had the Xie couple next door not quarrelled too?!!!
Seeing that other people’s days were also not going smoothly, Xue Tingting felt much more comfortable inside. At least she had not cried until she became a tearful mess.
After marriage, although Chen Xingwei had indeed become a little stingy, it was also for the sake of their small family. Their monthly wages were only so much, so of course they had to scrimp and save. They could no longer live as freely as they had before marriage.
When Chen Xingwei returned, the couple looked at each other and smiled. Everything was understood without words. The two of them suddenly reconciled as if glued together.
“The young Xie couple next door quarrelled.”
“We were like that when we first got married too.”
“Auntie Zhang and the others were all wrong. The Xie couple should learn from us. We’re the experienced ones.”
“That’s right…”
…
After Xie Mingtu came back carrying the pigeon, he took the initiative to tidy the house, but by chance, he overheard that he had become a “scumbag man.”
“The husband and wife quarrelled.”
“His wife was so wronged, she cried until she was a tearful mess.”
“I thought he was a considerate man. Who would have thought, ah, who would have thought…”
…
Scumbag Little Xie’s face turned as black as the bottom of a pot.
When Su Xiaoman came to find him with a bowl of sugar-fried chestnuts, she saw Xie Mingtu looking extremely unhappy. Su Xiaoman’s heart suddenly panicked. Could their Comrade Xiaotu really be angry with her?
She walked to Xie Mingtu’s side, peeled a chestnut, and fed it to his mouth in a coaxing manner.
“Child’s father, what’s wrong?”
After Xie Mingtu finished chewing the chestnut, he very gloomily told Su Xiaoman what he had heard.
Su Xiaoman: “…”
Good heavens, these neighbours were far too nosy!!!!!
The slightest breeze and movement had to be imagined by them into a raging storm.
And were they waiting to watch the couple quarrel?!!
Things like loving couples not lasting long, newlywed sweetness fading over time…
It was also because this era was too boring. There were no mobile phones to play with, no television dramas to watch, not even a radio, so the things happening among neighbours became ordinary gossip and daily chatter.
So Comrade Xiaotu’s dark expression was not because he was angry with her, but because he was angry that the neighbours had misunderstood him as Scumbag Little Xie.
Su Xiaoman held back laughter and silently cried injustice for him in her heart. Snow in June — Little Xie had been wronged.
“All right, don’t sulk. Tomorrow, Comrade Xiaoman will help you wash away your grievance. Our Brother Xiaotu is clearly the best husband. Whatever Manman wants, he agrees to.”
Xie Mingtu nodded. Just as he was about to say something, he suddenly remembered what had happened earlier. His pair of pitch-black eyes stared at Su Xiaoman in silence.
Those lacquer-black eyes seemed to reveal a sense of resignation…
Wear it… then he would wear it.
Seeing his expression, Su Xiaoman smiled and hugged his waist, signalling him to lower his head, then kissed his face several times.
The resigned Xie Gouzi gazed at her. His handsome face showed no expression. One could not tell whether he was happy or unhappy.
He waited for the person before him to announce his sentence.
“Why are you looking at me like that? Eat some sugar-fried chestnuts. I fried them just now. The method is different from before. I learned it from Grandma Shen in the neighbouring courtyard. Try a few more?”
Xie Mingtu held the bowl in one hand, peeled several sugar-fried chestnuts, and first fed them to Su Xiaoman. Su Xiaoman ate a few and could not eat anymore.
“I made them for you.”
The two intimately ate fried chestnuts for a while. Xie Mingtu carried her back to the kang to rest. Su Xiaoman lazily flipped through a few books. She was also reading medical books, though mainly pregnancy precautions.
Seeing her like this, Xie Mingtu finally could not hold back anymore.
“…Manman?”
Su Xiaoman tilted her head and looked at him. “What is it?”
Xie Mingtu’s handsome face showed a conflicted resignation. “Didn’t you want me to…?”
Su Xiaoman asked calmly, “Want you to what?”
“I’ll listen to you.” Xie Mingtu’s tone carried seventy percent dejection. Little Rabbit had drooped his rabbit ears.
“Listen to me? Then accompany me in reading. Tomorrow, I’ll go with you to show off our affection in front of Auntie Zhang.”
Su Xiaoman thought that she would have to blow lots and lots of rainbow-coloured praise about her man outside in order to coax him properly.
Xie Mingtu: “…?”
Was “show off affection” what he understood it to mean literally?
“Manman, you don’t want me to wear a skirt anymore?”
“Didn’t you say you wanted to see what a daughter who looks like me would be like?”
Su Xiaoman smiled, hugged him, and kissed him. Their Brother Xiaotu was really so good.
“I was teasing you. You treat me so well, so I can’t bear to force you to do something you don’t want to do.”
Xie Mingtu smiled. He hugged Su Xiaoman before him and buried his head in the woman’s shoulder.
“I’m willing now.”
“I’ll listen to whatever Manman says.”
Su Xiaoman hugged him as if she were hugging a fluffy big dog. She was truly lucky to have met the man before her.
“But now I don’t want to see it anymore.”
“I think daughters should look like me!”
“If they’re sons, then they should look like you!”
Daughters like Manman… and two at once… In Xie Mingtu’s mind appeared a pair of miniature Su Xiaomans, with the same black hair, snow-white skin, and big round eyes. They would hold his hand and softly call him Daddy…
…
Double the happiness.
Xie Mingtu was moved. He lifted his head from Su Xiaoman’s shoulder, his expression full of longing.
“Manman, then let’s have a pair of daughters!!”
Su Xiaoman thought of the miniature little Gouzi from her dream and became especially excited again. “But I want a son like you.”
Xie Mingtu tentatively said, “It could be boy-girl twins?”
“Boy-girl twins…”
Su Xiaoman touched her stomach and revealed an extremely conflicted expression. “But I also want twin sisters.”
“If they’re sons, I can’t make little dresses for them.”
“If it’s one son and one daughter… then there won’t be two little cubs who look alike.”
…
This was far too difficult to decide!!
She wanted everything.
If only she could experience every kind once.
She should just work hard at dreaming. In dreams, by the end, everything one wanted could be had.
The next day, Su Xiaoman fulfilled what she had said the day before. She brought Comrade Xiaotu around the hutong to show off their affection. There was no need to be too deliberate; they simply gave each family a few wedding candies and casually mentioned that there was happy news in the household.
Even if they did not say it now, in a few months Su Xiaoman would start showing. With only the couple living at home, telling the neighbours was also a good thing. In this era, neighbourly relationships were close. Although the aunties and grannies liked gossiping, if something happened at home, these people would also be the first to rush forward enthusiastically to help.
As a pregnant woman, Su Xiaoman also needed more people to look out for her.
“Eh, there’s happy news?!”
“She’s pregnant? Congratulations, congratulations.”
“You have one? This really is a great happy event!”
…
Auntie Zhang was surprised. Yesterday, she had thought this young couple, married not long ago, had quarrelled. Who would have thought that today they would come to the door handing out happy candies? Both of their faces were full of sweetness, making people feel envious. It turned out there was happy news at home?!
“Yesterday I saw your eyes were red and misunderstood that you two had quarrelled. I thought you had cried, with your eyes red like that.”
Su Xiaoman held Xie Mingtu’s hand, smiled gently, and said with a slightly embarrassed tone, “Auntie Zhang, I wasn’t crying yesterday. It was because my morning sickness was quite serious, and I vomited badly. Our Comrade Xiaotu was terribly anxious.”
“I said I wanted fish, so he helped get me a fish. I said I wanted meat, so he went to buy meat. He couldn’t even bear to let me work in the kitchen. His cooking skills are really worrying, but unexpectedly, the food he made was barely passable.”
“He also helped me ask someone for a pigeon, saying he would stew pigeon soup for me today to nourish my body.”
…
Auntie Zhang listened to her with a numb expression.
She thought, Your body ate mutton for half a month and still needs pigeon soup to nourish it?
She had given birth to several children, and when she was pregnant, she had never… She glanced at Su Xiaoman’s belly. It still did not show at all. It was not even three months yet, and she already could not enter the kitchen?
This man doted on his wife far too much.
“The young Xie couple next door has happy news!”
“What? So fast?!”
“That’s right. Little Xie really dotes on his wife.”
“Didn’t Auntie Zhang say yesterday that they quarrelled?”
“Hai, it was a misunderstanding. She said the wife was uncomfortable from morning sickness. Little Xie just became a father and is terribly excited.”
“Look, yesterday he even personally cooked for his wife. He wouldn’t even let her enter the kitchen…”
“There’s such a thing?”
“Little Xie is not only handsome, he’s also a rare good man and good son-in-law. If our family had a daughter and could find someone like that, I’d be delighted.”
…
Su Xiaoman successfully cleared her man’s name. This man was especially easy to coax. At this moment, he was happily holding a basin and washing clothes beside the stove. He had always refused to let Su Xiaoman touch cold water, so he took care of all the laundry. Su Xiaoman also could not bear to let him suffer, so she boiled pot after pot of hot water and mixed it in for him to wash the clothes.
“Are you cold?”
“Manman, I’m not cold. My hands are very warm.” Xie Gouzi, whose body ran hot, smiled and grabbed Su Xiaoman’s hand. Only then did Su Xiaoman discover that he truly was a human-shaped heating machine.
His hands were so warm.
After Su Xiaoman became pregnant, within a few days she was transferred to light logistics work. Rehearsing for the new production no longer had anything to do with her. This indirectly gave her good popularity in the song-and-dance troupe.
At present, there were several promising talents in the song-and-dance troupe fiercely competing for the female lead role. No one was willing to be part of the ensemble and serve as someone else’s foil. Su Xiaoman had suddenly entered the troupe — not only was she beautiful, her figure was also good. She was an airborne newcomer that made people wary.
Quite a few people in the dance team guarded against her.
This was different from her situation in the cultural troupe before. Back then, the former pillar of the troupe had been injured and was still recuperating in the hospital. But in the current song-and-dance troupe, there were already two intensely competing leading performers. If another beautiful and talented Su Xiaoman came in, both of them would worry that she might threaten their positions.
Now that Su Xiaoman was pregnant, she directly withdrew from the competition and instantly ceased being a threat. Pregnancy was a major hurdle for a dancer’s career. If recovery after childbirth did not go well, it was very possible to leave the profession entirely.
Now that they saw her competitiveness vanish, what was there to guard against? Even Su Xiaoman’s originally bright and charming face became friendly and adorable in their eyes.
“Xiaoman, I really didn’t expect you to get married so early.”
“You were too eager to have children.”
“You could have waited a few more years and still been young…”
Although these people said such things, they truly did feel a little regret for her. Even Xiao Ding, after learning she was pregnant, felt regretful for her.
“Sister Xiaoman, you could have waited a few years before getting pregnant and having children.”
Su Xiaoman smiled and shook her head. These two children coming to her was fate. She did not regret becoming pregnant now. As for temporarily saying goodbye to dancing, that was not a problem either. No one in this world had decreed that a woman could not dance after having children. There were still many dancers who remained active on stage after giving birth.
Right now, her feelings toward dance were simple and pure affection. It was not for the flowers and applause onstage, nor for medals and fame. It was only because, when she danced, she felt happy.
It was something she did for her own enjoyment.
Being able to receive a wage while doing something she loved was already a very lucky thing. Many people in the world could not even find their own interests and hobbies, and for survival, they worked jobs they could not say they liked or disliked. Everything was simply to support their families.
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