“No, I can’t. I’ll move to sleep at the back; I’m not used to sleeping with others.” Bahu immediately spoke up, patting Mi Niang’s hand and saying, “Not sleeping together won’t delay us from talking, Mother and daughter can still chat.” Her son hasn’t had a smile on his face these past few days. If she sleeps next to him again, he might not be able to sleep.
“Aren’t you sleeping with Bahu at home? Don’t fool me.” Mi Niang didn’t look at Bahu.
“As we get older, our sleep becomes lighter. Sleeping together causes a lot of noise. We’ve been sleeping in separate rooms for a long time.” Amidst the bickering, most of the time, the two sleep separately.
Bahu also didn’t say anything. He just lowered his head and moved his mother’s things to the backyard. However, Mi Niang also took a book and followed it to the backyard. The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law sat under the oil lamp, chatting animatedly.
Bahu glanced outside and saw her son pacing around the door. Just as she was about to say something, she saw him walk in with a stern face. He grabbed a chair, sat under the heated bed, and stared at Mi Niang without saying a word, just sitting there watching.
Mi Niang couldn’t hold back first. She glanced sideways at the man on the ground, lifted the quilt to get off the bed, and put on her shoes. “Mother, I’ll leave the book in your room. I’ll come back tomorrow night.”
“Oh, alright…” Before the last note fell, she saw her son picking up the paper from the heated bed, and he took the entire stack away.
“You didn’t sleep well tonight. You’ll be sleepy early tomorrow night, understand?” Bahu looked at Mi Niang as she walked to the front yard, lowering his voice.
Understood, more than understood.
The sound of opening and closing the front door came. Bahu blew out the oil lamp and lay on the heated bed. The room still had the scent of wet mud, and she couldn’t sleep for a while. She turned over and stared at the snow color coming through the crack in the door. During the prime of her youth, she enjoyed thrilling emotions. The opposition from her family and her lover’s persistent pursuit made her toss and turn at night. Now, recalling the past, she couldn’t help but be moved by the passion of those years. However, these days, watching the young couple interact with each other, Bahu, compared to the sweet words his father said, was almost like a mute. He only knew how to pour water, carry vegetables, and help when getting on and off the carriage. He couldn’t comfort anyone, but Mi Niang never shed tears, didn’t lose her appetite, and didn’t lose sleep.
Perhaps with age and having seen much, a plain and simple life is the true essence.
Bahu brought a chamber pot into the room, seeing that the quilt he had covered was thrown to the foot of the heated bed. He silently moved it back to its original position, quickly undressed, and got into bed.
“Stick your feet out,” Mi Niang kicked him.
“Ouch, you kicked me.” Bahu exaggerated with a hoarse voice. Seeing no response, he shamelessly acted like a rascal, lifted his own quilt, and crawled into Mi Niang’s bed. Despite being kicked and pinched, he refused to leave, afraid of touching her belly, so he lay flat and went along with her movements.
Mi Niang bit him, “Go back to your own bed. Are you not bothered by three people sharing one bed? Why are you in such a hurry?”
“No…”
“What do you mean no? Did you ever ask if I’m willing to share a bed and heated bed with your mother? How many times have we met before this? How many meals have we shared? And you just pull her onto the same bed as me.”
“I didn’t think it through. I’m sorry,” Bahu apologized.
“Don’t think that apologizing quickly will make me let you off the hook.” Mi Niang also pretended to snort. There was only one heated bed in the house, and whether she liked it or not, with Bahu bringing his mother to stay, all three of them had to sleep together. But she was just feeling uncomfortable at the moment. She turned over and ignored him.
“What do you mean by not letting me off the hook?” Bahu propped his arm on Mi Niang’s body, tilted his head towards her face, and their breaths intertwined. Mi Niang raised her hand to push his face away, not falling for his antics; she wasn’t buying it.
“In the future, if I invite someone to stay, as long as it’s related to our family matters, I’ll definitely discuss it with you first?” Bahu had reflected on his actions. This was something Mi Niang and his mother had agreed upon. If they couldn’t get along, he couldn’t even get a good nap these days. Moreover, Mi Niang cared a lot about where the two of them slept. When his mother wasn’t around, she liked to laze in bed and roll around wrapped in a blanket on the heated bed. But these days, aside from sleeping at the usual time, he hadn’t seen her sit on the heated bed.
Mi Niang didn’t say anything, but Bahu knew it was an implicit agreement. He turned over to sleep on the inner side, hugged Mi Niang, took a deep breath, and was about to do something when his mouth was covered.
“No, tomorrow you need to take off the sheets and blankets and wash them again.” There was the scent of Bahu’s mother on the bed, and Mi Niang couldn’t sleep comfortably, feeling like there was something on the bed.
“There are clean ones. I’ll change them now.”
“I don’t want to move.” She said she didn’t want to move, but her hand was raised when he lifted her, and she smiled with her lips pursed, wrapping her arms around the man’s neck and taking a deep breath.
Doctor Zhao had instructed that they couldn’t engage in marital relations for the first three months after childbirth. Although they had done it before, Bahu was afraid of any issues and didn’t dare to touch Mi Niang again. The two cuddled in the bed for a while, sweating profusely, before poking their heads out to breathe.
“I’m tired and want to sleep.” Mi Niang hugged Bahu’s arm, nestled in his embrace, and closed her eyes to sleep.
Woken up by thirst in the middle of the night, Mi Niang opened her eyes, and Bahu woke up too. “What’s wrong? Do you need to go down to pee?”
“What nonsense. I didn’t drink water tonight. I want to drink water; I’m thirsty.” There were a couple of nights before when she woke up thirsty, but she didn’t complain.
Bahu got up, put on clothes, and went to the kitchen. There was warm water in the pot, prepared for cooking the next morning. He poked through the remaining ashes and added some dry cow dung for heating while boiling water.
“Bahu?”
“It’s me. You go back to sleep. I just came to add some fire.” Bahu responded and when he walked towards the front yard, he asked again, “Mother, do you want some water? I’ve boiled some.”
“If there is, I’ll take a sip.”
“I’ll bring it to you. Don’t get up.” Bahu scooped two bowls of boiling water in the kitchen, stood in the snowy yard for a while, first delivered one to Mi Niang, and then went to the backyard.
“Is everything settled?” The woman took the bowl. It was evident that it was prepared for her daughter-in-law.
“It’s none of your business. Don’t pry into things.” After the others finished drinking, he took the bowl, left a remark about going to sleep early, and walked out the door.
Sigh, the confidence in his words tonight is quite something. Who was the one desperately seeking a conversation with his mother last night?
The next day, the wind subsided and the snow stopped. It was Mi Niang’s day off, and when she woke up, she heard the sound of snow being swept in the courtyard. Wrapped in a blanket, Mi Niang rolled twice on the heated bed and shouted cheerfully, “Bahu, what are we having for breakfast this morning?”
“Meat sauce noodles. I’ll cook noodles when you get up.”
When Mi Niang heard her mother-in-law’s voice, she immediately sat up, put on the clothes on the heated bed, opened the door, and said, “Mother, why are you shoveling snow? Where’s Bahu?”
“He’s in the sheep pen. I’ll call him when you’re up.” Bahu’s mother rarely cooked, and even if it was just boiling noodles, she was afraid of messing it up and losing face in front of her daughter-in-law.
No need to call; Bahu had already heard and come back. Walking in front of him was Uncle Muren. “Miss, why are you shoveling the yard? Don’t move; I’ll do it later.”
“I have nothing else to do.” She always wanted to help her son with something.
Following Bahu into the kitchen, Mi Niang didn’t bother to wash her face. She stood by the window, watching Uncle Muren, a half-century-old man, standing in front of Bahu’s mother as if he was at a loss. Even his hair was slick and shiny, a far cry from the messy old man from a few days ago.
As a daughter-in-law with her father-in-law still alive, speculating about her mother-in-law’s affairs was not a good idea, but no matter how Mi Niang looked at Uncle Muren, something seemed off.
“Bahu, does Uncle Muren have some intentions towards Mother?” She asked, her face blushing.
Bahu was quite unfazed, casually glancing over, “You’ve noticed? Everyone can see it.” He continued to handle the noodles without any pause in his movements.
“Really? Uncle Muren looks much older than Mother. And he hasn’t married or started a family—is it because he can’t let go of Mother?” Excitedly stomping her feet early in the morning, Mi Niang spoke.
“He does all the hard work, and ages faster. He’s probably only four or five years older, looking at him.” Bahu had a rough idea of the situation, as Uncle Muren couldn’t hold back his grumbling. It was said that when Uncle Muren was young, he worked as a servant in another household. The following year, he fell seriously ill, and the main family didn’t provide treatment. Coincidentally, he was encountered by the daughter of another family, who paid off his debt, redeemed him, and even called for a doctor to treat him.
“After Uncle Muren recovered from his illness, he sold himself to my maternal family. When my mother got married, he said he would go to take care of cattle and sheep for my mother. He served as a slave until I grew up, and my mother entrusted me to him when I was fourteen.” Bahu couldn’t comprehend Uncle Muren’s persistence. Being a servant was one thing, but following his mother around even as a servant, he didn’t dare to fight for his rights back then. He wasted half of his life, and now, when he meets acquaintances from the past, he still feels embarrassed.
“In our family—I mean that old man’s family—he is the patriarch of our branch, but we don’t have household servants. All the servants are indebted individuals who sold their freedom for five years. I had a caretaker for four or five years because my mother had an old servant taking care of me. She didn’t ask for wages and managed the household for me.” Otherwise, he and his people would work themselves to death without saving anything for the family business.
“He’s truly devoted.” Mi Niang looked at Uncle Muren again, as if he were radiating a divine light. Selling himself for gratitude, his determination lasted a lifetime.
Bahu shook his head. Anyway, his mother had poor judgment, choosing a lousy man to marry. For the sake of that lousy man, she even severed ties with her own family.
“Time to eat,” Bahu shouted outside. If his mother didn’t come in, Uncle Muren would stand in the snow and talk until dark.
After breakfast, Bahu took a shovel to clear the snow. His mother saw it and grabbed a shovel to follow him. She didn’t know how long she could stay here and wanted to help Bahu do more.
“No need for you. Stay at home and practice calligraphy with Mi Niang.” Bahu frowned. It was the same with clearing the snow in the morning; if he didn’t allow her to do it, she insisted on doing it.
“I’m old; what’s the use of practicing calligraphy? I’m not teaching children how to write.”
“If Mother wants to go, let her. Just wear something warm and don’t freeze. Move around more; you can eat a bit more at noon.” Onlookers had a clear view; his mother wanted to spend time talking to her son.
Seeing Bahu’s mother there, the others were reluctant to come over. Uncle Muren was still washing dishes, so the two were alone. Bahu didn’t know what to say; over the years, he had seen her either fighting or crying.
“Why did he get drunk again this time?” After some contemplation, it seemed that there was still something to discuss with her precious but troublesome old man.
The woman’s snow-shoveling paused, and the vitality on her face immediately diminished by a large extent. “During the previous snowstorm, the roof collapsed, and about a hundred and eighty sheep got lost. The open area was exposed to snow, which melted and turned into ice. Three cows slipped and fell, and none of them could be saved. Agula had an argument with him over this matter, and he went to buy alcohol to drown his frustration.”
Oh, when it comes to sheep and cows, Agula’s courage flares up. No hesitation. Bahu snorted and stared at his mother, saying, “Shall I find you another old man who doesn’t resort to violence?”
