Post Date December, 03 2023
Last week, due to my mother-in-law undergoing surgery, my husband and I both took a leave of absence to take care of our hometown. This time, we took a week off. My husband has a younger brother who is working in the old household, so both my husband and my grandmother live in their hometown in the countryside. We only go back during the Spring Festival and Qingming Festival every year.
Life in my hometown is really inconvenient. Although the houses in their hometown are also buildings, apart from the exterior walls, the internal partitions are all separated by wooden boards. Firstly, the wooden boards are lightweight and convenient, and can be used anywhere. Secondly, they have a lot of wood, making full use of resources.
Although using wooden boards as partition walls has its unique advantages, there are also many drawbacks, including poor fire protection rating and poor sound insulation quality. Even the slightest disturbance can be heard clearly on the other side of the partition wall.
Every time we go back, we are very careful when we sleep at night. We have never had a married life there because not only is the sound insulation quality of the partition walls poor, but the most fatal thing is that the beds are all wooden beds, and when people sleep on them, the bed becomes cheerful with a slight movement. Think about it, if your bed screams rhythmically there, the whole family will hear it, which is very awkward.
We went back this time, still cautious and forcefully controlling our desires while sleeping at night as usual. However, to my great surprise, as we were preparing to return to the city, I suddenly heard my father-in-law muttering and scolding us for being poor.
I have always felt that although we only go back twice a year, compared to our younger siblings and daughter-in-law, we don't have much time to show filial piety to them, but this is also a necessity of life. Furthermore, we should call them at least once a month to inquire about their safety. In fact, we have also taken them to live in the city before, but they were "acclimatized" and soon ran back to the countryside. So, I feel very inexplicable about my father-in-law's sudden "outburst" this time.
I dare not delve into the root cause, but my husband "pursued" it because as a child, it is serious to make my parents "angry". But once again, what surprised me deeply was that after my husband "investigated" and returned, his own face didn't look good either. I know this is definitely not easy, because I know my husband well and he wouldn't have such a look without a big deal.
My husband didn't take the initiative to tell me, and I certainly didn't dare to ask, because I also knew that at this point, I couldn't provoke him anymore. It wasn't until I returned to the city and everything calmed down that I asked him roundly about this time. Unexpectedly, my husband scolded me as soon as he spoke, cursing my old father for living an older and more disrespectful life.
It turns out that every time we go back, after everyone goes to bed every night, my father-in-law quietly squats outside our room and eavesdrops on our movements inside, but it has always been very quiet. That is to say, what my father-in-law said was' bad 'was that he had never heard the cheers of our beds.
My father-in-law finally added, 'The second son got married two years later than the eldest son, but the second son's children are now three years old, and there hasn't been any news from the eldest son yet. Isn't that bad?'?
I can't help but laugh and cry, and at the same time, I feel ashamed. I don't know if it's because the father-in-law had a problem in his heart, or is it because we, as children, are not the ones who caused him to be so abnormal?
(Intern Editor: Lai Jiaxing)
