As soon as Lin Qingyin arrived at the divination shop, she was surrounded by enthusiastic uncles and aunts. They stuffed to her the things they brought in her arms. They were all homemade food.
The little master was very familiar with these uncles and aunts who have been watching her fortune-telling all year round. And while taking the things they handed over to Fatty Wang who was behind her, she exchanged greetings with them. If she saw someone who was not in good health, she advised them a few words and also advised those who have a little trouble at home. It took her more than half an hour to complete the greetings.
Lin Qingyin sat in the bamboo house where she had fortune-telling. The uncles and aunts consciously sat down on the grass below, waiting for the little master’s fortune-telling with great anticipation.
The number one guess was Li Nannan, a schoolmate of Lin Qingyin who was also in the Fortune Telling Club at the Imperial University. Li Nannan defended Lin Qingyin in the club once.
Li Nannan’s aunt was called Li Wei. She looks very haggard when she was not yet fifty years old. Her clothes were also old-fashioned. Those who don’t know her think she was almost sixty.
Lin Qingyin looked at her face, and handed her a cup of brewed tea: “Is it for marriage?”
Li Wei sat in front of Lin Qingyin and took the tea: “I want to divorce, but half my life has passed like this, and my daughter doesn’t agree with our divorce, so I feel a little hesitant.”
Li Wei smiled bitterly and said: “My husband and I were colleagues and taught in the same middle school. At that time, he took the initiative to pursue me. I thought he was very motivated and he was not bad, so I agreed. When we first got married life was pretty good. He also knew to take the initiative to do some housework when he came home. We usually went out for a walk in the evening and prepared lessons together when we came back. We both love each other. In the second year of our marriage, I was taking care of my students who were in their 3rd year of junior high school, they were in a critical year. If I get pregnant and give birth, I will be distracted, and that year I also have the opportunity to be elected as the academic leader of our school. I will miss this opportunity once I get pregnant, so I discuss it with my husband. I will have a child a year later. My husband was a little unhappy at the time, but he is also a middle school teacher. He also knows how rare this opportunity is and how important this title is to a teacher, so he agreed.”
“I have always thought that whether or not to have children is a matter between husband and wife. The two of us only have to discuss it properly. Unexpectedly, during the Chinese New Year that year, his mother asked us aggressively why we didn’t want children, and even sarcastically ridiculed that I was physically weak. At that time, I was really stupid and felt humiliated in my heart. I didn’t even eat the New Year’s Eve dinner, rushed out, and ran home alone crying all night.” Li Wei sneered and added: “But my husband, he didn’t come back until the morning of the first day of the new year. He also complained to me, saying that I shouldn’t play petty temper on New Year’s day, and asked me to go and apologize to his mother and behave well.”
“Hearing my husband’s words, my heart was really cold. I felt like he was like a stranger like I don’t know him at all.” Although more than 20 years have passed, Li Wei still trembled in the cold when mentioning this incident. Her heart was still restless: “At that time, I was young and energetic, I felt that I was justified, and I didn’t want to apologize to my mother-in-law who was like a shrew. I don’t know what my mother-in-law said, anyway, since then my relationship with my husband just hit the freezing point.” Li Wei lowered her head and drank a few sips of tea to ease her emotions, and then continued: “At first, I also quarreled with him and ignored him. School will start soon, and I am busy with teaching work every day, so I put this matter behind me. I went out early and come back late every day. I don’t have the heart to focus on my family.”