Chapter 2

It was worse than I’d imagined.

My sister-in-law hated me.

That was why she had come before the Lu family executed me, to vent the bitterness she’d swallowed for five years.

Yet I had to be grateful for the news she’d brought.

At least I wouldn’t die in ignorance.

The moon was high overhead

before Lu Jinglan returned.

I had fallen asleep over the kitchen table.

I didn’t know how long he watched me

before he finally gave me a gentle, reluctant nudge.

“Ah Yao, it’s cold at night. Why are you waiting here instead of going back to your room?”

I rubbed my eyes and smiled at him.

“I was waiting for you.

“It’s your birthday. I wanted to make your longevity noodles when you got home.”

I brought out his birthday gift.

It was a wood carving, something I’d spent more than a year learning to make.

The figures were him and me.

“For you, husband.”

Lu Jinglan stared at the two little figures, the corners of his eyes slowly reddening.

He had once told me that wood carving was the only pastime he loved as a child.

His parents had punished him harshly for it, saying idle amusements destroyed ambition, and forbidden him to touch it again.

I showed him the cuts on my hands and coaxed him.

“Look. I spent a whole year learning.

“The master said I was stupid. He told me to give up, that I’d never learn.

“But I thought, if my husband loves it, then I love it too.

“However hard it was, however much I suffered, I would learn.

“And all that effort finally paid off.

“Won’t you tell me I did well?”

He pulled me into his arms.

He said nothing.

He only wept in silence.

We had been married five years. Apart from the awkward distance at the beginning,

in the years that followed,

we had truly loved each other.

I gave him a little push.

“All right, I have to make your noodles now, or your birthday will be over.”

He let me go reluctantly.

Lu Jinglan watched me the whole time I cooked.

He was a tenderhearted, kind man.

Only someone like that could marry a woman of my standing and still fall in love with her.

When the noodles were ready, I set them before him.

Our eyes met through the rising steam.

I was smiling. He was crying.

“Ah Yao.”

“Yes?”

“You must live to a hundred, in good health.” He smiled at me through his tears. “That’s my birthday wish this year.”

My vision began to blur.

Slowly, I could no longer keep my eyes open.

I grew sleepier and sleepier.

I collapsed onto the table. Lu Jinglan caught me, his tears scalding hot.

He was in pain.

I could feel it.

I thought,

it was all right to die at his hands.

He was softhearted. He would remember our love and give me a proper funeral.

He wouldn’t let my death be too ugly.