Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Weekday mornings were like going to war.

I woke Jiu Jiu up and got her clothes ready. At the same time, I craned my neck toward the bathroom and called out instructions to Sheng Jing, who was squatting on the toilet scrolling through short videos.

“Heat up two slices of bread for Jiu Jiu in a bit.”

He mumbled something in response.

By the time I finally got the kid out of bed and opened the kitchen door, the toaster was completely empty.

In the sink, last night’s unwashed dishes were piled high.

It was hot, and the sour smell of fermentation hit me straight in the nose.

I called him.

“You didn’t wash the dishes, and you didn’t heat the bread either.”

I cooked, he washed the dishes. That was the rule we’d agreed on long ago.

“I was too tired when I got back yesterday. Just leave them there. I’ll wash them when I get home tonight.”

“I have an early meeting today. I don’t have time. Go buy her something outside.”

He had no time to heat up bread, but he could spend more than ten minutes sitting on the toilet.

Only, before I could say it out loud, he had already hung up.

After dropping the kid off, I started working on my draft.

My mother-in-law was nearly eighty and in poor health. She refused to leave her hometown.

My own mother had to help my brother take care of his child.

Three years ago, I had no choice but to become a full-time homemaker.

Writing was something I’d only started doing in the past year.

For an article worth four or five hundred yuan, I sometimes had to revise it over and over again.

Sheng Jing had even laughed at me before. “You work yourself to death until eleven or midnight just for that little bit of money? Why bother?”

He didn’t understand.

He didn’t understand how much it hurt when, every month, I asked him for living expenses and he said so casually, “You already spent the ten thousand-plus I gave you last time?”

Taking money from a man always made me feel like I was living at someone else’s mercy, like I couldn’t stand up straight.

Two or three thousand yuan a month wasn’t much, but it was still my worth. My confidence.

I…

I had been a proper Project 211 university student, too.

Before I became a full-time homemaker, I had earned over ten thousand yuan a month, too.

At noon, I sent Sheng Jing a message on WeChat.

I asked if he had to work overtime that night. The Wandering Earth II was about to leave theaters.

Jiu Jiu wasn’t interested in that kind of movie, and because I was tied down by her, I still hadn’t had a chance to see it.

At four o’clock, he replied, “Around seven. I can be home by then.”

I bought tickets for seven twenty.

The movie theater was only two kilometers away. It wasn’t far.

But thinking about it, in the three years since I’d become a full-time homemaker, the number of times I’d gone there could be counted on one hand.

I remembered when we were dating in college. My favorite thing was saving up with him to watch movies.

Back then, we had no money, but we had plenty of time.

Sometimes, when we came out of the theater, it would already be one or two in the morning.

We would excitedly discuss the plot of the film.

There were barely any pedestrians on the road. Only the low-hanging moon above us kept us company the whole way.

I made dinner for Jiu Jiu early, then showered and put on makeup.

Just thinking about ditching the kid and my husband to go watch a movie made me look forward to it.

But at six thirty, Sheng Jing sent me a WeChat message.

“Xiao Se, the client asked me to go out for dinner. Don’t wait for me.”