Six Records of A Floating Life 浮生六记

Six Records of A Floating Life, 2

【1】

Whilst watching TV, my husband yawned, spontaneously, I grabbed a comb from the table and put it in his mouth, all signs of his sleepiness went away.

I never get bored with this game. No matter where and when, if he yawns, I will grab whatever object that is closest to me and put it in his mouth.

My husband complained that spending time with me had made him dumber. I laughed and ignored him. We also tried to copy the delicate lifestyles shown in magazines, such as discussing poems and chatting about new French movies; but my husband would not cooperate. He preferred to watch football. I tried this a few times and lost my enthusiasm eventually.

We would snatch goods when there were sales going on at the supermarkets, we would excitedly say："Hey, we saved 2.5 yuan."

We went to the food stall by the road to eat Ma La Tang[1], so spicy that smoke could come out of our mouths, but we could not stop eating. We never ate Western food, finding the etiquette boring and the meat always came with fresh blood.

For movies, we would only pick the most popular animated movies. When watching opera, if the singer opened her mouth to sing "Ahhhh", we would use the binocular to look at her tongue.

Speaking out of topic, my husband frequently said: "one who does not stink is not called a man", he then would shake his socks and say: "Give it a smell, and it will help you relax your muscles, shake it, and you will feel energized". (I only realized after writing it out--evil~~)

He confidently wrinkled his nose whilst reading a magazine: I am indeed vulgar!

【2】

One time, we spoke about fate, I said: "It's terrifying, you were born in Shaanxi, grew up in Gansu, I was born in Liaoning, grew up in Neimeng, separated by several thousand kilometres. China has a population of 1.3 billion, yet we were accepted by the same university, lived in the same dormitory. If we calculated it, the chance of it happening was so minuscule it is frightening, if I had taken a wrong turn somewhere, I would never have met you." Saying so, it felt like life had a more philosophical meaning. Could there be a mystical power that was guiding us, two circles intersected at a certain point, and we met, or everything was just accidental.

My husband poked my head, laughed at my tendency to let my imagination run wild. Then he thought about it himself and casually said: "Even if you're not here, I would meet someone else, maybe he would be better than you."

"Slap", the sense of sentimental gratitude dispersed just like that. I stared at him dejectedly, I was originally immensely touched and was prepared to fight everything to protect our relationship.

【3】

But, there were times when my husband was also emotional, although the chance of it happening was similar to that of a Halley's comet.

When freshman year was about to end, we both felt an obvious attraction towards each other, yet we remained reserved and fearful, and did not dare to take a step forward. Occasionally, our eyes would meet, my heart would become that of a soaring sea, yet my face would appear calm.

During the winter holidays, he went home, and I stayed at the dormitory.

We called a few times, our tones were calm, we would hold onto the telephone and daze, not knowing what to say but not wanting to hang up either.

At the end of the winter holidays, I went to pick him up at midnight, there was no public transportation, no buses and I did not want to waste money to call for a taxi, so I walked for two hours - 15 kilometres to the train station.

When I saw him walking towards me from the entrance, suddenly I became embarrassed, I smiled but did not say a word. I was afraid he would see my blush, so I always looked away, maintaining 45 degrees of angle, turning the back of my head towards him.

My husband was also bashful, barely stammered a few words out, unintelligible. We took a taxi back to the dormitory, in the dark, he stretched out his hand and patted my head out of the blue, whispered: "little rascal, did you miss me?"

In a split second, my eyes felt sore, I wanted to cry and laugh.

Midnight 2AM, an empty street, 15 kilometres, cold wind, it was worth it.

【4】

I read various genres of books, romance, fantasy, documentary, danmei, all were welcome; even novels from the 1920s and 1930s. From "Ru Lin Wai Shi"[2] to "Guan Chang Xian Xing Ji"[3] and novels which were later categorized under social novels, with loose structures, even the themes were not unified, basically casual writing. In my husband's words: "Only read trash".

I often recommended books to him, explaining to him which part of the book had refreshing ideas and which part of the book was old-fashioned. My husband was very much like the typical men, he had a disdain for things that were considered delicate and sensitive, particularly to Qiong Yao[4].

I also did not like Qiong Yao, I considered myself as tolerant but when it came to Qiong Yao's novels, I just could not seem to read them. Her stories were awful, far too innocent and were outrageously naive; but there was one quote that made me feel sorrowful, "I couldn't make it to participate in your past, but I will not miss it in your future." The naivetes in her writing often felt unreasonable, when I first read them, I would cringe.

I could only comprehend it after meeting my husband, such a feeling was real, it was just horribly written by Qiong Yao.

To sum up: regret we did not meet sooner.

【5】

This June, we went to visit my husband's hometown - Tian shui; I went there as his "classmate".

As soon as we got off the train, I could feel a sense of nostalgia but also unfamiliarity. The blue sky, the fields, the people, the buildings, it was as if they all had my husband's scent. I fell in love with the city, because of someone.

Yet there was also an indescribable jealousy. We met at the age of 20, before that our days were blank, he did not know that "I" existed in this world.

His laughs, tears, successes, failures were witnessed by others, I was not there, therefore I am jealous.

It would have been wonderful if we had met earlier!

【6】

We talked about death.

Now, we are young and strong, excited to meet new people and gain new experiences. Death was still too far away.

Occasionally, I would think about how it would be like in 50 years, two elderly men with white hair mutually dependent for life, this is also something to look forward to. Being old is not cute, but we can be a couple of adorable old men.

For me, the biggest threat to death was: people died like lights going out, without a single hint. I still had not had enough looking at my husband. I was not afraid of death, but I was afraid that after death, I would not be able to love him like this again.

So, I told my husband: "We must live until we are old, so old that we can no longer walk. Then we can change into a set of clean clothes, lie on the bed holding hands, when I say, 'let us die', we die together".

My husband gave me a kiss, he did not say a word, I had no idea whether he was willing.

T/N:

[1] Ma la tang: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malatang

[2] Ru Lin Wai Shi: Unofficial History of the Scholars / 儒林外史, Qing Chinese novel by Wu Jinzi

[3] Guan Chang Xian Xing Ji: Officialdom Unmasked / 官场现形记, late-Qing Chinese novel by Li Baojia

[4] Qiong Yao: 琼瑶, a Taiwanese writer, she is often regarded as the most popular romance novelist in China