Six Records of A Floating Life 浮生六记

Six Records of A Floating Life, 3

【1】

1999, sitting on the train heading down south; it was my first-time leaving home, I was very excited. University to me was distant and mysterious like a temple.

I had a few days spare after enrolment, so I walked through every corner of the campus. I only stayed in the dormitory at noon and at night. Back then I was introverted, I did not know how to deal with strangers, so I always had a stoic face.

I vaguely heard my husband was in another class, but I was not interested enough to investigate, I found out after half a month: as it turned out, he was from class two.

I also remembered that the first sentence my husband said to me was: "You owe me 20 yuan."

【2】

Because of this piece of writing, I often think back to the past. Now I realized that all the events I thought I had forgotten are slowly floating back into my head.

On the third day after enrolment, the telephone company came to set up the telephone, it was type 201. The total cost was 160-yuan, 20 yuan each and coincidentally, I was not present, so my husband paid mine instead.

That event and that sentence did not have any deep meaning. If I was not together with my husband, then I definitely would not have remembered them; but looking back after all this time, it sure had left a deep impression.

I said to my husband: "Your first sentence to me was asking me to pay back the debt, how realistic."

But he had forgotten it.

【3】

I was exceptionally slow at warming up to others, to familiarise with a stranger took a long time; furthermore, I was prone to not remember others' faces. When I met them for the first time, I would have a vague impression, but the next time I met them, I would find them different than what I remembered them as.

I once complained to a classmate: "Every time I see the English teacher, I always feel that she is not the same as last time, she is like the one in the movie Sixty Million Dollar Man."

Despite not being good with faces, after seeing him all this time from morning to night, I could easily paint my husband's face in my heart.

Short hair, slightly elongated face, had a lot of acne scars, as if he had been shot. Small eyes, one with single eyelid and the other with double, his nose was not too high or too low, big mouth and chin.

My husband concluded that he could only be considered as 'not ugly'.

【4】

Meeting day and night did not mean being together for 24 hours, it was simply in the morning and in the night.

In 24 hours, 9 hours were spent at work, 1 hour for commuting, 8 hours for sleeping, and minus all the other miscellaneous things, we met face to face for only a maximum of 4 hours, brief.

Chatting, watching TV, shopping, all were gone so fast, but my heart was still full of happiness and I wanted nothing else.

【5】

During the TV advertisement, I looked at my husband's face, and exclaimed: "Can't you learn from her, only preserve youth and not youth acne. I can't even kiss you without finding an area without acne."

My husband glared at me.

【6】

Unlike me who travelled without company, my husband came to the university with his older brother.

He was 30 years old. He had a chubby face and his features were similar to my husband's. At the time, I did not foresee that my husband would become my husband, so I treated his brother like any other classmate's relatives. I did not try to flatter him, and I kept thoughts to myself.

One time, I was chatting with my husband and he suddenly smiled at me, I asked why he was smiling. He said: "My brother said to me 'your classmate, the one from Neimeng is the most mature and earnest'".

"What did you say?"

"I said: 'You have bad character judgement; He is immature, obstinate, childish, lawless, won't grow even at the age of 70.'"

I plunged at him, kicked and bit him!

【7】

Knowing a foreign language was also an artistic skill, my husband had extreme deficiency of artistic cells. He always failed his English tests, he said: "There aren't many students in Gansu good with English, they always have to retake English; it's like a village meeting every time we have retake."

He could not pass his Level-4 English after three attempts, on the fourth try, I impersonated him and took the test. The security was strict and therefore, we got caught. I was an accomplice, so I got off lightly. My husband was detained by the school for investigation; the test rescindment was written by me.

Seeing that Changsha was stricter, we decided to take the exam elsewhere and went to Tianshui. His older brother and older sister knew he did not pass his Level-4, but his parents didn't know.

On the train, I asked: "How should I call your mother?"

"Aunty, how else do you want to call her?"

I twitched my lips; I was obviously asking him as his lover.

At the entrance, my husband's older brother came out to welcome us and whispered: "I told mother that you're feeling burnt out at work, so you're back for a few days to visit with your classmate".

What "classmate", we shared one pillow!

Our relationship was a secret, so we, as a couple, were split up, my husband stayed at his parents' house and I stayed at the older brother's.

I sent my husband a text saying: 'I miss you'. I heard his brother calling my husband's brother in law through the phone: "When you come home tomorrow, don't mention Level-4 English."

I chuckled and thought that it was a Chinese version of Spy vs. Spy.

We played backstreet romance, they played backstreet associations!

Spending a night in a foreign environment without my husband was difficult. I fell asleep at 22:30 and woke up at 01:00 and stayed awake until morning.

【8】

After the Level-4 Exam, I saw my husband greeting someone, and he sent me home first.

Later, I heard from my husband's older brother, that the person my husband was greeting was his high school classmate. The most laughable thing was, both boasted to each other that they had passed their Level-4, yet they met at the examination site, you could imagine how awkward the situation was.

The reality was often more dramatic than what are written in novels.

But it was not too bad for my husband, he could say that I was the one taking the exam and he was only there to accompany me.

But I did not think that, except to his brother and sister, he would tell everyone that he had passed his Level-4.

I thought about it and decided not to expose him, let him keep his little vanity.