The Chilli Bean Paste Clan by Ge Yan

Author:Ge Yan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Balestier Press
Published: 2018-05-01T00:00:00+00:00

7

Dad called Mum. The phone rang and rang, but she didn’t pick up. That was not unusual. These women, they weren’t like men, who always kept their phones on them. They hung from their trouser belts like grenades, or nestled like beating hearts in their breast pockets. It must have been Zhong who complained: ‘Women and their phones, they might as well not have them at all! They leave them lying around miles away, stuff them in their bags, and then drop their bags on the sofa or the table. You give them a ring, and, nine times out of ten, they don’t hear them! They might as well stick with a pager. Why waste a mobile phone on them?’ It was true. But over the years, Dad had got used to it. Besides, he hardly ever phoned Mum. In a piddling little town like Pingle, he never needed to ask where she was or what she was doing, any day of the week or time of day. It was as clear as sesame seeds in a bag of flour.

Mum had worked twenty years in the Grain Bureau, first in the retail section, then in the offices. As an office worker, she had it cushy. She strolled in sometime after ten in the morning, made herself a cup of tea and sat down. Then she took out her knitting, cracked melon seeds between her teeth, read a novel for a bit, or went online ... whatever she felt like. Sometimes, she chatted with the other office workers, about family matters or national affairs. She had known some of them, like Liu Yufen, for years, as they’d all grown up in the neighbourhood. They were always completely at ease with each other, in as perfect agreement as lips and tongue, you might say. At twelve noon, she’d be feeling a bit peckish. She had lunch in the canteen, which supplied a decent choice of two meat dishes and three vegetables and a soup, all for just five yuan. There was always plenty of chicken, duck and pork, sometimes with the addition of some nice fresh river fish. When she’d finished eating, she just threw down her chopsticks and left her bowl where it was. There was someone to clear away, of course. She might go out for an afternoon stroll with a couple of friends, to look at a pair of shoes perhaps, or take a nap on the sofa in the Union activities room. Sometime after two o’clock, she went back to her desks to while away another couple of hours, until it was time to go home.

At four o’clock, Mum would get into her red Toyota and make a leisurely trip to the market to buy food for dinner, then go back home and cook. Sometimes, Dad came home to eat, sometimes he didn’t. Once Mum had cleared away and washed up, she retired to bed, to watch TV, do a bit of knitting or idly flick through the pages of a novel.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.