Entrust My Life To You - Chapter 33
Translated by: RandomAlex
At night, in three bedrooms. I’m in the middle, the master bedroom on the left, and the guest room on the right.
I lay on the bed; listening intently. There was no movement on either side. I touched my phone and sent a text message.
Me: [can’t sleep.]
Doctor: [count sheep.]
Me: [I can’t sleep even after counting sheep.]
Doctor: [I don’t have any sleeping pills on hand.]
Me: [You prescribe sleeping pills to patients who can’t sleep?!]
Doctor: [Direct intravenous injection.]
I could almost imagine him bowing his head and laughing until his eyelashes covered his eyes. So, I quickly jumped out of bed, opened the door, and looked around. The doors of the three bedrooms were closed, and the living room was dark. All clear.
I turned to the door of the guest room. As soon as I opened the door, I was amazed.
The Doctor was wearing dark green pajamas, with skin like white jade. He took off his glasses and covered himself with a quilt only to his waist. The whole person was laying on his side on the bed in the standard beauty sleeping picturesque posture, holding his head in his left hand and his cell phone in his right hand. With the naughty smile, I imagined he had on his face. He looked a little dumbfounded when he saw me come in so suddenly.
I closed the door, held my waist, and said with a righteous voice, “comrade Gu Wei, how can you be so calm!?”
The Doctor sat up and said, “what’s the matter?”
Me: “You are here to meet your old father-in-law and mother-in-law!”
Doctor: “Ah… “
Me: “Shouldn’t you feel uneasy?” (It’s not that I’m thinking too gloomily; but my parents’ attitude is too vague. My heart feels too uneasy. Students who have experienced it would know … Besides, there are “lessons learned” at home.)
The Doctor lost his smile: “I’m going to marry a wife, not robbed a bank.”
The words “marry a wife” instantly calmed me down.
The Doctor took me to bed, wrapped me in a quilt, and combed through my hair with his fingers. I just remembered that I had just buried myself in my quilt and must have turned my hair into a bird’s nest …
Doctor: “Just now, with your father… I said what I should have said. “
Me: “Teacher Lin didn’t embarrass you?”
Doctor: “No, but there is a problem. He should be discussing it with your mother right now.”
Me: “Then–should we also discuss it?”
Doctor: “What are we discussing?”
“… clearing up things?” Well, there is really nothing to discuss.
I was in a trance, looking at the oil painting hanging on the wall. The rural farm, the sunshine just right. It made a person’s heart feel soft.
“Doctor, sing me a song. Just the one from the last movie. “
“I don’t remember the lyrics. “
“Then hum it. “
The Doctor’s voice is very beautiful. Not many people know. Anyway, I enjoy it very much. So, I fell asleep…
The next morning, I woke up at 6 o’clock with half-closed eyes, and my forehead on the Doctor’s back. I went to the bathroom, passing the kitchen. The door was open, my parents were inside.
Sure enough, people who have something on their mind can’t sleep in.
Mother looked at me from head to toe with a spatula in her hand. I was not fully conscious at that time. When I was looked at like this, I immediately confessed, “We didn’t do anything!” With that, I regretted it…
Teacher Lin poorly relieved the atmosphere: “The spring rolls will get burnt, they’ll get burnt!”
I was keenly aware that it was my mother who was going to take the lead today.
Men and women have completely different angles of tension when it comes to meeting the parents. For example, when I met the Doctor’s parents for the first time, the first reaction in my mind was what to do properly. To say what was appropriate, whether I would not be good enough, whether I should be refined, good, and virtuous, whether it is lively or steady, etc. I wish I was Xue Baochai who was loved by everyone. On the other hand, the Doctor; on his first visit, was much calmer than I was. His main concern was how to convince my parents that we were suitable for each other and that we could live well together in the future. It would be better to have a sound five-year plan.
(TNote: Xue Baochai [薛宝钗] = one of the principal characters in the classic Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber. Socially graceful, extremely tactful, always careful never to offend anyone of importance in the house.)
So, after dinner I heard Teacher Lin say, “Lin Zhixiao, accompany me downstairs for a walk”, the Doctor smiled faintly at me and sat opposite my Mother.
My mother slowly poured him a cup of tea.
Are you going to divide and conquer?!
When I got out of the elevator, I hooked Teacher Lin’s arm and said, “Dad, what did you talk to the Doctor about last night?”
“Nothing. “
“Teacher Lin, I’m very serious!”
“This is very serious.”
“You can at least say something. Do you support it or do you particularly support it?”
“Not particularly support.”
I stopped where I stood.
Teacher Lin gave me a sideways look: “I didn’t say I didn’t support it. What are you so nervous about?”
“My mother is so high-minded that I’m afraid that Gu Wei will not survive.”
“Tut. ” Teacher Lin shook his head. “Adult women would eventually marry away.”
That time.
On the way to Y City, Gu Wei said to me, “Don’t be nervous.”
“I’m not nervous.”
“You are wringing your fingers.”
“My parents should–should like you very much… yes… definitely, a wonderful young man who saves lives.” I’m starting to sound incoherent.
The Doctor smiled: “I am psychologically prepared.”
“Prepared? prepared for what?”
“To be tested by the family.”
“My parents are still very reasonable and won’t play rough.”
When waiting for the red light, the Doctor slowly spoke: “Marriage is a complicated matter after all, and it is normal for your parents to consider your future. Xiao Xiao, there is no problem that we can’t solve.”
We went home after the walk.
Mother: “Lin Zhixiao, come here.”
I thought about it and sat down next to the Doctor.
“Gu Wei.” Teacher Lin called the Doctor’s full name for the first time. “Both of you are old enough to have your own ideas. The days ahead are your own. In principle, as long as you figure it out for yourself, we will not interfere.”
“We have only one daughter, Xiao Xiao. And she is the only girl in the Lin family. We won’t ask her to rise to riches and honor in the future, we only hope that she will have a safe and healthy life.” My mother turned her eyes and looked at me. “She is an adult now, but she hasn’t been polished by society. Her heart is pure. We have always hoped that we can keep her at our side. Thinking that X City is so far away, thinking that seeing her would be hard in the future. I am really reluctant to part with her.”
“However, the person who would spend the longest time with her is not her parents but her partner. It’s only over the past few decades that we understand what ‘when young a couple, when old companions’ means. You two still have a long way to go. Discuss and take care of each other. Have a good journey.”
(when young a couple, when old a companion [少年夫妻老来伴]= Shàonián fūqī lǎo lái bàn / meaning: when people are young they are only a couple that could break up any time, and when they get older they become companions, with mutual support, and mutual understanding.)
That night, I cried inexplicably.
Watching Gu Wei nod to my parents: “I will do my best.”
Afterward, I asked Gu Wei how he managed to take care of my mother in half an hour, but he just smiled and didn’t say a word.
When I came home for the Spring Festival at another time, I asked my mother, “Mom, what did Gu Wei tell you that made you changed your attitude so quickly?”
Mother: “I came up and ask him how he fell in love with you. He said he didn’t know. When he realized it, it was too late. I said, we don’t want you to leave us for fear that you will be wronged. He said, his parents liked our Xiao Xiao very much. When they retire, they wanted to move to X city. I asked again, what are you two going to do in the future? He said, ‘I have always treated Xiao Xiao as my future wife’. That’s what I said. What else can I say?”
Me: “Ah, he didn’t even tell me.”
My mother glanced at me and said, “should I tell you these? It’s hard enough.”
Then Teacher Lin said ethereally: “I directly asked him what would happen if so many girls in the hospital like him? He said that if there had been anything, it would have been a long time ago. Since it didn’t happen before, then it will not happen in the future. “
Teacher Lin, what are you asking?!
Special dialog:
(Clearly, it is an ordinary visit. Why did it end up as proposing to the in-laws?)
Doctor: … one step at a time?
(>_<)