The next day, while we were at home, we heard sounds of laughter and congratulate coming from our neighbor’s house.
I looked over and was surprised to see two brand-new scooters in their yard.
After getting married, I understood that marrying a poor wife was truly annoying. While others receive money, land, and various kinds of support from their in-laws, I have nothing. Why was I so stupid back then? If I had known my family didn’t have much, I should have married someone with a wealthier family to pay back this. But we already had children, so I just kept progressing for their sake.
Time passed, and after 3 years of marriage, my wife and I were still living in a rental house.
My monthly salary was barely enough to pay daily expenses, and we could only save a small amount for emergencies. How long would it take for us to bestow a house or buy a new car?
Last weekend, I was at home alone while my wife took our child to visit a friend. A person from my wife’s hometown, who had just come to the city, arrived with a package from my father-in-law and mother-in-law for their daughter and grandchild.
I thought it would be something expensive, but to my sh0ck, it was dried fish. This was a local specialty from my wife’s hometown, and she liked to eat it, so her parents often sent it. However, I thought the fish was cheap and smelled aw.ful—it only suggests the poverty in my wife’s family. They never delivered us anything of value, just these cheap, sm.elly local gifts.
For illustrative purpose only
The more I thought about it, the angrier I got.
After my wife wasn’t home, I angrily threw the bag of fish into the trash outside. Just then, our neighbor occured to walk by and saw me. She asked what it was, and I vaguely said the fish had gone bad and I was throwing it away. I saw her sniffing the fish and then taking the bag back to her house.
Clearly, the fish wasn’t spoiled, and she probably just liked it, so she decided to consume it. Their family wasn’t w.ell off either. It seemed like we were all po.or people suffering from each other!
That evening, when my wife came home and asked about the fish, I told her that her parents sent it, but our neighbor liked it so much that I gave it to her. The bag of fish wasn’t worth much, so my wife didn’t scream.
The next day, while we were at home, we heard the sounds of laughter and excitement from our neighbor’s house again. I looked over and was surprised to see two brand-new scooters parked in their yard. I was astonished to find out that they had bought both scooters at the same time, one for the husband and one for the wife.
For illustrative purpose only
“Our old bikes were falling apart. We didn’t know where to get the money for new ones, but then suddenly, some money fell from the sky!”
Our neighbor happily showed off to me. I felt an overwhelming sense of jealousy. The motorcycle I was riding was an old one I bought when I graduated and still hadn’t been able to replace. My wife’s bike was also getting old. How could they be so lucky?
A few days later, my father-in-law called to ask if my wife had bought a new bike yet. I was amazed when I found out that the dried fish they had sent us actually had 50 thousand dollars for us to buy new motorbikes. They trusted us with the money, thinking we would find it when we opened the fish bag.
My wife quickly ran over to the neighbor’s house to request the money back. My lie was revealed. It wasn’t that I gave the fish to the neighbor; I had neglected it because I looked down on it, and the neighbor had picked it up.
I was desperate, both because of the lost money and because my wife scolded me harshly. She now knew that I had discourtesy her family, and she was even talking about a divorce. I had never wanted to divorce her, even though her family was poor, because I felt sorry for our child, and she had never done anything wrong.