The next morning, the family gathered for breakfast. Mai Ding was quietly chatting with Grandpa An. An Xun and Wu Xin weren’t speaking. An Su was on the phone making plans to go out with friends. An Zi Yan suddenly looked up. “Right. I forgot to mention something. Keep February fourteenth free.” He continued eating as he spoke, his face completely expressionless.
An Su looked up and thought for a moment. “Valentine’s Day? That’s only ten days away. What are you doing?”
An Zi Yan’s tone remained as flat as ever. “Getting married.”
“What?!” Nearly everyone at the table shouted at once, including Mai Ding. He was so startled that he nearly dropped his bowl. His mouth was still full of rice, and as he stared wide-eyed at An Zi Yan, grains flew from his mouth when he blurted, “Who are you marrying?!”
An Zi Yan frowned, clearly displeased by Mai Ding’s reaction. “Who do you think?”
What was happening? Was he carsick? Ever since those two words had come out of An Zi Yan’s mouth, Mai Ding’s head had been spinning. His senses couldn’t catch up with anything around him. He had been given absolutely no time to prepare himself for the force of those words. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t open his mouth. Being with An Zi Yan was already enough to make him happy, enough to satisfy him. He had long ago stopped daring to ask for anything more. Yet the moment An Zi Yan said those two words, the greedy little part of his heart was overwhelmed with satisfaction all over again. His entire body seemed to have lost its weight, as though he might float straight up into heaven.
A promise had never been this close. His heartbeat turned to music, stirring the little butterflies inside his heart until they fluttered madly.
If something ever happened to him one day, it would definitely be because he had passed out from happiness.
Slow down a little, time. He was having trouble breathing. Let him clear his head so he could properly enjoy this.
Somebody hold him up. He thought he was having a tiny breakdown. He thought he was going a little crazy. Ahhh! He was getting married! An Zi Yan was going to marry him!
An Zi Yan, An Zi Yan, An Zi Yan, An Zi Yan, An Zi Yan.
He wanted to wake up calling An Zi Yan’s name.
He wanted to fall asleep calling An Zi Yan’s name.
He wanted to die calling An Zi Yan’s name.
Mai Ding remained sitting there like an idiot, staring blankly at An Zi Yan while mechanically chewing his food, until Wu Xin’s voice snapped him out of his daze. “This is such an important matter, yet you didn’t even discuss it with your family first. Two men getting married? If people find out, we’ll become a laughingstock. Allowing the two of you to stay together was already the greatest concession I could make. Marriage? I absolutely refuse to agree.”
An Zi Yan had expected exactly this response. “I’m marrying him. I don’t need your permission. His is enough.”
“Zi Yan! Are you trying to anger your mother to death? Is no one else going to say anything?” Wu Xin looked around the table in disbelief. Was she seriously the only person alarmed by this?
“What’s wrong with two men getting married? If you truly can’t accept it, just imagine Xiao Ding is a woman,” Grandpa An said.
Wu Xin’s face alternated between red and white, but more than anything she looked hurt. The thought of letting go of her most beloved son and giving him to a man in whom she could find almost no redeeming qualities left her unwilling, resentful, and deeply reluctant. Before, she had stubbornly believed Zi Yan would eventually come to his senses and understand what he was doing. But the longer it went on, the deeper he fell. Now they had reached the point of marriage. If the two of them truly married, then there would be no turning back.
“Zi Yan, listen to your mother. This is important. You have to think it through carefully. Don’t act on impulse.” Tears began falling from Wu Xin’s eyes again.
An Su hurriedly grabbed some tissues and wiped them away. “Mom, look at you. Why are you crying again?”
“How could I not cry? Didn’t you hear what your brother just said?”
“I’ve thought it through very carefully.”
“There’s no changing your mind?”
“No.”
“Do you understand how much this hurts your mother? Do you just want to see me suffer?”
“What exactly are you suffering over? You simply can’t stand Mai Ding. You can’t stand that he’s a man. You can’t stand anything about him.”
Wu Xin cut An Zi Yan off, her emotions surging. “That’s right, I can’t stand him! So what? What does he even have? Nothing!”
“Wu Xin, control yourself,” An Xun said sternly.
“What? Am I wrong?” Wu Xin turned her gaze on Mai Ding. “Tell me yourself. What do you have? Your looks are ordinary. You don’t have any impressive academic qualifications, and even your grades are mediocre. How many languages do you speak? What are you capable of doing? You look completely hopeless. I don’t know what tricks you used to seduce my son, but there are too many people like you nowadays. You’re completely shameless.” Wu Xin finally unleashed all of her anger on Mai Ding.
His face went pale. Her words left him unable to fight back at all. He simply lowered his head and stared at the table.
“What the hell would I need any of that for?” An Zi Yan said. “Looks, education, grades—what use are any of those things to me? I happen to love how hopeless he is. I happen to love how shameless he is. You can say whatever you want. It won’t make a difference. Him? I’m marrying him. That’s final.”
Wu Xin’s eyebrows shot up in fury. She grabbed the glass beside her and flung its contents at An Zi Yan. Water soaked his hair and face. “Wake up!” Wu Xin shouted, her voice several times louder than before as tears slid past the corners of her mouth.
An Zi Yan calmly looked at her. Mai Ding cried out in alarm and had just risen to get An Zi Yan some tissues when Wu Xin grabbed his wrist. “Stay away from my son.” She shoved Mai Ding violently. He lost his balance and stumbled backward. Before An Zi Yan could catch him, Mai Ding hit the floor. Grandpa An slammed his palm against the table. “Outrageous! You’re behaving like a complete shrew! You don’t run this household!”
“I don’t care! Zi Yan, think carefully. If you insist on refusing to see reason, then your mother will pretend she never had a son like you!”
An Zi Yan pulled Mai Ding up from the floor and looked coldly at Wu Xin. “You’re ridiculous.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m not going to pretend I don’t have a mother. You are my mother. But that doesn’t mean I have to obey everything you say. This is something I cannot give up. I told you before—don’t force me to hate you.” An Zi Yan stepped toward Wu Xin. She stared into his eyes, too shaken to move.
No one in the family said a word. A frightening silence descended. Then the doorbell rang. Mai Ding hurried to answer it. His repaired car had been returned. He signed the paperwork, then rushed outside and grabbed the garbage bag from the car. It was so heavy that he was panting as he carried it. After struggling back into the living room, Mai Ding carefully opened the bag in front of Wu Xin.
An Zi Yan stared as Mai Ding emptied what appeared to be an entire pile of garbage from a black trash bag.
Mai Ding arranged the items one by one, kneeling on the floor as he explained them. “Auntie, these are all the things I’ve treasured most since I was little. This certificate is from when my essay won second place citywide in elementary school. This badge is from middle school, when the school named me a Young Environmental Guardian, and this one was for respecting the elderly and caring for younger children. This was a present my parents gave me after they went traveling because I did such a good job staying home by myself…” Mai Ding talked for a long, long time about all the awards and gifts he had received while growing up. He simply wanted Wu Xin to know that even though he wasn’t especially outstanding, he had been praised plenty of times too. He wasn’t quite as useless as he looked. Everyone listened quietly. Wu Xin looked down at the pile of things on the floor, having no idea what strange stunt Mai Ding was trying to pull this time.
After a long while, Mai Ding finally finished. He swallowed with difficulty and lifted his head, his eyes clear and his expression earnest and almost childishly sincere as he looked at Wu Xin. “Auntie, I really am not completely useless. These are all my treasures. I’ll give every single one of them to you. Can I trade them for An Zi Yan?”
Wu Xin froze. She looked into Mai Ding’s eyes and finally saw everything inside them. The emotion there was so intense that it almost blinded her. Something tugged painfully at her heart, and it seemed that, all at once, she understood. After a long silence, her shoulders finally sagged. “Do whatever you want.” She quietly went upstairs, looking back once at An Zi Yan and Mai Ding. She had been the only one still struggling desperately against all of this. Perhaps Mai Ding’s love for Zi Yan really was enough to take Zi Yan away from her with ease. Everything Mai Ding did revolved around Zi Yan, and everything centered on what he believed was best for him. By comparison, even her love as his mother seemed unable to measure up to the love someone else gave him. Forget it. Let it be.
Mai Ding stared foolishly after Wu Xin as she went upstairs. “Auntie, does that mean you agree? Should I carry all this upstairs for you?”
“Are you an idiot? Who would want your garbage?” An Zi Yan crouched down and began putting everything back into the bag. Everyone else tactfully found something else to do. Mai Ding’s eyes widened furiously. “Garbage? What kind of eyes are you looking at them with? These things are all recognition of what I’ve accomplished in my life up to now.”
“You use garbage to validate your life?”
“Bah! That’s a serious insult. If I’d known you’d act like this, I would’ve secretly shown them only to Auntie.”
Once everything was packed away, An Zi Yan carried the bag upstairs to their room, with Mai Ding following behind. Just as they reached the doorway, An Zi Yan suddenly said, “Thank you.”
Mai Ding was so startled that he smacked his head against the doorframe. Why did this guy always suddenly say terrifying things? Thank you? Thank you?! Those two words appeared even less often than sorry. Was this another prank? Mai Ding anxiously looked around. “Y-You… th-thank me for what?” Was there really any need to be this frightened?
“For being willing to bring out your garbage and trade it for me.”
“I’m telling you again, this is not garbage. These are all treasures. Besides…” Mai Ding wrapped his arms around An Zi Yan’s waist from behind and pressed his cheek against his back. “Besides, I already have a new treasure.”
“I don’t want to hear the rest.”
“I’m saying it anyway.”
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