He and she were sitting face to face. At this moment, the landlord came in and asked, "Are you sure you do not rent the house any more?" He kept silent and she only shook her head. They were going to divorce, so it was obvious that they would not continue renting the house any more.

 

Then the landlord began examining the house. After looking around, the landlord screamed, "Damn God! See how you have ruined my house? The walls are full of nails! How could I rent the house to others?"

 

He said, "The room is too small and can hardly accommodate all of our things. So we could only hang them on the walls." The landlord did not listen to him and turned around up to the floor.

 

She began looking around her familiar room. Four years ago, she became his bride here. On the night of their marriage, he felt deeply guilty to her, saying, "I feel so sorry to you for having you live in this small room. In the future I will earn a lot of money to buy our own house."

 

The room was only 13 square meters with two nails on the wall next to the door, one for her to hang her bag and the other for hanging umbrellas. At that time, she threw all her stuff such as her bag and umbrella on the floor once she entered the room, staring at the whole mess and feeling terribly upset.

 

There were three nails on the left wall, on which hung his clothes yesterday. After he lived in the room, he removed all the clothes boxes and bought her a desk in the spared room because he knew she loved writing and drawing.

 

There were four nails on the right wall that were used to fix their wedding photo frame. But now there were only four nails without the frame. She still remembered he got hurt on his fingers when trying to drive the nails home. It was her who pushed him to receive an injection against tetanus（破伤风） in the hospital.

 

The landlord took a toolkit（工具包） down and tried to pry¹ the nails out when groaning² at the same time. After the nails were removed, the walls were left with numerous holes. All of a sudden, she felt harshly heartbroken as if her heart was pierced through those holes and bleeding nonstop.

 

She sprang from the seat and exclaimed, "Stop prying³ the nails! We will continue renting the house and will only move away after we buy our own!" He looked at her with great surprise, and then turned round, tearing over his face.

 

She finally came to understand that marriage was like a wall and that all quarrels, "cold wars" and suspicions were like the nails on the wall. When all the nails were removed, only a wall with numerous holes would be left. But if all the nails were still in their own places, the wall was still intact and reliable. But in the past, what she saw was only those provoking nails.

 

They hung all the things back to the wall. He asked her, "Are you really willing to lead a tough life with me?" She patted away the ashes on hands and looked at the walls with loads of stuff on them satisfactorily, saying, "Yes! For me, it is not a suffering to live."

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