Such is Love, Plain like Water　如水一般的爱

　　It is usually he that picks up the phone. She will come up to him asking who the caller is. Knowingit’s me, she will grab the phone, say a few greeting words, and then start talking bad of him,complaints flooding out, all about chores and minor¹ superficial details.

　　As always, he argues, and through the long-distance call I hear them quarreling seriously.

　　Quarreling seems to be bound with their life. He seems like a capricious boy, and she a little girlwho cannot bear with even a small grievance². It is common that they fight each other half a dayover minor issues. Over and over again, they will quarrel—they are born to disagree with eachother.

　　Bored sometimes, I pretend to be very unhappy and yell, “Couldn’t you stop arguing and let myears have a quiet moment?”

　　She pauses two seconds, and mumbles³, “He always bullies⁴ me.” I almost see her, pitiful as she is.

　　Then I turn soft, and try to find faults in him.

　　“Why did you bully⁵ her?”

　　He listens to me, irritated, “Who bullies her? It is she that bullies me!”

　　Just as the saying goes, a righteousjudge is never able to decide who is right and who is wrong inan argument between a couple. I tried to intervene, only to get them into more serious debate.

　　Like an actor and an actress, they are indulged in acting⁶. With me watching, they end up in moreheated disagreements. So I don’t want to bother any more. I just stand by when they quarrel.

　　In the end, she will find her eyes red, and wipe tears off her cheeks. He gets upset and attempts tosoothe her.?He looks funny—staring at her like a mad frog with two eyes open wide, he yells withdetermination,

　　“From now on I will wash all the dishes.” He seems to be swearing. And she weeps and smilingflowers bloom on her face.

　　One day he got bit by a snake while working in the farmland, one leg swelling⁷ furiously. He wasthen rushed to hospital where he went through a series of torment—he got injected to let thecontaminated blood out.

　　Seeing the blood, she was scared to big tears, crying loud.

　　“Stop it. That’s enough. You are getting on my nerves. I am not gonna die.” He shouted, frowning.

　　She got mad at the word “die” that he had mentioned.

　　“Why did you say that?” She immediately quarreled hard with him, not to stop for a long while.

　　Doctors were watching on, amused.

　　“Isn’t quarreling more effective than pain-killing pills?” The doctors teased.

　　They looked at each other, embarrassed and laughing. That finally stopped their quarreling.

　　In order to save hospital expenses, he insisted on going home despite her mad disagreements.

　　Lying in bed, he was having an intravenous drip for a continuous period of 12 days. She was busydealing with housework and everything else out of home. She was weak and thin, and too muchwork had made her even more skinny.

　　Witnessing her change, he hurt in the heart. One night he wanted to drink water. He did not wakeher up, pulled himself out of the bed, and fell over because his legs were too weak.

　　His fall actually woke her up. She rushed to support him to stand up. She scolded him for nothaving waken her up. He said that he could manage. A serious quarrel was about to burst outagain.

　　I called them from Zhuhai, the beautiful city of relaxation⁸ and exciting views. I wanted to depict⁹ tothem how pretty a city Zhuhai is. He was surprised that I had travelled such a great distance, towhere he and she had never been all their life. He then believed that I had accomplished¹⁰ a bigsuccess, and that I had significantly broadened my horizons. He went on talk in honor of me, voicetrembling with pride; she was beside him, excited all the same. They did not mention anythingabout the family change and their suffering.

　　I had not heard about his being bit by a snake until she told me her grievance.

　　“He treated me bad again. He could not get out of bed by himself, but he wanted to be strong, andso he fell. I was trying to pull him up on his feet, and I just told a few words of complaints whenhe got out of bed, yelling that I was clumsy.”

　　“No, no, no, she was not telling the truth.”

　　He was eager to tell me that she was really silly, that she did not know how to change theintravenous drip bottle. Then they started it over again quarreling. And this time I was listening tothem in good patience, holding the telephone receiver.

　　Water was roaring in the sea out the window, waves climbing up and falling down, just like what Iwas feeling at the bottom of my heart.

　　He suddenly realized that they should stop. He said that it was a long- distance call. Sheimmediately stopped arguing.

　　“Why didn’t you remind me earlier? How much money have we wasted her?”

　　She hangs up before I had a chance to talk. I know they would have a good fight again.

　　They are my father and mother. He is 66, and she is 64.

　　我每隔一段时间都要拨打一个熟悉的电话号码。

　　每次总是他接起电话。然后她问他，这是谁打来的。知道是我的电话时，她抢过电话，说几句简单的问候，然后就开始抱怨他的坏处。接着就开始投诉，例如地板被水淹之类的鸡毛蒜皮的小事。

　　一如往常，通过长途电话，我能听到他们很严肃地在争吵着。

　　争吵似乎成了他们生活中不可缺少的一部分。他看起来像个反复无常的孩子，而她像一个不能忍受丁点委屈的小女孩。他们经常为生活中的小问题吵上半天。他们一遍又一遍地争吵——好像生来就是意见不和的。

　　有时我觉得无聊了，就假装很不高兴，大喊道：“你们能不能停止争论，让我的耳朵安静一小会吗？”

　　她停顿两秒钟，喃喃自语：“他总是欺负我。”我几乎可以想象到她装可怜的样子。

　　然后我的语气就会变得轻柔，并想办法找到他的错误。

　　“你为什么要欺负她？”

　　他听到我的质问，恼火道：“谁欺负她呢？这是她在欺负我！”

　　正如俗话所说，一个正直的法官也无法判决一对夫妇之间的矛盾，无法决定到底是谁对谁错。我试图干预他们，但只会使他们陷入更严肃的辩论中去。

　　就像演员，他们沉迷于这样的剧情。我看，结局只会是更加激烈的分歧。所以我不想打扰他们了。作为旁观者的我，只是在争吵的时候看着他们。

　　最后，她眼睛开始泛红，去擦脸颊上流下的泪水。他开始不安，并试图安慰她。他盯着她哭得红肿的眼睛，就像是只生气的青蛙。他妥协了。

　　“从现在开始，我会洗所有的盘子。”他信誓旦旦地说。而她也相信他，抹掉眼泪，微笑，顿时她的脸上绽放出了花朵。

　　有一天，他在田里劳作时被蛇咬了，一条腿肿得厉害。他立即被送往医院抢救，经过及时的救治——他被注射了一针可以让污血流出来的药剂。

　　看到血，她吓得大哭起来，落下大滴的眼泪。

　　“别哭了。够了。让我烦死了，放心好了，我不会死的。”他大叫着，皱着眉头。

　　她生气了，不准他说“死”这个词。

　　“你为什么这样说？”她立即同他争辩了很长一段时间。

　　医生们看他们斗嘴，笑了。

　　“吵架不是比止痛药更有效吗？”医生们取笑道。

　　他们面面相觑，不好意思地笑了起来，终于停止了争吵。

　　为了节省住院费，他坚持要回家，尽管她极力反对。

　　他躺在床上连续注射了十二天的点滴。这些天，都是她在处理家里家外的事情，本来身体单薄的她，愈发显得骨瘦如柴。

　　看她每天忙碌，他觉得心里很愧疚。有天夜里，他想要喝水。他没有叫醒她，而是打算自己去喝水，当他下床的时候，因为腿上的伤痛，从床上跌了下来。

　　她被惊醒了，赶紧起床冲过去扶着他。她责备他：“喝水怎么不叫我来倒！”“我自己可以！”一场激烈的争吵又迸发了。

　　当我从珠海给他们打电话，向他们描绘这个美丽休闲而适合居住的城市时，他感到非常惊讶。我到了这么好的地方，而他和她从来没有来过。他很高兴，觉得我现在非常成功，又显著地拓宽了自己的视野。然后，他用十分自豪的语气夸奖我从小大到的荣耀，她也在他身边跟他一起高兴着。他们从来不提及任何关于家庭的变化和他们的困难。

　　如果她不告诉我，我还不知道他被蛇咬伤了。

　　“你知道吗，他对我可坏了。他不能从床上下来，还非要逞强，就跌倒了。我只是想去扶他，就说了几句，他就开始骂我，对我大喊大叫。”

　　“不，不，不是，事实不是这样的。”

　　他急切地想告诉我：“她真的很傻，也不知道拿着点滴瓶。”话音刚落，他们又开始斗嘴了。这一次，我就拿着听筒，很耐心地听他们争吵。

　　看着窗户外面，海水在大海里翻滚，海浪连绵起伏，就像我此刻心底最深处的感受一样。

　　他突然意识到，他们应该停止。他说，这是一个长途电话。她立即停止了争吵。

　　“你为什么不早一点提醒我？多少钱，我们浪费了她多少钱？”

　　其实她挂断电话之前，我就很想说——我知道他们又将开始另一个斗争了。

　　他们是我的父亲和母亲。他66岁，她64岁。

 

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