The Vanishing Beauty - Chapter 4 - 3

Chapter 4 - 3

With material piling up suddenly right before the New Year, Di Liren was so busy he couldn't tell day from night, and returning home late became the norm. Yujia felt this wasn't necessarily a bad thing; with him spending little time at home and just going straight to sleep when he got back, she could safely coast through the "hideous phase" of her cosmetic procedure.

And give him a surprise at the very end.

However, after a few days of dealing with it, Yujia felt a bit disheartened. Liren completely treated her as if she were "nothing"—he didn't notice her changes even in the slightest, and he seemed to rarely look her straight in the face. It was as if she were merely a symbol, a marker representing a wife, like a mannequin in a store window. In his eyes, her only functions were doing the laundry, cooking, and endless nagging. Other than that, there were no other uses, no other surprises.

Even her colleagues at work noticed her changes. Department Head Zhang, her direct supervisor, teased, "Sister Yu, you've been in a pretty good mood lately." Yujia replied that it was nothing of the sort. Director Zhang put it another way: "Your state is great, and a person who encounters happy events is naturally radiant." Yujia said there weren't any happy events at all. Director Zhang lowered his voice and said, "Is your partner about to get promoted again? It's all the talk."

Yujia's workplace and Liren's belonged to the same large administrative system.

Promoted again? How come she didn't know? Was Liren keeping it confidential? That shouldn't be the case with her. Perhaps it was true; the organization had its own rules and regulations that had to be obeyed, yet the grapevine always managed to leak the news. Yujia smiled brightly and said, "I had no idea at all. Director, you really are well-informed."

Hearing that her husband was up for another promotion, Yujia felt a mixture of joy and anxiety, and she couldn't even sleep properly during her lunch break. A promotion was wonderful, of course; that was Liren's grand ambition. Only, the higher he climbed, the wider the gap between husband and wife would become... Liren was like a roc spreading its wings and riding a rocket into the sky, while she was just fallen petals turning into mud, treading water in place, and still... crawling along the ground... She actually wanted to "progress," but where was the path to walk on?

She could only put in the effort on the two words: "virtuous and considerate"—and do so silently.

Having played the roles of woman, wife, and daughter-in-law for so many years, Yujia was deeply versed in a certain "truth": at home, a woman must always act weak.

Acting weak does not mean being weak. Often, by showing weakness, one can overcome strength.

Take Liren coming home late now, for instance. She would invariably leave a meal prepared on the dining table, complete with two bowls and two pairs of chopsticks, brimming with a sense of ritual. Sisi would eat, while she waited for Liren to come back and eat together. Liren would say, "Didn't I tell you to eat first?" Yujia would reply, "It's fine, I'm not hungry." Dinner tonight was dispensable anyway; she was losing weight and getting ready to make a stunning appearance when she returned to her hometown.

Out of the blue, Bai Yuankai called Yujia and invited her to record some opera tunes. Yujia politely declined. With the date of her return home fast approaching, she was busy preparing gifts for everyone. Besides, her face hadn't fully recovered yet—she had no idea when it would, as it depended entirely on individual constitution.

She did seem quite a bit prettier, though.

"Where are you spending the New Year?" Yujia asked casually in passing, only realizing she had spoken out of turn the moment the words left her mouth. Yushuang had mentioned that Xiao Bai's parents were both abroad. Thinking further, oh right, he had dated quite a few girlfriends; loneliness wasn't a problem for him.

"When one person is full, the whole family doesn't starve," Bai Yuankai said.

Yujia didn't press further, and the two of them chatted a bit more about forming a club to record opera. Yuankai mentioned he was currently learning "The Passionate Complaint" from The Brocade Pavilion. Their fellow opera enthusiasts were very enthusiastic. Yujia felt an itch in her heart and was tempted to join, but after weighing it, she decided to wait until after the New Year.

Yuankai sent a few short video clips of himself singing an aria; his stage posture and vocal technique both had a lot of flavor to them. "We're coming back on the fifth day of the New Year. When Shuang comes over, you should join us too," Yujia messaged him. She looked upon him as an exceptionally talented younger brother.

Since they spent a long time at her in-laws' place, they could only make a flying visit to her maiden home. Yujia urged her younger brother, Yuyi, to go home early to keep their parents company. A married daughter was like poured-out water, with no helping it; as a son, he ought to fulfill his filial duties more. Yuyi asked if his older sister had mentioned anything to Liren about helping him apply for his doctoral studies. Yujia had brought it up with Liren, but there had been no reply yet. All she could do was say, "Your brother-in-law knows about it, and there's still time. I'll ask him again during the New Year, and you should put in some effort yourself, too."

Yuyi asked if Yurui was coming back to Yingzi for the New Year. Yujia knew her brother was still pining after Rui, but since the girl already had a boyfriend, overthinking it was useless. She didn't hide anything from her brother: "You need to find someone who revolves around you, not someone you have to chase after." A brother getting a wife wasn't just for himself; it also concerned their parents.

Yujia knew her parents were snobbish. From the very first day Liren went to the big city, they had begged their son-in-law to take good care of her younger brother, with one crucial condition underlined: he absolutely had to help him find a girlfriend. In parentheses: preferably with an apartment.

They felt their son was outstanding and deserved a woman who owned property.

"It doesn't matter if she's a bit older," Yujia's father had instructed. An older bride holds pieces of gold. Liren had repeated these words to Jia, laughing uproariously. Yujia's face turned green with anger, yet she couldn't throw a tantrum; no matter how flawed her father was, he was still her own flesh and blood, and cursing him would only damage her own face.

Consequently, in recent years, every time Yujia went back to her maiden home, her temper would swing wildly between good and bad. Her family latched onto Liren for everything, dragging him into every matter, which indirectly meant dragging her down too.

This left her relationship with Liren shallow and frayed a significant portion of their marital bond.

It wasn't until they boarded the train back to their hometown that Di Liren finally seemed to notice something was amiss with Yujia. Holding his insulated mug, he walked over from the other end of the carriage. Seat D was his, while Yujia was in Seat F. Sisi had already gone back ahead of them with her younger uncle, Yuyi. Liren stood there, his gaze lingering on Yujia's face for a few seconds, looking rather like an inspector checking up on work.

Yujia immediately straightened her posture. A woman paints her face for those who please her—at least her efforts hadn't been in vain.

She waited for his praise.

"This hairstyle suits you," Liren remarked, pointing briefly.

And that was it.

The compliments ended right there.

Could he really not tell that her skin was better, her wrinkles fewer, and her face smaller? Of course, her hairstyle had changed slightly as well, but that was just the icing on the cake, not the cake itself. Was he too careless and oblivious? Or did he simply not care about her at all? Was it true that once men reached this age, what the woman by their side looked like was completely beside the point?

As long as there was someone there, that was enough?

Yujia felt a bit stifled. But she could only comfort herself: while Liren was meticulous to a fault in some areas, when it came to matters of female beauty, he was probably just hopelessly dense. Well, that was fine too—it saved her from having to constantly be on guard. However, ever since they arrived in the big city, they hadn't shared a single intimate moment as husband and wife.

In the big city, Di Liren was just a cog in the administrative machine, firmly dedicated to serving the people; upon returning home for the New Year, however, he turned into a red-hot celebrity with the masses swarming around him. New Year's Eve and the first day of the New Year were strictly spent at home.

Di Liren's entire family treated him like a living dragon. Even his parents rose in prestige along with him, walking around everywhere with the swagger of warlords holding an independent army. Yujia disliked it, but she had to show respect; she needed to know her place.

When they returned to her maiden home on the second day of the New Year, Yuyi drove over to pick them up. The two cities weren't far apart, but time was tight, so they only had time for lunch. Yujia's parents made this lunch extraordinarily grand, inviting every single relative who crossed paths with their family. The house was packed to the brim with people, looking just like a bustling village market fair.

Everyone had come to see Liren. Some even brought petitions and grievances they wanted to air. Yujia shouted out, "Work is work and rest is rest! We'll talk about this later down the road!" Her voice roared like a tiger and bellowed like a whale, scaring the petitioner into backing away hurriedly.

Yujia, along with Sisi, inevitably shared in Liren's reflected glory.

The relatives praised Sisi for being smart and looking so pretty since childhood. Sisi took a realistic approach and analyzed, "My nose doesn't look good." A female relative immediately disagreed, "No, no, no! It's a blessed nose that can hold wealth and brings prosperity to her husband."

Yujia was the target of even more flattery from the crowd. They did notice the difference on her face, but attributed it entirely to two words: youthfulness. The older folks traced it back to its roots with lavish praise: "I knew this girl had an air of nobility ever since she was little. Her astrological chart is auspicious, a metal-and-water formation destined for great wealth and honor; in her twilight years, she'll be even more blessed than Fan Bingbing." Yujia grew so embarrassed by the heavy praise that she demurred, "What wealth and honor? I'm just an ordinary person serving the people." Even though she said that on the surface, her heart was filled with sweet delight.

Her money hadn't been spent in vain, and the needles hadn't been injected for nothing. In group photos from past gatherings with old colleagues, a glance at the picture showed she was the most photogenic of them all. Her colleagues all praised her, saying, "It's different, it's just different—this is the refinement of big city cultivation. Do you understand? That's class!"

Yet, viewed from different angles like the peaks and ridges of a mountain range, Liren's younger sister and mother saw Yujia's "metamorphosis" from an entirely different perspective.

"Unbelievable," Liren's sister remarked. "Not a single smile on her face." Pausing, she corrected herself, "No, wait, there is one: the Mona Lisa smile. She smiled, but it's as if she didn't."

Liren's mother was lying on the sofa, tapping the inside of her thigh with a little leather mallet. In a gloomy tone, she muttered, "During the photos, didn't Sisi say it herself? Her mother is smiling on the outside while stiff on the inside."

"She's not close to us."

"We don't care about that; let's just treat it like passing gas—you can hear it, but you can't see it. The one who suffers is your older brother, having to look at such a stiff face every single day when he comes home. Won't he get styes in his eyes?" Liren's mother spoke without holding back in front of her daughter. "And there's no heir either. The national policy has been relaxed, but you won't put in any effort; your hips are big enough, but they're entirely useless!"

"Is it that older brother doesn't want one?" Liren's sister knocked around in the outside world and knew how hard life was. On this point, she sympathized with her sister-in-law. She herself didn't want a second child, even though her in-laws kept pressuring her.

"Can't even bring it up." Liren's mother put down her little leather mallet and reached out to massage her temples. "Whenever it's brought up, my head aches—it's just a bunch of hot air." In the middle of the New Year festivities, she had become utterly obsessed with gas, unable to say a single sentence without bringing up flatulence. Her daughter couldn't help scolding playfully, "Mom, stop going on about farts all the time; I can practically smell it already!"