By Xiaohui
“Qiqi, hurry up! You’ll be late for school!”
“Mingming, get up now and wash your face.”
…………
Xinyue was urging the children to hurry, over and over again.
“Dai Yuanyuan, are you still in bed now? Get up and wash! Qiqi, little prince, stop playing! If you don’t get up now, you’ll miss the school bus. Grandma doesn’t want to take you to school on such a cold day. Be good and get up and have breakfast.” Xinyue’s mother-in-law was shouting, too.
For Xinyue and her mother-in-law, morning was the busiest time of their day. They had to make the breakfast and wake the sleepyheads up, give them breakfast and send them to school. These scenes were repeated every day.
Soon, everybody got up and started scampering around. One wanted to brush his teeth; the second one wanted to use the toilet; the third one was searching for her shoes; the fourth one was searching for her clothes … Finally, they were all set to have breakfast, but they were complaining instead of eating quietly.
“Oh, no! It’s mantou (steamed bun) again. I want youtiao (deep-fried dough stick) and soy milk!” Dai Yuanyuan, Xinyue’s sister-in-law, said unpleasantly while packing her clothes.
“But I’m too busy to buy youtiao and soy milk in the morning.” Xinyue replied unhappily.
“Yeah! If you want youtiao and soy milk, get up early tomorrow morning and buy them yourself. Don’t be so fussy if you can’t be bothered.” Said Dai Mengmeng, Dai Yuanyuan’s elder sister.
“I can’t sleep well at night because I have to take care of the two children. Yet you still want me to get up early. I can’t. Anyway, I’m not that bothered about breakfast.” Said Dai Yuanyuan in an injured tone of voice.
“Auntie, my mom is a big sleepyhead!” Qiqi grinned at Xinyue while eating and made a face at Dai Yuanyuan.
Hearing what her daughter said, Dai Yuanyuan pretended to be angry, much to the amusement of others.
After a while, everybody was done with breakfast and went to do their own thing, leaving Xinyue and her mother-in-law at the table.
“Xinyue, let me clean the table. You have been helping me with the breakfast since early in the morning. Just go back to your room and take a rest. Yuanyuan is just like a childish girl. Don’t lower yourself to her level.” The mother-in-law said to Xinyue apologetically.
“Mom, you’re thinking too much. I’m OK. We are a family, so it’s better to have tolerance and patience.” Xinyue said with a smile. In fact, she was saying that to her mother-in-law as well, and it was also what she hoped for.
“Xinyue, you are so nice. As the youngest in the family, you’ve done so much and always put up with Yuanyuan. She is just so careless and heartless, and sometimes naïve. And I can do nothing about her. You know, your father-in-law has passed away and I don’t have any extravagant wishes. As long as you get along well with each other, I’ll be satisfied.” The mother-in-law said, her eyes turning red.
Xinyue comforted her mother-in-law, but no one knew the bitterness in her heart.
Dai Mengmeng, Xinyue’s eldest sister-in-law, who had lived there since she got divorced two years ago, was relatively easy-going. But Dai Yuanyuan, Xinyue’s second eldest sister-in-law, who lived there almost all the time, was heartless and outspoken. She was very different from Xinyue, who was quiet. Dai Yuanyuan’s laziness often annoyed Xinyue, but Xinyue never showed her anger. Xinyue once blamed Dai Yuanyuan for being lazy, but Dai Yuanyuan didn’t accept the criticism and retorted, “I’m much better than before.” Then Dai Yuanyuan continued banteringly, “You made me angry just now. You are just my brother’s wife. It’s OK for my brother to blame me, but not you. Watch your words, so that you don’t offend us.” Though Dai Yuanyuan didn’t really intend what she said, Xinyue took her words to heart. She thought: “Now I see! You are a family, and I am just an outsider to you. OK, fine! I’ll say nothing. I treat you as best I can, but you just regard me as an outsider in return. From now on, I will treat you the way you treat me. But I won’t criticize you over anything so that I won’t offend you.”
One day, Qiqi and Mingming broke a piece of Xinyue’s furniture while they were playing on it. Dai Yuanyuan came to Xinyue and said, “Xinyue, that piece of furniture of yours is a real lemon. Qiqi and Mingming just jumped on it a few times, and now it’s broken. What do you think we should do about it?” Xinyue didn’t want to quarrel with her. She held back her anger and simply said, “It doesn’t matter. Just forget it.” But when she saw that piece of brand-new furniture badly broken, she really felt bad. Thinking of Dai Yuanyuan’s unreasonable attitude, she really wanted to say this to her: “Obviously, you’re spoiling your children and indulging their every whim. They broke my furniture but didn’t apologize to me. What’s more, you complained that it was defective. You are so unreasonable! The children have broken so many things over the past year since I married your brother, haven’t they?” Xinyue was grieved and annoyed. Being pushed to her limit by these trifles several times already she had intended to argue with them. But she didn’t, for fear of being alienated from the family and being laughed at by the others, which would happen once a family conflict broke out. She thought this would be unbearable. She was struggling with herself and her attitude was ambivalent: She couldn’t bear them anymore, but was afraid to endure the consequences of a conflict. She was in a dilemma and had no idea of what to do. Mentally and physically exhausted, Xinyue often shed tears quietly.
When Xinyue was helpless and miserable, she remembered her mom once told her that people could find answers to all difficulties in God’s words. Thinking of this, Xinyue seemed to find hope. She quickly took the book of God’s words out of her wardrobe, opened it and saw a passage of God’s words that says: “Cruel mankind! The connivance and intrigue, the snatching and grabbing one from another, the scramble for fame and fortune, the mutual slaughter—when will it ever end? Despite the hundreds of thousands of words God has spoken, no one has come to their senses. People act for the sake of their families, sons and daughters, for their careers, future prospects, position, vainglory, and money, for the sake of food, clothing, and the flesh. … How many people do not act out of their own interests? How many do not oppress or ostracize others in order to protect their own position?” “Born into such a filthy land, man has been severely blighted by society, he has been influenced by feudal ethics, and he has been taught at ‘institutes of higher learning.’ The backward thinking, corrupt morality, mean view on life, despicable philosophy for living, utterly worthless existence, and depraved lifestyle and customs—all of these things have severely intruded upon man’s heart, and severely undermined and attacked his conscience. As a result, man is ever more distant from God, and ever more opposed to Him.”
Pondering over God’s words, Xinyue understood that all human beings no longer have the likeness of real humans after being corrupted by Satan. Plus, having been blighted and influenced by society, people are all living with Satan’s various poisons in them and by its rules, so their disposition is selfish and arrogant. Xinyue felt deeply about this, especially when she saw God say, “How many people do not act out of their own interests? How many do not oppress or ostracize others in order to protect their own position?” From these words, she knew the reason why she had lived in such pain: It was because she lived in a state of scheming against her family. Her being angry each time was actually because of her vanity and pride. For example, when she heard Dai Yuanyuan’s words, she thought that Dai Yuanyuan didn’t take her hard work for the family seriously but instead treated her like an outsider. So she was very upset and didn’t want to talk to Dai Yuanyuan anymore. She endured her sisters-in-law living with her all the year round because she wanted her family and others to praise her and say that she was good and generous. In order to get such a good reputation, she lived by Satan’s philosophies, such as, “Compromise will make a conflict much easier to resolve” and “Endurance brings peace” when interacting with her family. She believed as long as she was very patient and tolerant and turned a blind eye when matters arose, she could live in harmony with her family and they would think she was good natured, thus liking her and showing respect to her. However, Dai Yuanyuan didn’t praise her, but scolded her, making her feel terribly wronged. Thinking of these things, Xinyue realized that what she did was for the sake of her vanity and reputation and that she was selfish.
Xinyue also remembered that she used to tell what happened between her and her two sisters-in-law to her husband in private, and would ask him to talk to them for her. She believed doing this not only saved her face but achieved her purposes. Besides, when she saw Dai Yuanyuan spoiling her children, she knew that Dai Yuanyuan was harming them instead of loving them, but she still followed the satanic philosophies, “The less trouble, the better,” “Though you see wrong, it’s best to say little,” “Think before you speak and then talk with reservation,” and “Let things drift if they do not affect one personally.” She thought that because they were not her children what they would be like in the future had nothing to do with her. If she talked too much, she would offend Dai Yuanyuan who would then think that she disliked the children, and it was not good to do such a thankless thing. The more Xinyue recalled, the more narrow-minded and mean she felt she was. She saw that she definitely had no likeness of a human being. Through the revelations of God’s words, Xinyue felt reproached by her conscience. She was no longer willing to live with Satan’s poisons and rules, but was now willing to abandon all wrong and harmful philosophies.
To be continued …
Part Two:This Is How the Family of Seven Gets Along Peacefully Together (II)
