Her life really is, an up and down, rollercoaster ride all right!!! Translated…
My wife who’d just arrived home from shopping in the marketplace, before she’d put down the bags, she’d told me, who was sitting in front of the T.V., “I’m bumped into Rui-Feng today!”, Rui-Feng was a best friend from my adolescent, he was also, the ex-wife of my best buddy, Rong; four years ago, they got divorced, Rui-Feng remarried again last year, to her high school classmate.
My wife became all emotional, continued, “I’d asked her how she’d been these past couple of years? She’d stated, ‘just living from day to day, past midlife, there’s no point in telling. And, if I must say, about the differences of life I’m living now versus before, perhaps, I got that, sense of belonging now!”
illustration from the papers…
Toward those who’d know Rui-Feng and Rong’s past, perhaps, they’d called her foolish. My mother who’s eighty would often call her a “dumb woman”. The two of them started dating in high school, and, Rui-Feng was from a home of scholars. Having such a different home background, it’d made their relationship hard.
After they were wed, Rong went to Japan alone on business, he’d used his hardworking mannerisms, and some luck, he’d finally, set up a career abroad, and, he’d expanded his career to Hong Kong too. It’s just, that they’d never, agreed on whether or not they should, move the whole family to Japan where Rong works, Rong had always complained in private to me, “It seemed like wanting a hot bowl of soup after working long hours in the cold night had turned into, an extravagant thing for me”, and, Rong’s infidelities in the marriage, pushed Rui-Feng further, into the abyss—loving children, Rong had, hoped that Rui-Feng would, give him a son, but, they’d been married a long time, and still, without any offspring, Rong had an affair because of it; Rui-Feng found out unknowingly, that a Japanese woman gave Rong two sons, and a woman from China gave him three daughters, she’d had a meltdown, then, decided to divorce him.
But, feeling guilty over what he’d done, Rong still went to find Rui-Feng whenever he’d made it back to town, and, because there’s, still something there, she’d not, told him to go away. And, if everything ended right there, then, perhaps, as Rui-Feng started pouring her heart out to us, as my mother consoled with her, that if she really, couldn’t let him go, then, she should, hold on tight, to her status of his first wife, then, at least, Rong would’ve, given her some sense of economic stability.
And, things got even more complicated, because Rui-Feng had, bumped into her first love who was divorced in a high school reunion, the two of them, in a very short time, decided, to remarry. Was it, because he still felt the love toward her, or Rui-Feng’s wanted to get even with Ron? Nobody outside would know. But, this shocked everybody, and, made this unhappily married couple part ways, even for us, who’d been friends with both Rui-Feng and Rong for over decades, they’d not wanted to trouble us, and slowly, they’d, distanced themselves from us both.
After the saturation of time, bumping into a common friend, perhaps, both felt compelled, to ask about, how their exes were doing, but, they’d, spoken very little to one another, and, as outsiders, we’d felt, the chills for them too.
And so, it was, the woman’s infertility that drove this man to have affairs, and, he finally, couldn’t, cover it up, and, she’d, divorced him, and yet, he’d always gone back to her, and she’d, allowed him to, because, there’s, still that invisible connection between them, as husband and wife once, and that got this woman into even deeper trouble, and, it was, character, that’s made her fate.
Life, the Obstacle Course 