Marriage Under the Microscope
At the age of 40, Liang Mian married Shan Yun. Shan Yun had fair skin, and in the summer, her lotus-like arms peeked out from the sleeves of her purple dress. Liang Mian wished he could slice those arms into pieces, turn them into water, and carry them around in his pocket every day.
Liang Mian was a biologist who often used a microscope to observe marriage.
One evening, Shan Yun went out to get her hair done, and she was gone for 5 hours. Liang Mian couldn’t sit still; he paced outside the hair salon, his eyes fixed like they were under a microscope, peering into the shop.
The glass door of the salon acted like a microscope, and he saw Shan Yun’s head being cradled by a young male stylist, who was fussing with her hair. Shan Yun even had a smile on her face, which secretly angered Liang Mian.
When Shan Yun finished her hair, she didn’t linger, and only then did Liang Mian breathe a sigh of relief. He emerged from the shadows, and Shan Yun suddenly jumped in surprise, her jade-like arms immediately embraced by him.
“I happened to pass by here for something and thought I’d pick you up,” Liang Mian said, pretending to be gentle.
“Oh,” Shan Yun replied lightly without revealing anything.
In the car on the way home, silence prevailed as usual. Liang Mian’s expression was peculiar; he both liked Shan Yun to be beautiful and wished she could be a bit uglier. Armed with a microscope, he always seemed to spot suspected blemishes hidden within their marriage, like specks of dust on an old film reel seen on a screen.
Shan Yun was a civil servant and sometimes had to attend meetings. Once, the meeting was held in a hotel, and Shan Yun went delicately.
Liang Mian felt somewhat anxious and rented a room next to the conference room. The door to the conference room was half open, and inside, there was a noisy gathering of men and women. Liang Mian listened intently and heard Shan Yun’s voice amidst the waves of noise, which only made him more restless. He saw the dividing wall as a microscope, but all he could see was two people, one man and one woman, their figures growing larger and heavier, oppressing him.
Liang Mian suddenly burst out and stood at the door of the conference room like an armed policeman, searching for his suspect. But the room fell silent, everyone sitting solemnly and upright. Shan Yun saw him, and so did everyone else in the conference room. Shan Yun’s face turned neither red nor white; it was like pink ice cream that had been momentarily frozen. Her lotus-like arms twisted awkwardly together, as if trying to break them.
Finally, one day, Liang Mian said, “Shan Yun, why don’t you quit your job and be a full-time housewife? I’ll support you.”
Shan Yun cried. Liang Mian couldn’t stand her tears, so he kissed her on the forehead with his thin lips. His lips were cold, combined with his strange expression, the kiss felt like a cold metal handcuff hitting her forehead with a clang.
“No, I want to go out. I want to work,” Shan Yun seemed very stubborn. She liked her career and valued her freedom even more.
A shadow fell over Liang Mian’s face. Suddenly, there was lightning and thunder. Shan Yun’s arms flailed wildly, like spilled milk, splattering all over the floor and getting covered in mud.
Outside, heavy rain poured down. Shan Yun covered her face and ran out, never to return. She was like a cloud on the mountain, preferring hardship for the sake of freedom.
Alone at home, Liang Mian felt a sense of panic in the silence. The snowflakes he saw through the microscope gradually merged into endless darkness, and with a click, everything stopped.
Perhaps the film had been stretched too tight and finally snapped.
Thank you for reading! ” Sitestorys “
