My husband, Xu Yi, and I are both only children, and both sets of our parents are still alive. Before we married, we agreed to a two-home marriage: neither family would marry their child off to the other, and we would alternate spending the New Year at each other’s hometown every year. In the first year, I unexpectedly got pregnant. After Xu Yi and my mother-in-law sweet-talked me into spending the New Year at his family home while waiting to give birth, I ended up suffering one grievance after another. The following year, we were supposed to celebrate at my family’s home, but Xu Yi changed his mind and tried to pressure me into giving in by invoking his family’s pride. Ha! What does the pride of your Xu family have to do with my Song family? I hit back without mercy, trashed the marital home, drove off in the car my family had given me as a wedding gift, and made the Xu family the laughingstock of New Year’s Eve. A parents’ support is an only daughter’s greatest confidence. I’m no weak woman he can bully!
