What does your husband do?

Author: Su Tong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-10-01
Features: A conversation between a pregnant woman and her girlfriend who sells insecticides during the day. It mentions another old friend, who, driven mad by a love triangle, poured sulfuric acid on the face of the third party. At night, the pregnant woman secretly gets up, picks up a bottle of insecticide, walks to her husband's bedside, and points the nozzle at her husband's face, who is going on a business trip with a female colleague the next morning. For the first time, Su Tong focuses on the lively topic of the third party, but he has no intention of critiquing or revealing anything. He would rather describe the almost psychological process of the—Of course, this novella collection is not just this! The content of this book: The pregnant woman and her girlfriend are sitting on the balcony, one looking quite obese, the other too slim. The pregnant woman struggles to get up from the plastic chair, her gaze radiating downwards, sighing, "Pregnancy is so ugly, I can't see my feet now. I don't know which pair of sandals I'm wearing. Yesterday, I saw my walking stance in the mirror—it looked like a penguin." The girlfriend's face shows a playful smile. "Don't pretend you're not happy," she says, "I see you're quite pleased with yourself, comparing yourself to a penguin. Penguins are so cute. Why not compare yourself to a duck?" "A duck is a duck, it's the same thing anyway." Suddenly, the pregnant woman remembers something and asks her girlfriend, "What are you selling? What kind of thing?" "Insect King." The girlfriend giggles. "It's something like Insect Control, right?" "What's wrong with you? Why not sit in the office properly and instead run around all day selling Insect Control!" "Insect King," the girlfriend corrects. "It's not Insect Control; it's Insect King. A new product, the sixth-generation insecticide. High-tech product, strong efficacy, non-toxic and harmless. It's the same thing anyway, just for killing mosquitoes, flies, and cockroaches." "There are flying ones and crawling ones, kill them all. Let the pests die." "It won't do any good to sell it to me." "We live on a high floor, we don't have these pests." The pregnant woman lifts one of her feet, then the other, and suddenly exclaims, "I'm wearing couple's shoes! The black one is his slippers! No wonder it felt strange. Why were you watching me wear the couple's shoes? You never said a word! What does your husband do for a living?" The girlfriend smiles mischievously, looking out the window. "What does your husband do for a living?" "Architecture." "He'll be back soon. He's going to Shenzhen tomorrow to meet some Hong Kong businesspeople. Give up on him, he won't help you." "What about your husband? What is he doing now?" The smile on the girlfriend's face instantly freezes. Her leg, which was crossed over her knee, collides with a pot of Monstera deliciosa, and the thick, lush, green leaves of the plant tremble. The pregnant woman knows she has overstepped her bounds. She had actually decided not to ask, but somehow the words just slipped out. "Let's go," the girlfriend says. "He left last year." The pregnant woman guiltily glances at her girlfriend and moves the pot plant slightly to the side. "Why do people like to keep Monstera deliciosa now?" The girlfriend's eyes gleam intensely. "He also has one at home, even bigger than yours. It's strange, ever since he left, I just can't stand the sight of the Monstera deliciosa. I think it's the most shameless plant in the world. One day, when a bunch of flies were buzzing wildly outside the window, I grabbed the Insect King from the company and started spraying them like crazy. The quality of our company's product is really good. Watching the flies fall one by one to the ground, they all died. I shook the can, and it was still full. I wanted to spray the entire can. Guess what—I didn't think twice, and I started spraying the Monstera deliciosa as if it were watering it. I used the whole can of Insect King!"