Chapter 416 Mirage
Some people say that emotional distress comes from human naivety and irrationality.
That’s not the case.
Because even mature and rational emotions will still have distress.
The most realistic example is Mi Xiaoran who married overseas.
There is no doubt that compared to Ning Weimin who doesn't take her seriously, Zhao Hanyu who loves her deeply is the real good match.
What's more, Zhao Hanyu's excellent family background can also create convenient conditions for her to study abroad.
Now that she has discovered that her unrequited love is wrong, Mi Xiaoran can resolutely turn around and leave to spend her life hand in hand with another person who cherishes her more. This is definitely a very wise decision. .
But I have to say that many things in this world look beautiful.
A distant foreign country will not be a perfect paradise after all.
When Mi Xiaoran carried the expectation of a happy life, carrying several boxes of luggage, she boarded a flight to a foreign country and arrived at the most developed city in the United States - New York.
And became a new member of a Chinese family with a small amount of assets, entrusting everything to those quite unfamiliar in-laws.
The pain and joy, as well as the cultural differences and concept conflicts she has experienced, I am afraid only she can understand it and explain it clearly.
Mi Xiaoran will never deny that her first impression of the United States was very good when she first arrived here.
In fact, she was extremely excited from the moment she got on the plane and approached the window.
During the long journey of more than ten hours, she did not dare to sleep at all, and her hands were always entangled with Zhao Hanyu.
Because she was afraid it was a dream.
Especially when the plane finally landed at JFK Airport.
Just looking down from the porthole, she felt her heart pounding.
You know, it was when night fell, and before her eyes was a sea of colorful lights.
It is exactly like the description in literary works, as broad as the sea, as brilliant as the bright starry sky.
The situation in China is very different from that of domestic lights.
Think about it, for a person who sees such a difference for the first time, can he not be shocked?
The scene Mi Xiaoran saw became an unforgettable scene in her life.
Just like the Italians and Irish who came to New York by boat, they could not help but respect and worship the Statue of Liberty.
She also regarded the sea of lights she saw in the sky as a symbol of the beginning of her American dream.
On this day, Zhao Hanyu’s eldest brother, Zhao Hanzhang, personally drove to pick them up.
When Mi Xiaoran got into the luxurious Cadillac car, she was first surprised by the advanced car equipment and the comfort of the seats.
She had ridden in a car several times in the capital, but compared to the Cadillac, it felt completely different.
Most cars in the capital have no air conditioning and can only listen to the radio, and even the legs are uncomfortable.
And this kind of truly high-end car gives people the feeling that it is spacious, stable, comfortable, smooth, and has a general fragrance from time to time.
When the car started to drive smoothly on the highway, New York's Long Island was like a mirage, with lights flashing and its entire body beautifully displayed in front of Mi Xiaoran's eyes.
Needless to say, the economic level of the United States in the early 1980s was of course quite different from that of our Republic in the early days of reform and opening up.
This year, the average annual income of our people was 742 yuan, while the average annual income of Americans during the same period was 18,000 US dollars.
This year, 99.5% of households in the United States owned at least one TV, more than 90% of households owned color TVs, and more than 50% of households owned two or more TVs.
On average, every three people own a car.
To be honest, the Western world, represented by the United States, has already entered a post-industrial society.
On the other hand, our republic is still in the difficult process of industrialization.
So whether it is a fast-moving city, busy American citizens, numerous skyscrapers, or the streets are full of good and famous cars.
It is still a three-level intersection with four or five floors, and there are endless car lights on the congested road.
That was something Mi Xiaoran couldn't even imagine, so he was naturally dazzled and amazed.
Later, when I arrived at the Zhao family’s villa on Changdao, I was under the square red bricks and green tiles.
The vast garden of the Zhao family, the fully automatic garage, the huge living room with a fireplace, the maids who serve the housework, the bathroom with a bathtub, and the sixteen-course banquet with delicacies from all over the world, made Mi Xiaoran think again. I felt a brand new mental shock wave.
In her heart, perhaps only the big landowner Liu Wencai could own such a house.
In this way, she was delighted to find that Zhao Hanyu's parents treated her in a very kind manner and seemed to have a good impression of her.
Although life is still full of many unknowns, she is already convinced that happiness falls from the sky.
Your beautiful life is about to start from here, from this moment.
Unfortunately, as time passed by, her thoughts quickly changed.
Because this is a foreigner's hometown after all, and she lives in her husband's house.
In a situation where she was dependent on others, there were too many obstacles and restrictions that made it difficult for her to adapt and integrate, but she had to give up on herself.
The first is the many inconveniences in life.
As we all know, in the United States, buses often only run in urban areas. If you leave the urban area a little further, there are no buses.
Even if there is one, the bus only comes every hour or two.
So if you don’t have a car in the United States, or you don’t know how to drive, it’s like you’re missing a leg, which is extremely inconvenient.
However, if you want to get a driver's license, in addition to learning to drive, you must first have a legal identity.
Considering Mi Xiaoran's situation, she filled out the marriage registration form and handed it to the Zhao family's lawyer.
It will take three months to get the temporary green card, and one year later, you will have the official right of residence.
Of course, due to identity issues, it is impossible to work and earn money without a work card.
In this case, the only thing Mi Xiaoran can do is to go to a language school to learn the language and improve his English proficiency.
But unfortunately, since Zhao's family is in a wealthy area of Long Island, she goes to school far away.
Not only is it inconvenient to go back and forth, but Zhao Hanyu needs to be picked up and dropped off, which wastes a lot of his time.
The key is that most Chinese in the United States still speak Chaoshan dialect and Cantonese.
Originally, there are not many teachers who understand Chinese in language schools. Even if there are, they don’t speak Mandarin and all they write are traditional Chinese characters.
Even the situation of the Zhao family is like this.
So Mi Xiaoran has become completely helpless. Not only did she have to improve her English, she also had to learn Cantonese like crazy. Her progress was slow and she struggled to learn. Isn't that uncomfortable?
But what is even more uncomfortable is the inferiority in status.
This is no exaggeration.
Although all Americans hate the word "social class" and declare that there are no class differences in their country, they are a paradise of democratic equality.
But money dominates everything and white supremacy has always coexisted.
Therefore, no matter from the economic aspect or from the perspective of skin color, those who come here from the Republic are all at the bottom and least respected.
Mi Xiaoran just arrived at the language school and felt what it was like.
Because wherever she goes, whenever she sees someone who looks like an Oriental, the long-haired foreigners will always ask her.
“Japanese? Or Singaporean?” Once the answer is “NO!”
The other party will persist in guessing, "Is that from Hong Kong City? Haha... from Treasure Island..."
"NO! CHINA!",
The other party was immediately shocked and said, "How is it possible? Isn't your country very poor and the quality of civilization is not high? How could you be from mainland China?"
More What makes Mi Xiaoran sad and powerless is that the dish is always the same.
This situation is the same even in the Zhao family.
Because Mi Xiaoran's family has no possibility of giving her financial help, she will always need the Zhao family to support her.
My sister-in-law Lin Yuzhen’s mother-in-law is a small business owner of plastic toys.
No matter how hard Mi Xiaoran tried to please her parents-in-law, she could not compare to her sister-in-law's status.
Every important matter at home, the parents-in-law would only discuss it with the eldest daughter-in-law, and Mi Xiaoran didn't even know about it.
Even the servants at home only regard Lin Yuzhen as the master of the house.
In their eyes, Mi Xiaoran is just a mainland girl who was lucky enough to marry into the Zhao family.
Under the surface politeness of the servants, the perfunctory and contempt in their hearts cannot be concealed and will be revealed from time to time.
So the only thing Mi Xiaoran could do was to wait, unable to do anything, waiting to get his legal status.
Only then will her troublesome situation be solved, and everything can start again.
Unfortunately, she miscalculated again.
Soon, she got her identity and got her driver's license. Her parents-in-law even bought her an old second-hand car.
But at this time, her parents-in-law urged her and Zhao Hanyu to have a child.
I think there is no practical significance for her to go to school. It is better to stay at home to help my sister-in-law take care of the housework and concentrate on raising her husband and children.
This is what really scares Mi Xiaoran.
She didn’t want to come all the way to the United States, just to be an unpaid nanny and give birth to many children for the Zhao family.
From now on, I will have no freedom, and my every move will depend on the eyes of the Zhao family.
The bigger danger is that in a few years, women will get old, and men who are not old will also get bored.
Once she loses Zhao Hanyu's feelings, she doesn't know what capital she still has to pursue happiness.
But she eats, drinks, takes and uses other people’s things for free, so what right does she have to object?
So I could only agree and smile perfunctorily, and slowly wait for the opportunity to change my life situation.
For this reason, she inevitably felt a kind of sadness in her heart that she had sold herself at a price and had no way to retreat.
In the last three months of 1982, her life in the Zhao family completely lost its fun, as if this place was a strange planet.
She was particularly homesick and longed to return to the safe and warm little bed at home in the capital.
At this time, she had only been in the United States for three months.
She knew very well that what was before her was not measured in months, but in years.
So she was afraid - facing the cruel distance, and time that was more cruel than distance.
Finally, time passed day by day, my language skills improved a bit, and I made more friends.
This made Mi Xiaoran's life in the United States more convenient and she got used to it, but the pain of homesickness did not get better at all.
Because during this period of time, she watched the morning news and evening news of the three major channels, but only saw two pieces of news about the motherland.
What she misses is not just the care of her family and the friendship of her friends, but the entire culture - everything related to her. Cultural isolation goes far beyond language barriers.
She wants to understand, accept and adapt, but she instinctively refuses and resists.
This feeling may be difficult to understand for those who have not experienced it personally.
Even international long distance calls must be connected through a dedicated telephone number in the telephone building.
Mi Xiaoran's only way to cope with missing his family is to write letters home that report good news but not bad news.
Then I was in a daze and had random thoughts.
Gradually, the thoughts and desires turned into a subconscious.
She often dreams about relatives and friends, and feels empty when she wakes up in the morning.
Maybe this made her develop the habit of rushing into the shower room as soon as she got up, as if she wanted to wash away all the emptiness and confusion with water, then pick up her schoolbag and go to the classroom.
But fortunately, her husband Zhao Hanyu, who loved her deeply, gave her another opportunity to welcome a new life.
Under her constant and deliberate inducement, Zhao Hanyu gave up his interest in playing and did not intend to help his family manage the business. He began to look for a job.
Finally, the day before New Year's Eve, he received an employment notice from a financial loan company based on his excellent academic qualifications, with an annual salary of US$20,000.
So on New Year's Eve, at eight o'clock in the evening on New Year's Eve in Beijing and seven o'clock in the morning on New York's New Year's Eve,
with Master Mi, Aunt Mi and Mi Xiaohui's family, they watched the color TV and ate Having New Year's Eve dinner is very different.
Mi Xiaoran, who was in New York, couldn't care less about missing her family. She was trying her best to pester her husband Zhao Hanyu in bed, asking for her New Year's gift.
"Please, my dear, after today, can you tell your family? No matter what, you must stick to our decision, okay..."
" Okay, okay, don’t worry, no matter what, I will definitely take you with me when I go to work in Manhattan. I also hope to become a two-person world as soon as possible. I’m not going to lie to you, I’ve already started looking for a house with an agent..."
Zhao Hanyu's answer somewhat reassured Mi Xiaoran.
But to be honest, this Spring Festival is probably the most difficult Spring Festival for her.
Because the Zhao family will never let them live according to their own wishes easily...
(End of Chapter)