Chapter 4 — My Wife Is Not An Outsider

I don't have to worry about the mortgage payment on her house — it's the house I bought before getting married. But the amount of money she spent each month on "family", combined with the amount borrowed by Luc An An, exceeded half of her income. She's having to scrimp on her lunch. I opened her food order history. In the last three months, the number of orders for lunch on working days has only been a few times. No order was more than fifteen yuan — it was all white porridge, dumplings, and the cheapest plain rice. There were many days when not even an order of ten yuan was available. She is fasting. I turned off the phone, placed my hands on my face, and used force to press my eye sockets. Fingertips cold. After work, I didn't go home right away. Driving to a Japanese restaurant in the city center - once passing by, On Duong stopped in front of the door for a few seconds, looked at the menu and then left. I remember her saying, "It's too expensive, let's leave it for another day." That “other day” never came. I booked a private room, then went to pick her up. When she came out of the company and saw my car parked on the side of the road, she was a little stunned.

“Why did you come to pick me up?” She opened the car door and sat in the passenger seat: "Is something wrong?"

“See you out to eat.”

“What are you eating?”

“Japanese food.”

She turned to look at me, her expression hesitant: "That restaurant is very expensive, isn't it? Let's go home and eat, mom probably cooked..."

“Everyone's eaten everything mom cooked.” I said: “Let's go out to eat.”

She didn't say anything more. When I arrived at the restaurant, I ordered the same dishes she had been watching outside the door — salmon sashimi, eel rice, mixed tempura, miso soup. When the dish was served, her eyes lit up for a moment. But just for a moment. She quickly regained her expression, picked up a piece of salmon, and ate it in small bites. I noticed how she ate. Not the slow elegant style, but the careful "eat with respect" style. Each mouthful is chewed for a long time. When using chopsticks, choose small pieces, do not touch large pieces. At the third piece of tempura, she stopped.

“You should eat too.” She pushed the plate towards me.

"I've eaten, you should eat more."

She smiled, bent down again and continued. She ate two bowls of eel rice at once. At the last bite, she held the bowl, the corners of her mouth moving as if she wanted to say something.

“What's wrong?”

“Nothing.” She put down the bowl: "It's just that I haven't had a meal like this for a long time."

Her tone when she said that was very light, like she was talking about the weather. But my chest felt like someone had stuffed it into a rock. On the way home, the car was very quiet. She leaned her head against the glass window, the streetlights passing by one by one across her face. I gripped the steering wheel tightly, thinking for a long time. After turning off the engine in the parking lot, I still did not remove my seat belt.

“Wen Duong.”

“Yes?”

“What happened at home, I'll tell you the truth.”

Her body stiffened. Not in an exaggerated way, just a straight spine.

“What happened?” Her voice remained calm.

“About eating.” I looked at her side profile: "Did mom never leave you a proper meal?"

The safety lock clicks once. Her hand was on the lock, not moving.

“Who told you that?”

“No one said anything.” I opened my phone, played back the video from the camera, and quietly gave it to her.

On the screen, three people are gathered in front of a dining table full of food. She picked up the phone and lowered her head to look at it. The video cuts to seven thirty at night, she pushes open the door, walks into the kitchen, and opens the lids of two small bowls. Her thumb pressed against the screen. Stop. It was very dark in the car. The glimmer of light from the control panel shone on her face. I saw her jaw tighten and her throat roll slightly.

“Wen Duong.”

“I'm okay.” she said. Voice a bit hoarse.

“Don't say it's okay.”

She returned the phone to me, turned her head to look out the car window.