Watering the Flowers

Their electric kettle was broken.It just so happened that his girlfriend’s company had issued a 300 yuan gift card for a supermarket, so they decided to buy a new kettle together that weekend.

The supermarket was only about seven stops away by bus, but they needed to change buses midway.After entering the store, his girlfriend was,as usual, taken in by various deals.She quickly accumulated a pile of discount goods that they might never use.

“That’s enough.If we keep shopping we might go over 300 yuan,” he cautioned.

“It should be okay, yeah?” His girlfriend’s eyes lingered on the shelves.

Sure enough, at the check-out the register displayed a total of over 500 yuan.

“Oh no, how did we go over by so much? Give me a moment, let

me take a few things out,” said his girlfriend, trying to pick items to discard.She looked like an impoverished mother being forced to choose which child to give up for adoption.

He glanced at the other customers waiting in line, pulled out his wallet,and said with half-amused annoyance,“Ah well, no need to take things out.Let’s just buy it all.” As he finished speaking, he was struck with the realization that this very scene had played out several times before.

When they got back, he plugged in the kettle and was dismayed to find the indicator light didn’t work.He left it on for a good while, but still nothing happened.

“I told you not to get the one that’s already been opened! I knew there’d be something wrong with it!”

“But the sales attendant said this was the last one of the model you wanted.What did you want me to do?”

“How could it be the last one in the whole supermarket? She was lazy and didn’t want to check in the back, and now you’re blaming me?”

It couldn’t be helped, so they put on the coats they had just shed and headed back to the supermarket.

On the way over, they waited for half an hour in the bitter wind before a bus finally showed up.

“Let’s call a taxi,” he said.

“It’s only three stops, it would be a waste,” she said.

This conversation repeated itself six times during that half hour.

When they arrived at the supermarket again, the elderly security guard stopped them at the entrance.

“Have you paid?” The old man pointed to the kettle in their hands.

“We bought a kettle here earlier today, but after we got home we discovered that it didn’t work, so we’re here to exchange it.”

“Ah, I see.Just one moment.” The old man pulled out his radio and said,“Wang Wenge Wang Wenge, is Wang Wenge there? Wang Wenge Wang Wenge…”

The old man repeated the name seven or eight times.It seemed that Wang Wenge had vanished into thin air, like the Cultural Revolution he’d been named after.

“He’s gone off to eat.You only need to call once.” A woman with a commanding tone spoke from the other end of the radio.“Don’t you get tired, repeating yourself so many times? What do you want him for?”

“Oh, I wanted to see if he could look at a kettle.A couple of customers are saying they bought a kettle that doesn’t work,” the old man said, fumbling with the talk button.

“Finish what you’re saying before you let go of the button, I couldn’t hear what you said at the end.I’ve told you this so many times.” The woman seemed a bit aggravated.

“Let’s just ask the saleswoman who sold it to us,” his girlfriend told the old man.

“Our rules say a technician needs to look at it first…well, alright, I’ll take you there,” the old man led them to the home appliances department.

“What’s going on?” asked a saleswoman.

“We bought an electric kettle here this afternoon, but when we got home we found that it doesn’t light up when it’s plugged in,” he repeated.

“Didn’t I tell you to pick another one? You were just too stubborn,” his girlfriend said.

“Why didn’t you get Wang Wenge to take a look at it first?” The woman asked the old man, brushing aside the girlfriend’s reproach.

“He’s eating right now.”

The woman took the proffered kettle with a look of deep weariness,squinting after the old man’s retreating figure.She walked over to an outlet in the corner and plugged the kettle in.The indicator light blinked a few times and then,remarkably, stayed on.

“What do you mean it doesn’t light up? Looks just fine to me,” the attendant huffed, pulling the plug.

“It must be a problem with the cord,maybe a poor contact—it was even flickering just now,” the girlfriend hastened to say.

“No, just now the plug wasn’t plugged in properly.If you don’t believe me, just look.” She plugged it back into the outlet and, sure enough,the indicator light came on without flickering.

“Then why doesn’t it work at home?There’s no way we’d come all this way if there was no problem, right?” his girlfriend demanded.

“That’s right, help us exchange it for another, will you?” he chimed in.

“If there’s no issue, how could I exchange it?” The woman started to get heated.

A few beats passed, and the air thickened with a nervous tension.

“Then fill it with water and heat it up so we can see,” his girlfriend said,compromising.

“Alright, if you really must.”

Before long, she reappeared carrying the kettle full of water.

按照水利部《关于开展全国重要饮用水水源地安全保障达标建设的通知》要求，结合山东省实际情况，先后开展了 2011、2012、2013 年重要饮用水水源地安全保障建设工作，定期对全省主要城市重点供水水源地水质进行监测并通报，完善饮用水水源地突发事件应急预案，提高突发水污染事件应急反应能力。

There was no problem whatsoever.The water soon began bubbling.Before long, steam was rising from the spout, fogging up his lenses.He moved a step over, and saw the corner of the attendant’s mouth twitching upward in the faintest wisp of a smile,as if declaring her victory.But his girlfriend’s face was looking nastier and nastier.She stared fixedly at the kettle and didn’t say a word.

The water reached a rolling boil.This sound, so familiar in the kitchen,suddenly pulled him into a famished state.

“The water is already boiling,” the woman said haughtily.

“We came such a long way, of course we had a problem.Come on, help us exchange it.” His girlfriend spoke with forced calmness.

“If there was a problem of courseI would exchange it, but the thing is that there is no problem.” The woman didn’t yield.

“Forget it, maybe there’s an issue with our outlet,” he said to his girlfriend.

“I think so too,” the woman echoed.

His girlfriend’s eyes widened.Furious, she spun around and stalked off.Holding the kettle in one hand and the packaging in the other, he hurried after her.

They didn’t talk much on the way home, both tired after the whole ordeal.She leaned on his shoulder and fell asleep.He stayed awake only for another stop.They missed their stop, and had to make another transfer.

“Let’s call a taxi,” he said as they got off the bus.

“Let’s call a taxi,” he said as they walked over to the bus stop across the road.

“Let’s call a taxi,” he said after they had waited five minutes.

“No! We’ve already wasted so much time, and now you want to waste money as well?”

“Why didn’t you say that earlier? If you’d just said so, I could’ve repeated myself two times less.” He tried to lighten the mood, but his girlfriend ignored him.After they got on the bus, she leaned her head against the window, and wouldn’t turn to look at him no matter how much he tugged at her.

As soon as they got home, he threw himself onto the bed, and his girlfriend filled the kettle with water.

“It’s still not lighting up!” He thought he detected a note of vengeful glee in her voice.

“What, no way!” He got up and switched the kettle to another outlet,but it still didn’t light up.“Forget it,let’s go back and get it exchanged another day.”

“Another day would mean next week.Do you not want to drink water this week?”

“I’m really too tired to go today…”

“Being tired is the only thing you’re good at! As if this all weren’t your fault to begin with.If you were a bit tougher, she would’ve exchanged it for us.”

“She wouldn’t have done it no matter how tough we were—there’s no arguing with a menopausal woman.”

“I don’t care.You go exchange it right now!”

“I don’t want to go.”

“Are you going or not?”

“I’m not!” He put some force behind the words this time.

That force was too much for his girlfriend’s frayed nerves.She slumped onto the bed and started sobbing.

“Alright, alright, I’ll go!” He picked up the kettle, shoved it into its box,and headed back out.He got all the way to the bus stop before realizing that he hadn’t emptied the kettle—no wonder it was so heavy.

He walked over to a flowerbed by the road.He opened the box, pulled out the kettle, and started pouring the water out.

“Uncle, what are you doing?” a little girl’s curious voice piped up from beside him.

“I’m watering the flowers,” he smiled as he replied.

He turned and started carefully pouring the water from the kettle,as if he was actually watering the flowers.In that moment, he desperately wished that he could stand there pouring out the water until the flowers bloomed.

Author’s Note:I never make up any of my stories.What I write about are all things I experienced either in reality or in dreams.I believe in James Joyce’s judgment: “Imagination is memory.” I believe the longer I live, the better I will write, and I can sense the progress I’ve already made over the last few years.This is a precious reward for a creator.I look forward to what I will be writing when I’m 70.But regrettably, the domestic literary environment is getting worse, and my readership is decreasing.I don’t know if I will be able to hold on and write for another 35 years.