Cha Husband and Wife Teenagers, by Liu Wenhua, published by Baihuazhou Literary Publishing House in November 2023

This is the best collection of short and medium-sized novels I've read this year, and its chapters, such as "Cha Husband and Wife Teenagers," "If We Flashback to Love," and "A Faraway Dog," are all classic novels reflecting marital life. Definitely worthy of the best, I recommend you check it out.

Highlights:

That year, our family married and divorced a daughter-in-law. The one who married a daughter-in-law was my brother, and the one who divorced a daughter-in-law was me.

That year, I loved to meditate on everything. The first thing I did was to run to the wheat field under the moonlight to rummage through my boredom. In the face of a field of pale moonlight, trying to interpret the relationship and meaning of life, marriage or love. Then I got confused, and those chaotic thoughts grew over my teenage head like the jagged ears of wheat around me, giving me a headache, overwhelmed by the clutter and the weight. Those problems I can not deal with, I can only stroke the tufts of wheat leaves, counting the years, past events and stars ......

-- Excerpted from "Just Couple of Teenagers" page 001

The two sat down to eat pomegranate, the moonlight is a bright. Aichi pushed his glasses and said, look at the moon. Umbrella said is better than the fifteenth. Said and covered her mouth with her hand, twisting her face to eat and laugh. Ah Yi went to pull her face, said what are you laughing at, is it not really good? The umbrella to him pulled into the embrace, so shy that so sexually pouting, said, you ah, compared to the moon is too bad, talking always call people on the set.

The umbrella in fact is not keen on literature, but also a little interest, she often read the book is a book of the world's mathematical problems to appreciate, in the view of the Aichi as a book of heaven. But this is also exactly where Ah Yi is fascinated, because from a complementary point of view, this is more ideal than the two people are dancing in the ink. Umbrella saw that Ah Yat was chasing after him and could not avoid him, so he took him to his home once in a hurry. Umbrella's parents naturally do not look at the first, polite a few words, and then busy themselves with other things. At night again out, umbrella silent a lot. A one asked her how, she said some pale, I was thinking, our family how to accept you. A one said bad, love has not yet begun to cast a shadow. Umbrella looked up at the sky and said How do you think? A book has been timid, but also insisted on refusing to let go of the umbrella's hand, to the umbrella also give themselves a boost and said, I thought it was the two of us. Umbrella said that's not good enough.

The moon hangs high in the sky, and its light flows like water, omnipresent and impossible to catch. Ichi spread out his palm, the moonlight sprinkled all over his hand, fisted it, and his hand was empty. Ah Yi was confused by this marvelous phenomenon, wondering if everything was like this moonlight that was within reach and far away from the sky. The umbrella was nestled in his arms, but he still didn't have the feeling of "it's done", rather he was afraid that she would run away at any time and fly away and evaporate. He put her down, flat, leaning on her ear quietly said, umbrella, umbrella, we are married tonight, okay? Umbrella did not understand the beginning, understand almost did not run away, the reason did not run away because she was "husband and wife" the word ambiguous and warm verb meaning funny, twisted body said quietly, this is too fast, we still do not understand who ah? Yi added, then we will flashback.

--from Liu Wenhua's short story collection, "The Husband and Wife Junior", "If we flashback love" page 113~114

Because of a delicious meal, but also because of the hope of life has fallen, my wife's high spirits, continued to the end of the night is still high. That night she crawled up to me and said in a soft, slow voice, "Do you think you're a little different today?

I said I realized that my brother really has me in his heart.

My wife said, "I don't know what else to say.

What did I say?

Foolishly, my wife was rarely embarrassed, and even some shyly said, people, people put the dog that thing into your bowl of miles.

I think this is the wife ah, to have how much caution on how much caution, her surface brother and sister-in-law called so close, behind the scenes or on her own men stay a hand. It is said that the dog that thing aphrodisiac kidney, I also really feel a share of vigorous and born of the male force, excited, rolled over and rode her up. We made love long and soundly, and we realized in love that we were still so young and loved the world so much. We found the moonlight tonight as lovely as the water, and found the stars and the wind outside the window unbearably welcoming. And under the weight of life, we had neglected this necessary lesson for couples for far too long, at least in the case of my wife, who always kept me out of bed and from fertilizing and watering my own fields. Since producing those three children in one fell swoop, she no longer needed me as a grower of crops. Over time, I have become accustomed to the lazy life of idleness, and in the face of a contract that no longer works, we have automatically given up the responsibility and obligation of contracting and being contracted. Now we know the old and the new, from which we understand that the mother and father of the three children have just figured out a little bit of the husband and wife with the same night door, know that outside of childbearing and childrearing, there are still many joys of labor itself. We are so happy that we have not been able to sleep a wink.

Just when I was feeling a little more confused, I heard a faint knocking on the door, I thought it was a hallucination, and rolled over to try to get lost again, while the knocking continued. I listened again, and had to leave my wife in my arms, rubbing my eyes to open the door ......

-- From "A Faraway Dog" of "Just Husband and Wife Boys", pp. 084~085