standings, but since we had come to Chi-chao Hutung there was not even this. We merely sat facing each other by the lamp and ruminated over the joy of reconciliation after those clashes.
Tzu-chun began to take on weight, and color and life appeared on her face. Only she was always so busy. With all her household duties, she did not even have time to talk, much less to study or take walks. We often said that we must engage a maidservant.
One of the things that irritated me was to find her in ill humor when I came home toward evening, especially when she tried to hide it by forced smiles. When I inquired into the cause of her irritation it was usually because of a silent duel with our landlady, with the chickens as the fuse. But why wouldn't she tell me about it? One must have the privacy of an independent home, I told myself. We could not go on living at a place like this.
My routine was fixed. Six days a week I went from the house to the office and again from the office to the house. At the office I sat at a desk and copied, copied, copied documents and letters: at the house I sat with her and helped her make the fire in the stove, cook the rice or steam the bread. It was during this period that I learned to cook.
My food was much better than it had been at the Guild. Although cooking was not Tzu-chun's forte, she did devote her entire energies in this direction. Since she herself worried about these things day and night, I could not help but worry about them too and thus it could be said that I shared her pleasures and her tasks. Her face was covered with sweat all day, the short hairs stuck to her forehead, and her hands became coarser.
