“Stir fry like this is easy, JieMin. Most of the work is just cutting things up before you start. For anything more complicated, I will cook big on the weekends, and then we can eat stir fry and fried rice during the week.”
“OK, but we can still go out whenever you don’t feel like cooking.”
“I will let you spoil me, JieMin. Perhaps as often as twice a week.”
ChaoLi did need JieMin to help her with the shopping, at least this time. In addition to all the food, she bought a rice cooker, a wok, a teapot, a toaster, a set of sauce pans, and starter sets of dishes, silverware, and cooking utensils, plus a half dozen wooden spoons, one good knife, and an inexpensive tea set. As an afterthought, she added two folding chairs, as the small eating table in their apartment only had two chairs.
The housewares shop in the Uptown Market was more than happy to deliver next door to the Chen apartment building, but ChaoLi needed JieMin to pay for all these things. She had not yet separated her finances from those of her parents.
The food was enough to carry, though. In addition to vegetables, meat, rice, and bread, ChaoLi was fitting out an empty kitchen. Spices, soy sauce, multiple teas, sugar, salt, butter, oil. It went on and on.
“We should have had them deliver all this, too,” JieMin said as they both struggled across the street with multiple shopping bags in each hand.
“No, JieMin. The housewares shop does not charge extra for local delivery, but the grocery shops do.”
They were putting the food away when the delivery boy showed up from the housewares shop with a handcart full of boxes. They spent the rest of their evening setting up their kitchen with all their purchases.
The next morning they had a quiet breakfast at home. JieMin decided he liked this better than the hustle and bustle of the cafe. Just he and ChaoLi, eating at their little table as the early-morning sun streamed in through the east-facing window.
Sitting across from him at the little table, ChaoLi teased him by slipping her foot between his legs and up under his lavalava.
“Don’t tell me you are not yet sated after last night,” JieMin said.
“And don’t tell me you aren’t interested,” ChaoLi said, wiggling her foot for emphasis.
JieMin checked the time in his heads-up display.
“We actually have time, if we’re quick.”
Afterwards, they hurried through their showers to be ready for work in time. They kissed goodbye in the lobby of the building.
“Much better than wasting time walking to the silly cafe,” ChaoLi said.
JieMin agreed, then headed out for the bus downtown and another day of advanced mathematics and physics.
That night, Tuesday, ChaoLi made a stir fry and rice for dinner. JieMin was surprised and pleased to learn his wife was an excellent cook.
JuPing did not miss much that went on in her household. When ChaoLi brought her a delivery on Thursday, the young woman seemed very cheerful.
“How are things working out in your new household arrangements, ChaoLi?”
ChaoLi blushed heavily.
“Very well, Chen Zumu.”
“Good. My congratulations to you both.”
“Thank you, Chen Zumu.”
Klaus Boortz kept track of his newest grad student. He could see what class sessions JieMin watched. It was part of the grading and advancement system within the university.
By the end of the first week, JieMin was a third of the way through six different advanced graduate courses, three in mathematics and three in physics.
Well, whatever else one could say about Chen JieMin, Boortz, thought, you couldn’t say he was slow to jump right in.
Over the weeks that followed, JieMin and ChaoLi settled into a routine. ChaoLi cooked big for Saturday and Sunday nights, and they had stir fry and fried rice several nights during the week. They went out a couple times a week for weekday dinners across the street, and gradually worked their way through the entire menu.
Their first weekend together, they had ChaoLi’s parents over for Saturday dinner. They were nice people, and they and JieMin got along, although JieMin got the impression they were a bit disconcerted about how young he looked. He talked about what he was researching at the university, which calmed things down on that score.
The middle of their second week together, JieMin’s parents came down in the delivery truck. YongJun, JieMin’s father, had taken a rare weekday off from work to come down. JieMin and ChaoLi took the day off as well. It was for lunch, due to the schedule of the truck, but they ate big for lunch. JieMin thought his parents were impressed with ChaoLi, and her wonderful cooking didn’t hurt on that score at all.
Both sets of in-laws pressed about plans for grandchildren, but JieMin and ChaoLi would wait a couple years. She was on an implant contraceptive, and they had a lot of other things going on at the moment.
They were going to let life settle down a bit first.
About a month into their marriage, ChaoLi asked for a meeting with Chen Zumu. She was invited to take tea with her superior one Thursday afternoon.
ChaoLi was surprised to find Chen Zumu on two pillows, equally centered in the teak-beamed doorway, looking out into the garden.
“Sit with me, ChaoLi.”
“Thank you, Chen Zumu.”
ChaoLi sat on the pillow to Chen Zumu’s right. JongJu, a young woman who now held ChaoLi’s old job, came in from the garden and served them tea, ChaoLi first, then Chen Zumu. As the guest, ChaoLi sipped first.
After a few minutes of sipping tea and contemplating the garden, Chen Zumu broke the silence.
“What brings you to me today, ChaoLi?”
“I want to know how I may best serve, Chen Zumu.”
“And what paths are you choosing between?”
“Whether to continue as I am, working at the reception
