Zhu Ze pulled his key from the lock and pushed open the door to his family’s apartment. The familiar smell of home—steamed rice, dried chilies, and his mother’s jasmine hand soap—wrapped around him like a warm blanket. He dropped his backpack in the entryway and called out, “Mom! I’m back!”
From the kitchen, Li Xiulan’s voice floated back, sweet and clear. “Wash your hands, son. Dinner will be ready in five minutes. Your sister is in her room.”
Zhu Ze smiled. Another evening of peace. He walked past the living room, where the television murmured the evening news, and glanced down the hallway. His sister Zhu Wanwan’s door was half-open, and he could see her sitting at her desk, a pile of textbooks open in front of her. She wore a simple white blouse and a long blue skirt, her black hair tied back in a neat ponytail. A goddess of the high school, everyone called her, and it was true—she had that pure, untouchable beauty that made boys too shy to speak. She looked up, caught his eye, and smiled.
“Big brother, don’t forget we have a guest coming over later,” she said.
“Liu Tingting?” Zhu Ze’s chest warmed. “She told me she’d come at seven.”
“I made extra dumplings,” his mother called from the kitchen.
Life was good. Zhu Ze was twenty, a sophomore at the local university, majoring in mechanical engineering. His father had passed away five years ago, but his mother—gentle, virtuous Li Xiulan—had raised him and Wanwan with steady hands and a soft voice. She worked as an accountant for a small firm, never complained, always had dinner ready. And Liu Tingting, his girlfriend of eight months, was everything a boy could want: cheerful, innocent, with a laugh like wind chimes. She wore her JK uniform to school, pleated skirt and white knee-socks, and when she held his hand, he felt like the luckiest man alive.
Dinner was a quiet, happy affair. Wanwan talked about an upcoming exam, and Li Xiulan nodded, reminding her to get enough sleep. After they cleared the dishes, the doorbell rang. Zhu Ze opened it to find Liu Tingting on the threshold, her school bag slung over one shoulder, her hair tied in pigtails. She stepped inside, gave him a quick peck on the cheek, and called out a cheerful, “Auntie! Wanwan!” The two women came out and they all sat in the living room, chatting about nothing important. Zhu Ze watched them: his mother in her modest floral dress, his sister sitting primly, his girlfriend laughing at a joke. Perfect. Everything was perfect.
That night, after Liu Tingting left and Wanwan went to bed, Zhu Ze stayed up in his room, scrolling through his phone. The apartment was quiet. His mother had said she was tired and turned in early. He thought nothing of it.
But in the weeks that followed, small cracks began to form.
It started with his mother’s language. One morning at breakfast, Li Xiulan dropped a plate, and a curse slipped out of her mouth—something coarse, vulgar. Zhu Ze blinked. “Mom?”
She looked startled, then laughed. “Sorry, son. Must be the stress at work.” She covered her mouth with her hand, but her eyes darted away. He dismissed it. Stress happened.
Then came the dresses. Li Xiulan had always dressed modestly, but now she started wearing tighter blouses, lower necklines. Zhu Ze came home one day and found her at the stove, her back to him, wearing a thin white top that showed the outline of her bra straps. She was bent over, stirring a pot, and some part of him noticed, then immediately felt sick for noticing. He looked away. “Mom, you okay?”
“Fine, fine,” she said, not turning around. Her voice had a new edge to it, a kind of purr that made him uncomfortable.
Wanwan noticed too. One night, she knocked on his door. “Big brother, has Mom been… strange to you?” She crossed her arms, her brow furrowed.
“A little. But she’s probably just tired.”
Wanwan bit her lip. “She yelled at me today. Used a word… I don’t want to repeat it. She’s never yelled before.”
“Maybe she’s seeing someone?” Zhu Ze offered weakly. “A man?”
“I don’t know. She comes home late now, sometimes after ten. She says it’s overtime.”
He told himself it was nothing. A phase. Menopause, maybe. Life was still good—Liu Tingting still held his hand, still laughed at his jokes. Wanwan still studied hard. But the cracks widened.
One evening, Zhu Ze came home earlier than expected. The apartment was silent. He heard a low, rhythmic sound from the master bedroom. He crept closer and pressed his ear to the door. His mother’s voice, low and husky, almost a growl: “Yes… that’s it… more… I want more.”
His blood went cold. He stepped back. Was she… on the phone? Talking to herself? He didn’t knock. He went to his room and closed the door, sitting on his bed, staring at the wall. Something was wrong. But he didn’t know what, or who.
He didn’t see the figure in the alley across the street, the one who had met his mother three weeks ago, outside the grocery store. A man in a dark coat, with pale fingers that had brushed her wrist as he helped her with a fallen bag. She had looked up, and for a moment, her eyes had gone glassy. Then she had thanked him, smiled, and walked away. But the next day, she had found a note in her purse: *“You want more. I know where you live.”*
She had not thrown it away. She had read it three times, then folded it carefully, slid it into her bra. That night, she had dreamed of things she had never imagined, and she had woken up wet between her thighs.
Now, in her bedroom, Li Xiulan lay on her back, staring at the ceiling. Her lips were moving, repeating words she didn’t understand, but they felt right. A heavy, drowsy warmth filled her head. She was forgetting something—what it was, she couldn’t recall. But it didn’t matter. Soon, she would learn a new way to live.
And still, Zhu Ze heard nothing. He fell asleep that night believing in hope, believing his family was whole. The apartment settled into silence. The cracks remained invisible, but they spread, spidering through the walls of the home he loved.