Auntie's Other House 🏡

Jiejie sat on the edge of the sofa with her teal tumbler suspended halfway to her mouth. On the television, Li Chun Hua stood inside the remains of her marriage and said the sentence that changed the atmosphere in the entire room. “I can’t let him lose his father at such a young age. This family cannot fall apart.” Jiejie slowly lowered her tumbler. Vinja looked up from his notebook. “No.” Jiejie did not move. “I have not said anything.” “You stopped drinking.” “I am processing.” “You are putting on your shoes.” “I process better in shoes.” Iggy22 climbed down from the back of the sofa. He studied Jiejie’s face, glanced at the television, and immediately began walking toward the hallway. Vinja watched him leave. “He knows.” Jiejie stood. “Get your notebook.” Vinja looked at the paused image of the mid-Ming Dynasty household. “We are not driving into the Ming Dynasty.” “Then wear comfortable shoes.” From behind the coat rack, Jiejie pulled out a long black cape. Vinja stared at it. “How long have you owned that?” “That is not important.” “It feels important.” “Drama justice requires presentation.” Vinja gathered his notebook, camera, and the expression of a man who understood that the evening no longer belonged to him. “What exactly is the mission?” “Reality.” “That is not a location.” “It is tonight.” Jiejie picked up the remote and pressed pause. The image of Li Chun Hua froze on the screen. The television flickered. The walls of the living room stretched, the light bent, and the paused scene opened like a doorway. Beyond it stood the Li family residence beneath the warm glow of hanging lanterns. Vinja looked through the screen. “I would like it officially recorded that I advised against this.” Jiejie stepped through. “Record faster.” Vinja followed. The television closed behind them with a soft ripple. They now stood in a stone courtyard in the middle of the Ming Dynasty. Jiejie looked down at her modern shoes. Vinja looked at her cape. “We are going to attract attention.” “That sounds like a problem for people who are not minding their business.”

Li Chun Hua opened the door wearing a tired expression and the posture of a woman who had spent too many years carrying everyone except herself. She looked at Jiejie. Then at Vinja. Then at the cape. “Who are you?” Jiejie’s expression softened. “Someone who heard what you said.” Li Chun Hua tightened her hand around the edge of the door. “I do not understand.” “You said the family cannot fall apart.” Li Chun Hua looked away. “My son needs his father.” “Your son needs a mother who is not being destroyed in front of him.” Li Chun Hua’s eyes returned to Jiejie’s face. “You know nothing about my family.” “I know your husband stole from it.” Li Chun Hua went still. “I know he sabotaged the family business. I know you pawned your jewelry to cover the damage he caused. I know he humiliated you, betrayed you, and still left you worrying about whether he might feel unwelcome at home.” Li Chun Hua’s voice dropped. “A wife must think of more than herself.” “A wife is still a person.” “A family cannot simply be discarded.” Jiejie stepped closer, but her voice remained gentle. “Auntie, you are not discarding the family. Your husband already did that.” Silence settled between them. Vinja lowered his camera. Li Chun Hua’s eyes filled, but she refused to let the tears fall. “I have given this family everything.” “I know,” Jiejie said. “That is why you must stop giving it your blood.” Li Chun Hua looked at the unfamiliar woman standing on her porch in a dramatic black cape. “What do you want from me?” Jiejie held out her hand. “Shoes.”

A hired carriage waited beyond the Li family residence. Vinja inspected its wooden wheels, enclosed cabin, and the driver holding the reins. “You arranged transportation remarkably fast.” Jiejie gathered her cape and climbed inside. “Drama justice requires planning.” “You learned the location less than ten minutes ago.” “I asked questions.” “You interrogated a servant.” “Professional distinction.” Li Chun Hua sat across from them with her hands folded tightly in her lap. The carriage rolled through narrow stone streets beneath rows of lanterns. Hooves struck the road in a slow, steady rhythm. Merchants closed their stalls for the evening. Servants carried baskets through side lanes. The city settled beneath the fading light. For several minutes, nobody spoke. Then Li Chun Hua looked toward Jiejie. “Where are you taking me?” “To the part of the truth everyone keeps making you discover one wound at a time.” Vinja checked the notes he had gathered from the household servants. “The residence should be beyond the eastern market, past the shrine.” Jiejie looked at him. “You found all that already?” “I observe.” “You eavesdrop.” “Professional distinction.” Li Chun Hua looked between them. “Are you both always like this?” “Yes,” they answered together.

The carriage stopped near a narrow lane beyond the eastern market. At the end of it stood a quiet courtyard residence surrounded by high plaster walls. Red lanterns hung beside the gate. A familiar horse was tethered beneath the trees. Li Chun Hua stopped breathing for one terrible second. She recognized the embroidered saddle cloth. It belonged to Li De Cai. Jiejie stepped down first and offered Auntie her hand. Li Chun Hua did not take it immediately. Then she placed her fingers in Jiejie’s palm and climbed from the carriage. They approached the residence quietly. Through the partly opened gate, servants carried baskets of rice, vegetables, cloth, and wine into the courtyard. This was not a place visited in passing. It was a household. A life. A second home maintained while Li Chun Hua pawned her jewelry to protect the first one. Vinja quietly closed his notebook. Jiejie looked through the gate. “This man has two households and cannot properly support either one.” Vinja lowered his voice. “Perhaps whisper.” “I am whispering.” “You are whispering with your entire spirit.” A servant crossed the courtyard and disappeared into an inner room. A woman’s laughter drifted through the open lattice windows. Then Li De Cai appeared. He was not dressed like a man overwhelmed by family business. He wore comfortable robes and carried a cup of wine. The other woman followed him from the room. She adjusted the collar of his robe with the easy familiarity of someone who had done it many times before. Li Chun Hua stared. Her face did not change all at once. The truth moved across it slowly, breaking through every excuse she had built to protect herself. Li De Cai returned to the room with the woman. Through the lattice window, Li Chun Hua saw them sit together on the edge of the bed. The woman leaned against him. He did not pull away. Li Chun Hua’s voice was barely audible. “He said he was managing family business.” Jiejie folded her arms. “He has certainly been managing something.” Vinja closed his eyes. “Perhaps not the moment.” “It is exactly the moment.” Li Chun Hua continued staring through the gate. “I pawned my jewelry for him.” Jiejie’s expression softened. “I know.” “I lied to my son.” “I know.” “I told everyone he was working.” “I know.” “I kept thinking that if I remained patient, if I kept the household calm, if I protected his place in the family—” “Auntie.” Jiejie took her hand. Li Chun Hua looked down at their joined fingers. “You have been trying to drink from a glass that was already shattered.” Li Chun Hua’s mouth trembled. “You cannot keep swallowing the pieces simply because you remember when the glass was whole.”

Li Chun Hua finally allowed the tears to fall. “My son will hate me if I leave his father.” “Maybe,” Jiejie said. “For a while.” Li Chun Hua looked at her sharply. Vinja leaned closer. “She does not perform false comfort.” Jiejie continued. “Children do not always understand the decisions that save them. Sometimes they only understand what changed.” “My son deserves a complete family.” “Your son deserves a healthy one.” Li Chun Hua looked through the gate again. Li De Cai was laughing now. The sound did not reach the lane, but she could see the ease of it. The comfort. The life he had built using the wreckage of hers. “If I leave, everything I endured will have been for nothing.” Vinja spoke quietly. “Remaining will not make the suffering more valuable.” Li Chun Hua looked at him. He held her gaze. “Time already spent cannot be recovered by sacrificing more of it.” Jiejie nodded. “Your son does not need to learn that love means accepting betrayal. He does not need to grow up believing a woman must disappear to keep a man in the house.” Li Chun Hua wiped her face with the edge of her sleeve. “What am I supposed to teach him?” “That love does not require you to abandon yourself.” Li Chun Hua closed her eyes. For years, she had believed endurance was proof of devotion. Now she stood outside her husband’s hidden home and saw what her devotion had purchased. Nothing. Not loyalty. Not dignity. Not peace. Only another excuse to suffer tomorrow.

Li Chun Hua looked toward the gate. “Did you bring me here to confront him?” “No,” Jiejie said. Li Chun Hua appeared surprised. “I thought you wanted justice.” “I do.” “Then why not expose him now?” “Because justice is not dragging you into another humiliation before you are ready.” Jiejie released her hand. “I brought you here so he could stop hiding inside your hope.” Vinja nodded. “Evidence before action.” Jiejie pointed at him. “That is why I keep him.” “I thought it was my navigation skills.” “Those remain inconsistent.” Li Chun Hua almost smiled. It was small and tired, but it was there. Behind them, footsteps sounded against the stone road. A household servant approached carrying a lantern. Li Zhen walked beside him. She looked first at Li Chun Hua. Then at the hidden residence. Then through the gate at Li De Cai. Finally, she looked at Jiejie’s cape. Vinja leaned toward Jiejie. “She has questions.” “She can ask them after she handles him.” Before leaving the Li residence, Vinja had quietly sent a servant to find Li Zhen. Jiejie glanced at him. “You arranged backup?” “I plan.” “You eavesdrop and plan.” “Professional distinctions.” Li Zhen moved toward her aunt. “Auntie.” Li Chun Hua turned. For one moment, she looked ashamed. Then Li Zhen took her hand. The shame began to loosen. Li Zhen looked toward the inner rooms of the second residence. Her expression hardened. Jiejie gathered her cape. “We should leave.” Vinja looked through the gate. “Before or after Li Zhen finds a stick?” “Before.” “That sounds unusually responsible.” “I already know how this episode ends.”

Li Chun Hua looked at Jiejie. “Will I be all right?” “Not immediately.” Li Chun Hua waited. Jiejie did not soften the truth. “It will hurt. You will question yourself. You may miss the life you thought you had. Your son may be angry. People may talk.” Li Chun Hua’s shoulders lowered. “But?” “But pain is not proof that you made the wrong choice.” Jiejie looked toward the hidden household. “You are already hurting. The difference is that leaving gives the pain somewhere to go.” Li Chun Hua looked at Li Zhen beside her. Then at the gate. Then at the carriage waiting at the end of the lane. For the first time, the decision before her was not whether she could endure another betrayal. It was whether she believed she deserved a life beyond it. She straightened. The movement was small. It was also everything. Li Chun Hua stepped toward the gate with Li Zhen beside her. Not to beg. Not to protect Li De Cai. Not to preserve the appearance of a family he had already abandoned. She went to face the truth without swallowing it. Jiejie watched Auntie walk away. “The cape worked.” Vinja looked at her. “The cape did nothing.” “It established authority.” “It frightened three servants and a horse.” “Authority.”

The carriage carried Jiejie and Vinja back through the lantern-lit streets. When they reached the Li family residence, the television doorway shimmered inside the empty courtyard. Vinja stopped before stepping through. “Do you think Auntie will leave him?” Jiejie looked back toward the distant city. “She finally saw the glass.” “That was not my question.” “No.” Jiejie adjusted her cape. “But now she knows she does not have to keep drinking from it.” They stepped through the screen. The JJUS living room returned around them in a ripple of light. The television resumed playing. Vinja removed his shoes and placed his notebook on the table. Jiejie folded her cape across the back of a chair. Iggy22 appeared at the hallway entrance. He studied them. Then he looked at the television. On-screen, Li De Cai began making excuses. Jiejie reached for her teal tumbler. Vinja pointed toward the cape. “No.” Jiejie looked at him. “I was only going to say ‘girl.’” Iggy22 turned around and left the room.