The Meadow 187 “We are your family. You always hurt our feelings.” Mother dabbed her eyes with a napkin. Mom, I worked and paid for my college tuition. I paid for Hua’s college tuition. I also paid for the down payment of your son’s car. I did my obligation as the eldest daughter. She sucked in her bottom lip and clenched her fists instead of reminding them of all she had done. It was never enough. Mother always told her that a married daughter was just like water that had been poured- she didn’t belong to her parents anymore. Her parents spent time and money raising her, so naturally, they expected her to repay them before she got married. She was forever the daughter-in-law that belonged to her future husband’s family in her parents’ eyes. The silence was pregnant with strangled screams. “If your dage were alive, I wouldn’t even have this conversation with you. You only have one brother left! Only one!” A whimpering sound rushed past Ye’s ears; the sound she always heard when she was overwhelmed by rage and pain. “At least you have a son.” Ye unclenched her fingers and looked down at the nail marks on her right palm. “Yes, I have a son. I have only one son left,” Mother whispered. Ye recalled that so often on her way to the bathroom at midnight, she passed Mother’s bedroom and heard her whimper dage’s name. An enormous heaviness came over her. “I am sorry you lost a son. It must be hard. I am sorry, I really am.” She patted Mother on the arm. They sat around the round table in the restaurant. Ye sat next to Hua and Taotao. She glanced over the meat dishes and sighed. Her family always assumed that she was on a diet and would not believe that she simply preferred a light diet to meat, but she did not want to argue. She reached out to pick broccoli. “The shrimp is fresh and delicious. Have some,” Mother
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