By Ben Erxin

Translation by Zhu Yaguang

My Grandparents’ Standard Room

By Ben Erxin

Translation by Zhu Yaguang

W hen I visited my grandparents as a little girl, I always thought that their bedroom had a strange look. The moment I stepped inside, I felt like I was entering a hotel room. There were two single beds and two bed lamps, with one bedside table in the middle. As I grew up, I gradually understood why they slept in different beds.

My grandma was born in a wealthy and influential family, and she had a childhood sweetheart, a man who left her behind to study abroad and never returned. She kept waiting until she became a “leftover lady” as the locals called it.When she reached 20, her father couldn’t bear to wait any longer, so he immediately married her off to a poor boy who proposed to her.

My grandpa was the poor boy whose family was utterly destitute. He was just 17 at that time. When they first met, Grandma disliked him. Perhaps out of malnutrition, Grandpa was shorter than her, and he walked barefoot even though it was winter. Regardless of how unwilling Grandma was, she accepted the arranged marriage. Later,Grandpa was enlisted in the army, and for several years, Grandma didn’t hear any news from him,and she raised their four children all by herself.After demobilization, Grandpa got a job in the city, and Grandma and the children went with him. However, their life in the city wasn’t entirely satisfactory at that time. According to my dad, he spent his childhood living in a house with some leaks in the wall, and Grandma would always pick wild flowers to insert in the cracks.

小时候去奶奶家，一直觉得爷爷奶奶的房间很奇特，乍一进去就像酒店的房间，有两张单人床、两盏床头灯，中间还有一个床头柜。后来大了一点，明白了爷爷奶奶这叫“同房不同床”。

奶奶家当年是大户，奶奶曾是老家那一带知名的“剩女”，曾有一个青梅竹马的恋人，但是恋人留洋以后一去不复返。到了奶奶20岁的时候，曾祖父终于忍不住，随便找个穷小子把奶奶嫁了。

那个穷小子就是我爷爷。爷爷那年17岁。奶奶看到爷爷的时候，内心是很嫌弃的。爷爷当时可能是没饭吃的缘故，没有奶奶高，冬天了还打着一双赤脚。但再不情愿，奶奶还是嫁给了家徒四壁的爷爷。爷爷后来参了军，曾经生死未卜，音讯全无，奶奶独自抚养四个子女。后来爷爷退伍有了工作，奶奶带着四个孩子来到城里投奔爷爷，没想到城里并不像传说的那么好。爸爸说小时候他的家就是一间四面漏风的屋子，奶奶有时候会不知道从哪里采来一束花，插在墙壁漏风的窟窿里。

上世纪90年代初期，已在外工作的爸爸突然收到一封电报，是奶奶发来的，上面只有两个字：速回。

爸爸当时心里“咯噔”一下，连夜买了一张火车坐票赶回家。看到爷爷奶奶好好的，刚放下心时，奶奶却一把抱住他哭。

原来奶奶要儿子速回，只因爷爷要与她分床睡，还要求一人一个房间。爸爸和姑姑做工作后，二老才同意住同一个房间，方便照应，于是家里便改造得如同酒店的标准间。

很长一段时间，奶奶都不能适应。……