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As always, he argues, and through the long-distance call I hear them quarreling seriously.

It is usually he that picks up the phone. She will come up to him asking who the caller is. Knowing it's me, she will grab the phone, say a few greeting words, and then start talking bad of him, complaints flooding out, all about chores and minor superficial details.

Every once in a while I will dial the familiar number.

Bored sometimes, I pretend to be very unhappy and yell, "Couldn't you stop arguing and let my ears have a quiet moment?"

Then I turn soft, and try to find faults in him.

Quarreling seems to be bound with their life. He seems like a capricious boy, and she a little girl who cannot bear with even a small grievance. It is common that they fight each other half a day over minor issues. Over and over again, they will quarrel -- they are born to disagree with each other.

He listens to me, irritated, "Who bullies her? It is she that bullies me!"

She pauses two seconds, and mumbles, "He always bullies me." I almost see her, pitiful as she is.

"Why did you bully her?"

Like an actor and an actress, they are indulged in acting. With me watching, they end up in more heated disagreements. So I don't want to bother any more. I just stand by when they quarrel.

Just as the saying goes, a righteous judge is never able to decide who is right and who is wrong in an argument between a couple. I tried to intervene, only to get them into more serious debate.

In the end, she will find her eyes red, and wipe tears off her cheeks. He gets upset and attempts to soothe her. He looks funny -- staring at her like a mad frog with two eyes open wide, he yells with determination,

"From now on I will wash all the dishes." He seems to be swearing. And she weeps and smiling flowers bloom on her face.

"Stop it. That's enough. You are getting on my nerves. I am not gonna die." He shouted, frowning.

One day he got bit by a snake while working in the farmland, one leg swelling furiously. He was then rushed to hospital where he went through a series of torment -- he got injected to let the contaminated blood out.

Seeing the blood, she was scared to big tears, crying loud.

"Why did you say that?" She immediately quarreled hard with him, not to stop for a long while.

She got mad at the word "die" that he had mentioned.

Doctors were watching on, amused.

"Isn't quarreling more effective than pain-killing pills?" The doctors teased.

They looked at each other, embarrassed and laughing. That finally stopped their quarreling.

Witnessing her change, he hurt in the heart. One night he wanted to drink water. He did not wake her up, pulled himself out of the bed, and fell over because his legs were too weak.

In order to save hospital expenses, he insisted on going home despite her mad disagreements.

Lying in bed, he was having an intravenous drip for a continuous period of 12 days. She was busy dealing with housework and everything else out of home. She was weak and thin, and too much work had made her even more skinny.

His fall actually woke her up. She rushed to support him to stand up. She scolded him for not having waken her up. He said that he could manage. A serious quarrel was about to burst out again.

I called them from Zhuhai, the beautiful city of relaxation and exciting views. I wanted to depict to them how pretty a city Zhuhai is. He was surprised that I had travelled such a great distance, to where he and she had never been all their life. He then believed that I had accomplished a big success, and that I had significantly broadened my horizons. He went on talk in honor of me, voice trembling with pride; she was beside him, excited all the same. They did not mention anything about the family change and their suffering.

"No, no, no, she was not telling the truth."

"He treated me bad again. He could not get out of bed by himself, but he wanted to be strong, and so he fell. I was trying to pull him up on his feet, and I just told a few words of complaints when he got out of bed, yelling that I was clumsy."

He was eager to tell me that she was really silly, that she did not know how to change the intravenous drip bottle. Then they started it over again quarreling. And this time I was listening to them in good patience, holding the telephone receiver.

I had not heard about his being bit by a snake until she told me her grievance.

He suddenly realized that they should stop. He said that it was a long-distance call. She immediately stopped arguing.

She hangs up before I had a chance to talk. I know they would have a good fight again.

Water was roaring in the sea out the window, waves climbing up and falling down, just like what I was feeling at the bottom of my heart.

"Why didn't you remind me earlier? How much money have we wasted her?"

They are my father and mother. He is 66, and she is 64.