Tu Xiaoning noticed her water cup was empty. She stood up and left the room. “Promising young men wouldn’t be interested in me.”

“Who says that? You’re just too pessimistic.”

“No, it’s just that society is too realistic.” As she opened the door, she saw her mother mopping the floor. They exchanged glances, and she sensed her mother was about to start something. “Alright, let’s not talk about it. I’ll hang up now.”

“Fine, let’s grab some meat next week when you’re free.”

“Okay.”

“Lift your feet! Can’t you see I’m mopping?” Sure enough, her mother was looking for trouble.

Tu Xiaoning quickly lifted her foot.

“Lift the other one too!”

She rushed into the kitchen.

“Hey! You little brat! I just mopped the kitchen floor, and now you’re stepping all over it with those dirty shoes!” Her mother’s voice was sharp behind her. “Look at you—already grown up but still can’t do anything! You waste your days off, not even reading or learning something useful. You just play those violent games. Don’t you realize what you’re missing out on?” Her mother blocked her path in the kitchen, mop in hand.

Tu Xiaoning just listened quietly while pouring herself some water.

“Your father and I went through a lot to get you a position at the bank. Do you not want to become a full-time employee? Are you content to stay a contracted worker with low pay for the rest of your life?” Her mother continued nagging.

To her, it felt like listening to a curse, and she kept drinking her water.

Seeing no reaction, her mother grew angrier and yanked off her headphones. “Are you even listening to me?”

“I am.”

Her mother threw her headphones aside and asked, “Then do you know you’ve already been at DR Bank for three years? It’s almost your fourth year now.”

Sighing inwardly, Tu Xiaoning replied, “I know, and I’m working on it.”

“Working on it? I haven’t seen any effort from you!” Her mother kept scolding, then suddenly changed the subject. “How are things going with Xiao Duan?”

Xiao Duan was the police officer her mother’s colleague had introduced to her.

The quick change of topic caught her off guard. She quietly retrieved her headphones and said, “I just deleted him from WeChat.”

“What?!” Her mother’s reaction was just as big as Ling Weiyi’s. “What happened?”

“I told him I was on a contract, and he stopped responding. Is there any point in keeping up with that?”

Her mother paused, surprised that he was so shallow.

For a moment, both mother and daughter were silent.

Her mother resumed mopping. “I told you, if you don’t work hard, you won’t even find a decent partner. If you were a full-time bank employee, we’d have the luxury of being picky. But now, we’re the ones being rejected.”

With her head down, her mother’s expression wasn’t visible, but Xiaoning knew she was deeply frustrated.

“He has a problem with his values. Even without this issue, we’d still have a hard time connecting,” Tu Xiaoning said.

“I know you didn’t really want to work at the bank,” her mother said, her tone softening. “But your father and I thought it would be more stable for you as a young woman, and it sounds good when people ask.”

Xiaoning thought she’d rather be scolded than hear such sentimentality.

Stability? Only older people thought of it that way. The hardships of working in a bank could only be truly understood by bank employees, and she had never seen anything appealing about it.

“I’ll work to get a full-time position this year.” She could only reassure her mother.

“Really?”

Back in her room, she sprawled out on the bed, feeling liberated.

Getting a permanent position at DR Bank was no easy task. Reflecting on her life, from kindergarten to college, her mother had been involved in every step. Her mother had chosen banking as her career, and since she didn’t have the educational qualifications to join a major bank through campus recruitment, her mother had pulled strings to get her in as a contracted lobby manager.

Every path in her life had been chosen by her mother, and it was likely her future partner would be as well.

She looked out the window, turned over, and buried herself under her pillow.

Life, oh life. Tu Xiaoning, when will you finally have control over your own life?

The next day was Monday. Early in the morning, a thunderstorm started, and she was not in a good mood.

Holding her umbrella, she rushed to the bus stop just in time to miss the direct bus to her workplace. The next one was ten minutes away, so she bit her lip and boarded another bus that took a longer route.

On rainy days, buses were exceptionally crowded. After scanning her card, she was pushed to the back by the crowd, her work dress dampened by various umbrellas. Finding a spot in the corner, she leaned against the pole and took a plastic bag out of her purse to store her umbrella.