Before the National Day holiday, my husband and I spent sixty thousand yuan to rent a small guesthouse. We planned to bring both sets of parents for a quiet vacation. When I arrived with my mother and father, the courtyard was full of people. My sister-in-law and brother-in-law were grilling. Two aunts sat on the terrace drinking tea. Children were pulling flowers by the wall. My mother-in-law waved at me. "Zhiyi is here. We are all family. A few more pairs of chopsticks is nothing." I looked at my husband. Chen Yu avoided my eyes. "I forgot to tell you. My mother invited a few relatives at the last minute." "Chen Yu. Seven families. Six rooms. How do you propose we divide them?" He was silent for a moment. Then his gaze landed on my parents. "Your parents are only two people. Why do they not stay in town for a few nights?" My mother immediately bent to pick up her suitcase. "It is fine. Do not fight because of us." Something in me went quiet. I took the suitcase from her hand. "Dad, Mom, let us go." My husband exhaled with relief. "Take them to a hotel and come back tonight." I looked at him. "You misunderstood. I meant I am going with them." The courtyard behind us was loud with relatives. No one called after me.0

I drove my parents to a hotel in town. On the way, my father asked, "Did you know they were coming?" "No." "Did he tell you at all?" "No." My mother patted my arm. "Maybe he forgot. You know how busy he is." I said nothing. At the hotel, I called Chen Yu. He answered on the second ring. "Are you coming back?" "When did you invite them?" He paused. "Does it matter?" "Yes." "Ten days ago." My chest tightened. Ten days. He had known for ten days. "You kept it from me for ten days." "I did not keep it from you. I did not think it was worth arguing about. My mother only asked whether my sister could come. Then my brother heard, and the aunts had no plans..." "And you said yes to all of them." "There are six rooms!" His voice rose. "We only need three. Why waste the other three? What is wrong with my family using them?" "And the fourth family?" He went quiet. I closed my eyes. "You invited four families into a house meant for two. And you decided my parents would be the ones to leave." "I did not decide anything." "You did. You just did not tell me."0

The hotel cost twelve hundred yuan a night because of the holiday. My father frowned when he saw the price. "So expensive. We could have squeezed in at the guesthouse." "We paid sixty thousand for the guesthouse," I said. "This is nothing. No one is allowed to think about money today." I pushed their luggage into the room and took them out for dinner. My mother kept apologizing. My father kept saying they should have stayed home. I ordered too much food and made them eat it. That night I sat on the balcony of the hotel and looked at the town lights. My phone buzzed. It was Chen Yu's aunt, the older one. She had sent a message. "Zhiyi, I heard from Chen Yu that your parents are staying in town. I am sorry. I did not know you were not told." I stared at the message. Then another came. "He told us you had agreed. He said your parents were easygoing and would not mind staying in town for two nights." I read it three times. So he had not thought of the hotel at the last minute. He had planned it before he invited the fourth family. He knew who would be pushed out. He had even prepared the reason.0