SNL 2020

The Sitdown

Baba: We should have done this right from the start.

Qing's Mama: I agree. When we learned that the kids were engaged, we should have done this with them and cleared everything up.

Mama: Well, we are here now. Better late than never.

Qing's Baba: True. And I, for one, am very glad that we can all sit down together and talk about this. All of us love Qing and Dayu and only want what is best for them.

Qing and I turned our heads to each other. We looked at each other and sighed together.

Me: They are so dramatic, I cannot take them seriously.

Qing: (taking my hand) Lets just...pray this torture will be over soon.

We both received censoring looks from our parents.

Hello, and welcome to this crazy life of mine. Here, everything feels so crazy that I stopped trying to make sense of anything. At this point, I am in the stage that we can all call "just going with the flow" stage.

And when I said flow I mean our parents arranging a meet up so all six of us could sit down around a dinner table in a nice private room on a hotel restaurant, dressed with our Sunday Best and being served with a slab of beef with tasty sauce on top of it.

We are finally having the "after the engagement proposal meeting of the parents" thing or whatever.

It is a sitdown, thats what it is. But first, there is one thing I don't understand about this meeting.

Me: Why can't we just have this sitdown in Beijing or in Harbin? Why do we all need to fly here in ShenYang, just to find a hotel restaurant to dine in?

Mama: Because this is about compromising. Beijing is Qing's family's home turf. Harbin is ours. We want it to be fair so we are meeting halfway. Hence, ShenYang.

Qing: (wincing) Since when did this engagement of ours became a thing that got us all thrown back to Kublai Khan's time? Meet halfway, what? Home turf, what?

Qing's Mama: Just know that it is a compromise. From here on out, we will seriously talk about the variables that could affect your relationship and marriage before you could actually get married.

Me: With so much hassle like this, do I even want to get married?

Everyone there: Dayu ah!

Me: (eyeing my parents) What? You just told me days ago in a phone call that I should rethink about joining Qing's family through marriage.

Baba: (clearing his throat) Its because they are having second thoughts in taking you into their family.

Qing's Mama: In fairness to me, I've never doubted how much I want Dayu as my son in law. How much I want Qing to treat Dayu right so Dayu won't leave him.

We all know that. No one in that table is questioning Qing's mother desire to have me as his son in law. We all turned our eyes to Qing's father who sighed deeply.

Qing's Baba: I will tell you all a secret of mine. And that secret is I think I am more desperate than my wife for Qing to get this right for both himself and Dayu.

Me: (blinking in susprise) Oh.

Qing: (sounding exasperated) Baba...

Qing's Baba: I am glad we are all here. I think its truly time for us to talk about our fears once the children get married. I know they had been living together for almost five years now, but we all know married life is not the same as the two of them being lovers and living together.