On that first night in bed together, she placed her head on the coal miner’s firm chest and wept inconsolably like a young child. She recalled the dreary nights of waking up to desolate darkness, absolute solitude in the absence of her parents. It was a terrifying experience for any child to endure. Sadder still, her parents could not attend their daughter’s wedding. They could not witness how their daughter had grown up to become a respectable woman. A sudden indescribable fear seized her as the possibility of forgetting tonight’s happiness clouded her thoughts. But what she feared most was that she would lose her love for teaching. She wept fearful tears; she sobbed through the night.
As for her personal belongings, she had only a small chest, a desk, and some books. However, on her wedding day, the neighbors, comrades, students, and the students’ parents showered her with gifts, which filled her small room. Some students and their parents from ten years ago somehow had heard about her wedding and attended. The town had never before seen such a large wedding ceremony. The coal miner thought that his bride had always lived in solitude. But, when he saw the entire town showering her with gifts and love, he was bewildered and delighted at the same time. He was deeply moved by the impression his wife had made on the townspeople, and so he loved her and respected her all the more. When he would return home from work and hear her talking with her students, he would close the door, go downstairs, and smoke a cigarette until she was done. He would go up only after the students finished talking with their teacher. The coal miner had maintained his commitment and loyalty to his wife all these years as if they were still newlyweds.
Jeong Jin Wu stepped aside from the front gate of the apartment.
The schoolteacher ducked past Jeong Jin Wu as if she were sorry about something. She unfolded the umbrella and stood in the rain waiting for her husband.
Jeong Jin Wu turned and slowly climbed the stairs back to his home, dragging his heavy feet up the endless flight into the void. He knew that even if he went home, there would be no one to greet him. He felt utterly desolate and frustrated with his wife. She had been away twenty days this month, the month of April. It had not even been a week since she returned from her laboratory before she left again. He considered his life no different from that of a widower. He resented his wife and her research.
As he approached the second floor, he heard the sound of wet shoes, muffled voices, and the folding of an umbrella downstairs.
“Why did you wait for me in the rain?” asked the coal miner. “Didn’t think I would come home?” It was always the same brusque greeting coupled with frivolity.
“Why are you so late?” asked his concerned wife.
“You see, I was installing a crane. And it got late. Everybody had already gone home, you see, so I had to do it all by myself. Ah, my back is killing me.”
“And you didn’t just happen to pass by the bar.”
The coal miner guffawed. “Do I smell like alcohol? I quit drinking, honey!”
“Since when? Tonight?”
“Of course!”
“Would a ten-year drinking habit stop overnight?”
“It’s going to be overnight.”
“Really? You promise?”
By the time Jeong Jin Wu reached the third floor, he could barely make out what the two were saying. The coal miner’s and schoolteacher’s voices faded away as they entered their apartment.
“Honey, do you need more of that crochet thingy?” asked the coal miner.
“Why do you ask?”
“I was thinking of getting more for you at the store.”
“The store at this hour? Don’t try to be sneaky. You want to go out and drink some more, don’t you?”
“How in the world did you know that?”
“You’re very easy to read. In any case, I don’t need more.”
“That’s too bad. You see, honey, the weather’s getting colder. Do we still have some of that juice left inside the closet?”
“It’s been three minutes since you quit.”
“Come on, just one glass. I can’t divorce alcohol. I fell in love with her long before I met you,” said the coal miner laughing.
The teacher quietly shook her head.
Jeong Jin Wu thought that perhaps his son had sent a letter, so he checked the mailbox again even though he had checked it earlier that day. It was an excuse to put off entering his desolate apartment.
When he entered, he was greeted by frigid air. He shivered.
He remembered the small greenhouse in the master bedroom. When he went there, the ventilation window was wide open, letting in the cold air. The leaves of the peanut plant were trembling because of the brisk wind coming in. He quickly closed the ventilation window and looked at the thermometer. Fortunately, the temperature had not dropped too much. Although he was worried about some of the young plants, he thought that they ought to learn how to adapt to the cold climate.
Jeong Jin Wu watered the young seedlings. A variety of plants had begun to sprout and showed signs of blooming soon. Peppers, tomatoes, cabbages, radishes, and other plants were awakening from their deep slumber.
Nearly all the plants were products of his wife’s green thumb. Some of these seeds had been discarded by her laboratory because they were not suitable for the soil in Yeonsudeok. But she brought them home and provided them with a new living environment. She considered each seed to be precious and life-giving. She also took these vegetable seeds and planted them in a plantation field and in her laboratory. She hoped these plants would yield twofold so that the field size and labor required would be reduced by half. She envisioned the people of this mountainous region relishing the plentiful vegetables she cultivated.
However, just as vegetable farming was contingent on seasonal changes and climate fluctuations, her research on her vegetables also required time to adjust to these natural occurrences. She had to repeat the experiment countless times. It was not going to be easy to make the seeds cooperate with her plan, especially when there had already been thousands of years of agricultural experience and revolution in human history.
How would she feel about giving up her research? It’s been proved fruitless so far. Besides, there are so many happy families that live ordinary lives with ordinary occupations.
Jeong Jin Wu thought about the long and difficult path ahead of his wife as he succumbed to regret and disappointment.
Before they were married, he had never imagined that she would embark on this kind of fruitless journey.
4
One autumn day twenty years ago, Jeong Jin Wu prepared to present his senior thesis before his fellow students and respected professors. He worked on the paper during his fifth and final year as a law major and titled it “A Legal Study on Divorce in Human History.”
The topic was too broad for a short presentation. If he had used historical and sociological material to do an in-depth study on the topic, it would have been worthy of a multivolume book. But the hastily written essay for his department fell short of that. Jeong Jin Wu based his thesis on dialectical materialism applied to the concept of divorce, an approach that had not been explored by his predecessors. That was why his comrades from his dormitory agreed that this paper was worthy of being presented and thought it would be well received as a university student’s senior thesis.
Jeong Jin Wu approached the podium with an air of pride and confidence. The students in the conference hall were mostly undergraduate and graduate students from the law school, along with some who had already graduated but maintained an interest in academic goings-on. There were also a number of students from other departments. Whenever a paper was presented at the university, the title, name of the presenter, and date appeared in the school newspaper and were posted on campus. Students were more inclined to attend a discussion on law than any other department presentations.