Weekend

Weekend functions in the narrative as more than a time marker. It is the recurring domestic interval during which Su Xiangwan and Lu Xun are expected to return to a shared home, and it therefore becomes a small but decisive battleground between Su Xiangwan’s wish to remain with her grandfather and Lu Xun’s insistence on marital closeness. The weekend compresses questions of love, freedom, and household allegiance into a single promised return.

Definition and Domestic Meaning

Weekend is presented as the period reserved for the couple’s shared domestic life. Su Xiangwan has only recently moved to her grandfather’s residence and asks for a week there so that she can accompany him a little longer. Her request gives the interval a competing emotional meaning: for her, the immediate priority is filial presence and adjustment to a new living arrangement; for Lu Xun, the approaching weekend is the earliest acceptable point at which she must come home.

This contrast makes the weekend a negotiated boundary rather than a neutral break from work or routine. A week is the amount of time Su Xiangwan asks to establish herself, while Lu Xun treats the weekend as a fixed return. The calendar becomes a language through which the couple tests how much separation their relationship can tolerate.

Negotiation Between Separation and Reunion

Lu Xun responds to Su Xiangwan’s request by requiring her to come home with him for the weekend. His demand is softened by a smile, but its underlying force is unmistakable: the weekend is not merely an invitation but an expectation of obedience and renewed cohabitation. Su Xiangwan recognizes the implication and regards his behavior as sly, understanding that his purpose is to draw her back into the marital household.

The exchange produces a clear value shift. Su Xiangwan begins by claiming time and freedom to remain with her grandfather; Lu Xun converts the same period into a promise of reunion. The disagreement does not dissolve into an abstract declaration of affection. Instead, it is enacted through scheduling, pleading, teasing, and physical insistence, showing how intimacy in their marriage is repeatedly organized through control over where Su Xiangwan will spend her time.

The Weekend as a Recurring Relationship Ritual

The idea of the weekend recurs when Lu Xun drives Su Xiangwan back to the old mansion. He expresses hope that the next day will be the weekend so that she can obediently come home with him. The repetition matters: the weekend is not a one-time compromise but a recurring ritual through which Lu Xun imagines restoring the couple’s shared household routine.

The journey home gives this ritual a transitional setting. Lu Xun turns on the warm air in the car, Su Xiangwan sits curled up in the front passenger seat, and the vehicle carries them toward the old mansion. These concrete details place the weekend between two residences and two claims on Su Xiangwan’s loyalty. The car becomes a temporary domestic space, while the old mansion marks the destination Lu Xun wants her to accept as home.

Consequences and Narrative Significance

Su Xiangwan still hurries back because she fears her grandfather may be unhappy if she returns too late. Her concern prevents the weekend arrangement from becoming a simple romantic victory for Lu Xun: even while he wants her back, she remains answerable to another household and another relationship. Lu Xun reluctantly lets her go and opens the car door for her, a gesture that combines tenderness with unwilling separation.

Weekend therefore exposes the instability beneath the couple’s apparent closeness. It promises reunion, yet its very necessity reveals that shared domestic life cannot be taken for granted. For Lu Xun, it is a means of reclaiming proximity; for Su Xiangwan, it is a limited concession made within competing duties. The interval’s narrative importance lies in this tension: an ordinary period of rest becomes the schedule by which love, possession, family obligation, and the possibility of separation are measured.