Chapter 003

“Mom, is there a problem with me stewing chicken to show respect to you and Dad? Fine, I have to go back for dinner. You and Dad enjoy your meal.”

After saying that, Xu Xiangjuan took the empty bowl and led the big and little ones back, regardless of her mother’s curses from behind.

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The family could finally have a meal. Zhou Chengning ate the chicken and immediately understood Guagua’s longing to eat chicken.

Forget about just the chicken; it felt like even the chicken bones could be eaten as meat. Zhou Chengning ate three pieces, but he couldn’t bear to eat more meat. He ladled some thick soup and mixed it with rice.

This was definitely the best meal he had ever had in his life.

“Juan, eat a few pieces of meat, it’s not spicy.” He knew his wife had just given birth and couldn’t eat spicy food, so he had deliberately told Guagua in the kitchen that adding spice made the chicken taste worse.

This chicken wasn’t spicy, and his wife should be able to eat it.

Xu Xiangjuan wasn’t like Zhou Chengning, who had suffered through hard times since childhood and later became a medicine bottle, unable to eat much.

She also wasn’t like Guagua, who was only three years old and had only eaten meat once at Maternal Grandmother’s Home.

Xu Xiangjuan had tasted plenty of delicious food. She didn’t have much of an appetite for the stewed chicken. Moreover, having given birth two months ago, she couldn’t eat foods with such strong flavors. 

“I won’t eat. I can’t have oily and spicy food yet. You and Guagua eat, I’ll just have eggs.”

The egg drop soup didn’t have much flavor. The big and small ones barely touched it, and Xu Xiangjuan finished it herself. She didn’t eat the dried radish either, as it wasn’t something she could eat during the breastfeeding period. She had picked up some to help relieve the greasy feeling for the big and small ones.

Only the bigger one ate two pieces, and the little one didn’t touch it at all.

Xu Xiangjuan had pickled the dried radish herself and was familiar with it. It was a bit sour and went well with porridge or rice.

In her previous life, many neighbors had asked her how she pickled it.

She had learned to pickle dried radish long before she learned to cook other dishes.

Seeing that father and daughter were enjoying their meal, Xu Xiangjuan thought to herself that next time she cooked meat, she would have to stir-fry some vegetables to go with it; just meat would get too greasy.

“Guagua, stop eating. If you eat more, there won’t be any left tomorrow.”

The little girl had a small stomach but a big appetite. She didn’t know how many pieces of meat had already gone down. Ah Ning, too, hadn’t eaten many pieces himself but kept adding more to his daughter’s bowl.

Upon hearing that there wouldn’t be any left tomorrow, Guagua stopped eating. “I want to eat chwicken tomorrow~”

“This meat tastes better the later you eat it. Tomorrow, Mom will steam it with porridge for you, and it’ll taste even better.”

Tomorrow at lunchtime, she would make porridge with rice, placing the meat on a steaming rack over the iron pot.

Guagua sweetly said: “Okay, good Mom.”

“Giving you meat makes me a good mom, and not giving you makes me a bad mom? Little white-eyed wolf.”

Their family lived a relatively good life. There was a vegetable garden behind the courtyard at home, and after Xu Xiangjuan had given birth and had the energy to take care of the child, she would go to the town to sell vegetables when there was a market.

Vegetables were cheap now, priced by jin, and although it wasn’t much, it was still a source of income. Her husband worked as a teacher in the town and earned 37 yuan a month. She saved all of it, and previously, she had also saved grain tickets and oil tickets.

She wasn’t sure why, but the older she got in her previous life, the more she seemed to dream about things from her youth. Even if she didn’t dream about them, she could still clearly remember them—how much her husband earned each month, when his salary had increased—she had a clear impression of all of it.

When she saw her husband from his younger years, she didn’t feel that they had been apart for many years.

It was like just this morning, she had sent him off with a packed lunch for school, and in the afternoon, he had returned home, and the whole family ate together.

Speaking of money, it was gradually becoming unnecessary to use coupons, but money was still real. When they had to use coupons, she was the one who held on to them.

Her husband was honest and didn’t hide money. Every month, he gave her the wage slips and his salary. He didn’t keep any money on him. When she did laundry, his pockets were always empty.

Unlike Guagua, although the little one didn’t hide money in her pockets, she would always find some small stones, dragonflies, or grasshoppers from who knows where and hide them in her pockets.

Xu Xiangjuan had told her many times that she should stop, but it was only when Guagua went to elementary school that it got a bit better.

In her previous life, at this time, she worked hard to earn and save money for the two children. However, in the end, all the money went towards her husband’s medical bills and hospital stays. He passed away when Niuniu was 13 years old.

Not talking about money, after her husband passed away, the family became penniless. She still had support from her natal home, and when life got a little better, she continued saving for cotton quilts and washbasins.

When she was younger, she had used part of her dowry, thinking she would save the rest to give to her daughter when she got married.

During her husband’s illness, the family sold whatever they could. After he passed away, there were no major expenses, and she kept saving for her daughter’s dowry.

But as the years went by, ther children no longer cared for the things their mother had saved for them. They would say that they could just buy things, and they didn’t want the trouble of carrying things from home.

Since her daughter didn’t need it, Xu Xiangjuan decided not to save anymore.

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The big one and the little one finished their dinner happily. The older one then led the younger one to the kitchen to wash the dishes.

Hot water was poured out from the kettle for washing faces and soaking feet. Guagua’s feet were in the foot basin. “Dad, chwicken~ it’s so delicious, let’s eat it all the time.”

Worried that if her daughter ate it this time, she might start pestering them for chicken and disturb the peace at home, Zhou Chengning told her: “In the future, don’t keep asking Mom for chicken. Understand? When Mom gives it to you, you eat it. When Mom doesn’t, you can’t eat it, and you can’t ask Mom for it. Mom is very tired taking care of your little brother, and the chicken still has to lay eggs for you and your little brother.”

Guagua: “Chwicken~ eggs aren’t tasty, chicken is tasty, Guagua and Niuniu won’t eat eggs, we eat chicken.”

Zhou Chengning had taught his daughter to say “chicken.” not “chwicken” but his daughter liked to say “chwicken.” He didn’t force her to correct it and just went along with it.

When Xu Xiangjuan entered the kitchen, she overheard this: “Mom will make you something else delicious tomorrow, now go to bed early. Dad has to go to work tomorrow.”

Her husband left the house at seven every morning and walked for over half an hour to reach the town’s high school.

There was a bus, but it didn’t directly depart from the village. They had to walk out of the village to the designated bus stop in the town, and there was only one round-trip ride a day.

The bus left for the county at 8:00 AM and returned from town at 4:00 PM, without stopping in between.

The bus was almost as if it didn’t exist, and the family didn’t have a bicycle, so her husband had to walk.

In the past, she hadn’t thought much about it, but now, with the more convenient transportation, Xu Xiangjuan, who had to take the bus for one stop to buy groceries, realized that walking for almost two hours every day for round trips was no small feat.

No wonder her husband was thin—it was from all that walking.

At night, when they were going to sleep, Xu Xiangjuan arranged the blankets: “You cover one blanket, Guagua sleeps at that end.”

Their bed was quite large. Her husband, being tall with long legs, was better off sleeping under one blanket by himself. As for Guagua, she slept at the other end, while Niuniu was placed between her and her husband.

Guagua was small, and Niuniu was even smaller, so putting both children in the middle didn’t cause any issues.

The whole family slept with her, the only one who slept the opposite way. Guagua didn’t make a fuss; she grabbed her little pillow and stomped over to her spot, tucking herself in.

To make it easier for Xu Xiangjuan to care for the children, Zhou Chengning always slept on the innermost side.

When the whole family slept together, four people shared a blanket, and Xu Xiangjuan thought it was fine to place the two little ones in between the parents as they didn’t take up much space.

But what she didn’t know was that her husband had been catching cold all the time, and after a while, he even got a high fever, so she had to take him to see a Traditional Chinese Medicine Doctor in town.

The doctor gave her several prescriptions and asked her to brew the medicine every day. She followed the instructions, but the medicine didn’t cure the fever. At the time, she believed in it, and so did the people in the village and town.

Her husband’s face was burning red, and she felt so heartbroken. After brewing the medicine for a few days and keeping him wrapped in blankets to keep him warm, the fever subsided, but his body had become severely weakened. Not long after, he started coughing, and within a few years, the coughing even had blood in it.

She still remembered the argument she had with Guagua, who was already an adult in her previous life.

Both mother and daughter had stubborn and strong personalities. Guagua, without thinking, had said: “Mom! The dad who listens to you is no longer here. Who are you going to vent your temper on? I’m already earning money. I don’t need to listen to you. In a few years, when your son gets married and brings his wife home, he’ll forget about you. You keep meddling in everything, who’s going to listen to you?”

Except for when her husband passed away, Xu Xiangjuan had cried for a few days, but after that, she raised the two children alone as a widow and didn’t cry again.

But after this argument with her daughter, hearing what Guagua really thought, she had argued with her during the day, but at night, before going to sleep, she couldn’t help but cry.

She had suffered for most of her life.

Her daughter’s words were the truth.

Aside from her Ah Ning, who would still let her take charge?

Who else would care about her?