Chapter 36: Wei Mother, Proud and Valiant

◎ The Sudden Morning Sickness ◎

When Wei Xuan first found out she was pregnant, both she and Jiang Che were initially flustered for a while. However, after some time, they gradually adapted and things returned to normal.

It wasn’t until later that they realized they had forgotten to share the good news with their families.

So, they decided to take a day after work to visit the Jiang family.

When Mr. and Mrs. Jiang heard the news, they were both very happy and quickly asked how many months along Wei Xuan was.

Wei Xuan shyly glanced at Jiang Che, and Jiang Che, with a bit of hesitation, responded, “It’s already been over three months.”

Mrs. Jiang didn’t say much in front of Wei Xuan, but afterward, she pulled Jiang Che aside for a stern talking-to.

“Look at you. Your wife has been pregnant for so long, and you didn’t even think to tell the family? How can you be so careless? Why don’t you two just move back here? That way, I can take care of her properly.”

Jiang Che had promised Wei Xuan they wouldn’t move back, and after the initial chaos had settled, he had become quite confident. He believed he could take care of his wife well on his own. So now, he didn’t want to return and be controlled by his mother again.

Seeing that he wasn’t willing, Mrs. Jiang was about to reason with him, but before she could, Mr. Jiang intervened. Jiang Che took advantage of the situation and quickly slipped away.

Mrs. Jiang called after him several times, but he didn’t return.

“Alright, you’ve been fine without us looking after you for the past few months, haven’t you? I just heard from your wife that your mother-in-law is coming over to stay for a while. With her here, what’s there to worry about?”

Reluctantly, Mrs. Jiang knew her daughter-in-law’s mother would be more suitable for taking care of the young daughter-in-law. So, she fell silent.

However, during dinner that night, she still gave Wei Xuan a thorough set of instructions.

No matter what she said, Wei Xuan obediently agreed. The fact that her mother would come to take care of her had been accepted by the Jiang family, and she didn’t mind being a little more obedient in front of her in-laws to put their minds at ease.

But this scene, when seen by Jiang’s sister in law, had a different flavor. She felt a pang of bitterness. When she was pregnant, her in-laws didn’t seem nearly as excited as they were for Wei Xuan!

She glanced at her husband sitting next to her, humph, what was there to be happy about when someone else’s wife was pregnant? Just the thought of it irritated her.

Before they left that evening, Mrs. Jiang handed Wei Xuan a bundle of tickets and money.

Wei Xuan refused, but Mrs. Jiang insisted, so in the end, Wei Xuan had to accept the tickets but returned the money.

“Mom, we really don’t need the money.”

Seeing the sincerity in her face, Mrs. Jiang no longer insisted: “Alright, I’ll keep the money for you. If you ever need it later, just let me know.”

“Thank you, Mom!”

When they got home that evening, Jiang Che asked Wei Xuan, “Did Mom secretly give you something?”

“How did you know?”

“I saw it!”

Actually, it wasn’t Jiang Che who saw it first. At that moment, he had been chatting with his older brother and father, but he noticed his sister-in-law’s odd expression across the table. Following her gaze, he saw that his wife had been pulled into a room by his mother.

“But he didn’t say anything to avoid upsetting his wife. They had gained some benefits, and if his sister-in-law wanted to be upset, so be it.

When Wei Xuan heard Jiang Che ask her, she took out all the tickets from her pocket and showed them to him.

“So many?”

“Yeah.” Wei Xuan also thought it was a lot. Actually, she hadn’t had the chance to look closely in front of Jiang’s mother just now. Now that she looked at each one, she realized there were all sorts of tickets.

Among them, the most were cloth tickets and industrial tickets, followed by others like meat tickets, oil tickets, coal tickets, soap tickets, and so on, not worth listing all of them.

Jiang Che put away the cloth tickets and industrial tickets: “The rest don’t matter. We’re not lacking in food; Wu Yun can get that. We need to buy more cloth, though. After some time, when your belly gets bigger, you’ll need new clothes, and we can’t forget the child’s clothes either.”

The couple discussed how much cloth they would need to make clothes for her and the child. Meanwhile, at the Jiang family’s side, Jiang’s father was also talking about this with Jiang’s mother.

Actually, it wasn’t just Jiang Che who noticed that Jiang’s sister-in-law was angry; Jiang’s father noticed it too. He was now saying to Jiang’s mother: “If you want to give things to the children, I have no objections, but at least hide it a bit. Don’t do it right in front of your eldest son’s wife.”

Jiang’s mother angrily slapped the edge of the bed: “It’s my stuff, and I’ll give it to whoever I want. If she’s unhappy, she can keep it to herself. Besides, don’t others know, or do you not know? Haven’t we spent less money on the eldest family’s two kids? What I give to Xiao Che and the others is always more, never less. The eldest family already takes advantage by living here with us, so what’s wrong with me secretly supporting the younger ones? If anyone has objections, they can come say it to my face. She used to take all the money from the eldest to support her own family. I’ve advised the eldest for the sake of the grandkids. If there’s another time, I’ll make sure the eldest divorces her. Does she still dare to have any objections to me like this?”

Jiang’s father didn’t expect that just a simple reminder would cause such a reaction: “Alright, alright, don’t make it a bigger issue. Keep your voice down. Besides, the eldest’s wife didn’t even say anything this time. I just reminded you to handle things like this privately next time, don’t do it in front of others. I just said Xiao Che’s temperament is like someone. Now I know, it’s exactly like yours.”

“What’s wrong with being like me? I gave birth to him, so of course, he’s like me.”

Seeing her get proud, Jiang’s father fell silent, realizing there was no point in talking. It was just a waste of words.

But even though he had nothing to say, Jiang’s mother wasn’t done: “You only know how to educate me. Do I, as a mother-in-law, have to watch my daughter-in-law’s face when I do something? And when I give something to Wei Xuan, I’m happy. Not to mention Xiao Che, but Wei Xuan, this daughter-in-law, always remembers to bring something for us whenever she gets something good. Forget whether those things are good or bad, at least she keeps us old ones in her heart. What about the eldest’s wife? No matter how much she’s fed, she’s never dissatisfied. All these years, has she ever given you or me a single penny? All the money she has is used to support her brother’s family.”

Seeing her getting more and more agitated, Father Jiang sat up and tried to calm her down, “Alright, I’ll stop if it upsets you so much. I’m just saying, out of respect for our eldest son. Though his wife hasn’t been doing well, the eldest son himself is always good, right? I just think that, for the sake of our eldest, we, as the elders, should at least maintain a good face. We shouldn’t make things hard for him.”

When the eldest son was mentioned, Mother Jiang fell silent. After a long pause, she muttered a few words: “I understand.”

Seeing that she had calmed down, Father Jiang let out a sigh of relief and tugged at the bed’s lamp cord. “Alright, go to sleep.”

The next day, Wei Xuan, noticing some free time between work, told Sister Hong to keep an eye on the counter and planned to sneak off to the post office to give the Wei family a call. She wanted to ask Wei’s mother to come take care of her, so she needed to let her know in advance, so they’d be prepared.

This time, it was Wei’s mother who answered the phone. Upon hearing Wei Xuan’s good news, there was a brief pause before she asked, “Do you want Mom to come take care of you?”

Wei Xuan laughed and said, “Mom, my situation isn’t urgent right now. I don’t need you yet. Plus, isn’t my little brother about to take his college entrance exams? You should focus on him first. After he’s done and the house isn’t so busy, you can come visit then.”

This year, the college entrance exam had been moved to July, and in less than half a month, Wei Xuan’s younger brother would be sitting for the exam. Wei’s mother was genuinely worried about her son. Recently, she had been sending their eldest son to the county every three days to bring food to the younger one and check on him.

Seeing her daughter say this, Wei’s mother finally felt reassured. “Alright, once Xiaolong finishes his exam, just let me know in advance, and I’ll go to the city to take care of you.”

“Mom, I know. But you also need to take care of yourself at home. If the work is too tiring, take a rest. You and Dad aren’t getting any younger, so don’t push yourselves too hard.”

“Alright, no need to remind me. You just focus on taking care of yourself. Your three older brothers are all capable, and your dad is just tying up the rice and watching the rice fields this year. He’s not tired at all, and I’m even more relaxed. I’m just helping them look after the kids and cooking, so I’m free most of the time.”

Wei Xuan didn’t believe it at all; taking care of kids was the most tiring job, but compared to working in the fields, it was still a bit easier. Knowing that Wei’s mother didn’t want her to worry, she didn’t argue with her. After talking for a bit more about the situation at home, Wei Xuan said, “Mom, I need to go to work now. I’ll hang up.”

“Alright, you get to work.”

After hanging up, Wei’s mother, on her way back from the village office, ran into people from the village who asked if it was her daughter on the phone and wanted to know what Wei Xuan had said.

Wei’s mother didn’t hide anything. She smiled and answered everyone who asked, “Yes, my daughter is pregnant. She called to share the good news.”

“Oh my, that’s wonderful news!”

“We’re all waiting to eat your family’s celebration eggs.”

“Don’t worry, when the time comes, I’ll definitely send them to you. You won’t be left out.”

They chatted and laughed all the way until they crossed the yard gate. Only then did Wei’s mother spit on the ground and mutter, “Tch, one by one, they think I don’t know how they’re cursing my daughter behind her back? Still want celebration eggs? I wouldn’t even give you any if I were feeding them to the dogs.”

Wei Xuan had been married to the city for almost two years, and her belly hadn’t shown any sign of a pregnancy. The villagers had been talking about it, and two gossiping women in particular were secretly discussing that Wei Xuan was out of luck. What if she married into the city? She still couldn’t get pregnant. Sooner or later, they said, her husband would send her back.

Somehow, these words had reached Wei’s mother’s ears. That’s why she had been urging Wei Xuan to have a child during the New Year. Today, she had intentionally let slip the news of her daughter’s pregnancy. She wanted those who were gossiping behind her back to see, just who was out of luck! It definitely wasn’t her daughter.

Wei Xuan didn’t know that her mother was feeling proud of her pregnancy. Whether it was because of the hot weather or something else, at three months pregnant, she suddenly started experiencing morning sickness.

That morning, like usual, she got up and brushed her teeth. Feeling nauseous while brushing was normal, but when she smelled the noodles in front of her, instead of finding them appetizing, she started feeling even more nauseous. In the end, she ended up vomiting a few times, not even having breakfast, and went to work on an empty stomach.

Jiang Che dropped her off at the entrance of the supply and marketing cooperative. “You brought money, right? If you get hungry and want to eat something, make sure to buy something to fill your stomach.”

“Got it, stop nagging. You’re going to be late, hurry up and go!”

After watching Jiang Che walk away, Wei Xuan felt her stomach start to rumble.

She went into the store, bought a pound of milk candies, and then another pound of peach crisps, hoping to see if she could manage to eat them.

In the end, not only did she manage to eat them, but she ate quite a lot. Even Sister Hong, seeing her, kept calling her wasteful.

“Who eats pastries like this, as if they were meals?”

Wei Xuan felt quite aggrieved and told her about the morning’s ordeal.

Sister Hong comforted her, “It’s alright, everyone’s different. Maybe it was just that one time in the morning, and now you’re feeling fine.”

Wei Xuan looked at the half-eaten peach crisp in her hand, nodded confidently, and said, “Yeah, maybe I’ll just throw up today, and then it’ll be fine.”

But in the end, Wei Xuan was a bit too optimistic. Reality gave her a big slap in the face.