novelraw Chapter 242 - 233: Just Not Leaving
Chapter 242 - 233: Just Not Leaving
The urban village house of Qian’s family seemed to stir memories for Teng Shuixian, and a small smile appeared at the corner of her mouth.
"Come on, let’s have some fruit." Jia Xiufang brought in a plate of fruit, her eyes darting towards Teng Shuixian.
"What’s this?" Teng Shuixian was intrigued by the plate Jia Xiufang brought over.
Being from the South, she had never seen the unique winter fruits of the North before.
"Frozen pears and frozen persimmons, haven’t you tried them?" Jia Xiufang asked curiously.
"No..." Teng Shuixian looked at the dark frozen pear and swallowed hard, wondering if this thing was even edible, a black pear!
"Oh dear, this poor child." Jia Xiufang thought sympathetically, perceiving her as a child from a very difficult family who couldn’t even afford fruit because she was so thin.
Quickly pushing the fruit plate closer to her, she thought, with money from demolition, she could afford to be this generous and hospitable!
"Sweetheart, eat more, make yourself at home like you’re at an auntie’s house, don’t be shy."
"Mom, have you finished your work? Are you not busy?" Qian immediately realized Jia Xiufang had misunderstood.
Taking the daughter of one of the top five wealthy families in the country as a fruit-deprived refugee, her mom had really outdone herself.
"I’m not busy, I have time." Jia Xiufang plopped down, totally at ease, looking at Teng Shuixian, shaking her head.
"Such a pretty girl, why is she so skinny? This little face, oh dear, too thin."
Jia Xiufang always considered Qian to be one of those girls who just can’t put on weight, feeling an urge to fatten her up like a pig, but seeing Teng Shuixian sitting next to Qian, she suddenly felt her own daughter looked quite well-proportioned.
A housewife’s instinct, her motherly love overflowed upon seeing a skinny young girl.
"It’s actually not that bad..." Teng Shuixian had never interacted with an ordinary middle-aged woman before, no one had ever looked at her like Jia Xiufang, with an almost pitying but extremely genuine gaze.
People who approached her all had motives, aiming for her father, trying to gain his favor through fawning over her. This sensitive child had long seen through it all, so she was a bit uncomfortable but not displeased with someone as genuine as Jia Xiufang, feeling more shy than anything else.
"Sweetie, what do your parents do? Why haven’t I seen you around?" Jia Xiufang had the nosy habits of any housewife, asking personal questions without seeing anything wrong with it, as this was normal in this area.
"My dad... is a small vendor, he’s not a very smart person. My mom passed away when I was little, from an illness, having sold the house and borrowed a lot of money. He worked during the day and wanted to earn extra money at night to pay off debts. Initially, he took me to the night market to sell chive pockets, but they were too spicy and poorly made. Frozen for a whole night, only sold one and got scolded. It was so cold that day, I caught a cold, we ran out of money, the landlord came for rent, so he locked the door, telling me not to speak, pretending no one was home."
"Oh my... that’s so pitiful." Jia Xiufang couldn’t bear listening to this, wiping away tears.
Qian listened silently, thinking back, in a past life, it had taken a lot of effort for her to get Teng Shuixian to open up about this, perhaps after about three months of formal therapy. Yet, her middle-aged mother managed to coax it out in just a few minutes. What moved Teng Shuixian was probably her mother’s pure gaze without any ulterior motives.
"Auntie, why are you crying?" Teng Shuixian felt a bit embarrassed seeing Jia Xiufang wiping tears.
Jia Xiufang wiped away her tears, saying.
"We’re all just ordinary folks, it’s not easy for anyone. My family also runs a small business, this laundry shop. The first couple of years were really tough, no business, and my husband wasn’t very reliable. I had to manage the shop and take care of two kids—"
"Mom, why are you talking about this? She’s not like us, you’d better go finish your work!"
Saying the daughter of the nation’s fifth wealthiest was like their own family, her mom was really getting carried away.
"You brat! I’m not leaving!" Jia Xiufang glared at her daughter, nudging Qian aside with her hip to sit beside Teng Shuixian, asking with concern.
"Sweetie, have you managed to cover the rent for your place?"
"Yes, auntie, that’s all in the past now."
"Such a poor thing, life is hard isn’t it, seeing how thin this child is. You can come to auntie’s house for a meal anytime, Qian doesn’t have many friends, and she hardly brings anyone home. It’s just the three of us here, why don’t you stay and have dinner with Auntie tonight!"
Jia Xiufang was now imagining Teng Shuixian as a poor child who couldn’t even afford meals.
"Sweetie, why don’t you tell Auntie about the chive pocket business? I can try to help your dad think of something. Maybe the chive selection was wrong, or the preparation method was off. I’ll write down the correct way to make chive pockets, and you can tell your dad when you go back."
"He’s not in that business anymore... but I kind of wish he was still just a street vendor with a tricycle." Teng Shuixian said with sadness.
"So what did you end up doing with the chive pockets?"
Jia Xiufang still worried about that, as the focus of a housewife can be quite different from that of a normal person.
Thinking about the chive pockets, Teng Shuixian couldn’t help but grin through her tears, "He couldn’t bear to throw them away, nor could he sell them, so he tried to improve them for me at home, adding more oil, saying they tasted better with it. It gave me a stomach ache. I must have been 4 or 5 years old at that time..."
"Oh dear, what a sin!" Jia Xiufang clicked her tongue, unable to hear anymore, thinking what a careless man he was, not only wasting food but also raising a child like that, truly awful.
"Not only that, he fried the chive pockets with oil that had black bits in it, didn’t filter it, and even fried fish for me using it. He didn’t even remove the bitter gall, it was all black and extremely bitter, and without my mom, he couldn’t make anything properly."
"What on earth?!" Jia Xiufang reacted as if she had heard of an unforgivable crime. Are there really people who don’t remove the bitter gall?
This was the highest form of disrespect to the kitchen!
"The fish were inedible, but he hated wasting them, and we had no money to buy anything else, so he coaxed me to eat, saying that only the smartest children in the world could eat such fish. So I ate them, and they were so bitter..."
"What’s your dad’s phone number, let me have a word with him, how could he treat his child like this? A failed dish should be eaten as a punishment by oneself, not the child. My goodness, you’re still growing, see how you’ve been mistreated!"
As parents, they can’t stand to hear such things.
Qian pushed Jia Xiufang out.
"Mom, you’d better go fry your meat, you can’t bear to throw away the oil unless you use it a few times, go quickly, bye!" With a bang, she shut the door.
Jia Xiufang was still shouting through the door.
"Sweetie, don’t leave tonight, I’ll fry meat for you, and I know how to fry fish, it definitely won’t be bitter!"
Qian spread her hands helplessly, "That’s just how mom is, noisy all day long, once she catches someone, she just talks and talks."
Jia Xiufang knocked on the door again, "Sweetie, do you prefer croakers or small fish?"
See, what did she say, mom just can’t stop!
"I really envy you, your mom is amazing." Teng Shuixian murmured to herself.