Based on Lijuan's understanding of the old lady, she could easily imagine the old lady's reaction when asked about food: "I don't want to eat! I'm not hungry! I ate several steamed buns this morning!"
Lijuan decided to tell the old lady frankly, "If you don't want to eat, just watch us eat, because we're all hungry. If you don't want to go into the restaurant, you can even stand outside and wait. If the restaurant happens to be hiring cleaning ladies, you can even earn some money while we're eating." Lijuan had made up her mind.
Sure enough, Yaping said, "Mom, let's go get something to eat first! We've been walking all morning, let's find a place to rest."
"I'm not eating! I'm not hungry. I ate several steamed buns when I left this morning!"
Lijuan sneered, realizing that her estimation was not 100% accurate because the last word should have been the interjection "ne" instead of "le".
Lijuan didn't say those words in the end, but she skipped the old lady's opinion and said directly to Yaping, "I need to eat something and drink some water. I'm tired and hungry."
Yaping said, "Yeah, I'm tired too. Let's find a cheap restaurant together." Without another word, Yaping dragged his mother along, searching for the smallest, most simply decorated, and most inconspicuous street-side shops. Persistence paid off, and they finally found one of those cheap shops that clearly catered to out-of-towners visiting Shanghai on business. It had cheap wooden tables painted yellow, covered with disposable plastic sheets, and an ashtray worn beyond recognition by cigarette butts. To get in, you had to stoop down three steps—a simply decorated little shop.
A young girl from out of town walked over with a plastic notebook containing a menu written in ballpoint pen, slammed it on the table, and walked away without even glancing at Yaping's family, calling out as she went, "Welcome..."
Yaping handed the menu to his father, who looked at it for a long time before saying, "Tell your mother to order."
The old lady sat at the table, her eyes fixed on the street, not even glancing at the menu, and firmly said, "I'm not hungry, I won't eat." Seeing her imposing manner, Lijuan couldn't help but exclaim, "A modern-day Jiang Jie!"
Yaping readily agreed, saying, "Then I'll order." "Miss, a plate of pickled mustard greens and edamame, a dish of pickled cucumber, a serving of pork tongue strips, a bowl of beef brisket noodles, a bowl of pickled mustard greens and shredded pork noodles, a plate of pork ribs and rice cakes, a bowl of wontons in chili oil, and four glasses of water, thank you."
Yaping's mother suddenly interjected, "How many people are there? Why order so much? Are you going to pack it up if we can't finish? Reduce the amount." Yaping told the waitress, "That's it, we'll add more if needed." The waitress was about to hand over the menu when Yaping's mother stopped her, saying, "Let me see." Then she turned to Yaping and asked, "Which one is for me?" Yaping said, "The pickled mustard greens and shredded pork noodles, the cheapest one." The old lady said, "No, I don't eat that, it's too salty." Then she asked the waitress for the menu again, saying, "Let me see."
Lijuan said coldly, "No need to look anymore, Miss. Bring me a bowl of plain noodles. Remember, plain noodles, not chicken soup noodles."
The old lady nodded, feeling particularly pleased. She breathed a sigh of relief.
The dishes are served.
The old lady sighed, looking at the bowl. "Shanghainese people are so stingy. A bowl of noodles costs five or six yuan, and they only give you this much. If you tilt your head back and slurp it up a bit, it's gone." She then forcefully divided the noodles in two with her chopsticks, giving half to Yaping's father. "I can't eat that much. I'm not hungry," Yaping's father said, unfazed and unashamed.
The old lady picked up her chopsticks, about to put the food in her mouth, but then she looked at Yaping's bowl and saw that there were only two rice cakes. So she used her chopsticks to break one half of the rice cake in half again, and gave the extra half to Yaping.
Lijuan turned her head away. She felt a wave of nausea.
Lijuan pushed the wontons towards Yaping and said, "I feel nauseous, I don't want to eat anymore. You can have them all."
Yaping's mother looked at Lijuan in astonishment, wondering what she had done to upset her again. She hadn't asked Lijuan to learn from her, so why was Lijuan unhappy and being so irritating?
Lijuan was disgusting. First, she walked out of the restaurant, ran to the roadside, and then started gagging violently, spitting saliva all over the ground. Yaping chased after her, patting her back and rubbing her chest, but he couldn't stop her.
Yaping's mother stood up from her seat, stood next to Lijuan, observed her for a while, and asked, "Lijuan, have you had your period this month? I don't think I washed my red underwear."
Lijuan shook her head.
Yaping's mother nodded confidently and said, "I've got it."
Yaping and Lijuan exchanged a glance, immediately realizing which time the leak had occurred. Lijuan's eyes were filled with despair: "Oh my god!!!!!!!!! I've taken so much medicine for my cold this month!" This was Lijuan's first reaction. "Don't worry! When you were taking the medicine, the plant hadn't even been planted yet!" her mother-in-law said calmly.
The mother-in-law returned to the dining table, her gloom vanishing, and said cheerfully, "Guanhua's dad! I think you're going to be a grandfather. Wait till you hold your grandson!" Then, she happily slurped up the few remaining noodles in her bowl and drank the broth clean, saying, "Yaping, don't rush to buy train tickets this afternoon. Let's take Lijuan for her checkup tomorrow, and leave after the results are out. If she's pregnant, we won't leave; we'll stay here and take care of Lijuan until she gives birth!"
"Mom! What about your house?" Lijuan cried out anxiously. My God! At least a year!!!
"There are priorities! Which is more important, the house or the grandson? There's not much in the house anyway, so let's just leave it there!"
"What do you mean there's nothing here? My flowers and plants! And my Mimi!" Yaping's father immediately replied. "Then you go back alone. I'll take care of Lijuan here. My grandson can't be left unattended. Lijuan is so busy all day, she doesn't even get a hot meal, how can she get enough nutrition!" Yaping's father fell silent. Before Lijuan's eyes floated a table full of pork stew with cabbage. She started feeling nauseous again.
As soon as Yaping and Lijuan returned to the bedroom, Lijuan flew into a rage: "How could she do this! She's staying for another year! What if I get pregnant? Will she even let me live? I have to get rid of this child!" Yaping covered Lijuan's mouth and said, "What nonsense are you talking about?! It's not certain yet, is it? We'll talk about it tomorrow after we've confirmed it." "It's definitely not going to run away! I should have thought of that sooner! I'm always arguing with your mother, so much so that I forgot about something so important! You did it on purpose, didn't you? You conspired with your parents, didn't you? You deliberately didn't wear a condom that day, didn't you? Li Yaping! You! You! You! You're selfish! You're a scoundrel!"
"Juan, what nonsense are you talking about? Are you out of your mind? How did I conspire with him? You know what happened that day, we were in the study and the condom was in the bedroom. You expect me to go to my dad naked to get a condom? That would have been an emergency and we wouldn't have been able to stop."
"What are we going to do now?" Lijuan's voice was trembling with tears. "I wasn't prepared at all. People say that pregnant women need to take special vitamins before pregnancy, but I didn't take any. What if I give birth to a child with a cleft lip? And I caught a cold at the beginning of my period, how many medicines did I have to take? What if I give birth to a child with an intellectual disability?"
"How can you talk like that? Cursing the baby before it's even born? Juan, let me make this clear! I absolutely didn't mean it. Although the seed is mine, the baby is yours. The decision is yours. If you absolutely don't want it, I won't force you. I'll talk to your parents." "You! You don't want the child at all!"
“I haven’t thought about it, but if we get pregnant and you decide to keep it, I’ll be very happy.” Yaping gently embraced Lijuan, stroking her hair, kissing her cheek, and patting her back.
Lijuan calmed down. "Tell me your honest opinion, do you really want this child? If you don't care, I'll have an abortion. It's not that I don't want it, but I'm worried that this child wasn't planned, that everything was unarranged, and that the birth might not be good."
“Juan, it didn’t matter when we didn’t have one, but now that we do, we want it. At least we’re curious. This baby is already in our belly, but we don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl? Like you or like me? Don’t worry! Everything will be fine. Even the best plans can change. I think this baby will definitely be healthy, beautiful, and smart. It’s not up to you or me to decide. Let’s ask the doctor tomorrow. If the doctor says we want it, then we’ll keep it, okay?”
"Okay. I'll listen to you. Sigh! I don't have such high expectations as you. I just want someone beautiful, smart, and healthy, and not someone with six fingers." "Haha! How can you have such low expectations? You pessimist."
"This is the heart of a mother." At that moment, Lijuan completed her transformation from a girl to a mother.
Lijuan lay on Yaping's arm, twirling her hair as she asked, "Tell me, how did Mom know when I got pregnant?"
"She only said you were pregnant, but didn't say when. She just suspected it."
"No, she said the seed hadn't been implanted when I took the medicine. That means she knows when I implanted it." Lijuan suddenly sat up, grabbing Yaping's ear. "Tell me! Does your mother eavesdrop on our door all day long? Does she know everything?!"
"What nonsense are you talking about? Does she have the time for that? Go to sleep." Yaping turned off the light and gently stroked Lijuan in the darkness, his touch light and gentle, as if he were wiping porcelain.
"Hey! I have something funny to tell you! Do you want to hear it?"
"explain."
Yaping kissed Lijuan's shoulder and gently rubbed it back and forth with his teeth.
"Do you know why your mom went out today, and was happy at first, but suddenly her expression changed?"
"What's wrong?"
"Haha, she saw my night cream in the counter. Clinique, over 300 yuan a bottle. I could tell just by looking at her face. Your mom is really something, she won't use it herself, but she can't stop me from using it! I'm already using a mid-range one, I don't buy high-end ones like Estée Lauder or SK-II. It's over 300 yuan, but it's actually very durable. I use a sponge to scoop out a little bit each time, apply a thin layer, and a 50ml bottle lasts for 10 months, which is only about 30 yuan a month, or a little over 1 yuan a day, not expensive, right?"
"Hmm, it's not expensive at all, not expensive at all. You're already very frugal, a model of thrift among wives." Yaping was almost asleep, her voice muffled.
In another room, Yaping's mother took out her already packed luggage piece by piece from her bag, her face beaming with smiles. "How can you be so sure she's pregnant?"