Xiaoqian got home carrying the passbook that Yu Minglang shoved into her pocket. His voice was still ringing in her ears. Her facial expression loosened up.
The moment she entered the house, she saw her mother behind the counter fanning herself. On the other side was Chen Lin. She was holding a watermelon and was eager to please. Her good mood turned bad.
“Qian’er, where did you go, you were not home the whole afternoon!”Jia Xiufang’s face was still red from fighting with Chen Lin yesterday. Her eyes were swollen. Chen Lin begged her to come home.
Chen Lin seemed fearful when he saw Xiaoqin, but he was angry too.
It was all the girl’s fault for exposing everything. If not, he would still be enjoying having a wife upstairs and a mistress downstairs.
“Qian’er, come and have some melon.” He was unhappy with Xiaoqian, but he tried to greet her with warmth. He was particularly eager to please.
If you did not know what he did before and only saw his behaviour today, you would think that he was a good model husband.
All men who were caught cheating behaved the same way. They do it to cover their wrong doing.
Xiaoqian did not even glance at Chen Lin. She turned to ask Jia Xiufang, “Where is Qu Xue?”
“She went back to the village, the business is not as busy now, I can look after the shop myself.” Jia Xiufang was exasperated by the thought of Qu Xue.
The husband would not admit to having an affair with Qu Xue and they were not able to prove anything with a few hickies. All she could do was to drive her out of the house.
“It’s such a hot day.” Jia Xiufang was not as polite to her husband as before now that she held the higher ground. She even bossed Chen Lin around.
“I’ll go buy a fan later, the fan in the shop has been broken for a long time.” Chen Lin was docile and obedient.
Xiaoqian was irked as she watched her father grovel and cycle to buy an electric fan.
Jia Xiufang called Xiaoqian to her side. They sat side by side and Jia Xiufang gave her a piece of the melon.
“You’re a young lady. It’s dangerous to go out at night. Luckily the son of the seventh aunty didn’t escape last night, if not what are we going to do?”
Yesterday, she was troubled by the matter between the husband and the woman. She was confused, so she ran back to her mothers to ask for help. However, when her husband said that the daughter got home very late last night, she was worried and quickly came home to see the daughter.
Seeing that Xiaoqian was safe, Jia Xiufang was relieved and she could not help but nag Xiaoqian.
“If you have the time to worry about me, I’d rather that you spend the time taking care of your own matters.” Xiaoqian’s mother constantly nagged her and the things she said were hurtful. However, Xiaoqian could tell that she cared about her.
“Nothing can happen to me, you’re still young. Don’t worry about the adult matters.” In Jia Xiufang’s heart, Xiaoqian was still a child.
“The woman has left, but you still need to keep an eye on the man. To be more accurate, keep an eye on the money, every bit of it.”
“What do you mean?” Jia Xiufang stopped eating when she heard Xiaoqian say that.
“You can’t believe he really turned over a new leaf, right? These things are hard to change. If you don’t keep a close eye on the money, things will go wrong sooner or later.”
Jia Xiufang was unhappy.
“He’s your father, how can you say that about him?”
Xiaoqian sneered and remained silent.
This was typical of women, being dependent.
Her mother would not learn the lesson without something happening to her. It was still too soon to ask her to learn to be independent. According to Xiaoqian’s judgment, her mother had a dependent personality disorder tendency. Asking her to quit depending on her husband was as hard as quitting drugs.
After all there was still time. Psychological healing takes time.
Jia Xiufang was going on and on about the family, but avoided talking about what happened yesterday.
Just as Xiaoqian expected, Jia Xiufang avoided talking about it and pretended like nothing happened. However, there was already a crack formed in her heart.
Chen Lin came in cursing and swearing.
“Where is the fan that you bought?” Jia Xiufang asked.
“Those unscrupulous businessmen increased the price. I didn’t bring enough money, give me another twenty bucks!” He remembered the price from a couple of days ago and they increased the price today.
Jia Xiufang gave him the money and continued to chat with Xiaoqian.
“Qian’er, I’ve been looking at some quilt covers. Later when your father comes back, he’ll look after the shop and we’ll go and have a look. If you see something you like we’ll buy them, we need to buy the quilt cover for your wedding.”
“There’s no need, just get me a single quilt cover.”
“What nonsense are you talking about? Nobody uses a single quilt cover for weddings. Stop joking! The silk cover is very popular now. It’s expensive, but I can discuss with your father and buy it for you! Take good care of it when you marry into their family, make sure no one steals that from you, you know?”
“I’m not getting married.”
“What?!” Jia Xiufang smacked on the table. The watermelon skin jumped as she smacked the table.
“Say that again?”
“I’m not getting married.”
When Xiaoqian was about to show her the admission notice, Chen Lin came in cursing and swearing again.
“The unscrupulous businessmen hiked up the price again! They hiked up the price twice in half an hour’s time!”
“Xiaoqian’s father, come and look at your daughter. She’s going crazy. She said she’s not getting married!” Jia Xiufang complained.
Chen Lin did not have time for that. He said, “Give me another twenty bucks, quick! If we don’t buy, they might hike up the price again. These bastards…”
Jia Xiufang took a 50 dollar bill. Xiaoqian saw that and stood up.
“Give me the money, I’ll buy it.”
Chen Lin had enough of it. He took 30 bucks and refused to give Xiaoqian more than she needed.
Xiaoqian looked at the time. Ni Jianren was probably on his way here. She decided to leave earlier to avoid seeing him.
Yu Minglang was about to step out for lunch from the shop with his old friend, Hai Zhao. However, he saw Xiaoqian riding a ladies bicycle toward the shop and he stopped.
“What’s wrong?” Hai Zhao asked.
“Nothing, just wait for awhile.” Yu Minglang looked around and found a hidden corner to sit down. He pulled Hai Zhao to sit with him. The electronics were blocking them, no one could see them.
“Where are the fans?” Xiaoqian asked as she came into the shop.
Yu Minglang heard that and pulled Hai Zhao. He whispered, “Lower the price of the fans.”
“… Why?!” He was so happy that he made some money by hiking up the price!
“I believe that your staff don’t know that still wet your bed till you were five years old, right?” Yu Minglang said lightly.
Hai Zhao cursed softly and stood up. He walked straight toward Xiaoqian. The staff saw the boss coming and he stopped talking.
“You’re looking to buy a fan?” Hai Zhao took a look at Xiaoqian. He could not stop himself from staring at her.