Mother Qi walked in from outside and, seeing Chunhua holding the child, greeted her, "Sister-in-law from the Liang family, you’ve come for a visit!"
"Yes, Grandma, I was just wondering where you had gone off to!" Chunhua said with a smile.
"I’m not familiar with this place, where could I go? I just took a stroll downstairs," Mother Qi replied. Her eyes immediately noticed a bowl of oil on the table and she asked, "Why is this oil left out here?"
Chunhua hurriedly answered, "This is the oil from chicken soup. Sister-in-law Qi said it was too greasy, so she scraped it off."
Mother Qi frowned and said, "Even if you don’t drink it, you shouldn’t throw it away. Keep it, it can still be used for cooking."
Cheng Su was taken aback, and even Chunhua found this amusing, and said, "Grandma is really frugal."
"You don’t know the cost of household essentials if you don’t run a home. You young ones don’t know, back in the days of famine, let alone meat, there wasn’t even a single vegetable to eat, to stay alive we ate nothing but Buddha’s earth and tree bark. Once we had something to eat, it was all green vegetables, people’s bellies were like water, not a speck of fat in them!" Mother Qi took the opportunity to educate them, saying, "Back then, a pig, nobody liked the lean meat, what they wanted was the snowy white fat meat, why? Because it was oily! So, wasting, it’s not acceptable."
Cheng Su pretended not to hear, while Chunhua glanced at Cheng Su and laughed, saying, "Times have changed, life’s better now, Grandma, you should enjoy life a bit."
Mother Qi sighed, "How can I enjoy such fortune when my precious grandson just..."
Seeing Cheng Su’s face change, Chunhua quickly said, "Grandma, I feel a little thirsty at the moment, could you trouble yourself to pour me a cup of water?"
"Oh, just wait!" Mother Qi went to get the thermos in a hurry.
Chunhua looked sympathetically at Cheng Su, thinking to herself that although her own mother-in-law favored male grandchildren, Yuer had been treated well upon her birth, with good care during her postnatal period.
As for Cheng Su’s mother-in-law, well, it’s all destiny, showing that no one’s life is perfect.
Mother Qi poured water for Chunhua, then went to pick up the bowl of chicken soup oil that she claimed would be kept for cooking.
Chunhua took a sip and continued speaking to Cheng Su, "Getting a coil is good too, convenient, and safe. This contraceptive stuff may be questionable, the quality of goods nowadays, you don’t know if they’re any good. If they break and you end up pregnant, like us who’ve already had children, we can’t have more, and then being caught and taken for an abortion, that would harm the body!"
"That’s one in ten thousand," Cheng Su said with a smile. "The things promoted by the state, even if their quality isn’t the best, they won’t just break. If that were the case, there would be children running all over the place!"
Mother Qi had just grabbed the bowl of oil in her hands when she heard the conversation of the two, her expression slightly changed, her heart faltered, her hand trembled, and she spilled the bowl of oil.
"Oops." Chunhua moved aside in time to avoid being splashed by the soup oil, which would have been difficult to wash out of her clothes otherwise.
"Mom. Are you alright?" Seeing the soup spilled on her hand, Cheng Su quickly asked.
"I’m fine, I’m fine, just not as nimble as I used to be, truly old, old," Mother Qi dodged Cheng Su’s gaze, saying, "Hold on, I’ll go grab a rag and mop."
With that, she briskly walked out.
"Your mother-in-law is really something, but it’s for the best, saves her from actually using that oil for cooking, which wouldn’t taste good. Sister-in-law? Sister-in-law Qi?" Chunhua waved her hands in front of Cheng Su.
Cheng Su snapped back to reality: "Hmm?"
"What’s got you so lost in thought!"
"Nothing," Cheng Su smiled faintly, lowered her head to drink the soup, but in her heart, she felt strangely suspicious and doubtful.
Was it her imagination, or did she really sense that her mother-in-law looked very guilty just now? Why should she feel guilty?