Lin Jiaxin was initially reluctant, but he couldn’t resist his daughter’s persuasion and picked up his wine glass. He toasted to Lin Ershuan’s family and Old Iron Head, "Er Shuan and your wife, Brother Iron, our Rice Flower Fragrance is opening today, all thanks to your help. Here, I’d like to offer a toast to you, as a token of my gratitude. Cheers!"
Lin Yuan, listening to her father’s somewhat awkward toast, pursed her lips and smiled.
Lady Liu also picked up on her husband’s nervousness and winked at her daughter. Both mother and daughter’s faces were filled with joy and satisfaction.
The dishes Lin Yuan ordered today were very much to everyone’s liking. Lady Liu was a month away from giving birth and was in a phase where she ate a lot and grew quickly. Her face, compared to the first half of the year, seemed almost rushed in its blossoming, white and plump, with her belly growing extremely fast.
Sister Guizhi sat next to her and, looking at Lady Liu’s large belly, asked in a low voice, "How is it? Is the baby kicking a lot?"
"A lot," Lady Liu said, gently stroking her belly, her face full of satisfied happiness, "It’s bad enough usually, but when Da Ya makes something tasty, this little one gets even more lively. It kicks and squirms after eating as if it’s a little mischievous monkey."
Glancing at Xiao Linshuang, who was eagerly eating wild duck, Lady Liu leaned closer to Sister Guizhi and whispered, "This little one, for sure, will be even greedier than Yaya!"
Sister Guizhi laughed heartily; she had now witnessed Xiao Linshuang’s voracious appetite. Perhaps it was because the family used to be hungry all the time, so the little girl loved to eat anything she saw. But now, the family was not short of food, and she still ate whatever she could get, more and more each time. Her build was, visibly, growing wider, and nothing Lady Liu said seemed to make any difference.
While they were talking about it, over there, Lin Yuan tapped her little sister’s forehead with her chopsticks and said with a stern face, "Little sister, it’s not good for digestion to eat too much at night. You should eat less."
Lin Wei, who usually took her younger sister’s side, couldn’t help but take away a duck leg from in front of her, "You just promised to eat only one duck leg, and now how many have you eaten? Come on, eat some vegetables. Look at how fat you’ve gotten; you’re almost catching up with the plump girl from the south of the village."
Xiao Linshuang was complaining about her second sister taking away her big duck leg, but when she heard she was nearly as plump as the village girl, she quickly shut her mouth and began eating the greens Lin Wei had given her.
That plump girl was as fat as a pig; she didn’t want to end up like her. How would she wear pretty clothes and go out to play with Xiao Shitou then? Her brother-in-law had said that men prefer women who are shapely like her eldest sister. She wanted to be like her elder sister, not like the plump girl.
Watching the little girl vigorously go through the vegetables in her plate, both Lady Liu and Sister Guizhi couldn’t help but laugh.
"Second aunt, looking at that pointy belly of yours, it’s just like when I was pregnant with Xiao Shitou. I bet that you are going to have a boy!"
Sister Guizhi scrutinized Lady Liu’s belly closely and assured her with conviction.
As the conversation turned to the topic of baby boys, Lady Liu’s smile visibly faded a little, perhaps reminded of the son she had lost before. But thinking of today’s occasion, Lady Liu still forced a smile and said, "Boy or girl, they’re all the same. The father has said that after this one is born, no matter if it’s a boy or girl, we won’t have any more children."
Sister Guizhi patted the back of Lady Liu’s hand and comforted her, "That’s also good. What’s wrong with having a girl? Look at your Yuanyuan, she’s managed to open a shop and build a house and make a lot of money. Then look at Boss Lin Jiazhong’s two boys, huh."
Mentioning Lin Jiazhong’s two sons, Sister Guizhi snorted disdainfully, "Boss went so far as to steal for silver and now he doesn’t even dare to return to the village. If it weren’t for last time his father going door to door giving away a kilo of pork, perhaps the matter of him stealing would have gotten out, making him unable to even attend school."