Wei Shuqing stood at the door, looking at the three children inside who looked like they had been starved to death. The youngest child was standing on a chair, bent over, while the other two were standing around the table, their faces almost touching the plates. They were stuffing food into their mouths with both hands, their hands and faces covered in soup. Their mouths were so full that unchewed food bits kept falling out. Wei Shuqing suddenly felt a wave of nausea and ran to the side to vomit.

Beside him, Qi's father, smiling broadly, held his one-year-old son Qi Aiguo and said with a kind expression, "Eat slowly, no rush, your grandma is still cooking! There's plenty to go around! With grandpa here, I guarantee you'll eat your fill!"

Then, his mother came out with a plate of stir-fried cabbage and tofu, smiling broadly. She placed the dish on the table and said, "Come on, eat!" When she glanced outside, she saw Wei Shuqing, and her smile vanished instantly. She said indifferently, "Little Wei is back. Come and eat." Wei Shuqing, with a cold face and suppressing her nausea, picked up Qi Aiguo and turned to leave.

The three children didn't even look up, focusing solely on their food. Qi's mother glanced at Qi's father and pursed her lips, while Qi's father shook his head and continued to smile, saying, "Children, eat up, eat up. Your aunt isn't eating, so it's all yours."

Mother Qi sighed and said, "Being able to eat is a blessing!"

Wei Shuqing didn't skimp on herself; she took her son to a wonton shop at the entrance of the alley and ordered a large bowl of wontons and a meat pie. The mother and son ate their fill.

When Qi Zhifang came home from get off work, she saw the table in disarray, and for some reason felt nauseous. She gagged a few times, and her mother quickly brought her a glass of water. Qi Zhifang took a couple of sips and tried to calm herself down. "Why hasn't Xiao Wei come back yet?"

Mother Qi pouted, "She's so petty! She gets all jealous just seeing you take a bite."

Qi Zhifang snorted and said, "Mom, is there anything to eat?"

When Qi's mother looked at the table and then at Qi Zhifang, she stood up and said, "You little rascal, you've eaten the whole table! I'll go fry you some scallion and egg stir-fry, that'll be quick! You have to take care of yourself, look at your face, it's completely bloodless."

Wei Shuqing, unaware of the events at home, was trying to recall the strange book she'd dreamed about. It seemed to be about her, yet it didn't; something about it felt off. She also had to look after her child, Qi Aiguo, who was just over a year old, barely able to walk. He was thin and sallow, his head protruding from his thin neck, almost unrecognizable. Wei Shuqing felt a surge of resentment. She worked 25 days of overtime a month, just to earn a little extra pay and a few extra meat coupons for her son, and now…

When they got home, Wang Dong, Wang Fang, and Wang Hong immediately ran up to Wei Shuqing, sniffing her like dogs, grabbing her clothes, and shouting, "Grandma, Grandpa, Mom, Aunt took Aiguo out to eat alone! I can smell the meat!"

Wei Shuqing was extremely agitated and suppressed her anger. She noticed that there was still a small bowl of scrambled eggs with scallions in front of Qi Zhifang. The plates left over by the three children had been moved aside, but Qi Zhifang's plate was clean.

He sneered, "Who's eating alone is anyone's guess. I use my own money to take my son out for a good meal. I feed him first, and then I eat the leftovers. No heartless person takes the money and thinks I can eat it all by myself! Unlike some people who have special meals at home, they're really eating alone. I don't know how they can even eat that."

Qi Zhifang swallowed the food in her mouth and was about to speak when her mother pressed her hand down and shook her head, saying, "When Zhifang came back, I don't know what happened, she felt nauseous and her face was deathly pale. I just fried an egg for her. You can't let her work all day and be so tired that she can't even get a meal, right? Don't you think that makes sense, Xiao Wei?"

As Wei Shuqing thought of the strange book she had read in her dream, Qi's mother's hypocritical appearance gradually overlapped with her current deathly state. She felt disgusted, as if she had swallowed a fly. She sneered, "Who hasn't worked a day? She sits all day at work, while I exert myself all day. I'm exhausted and smelly, and when I come back, I don't see anyone because I can't eat and look pale. They just fry me an egg."

When Qi Zhifang saw that Wei Shuqing dared to argue with her mother, she got angry and shouted at Wei Shuqing, "Sister-in-law, aren't you going a bit too far? What's wrong with my mom frying an egg for me? If you want some, can't you just say so? Mom took care of your child all day and cooked for the whole family. You come back and don't say a nice word to her. Instead, you're being sarcastic and mean to her. Does Mom owe you anything? You're such an uncultured and uncouth person."

Wei Shuqing switched arms to hold the child and looked at Qi Zhifang with anger rising in her heart. "I'm a rough man, I'm uneducated, but you're educated. If you're educated, why don't you bring the child back for dinner? You don't pay a single penny for living expenses. Where do you get the nerve?"

You don't earn your own salary? You don't raise your own child, but you bring him back for us to raise. What a good daughter you are! And what about wanting scrambled eggs? Just tell Mom, and she'll make them for me. Are you kidding me?

I was in postpartum confinement, and the hen my family sent over—I didn't get to eat a single bite! Who ate it? Every time I ask, I burst into tears; every time I ask, I don't say a word. Where did the chicken go? Why don't you tell me? Tell me!

"Whose belly did it go into? You're fighting with a pregnant woman for food—is that something you educated people would do? I work in a factory, eight hours a day, sweating buckets, and I'm not tired. You sit in your office all day, idly drinking tea and writing—you think you're working hard?"

Qi Zhifang stood up and shouted as if she wanted to devour someone, "I sit in an office and have a leisurely life. That's because I studied when I was in school, I have education, and I earned my future myself. You work hard in the workshop, sweating buckets, and earn your hard-earned money, but that's because you didn't work hard and you're uneducated. Who can you blame?"

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