Li Qing and her group stood at the airport baggage carousel exit, anxiously waiting for the other suitcases that hadn't been delivered yet, with three more suitcases at their feet.
Xia Jianguo had a faint look of worry on his face. He held his daughter's arms, who was clutching her stomach. Xia Minmin was bent over, her face pale, and she was moaning from time to time. It was clear that she was in great pain.
Passengers coming and going to collect their luggage noticed Xia Minmin's bulging belly.
A passenger with a child said to the child, "Look, if you don't exercise restraint, you'll end up like this little girl."
Or, "Baby, look how pitiful this older sister is. Next time, you must tell Mommy when you're full, don't force yourself to eat."
Hearing this, Xia Minmin was filled with regret and wanted to slap herself. It was so embarrassing! For a long time to come, she would probably be the negative example for these families to use when disciplining their children.
Li Chunmei's face was very ugly. She massaged her daughter's stomach in circles with her right hand and scolded, "Our family is not bad. Your father and I have never lacked food and drink for you. How can you be so unrestrained in eating and drinking? Look at you, you started eating in the lounge at noon and you still haven't stopped after boarding the plane."
Xia Jianguo couldn't understand why his daughter, who usually seemed like a little adult, would act like a three or four-year-old when it came to delicious food, insisting on eating until she was stuffed.
The silver-gray suitcase had a Chibi Maruko-chan sticker on it. Li Qing looked at Li Chunmei with surprise and asked, "Second Aunt, is that the Chibi Maruko-chan suitcase you wanted?"
Li Chunmei followed her niece's hand and looked over. "Yes, brother, help me take my suitcase down."
Li Zhonghua stepped forward, took the silver-gray suitcase off, and handed it to Li Qing. Li Qing quickly took two steps and pushed the suitcase next to Li Chunmei.
Li Chunmei said, "Xiao Qing, the password is..."
Li Qing laid the suitcase down, entered the password to open it, and found a white plastic box with a red plus sign on it, which should be the medicine box.
"Second Aunt, is this it?"
Li Chunmei looked over and said, "This is it. There are digestive tablets in Xiao Qing's medicine box. They are triangular tablets. Break three tablets for me."
Li Qing opened the medicine box and placed the digestive tablets on top, presumably the ones she usually used. She broke off three tablets and handed them to Xia Minmin.
Five minutes later, everyone took their suitcases off and put them on the luggage cart.
"Xiaomin, are you feeling better?" Wang Aimin asked.
"Much better, thank you, Godfather!"
Seeing that Xia Minmin was in much better spirits, Xia Jianguo and the others pushed three luggage carts out of the airport, and of course, they couldn't help but tease Xia Minmin.
Sun Erni said, "Xiaomin, don't eat so much in the future!"
Wang Aimin teased his goddaughter, "Xiaomin, listen to your godfather. Don't force yourself on her anymore. You like to eat noodles in Chang'an. Your godfather can take you there by plane to eat them this weekend. Nothing is more important than your health."
Xia Minmin's fair face was slightly flushed. "I'm sorry for making you worry today. I will pay more attention to my diet in the future and will not let myself overeat again."
Li Chunmei looked at her daughter, who was apologizing with her head down, and squeezed her daughter's little hand to comfort her silently. She hadn't been eating less than usual, so why hadn't she gained weight?
Xia Jianguo said in a low, serious voice, "You know that's good, but don't let it happen again!"
Li Qing recalled with lingering fear when she saw Xia Minmin's stomach when they got off the plane, "Xiaomin's stomach was so big and hard just now, it almost scared me to death!"
Li Chunmei explained with a smile, "You'll understand when you have children; a baby's belly looks like that."
The airport taxi lanes were packed with long queues that seemed to stretch as far as the eye could see, but there were only a handful of taxis available, and most of them were unwilling to come to the airport to pick up passengers.
Xia Jianguo suggested, "How about we take the airport bus to our neighborhood?"
The airport shuttle bus stop at Dudu Garden residential area is the most recently operational.
"Great! Taking the airport bus is much more convenient."
Xia Jianguo bought seven tickets at the ticket counter, stuffed his suitcase into the airport bus's luggage compartment, and sat down on a chair on the airport bus.
Xia Minmin looked around at the airport bus. It must have been put into service not long ago, as the chairs and other facilities inside were new and there was no strange smell.
Once the buses were full of passengers, they started moving.
"Goodbye, Xiaomin!"
After seeing Li Zhonghua and his family off in a taxi, Xia Minmin and her family of three went home, while Wang Aimin returned to the shop.
Li Chunmei handed the mung bean cakes she had prepared in advance to the security guard at the gate.
"Thank you, Brother Jianguo and Sister Chunmei."
"You're welcome. It was just something we did along the way. We're heading home now."
After Xia Jianguo and his family walked away, the three security guards on duty in the guard booth smelled the fragrant mung bean cakes.
"Jianguo and his friends are really nice people. They always bring us things when they go out to play."
"Yes, the snacks they give away aren't cheap either, unlike the residents of my fellow villager's community, who always give away things they don't need themselves."
"This is outrageous! We security guards aren't a garbage dump."
“The residents in our community are all of high quality and good character. As long as the company doesn’t fire me, I feel like I can work here until I retire.”
"Who can argue with that! Our company's security guards have high salaries and are covered by the five social insurances and one housing fund. They don't have much work to do, and the residents are all of high quality. It's practically a perfect job."
Having lived in this community for so many years, the residents haven't changed much. Most of them are already familiar faces. The kind-hearted elderly folks know all the residents well and know what's going on in each household. They'll readily help out if anyone has any problems.
The elderly folks in the neighborhood were sitting in the pavilion picking vegetables when they saw Li Chunmei and her family coming over. They greeted them loudly, "Chunmei, Jianguo, you're back from Chang'an? How was it? Did you have fun?"
Li Chunmei said with a smile, "Yes, Auntie, I just got off the airport bus. Chang'an is a lot of fun, and it's convenient to fly there. You can go there as a group for a few days next time. The noodles there are delicious. You don't know how much my Xiaomin ate today."
The elderly men and women in the pavilion all have grandchildren and can't bear to see children uncomfortable.
"Oh dear! Xiaomin, why are you just like my silly child? You don't even know if you've eaten enough!"
"Kids are all like that; when they see something they like to eat, they can't help themselves."
"Yes! Children have poor self-control."
"Chunmei and Jianguo, you two don't need to worry too much. Things will get better when the child grows up."
Xia Minmin's face flushed slightly. On the airport bus, she had already anticipated this situation. Well, the whole neighborhood would probably know that she had overeaten. She thought she should try to go out less for a while, as she knew that if her neighbors saw her, she would inevitably be teased.
Xia Jianguo placed a large box of mung bean cakes he was carrying on the desk. "Grandpa and Grandma, you can try these mung bean cakes from this shop. We brought them back from Chang'an."
The elderly people in the pavilion thanked them one after another, but Xia Jianguo and the others didn't chat for long, as they had things to do when they got home.
Xia Minmin finally breathed a sigh of relief after getting away from the pavilion.
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