Chapter 44 Can't sleep, let me listen to a video.
"Give my sweetheart a hug." Ms. Xu gently hugged her daughter. It had been a long time since the mother and daughter had shared such a tender moment. As her daughter grew older, the number of times she would act cute towards her decreased year by year, which made Ms. Xu always miss the little daughter who used to love to jump into her arms when she was a child.
Xu Songning nestled quietly in her mother's arms, her breathing deep and even. Ms. Xu almost thought she had fallen asleep again. She patted her back gently with her soft hand. "Mom, let's go eat."
The meals were still plentiful. As soon as Ms. Xu returned, the quality of Xu Songning's meals improved dramatically. It was as if Ms. Xu wanted to make up for all the nutrition she had gained in the past year. There was stewed black-boned chicken with angelica, garlic oysters, pork rib soup with Chinese yam, and a bowl of peeled durian.
“Xiao Meng came by this afternoon. You were asleep, so I let her take a box of fruit. She was going to Zhou Qiao’s shop anyway, so I also let her take a durian.” Ms. Xu said, as she ladled soup for her daughter, carefully skimming off the oil on the surface, stirring the soup with a spoon, and ladling out the clear broth.
Xu Songning glanced towards the kitchen; thankfully, there was still one durian left.
"Hey, are you looking at the durian? Mom saved the biggest one for you, don't worry," Ms. Xu said with a smile.
Xu Songning took a sip of soup, feeling warm all over. "Thank you, Mom. You've worked so hard. I'll cover your travel expenses with your friends."
"Really?" Ms. Xu placed her hands on the table, smiling as she looked at her daughter. "Then we'll be visiting several cities, and the expenses will be at least ten or twenty thousand yuan."
"Spend it! Don't overwork yourself." Xu Songning opened his phone and transferred 20,000 yuan directly to Ms. Xu.
When the Alipay notification sounded, Ms. Xu was overjoyed. She had ten or twenty thousand yuan herself, but her daughter was spending money on her, and she was happy no matter how she thought about it.
"I have to post a picture on WeChat Moments to show off my darling daughter." Ms. Xu took a screenshot and happily edited her WeChat Moments post.
Xu Songning, however, thought it was nothing special, took a bite of chicken, and said, "What's there to brag about?"
“You don’t understand, my ex-husband is still on my friend list.” Ms. Xu tapped her phone, her face beaming. “How can he be better off than me? His son isn’t his own, and he’s still going through his rebellious phase. I heard he likes riding motorcycles. Oh dear, that’s dangerous.”
Xu Songning had long since deleted her heartless ex-father's contact information and had no further dealings with him. She only knew that he had remarried a woman with a young son, whom he probably thought he could raise as his own.
"Mom, what are your thoughts now that you've seen his news?" Xu Songning asked.
Ms. Xu chuckled, "What thoughts could I possibly have? We're all so old now, we can't be as naive as we were when we were young, can we?"
Isn't that childish? Xu Songning shook his head and laughed.
After posting the message on her WeChat Moments, many people liked it. Ms. Xu happily replied to her friends' messages. When a friend video-called her, she got up and instructed Xu Songning, "Remember to eat all the chicken. If you can't finish it, seal it with plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator, okay, sweetie."
"good."
Xu Songning munched on a chicken wing, while Ms. Xu, smiling, took her phone and went back to her bedroom.
She doesn't have a big appetite and gets full quickly, so she wraps up the leftover food and puts it in the refrigerator.
After finishing, I took a walk in the living room to digest my food, listening intently to the sounds from across the street. There was no more noise at the door, so I wondered if Xiang Yun had returned.
Xu Songning peered through the peephole like a thief. The opposite side was quiet, and she couldn't tell if anyone had come home. Her view was blocked, and she couldn't see if there were any shoes on the ground.
So she gently pushed open the door and glanced carefully at the ground. There were no shoes; it seemed Xiang Yun hadn't come home yet.
Judging by the time, even if I fly to a far place, I should be home by tonight.
Could it be a delay?
Xu Songning nestled on the sofa, stepping on the doll and squeezing it with his toes.
I opened my phone, and there were no friend requests on WeChat. The active members of the "Blue Sky Guardians" group were joking around and not discussing anything serious.
Xu Songning thought for a moment and asked, "Is there anything special today?"
Xiao Jin: "Special circumstances? Sister Xu, what do you mean? Activity control or meetings?"
Sister Wang: "Xiao Xu, are you off today? Is your vacation almost over?"
Xu Songning replied to Xiao Jin first, "It refers to flight delays, domestic flights."
Then he replied to Sister Wang, "I'm off today. I'll be on vacation in a week. Thank you all for your hard work."
Xiao Jin: "Flight delayed? I'm not sure about that, but the weather is pretty good today. Your domestic flights are too broad. Do you have the flight numbers?"
Xu Songning thought to herself that if she knew the flight number, she would look it up herself, but she couldn't be too obvious. If she asked about Xiang Yun's flight, they would probably misunderstand again.
"My mom made chicken soup, I'll bring some over tomorrow for you to share," Xu Songning successfully changed the subject.
Sure enough, the conversation in the group immediately turned to Xu Songning's mother, who also expressed her envy and gratitude towards Xu Songning.
After sleeping all afternoon, Xu Songning found himself wide awake in the evening. He took his pillow and went to Ms. Xu's room, where Ms. Xu was packing her things to go out the next day and come back to celebrate Xu Songning's birthday in a week.
"Goodness, what's wrong?" Ms. Xu put the packed clothes into the suitcase and looked up at her.
Xu Songning curled her finger and gently scratched her cheek. "Mom, have you adjusted to the time difference yet?"
“Of course it’s reversed; your mother’s adaptability is quite good,” Ms. Xu said with a smile.
"Then I'll take this away, I can't sleep." Xu Songning pointed to the diffuser stone on the bedside table.
Ms. Xu nodded, stepped over the suitcase, and walked to her daughter. "Here you go. Are you having trouble sleeping? Do you want Mom to sleep with you? When you were little, you loved to cling to Mom and sleep together, but now that you're older, you don't like it anymore and insist on sleeping alone."
Xu Songning hugged her pillow tightly and gently swayed her body. "Of course I should sleep alone when I'm grown up. I always sleep too lightly when there are people around."
"Wow, what will your husband do then? Sleep on the floor?" Ms. Xu laughed, teasing her.
"We'll talk about this later!" Xu Songning picked up the diffuser stone and perfume and returned to his room.
She lay in bed, turned on a video explaining advanced mathematics, added a few drops of lavender-scented essence, turned off the light, closed her eyes, and savored the fragrance that gradually filled the room.
My mood relaxed, and gradually, I felt sleepy.
The monotonous male voice in the video was automatically forced out of her ear canal. In the empty room, she seemed to hear Xiang Yun's voice again, gently reading an obscure novel to her, accompanying her to sleep.
The man leaned close to her ear and whispered, "Goodnight."
"Goodnight," Xu Songning murmured, unconsciously drifting into a deep sleep.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
