Chapter 26 Chapter 26 What does your mother do for a living...
Wang Qin lowered her head and picked the cluster of oyster mushrooms in her hand. There was a complicated expression on her face. It was impossible to tell what she wanted to express from her expression.
But intuition told Shen Miao that there must be more exciting melons to eat.
Shen Miao did not rush to reply, but helped her rinse the meat in the basket with water and waited for her to continue.
"Oh, forget it, I won't say anything more."
Wang Qin worked very quickly and finished picking the oyster mushrooms in no time. "It's not right for us as outsiders to interfere in other people's family affairs. It's better not to know about it, so as not to get angry. Don't you think so?"
Shen Miao: …
It's not worth it to get angry because you get to eat the melon, but it's equally uncomfortable to jump up and down in anxiety because you can't eat it!
But since Wang Qin didn't want to talk about it, she naturally couldn't ask any more questions, so she could only go along with her and say, "Yes, we just need to take care of our own family, and don't mind other people's affairs if we can."
From an outsider's perspective, Wang Qin was right not to meddle in other people's business and not to gossip; but from Shen Miao's perspective, she really wanted to know what the unfinished sentence was.
Even if we don't talk about anything in depth, just listening to a few words is fine.
What happened to Chen Weimin's wife? Why are his two children so pitiful?
It was almost noon when Zhou Qiang came back.
Zhou Qiang took off his helmet, changed his dirty clothes, and took over the cooking job. Only then did Shen Miao have time to treat Wang Qin and listen to her talk about the changes in her family during this period.
Wang Qin's illness was caused by a lack of proper confinement, insufficient Qi and blood, and lack of nutrition. As long as she can get a good rest and take some warming and tonic medicines, she will slowly recover.
But given their current situation, it's unlikely that she can rest in bed, and it might take a longer time for her to fully recover.
There is no way. Since they choose to live with their children, they must be prepared to support the family.
Zhou Qiang's salary is high compared to most migrant workers, 50 yuan a day, which is higher than some office clerks, but at the same time, their family's daily expenses are also a huge amount of money.
The youngest, Jiabao, is at the age that costs the most money to feed and clothe six children, and there are also rent, water, and electricity... His salary is just enough to keep the family running. In order to make it easier for him, Wang Qin also found a job washing dishes in a nearby restaurant.
Although life is tight, the greatest happiness is that the family can live together.
Shen Miao discussed with Zhou Qiang and the others that when she came to the city to buy and sell medicinal herbs every week, she would bring enough medicine for Wang Qin for seven days, which would help them save some money.
After finishing the meal, when Zhou Qiang and Wang Qin saw Shen Miao off, they saw Wu Guifang and Chen Weimin and the others again.
They should have just come back from dinner. Wu Guifang was holding Chen Ping's left hand and Chen An's right hand, looking very happy, while Chen Weimin was following silently behind with the packed leftovers.
"Auntie, can I have fried chicken again next time?"
"Of course you can. If there's a chance, I'll take you there to eat again."
“Yeah~!”
They went upstairs from the stairs on the other side and did not see Shen Miao and Zhou Qiang and the others going down the stairs on this side.
But apart from Shen Miao, there were many people in the building who came out to digest their food after dinner and heard their conversations and laughter. They stood in front of the railings and glanced in the direction of the third floor. Almost every look was filled with disdain and contempt.
It turns out that everyone living here knows about Chen Weimin.
Like Shen Miao, they all thought that bringing other women into contact with their children was shameless and undignified.
But Shen Miao was curious whether they had also heard about Chen Weimin’s wife…
*
Since the beginning of autumn, time has passed very quickly. Seven days have gone by in the blink of an eye.
According to the agreement with Wang Qin and the others, when Shen Miao went to the city to buy and sell medicinal herbs, she also delivered the medicine for her health care on the way, but when she arrived at her house, she was not at home.
"The hotel is undergoing an inspection today, so my mother won't be home for lunch."
Sitting at the door peeling potatoes, Zhaodi was very skilled. Although she was only in her teens, she could already take care of her younger sisters by herself.
The girls in the Zhou family were all very sensible. When their parents were not at home, they did not just play with their friends in the tube building, but helped their sister with housework:
Pandi and Yingdi were coaxing their little sister who had just fallen asleep after breastfeeding, Youdi was responsible for cleaning the house, and Laidi was washing and picking vegetables with Zhaodi.
Today, my parents were busy with their own things and couldn't come back at noon, so they had to cook for themselves.
They are all girls who grew up in hardship and they can take good care of themselves.
Steaming rice is very easy. Just wash the rice and pour it into the rice cooker. Plug it in, press the button and wait for it to pop up.
This is the stir-fry...
When they lived in the village before, they were used to using stoves that burned wood. Although they saw their parents cooking with gas stoves every day, they were still not familiar with the gas tank.
Bang!
Zhaodi was figuring out how to use the gas tank when she turned around and saw Laidi breaking an egg.
Zhaodi hurriedly took a bowl and put the egg white and yolk into the bowl, fearing that any of them would be wasted.
This was bought with money, it would be a shame to waste it.
"Sister, I'm sorry..." Lai Di apologized quietly, "I just wanted to shake the egg to see if the yolk inside had dispersed."
Zhaodi didn't blame her, but wiped her hands with a rag and said, "It's okay."
Yesterday, Wang Qin went shopping for groceries and left five eggs for them so that they could put them in the pot while steaming rice.
Now one of them can’t be steamed, so it can only be fried, but she also needs to figure out how to use the gas tank.
"I'll do it."
Shen Miao took the initiative to roll up her sleeves and took the lighter from Zhao Di, "Chop the potatoes a little thinner. If they are too thick, they will not be easy to fry."
Gas is dangerous. They are all still young and it would be terrible if something unexpected happened.
"Hit! Thank you, sis!"
Seeing that she had cut quite a few potatoes and there were quite a few green vegetables in the pool, Shen Miao couldn’t help but ask, “Isn’t this a bit too much? You five can’t finish it.”
"I have to send it to my mother," Zhaodi said as she took out a lunch box from the cupboard with some pickled vegetables already put in it. "My mother must have not eaten lunch because she worked overtime at noon. I'll serve her a bowl of it later."
It’s great that a mother loves her daughter and a daughter also loves her mother.
It was lunchtime, and each floor of the tube building was filled with different aromas of rice. You didn't need to look, just smelling the aromas told you what dishes were being cooked: the sour and spicy cabbage, the pungent peppers and fried pork, eh? And the smell of bacon, mixed with rice, it was so fragrant!
Shen Miao's cooking skills were average. Scrambled eggs with celery, stir-fried shredded potatoes, and stir-fried pickled mushrooms were all very homely dishes. However, there were two pairs of little eyes that were secretly staring at these not-so-appetizing dishes.
When she was washing the pot, she saw the two people hiding at the staircase, and called them tentatively: "Are you safe?"
Realizing that they had been discovered, Chen Ping and Chen An shyly walked towards this side.
"It's already noon, you guys should go home and eat, and then come back to play after dinner."
Chen Ping didn't say anything, just looked at his sister beside him. Chen An put his hands behind his back, his face flushed with embarrassment, and whispered, "Uncle Liu is not at home..."
Shen Miao didn’t understand what they meant.
Uncle Liu is not at home, so what does it have to do with whether they have lunch or not?
Zhaodi, who was serving rice, saw Ping Ping An coming and took the initiative to invite them, saying, "Come to my house to eat, Sister Chen's cooking is delicious!"
"Yes, yes," Yingdi also came out of the house and invited her good sisters, "You two should go home and get bowls quickly. If you are any slower, there will be no rice in the pot."
They seemed to be accustomed to inviting Chen Ping and Chen An to their home for dinner. When the younger sisters in the room heard the names of Chen Ping and Chen An, they would consciously squeeze together to make some room for them.
Hearing Yingdi's voice, Chen An was no longer nervous. Instead, he quickly ran to her door and invited them, "Why don't you come to my house for dinner? My parents are not at home, so we can watch TV and eat together."
watch TV? !
These three words are too tempting for children.
For a moment, the younger sisters all looked towards the eldest sister in the family, and Zhao Di also subconsciously looked towards Shen Miao, wanting to hear her opinion.
“Then go ahead,” Shen Miao did not stop them, “Carry the dishes and rice, and go downstairs slowly so as not to spill them.”
“Yeah!”
When going downstairs, Shen Miao casually asked Zhao Di, "Where's his mother? Isn't she coming back to cook for them at noon?"
Zhaodi explained: "Auntie Sun is busy at work and rarely comes home, and Uncle Chen only comes home at night, so Ping An'an usually eats at other people's homes."
No wonder when I went to Chen Weimin’s house last time, I only saw bowls and chopsticks at the door but no kitchen utensils. The father is busy during the day and the mother is not at home, so there is really no need to cook at home.
Zhaodi said that every morning before Chen Weimin went out, he would ask the neighbors in the building for help. Even if he said he would pay for the meal, he sometimes had to ask for help before someone would be willing to cook a meal for him and his sister.
The Zhou family had not moved in long ago, but Yingdi and Chen An were of similar age and got along best, so Chen An and his friends came upstairs to eat the most often, and Zhou Qiang and Wang Qin also knew more about their family.
Whenever she saw Chen Ping and Chen An, Wang Qin couldn't help but think of the hard times her daughters had lived, so even if she looked down on their parents, she would still cook an extra meal for them.
After all, children are innocent.
"It's Sun Wukong! So awesome!"
"Look at me, I transform into seventy-two forms! I transform, transform, transform!"
"Youdi, please lower your voice. I can't hear the sound of the TV."
Sitting around the table, eating and watching "Havoc in Heaven" on TV, the children were laughing so happily, as if they didn't need the company of adults as long as they had the TV and the programs playing non-stop.
Wu Guifang just replaced the furniture for their home last week, and it still smells brand new. Unlike ordinary families, the original special wood smell will quickly fade away after a few days when they bring home the furniture.
The door of the closet was open, and inside were Chen Ping and Chen An's new clothes. The quilts on the bed were piled casually inside, and on a few pieces of paper were half-drawn doodles they had drawn that morning, and there were some melon seed shells on the floor that had not been swept away.
It seemed as if only the two siblings lived in this room. Apart from two coats of Chen Weimin draped over the wooden sofa, there was no trace of any adults left, let alone any clues about their mother.
Rather than saying it is a home, it is more like a cage for raising "pets". You only need to provide them with some food and daily necessities occasionally, but they don't need to live in it.
Although there are many children like Chen Ping and Chen An in the urban villages, it is more obvious that they are "abandoned" by their parents.
Fortunately, they have friends like Zhaodi and Yingdi, otherwise I can’t imagine how boring their life in cages would be. Will they become lonely when they grow up?
Ta-ta, ta-ta…
The sound of stiletto high heels came from downstairs. Unlike those fashionable modern girls, the footsteps outside the door were more anxious and flustered, not as relaxed as those of wealthy ladies.
As the sound got closer, once we reached the third floor, the footsteps headed straight towards the room where the children were watching TV and laughing.
"Pingping? An'an?"
It was a woman's voice.
Hearing the gentle voice calling their names, Chen Ping and Chen An's eyes lit up and they jumped down from the bed.
"Mother?"
"It's mom who's back."
The two of them ran to the door barefoot, one after the other, to open it. When they saw that the person outside was really their mother, they excitedly hugged her waist and rubbed their heads against her mother's smell.
Unlike the vulgarity and shabbyness of the urban village, the woman standing at the door is from another world completely.
She had fluffy curly hair, and wore round and luxurious pearl jewelry on her neck and hands. The Chinese cheongsam she wore looked like it was custom-made by a master craftsman. It not only highlighted her graceful figure, but also added a touch of mature feminine charm.
Shen Miao had always thought that the Chen family’s twins inherited their father’s handsomeness, but until she saw them in person today, she realized that their genes were completely inherited from their mother.
She is very beautiful, really very beautiful, a bit like the actress in a TV drama, but not the perfect heroine, but the second female lead with some minor flaws.
Although the woman was beautiful and dressed fashionably, her hands looked a little rough and her skin was not as smooth and delicate as that of the rich lady who had been pampered since childhood. It was obvious that she used to do farm work frequently and only started to maintain her skin in recent years.
"Look, I don't need you, my mother is so beautiful~"
The Zhou family moved in late, and this was the first time the children met their mother.
Chen An proudly held the woman's hand and boasted to Yingdi, "My mother's cooking is delicious too. Next time you come to my house, I'll ask my mother to cook for you."
The woman placed the two plastic bags in her hands on the table and greeted each child with a friendly smile, "Hello, thank you for coming to play with Ping Ping An."
Seeing the cage, oh no, there was new furniture in the house, the children were wearing beautiful new clothes, and there was a color TV on the cabinet playing cartoons, the emotion in the woman's eyes suddenly paused.
However, she did not ask where these things came from. Instead, she calmly untied the plastic bag and took out the plastic lunch boxes one by one.
"Mom and her boss are having dinner near home today, so I brought you some food from the restaurant. Come and try it."
Compared to the home-cooked vegetarian dishes without oil or water in the bowl, when the lunch boxes were opened one by one, the dishes inside were so delicious and fragrant.
Braised pork, salted duck, stir-fried wild mushrooms...there are even two crabs bigger than my palm!
"Wow!"
The children were almost full after eating rice, but when they saw this sumptuous dish, they instantly started drooling again.
This one looks like it was bought from a luxury hotel.
They had never eaten such exquisite dishes, let alone smelled them. They could only see them through the transparent glass of the box when they passed by the restaurant.
The Zhou sisters were very sensible. They knew that the food brought by the aunt was not for them, so they just looked at her with envy, while the chopsticks in their hands were still obediently picking up the messy shredded potatoes in the bowl.
"Here you go~"
Chen Ping broke off one of the crab's large claws and took the initiative to put it in Shen Miao's bowl, "Sister Shen is the biggest, you should eat the biggest claw."
The crab claws in this bowl made Shen Miao feel a little flattered.
Chen Ping has always been shy, and I didn't expect that he was thinking about me.
Not only Chen Ping, Chen An also used a spoon to share the box of braised pork with her good sisters.
You take a piece, she takes a piece, until finally you pour all the meat and soup into your own bowl.
It is said that one who eats the food of others will be grateful. Looking at the crab claws in the bowl, Shen Miao, who was just guessing what kind of job a woman could do to earn so much money, immediately stopped the random thoughts in his mind.
After seeing the children share all the food, the woman smiled with satisfaction and kept caressing Pingping and Anan's necks and faces. She hadn't seen her children for a long time and she wanted to hug them and take a nap with them like other mothers, but...
"Be safe and sound, mom will leave first."
The woman came in less than ten minutes and left without even sitting down.
"ah……"
Hearing that their mother was leaving, Chen Ping and Chen An looked up and spoke in a reluctant tone.
However, they seemed to be used to their mother's behavior. They knew it was useless to try to keep her, and they also knew that their mother left to make more money, so they had no choice but to say goodbye to her obediently.
"Goodbye, Mom..." the brother and sister said in unison.
"goodbye."
The woman lowered her head and kissed each of them on the forehead, then walked away, looking back every few steps.
That tattered door was like a barrier. When you stepped in, you were your mother, and when you stepped out, you were a glamorous modern girl.
Ta-ta-ta, ta-ta-ta…
The sound of red high heels became farther and farther away, and finally disappeared completely in the tube building. The two children's disappointment was soon covered by the joy brought by the delicious food. They looked up and continued to watch "Havoc in Heaven" on TV, as if their mother had never been there.
Only the Zhou sisters still envy their beautiful mother.
"Your mother's clothes are really pretty."
"My mother is pretty too~"
"Your mother smells delicious."
"This one doesn't smell good today, but it smelled really good the last time I came back!"
"Is your mother a big star? The stars I see on TV all have curly hair."
"Yeah, I also think my mother is a big star~"
When they met their mother for the first time, the children were full of curiosity and admiration for her fashion and beauty. The cartoons on TV didn't seem so interesting anymore, and every question in the conversation was about their mother.
However, Chen Ping and Chen An could not answer all the questions because they did not know what their mothers did for a living.
They told me that when they first moved to the city, their mother was working as a cleaner in a big company. She did a great job and was promoted. Because she was very busy at work, she couldn't live at home and could only come back to see them occasionally.
That's what big stars are like, they always have to stay on TV and can't go home.
As for their father Chen Weimin, he didn't seem to care about her job and took care of them as both a father and a mother.
Oh no, actually he didn't fulfill his responsibilities as a father, because it was they themselves and the good neighbors living in the tube-shaped building who took care of them.
The woman’s dishes were delivered a little late, and she bought seven or eight items, so a lot of them were left after she finished eating.
It just so happened that Chen Weimin came home late today, so he could have another meal in the evening after putting the food in the new refrigerator at home.
It was the first time for the Zhou sisters to eat such delicious dishes, and they were reluctant to eat it all. Instead, they left a little in their bowls and waited to put it in Wang Qin’s lunch box when they got home so that she could have a taste too.
Half a piece of braised pork, a piece of duck neck, and two pieces of ribs. The lunch box that originally only had vegetables and pickles suddenly became rich.
"Which restaurant does your mother work in? I'll go with you." Shen Miao was worried about Zhao Di going alone, so she offered to take her there and go home on the way.
Zhaodi nodded happily in agreement, and after instructing her sisters to take good care of her younger sister, she took Shen Miao's hand and went out together.
Wang Qin's workplace is not far away. After leaving Nanguo Village, just walk south along two main roads and you will arrive.
It was a luxurious restaurant called Mingzhu Hotel. It was past mealtime and there were only a few cars parked in the parking lot in front of the door. When entering the door, Shen Miao couldn't help but look at the car parked in the middle of the parking lot.
Henan A·Q6666
Hiss...this license plate looks familiar?
It feels very similar to Qian Wanli’s Q8888.
Not only the license plate, but the style of the car is the same, except that the color is dark gray.
This can’t be Qian Wanli’s car, right?
The driver's seat was empty, only someone was rummaging through something on the passenger seat. On the way to the back door, Shen Miao couldn't help but slow down to see who that person was. It wasn't until that person came out of the car with a mobile phone that Shen Miao and Zhao Di both widened their eyes in surprise.
"Sister! She, she is not..."
"Pingping and Anan's mother?!"
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