Chapter 290
The child slept with them at night and fell asleep quickly after being coaxed for a while.
Old Yi looked at the white and tender kitten with a melancholy heart. If only she had been born three or four years earlier, he could have given them a few more years of peace and stability. He wondered if the kitten would even remember him in the end.
Wang Jiazhi always felt guilty. The nanny must have sensed it, wondering what was going on with the child not sleeping with them. In fact, it was difficult for wealthy families to keep secrets from servants.
Seeing her blushing, he smiled and said, "What's wrong? You're blushing again."
"No, the room is too hot." She said, and her ears turned red again.
He probably knew that she was still not used to too many people where she lived. In the past, it was just the two of them wherever they went, and she could do whatever she wanted anyway.
She said, "How do those families with three generations living together survive?"
"Then life must go on."
Wang Jiazhi thought of some families where two brothers shared a bed, separated only by a curtain. They could see everything going on across from each other, afraid to even make a sound. No, even without making a sound, there was movement. Life must have been incredibly awkward. And then there were those families where three generations lived in one house. How did they manage, with all the children they kept having?
As expected, poverty diminishes ambition. She didn't find this statement insulting, but rather pathetic. When supplies were extremely scarce, dignity was out of the question. It was said that during a famine, a piece of dry food or a dead mouse was worth a woman sleeping with a man.
Then she thought, "They're just trying to survive, and I'm just a fool." She quickly dismissed the thought. Regardless, she felt no one's situation was more absurd and disgusting than hers.
She recalled the train she took after leaving, a second-class sleeper berth; first-class carriages were too flashy. It was strange, too, that she was the only one in a carriage meant for four. She went out for a drink of water in the middle of the night and saw someone get off the next carriage, and then a woman with her son approached. The child was already quite grown, and they only had one ticket, on the upper berth. It was impossible to imagine how they slept. The bed was only big enough for one person at most.
I heard her say, "There's nothing I can do. He was panting so much at night. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been willing to spend the money for the sleeper berth."
She recalled how, to save money, she'd taken a boat and then a train back from Hong Kong to Shanghai. The lower-class cabin was smelly and stuffy, and the bed was so low she could only lie down, unable to sit up. She'd spent a whole day and night sitting in a third-class carriage, the reek of stinky socks. Life was just like that. There are only endless blessings to enjoy, but no endless suffering.
She had never told him about her past material hardships, fearing that if she did, he would think she was too humble, that the gap between them was too great. Besides, these trivial difficulties were commonplace for officials like him, and they hated it when ordinary people talked about them. Of course, it was possible that he would feel even more sorry for her, and that he wasn't completely indifferent. Even when she was nearly killed in the explosion, she kept thinking that if she could ever see him again, she would definitely tell him.
But until now, she still hadn't told him. It wasn't because she was afraid he'd be annoyed, but because she always felt that all the suffering she had endured was her due. No matter who he thought of her, she thought of him as her own. So, her suffering was equal to his suffering, equal to atonement for his sins. Or maybe it was fate's revenge on him, tormenting her for his evil deeds. Sometimes, even her past was fate's revenge on him, for not giving him the perfect person he loved.
At this time he said: "You didn't even have a quilt at that time. You said you could only cover yourself with a coat for several days."
She said, "Spring has eased up now, and we don't need quilts anymore. When we were in Hong Kong, there was a war and we had nothing to cover ourselves with."
"That hand was worn like this from writing back then." He stroked her fingers again.
She whimpered and took his hand. There was also a bulge, but it was not as obvious. It had been worn out when she was young and could not be removed.
"How did you grind it out? It's all about writing."
"There weren't enough people to run a newspaper at that time."
She recalled her dream and said, "It's not that there are not enough people, it's that no one can write."
"How do you know?"
"I guessed."
He recalled the dream in which she helped him write the manuscript. He told her about it, and Wang Jiazhi was very surprised. It seemed that he and she had the same dream.
When he woke up, he realized that after half his life, she had given birth to a daughter. It was incredible. In the afternoon, they reported her pregnancy. Her belly was so big that it could no longer be concealed. He was stunned for several days before he recovered.
She pulled out a magazine from under her pillow and pointed at a cartoon on it and asked, "What is this?"
A white cat has its hair frizzed up after washing, looking very cute. Wang Jiazhi has a lot of hair, which looks even thicker after washing. Her hair is long and frizzed up after being wiped with a towel.
"I think my painting is very vivid." He is very proud of his painting.
"I knew it was you who drew it."
He stroked his daughter's hair and said, "She'll be like you when she grows up, with lots of hair like this."
"My mom and grandma both have extra hair. Genetics are really amazing."
She said she wanted to see the photos of him when he was young. A few days later, he brought them to her. Some of them were exactly the same as the ones she dreamed of, except that she was missing.
And it just so happened that there was an empty seat next to him where she was originally in the dream. But everyone was standing next to each other.
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