"The Working Girl" saves the villain in his childhood (17)...
After passing the madman Huo Yueze, you can see Qiu Tianyi waiting for you.
In this world, no matter when, there will always be someone waiting for her.
Upon arriving upstairs, Ye Xiqing and Qiu Tianyi tacitly avoided mentioning the incident downstairs.
After all, it's not something to be happy about, and there's no need to make one more person unhappy.
Qiu Hui was happily sitting on the sofa watching TV when she saw them and jumped up excitedly.
"You two came back just in time, my stew is ready!"
Housework is a very tiring and mentally taxing task, but not everyone likes it.
Some people enjoy watching the stains being wiped away little by little, restoring order to disordered things.
Some people enjoy studying food and seeing their family members praise it.
Before she got married, Qiu Hui felt that she was very suitable to be a housewife.
You don't have to worry about anything every day. You can just stay in your own home, tidy up the house, and cook. Isn't that pretty happy?
But during those years as a housewife, she was left exhausted.
An old man from the family came home, kicked his shoes aside, strode into the house, sat at the dining table, and waited for her to bring the food to him.
She wanted to share her ideas for today's dishes with her family, as well as any interesting or unusual things that happened while grocery shopping, but no one wanted to hear such trivial matters and didn't even bother to look at her.
She could sense the disregard, and feeling stifled, she stopped trying to talk. She reached for the table with her chopsticks, only to find that all the good food had already been devoured while she was busy. It was her cooking, but whether she got to eat it or not was irrelevant.
Day after day, while the family ate and drank their fill, went back to their rooms to sleep, or sat chatting, she would quietly tidy up the dirty dishes and chopsticks and put them back in the kitchen, and then put the things that the old men had messed up when they came home back in their original places.
Nobody cared about her except her aunt, who was still in school, who was restless and asked: "Sister-in-law, do you need me to help you?"
But her kind words could not quell her anger; they only fueled her suppressed rage.
Help me? If you want to help, just do it!
I only say it verbally because I can only smile and refuse, saying you're still young and I can do it myself!
Anger surged within her, and even kindness would only ignite a firecracker in her heart. She didn't know what was wrong with her.
She doesn't have to do anything at home; all she has to do is take care of the whole family.
Her husband works much harder than her, even though he works outside.
Why are there still so many complaints? Why aren't people satisfied?
She thought that even her aunt, the only one in the family who might show her kindness, wouldn't understand.
She would only look at her with incomprehension when she got divorced.
Apart from the fact that my brother cheated on me, everything else is already pretty good for you, isn't it?
Qiu Hui finds it hard to think about the past anymore, because life is so good now. The nightmarish days of the past are like the bitterness in "remembering the bitterness of the past and appreciating the sweetness of the present".
She finally achieved her dream of being a "housewife," which is quite ironic, but she only achieved this ideal state after she had become successful in her career.
As the steamed bun shop became more and more well-run, she hardly needed to worry about anything else. So she hired a manager and let go of all the management, only collecting money and paying salaries on time each month.
No matter how high the salaries of the supervisors and employees are, they can't compare to the money she earns, so Qiu Hui didn't feel bad about it.
On the contrary, after giving up the steamed bun shop, she had more free time to take care of her family, which was her ideal "housewife" life.
Every morning, she gets up early to make breakfast.
She started her business selling steamed buns, but steamed buns were rarely served at the Qiu family's breakfast. The reason was simple: during the years when they could only eat steamed buns, they got tired of them.
Sometimes when she's feeling lazy, she'll just buy some fried dough sticks and tofu pudding downstairs and make do.
When I have a lot of free time, I'll get up early in the morning and carefully fry an egg, some bacon, and a sausage according to a tutorial in a short video, then put them together with toast to make a very appealing sandwich.
Compared to the other two meals, she prefers the presentation of breakfast. Looking at the dishes arranged on the table, which resemble pictures of delicious food, always makes her feel happy.
Taking a photo and posting it on WeChat Moments, seeing others like it, gives me a great sense of accomplishment.
Leaving aside breakfasts where form outweighs substance, for lunch and dinner, she, like all older Chinese people, loves "hearty dishes."
She not only bought a complete set of seasonings, just like in a restaurant, but also a set of various pots and pans and knives.
It has everything from soup pots to stew pots, and is proficient in frying, stir-frying, cooking, and deep-frying.
Among them, her favorite, and also Ye Xiqing's and Qiu Tianyi's favorite, is all kinds of stewed meat.
Whether it's stewing chicken, stewing duck, or stewing fish, she has special kitchen utensils and seasonings, so she makes them very delicious.
This time, she stewed a whole pot of tender and flavorful old duck soup. The aroma could be smelled from outside the door. As soon as Ye Xiqing and Qiu Tianyi entered, their mouths watered.
Qiu Yi coughed to cover up her drool, then rushed to the kitchen, scooped up a mouthful of soup, and said, "Let me taste it first!"
Qiu Hui's booming voice came from the outer room: "What are you tasting? The kitchen is full of garbage, go and throw it away, don't you have any sense of propriety!"
Qiu Tianyi: ...
The job of taking out the trash was something no one in the family wanted to do, so it legally fell to her as a "child laborer."
Sometimes I really wonder if she is the hope of the whole family or their slave, making her do all the work she doesn't want to do!
But there was no other way; as the individual with the least say in the family, she had to do the work that others were unwilling to do.
Aunt Fu does nothing but go to work every day, but her mother never orders her around.
Even if she occasionally gave orders and caused such a serious problem as buying "sow meat," she wouldn't be blamed, but rather treated with great tolerance.
"Your Aunt Fu has never done any work before, so it's normal that she doesn't know how to do it."
Qiu Tianyi: ...
I wasn't born to work!
Qiu Yi sometimes felt that Aunt Fu was more like her mother's biological daughter than she was, but don't be ridiculous, a biological daughter wouldn't get that kind of treatment.
Qiu Hui personally ladled out a bowl of brightly colored old duck soup, smiled broadly, and handed it to Ye Xiqing, asking expectantly, "How is it?"
Ye Xiqing took a spoonful.
Because they have a dishwasher at home, they don't have to worry about using bowls, so the Qiu family has a very rich variety of tableware.
There were separate bowls for rice and soup, and even the soup spoons were clearly divided into communal and personal spoons. Ye Xiqing took the personal spoon and took a sip—
"It's so fresh! There's no duck flavor at all, and no saltiness either."
"Ordinary people often make two mistakes when making duck soup: either the main ingredient is not handled well, resulting in a strong ducky smell, or the seasoning is too heavy, overpowering the original flavor of the soup."
"But you don't have either of those problems. The flavor of the duck meat and the flavor of the seasonings are all blended together perfectly, so much so that I can't taste anything other than the umami flavor."
"Thanks to you, I was able to taste such delicious duck soup. I don't know how much it would cost outside."
Qiu Hui: Hehe~
That's why she enjoys cooking for Ye Xiqing.
When you feed it to others, they act as if you're just eating, like you're feeding pigs.
Feeding Ye Xiqing made me feel like I'd been upgraded to some kind of amazing gourmet.
Sitting happily in her seat, ignoring Qiu Yi who was going downstairs to take out the trash, she served herself a bowl of soup.
Upon tasting it, my eyes lit up.
She lacked education and couldn't come up with rich descriptions.
But after tasting the soup, she realized that Ye Xiqing's wonderful words were describing this flavor.
Qiu Yi, being young and physically strong, quickly went up and down the stairs like a whirlwind. When she came back, she found the two of them chatting and laughing while drinking!
He rushed into the bathroom, washed his hands, pulled out a chair, and sat down, saying, "Couldn't you have waited for me a moment?!"
But those two never wait for anyone when they eat; if you're too late, there's nothing left.
Qiu Yi, who came later, took the lead and used her chopsticks to pick up a large piece of duck leg, skin, bone, and meat, dripping with juice, and put it into her bowl. In the process, she spilled a lot of soup onto the glass tabletop.
Then he used the serving spoon to scoop soup into his own bowl, eventually soaking the rice to the top.
Qiu Hui watched her movements, and the veins on her forehead throbbed.
"Can't you just eat properly? Duck soup is for you to drink, not for you to soak rice in!"
Qiu Yi didn't care: "So what? Scientific research has shown that all the nutrients in meat are in the meat itself. There's nothing in the soup except purines. Can you really make a living just by drinking the soup?"
"And I'm not the only one eating like this, look—"
Following the direction her chopsticks pointed, Qiu Hui looked at Ye Xiqing beside her. Ye Xiqing paused in her rice-soaking gesture, then looked up at Qiu Hui and smiled—
"The rice tastes even better when it absorbs the flavor of the soup; it brings a primal sense of happiness. Would you like to try it?"
Qiu Hui's expression immediately changed, and her eyes lit up as she said, "Really? Then I'll try it too!"
After trying it, she was full of praise, exclaiming in astonishment, "It really is! You really know how to eat, Xiao Fu!"
Qiu Tianyi, the real "inventor of rice soaked in soup": Huh?
Qiu Yi was shocked by her mother's double standards and angrily ate a large bowl of rice.
After a satisfying meal, the family had some free time to chat. Qiu Hui said, "I think we still need to buy a house. Buying a car is one thing, buying a house is another. Putting everything else aside, Xiao Ya should be getting married soon. Having a house so her boyfriend can live in her place will give her some financial security even if they get divorced in the future."
Qiu Tianyi: ...
Huh? I just started working?
Having eaten and drunk her fill, Ye Xiqing felt a bit lazy and leaned back in her chair without much regard for her image: "Besides Xiaoya getting married, don't you have any other considerations?"
"For example, I don't have enough room for all my clothes, so I want a bigger bedroom; I have too many kitchen utensils, so I want a bigger kitchen."
"You're paying for the house, so you should consider yourself first. Xiaoya is Xiaoya, so shouldn't her housing be her priority?"
Qiu Hui: Huh?
Every word Ye Xiqing said resonated with her, but as she got older, why should she think about her own future? Of course, she had to prioritize Xiaoya's future!
Unexpectedly, Ye Xiqing once again made a startling statement: "This is not contradictory. You have overlooked one thing: your child is a daughter, not a son."
“Men need a house to get married because they need to bring in a ‘surrogate mother’ from someone else’s house to complete the purpose of reproduction. But Xiaoya will be a mother herself, so there is no need to bring in a helper who may not be useful.”
"Do you really want Xiaoya to get married? Do you really want to buy her a car and a house to give her 'confidence' so that another man won't dare to bully her in her house?"
"Have you ever thought that a little girl like you, who can become a mother on her own, doesn't actually have to leave her mother's home?"
Qiu Hui: ...
Qiu Tianyi: ...
Aunt Fu! Your thinking is so modern!
The first to react to this sentence was Qiu Tianyi, who immediately nodded vigorously, "Yes, yes, yes!"
Although she doesn't plan to have children, that doesn't stop her from not wanting to get married!
From now on, whenever anyone pressures her to get married, she should use this phrase to shut them up!
Qiu Hui was completely stunned.
In her mind, the concept of "a daughter can stay at home" doesn't seem to exist, because whether she was a daughter or a mother, she was always wandering alone outside.
So it turns out the abnormal one is her, not her daughter?
So, it turns out that the ones who needed to be squeezed out of her family of origin were her two brothers who couldn't walk independently, rather than her, who was capable of being a mother on her own?
As if her worldview had been overturned, Qiu Hui could even hear something stubborn shattering with a loud crash.
As if she had opened the door to a new world, she murmured, "Yes, yes, you're right!"
She wants a bigger house with lots and lots of big cabinets to help her store all her things, and as she gets older, she also wants a bathroom in her master bedroom.
She wanted a really big kitchen. She was fed up with searching for kitchen utensils in the cupboards every day. She wanted a countertop where she could display all her kitchenware.
She wanted more rooms, at least four: one for herself, one for Xiaoya, one for Xiaoya's future child, and one more—
Qiu Hui looked at Ye Xiqing: "Do you still want to cooperate with me to buy a house?"
Ye Xiqing smiled slightly and said, "Of course."
So Ye Xiqing and Qiu Hui partnered up to buy another house.
The old house, filled with their memories, was sold. Because of its good location when it was bought, which made it convenient for both school and work, it actually sold for a very good price!
Although it was unlikely to make her rich this way, Qiu Hui was still overjoyed to have lived there for free for so many years, so she generously gave all the furniture and appliances to the new buyer for free.
They don't need to move to the new house. The new house is a better house, and they want to decorate it properly, completely according to their own wishes, and replace everything from head to toe with new things!
With everyone's input, the new home was chosen to have a layout of four bedrooms, two living rooms, three bathrooms, and one kitchen.
Qiu Hui looked at the kitchen, which resembled a bedroom, and was very satisfied. She could build a U-shaped kitchen and do whatever she wanted with the countertop.
Although Qiu Yi doesn't plan to have children, that empty room is perfect for her to use as a study. She's quite happy about it!
Ye Xiqing was illiterate and didn't need a study, so she automatically took the second bedroom with an ensuite bathroom.
The situation has changed. It's time to recognize who's the boss in the family. Is it fair to not let the mother, who's the benefactor, stay in the master bedroom? She can make do with whatever she wants.
She and Qiu Hui jointly made the down payment for the house and jointly paid the mortgage, but Qiu Hui contracted the renovation, which established her position as the head of the family.
When Qiu Hui's family learned that she would rather sell her old house than use it as a wedding home for her younger brother, they naturally made a lot of noise.
But let them make a fuss; it won't really cause any real trouble.
If you really want to cause a huge scene, there's a policeman living in her house, a criminal investigator at that. He's so powerful that he puts his name on the door to ward off evil spirits.
Over the years, Ye Xiqing had never thought about paying social security, since she didn't have any pressure to support herself in old age. But after she entered the public sector, the five social insurances and one housing fund were automatically provided to her.
She and Qiu Hui bought a new house together, which used her housing provident fund. So in her old age, she, like Qiu Hui, is living a happy life with government-provided pensions.
However, Qiu Hui was very obsessed with the idea of "carrying on the family line." Qiu Yi couldn't stand her nagging anymore, and finally, after her law firm was running smoothly, she had twins through IVF and handed them over to her biological mother, saying, "You can raise them if you want!"
This is really lively now. The two sisters, twins, are running around everywhere and making a lot of noise.
Ye Xiqing stood up: "Something came up at work again, and they called me back."
After retiring, Qiu Hui became even more astute than Ye Xiqing, a retired veteran criminal investigator: "Where have I been looking for you? Your phone hasn't rung!"
Ye Xiqing stood up without changing her expression, putting on her coat: "I was notified yesterday, I'm leaving now."
Even after all these years, she is still very healthy and walks with great speed, which Qiu Hui cannot keep up with at all.
Aunt Wang, who was invited by Qiu Tianyi, laughed and comforted her: "Stop shouting. After all these years, you know what kind of person she is!"
Qiu Hui was furious. How could someone so old not act like a grandmother at all!
I gently patted the heads of my two little ones, reminding them not to be as lazy as their great-grandmother!
But if it really looks like it, there's nothing wrong with that~
...
Ye Xiqing sat alone on a rocking chair in the park.
Not long ago, I received a system notification that the minor villain had committed suicide.
Although the female protagonist must leave the world without the male protagonist's death, there is really no point in her staying any longer.
Ye Xiqing rocked alone in her rocking chair, gazing at the sky. It was so quiet.
Such a quiet sky is perfect for saying goodbye.
Goodbye, world.
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