Chapter 46: Mother, Mother
Midsummer. No wind. The sun was scorching.
Jiang Mianmian lay in a wooden basin under a big tree, playing for a long time.
She played with her little feet, then played with Little Hei for a while. Watching Little Hei walk back and forth holding a large leaf, she giggled.
Then, she observed her sister. Her brother was nowhere to be seen again. Mother had run off too. Only her sister was home.
She wanted to see if there were any changes in her sister after drinking the spiritual spring water. It seemed there were.
After her sister fed her rice paste, she ate as well. Her sister was considered a patient, so the meal left for her today was quite thick. However, after finishing it, her sister was still hunting around for something to eat.
Jiang Mianmian watched as her sister first drooled at the birds in the tree, then took off her embroidered shoes and climbed up. She didn’t catch any birds, but jumped down after picking a few leaves.
“These leaves are thicker, and they smell like they might be edible,” Jiang Yu muttered to herself.
She washed the leaves and started chewing them, just like a bamboo rat. Jiang Mianmian watched as the leaves went swish-swish-swish, getting shorter and disappearing… Her sister’s cheeks moved as she chewed.
Jiang Mianmian looked up at the sky helplessly. This spiritual spring water wasn’t omnipotent… It probably just added a little buff to the skills everyone already possessed.
She was an infant, her five senses were still forming, so after drinking the spiritual spring water, her senses were greatly enhanced. But she was still fundamentally an infant; she hadn’t magically grown up overnight.
But as for her sister… Watching her little round face scrunch up because the leaves made it numb, yet she insisted on eating another one. Wasn’t she afraid they were poisonous?
“Crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch.”
“Crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch…”
I have to say, watching the leaves disappear and listening to that sound was so stress-relieving. Her sister eating leaves was just so cute…
If her sister went to the modern world, she could become an internet celebrity just by eating leaves; she wouldn’t starve.
Jiang Mianmian watched her sister, feeling envious. She grabbed her own little foot and gnawed on it, but it tasted a bit salty, so she spat it out—ptui, ptui, ptui.
Just when she was bored out of her mind and feeling hopeless about her infant life, she seemed to smell Mother. “Yi-ya-ya-ya!” “Yi-ya-ya-ya!” Jiang Mianmian cried out.
Jiang Yu looked toward the village entrance in the distance and saw what looked like Mother’s figure. Then she looked at her sister, who was crying out, and was simply amazed. She had heard that infants could sense their Mothers; could her sister really tell Mother was back from so far away?
She reached out and felt her sister’s bottom. “Oh, it’s wet.” So she had peed. Jiang Yu was startled for a moment.
Jiang Yu finished changing her sister’s diaper just as Mother reached the door. Mother seemed to be panting, her face flushed red.
Jiang Mianmian also sniffed hard. Last time, Mother had returned with a calm face even after slaughtering a huge python; what had she done this time to be in such a rush? She didn’t seem to smell anything strange. Wait, was there a faint scent of human blood?
No, that wasn’t right; it seemed to be the scent of a child. Could it be that Mother had another baby behind her back?
“Ah-ah, ah-ah!” (Want a hug, want a hug.) Jiang Mianmian waved her clenched fists.
Qin Luoxia washed up before picking up her daughter. She lifted her clothes and began to nurse.
Jiang Mianmian drank her milk, feeling very satisfied, yet she also felt something was a bit strange; Mother’s heartbeat was very fast, much faster than usual.
Suddenly, Mother buried her head against her. Jiang Mianmian thought, Mother is so clingy; she must have missed her because she had been gone for so long. She would overlook the fact that Mother smelled like another child.
Qin Luoxia held her baby and cried. She was very afraid. She had done a bad thing. A very bad thing.
She had originally intended to kill that child. But when she got close, she couldn’t bring herself to do it. That cry of “Mother” had stopped her. She had thought about it for a long time, but still couldn’t bring herself to do it.
She only tore off a corner of the little fatty’s clothes and used it to wipe his nosebleed. She brought that scrap of cloth back. The little fatty had gone back to playing happily with his friends, still getting beaten. She had walked away with her basket on her back, hearing the bursts of children’s laughter in the alley.
She returned to that earthen kiln. Occasionally, faint, broken cries came from inside. She lit a fire. The earthen kiln was the worst; it was the root of evil.
The fool didn’t understand anything. As long as his parents were dead, he would have a life of suffering ahead of him, a long life of suffering. In this world, dying was easier than living.
Qin Luoxia cried for her own weakness, for her child, and for herself. But she was a Mother now; she could not cry. She had always hated it when her own Mother cried. Whenever her Mother cried, she wanted to die with her. Don’t cry; crying couldn’t solve any problems.
So, now that she was a Mother, she absolutely could not cry; she must not. She had to smile; she had to let her child see a smiling Mother so the child wouldn’t worry. This world wasn’t that bad. She had to smile. You still have Mother and Father. Don’t be afraid.
Mother’s tears fell silently, soaking Jiang Mianmian’s swaddling clothes. Jiang Mianmian felt her arm get damp and realized something was wrong. She opened her mouth, pushed Mother away, and looked up at her.
She saw a big smile on Mother’s round face, but her eyes were red and wet, her thick brows curved.
“Are you full, baby? From now on, Mother will take you wherever she goes, okay? Mother will never lose you, and you will never mistake someone else for Mother,” Qin Luoxia said. Her voice was trembling and gentle.
Jiang Mianmian waved her arms and stretched out her hands, reaching Mother’s face, wiping it hard. Mother was crying. Tears welled up in Jiang Mianmian’s eyes instantly.
She couldn’t stand seeing people cry. When she was interning at the hospital, whenever she saw patients or their families crying, her own eyes would quickly turn red, and she had been scolded by her superiors for it a few times. They said if medical staff cried at the drop of a hat, the patients would be scared to death, thinking they weren’t going to make it.
She couldn’t help it even when strangers cried. Let alone her own Mother. She wanted to shout, Mother, don’t cry, don’t cry. But she was anxious and couldn’t say it.
“Yi-ya-ya-ya.” “Ah-ah-ah.” “Pu-pu-pu.” “Mother, Mother, Mother.” Jiang Mianmian struggled to make these sounds. Her hands wiped Mother’s face hard.
Qin Luoxia looked pleasantly surprised. Her baby could call her Mother. She could no longer hold back; though tears streamed down her face, she was beaming. “Mother is here, Mother is always here. Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid.”…
