Inside the cubicle.
Jiang Xiaobai sat quietly. She had ordered a hot pot, and it was bubbling. Du Xiaoyu hadn’t arrived yet, so she put a few potatoes and cabbage inside the pot first.
Then, she ordered a few bottles of beer too.
The cabbage and potatoes were almost done. After picking them up and putting them on her plate, she added a plate of beef slices into the pot. She then squeezed some sauce on a sauce plate. When the beef slices were done, she picked them up with her chopsticks, swirled them in the sauce, and put them on top of the cabbage. Finally, she picked them all up with her chopsticks and put the food in her mouth.
This was her favorite way of eating hot pot.
Then she ate some potatoes and opened a bottle of beer.
All of those tasted familiar to her. At the thought of not eating hot pot for half a year while she was overseas, Jiang Xiaobai sniffled a little and picked up a piece of tissue paper to wipe at the corners of her eyes.
Knock knock!
Someone was knocking on the door, and Jiang Xiaobai raised her head. It’s probably Mom.
She put down the chopsticks in her hand and got up to open the door.
Du Xiaoyu had dressed up specially for the meeting with her daughter. She had put on makeup and changed into a pretty dress.
Although Du Xiaoyu used to dress up like this before, her mood had gone down ever since Jiang Xiaobai went overseas. For a long time, she hadn’t dressed up and styled herself. Even her skin had become worse than before because she didn’t have the mood to carry out her skincare routine.
But since she was meeting her daughter today, she even used a facial mask before putting on makeup so that she would not look so old and pale.
As the mother and daughter saw each other, they fell silent for a long time. After a while, Jiang Xiaobai tugged her lips into a smile with some effort.
“Mom.”
Du Xiaoyu stepped inside the cubicle cautiously.
Bang!
As the door closed, Du Xiaoyu saw that Jiang Xiaobai had ordered hot pot.
“I didn’t know what time you’ll be here, so I’ve eaten a little by myself and drank some beer.”
Then, Jiang Xiaobai burped. The two of them were startled, then couldn’t help but laugh suddenly.
After laughing, tears welled up in their eyes, and they started crying uncontrollably.
The makeup on their faces were ruined, but they didn’t bother to touch up their faces since they were family after all. They sat down and started to eat the hot pot.
Seeing the hot pot, Du Xiaoyu said immediately, “This isn’t hot pot. If you really want to eat hot pot, you must order a spicy one. Have you lost the ability to eat spicy food after being overseas for so long?”
“Who told you that I can’t eat spicy food? I didn’t order anything spicy out of concern for you, okay?”
“Oh, who are you to be concerned about me?” Du Xiaoyu suddenly mocked Jiang Xiaobai, “Are you joking? Your ability to eat spicy food comes from me when you were in my womb. How could your ability ever be better than mine?”
“Mom, you’re outdated. Haven’t you heard of the new overthrowing the old? You will lose if we compete with eating spicy food.”
“Let’s get the waiter to add some spicy food and compete then!”
“Sure, I’ll compete with you!”
Afterward, both of them called the waiter over to add more chillies to the pot. The entire pot boiled in red as if it contained lava. As they put the ingredients into the pot, the hot oil made the food look bright red. When the food was picked up from the pot, it was still emitting hot steam. The two of them competed with each other and kept eating.
The mother and daughter ate as if they were taking revenge out on each other. They only stopped when their sweat poured down like rain and their stomachs felt as if on fire.
Du Xiaoyu glanced at Jiang Xiaobai and scolded, “You dumb girl, I thought that you’re no longer used to eating chillies after being overseas for half a year. Who knew that you can still eat so much of it? Can’t you just let me win?”
Hearing this, Jiang Xiaobai blinked her pretty eyes and said, “The elders must be kind to the youngsters and let them win. Mom, I’m your daughter. Do you still want to compete with me?”
“No, let’s stop now.” Du Xiaoyu waved her hand and chugged down some beer. “If we continue, my stomach is going to blow up.”
Actually, Jiang Xiaobai was in the same condition too. But they were too energetic just now and hadn’t realized their bodies were suffering.
Jiang Xiaobai’s stomach was burning with pain but she could not drink anything any longer. She stopped and lay on the table. “Mom.”
Her voice was soft and full of longing, as if they had gone back in time.
Over ten years ago, Jiang Xiaobai was still a little girl and stayed by Du Xiaoyu’s side all the time. If she had something to beg of her mother, she would lay on the table like this and stared at her pitifully, calling her ‘Mom’ in the same soft voice.
Suddenly, Jiang Xiaobai, who was already a mother herself, turned into that cute little girl from the past in front of Du Xiaoyu.
“Mom, I really miss him.”
Jiang Xiaobai’s face flushed red from drinking too much beer. Her gaze was cloudy and distracted as she gazed at her mother. Du Xiaoyu knew that Jiang Xiaobai was rather drunk and was speaking without much awareness.
“I miss him.” Jiang Xiaobai pouted her lips and tears welled up in her eyes. “But, why didn’t he look for me? He still has Yan in his heart, right? I knew it. I shouldn’t have come back. I’ve been gone for half a year and yet he hasn’t even sent me one single text message. Before this, he even said that he would wait for me to come back. But now I think that he really wished hard for me to leave quickly!”
She suddenly slammed her hand on the table in anger. “After I left, he could then go and look for Yan whom he loves so much!”
The more she talked, the more irritated Jiang Xiaobai became. With a sudden violent move of her hand, she accidentally swept all the plates off the table. The plates fell onto the floor with a loud crash.
“Ah!” Jiang Xiaobai jumped in shock. She clutched her chest in fright and curled up in her chair. “I was almost scared to death! Why is that bastard Xiao Su not here to protect me yet? He must have gone to look for his Yan. Every time there’s a problem, he would go to her!”
“But I’m his official girlfriend! But I can only watch him leave me and run after someone else. Why is he doing this to me?”
Something streamed from her eyes down her cheeks and fell onto her hands. Jiang Xiaobai was already drunk, and she reached out like a little kid to catch them in her hands as they fell. Holding them in her palms, she stared at them curiously.
“What are these?” She held the tears in her palms as she looked up at Du Xiaoyu sitting across her.
Initially, Du Xiaoyu was feeling terrible because her stomach was burning from all the spicy food she had eaten. But hearing Jiang Xiaobai’s words made her feel very worried. She almost couldn’t breathe from the pain.
She glanced at the tears in Jiang Xiaobai’s hands and took a deep breath. After calming herself down, she spoke.
“Silly girl, these are your tears.”
“No!” But Jiang Xiaobai shook her head and refuted vehemently. Her expression was extremely earnest. “These aren’t tears!”
She lowered her head and her expression turned mocking as she said bitterly, “This is my heart.”
Hearing this, Du Xiaoyu’s heart jolted as if it was suddenly stabbed by a knife. “Xiaobai…”
“I’ve already given my heart to him. Why doesn’t he love me?” Jiang Xiaobai started mumbling to herself and acted ridiculously. But to Du Xiaoyu, seeing Jiang Xiaobai like this only caused her heart to break and shatter into pieces.
She turned around and wiped off her tears. Then, she stood up and walked to Jiang Xiaobai. “Let’s go. I’ll take you to Xiao Su and ask him for an explanation. Let’s ask him why he is treating you this way!”
