“Who is it?”
Early in the morning, everyone in the household who had jobs had already left for work, and the two children had been sent to the daycare center. Aunt Zhao, dressed in her new clothes, was just about to head out when she heard someone knocking on the door.
She opened the door and was inwardly pleased. Another person coming with gifts, looking for connections.
It was true that not a single leader had emerged from the Qin family in three generations. But for three generations straight, their family had been employees of the steel mill. A family like that was rare, even in a massive factory employing ten thousand workers.
On top of that, the Qin family had many relatives and knew many people. So every year, when the steel mill recruited new workers, lots of people came to their door looking for connections. The Qins didn’t have to do much themselves—they just introduced these people to others, and reaped some benefits in the process.
This woman surnamed Cai had come several times before. Although the eggs and brown sugar she brought each time weren’t worth much, she certainly knew how to talk.
So when Aunt Zhao saw it was Mrs. Cai, she immediately opened the door wide. “Oh, Sister Cai! I haven’t seen you in days!”
Seeing this, Mrs. Cai smiled warmly and waved the basket hanging from her arm. “Sister Zhao, what a coincidence! I happened to be in the area buying eggs for my daughter-in-law, so I thought I’d drop by and see you.”
Aunt Zhao didn’t think much of it at first. There was a black market near the steel mill where many people liked to buy things.
But then Mrs. Cai started complaining. “Ever since my daughter-in-law got pregnant with my grandson, her appetite has been incredible. She refuses to go a single day without eating an egg. I’ve already told her to stop having children after this one. We already have four grandsons. If she keeps going, I won’t be able to afford the eggs…”
Aunt Zhao, who had been about to happily show off her new clothes to Mrs. Cai, instantly let her face fall upon hearing this.
—
Over there, Mrs. Cai, as if completely unaware of Aunt Zhao’s sour expression, continued complaining about how her daughter-in-law just kept having sons, then about how the several grandsons at home caused chaos every day, leaving her with no energy even for work, and so on.
In any case, the more Aunt Zhao listened, the more agitated she became. Even this silver-tongued Mrs. Cai started to seem detestable.
Only then did Mrs. Cai seem to notice Aunt Zhao’s discomfort. She raised a hand to cover her mouth. “Oh my, Sister Zhao, look at my mouth. I deserve to be hit, deserve to be hit…” With that, Mrs. Cai slapped her own mouth twice.
Seeing this, Aunt Zhao couldn’t very well lose her temper, no matter how angry she was. Mrs. Cai didn’t waste any more time and immediately brought up the words she had prepared that morning.
“Elder sister, I know your family’s situation. If you’ll forgive me for speaking bluntly—you have several iron rice bowls in your family, but without a son to inherit them, they’ll just go to outsiders. While your son and daughter-in-law are still young, you, as the mother, need to get them in line. Don’t wait until you’re old and regret it—by then, it’ll be too late to have children.”
Aunt Zhao took these words to heart—they truly struck a chord with her. But she still wanted to scold Mrs. Cai a little, tell her to mind her own family’s business. But immediately, as if she could read minds, Mrs. Cai began lamenting about her own situation.
“Don’t be like my family. Sure, I have many sons and grandsons, but none of them have proper jobs. We can barely make ends meet. If it weren’t like that, I wouldn’t have had the chance to get to know you, Sister, right?”
—
By this point, Mrs. Cai was feeling pretty frustrated herself. Her family truly had many sons and grandsons, but the only ones with proper jobs were herself and her husband. She had finally found out that Old Liu, the pastry chef in the canteen, was looking for money to pull strings for his son.
Mrs. Cai had gritted her teeth, borrowed money from a loan shark, and negotiated a price with Old Liu to buy his job. But before she could hand over the money, the old bastard Old Liu backed out. He said some sucker had offered to swap a steel mill purchasing position for his job—only a fool would say no to that.
In the end, Old Liu’s son got a great job, and the person who swapped jobs got the canteen job. As for her, the unlucky one—she had borrowed money at high interest but didn’t end up buying the job. And when she tried to pay back the loan, she found she owed over a hundred yuan more in interest.
How could Mrs. Cai not be furious?
Before the person who got the canteen job had started working, she had already started digging into the person’s background, planning to make trouble for her once she arrived. But as it turned out, not only had she failed to cause trouble, but that damned brat had pulled rank and disciplined her instead.
Hmph—in her search for a job for her son, she had visited many factories. This old woman surnamed Zhao was the grandmother of that brat’s eldest sister’s husband. Since she couldn’t do anything to that brat herself, she would take it out on the brat’s eldest sister.
She knew perfectly well that this old woman Zhao disliked her daughter-in-law for not giving her a grandson.
….
Bai Lan never imagined there was such a complicated backstory behind her canteen job. Nor did she know that Mrs. Cai was so vindictive—unable to harm her directly, she had decided to go after Bai Lan’s eldest sister instead.
That day at work, Bai Lan noticed that Mrs. Cai had asked for leave and wasn’t there. She didn’t think much of it. The main issue was that she had gotten her period and was experiencing some mild lower abdominal discomfort. There was no helping it—after finishing her morning tasks, she immediately went to a traditional Chinese medicine pharmacy to get some Si Wu Tang (Four Substance Decoction) for regulation. Her symptoms were exactly suited for that formula.
There weren’t many customers in the pharmacy, just a few. Bai Lan had barely stepped inside and was about to look for the herbalist when she saw the woman being cornered by a middle-aged lady.
“Why are the dried scorpions here so small? And these dried earthworms—why are they so shriveled?”
“Ma’am, the medicines are supplied by the supply and marketing company. If you have a complaint, take it up with them.”
The herbalist clearly wasn’t a pushover either. Upon hearing the lady’s complaints, she shot back with a few brisk retorts.
The middle-aged lady’s expression soured even more upon hearing this. But she knew there wasn’t much she could do against the seller. She just muttered, “If your medicine isn’t effective enough and my daughter-in-law can’t conceive a son, I will come back and make trouble for you.”
Bai Lan, waiting in line behind her to get her own medicine, frowned when she heard “dried scorpions” and “dried earthworms.” What kind of illness required drinking that? But the very next sentence, she heard the lady shouting about her daughter-in-law not being able to conceive a son. Could it be that dried scorpions and earthworms were some kind of secret son-producing formula?
This was sheer nonsense.
The herbalist clearly shared Bai Lan’s thoughts. Though not a TCM doctor herself, she understood medicinal properties. The prescription the lady had brought didn’t resemble a fertility formula at all. She couldn’t help but say, “Where did you get this prescription? It doesn’t look like it’s for regulating the body.”
The lady replied, “If you don’t understand, don’t meddle. The person who gave me this prescription has given birth to many sons and grandsons.”
The herbalist’s mouth twitched. She thought to herself that this prescription wouldn’t kill anyone. She shouldn’t have stuck her nose in.
Bai Lan listened and silently sighed for the lady’s daughter-in-law. She could only hope the woman wouldn’t end up drinking whatever “son-producing secret formula” this was.
——
But the next second, as the lady turned around to get her money, Bai Lan’s eyes widened in shock.
She rubbed her eyes to make sure she wasn’t mistaken. Wasn’t this lady none other than her eldest sister’s mother-in-law, Aunt Zhao? There was definitely a person like this in her memory.
Aunt Zhao didn’t see Bai Lan. By now, the people waiting in line behind her had already pulled her aside to ask about this so-called fertility prescription.
Witnessing this scene, Bai Lan was speechless once again. She thought to herself, These people love sons so much? I hope they have eight or ten of them—they’ll have plenty of “blessings” to enjoy!
But Aunt Zhao was her eldest sister’s mother-in-law. That meant this terrifying prescription she was getting would have to be drunk by Bai Lan’s eldest sister, wouldn’t it? Thinking of this, Bai Lan wanted to run and tell her sister immediately: don’t drink whatever your mother-in-law gives you.
She calculated the time and decided that as soon as she left the pharmacy, she would call her eldest sister’s office and tell her about this.
——
But before her turn came, someone else entered the pharmacy. This person wasn’t there for bulk herbs, but to buy some medicated plasters. Bai Lan recognized the voice. She turned and saw that it was Xu Jianbei, whom she hadn’t seen in days.
Xu Jianbei also spotted Bai Lan and walked over in surprise.
“Are you feeling unwell somewhere?” His concerned words calmed Bai Lan’s agitation a little. She shook her head. “Nothing major.”
Seeing she didn’t want to elaborate, Xu Jianbei didn’t press further. Since his third brother’s wedding last weekend, he hadn’t seen Bai Lan again. But he knew she had gone to school on Monday to get her graduation certificate, and started work on Thursday at the textile factory’s main canteen. Today was Friday—the weekend was just two days away. They had originally planned to have a meal together, the four of them.
He had been thinking of finding an opportunity that day to talk with Bai Lan about some things. He hadn’t expected to run into her two days early. It was just a shame the meeting place was so unfortunate—a pharmacy.
——
“Let me tell you, I got this son-producing secret formula from someone else. That person’s daughter-in-law alone gave birth to four sons, and she’s pregnant with another one now! Believe it or not, I’ve given you the formula. I don’t have time to chat—I need to hurry back and decoct this medicine.”
Aunt Zhao, clutching her freshly wrapped bundle of herbs, shooed away the people crowding around her.
Xu Jianbei had arrived late and hadn’t heard the specifics of the “son-producing secret formula.” But he recognized Aunt Zhao as well. So when he heard the words “son-producing secret formula,” he more or less understood what was going on.
He couldn’t help but look at Bai Lan, wondering how she wanted to handle this and whether she needed his help. He knew quite a few people at the steel mill. A good friend of his even lived in the same building as Aunt Zhao. That was how he recognized the whole Zhao family.
Bai Lan watched Aunt Zhao rush out of the pharmacy, then said, “This is really embarrassing. I need to go home and mention this to my parents. And I’ll call my eldest sister to warn her.”
Xu Jianbei said, “Are you sure you don’t need me to do anything? My friend lives right above the Zhao family’s apartment.”
Bai Lan could tell that Xu Jianbei genuinely wanted to help. But at this stage, all she could really do was give her sister a heads-up. What happened next would depend on her sister herself. If her sister actually wanted to have a son, there wasn’t much anyone else could say.
She looked at Xu Jianbei again and found the situation a bit amusing. Every time they ran into each other, it seemed to be dramatic.
Not to mention the first time at the courtyard—the last time they met, they’d walked right into his sister-in-law stirring up trouble. This time, they’d run into her own eldest sister’s mother-in-law pulling some sneaky maneuver.
What a coincidence…
Xu Jianbei seemed to understand the amusement in Bai Lan’s eyes. He looked at the medicated plasters in his own hand, then at the bundle of herbs in Bai Lan’s, and had to admit—it was pretty funny too!
Leave a Reply