Food Supplements - Chapter 10

The next morning, Qin Cheng refused to let her mother busy herself again. After they got up and washed, she insisted on going out. First, she took her mother to a nearby street stall for some local breakfast specialties. Then they headed to the bustling downtown area, where Qin Cheng linked arms with her like a tour guide and took her sightseeing, shopping, and posing for photographs.

Her mother was reluctant at first, feeling that it was a waste of money. But after repeated persuasion from her daughter, she eventually gave in. She also thought that taking a few photographs would make the trip worthwhile, so she allowed Qin Cheng to arrange everything.

The two of them visited several famous local attractions, starting early in the morning and continuing until three or four in the afternoon before finally heading home.

Qin Cheng had originally planned to eat dinner outside as well, but she eventually abandoned the idea. For one thing, her frugal mother objected.

For another… Qin Cheng could faintly feel that something was wrong with her body.

The itinerary had been perfectly suitable for an older woman, but it was far too demanding for a patient.

When Qin Cheng had first left the hospital a few days earlier, walking only a few hundred meters had left her panting. She had not dared imagine what would happen if she spent most of a day taking her mother around the city.

Now, she merely felt somewhat unwell.

That alone was already enough to make her feel extraordinarily fortunate.

Still, the exhaustion and discomfort were real. While feeling grateful, Qin Cheng silently reminded herself to buy and store more medicine as soon as possible, just in case.

That “just in case” was almost certain to happen.

Even with a glimmer of hope and slightly improved sleep, she was not foolish enough to become complacent and expect herself to recover from now on.

In truth, Qin Cheng asked for only one thing: that her condition remain stable while her mother was here.

That way, she would not expose the truth. At the same time, she could spend some proper time with her mother and fulfill what little filial duty she still could.

Because of this, when they finally returned home and her mother, still in high spirits, suggested paying the landlady a visit, Qin Cheng forced herself to remain energetic despite her exhaustion and discomfort and nodded in agreement.

There was nothing wrong with greeting the landlady. They lived so close to each other, and even if they asked for nothing else, it was always good for neighbors to look out for one another.

Mother Qin had wanted to do this first thing in the morning, but it had been too early and the landlady had not yet risen.

Now that they were finally visiting, she was unwilling to arrive empty-handed. She selected several local specialties as gifts, then went with her daughter to knock on the door next door.

As expected, the landlady was home and came to open the door.

What happened next hardly needed explanation. One woman had brought gifts with sincere politeness, while the other was outgoing, enthusiastic, and rather fond of small benefits.

Naturally, they hit it off immediately.

After exchanging names and a few pleasantries at the doorway, the landlady cheerfully declared how delightful it was to have a friend visiting from afar and warmly pulled them both inside.

“Oh, come in and sit down. How could you leave after only saying hello?”

The older woman accepted the gifts with one hand and affectionately linked arms with Qin Cheng’s mother with the other, smiling broadly.

“Your little girl is far too polite. She’s never once come in for a visit. Elder Sister, it’s rare for you to come all this way, so you mustn’t stand on ceremony with me.”

In front of her elders, “little girl” Qin, who was nearly thirty, had no suitable response. She could only smile shyly and obediently follow them inside.

The landlady had not exaggerated.

In the nearly four years since Qin Cheng moved into the building, she had spoken to the woman at her doorway at most. She had never entered as a guest.

At first, her emotional state had been too poor for social visits. Later, her physical condition left her without the strength.

So on this first visit, she inevitably felt unfamiliar with the surroundings. After entering, she calmly glanced around and took in the layout and furnishings.

There was nothing especially unusual about the room.

It still had old-fashioned wooden flooring and European-style décor, but it was indeed much more spacious than the two rooms rented out to tenants—large enough to be divided into a bedroom and a sitting room.

The small sitting room was also well lit. Several potted plants stood before a large window, while most of the furniture was made from redwood. It looked traditional, elegant, and expensive.

Clearly, being a landlady was a promising career.

When Qin Cheng’s gaze passed over a corner of the inner wall, she paused slightly.

There was a door there, and beside it stood a figure hiding behind the frame, revealing only part of a slender body.

“Nuonuo, this is Sister Qin from next door and her mother. Don’t be nervous.”

The landlady had clearly noticed her as well and called over in her booming voice, though it now carried the patient gentleness one might use to coax a child.

“Sister Qin’s mother has come to visit her. We’ll talk for a little while. You can play in the inner room by yourself. Everything’s fine.”

At those words, the graceful figure—who clearly was not a child—retreated completely behind the door.

The door then closed softly, and everything became silent again.

This was obviously not the usual way to receive guests.

Mother Qin looked back awkwardly, only to discover that her daughter appeared no less confused.

“Oh, forgive her.”

In the end, the older woman took the initiative to explain.

“She’s my only daughter, born to me late in life. We depend on each other. She’s already eighteen this year, but unfortunately, she was born with a degree of autism.”

She continued smiling openly as she explained, neither embarrassed nor visibly upset, though a faint trace of sorrow remained in her expression.

In this era of easy access to information, autism was no longer an unfamiliar term.

Not only Qin Cheng, but even Mother Qin, who had lived for years in a small city and had no medical background, knew something about it.

She immediately felt sympathy for the landlady and took the initiative to hold her hand, offering concern and making conversation.

Both mothers had only one daughter, and both daughters happened to be ill—though one mother remained unaware, while the other did not know the full details.

That did not prevent them from finding more and more common ground as they spoke.

Qin Cheng sat quietly beside them throughout the conversation. Although she barely said anything, she listened with many complicated emotions and sighed inwardly.

She had lived here for so long, yet because she had barely been able to manage her own life, she had only now learned that the landlady had a daughter.

It was fortunate that her planned suicide had failed by a strange twist of fate.

Otherwise…

If the sight had frightened the autistic girl and worsened her condition, Qin Cheng would have committed a terrible wrong.

She had once thought that although the landlady was warmhearted, she was also calculating and fond of petty gains.

Now it seemed that she merely wanted to save more for her autistic child.

Every family truly had its own burdens.

Whenever middle-aged women began talking endlessly about family matters, time seemed to pass especially quickly.

Before anyone realized it, evening was approaching.

After several hours of conversation, the two mothers were already addressing each other as sisters.

The landlady insisted that her new elder sister and her daughter stay for a simple dinner.

Mother Qin did not refuse too firmly. She said she would prepare several hometown specialties for her new younger sister to try.

The two women then went downstairs to the kitchen together, rolled up their sleeves, and began conducting a symphony of pots, pans, bowls, and utensils.

With both mothers behaving this way, what could the daughter say?

Qin Cheng could not hide away like the autistic girl, nor could she reveal that she was unwell.

She had no choice but to continue obediently helping.

There was nothing difficult about assisting.

However, as time passed, the vague discomfort she had felt earlier not only failed to improve but grew slightly worse.

This made her increasingly anxious, afraid that someone might notice.

No. She had to find an excuse to leave and rest for a while.

Just as she reached that decision, she happened to hear her mother ask her to buy some seasonal garlic scapes to stir-fry with the cured pork.

“Garlic scapes?”

Qin Cheng paused, and the image of that lush green patch flashed through her mind.

Without thinking, she asked, “Would garlic shoots work? I happen to have some.”

There was naturally nothing wrong with that.

After receiving permission, Qin Cheng smoothly returned to her room on the third floor.

She locked the door, vanished in a flash, and appeared beside the lake.

Only a few days had passed, yet Qin Cheng realized that she had grown increasingly dependent on this small realm.

After entering, she first searched through the pile of belongings for some old pills and swallowed them.

Then she rested for quite a while.

Only after finally feeling somewhat better did she relax.

This episode had not been particularly severe overall, but it seemed she truly needed to buy and store more medicine as soon as possible.

Qin Cheng reminded herself of this while slowly rising and walking toward the planted plots.

She did not dare remain too long.

She had only gone upstairs to fetch vegetables. Even with the time difference, it was best to rest within a carefully controlled period.

At the same time, she was curious.

She had not had the chance to come in all day and did not know whether the plants had changed.

She had confidently claimed to own garlic shoots, but if they had already grown too old, she would have difficulty explaining herself.

Fortunately, when she approached, the sight did not disappoint her.

Although the plants in the black soil were thriving with astonishing vigor, they had not aged quickly.

They remained tender and green.

The clusters of fine leaves were free of even a speck of dust, as though freshly washed, their vivid green so fresh and succulent that it felt almost cruel to harvest them.

Qin Cheng did not immediately think about cutting anything.

The first things she carefully examined were the two places she had disturbed the day before.

A tiny green sprout had emerged from the corner where she had buried the apple seed.

It was still inconspicuous against the black soil, but it already carried the promise of life.

The two clusters of spring onions she had previously harvested had also grown new leaves.

They were a little shorter than their neighbors, but still brimming with vitality.

Good.

The woman smiled softly, feeling somewhat reassured.

She had not planted this greenery for food, so naturally, she did not want to destroy these hardworking little lives carelessly.

Thus, as she had done the night before, even though she intended to harvest some crops for eating, she planned to cut only part of the stems and leaves, ensuring that what remained could continue surviving.

As for what would happen in the end—whether they would eventually age and wither according to the natural cycle—she would simply have to wait and see.

When Qin Cheng delivered a large handful of freshly cut garlic shoots to the kitchen, Mother Qin did not question them.

Some garlic shoots were sold without roots to begin with.

Besides, Qin Cheng had taken her through a large supermarket that afternoon, where she had seen fruit, vegetables, and meat peeled, sliced, washed clean, and neatly packaged in boxes for sale.

She was no longer surprised by such things and merely sighed that young people were becoming increasingly lazy.

Still, she did not criticize her daughter for spending money this way.

For one thing, she thought it was difficult enough for her child to live alone outside, so a little laziness was understandable.

For another, she was far too busy to lecture anyone.

After that, several people worked enthusiastically in the small kitchen, washing, picking, slicing, boiling, frying, and stir-frying.

The two mothers were especially efficient.

In barely over an hour, four dishes and one soup were freshly prepared, each generous and substantial.

They carried everything back upstairs and filled the table.

It had been described as a simple meal, but in the end, both households had contributed.

As the landlady and host, the older woman had more ingredients stocked at home, so she prepared two dishes and the soup.

One was a refreshing cold jellyfish salad dressed with vinegar, crisp, tender, fragrant, and appetizing.

The second was braised ribbonfish, glossy with a deep reddish-brown sauce, rich, tender, and savory.

Then there was a pressure-cooked pot of milky-white pork-bone soup that looked appetizing at a glance.

Mother Qin mainly handled the specialties she had brought from home.

One dish was steamed cured chicken.

Since it had already been seasoned during preparation, nothing else needed to be added. It only had to be washed, steamed until tender, deboned, and arranged on a plate.

The golden chicken pieces were fine-textured and firm, their rich cured aroma spreading through the room without losing to any of the other dishes.

But the most popular dish that day was the stir-fried cured pork with garlic shoots.

The cured pork itself needed little explanation. It had the right balance of fat and lean meat, along with its distinctive cured and smoky flavor.

After being thinly sliced and slowly rendered over low heat, its meaty aroma became even richer.

The green-and-white garlic shoots elevated it further.

Their tender leaves were crisp, fresh, and slightly sweet, carrying a subtle garlic fragrance. Once placed in the wok, they absorbed the fat released from the cured pork.

Rather than merely complementing the dish, they nearly stole the spotlight from the meat.

Perhaps the aroma was too tempting.

When dinner began, the landlady successfully coaxed her daughter out of the inner room.

Although the girl remained seated beside her mother with her head lowered, silently holding her bowl and not daring to reach for anything herself, the fact that she was willing to sit and eat with outsiders seemed enough to delight the older woman.

“This child is rarely willing to stay in the same room as strangers. Today, she’s even willing to sit at the table. We truly must have been brought together by fate.”

The landlady sighed emotionally while continuously placing food into her daughter’s bowl.

Whatever she served, the girl ate.

Even her chewing pace remained almost the same, making it nearly impossible to tell whether she had any particular preferences.

Out of politeness, Mother Qin and Qin Cheng, who were chatting casually, tried not to stare at her.

Qin Cheng in particular was already lacking energy because she felt unwell.

Faced with a table full of fish and meat, she had no appetite whatsoever. She picked up only a couple of bites of vegetables, intending merely to put on an appearance.

Yet the instant she took a bite of the garlic shoots, their crisp tenderness filled her mouth, the rich meat aroma merging with their fresh fragrance.

There was also the dry, smoky wok flavor produced by high-heat stir-frying.

Her appetite opened almost instantly.

Qin Cheng, who had not felt like eating at all, paused slightly.

This time, however, she quickly recovered and tried several bites of the other dishes.

Then, with a thoughtful expression, she secretly observed the three other people at the table.

Judging from their reactions, the other dishes were all quite good.

Logically, that made sense.

The deeply seasoned braised ribbonfish and firm, fragrant cured chicken should have possessed stronger flavors than the garlic shoots.

And if one judged solely by freshness and appetite, the slightly sour, crisp jellyfish salad ought to have surpassed the rest.

Yet for some reason, after tasting everything, only the cured pork with garlic shoots—especially the garlic shoots themselves—stimulated Qin Cheng’s taste buds and filled her mouth with fragrance.

Thinking carefully, the egg fried rice from the previous evening had been the same.

The chopped spring onions had carried the strongest fragrance, awakening the other subtle flavors as well.

Qin Cheng naturally knew what made these two dishes unusual.

What puzzled her was whether only someone in her condition would find them so special.

Judging by the way her mother and the landlady ate, that appeared to be the case.

They frequently reached for the dish, but they did not specifically choose the garlic shoots. At most, they picked them up together with the cured pork.

Meanwhile, the other dishes were also steadily eaten.

Each woman chose according to her own preferences, with no sign that she considered any single dish extraordinary.

Just as Qin Cheng reached this conclusion, she thought she saw the young girl across the table, beside the landlady, briefly raise her head and glance at the dishes.

She only “thought” she saw it because the movement was subtle and very quick.

Qin Cheng could not be certain whether it had truly happened or whether her eyes had deceived her.

But she soon gained confidence in her observation.

Not long afterward, the girl quickly and timidly glanced at the table a second time.

Unless Qin Cheng was mistaken, both small movements occurred while the landlady was placing food into her daughter’s bowl.

Unfortunately, her mother did not notice.

The dishes she eventually served were not the ones the girl had looked toward.

Watching the young woman lower her head and continue eating the meat in her bowl after her hints failed, Qin Cheng somehow felt she could detect a trace of helplessness beneath that expressionless face.

So when the landlady reached out for the third time, preparing to give her daughter some fish, Qin Cheng could not stop herself from gently pushing the plate of cured pork with garlic shoots forward.

In a low voice, she said, “Auntie, I think she likes this dish.”

Although her voice was quiet, all three others froze.

Naturally, the mother reacted first.

“Really?”

The older woman’s face lit up.

She immediately turned toward her daughter, then seemed afraid that her voice might be too loud and quickly softened it.

“Nuonuo, look. Sister Qin and her mother are both very kind, aren’t they? So you don’t need to be afraid. Whatever you like, you can take it yourself, all right?”

Under this patient encouragement, the girl lowered her head even further.

On the surface, she seemed slightly resistant, yet from time to time, she secretly glanced in their direction.

Noticing this, Qin Cheng said nothing more.

She merely pushed the plate little by little until it was in front of the girl.

Then, as though no one else were present, she picked up a bite of garlic shoots and cured pork for herself and ate it with obvious enjoyment.

Seeing this, Mother Qin also quickly looked away and resumed her conversation with the landlady as though nothing had happened.

Perhaps the girl sensed that no one was watching her anymore.

Or perhaps Qin Cheng looked as though she were enjoying the dish too much.

A short while later, the young woman timidly extended her chopsticks and quickly scraped some food into her own bowl.

Noticing that she had taken far more garlic shoots than cured pork, Qin Cheng lowered her head slightly, hiding the thoughtful look in her eyes.

No one knew what Qin Cheng was thinking.

Mother Qin and the landlady were simply happy.

Mother Qin was pleased because she had found someone she got along with and because her daughter had such a kind landlady looking after her.

The landlady was even more delighted by her own child’s behavior.

She repeatedly praised Mother Qin’s excellent cooking and declared that since they were so well matched, the families must interact more often in the future.

Since both sides wanted to remain in contact, a filial daughter naturally had no objection to fulfilling their wishes.

After returning to her room that night, Qin Cheng purchased two buffet vouchers for a five-star hotel online.

The next day, she transferred them to the landlady and suggested that the two older women go enjoy themselves at lunch.

Why had she bought only two vouchers and excluded herself?

Naturally, because for someone with a poor appetite and mild anorexia, attending a buffet would be far too wasteful.

This reason worked especially well on the frugal Mother Qin.

Since the money had already been spent and the vouchers were nonrefundable, and because her new friend would be accompanying her, she stopped refusing and went out with the landlady the next day without worry.

Of course, Qin Cheng had not gone to such lengths solely out of filial devotion.

After calling a taxi for the two older women and watching them drive away, Qin Cheng, already fully prepared, turned and walked directly toward the hospital.

After dinner the previous night, her body, which had felt uncomfortable for most of the day, gradually improved.

Using bathing as an excuse, she had later hidden beside the lake and rested for a while.

Her sleep that night had also been better than expected.

Why this had happened could wait.

Precautionary measures always brought more peace of mind when taken early, so Qin Cheng still followed her original plan, sending her mother away and securing several hours of freedom for herself.

When she arrived at the familiar hospital, she turned expertly and joined the crowd waiting for the elevator.

Several of her daily medicines were tightly controlled prescription drugs and could only be purchased after receiving a new prescription.

She had already booked an appointment with her attending physician, so she first needed to go to the specialist outpatient department on the fourth floor.

A major hospital in a first-tier city was never short of people.

The moment the elevator doors opened, people surged in and out, shoulder to shoulder.

Wearing a mask, Qin Cheng entered first but was soon pushed by the crowd into the innermost corner.

She had long since grown accustomed to this kind of congestion.

She calmly stood facing the wall, watching the packed crowd reflected in the mirror and waiting for the doors to close.

This kind of hospital elevator was larger and deeper than an ordinary commercial one and could carry many passengers.

Even so, it could not compete with the endless stream of people.

Just as it was about to reach capacity, a young man dressed as a doctor led two people inside at the last moment, provoking a low wave of agitation and complaints.

The young doctor completely ignored the disturbance.

He merely apologized politely as he eased his way through the crowd, trying to create a more comfortable space for the two people he had brought with him.

The passengers continued grumbling, but perhaps everyone was in a hurry and unwilling to cause trouble.

Or perhaps they saw that the doctor was protecting two seemingly delicate women.

In any case, the commotion did not last long.

As the elevator rose in silence, no one noticed that in the deepest corner, a frail woman who had previously been staring idly at the mirrored wall now had alarm and timidity written in her eyes.