After Transmigrating As The Mother Of The Pitiful Female Supporting Character in a Campus Novel - Chapter 20

The garden was essentially a half-finished disaster. One adult and two children had played in the mud until they were covered in it. By the time Qin Zhijin brought out iced lemongrass lemonade and set the glasses on the table, they were still busy pulling weeds.

Looking at the garden, which had been turned over until not a single patch of green remained, Qin Zhijin felt a wave of relief. It was a blessing they had experimented on the neighbor’s yard first; if they had started on both at once, Song Ling’s multi-million dollar villa might as well have been written off.

Xia Shibai, possessed of great self-awareness, looked at the half-soaked turf. She grabbed each child by the hand, hosed the mud off their arms, and sent them next door to ask Qin Zhijin for drinks while she stayed behind to clean up the messy aftermath.

Once the soil was damp enough, Xia Shibai put on her hat and began diligently tilling the earth with a hoe. She had done farm work at the orphanage as a child, but back then they called it “recalling past bitterness to appreciate current sweetness.” After school, she lived in dorms, and after graduation, she worked in a tiny cubicle among high-rises. She made a lot of money and donated much of it back to the orphanage, but she never had the peace of mind to stop and appreciate the city’s greenery.

Without the two little troublemakers, the labor felt lighter. She tilled all the damp soil, formed shallow furrows, tore open several packets of mint seeds, and scattered them at regular intervals before covering them with a layer of moist earth.

By the time she finished, Xia Shibai felt like she was about to ascend to heaven. The original owner was a genuine socialite; being able to finish this much work was already a feat. She found some fencing in the side shed and cordoned off a small two-by-two meter square. Though the sparrow was small, it had all its vital organs—or in this case, it was the product of her hard labor, so it would have to do.

Recalling her “grand ambition” from a few days ago to plant mint in both gardens, she now only hoped this small square would actually grow something. If it remained empty and not even a weed sprouted, that would be truly embarrassing.

Xia Shibai went inside to change, then walked around to the neighbor’s front gate. The two little ones had mud on their clothes but weren’t wet, so they sat on the grass sipping their drinks.

Qin Zhijin tilted her head slightly, teasing, “All finished?”

“…In a manner of speaking.” Xia Shibai sat down and picked up the drink Qin Zhijin had poured for her. It was sweet and tart—actually quite delicious.

“I hope Miss Xia’s plot grows some mint.”

“Mhm?” Xia Shibai looked at her, puzzled.

“I really don’t want to have to take a photo of failure to show the shop owner,” Qin Zhijin said, looking at the flower bed next door that actually looked somewhat professional. She thought to herself: Even if it’s just weeds, something better grow. We absolutely cannot have a barren patch that the shop owner can laugh at.

As the sun began to set, the two adults each took their own child and headed home. After clearing the takeout containers from the table, Xia Shibai took Yaozhou out for a walk, picked up a package from the automated locker, and looped back.

Once home, Yaozhou crowded around to watch her unbox it. “Mommy, what did you buy?”

“I bought some… fun things.” Xia Shibai smiled, stroking her daughter’s cheek.

“Is it something to eat?”

“No, but it’s better than food.”

Xia Shibai sped up. When the contents of the box were revealed, Yaozhou—who had been standing on her tiptoes leaning against the table—widened her eyes. Sensing danger, she turned to bolt, but Xia Shibai caught her in two strides. Grabbing the cat ears on her pajamas, she hauled her back like a Gold Miner pulling a mouse.

“Why are you running? I said it was for you. You think you can get out of it by running?” Xia Shibai used her hands and legs to pin Yaozhou in her lap, tearing off the bubble wrap to reveal brightly colored children’s primary books—everything from Pinyin and characters to Arabic numerals.

Pinned in the embrace, Yaozhou looked like she had lost her will to live. She was illiterate, but she knew what these were—Xiao Pang and Xiao Qiu were in kindergarten, after all. She looked at the books piled high on the desk and weakly picked one up. She opened it. Great. I can’t understand a single thing.

“Mommy, I don’t know how,” Yaozhou said anxiously.

“It’s normal not to know. If you knew it all, I’d be the one surprised.” Xia Shibai helped her flip through the pages. “We’ll start with the simple stuff. Numbers first, then characters and Pinyin. As long as you can read, recite, and write them, that’s enough.”

“Why do they all look different?” Yaozhou felt more miserable than when she’d said goodbye to Ultraman. Looking at the strange symbols, a sense of desolation rose in her heart. She felt like a lonely little cabbage left in a wild field—pitiful and tragic.

Hearing the tearful tone in the girl’s voice, Xia Shibai found it funny but understood the rejection of the unknown. She pulled the girl into a hug; sure enough, those bright eyes were swimming with tears. One more word and they would spill. Reading isn’t like hanging yourself, Xia Shibai thought, is it really that hard?

“Didn’t you say you wanted to push Xiao Yi and the others to study hard so you could be an investor?”

Yaozhou nodded. “Just like Mommy—sitting at home, just signing papers so Auntie Yao Yao can give out money and make lots more.”

“But an investor has to study hard too. If you don’t, you won’t know if the projects they submit are scams. You won’t be able to judge if a market is viable, and you won’t know how to manage your wealth or your company. Even if I give you the company and find many amazing people like Auntie Yao Yao to help you, it won’t do any good.”

Xia Shibai began her lecture in earnest. “Then Mommy will follow you into bankruptcy in our old age. We’ll move from this big villa into a thatched hut. The sun will bake us in the summer, the wind will chill us in the winter, and when it rains, we’ll be soaked to the bone, huddling under a tattered quilt until we die… could you bear that?”

“Forget Ultraman; if you don’t study and can’t manage the company, you won’t even be able to afford a toy.”

Yaozhou’s mind filled with the imagery. She grabbed Xia Shibai’s hand. “No! I don’t want to sleep in a broken place!”

“Mommy… Mommy can help me throw money then.”

Xia Shibai: “…” Wow. You want me to work for you when I’m eighty? You’ve got high hopes, kid.

“When you grow up, I won’t be able to work anymore. Making me work then would be illegal,” Xia Shibai said righteously. “Abusing the elderly is a crime; you’d be arrested. Once you’re in prison, you’ll only have plain buns to eat, not a drop of oil in your vegetables, and you’ll spend all day at a sewing machine that goes creak-creak. You won’t see Mommy, or Xiao Yi, or Xiao Qiu. You’ll just sleep and eat in a tiny room with a bunch of other people.”

“Super pitiful.”

Yaozhou suddenly threw her arms around Xia Shibai’s neck, her tears pitter-pattering onto her mother’s clothes. She sobbed so hard she could barely catch her breath. Xia Shibai let her cry it out, and when she was mostly finished, she used wet wipes to clean her face.

Just as Xia Shibai was about to have her pick a book to start a light study session, the girl grabbed her finger and looked up through tears. “Mommy, I don’t want to be apart from you.”

“As long as you study hard…” And don’t expect me to work for you when I’m old—that stuff was obviously a lie!

Xia Shibai’s thought was cut short by Yaozhou’s next words.

“But I’ve decided. Tonight, I’m going back to the M87 Nebula with Ultraman. That way I won’t have to study, and I won’t go to prison to do the creak-creak when I grow up.” Yaozhou sniffled earnestly. “Mommy, I don’t want to leave you, but I don’t want to study either… so I’ve decided to be an Ultraman instead of a big boss who throws money.”

Xia Shibai grit her teeth. “Do you know why Ultraman can only stay on Earth for three minutes before his light starts blinking ding-dong?”

Yaozhou blinked, waiting for the answer.

“Because at the fourth minute, I’m going to spank you!”

Xia Shibai gave her two firm pats on the bottom, sternly rejecting the “Cat-Ultraman’s” request to return to the M87 Nebula, even though the girl rolled around on the carpet in protest.

“Waaaah, Mommy’s mean!”

“If I’m ‘mean,’ you’re going to count from one to ten tonight anyway,” Xia Shibai sneered. “Roll all you want; the faster the better. Use your pajamas to clean the floor so the auntie doesn’t have to work as hard on the living room tomorrow.”

Yaozhou, seeing her mother was unmoved, realized there was no escape. She felt truly tragic. If she knew more stories, she might have played the part of Meng Jiangnü and cried until the Great Wall fell, just to let the heavens see why a preschooler had to learn Arabic numerals at 8:00 PM instead of watching cartoons.

“I’ll learn…” Yaozhou climbed up and sat cross-legged on the rug, staring at the strange numbers and repeating them after Xia Shibai. Then, she was taught how to hold a pencil. The pencil trembled in her hand, her earlier tantrum vanishing like a bubble. The child sitting there, tracing numbers one stroke at a time, was real.

It was in this moment that Xia Shibai finally saw a shadow of the “genius female lead” described in the book. Peaceful times, no chaos, a kind mother and a filial daughter.

Xia Shibai finally looked at the variety show proposal. The title was Stay Alive! Dear Family!

She paused, almost wanting to close the file. The name sounded like a jinx. But she sighed and opened it anyway. It might be a hit that could make her money. The team had a good track record, so it shouldn’t be too bad.

As she read, she actually got hooked. The show involved four families who would be randomly paired into “survival groups” for two-week cycles. The group that completed the most tasks on the survival island would win gifts and points. At the end, the family with the most points would have donations made in their name to provide free lunches and education for rural children.

The show divided the survival island into four sections: Sound, Light, Electricity, and Force—basic physics properties. The task cards featured many basic science challenges, even math problems.

This was exactly what Xia Shibai needed. Send Xia Yaozhou! Let her study! This became her biggest wish after reading the proposal. She didn’t expect her daughter to become a phoenix, but she at least hoped she wouldn’t become a “rice bucket” (useless eater). She couldn’t very well send her to a noble school only for her to come back with dead-last grades, only to comfort her by saying, “It’s fine, just eat enough to make back the tuition.”

She contacted Yao Yao and told her to secure the project. No matter the investment, she wanted two slots for participating families.

While Xia Shibai was planning her daughter’s education, Yaozhou was busy at the sandpit. Xiao Pang had won first prize in his storytelling contest and was wearing a little red flower on his forehead, clutching his certificate like a victorious general. He kept his promise and shared his grandmother’s soy-sauce chicken legs, and even gave copies of his certificate to his friends.

“One for Chuan-chuan, one for Xiao Qiu, and one for Xiao Yi,” he said with a grin. “Frame them and hang them in your rooms. Look at them before you sleep and remember you have a friend who won a storytelling contest. It’ll give you a lot of prestige!”

Yaozhou, who had been studying until she was sick of it, looked at the colored certificate, folded it, and shoved it in her pocket. “Fine, fine. For the sake of the chicken leg, I’ll put it in my bookcase.”

Lately, Yaozhou’s view upon waking wasn’t the ceiling, but the floor-to-ceiling bookcase. Every colorful book seemed to warn her: “If you sleep, you’ll grow up to do the ‘creak-creak’ in prison.”

“Sigh…” Her cheeks, now plump from five-star meals, puffed out as she sat staring blankly. Gu Mingyi, who she was leaning against, nudged her and poked her cheek. “Sigh!” The sighing intensified.

Yaozhou looked at her friends and remembered how they’d helped her against Auntie Lin. She sat up straight. “I have a question for you.”

“What is it?” Xiao Qiu asked, bouncing his soccer ball.

“Why does Mommy keep forcing me to study? I don’t want to go to school; I just want to stay with Mommy.” Yaozhou cradled her face in her hands, looking world-weary. “If I learn those numbers, I’ll have to go to kindergarten and be apart from Mommy. I don’t want that.”

Xiao Qiu shook his head. “There’s no way around it. When kids reach a certain age, they’re sent to kindergarten. Even if you don’t learn numbers now, the auntie will still send you in.”

“I wanted to ask you, too,” Xiao Pang sighed. “Chuan-chuan, at least your Mommy doesn’t hit you. If I dared to skip kindergarten, my grandma would tell my mom, then my brother would find out, and he’d thrash me and throw me outside to reflect.” The fear of his violent older brother made him want to cry just talking about it.

Yaozhou turned to Gu Mingyi. “Xiao Yi, do you have a way for me to stay with Mommy?”

Gu Mingyi thought seriously. “Why do you think going to kindergarten means being apart from Auntie Xia?”

“Xiao Pang and the others go so early and stay all day. I want to stay with Mommy every moment like I do now.”

“That’s not realistic,” Xiao Yi said.

Yaozhou was angry. “Why?”

“Even if you stay with her now, when you grow up, she will get old,” Gu Mingyi said. “People die when they get old. When they die, you’ll be left in this world alone anyway. If you just want to stay with her like this, your time will be frozen here, and Auntie Xia won’t be able to leave you with peace of mind. When she’s old and dying, she’ll be in pain and worry about you.”

“Mommy won’t get old!” Yaozhou’s concept of age and death came from cartoons. Death meant never seeing someone again, never talking or joking. Age meant becoming a white-haired old lady. She couldn’t accept either happening to Xia Shibai. She felt Xiao Yi was lying to her.

“You’re lying! I’m not playing with you anymore! Mommy won’t get old! I’m not going to school! You’re all mean!”

Yaozhou stood up and ran two steps, but a lump in her throat made her feel like she couldn’t breathe. “My mommy won’t die! Xiao Yi is a liar! A big liar!” She wiped her tears and ran for home, leaving her friends behind.

Gu Mingyi, having been yelled at for the first time, gripped her science book and said nothing. Xiao Qiu’s ball rolled away, but he didn’t chase it.

“This… how did it turn into this?” Xiao Pang whispered. Xiao Qiu just hooked his arm around Xiao Pang’s neck and pulled him away, not wanting to get involved.

Xia Shibai was looking at the proposal when a “little whirlwind” burst in and buried itself in her lap. Cotton fabric absorbed a flood of tears. Yaozhou was sobbing uncontrollably. Xia Shibai waited patiently for her to calm down.

But the girl wouldn’t speak. She just clung to her mother’s neck as if she would vanish into thin air. That night, Yaozhou insisted on sleeping in the same bed. “Fine, fine, sleep here,” Xia Shibai whispered, stroking her hair. She didn’t understand why the girl had returned looking so traumatized, but she was as well-behaved as a little rabbit. She even did her homework without a single complaint.

In the middle of the night, Xia Shibai woke up feeling like she was next to a furnace. She thought the AC was broken, but the air was cold. She turned on the light. Yaozhou was flushed and shivering in her sleep. Xia Shibai scrambled out of bed for the thermometer and called the family doctor.

Next door, Gu Mingyi sat up in bed, staring at the lights turning on in the neighboring house. She bit her lip and ran to knock on Qin Zhijin’s door. “Godmother… I messed up.”

Qin Zhijin, woken at midnight, rubbed her temples and opened the door. Xiao Yi was crying. “I messed up.”

“It’s okay, Godmother is here.” Qin Zhijin picked her up. After hearing the story, she understood. “Don’t worry, it’s not a big deal. If you’re worried, I’ll take you over to see her.”

Qin Zhijin threw on a coat and carried Xiao Yi to knock on the Xia’s door. They were neighbors, after all—they could help out if something was wrong. Plus, she truly couldn’t say no to a beautiful face—even if that face belonged to a three-year-old in tears.