After Transmigrating As The Mother Of The Pitiful Female Supporting Character in a Campus Novel - Chapter 24

Xia Shibai watched Qin Zhijin, who was about to step down the stairs barefoot, and felt a moment of speechless frustration. She pulled her back with a bit of force. “You really don’t mind the ground pricking your feet.”

“I don’t want to wear these heels back.”

Qin Zhijin showed a rare, firm refusal. The loose athletic jacket she wore only covered her graceful curves down to her hips; the charm of her figure remained quite evident.

Xia Shibai thought for a moment, then gestured for Qin Zhijin to zip up the jacket and shift her small bag to a different position so it wouldn’t bump into her. Then, Xia Shibai walked down the steps, slowly squatted down, and beckoned with her hands behind her back.

“Come on, I’ll carry you to the car.”

“Where is your car parked? Is it far? If it’s too much trouble, forget it. I drove here today too, I can’t just leave my car here.” Although Qin Zhijin voiced her hesitation, a glint of light danced in her eyes. She couldn’t help but inch forward, yet she stopped at the edge of the step.

A classic “playing hard to get” move—she had to show some resistance.

“…How about a designated driver?” Xia Shibai put her hands on her hips and slowly stood up. At that moment, a gust of wind hit her; the natural heat caused cold sweat to break out on her forehead, and she let out an uncomfortable breath.

Xia Shibai remembered she was still a patient.

“After all, I can’t exactly perform a stunt where one person drives two cars, right?”

Not only was it impossible, but the very idea was madness.

“Fine, let’s get a designated driver. The restaurant should provide one.” Qin Zhijin stood barefoot on the spot, turned to the valet at the entrance, tossed her car keys to him, explained her needs, and ignored it thereafter. She then walked down the steps until she was only a few levels above Xia Shibai.

Standing at the edge of the step, Qin Zhijin tentatively patted Xia Shibai’s back with the tips of her fingers. She pursed her lips and asked, “Are you sure you won’t drop me?”

“Hard to say.”

“Is there insurance if I fall?”

“Not necessarily.”

“If there’s nothing, how can you guarantee my safety?”

“Probably through the ‘all-in-this-together’ spirit where if one falls, we both fall.” Xia Shibai covered her mouth and coughed twice, then braced her hands on her knees and half-squatted. “Relax, I really won’t drop you. Don’t overthink it.”

Qin Zhijin felt hesitant, feeling as though she were mistreating a patient. Just hearing the coughing made her heart feel uneasy. She poked Xia Shibai’s back with one finger, feeling the warmth of the skin beneath the thin long-sleeved T-shirt, and reined in her little scheme of taking advantage of the situation.

“I’ll take a rain check this time.”

“Huh?” Standing at the bottom of the steps, Xia Shibai was confused. She didn’t understand how something like this could be “credited.” Wasn’t the whole point to finish the carry right then and there?

If the offer was refused, didn’t that mean the service wasn’t needed? How could voluntary labor turn into a debt of mandatory labor?

“Whenever I need it next time, you can pay me back. It’s fair; I’m not scamming you.” Qin Zhijin put back on the high heels she had discarded, walked to Xia Shibai’s side, and couldn’t help but reach out to touch the collar of Xia Shibai’s clothes.

“It’s too thin. Even if the summer nights are muggy, wear a bit more. Did you think just wearing a jacket was enough?”

Xia Shibai led Qin Zhijin to her car, opened the door, and let Qin Zhijin get into the passenger seat first before closing the door. “If I don’t wear this, what else can I wear? I can’t have a fever during the day and then get heatstroke by wearing thick clothes at night.”

That would be too pathetic.

“Put it on.” As soon as she got in the car, Qin Zhijin tried to return the jacket she was wearing.

Xia Shibai didn’t take it; instead, she pushed it back toward her.

“What are you doing?” Seeing no movement, Qin Zhijin found it funny. “You surely don’t think that me dressing like this is too revealing or an eyesore to the public?”

“Of course not!” Xia Shibai refuted immediately. “It only affects me, and I still have to drive.”

“Having something too beautiful sitting next to me makes it easy for my attention to wander.” Xia Shibai said righteously, “So, for the safety of both our lives, just be good and wear it. Besides, we’re not far from home; we’ll be there soon.”

Qin Zhijin turned sideways, staring intently at Xia Shibai’s eyes. The dome light in the SUV was dim, making it impossible for her to see clearly what was reflected in Xia Shibai’s gaze.

She wondered what kind of sight she was from that perspective.

Her fingers tightened slightly on the fabric. The only sounds in the cabin were the rustling of the athletic jacket rubbing against the leather seat.

Once the car smoothed onto the road, the bustling streetlights gradually faded into the unique ink-wash shadows of the Nanshan District. Only the small LED lights on the railings flickered, and the road was silent.

Qin Zhijin looked at the dark silhouettes of the rolling mountains, and the question she wanted to ask ultimately died on her lips.

—“How does it ‘only’ affect you? It’s not like you like women…”

By the time they got home, the two little ones upstairs were already awake. Fortunately, the milk made earlier that afternoon hadn’t been finished; the two children clutched their bottles to stave off hunger. As for dinner, they eventually just made do with a small bowl of mushy noodles.

The group shared a small pot of noodles.

Xia Shibai looked after Gu Mingyi and Xia Yaozhou, telling them to eat slowly. The noodles were fresh out of the pot, dripping with soup, and very hot. If they ate too fast, their tongues would go numb from the heat.

“I know, Mommy! Eat your own, I can eat by myself!” Xia Yaozhou twirled the noodles with a fork, struggling to get her mouth to the edge of the bowl. She put her hands and face to work, but the noodles didn’t behave like they did under an adult’s chopsticks and wouldn’t fall into her mouth.

Sometimes when they touched her lips, the hot soup made her freeze. She would stick out her tongue to lick the scalded spot and then continue her battle with the noodles.

In comparison, Gu Mingyi, who used child-assisted chopsticks, was doing a bit better, though it still looked like a lot of effort.

Qin Zhijin sat nearby with no intention of helping. After all, this was a way to train the children’s coordination—use it or lose it. Besides, the children had already had half a bottle of milk, so they had something in their stomachs.

The small bowl of noodles was specifically served to give them a taste while training their hand-brain coordination and muscle control.

The harmonious atmosphere was suddenly shattered by a ringtone.

With a quick glance, Qin Zhijin, who had been leaning tiredly over the table with her hands crossed, straightened up her weary body. She bit her lips uneasily with her teeth.

The phone next to her elbow rang over and over. Qin Zhijin sat in her chair, staring down at the name displayed on the screen—”Mother”—motionless.

It was as if her soul had left her body, leaving only a lifeless husk like a silkworm cocoon behind.

Xia Yaozhou was the quickest to catch the sensitive atmosphere. Almost by the fifth ring, before the call was answered, she stopped twirling her noodles. She tilted up her soup-stained face; her mouth was empty of noodles, but she was chewing the air.

Her large eyes were filled with confusion. She didn’t seem to understand why Auntie Qin wasn’t answering the phone.

If she wasn’t going to answer, why didn’t she hang up?

The caller was persistent. Knowing the call hadn’t been picked up, they continued to call repeatedly. That oppressive sense of discomfort made Xia Yaozhou instinctively shiver twice.

She felt afraid of this persistent ringing, yet she didn’t know how to resolve it, so she instinctively looked at her mother sitting beside her.

A clean little hand holding a bowl reached across the space—like a “flashing blade” saving this stagnant atmosphere—cutting through the two moods.

When those hands gripped Xia Shibai’s arm and mother and daughter locked eyes, Xia Shibai was finally pulled out of a strange sense of paralysis.

A slender, fair wrist crossed in front of Qin Zhijin’s eyes and picked up the ringing phone.

Xia Shibai held it to her ear, and immediately, a sharp, piercing, and curse-filled voice erupted from the other end, repeating the same words over and over in constant negation.

“I am truly so disappointed in you! Do you have any idea how hard it is to find someone willing to go on a blind date with you these days? Do you know how much effort I spent to find someone who matches you? I don’t ask for my child’s gratitude, but you should at least understand your parents’ feelings!”

“You’re about to turn thirty in the blink of an eye. What right do you have to be picky in this market? The fact that someone is willing to marry you back into their family is a sign that smoke is rising from our ancestral graves! Did you really think a family with a status equal to ours would ever look at an old woman like you?”

“Hello?” Xia Shibai prided herself on being a polite person; she had to keep her cool before cursing someone out. So, she very properly identified herself.

And then, very rudely, she rebutted every point.

“Is it hard to find a blind date? I don’t think so. Rather, it’s just that your level is limited to that. Because you are a rotten person, the so-called ‘matching’ blind dates you find are also rotten.”

“It’s hard for people to imagine things or classes they’ve never seen. By narrowly defining a woman’s value as reproduction, you’ve looked down on yourself from the very beginning.”

“You have no right to be picky, because you are equally rotten. You’ve never seen a proper wealthy family, yet you say they wouldn’t look at Dr. Qin? Pure nonsense. The greatest trait of a rotten person is to belittle others as worthless in a delusional attempt to drag them down.”

Mother Qin had no idea where this “trash friend” on the other end of the line had come from. Every “rotten person” felt like a slap to her face, echoing through the air.

“What kind of garbage friend are you that she’s picked up? Since she was a child, she’s always had that vixen face, seducing people into pitying her. Now she’s even instigating conflict between parents at home! She’s my daughter; whether she’s rotten or not, I know better than you!”

Xia Shibai’s expression darkened. She braced her palm against the table, her finger tapping the surface. “I call you ‘Auntie,’ but do you really think of yourself as an elder? If you curse one more time, I’ll find someone to go to your house and sew your mouth shut tonight. If you’re going to spew nothing but filth and rot, then I suppose you have no need for a mouth, do you?”

“Psychopath.”

Xia Shibai suppressed her anger and hung up the call that was impossible to communicate through, even blacklisting Mother Qin’s number and her social media accounts together.

The notification boxes on the phone kept jumping; it annoyed Xia Shibai to look at them.

Sometimes she was quite glad she was an orphan. Meeting a mother like this, it was better to have no mother at all.

Xia Shibai took it upon herself to clean everything up and then looked down at the pale-faced Qin Zhijin. She handed the phone over. “Here, see if there’s anyone else you want to block. I’ll do it for you.”

“…” Qin Zhijin steadied her breathing and stared fixedly at the phone screen. There was no usual stream of notifications, no endless incoming voice calls or long texts.

There was only a patch of peace and quiet.

“Why?”

“What?” Xia Shibai didn’t understand. She shook the phone. “Block the people you don’t want to see. What’s the big deal? Whether it’s parents, relatives, or friends—if you don’t want to deal with them or see them, you can delete them.”

“Why keep a source of unhappiness in your world? Aside from being a burden, it brings nothing good.”

“Delete them?” Qin Zhijin looked at the account she had pinned—that WeChat account with the forever sea-and-blue-sky profile picture—and actually felt the urge to delete it too.

Just like blocking her mother, as long as she grit her teeth and made up her mind, she could kick all these messy affairs out of her world.

“No… just blocking her is enough.” Qin Zhijin hurriedly took her phone from Xia Shibai’s hand and flipped it face-down on the dining table, acting as though if she didn’t look at it, she could be a “head-in-the-sand” coward.

“Suit yourself. If you think that’s enough, then that’s the best solution.”

Xia Shibai grew up without parents and her contact with the orphanage wasn’t deep; she only kept the idea of gratitude in her heart, wanting everyone at the orphanage to live better, which is why she regularly donated a portion of her earnings to them every month.

It was hard for her to understand Mother Qin, and equally hard to understand Qin Zhijin’s helplessness.

Not interfering with an adult’s decision-making is the most comfortable safety distance between friends. Crossing that line would be improper.

Even though the Dr. Qin at the restaurant earlier and the one handling family matters now seemed like two different people, Xia Shibai had no right to interfere with how she handled her family.

To do so would disrupt the comfort zone of their friendship.

Xia Shibai returned to her seat to continue eating her noodles. She caught a glimpse of Xia Yaozhou looking left and right; despite not having stuffed the noodles and greens from her bowl into her mouth yet, she was busier than a neighborhood committee chairwoman.

“Little messy-pants, does eating a meal have to be like rolling in the mud? I don’t even know how you got soup all over your face.”

Xia Shibai took a napkin and wiped around Xia Yaozhou’s mouth, and looked after Gu Mingyi while she was at it. She finished the remaining noodles in her own bowl, then used clean utensils to feed the two little ones. Then came baths for whoever needed them and TV for whoever wanted it; the living room finally had some sound.

Xia Shibai rolled up her sleeves, carried the dishes to the kitchen, and began washing them efficiently.

Only Qin Zhijin remained sitting at the dining table with her eyes downcast. It was only when the sound of water from the kitchen gradually faded that she reached out and flipped her phone back over.

The pinned man had sent a message as usual.

“Why are you fighting with Mom again?”

“Can’t you two just live in peace?”

“Find time to apologize to Mom. In a few days when I’m free, I’ll take you to eat something you like.”

Qin Zhijin exited the chat box. Her finger hovered over the pinned contact. Like a rusted gear starting to turn slowly, she swiped left and deleted the chat.

Instantly, the burden on her shoulders felt much lighter.

This was her father. He had used this one trick since she was a child. He seemed to be balancing and mediating the relationship between her and her mother, but in reality, it was no different from instigating conflict.

What a psychopath.

Qin Zhijin felt that Xia Shibai’s words to Mother Qin were correct, but the scope was wrong—it was a whole family of psychopaths.

Because their houses were so close, and considering that both mother and daughter were still in a sick state, Xia Shibai strongly urged Qin Zhijin and Gu Mingyi to stay over at her place for the night.

“I can sleep with Zhouzhou, and you two can share a bed. Besides, I’m not sure if this kind of fever will return at night, so it’ll be safer for you two to stay here with us.”

Moreover, Xia Shibai still hadn’t figured out what the “dreamland” she fell into during her fever was.

If she didn’t wake up for too long, having an adult in the house would mean someone could notice her condition in time.

Qin Zhijin looked at Gu Mingyi. Seeing the latter nod, she let go of Gu Mingyi’s hand and let her go play.

“I need to go back once to grab some clothes.”

“Okay, stay safe.”

Even though it was only a wrought-iron fence away, the reminder slipped out of Xia Shibai’s mouth.

Qin Zhijin didn’t show it on her face, but she felt exceptionally touched in her heart. As a result, her mood throughout the night felt like a roller coaster, fluctuating between good and bad.

Xia Shibai took the two little ones upstairs and told them to stay in the room and not run around. She would come up to carry Xia Yaozhou to bed after she finished her shower.

Xia Yaozhou pursed her lips tightly, clutching a beautifully made number card in her hand. She sat on the bed without responding.

Gu Mingyi, on the other hand, nodded obediently. “Okay.”

Once the adult left, the two children, who had been somewhat close, suddenly had a “Milky Way” between them.

Even though Xia Yaozhou was the only one digging this “Milky Way,” she tirelessly took the number cards and laid them out one by one in front of her, looking neither left nor right, focusing only on her own little patch of space.

How could Gu Mingyi not know that Xia Yaozhou was angry with her? She finally plucked up the courage to say “I’m sorry,” keeping her eyes open to carefully observe the changes in Xia Yaozhou’s expression.

Xia Yaozhou noticed. With a great deal of attitude, she shifted her bottom, pivoted on the spot, and turned her back to Gu Mingyi.

Clearly still angry and unwilling to talk.

This immediately crushed the courage that Gu Mingyi had worked so hard to build up.

By the time Xia Shibai returned from her shower, the two children each occupied a corner of the bed. It was as if what separated them wasn’t the diagonal of a 1.8m bed, but the East African Rift Valley.

Xia Shibai stood outside, for a moment not daring to step inside.

She was afraid that if she stepped into the room, she’d fall off the edge of a cliff.

Xia Shibai hadn’t expected that inside the cliff, there was also a “wild monkey” who liked to use both hands and feet to climb onto her. Like a monkey suppressed under the Five Elements Mountain for five hundred years, she scrambled into Xia Shibai’s arms on her own.

Xia Shibai supported Xia Yaozhou’s bottom, said goodnight to Gu Mingyi, and carried the “Wild Xia Monkey” toward the bedroom.

“What are you sulking with Xiao Yi for now?”

Xia Yaozhou hummed a few times, climbed onto the bed, spread out the quilt, and huddled inside. She patted the space beside her. “Mommy, come sleep. Sleepy.”

Xia Shibai stood by the bed, looking at the little girl who was currently quite well-behaved and cute, and thought of the “chuunibyou girl who likes to pretend to be a bad student” she had met in her dream. She felt a sudden pang in her heart.

To prevent a child’s rebellious phase, start with brainwashing—no, education—from a young age.

Xia Shibai lifted the quilt and got into bed, beginning her “Fairytale Fusion Education Path.”

This time, it was a story about a sheep pen.

The owner’s sheep pen was broken and had a small hole. Wolves couldn’t get in, but the lambs could squeeze out. The adult sheep always warned the lambs that the world outside was dangerous and to wait until they grew up and had great strength before exploring.

But lambs are naturally full of curiosity about the outside world. When they grew into “half-grown” sheep, one of them, as the leader of the underage sheep, came up with a plan. He said they should go out and see the wider world.

“We are smarter than our mothers! We shouldn’t believe the judgment of our elders; their life judgments are already out of date with the current era. We must go out and explore a brand-new world ourselves, and get to know how this world differs from what we know.”

Thus, three sheep among the underage group were incited. They followed the little leader to the hole that hadn’t been mended yet, wanting to squeeze out and see the world.

The other underage sheep chose to believe their mothers. They stayed behind to follow the normal growth trajectory and would choose their future direction at the crossroads.

“But there are wolves outside. Won’t the lambs who go out on an adventure be caught by the wolves immediately?” Xia Yaozhou’s eyelashes flickered; her upper and lower eyelids were fighting, but she stubbornly held on to hear the end of this long story.

“Yes. As soon as they went out, they were tricked into ‘being guests’ at the homes of wolves they had never seen before, and they could never return.”

“Then what happened to them?”

Xia Shibai said, “They turned into cumin lamb chops, whole roasted lamb, lamb buns, clear soup lamb pot, lamb rolls…”

“Slurp—“

Xia Yaozhou swallowed her saliva.

“What did Zhouzhou learn from this story?” Xia Shibai mused that the essence of education was to guide the student to voice their own realizations and thoughts, so the closing summary had to come from the child herself.

The little girl sleeping next to her swept away her previous sleepiness. She reached out to grab Xia Shibai’s arm, opened her little teeth, and snapped at the air.

“Awoo—”

“Mommy, let’s go to the sheep pen and help the Big Bad Wolf trick the lambs out.”

“I want to eat lamb hotpot too!”

Xia Shibai: “…”

Sometimes, the urge to hit a child just comes out of nowhere.

Xia Shibai lightly patted Xia Yaozhou’s forehead, then wordlessly turned off the light to sleep.

Eat, eat, eat. All you know is eating.

Go eat in your dreams. In your dreams, you were even eating roast duck!

After Qin Zhijin’s blind date was sabotaged, her life fell into a peaceful and harmonious state. There were no oppressive phone calls that made her weary, nor hypocritical WeChat messages that she didn’t know how to reply to.

There was only passing the garden early in the morning and checking in with Xia Shibai on her flowerbed, which hadn’t grown a single blade of grass in a week.

“Can at least two blades of grass grow?” Qin Zhijin asked seriously.

Xia Shibai: “Some children develop fast, some develop slow. As a parent, we must have patience and not ‘pull the sprouts to help them grow,’ Dr. Qin.”

“I’m just afraid it’s ‘dead in the womb’.”

Xia Shibai: “…”

“Watch your mouth! My mint can’t bear to hear such things! Apologize to it right now.”

Qin Zhijin’s eyes curved as she laughed. She gave a quick tease and walked away, leaving only Xia Shibai, who anxiously turned her steps toward her flowerbed.

Staring at it closely, there was truly no hint of green.

Damn it, surely they haven’t actually died in the soil!

Author’s Note:

Xia Shibai: Don’t be a rebellious sheepy, or you’ll be eaten by the Big Bad Wolf.

Zhouzhou: The Big Bad Wolf eats so well! Hehehe, lamb hotpot, cumin lamb legs, roasted whole lamb, big chops~ I love it!

Xia Shibai: …