No One Loves Me (GL) - Chapter 16

The phone vibrated again, and Xie Zhitang came back to her senses. She quickly turned off the water, but when she picked up the cup, she burned her hand.

She then realized she had set the temperature to over 80 degrees.

Xie Zhitang blew on her fingers, picked up her phone, and opened the message from Xin Geling that said, “Go to bed early.” Her heart felt a little warmer.

Her aunt would accept her one day.

The next day, Xin Geling and Lin Huilan went to the farmers market again. This time, they bought twice as much beef, lamb, pork belly, chicken wings, and chicken knees as they had the day before.

Even though they still had 30 sausages left, they wouldn’t spoil if stored for a long time, so they bought another box.

They bought fewer potatoes since not many people ate them.

They also bought twice as much baby cabbage and leeks as the day before.

They also bought twice as many seasonings.

This time, Lin Huilan didn’t object at all. When she saw all the ingredients, all she could think about was making money.

She was quick and efficient at chopping the ginger, garlic, and scallions.

The small kitchen was filled with the figures of a tall person and a short person, busy with preparing the ingredients.

There was a lot of fresh meat, so Xin Geling had to first cut the meat into large pieces about 1 centimeter thick. Then, she would lay each large piece on the cutting board and cut it into long strips of the same 1-centimeter width. Finally, she would cut the strips into small, square pieces of about the same size.

She put the pieces into several large stainless steel bowls, poured the prepared marinade over them, and put them in the refrigerator to marinate for two hours.

During these two hours, Xin Geling took some leftover beef trimmings and stir-fried them with green peppers. She also made a dish of stir-fried leeks with scrambled eggs. But in the middle of it, the fire went out.

Xin Geling bent down to check if the gas tank was empty, and it was.

She had already started to stir-fry the leeks and eggs, so she couldn’t just serve it half-cooked. And there was also a pot of pork hock soup cooking in the pressure cooker beside her.

Speaking of the pork hock soup, she had bought it when they were buying ingredients that morning.

Xin Geling felt that since they had made money, they should treat themselves to a good meal. She had to talk her mother, who was used to being poor, into buying a kilogram or two of pork hocks to make soup.

They blanched the pork hocks with star anise, ginger slices, scallions, and cooking wine to get rid of the gamey smell. Then, they added a plate of golden soybeans, a handful of goji berries, and a few Northern red dates, all of which were tossed into the pot to simmer.

The soup was now a milky white and bubbling, and it was frustrating for the fire to suddenly go out.

So, Xin Geling took off the gas tank and carried it down to the stairwell. She swapped it with the smaller gas tank on the food stall to use for the time being.

After she had reconnected the gas, Xin Geling turned on the fire. The pork hock soup in the pressure cooker continued to boil, and the leeks and eggs in the pan were stir-fried over high heat. She added a little salt, and a plate of fragrant leeks with eggs was ready.

There was finally some meat on the table.

Xin Geling scooped some soup for Lin Huilan. “Mom, have some more.”

Lin Huilan carefully took the bowl. “Be careful not to burn yourself.”

Xin Geling looked at her silently, a slight smile on her face.

Lin Huilan drank the soup, a look of contentment on her face. Even as she used her hands to eat a pork hock, she still carried a sense of grace.

Fortunately, the hardships hadn’t completely destroyed the elegance she had as a teacher and a scholar.

After they had eaten, Grandma Chen suddenly came over and said her refrigerator was broken and asked Xin Geling to come and fix it.

Xin Geling had nothing else to do, so she went over to help Grandma Chen.

“What’s wrong with it?” Xin Geling asked, opening the refrigerator door. Water had leaked out.

Grandma Chen said, “I don’t know what happened. When I got up this morning, water was leaking out of the refrigerator, and it’s still leaking even when I close the door.”

Xin Geling closed the door again. After a few tries, she squatted down to check and found the problem. “The refrigerator door isn’t sealing properly. The rubber seal has lost its magnetism.”

Grandma Chen, sitting on a stool at a round table, opened her wrinkled, shriveled mouth and asked, “Can you fix it?”

Xin Geling looked at Grandma Chen. “Yes, but I need to go to a repair shop to buy the parts.”

Grandma Chen was about to take out her money from her pocket, but Xin Geling got up and walked out first. “Grandma Chen, I’m going to buy the parts now.”

Grandma Chen had just touched the money in a red plastic bag when she saw her daughter’s back and scolded her with a look.

Xin Geling went downstairs and went straight to a refrigerator store. She told the staff the size of the refrigerator, and they quickly brought out a new rubber seal for her. Xin Geling took it and went back to the stairwell. Seeing her food stall, she suddenly remembered that she hadn’t refilled the gas tank.

She decided she would go and swap it out for a new one later.

Xin Geling took the new rubber seal upstairs and put it on Grandma Chen’s refrigerator door. After a few tries to make sure it was working, she put away her tools.

“It’s all good, Grandma Chen. The refrigerator is fixed. I’m going back now.”

Grandma Chen stopped her. “How much do I owe you? I’ll pay you.”

“Grandma Chen, why are you being so polite?” Xin Geling asked. “It’s free.”

“How can you say that?” Grandma Chen asked.

Xin Geling picked up two apples from the table. “Then I’ll eat two of your apples.”

“…” Grandma Chen watched her enter the apartment next door. “That child, she has such a good heart.”

When Lin Huilan woke up from her nap, she saw her daughter holding two apples. She was about to ask when Xin Geling handed one to her.

“Here. I helped Grandma Chen fix her refrigerator, and I took two apples as payment.”

Lin Huilan hesitated before taking it. After a moment, she smiled foolishly and took a bite of the apple. “You know, Grandma Chen’s apples are quite sweet.”

Xin Geling looked at her with a smile. “Then do you want mine, too?”

“You eat it yourself,” Lin Huilan said. “You’re already giving one to your mother. I already have one.”

“I’m going to go get a new gas tank,” Xin Geling said, walking outside and taking a bite of the crisp apple.

“Hurry back.”

Carrying a full 15-kilogram tank of new gas, Xin Geling sat on a small stool in the living room. On the floor in front of her was a bowl of beef pieces, and on the low coffee table was an empty bowl.

Bamboo skewers were next to her hand.

She picked up a skewer and threaded the marinated meat pieces one by one. She put five pieces of meat on each skewer.

Lin Huilan was skewering the meat from another bowl. The two of them were silent. From time to time, Lin Huilan would look at her daughter, who was doing this boring work without a single complaint.

If it were any other girl, she wouldn’t do it.

Only her daughter would be willing to do it. She wasn’t afraid of hard work or getting dirty and was even willing to help.

Even with heavy work like fixing home appliances.

Lin Huilan’s mind drifted back to many years ago, to her ex-husband and that unhappy marriage. The man had gotten drunk and repeatedly spilled alcohol on important architectural blueprints, ruining the drawings. When he couldn’t turn in his work, he blamed her and was verbally and physically abusive.

She had endured it many times, afraid that her daughter would also be hurt. She would only tell her daughter not to stand up for her.

But her patience didn’t earn her ex-husband’s understanding. Instead, he got worse and even brought his mistress home in front of her and their daughter.

Lin Huilan still remembered that day when she came home from teaching her last class and saw her daughter sitting in the living room, listening to the vulgar language coming from the bedroom with a blank expression.

She didn’t know how long her daughter had been listening. At that moment, as a mother, she felt her scalp tingle, and her mind went blank. Her hands and feet felt cold.

She didn’t know whether to be angry that she had been betrayed or shocked that her young daughter had to hear these things.

She knew she couldn’t let it go on and chose to divorce him. Luckily, her daughter chose to stay with her. She went to great lengths to move with her daughter to an apartment near her school.

The mother and daughter relied on each other, and gradually, her daughter learned to share the burden. She learned to fix air conditioners, refrigerators, pipes, and fans…

She didn’t know when her daughter had learned all these things.