Chapter Eleven: A Chance Encounter

Grandma Liu had been feeling unwell lately. She’d lost her appetite, couldn’t eat much, and had no energy to get up and move around. By the time Chen Xin heard about it, more than a week had passed. After thinking it over for a bit, she decided to bring some homemade food and pay Grandma Liu a visit.

As she entered, she saw Grandpa Liu cooking porridge for his wife. The porridge was thin and watery, hardly appealing at all.

“Your Grandma Liu caught a chill the other day. I suggested she go to the hospital, but she refused, and now she’s feeling worse. She can’t eat anything. I don’t know how to cook, so all I can do is make her some porridge every day,” Grandpa Liu said, clearly distressed. With their children all away, he’d thought about calling them, but his wife wouldn’t hear of it, insisting it was a trivial matter and didn’t want to disrupt their work.

Chen Xin didn’t agree with this, but there was nothing she could say. She took over from Grandpa Liu and made a new pot of porridge for Grandma Liu.

She cooked a multigrain porridge, adding glutinous rice and millet to the white rice, along with two slices of fresh ginger. She let it simmer for half an hour, then added finely chopped fish just before it was done, sprinkling in a pinch of salt and pepper. When serving, she garnished it with chopped scallions. As she stirred, a delicious aroma wafted out.

“Oh, Xin, you’re quite the cook,” Grandma Liu remarked. Her poor appetite was partly due to her illness and partly from loneliness at home. Now with Chen Xin’s chubby, cheerful little boy keeping her company and Chen Xin’s cooking far surpassing Grandpa Liu’s, she unwittingly finished a bowl and a half.

“There’s more in the pot, but Grandma Liu, you shouldn’t eat any more for now. I’ll heat some up for you later,” Chen Xin said, mindful that Grandma Liu hadn’t eaten much for some time and that eating too much at once could upset her stomach. Older people’s digestion is weaker, and small, frequent meals are best.

Grandpa Liu, aside from the porridge, also enjoyed the breakfast food Chen Xin brought. Seeing his wife’s spirits lift, his own appetite improved as well. If Chen Xin hadn’t been there to keep an eye on things, he might have overeaten.

After the meal, Chen Xin suggested Grandpa Liu and his wife take little Zhang Zhang outside for some fresh air while she prepared lunch at home.

Though the weather was warming up, the time before lunch was still pleasant enough for outdoor activity. Several large trees shaded the area downstairs, where stone tables and benches stood, always kept clean. It was a lovely spot.

The chubby little boy had been living here for some time, so many neighbors recognized him. Noting how much rounder and cuter he’d grown, everyone wanted to play with him. His serious little face as he chatted made him especially endearing to the grandparents who spent their days minding children.

Just before lunchtime, Grandma Liu’s son came rushing home. He’d only returned after hearing from a neighbor that his mother was ill. Seeing his parents downstairs playing with the child, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Grandpa Liu was not pleased with his son and didn’t bother to hide it. Always claiming to be busy with work—was he really so busy he couldn’t even make a phone call? If the neighbor hadn’t told him, would he have known if anything had happened to his parents?

Grandma Liu, too, felt frustrated, though she understood her son was busy with work. She wanted to speak up for her husband, who only meant well, but also felt sorry for her son, who looked genuinely anxious and not at all unfilial.

“You haven’t eaten yet, have you?” Chen Xin broke the stalemate by calling out, “Why don’t you wash your hands and eat? Could you help me carry this small stew pot out? I’ll bring the other dishes.”

Grandma Liu’s son, feeling awkward, got up to help Chen Xin in the kitchen, easing the tension a bit.

“Don’t be upset,” Chen Xin said. “Grandpa Liu is just worried. Grandma Liu hasn’t wanted to eat since she got sick and she’s lost a lot of weight in just a few days. He wanted you to come, but she didn’t want to trouble you and disrupt your work.”

“It’s not trouble at all. If I’d known my mom was sick, I would have come home even if I had to take leave,” he replied.

“To be honest, I don’t think anyone is so busy that they can’t spare a little time. It’s not about coming home often, but maybe once every month or two, just to share a meal, or a short phone call every now and then. People always think there’s plenty of time, but in reality, there isn’t,” Chen Xin said quietly.

Liu Jianmin fell silent for a long while, standing there with the stew pot in his hands for two or three minutes before finally carrying it out.

After lunch, Chen Xin planned to take her nephew home. She’d originally wanted to stay until after dinner, but since Liu Jianmin had come back and it looked like the family needed to have a proper talk, she excused herself, saying the little one needed a nap. With Liu Jianmin’s help, she went downstairs, arranged with Grandma Liu to come by next week to take the elderly couple to the new park, and then wheeled her nephew away.

She didn’t care about what the Liu family needed to discuss; she just hoped that Liu Jianmin would visit his parents more often. Grandpa and Grandma Liu were optimistic people, but every elder longs for a lively home.

On her way home, she bought some fruit, planning to make a steamed egg custard for her nephew for dinner, and just have some fruit herself. After eating so much meat these past days, she was feeling a bit tired of it and thought something light would be nice.

Just as she reached her building, she nearly collided with someone, causing the bag holding her apples to tear open. The apples rolled all over the ground.

“Hey, what’s with you?” Chen Xin exclaimed angrily, looking up at the person who had bumped into her.

“Sorry, sorry, I didn’t see you,” the man apologized hurriedly.

He looked about twenty-five or twenty-six, quite tall, not exactly handsome but definitely above average. Most notably, he had a well-built body—broad shoulders and a narrow waist, and even his T-shirt couldn’t hide his abs.

He quickly helped Chen Xin gather the apples from the ground, but when he saw the bag had a hole, he seemed at a loss as to how to carry them.

Chen Xin shot him a glare, but seeing her nephew unharmed, her anger subsided. She pulled out a cloth bag from the stroller and repacked the apples.

“All right, just be more careful next time. What if you’d run into an elderly person?” she said offhandedly, not realizing that the phenomenon of faking accidents for compensation hadn’t been invented yet.

“If it’s not too much trouble, can I help you carry these upstairs?” the man offered, lingering as he seemed eager to help carry the chubby little boy upstairs. But his sudden enthusiasm made Chen Xin wary, and she immediately looked at him with suspicion.

“No need, I can manage,” she replied.

“I really mean it—I'm sorry for bumping into you and your son. I just wanted to make it up to you,” he said sincerely. He didn’t look like a criminal, but as the saying goes, a bad guy wouldn’t have “bad guy” written on his face. Chen Xin thought it was best for her and her nephew to be cautious.

Just then, Uncle Tie happened by on his way home to fetch something for Aunt Song. Seeing Chen Xin in a standoff with a man, he hurried over, thinking she was being harassed.

“Uncle Tie, could you help carry the apples upstairs? I’ll carry Zhang Zhang,” Chen Xin said, turning to the man, “It’s fine now, my uncle is here. He’ll help me. Just be careful next time.”

The man glanced at Uncle Tie, then at Chen Xin, nodded, and left without another word.

“What happened?” Uncle Tie asked, puzzled. He’d thought the man was a troublemaker, but up close, that didn’t seem to be the case.

Chen Xin explained the accidental collision and added, “He offered to help carry the little one upstairs, but I didn’t dare accept. It’s just me and the boy at home—what if he tried something? Good thing you came along, or I was going to head to the shop instead.”

Uncle Tie agreed it was best to be careful. After helping her upstairs, he suggested that in the future, she should come to the shop first, and if needed, just leave the stroller in the back room. There was nothing much stored there, just a small desk for Yang Yi to do his homework.

Chen Xin thought that sounded reasonable. After all, her home and the shop weren’t far apart, and hauling everything up and down every day was a hassle. This incident made her even more determined to buy a new place—ideally, a ground-floor apartment with a yard for Zhang Zhang to play in.

Just as she was thinking this, Uncle Tie came running up again, telling her that someone had come by looking for her, wanting to discuss a business partnership, and had left a phone number.