Assured, Xing Pingchun let out a big breath and flopped back into Qian Jiaoniang’s arms, drawing strength from her embrace. Qian Jiaoniang held him quietly.
Xing Muzheng watched them steadily.
The pig-shaped brass oil lamp flickered. Wisps of black smoke spiraled into the dish atop the brass pig and disappeared.
“Mother,” Xing Pingchun suddenly looked up.
“Mm?”
“You’re really nice.”
Qian Jiaoniang couldn’t help but laugh. “Why say Mother’s nice all of a sudden?” Weren’t they talking about his father just now?
Xing Pingchun scratched his head and muttered, “I thought… I thought you’d be mad at Father… Because since we entered the residence, Father’s never really paid attention to us…”
Xing Muzheng felt a bit uncomfortable.
Qian Jiaoniang’s eyes softened. “What about you? Are you mad at your father?”
“I—I’m not… uh, maybe just a little bit… only a tiny bit,” Xing Pingchun held up his thumb and forefinger, nails touching, to show how small.
“Oh? And how were you mad?”
“I just hid under the blanket and cried a little… just a little! I swear!” Xing Pingchun quickly added, worried his mother would think he was a crybaby.
Qian Jiaoniang laughed softly and shook her head, eyes full of such tender affection it seemed ready to drip, “Mother knows—it was just one time… But you’re really too greedy,” she switched to a surprised expression, “Your father came back and immediately found us, gave us good food, nice clothes, and even found you a teacher—how is that not good enough?”
“Mmm…” Xing Pingchun blinked.
This son of his was a bit dim. Xing Muzheng thought with a trace of bitterness.
“My own parents sold me off for silver—that’s what you call ‘not good enough’! You—you’re just not counting your blessings.” Qian Jiaoniang tapped Xing Pingchun’s forehead. “In this world, not all parents treat their children well. There are plenty out there selling their sons and daughters! You have a father to raise you, a mother to love you, and neither of us have ever beaten or scolded you—and you still think it’s not good enough? Heaven might strike you down with thunder.”
Xing Muzheng, of course, knew that it had been Qian Jiaoniang’s own parents who sold her to him. He’d even negotiated the price with them. The old Qian family had asked for thirty taels of silver. He said she wasn’t worth that much—twenty taels—and bought her. That day, she had stood behind her parents, staring at him with her wide eyes. He gave her one look, remembered her face—thought she wasn’t ugly—and left.
Now hearing her bring it up so lightly, Xing Muzheng didn’t quite know what he was feeling.
“Mother, you’re right. I won’t be mad at Father anymore,” Xing Pingchun said. “But… if Father gets better, it would be nice if he could be even better to you.”
Their son knew how to feel for others—she truly hadn’t given birth to him in vain. Qian Jiaoniang smiled, “I’m not angry at your father, because everyone has their own path. Your father… he’s probably a mighty eagle in the sky, and me, I’m probably just a little sparrow. He can’t see me, and I can’t fly that high. We’re just… not a good match, that’s all.”
The words “not a good match” were spoken lightly, but they landed like a heavy blow on Xing Muzheng’s chest.
Xing Pingchun seemed half-understood, half-confused. He sniffled, then looked up. “Mother, I don’t think you’re a little sparrow. You’re a mother tiger of the earth! Father is an eagle of the sky—you’re one in the sky and one on the ground, so of course you don’t match.”
Qian Jiaoniang’s motherly smile froze on her lips. M-Mother tiger? Her son just compared her to a mother tiger?
“Hee hee hee, ha ha ha—” Suddenly a laugh burst from the side. Qian Jiaoniang and Xing Pingchun turned at the same time and saw Dingxi Marquis chuckling foolishly.
“Mother, look! Father’s laughing! He says I’m right!” Xing Pingchun said proudly.
Qian Jiaoniang’s expression turned. “Right, my foot… Shoo shoo shoo, you little rascal—what are you doing sitting on me? Off with you! Quick, move it!” Daring to call his own mother a mother tiger—clearly asking for a beating!
Xing Muzheng had felt complicated a moment before, but hearing his son suddenly blurt out “mother tiger” made him burst out laughing. The more he thought about it, the funnier it seemed. Wasn’t she just like a mother tiger?
The ghost-thing kept laughing louder and louder. Eventually, he stood up, clutching his belly and laughing uncontrollably. Qian Jiaoniang glared, “What are you laughing at!” Even though he was a fool now, she knew he was laughing because Pingchun had called her a mother tiger. He had to be!
The fiercer she got, the more tiger-like she looked. Xing Muzheng couldn’t hold back at all—he laughed even harder. The ghost-thing rolled on the ground laughing, his laughter shaking the roof.
Outside, Ah Da, Wang Yong, and Wu Shunzi were eating. Hearing the noise, they rushed in, bowls still in hand, and stood there dumbfounded, watching the Marquis flailing and laughing on the floor like a big cat.
“Madam… what’s wrong with the Commander?”
“How should I know! He’s just gone mad!” Qian Jiaoniang couldn’t keep her face straight. She gave Xing Pingchun a hard slap on the butt. “Go wash up and get to bed—now!”
