“You’re even more hardworking than the production team’s mule…”
Qin Yuhe actually laughed. “If I were that hardworking, what would I be working so hard at?”
Old Madam Qin: “What do you think? Making babies with Yaya, of course.”
Song Xinya’s cheeks turned into little furnaces, a faint blush spreading across her fair skin.
Old Master Qin noticed her embarrassment and gave a cough. “Cough. Old woman, stop talking and eat.”
Old Madam Qin waved her hand grandly. “What’s eating compared to Little He and Yaya having a baby?”
Song Xinya’s face grew even hotter. She lowered her head, her pale skin turning an even deeper pink.
Qin Yuhe said, “Since eating isn’t that important, Yaya and I won’t eat this meal. We’re leaving.”
Old Madam Qin hurriedly said, “It is important, it is! Eating is extremely important.”
Qin Yuhe: “Since eating is important, then eat properly.”
Old Madam Qin was especially worried that her eldest grandson would take his wife and leave. “We’ll eat properly. We’ll listen to you—whatever you say.”
Qin Yuhe picked up a pair of white-jade chopsticks and placed them in Song Xinya’s hand. “Eat in peace.”
He would deal with everything.
The moment food was mentioned, Old Madam Qin started up her antics again.
She brought out a bowl as large as a washbasin, filled half of it with oxtail soup—no, bull-penis soup—and set it in front of Qin Yuhe. “Drink!”
Qin Yuhe: “Grandma, are you feeding a pig?”
Old Madam Qin: “How could I bear to feed such good stuff to a pig? Fresh bull penis! It cost a fortune when I bought it. Grandpa and Grandma couldn’t bear to eat any, so we saved it all for you.”
Qin Yuhe: “Please, you two eat some too. I can’t be the only one suffering.”
Song Xinya burst out laughing.
Qin Yuhe turned to look at her. “Since you’re enjoying this so much, why don’t you have a bowl too?”
Song Xinya: “Girls don’t need to nourish their kidneys. Eating bull penis won’t do anything for me.”
Qin Yuhe: “It will do something. I’d be happy if you ate this fishy, gamey stuff with me.”
Song Xinya glanced at the soup, which was covered in oil droplets and gave off a strong mixture of muttony, fishy, and rank odors. “Really?”
Qin Yuhe pushed the basin farther away from her. “No, you don’t need to suffer through it with me.”
Old Madam Qin: “The soup’s already been stewed. Wasting food is shameful. Think of all those children in Africa who can’t even get a proper meal. How many lifetimes of good deeds would it take to be blessed with something this delicious? Little He, what are you waiting for? Get to it!”
As she spoke, she shoved a spoon into Qin Yuhe’s hand.
Qin Yuhe felt like a duck being forced onto a chopping block.
With bull-penis soup, steamed oysters, stir-fried chives, boiled okra, cold black fungus salad, and a whole series of other dishes spread across the table, the spoon in his hand reached toward the peanuts.
“Let me eat one normal dish first.”
Old Madam Qin, who had been full of energy just moments ago, suddenly drooped her brows and lowered her eyelids, looking as if she might breathe her last at any second. Her voice became as faint as a dying woman’s.
“I don’t know if I’ll live long enough to see my great-grandchildren born.”
The old madam let out a long sigh. “Ah, I’m just an old woman with a pile of worn-out bones. Who knows how much longer I’ll live? I’m lucky to be sitting here eating with all of you today. Maybe tonight I’ll lie down in bed, close my eyes, and never open them again. And just like that, my life will be over.”
After saying this, she covered her mouth with a small handkerchief and coughed loudly three times. “Cough, cough, cough!”
Qin Yuhe: “Don’t worry, Grandma. With how much trouble you make, you’ll live at least another five hundred years.”
Old Madam Qin pouted and snorted. “Who do you think I’m making all this trouble for?”
Qin Yuhe: “Your great-grandchildren.”
Old Madam Qin: “As long as you know. Now hurry up and eat. Afterward, go make a baby with Yaya.”
Clatter—
The chopsticks fell from Song Xinya’s hand onto the table.
To put an end to Old Madam Qin’s nagging, Qin Yuhe reluctantly picked up a bowl of bull-penis soup. “Fine, I’ll drink it.”
He tipped his head back, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he drained the entire bowl in one go. When he set it back on the table, it landed with a soft, muted thud.
He drank the bull-penis soup with the swagger of a man downing white liquor.
Song Xinya pulled out a tissue and wiped the soup from the corner of his mouth. “Why didn’t you drink it more slowly?”
Qin Yuhe: “If I drank it slowly, I wouldn’t have been able to finish it.”
Song Xinya understood him. The soup really did smell awful.
And then—
Qin Yuhe filled another bowl of bull-penis soup and downed it in one gulp.
Song Xinya: “…”
Song Xinya: “???”
“You just said you wouldn’t be able to drink it slowly. How are you drinking another bowl?”
Qin Yuhe: “The flavor may be questionable, but it makes up for it with its effects. It gives a man more stamina.”
Clatter—
Song Xinya’s chopsticks fell onto the table again, even louder than the first time.
Watching her eldest grandson drink the soup, Old Madam Qin covered her mouth and snickered happily, as though she could already see a fair-skinned little great-grandson and a pink-cheeked little great-granddaughter waving to her.
When the meal was halfway over, the butler hurried in to report, “Old Madam, your god-granddaughter is back.”
Old Master Qin and Qin Yuhe remained calm. Clearly, they had known about Old Madam Qin’s god-granddaughter for quite some time.
Song Xinya looked surprised. She had never heard that Old Madam Qin had a god-granddaughter.
Old Madam Qin’s god-granddaughter was essentially Qin Yuhe’s god-sister, wasn’t she?
Qin Yuhe had never mentioned having a god-sister.
How important was this god-sister to him?
Had they grown up together as childhood sweethearts?
Or had Old Madam Qin only taken her in as a god-granddaughter after Qin Yuhe was already grown?
What kind of relationship did Old Madam Qin have with this god-granddaughter?
One question after another surfaced in Song Xinya’s mind. She turned toward the door—and saw a familiar figure.
It was her!
