“What are you doing, Aunty?” asked Shu Yan, not know what to make of that.
Caught by Shu Yan, Aunty gave an awkward chuckle and said, “No, nothing. I went over to the market for some groceries after I have dropped off the kids.”
Shu Yan looked at her hands. She was empty-handed. What groceries?
“Oh, I ended up not buying anything because nothing looked all that fresh.” Aunty explained quickly.
Could she have come up with a worse excuse?
“Aunty, you are a part of the family so I will be honest with you. I am seeing Feng Zeyu, so don’t be too surprised if you see him over often.” Shu Yan gave Aunty a heads up.
Aunty looked like she had already guessed. She only came home so late because she didn’t want to interrupt their conversation.
“I am happy that you can find someone who is nice to you and your kids. When my late husband passed away, I was just 27 years old and have a daughter. I was lucky that my husband’s brothers are all very nice. It would have been very difficult otherwise.” As a single mother, Aunty could relate. “I had thought about it too after I had lost the father of my child but I have never met anyone that I liked.”
Shu Yan understood. Unlike her, Aunty’s husband died from illness. Most importantly, he was nice to both her and her child when he was around. He would take care of all the hard work and would even think about her when he saw wild fruits when gathering firewood in the mountains. It would be much more difficult for her to find someone else after a man like that.
“You are still only 38 years old. That’s really not that old. Don’t you want to find someone else?” There would be plenty of independent women who were still single in their thirties. Even Shu Yan herself was single in her thirties.
All in all, there was no way she would force herself into a marriage just because. She was perfectly happy being single. Why would she want to get married and have to watch her spending and to take care of another person? She hasn’t lost her mind.
“Me? My child is in university already,” said Aunty as she waved her hands.
“You should look around precisely because your daughter is already in college. Your daughter is all grown up and she will start working after graduating from the university. She will get married and have children in the future and have her own life. You shouldn’t need to sacrifice your life for your daughter. I think… you can try to live a little for yourself.”
Shu Yan wasn’t one who would think that the term “mother” was sacred.
A mother is also a person, one that was born to her parents.
Aunty didn’t say anything. She finally smiled and said after a long while, “We’ll see after my child graduated from the university.”
To each their own, Shu Yan decided to drop the subject. “You can head back to Manfu Mansion first. I’ll clean up some before I take off.”
The seller had left behind all the furniture for Shu Yan, including the bed. It was the old wooden style of beds. Shu Yan was not used to them so she had taken them apart and moved them into the storage. She had called up the furniture store yesterday and had them sent over three beds identical to the ones that she had in her new house. She was going to swap out the one for Aunty as well, but turned out she enjoyed the old-style ones better.
All they needed were straw mats and bedsheets in the summer time. These were also all brand new and Aunty had them washed in the morning. It only took an afternoon for them to dry during the summer. Shu Yan collected the straw mats and the bedsheets, brought them back inside, and placed them over the beds. She randomly thought about matters with regards with Feng Zeyu as she picked up around the house.
