It was a turbulent night last night.
Mrs. Mao didn't even eat dinner and took Little Ming to the hospital as soon as she came back. Of course, Little Ming also didn't get to drink the rice broth with sesame oil that Lu Chenchen had cooked for her.
The weather was hot and she was also uncomfortable. After being woken up from the commotion, she cried whimperingly. Perhaps it was because they were twins, Second Mao's feelings for her were deeper than those for Big Mao. He went over wanting to see what was wrong with his sister, but was sternly stopped by Mrs. Mao. The child didn't understand that the adults were worried about cross infection, he only knew that his mother had shouted at him, and following Little Ming's cries, Second Mao also burst into tears.
As a result, Lu Chenchen was scolded by Mrs. Mao. Usually she looked quite shrewd, but at critical moments she was completely useless.
Lu Chenchen knew that she had become a scapegoat. In her two years as a nanny, similar things had happened many times, and she was used to it. She took Mrs. Mao's words as the wind blowing by, silently handed over a bag prepared with a cup, alcohol-free hand sanitizer, wet wipes and dry wipes, and led Second Mao away, quietly asking her mother-in-law, "Do you want me to call Mr. Mao?"
She had an intuition that he would not agree to taking Little Ming to the hospital right now.
But her mother-in-law kept waving her hands in refusal.
Mao Yuanning came back at around seven o'clock, twirling his car keys as he entered the door, looking to be in a good mood.
At first he did not notice anything wrong, and greeted everyone with a smile. The others had already eaten dinner, but Lu Chenchen had kept some for him, she just needed to go reheat it in the kitchen.
By the time she brought out the food, she could still hear him chatting and laughing with Second Mao about amusing things that happened at kindergarten.
His mother-in-law was sitting on the sofa watching TV like the Bodhisattva Manjushri.
In her heart, Lu Chenchen cursed Big Mao and Second Mao for being two silly ones. Their dad had been back for several minutes already, and they still hadn't remembered to tell him that their sister had gone to the hospital.
There was no other way, Lu Chenchen had to reluctantly break the news about Mrs. Mao taking Little Ming to see the doctor in what she thought was the most relaxed tone.
Following that, she immediately felt a sudden drop in the air pressure in the living room.
"When did this happen? Why did no one call me?" Mao Yuanning asked with a frown, though his gaze turned towards his mother.
His mother was completely absorbed in the TV drama playing on the oversized screen, where a woman in red was standing at the edge of a cliff talking to a man in black. It looked like the woman wanted to jump off the cliff to end her life, while the man was trying to persuade her not to. Lu Chenchen had gone to the kitchen to bring out food earlier when the two elders were discussing whether she would jump or not. Now she came back out to the living room and saw that they were still tearfully debating along with the melodious background music whether the woman would jump in the end.
Lu Chenchen was not into soap operas, but now she really wanted to sit next to her mother-in-law and watch with her whether that woman ended up jumping or not.
But Mao Yuanning's gaze fell on her, devoid of any warmth.
Lu Chenchen had no choice but to respectfully answer, "Her temperature seemed normal when I took it... she didn't have a fever..."
"If there's no problem then why go to the hospital?" Mao Yuanning interrupted her words, "I've said it before, there are a lot of bacteria and viruses in hospitals, don't run there at the slightest disturbance. You'll just catch more viruses and bring them back."
Lu Chenchen did not make a peep, deep down agreeing completely.
"How long has it been?" His voice was low, seemingly without much emotion, but somehow still invoked an inexplicable fear.
Lu Chenchen glanced at the clock on the wall and lowered her head to say, "Around two hours."
"Two hours!" Mao Yuanning bit out each word before saying it out.
He took out his phone and started dialing while walking towards his room.
Looking at the soup keeping warm on the hot plate, Lu Chenchen felt rather down. The kids liked salty and flavorful dishes, plus the weather today was stuffy and hot, so she had cooked them garlic steamed pork belly and cashew chicken. Afraid it would be too greasy, she boiled white radish and cabbage soup. Cabbage had to be freshly cooked and eaten to taste crisp and refreshing, but she had cooked the greens and by the time Mao Yuanning came back he did not eat. She watched helplessly as the vibrant green leaves withered and changed color under the heat lamp of the hot plate, feeling genuinely distressed.
What a sin! Nowadays cabbage cost four to five yuan per jin!
Not long later, Mao Yuanning came back out, his expression restored to indifference. He asked whose bowl of congee had been served, and Lu Chenchen quickly said it was the rice broth she cooked for Little Ming, who hadn't gotten to drink it before going to the hospital. Lu Chenchen was planning to let it cool then freeze it to drink herself the next morning.
Unexpectedly, Mao Yuanning picked up the bowl of congee and finished it completely along with the garlic pork belly and cashew chicken.
After Lu Chenchen washed the dishes, she accompanied Big Mao and Second Mao to the residential complex clubhouse to play badminton for a while, until it was time to get them to wash up and sleep. Originally she was also planning to go back to her room to rest, but thinking of Mrs. Mao and Little Ming, she decided to stay in the living room and play on her phone.
At eleven minutes past eleven, Lu Chenchen was already nearly dozing off on the sofa when Mrs. Mao and Little Ming finally returned.
Mrs. Mao looked exhausted. When Lu Chenchen asked how the child was, she didn't answer.
Hearing the noise, Mao Yuanning came out from his study.
Mrs. Mao spoke softly to him, saying the line was over two hundred people long at the ER. The nurse said that since the child didn't have a fever they couldn't cut in line. She also ignored them and they waited half a day before it was their turn. The doctor didn't even talk to them for two sentences before having them taken for a blood test, and Little Ming cried and threw a tantrum...and so on.
Mao Yuanning didn't say a single word.
At that moment, Lu Chenchen could feel that he didn't dare to speak, afraid that if he opened his mouth flames would shoot out at Mrs. Mao and turn her into a mummy.
After she took over getting the child washed up and into bed, Mrs. Mao also directly went to sleep.
The next day Little Ming didn't go to kindergarten, sleeping until almost ten o'clock. She got up full of energy, ate two fried egg pancakes, and took two cartons of yogurt herself, one for her and one for Lili the dog, both eating delightedly.
Mao Yuanning went to work.
Mrs. Mao was probably still a little worried, after sending Big Mao to school she came back.
Lu Chenchen asked Mrs. Mao if there were any medications she needed to feed Little Ming. Mrs. Mao shook her head, telling her to get the child to drink more water and eat easily digestible food, letting her rest well.
—which was about the same as what Lu Chenchen had said before.
It was just that this was not somewhere she could wag her tail and gloat "see, I said there was nothing wrong!" What she ought to properly be doing was laundry, cleaning, taking Little Ming around the residential complex to breathe fresh air.
Unfortunately, they encountered Mrs. Zhong again.
Seeing them, Mrs. Zhong bloomed a smile even more radiant than the roses of this season. "Oh, isn't this Lawyer Mao's youngest daughter? Not going to kindergarten today?"
Just as Lu Chenchen was about to reply on Little Ming's behalf, Mrs. Zhong familiarly pulled her to her side, enthusiastically saying "Does Lawyer Mao have a lot going on at home? Haven't seen you for many days, I even said to come over sometime to chat with you."
Thank you so much, please don't come looking for me! Lu Chenchen broke out in cold sweat, not knowing what kind of treasure was in the Mao family home that made Mrs. Zhong lower herself to try and get close with their little nanny.
"That's not okay. The home services company specially emphasized during training that relatives and friends cannot come looking for us at the employer's home." Lu Chenchen rejected very directly, not leaving any room.
For things like this, leaving room would be letting herself down.
Mrs. Zhong let out a couple dry laughs before changing the topic, asking if she had kids and how old they were, were they boys or girls. Then she said her husband's older sister's grandson was older than Lu Chenchen's son, and she would gather some hand-me-down clothes and pants to give her son another day...
Alright, even if Lu Chenchen was just a nanny, she still had dignity and backbone. She certainly would not accept worn clothes from unfamiliar people, and even if they were familiar people she still wouldn't accept them.
Those who have done domestic help all know that while a nanny's status is low, their income is not meager. Raising a couple kids is still no issue.
But Lu Chenchen highly doubted that Mrs. Zhong had ulterior motives.
She wanted to directly ask what she needed. The words were on the tip of her tongue, but ultimately she swallowed them back down again. Curiosity killed the cat! If she took initiative to ask, then help or not help? On what basis could she help? If she couldn't help wouldn't that just breed resentment?
Haha, best for everyone to keep pretending to be muddled.
