Chapter 1887: How Pitiful
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
At her age, she must have good fortune to have been able to find such a good mother-in-law. Before she had gotten married to her husband, her in-laws had never treated her so well. They had never been so decisive in buying clothes for her. This pile of clothes cost at least ten thousand yuan!
Qiao Nan blushed. “No, no. You’re mistaken.” She had clearly addressed her as ‘auntie’.
“Future. I know.” The shopping guide blinked. This beautiful lady was slightly older, but calling her a beauty was right. She was indeed quite attractive. She was married and had some experience. The way this auntie looked at that beautiful lady was definitely that of a mother-in-law looking at her daughter-in-law. If this beautiful lady was not her daughter-in-law, this auntie would never spend so much money on her. Who would buy three sets of clothes for an outsider just like that?
Unlike the awkward Qiao Nan, Miao Miao was over the moon. “Haha, you’re good with your words. Let’s go pay for all these. Where’s the cashier?” Miao Jing did not offer an explanation, but she did not deny it either. Had she not just silently acknowledged the shopping guide’s words then?
“No…” Qiao Nan had already made the painful decision to pay for those three outfits on her own so that there would be no misunderstandings. But before Qiao Nan could say anything, Zhai Hua pulled Qiao Nan to the lingerie department. “I think your taste is pretty good. You’ve never been a mom, but your judgment is better than me as a mom. Jiajia is growing now. Apart from those clothes, she needs some underwear too. Come and help me pick some out.”
Talking about growing, Jiajia blushed in embarrassment. Her face was just as red as Qiao Nan’s. However, Jiajia still quietly walked over to Qiao Nan’s side and tugged on Qiao Nan’s clothes, asking Qiao Nan to help her out.
Qiao Nan wanted very much to hit her throbbing head. Why did she feel as though she had just walked into the trap of these three Zhai women?
But because Jiajia was tugging on her, Qiao Nan had no choice but to do some ‘honest work’ and help Jiajia pick some clothes out. “For the time being, Jiajia should wear training bras like this first. Next year or the year after, you can get her proper bras. It’s better to get those without underwire now that she’s just starting off. When she’s a little older and wants to dress up, you can buy those with underwire. Actually, it’s all right for Jiajia to get ones made purely of cotton.”
Qiao Nan did have experience raising a daughter, after all, even if it was just in her dream. Qiao Nan had not forgotten about how to raise a daughter just because she had woken up from her dream.
As such, Qiao Nan had been able to go on about how to choose underwear for Jiajia at a rapid speed. Before Zhai Hua could respond, Qiao Nan already had a pile of underwear in her hand.
Initially, Zhai Hua had asked Qiao Nan to help Jiajia pick out some underwear as a way of preventing Qiao Nan from making trouble and trying to pay for her clothes. Now that Qiao Nan mentioned how to pick underwear out for her daughter, Zhai Hua perked up her ears and paid attention to Qiao Nan’s words, trying to keep them in mind.
Looking at the underwear that Qiao Nan handed over, Zhai Hua was confused for a moment and asked her daughter, “Is that all?”
Jiajia’s face was still flushed and she nodded shyly. “I guess so.” That was what the shopping guide had told her in the past when she had bought them in the past, and that was how she wore them too.
“Do you like these designs?” There were some patterns on the underwear, and Zhai Hua asked for Jiajia’s opinion on them.
Jiajia replied in a small voice. “Auntie Qiao has quite good taste.” She was rather pleased with those designs, and there was not one that she disliked. Her mom was right. Auntie Qiao might not have been a mom before, but she was a much better mom than her own mom was. Her mom had never picked such things out for her in the past. She had always handed her the money and asked her to purchase them for herself.
Seeing her daughter satisfied, Zhai Hua took the pile of items and headed to the cashier without a second of hesitation. “You heard everything Auntie Qiao said, right? It might take another year or two. I’ll remember a little, and you can remember a little too. I think she shouldn’t be wrong, right?”
Even though she was a woman too, Zhai Hua knew nothing about bras having underwire or not, or how to differentiate between the different types of underwear. As such, she was not in the position to critique Qiao Nan’s teachings and could only instruct her daughter to remember whatever Qiao Nan had said.
“Okay.” Jiajia was a young lady, after all, and liked dressing up. So, she tried her best to keep in mind Qiao Nan’s little tips.
As the mother and daughter were chatting, Qiao Nan handed a few more pieces of underwear over. “These are yours. Pay for them together.” As for the one in her hand, Qiao Nan had picked it out for herself. It did not make sense to purchase a whole set of clothing without purchasing some underwear. The way she saw it, she would much rather not change her outerwear than not change her underwear.
“Me too?” Zhai Hua had no special feelings upon seeing the underwear that Qiao Nan had selected for her. “But do you know my size?” Even she had not been able to tell the shopping guide her size when she had purchased underwear for the first time. She had only found out after going into the fitting room and trying some on.
“…” Qiao Nan’s lips twitched. She had purchased Zhai Hua’s underwear for over twenty years in her dream. “My judgment is pretty good. I can roughly gauge your size just by looking. Since we’re still here, you can go try it on if you’re afraid.”
Qiao Nan’s gaze fell on Zhai Hua. Even though Zhai Hua had already retired from the military, she had maintained her figure well. She probably would not have made an error.
Zhai Hua bowed her head. Ever since she had gotten married, she had more than a decade’s worth of experience purchasing underwear for herself. She definitely knew her own size. When she flipped the label of the underwear, it was indeed her size. “There’s no need for that. Your eyes are sharp indeed.”
Because Qiao Nan had already selected it for her, Zhai Hua suddenly realized that it was not only her daughter who needed them but she needed them too. Thus, she paid for them unhesitatingly. As she was making her payment, Zhai Hua took the piece in Qiao Nan’s hand over. “You’ve helped Jiajia and I pick things out for a long time. Just take this as my way of thanking you.”
Ever since returning from Qingshui Town, Zhai Hua had gotten a better understanding of Qiao Nan’s life. Knowing that Qiao Nan had once lived with such a family, Zhai Hua knew that Qiao Nan had had it tough all these years and would not have much money on hand.
If Qiao Nan had more money, would Qiao Zijin have been able to buy that house?
Zhai Hua felt that she was rather pitiful for having been lied to for over ten years. But she thought about how Qiao Nan had been bullied ever since she was born. Worse still, the bullies had been her closest kin!