"It’s just some chopstick-sucking. You get used to it." Mr. Xie repeated Jie Jingchen’s words, shooting him a harsh glare. "Easy for you to say. You’re the one sharing a table with her, so *you* get used to it."
"Dad, she’s your in-law, not mine," Jie Jingchen said with a touch of schadenfreude. ’Your in-laws, your problem.’
"You’re infertile. You can’t even have kids, and you expect to have your own in-laws someday? Dream on," Mrs. Xie sneered.
Jie Jingchen’s heart took a direct hit. ’Shot down by my own mother.’
"Mom, let me tell you again, seriously. I’m not infertile. Meimei and I decided we’re just not having kids for now. It’s not that we *can’t* have them," Jie Jingchen felt the need to repeat himself.
"Such a high-and-mighty excuse," Mrs. Xie said with disdain.
Jie Jingchen took a deep breath. ’This is my own mother. I can’t seriously argue with her.’ His gaze deepened as he looked at Mrs. Xie and asked, "Mom, are you really convinced I can’t have children?"
Mrs. Xie snorted, her eyes filled with scorn as she looked at Jie Jingchen. "You’ve never been able to have kids. What do you think?" she asked, turning to her husband.
"He can’t," Mr. Xie chimed in.
"And why is that?" Jie Jingchen asked, enunciating every word with deliberate clarity.
Mr. Xie put down his chopsticks, posturing as if he were about to set his son straight. "Jing Si, you were constantly getting injured in the service, from minor scrapes to major wounds. That one time, the most serious one? We’d already picked out a burial plot for you. We were just waiting for the army to ship your body home, but then, you were miraculously saved."
Jie Jingchen scoffed and asked coolly, "Are you disappointed that I survived?"
"Nonsense! Don’t you dare accuse me of that, especially not in front of your mother. You’re my son. Of course I was happy you were all right. Look at my hair! I went gray worrying about you," Mr. Xie said, pointing to his head.
Jie Jingchen glanced over. ’He did have some gray hairs, but not a lot.’
"Mom, is Dad telling the truth?" Jie Jingchen asked Mrs. Xie.
"It’s true," Mrs. Xie nodded.
Mr. Xie looked wounded. "You have to ask your mother? Jing Si, is there no trust left between us as father and son?"
"We’re getting off-topic," Jie Jingchen reminded them.
Mr. Xie was no longer in the mood to bicker, so he cut right to the chase. "You injured your back. It’s only natural that there would be lingering effects. If you can’t have children, your mother and I won’t hold it against you."
Mr. Xie couldn’t figure it out. After Jing Si was discharged, the military arranged a job for him at the machinery factory. As the factory director, Mr. Xie could have looked out for him, but Jing Si’s performance there nearly drove him to his grave from sheer frustration. He was unenthusiastic about work, lazy with his tasks, and became a cautionary tale at the factory. As both Jing Si’s father and the factory director, Mr. Xie had been utterly humiliated! He just couldn’t understand it. The boy had fought like his life depended on it in the service, only to become a slacker at the factory. He’d had such high hopes for Jing Si. Now, it seemed the higher the hopes, the bigger the disappointment.
"’I can’t have kids, and you won’t hold it against me,’" Jie Jingchen murmured, his long fingers tapping on the tabletop. "So, you’re planning to have another one yourselves."
"We have no such plans," Mr. Xie denied. ’We’re getting old. What’s this about having another kid? And it’s not like Jing Si is our only son. For one thing, Jing Er has already given me a grandson, and Lin Yaru is pregnant now—that could be another grandson. Jing San and Shen Qing are still young; if they wanted another, it could be a grandson, too. Then there was Jing Wu. Sure, he’s unreliable for now, but he’ll settle down once he gets married.’
"Mom, are you pregnant?" Jie Jingchen asked Mrs. Xie.
COUGH! COUGH! COUGH! Mrs. Xie started choking.
Mr. Xie shot Jie Jingchen a glare and gently patted Mrs. Xie on the back. With no hot water handy, he had her drink a mouthful of her noodle soup.
When Mrs. Xie caught her breath, she looked at Jie Jingchen and asked, "Who told you I was pregnant?"
"Our big sister’s mother-in-law," Jie Jingchen said, throwing Sun’s mother under the bus without a second thought.
Mrs. Xie narrowed her eyes at her husband. ’This is bad,’ Mr. Xie thought, slamming his hand on the table as he shot to his feet. "Nonsense! How could Jing Ling’s mother-in-law spread such rubbish? I’m going to find her right now."
’After Jing Qi was born, he’d had a vasectomy. If Yan Qiu was really pregnant, then whose baby was it? Only he and Yan Qiu knew about the vasectomy.’
Mr. Xie stomped angrily to the doorway, but he stopped short of leaving and turned back to face them. "I’m going to go settle accounts with Jing Ling’s mother-in-law."
"Go on, then. No one’s stopping you," Mrs. Xie said, giving him an encouraging look.
’You could at least try to stop me,’ Mr. Xie wanted to say, but now he was in an awkward spot. He rubbed his nose, slinked back to the table, and sat down next to his wife.
"I’ve decided we shouldn’t act on impulse," Mr. Xie announced, picking up his chopsticks to resume eating. "We have to consider Jing Ling’s position. If we make things ugly with her mother-in-law, she’ll be the one to suffer in the end."