Chapter 7  

Those who are familiar with the Jia Family know that in the family, the most powerful person is not the person they regard as the Leader, the Master of the House nor the daughter who is invincible in the world but the shrewish and powerful Mistress of the House who is also Jia Shao's biological mother.

It was said that Jia Mama was born into a family of hunters and as a child, she roamed the mountains. The legends about her catching snakes barehanded and single-handedly fighting off wolves were common tales to her. If anyone dared to provoke her then their ending would not be any different from those beasts.

Of course, Jia Mama still has a little trait.......she is wild. If she is not happy with a person, she will hit him, she will open her mouth to curse him and she has a great sense of justice.

This time, her sense of justice stood on Zhen Lang's side. The target of her violence and anger was her own daughter.

"You are a rogue! This old lady is going to kill you!......"

In the midst of the roar, poor Jia Shao was punched with a fist and fell into the arms of Zhen Lang. Without waiting for her old mother's second punch, Jia Shao deftly avoided her next strike. Two slender long legs flew over the bedhead and she landed beautifully. Holding in her head without looking back, she ran out of the room while explaining in a loud voice. "I didn't force myself on him!"

Jia Mama chased after her and with a quick move, she took out something from her trunk. She shouted loudly. "This old lady saw with her own eyes! Stand still!!"

"If you don't hit me, I will stand still!." Jia Shao stretched out her hands on the sofa for support and leaped, then turned her head around alertly and stared at her mother.

Jia Mama was holding a waxed chicken* in her hand. She was holding the chicken legs with both hands and was swinging it as she glared at Jia Shao. "If you stand still, I will not hit you!"

(Waxed chicken is not actually waxed but covered with a layer of oil and it is one of the cured meat delicacies that the Chinese people like to eat especially during the Chinese Lunar New Year. The meat is cured, salted and dried in the cold dry winds of winter. There are also other varieties of cured meat available like Chinese sausages, Waxed Duck and Waxed Bacon.

(The picture below shows waxed duck which more popular than waxed chicken. Anyway, both are also waxed birds and they look the same except the waxed chicken is smaller in size.)

"I don't believe you!" Jia Shao rushed to the door, stretched out her hand to turn the knob and was about to rush out when she heard a calm voice saying leisurely.

"You are not wearing pants......."

"I am wearing pants!" She gave a strong confident answer.

Two smooth legs rubbed against each other, then dejectedly she turned back and at the same time, she felt something hard knocked on her head. A strange smell of black beans mixed with cured meat floated over her head and Jia Shao immediately squatted down hugging her head. "Nothing happened between him and me!"

Her head was knocked twice again and Jia Mama was staring indignantly at the waxed chicken in her hand. Feeling not satisfied, she gave her daughter another two knocks on her head again.

"Are you hitting hamsters?" Jia Shao shrank her neck and quickly withdrew when the waxed chicken flew towards her. Pointing a finger at the person who was leaning leisurely by the wall, she said. "If you don't believe me, you can ask him!"

The person had already finished washing up and even had a cup of coffee in his hands. As he sipped his coffee, his eyes flashed with a light that indicated that he was watching a good show and slightly nodded his head.

"Don't just nod, speak up and explain clearly!!" Jia Shao screamed at him with anger and jumped up to avoid being hit again.

The waxed chicken flew in the direction of the mournful cries.

"Are you still threatening him?!" Jia Mama shouted.

As he sipped his fragrant smooth coffee, he was enjoying the show of a flying chicken and a jumping dog. It was until he had finished his coffee that he said. "Jia Ma, Jia Shao has a skin allergy. I will take her to the hospital and I have to trouble you to take care of the house."

"Yi?" Jia Mama stopped chasing after her daughter momentarily and Jia Shao took the opportunity to slip away quickly.

Jia Mama was surprised and the waxed chicken hung down from her hand. "My daughter can also be sick? This is weird. I have to report this to the others."

The so-called 'others' means her husband and Zhen Lang's parents.

Zhen Lang was calm and he smiled. "It is just an allergy. As long as she avoids certain foods, she will be alright. Since you're here, it is good you can watch over her."

Jia Mama patted his shoulders and said sincerely. "For you to take care of her, it is hard on you."

Zhen Lang's perfect expression did not reveal any flaws. "It is my duty to take care of her. It is alright."

The neatly dressed Jia Shao rushed out of her room like a whirlwind, grabbed hold of Zhen Lang's sleeves and rushed out of the apartment. When no one was looking, she fiercely threw him a supercilious look.

Sitting in Zhen Lang's car, she could finally voice out the words that she had held back for a long time. "Why didn't you explain just now?"

Zhen Lang smoothly reversed the car and did not look at her. "Do you think Jia Ma needed an explanation? If it had really been me who had taken advantage of you, the person who was chased with the flying chicken would definitely have been me. She just wanted to express her excitement of not seeing her daughter for such a long time. Just let her vent out her feelings."

Jia Shao pressed her tummy and said weakly. "After an early morning exercise with her, now I feel so hungry."

"You can eat after your checkup." Zhen Lang said without any expression and with a sentence, he had deflected Jia Shao's expectation. "Be careful of what you eat otherwise your itchiness will become worse."

Jia Shao is a foodie, a standard foodie and her request is not high but she feels hungry at fixed times. In addition, with the great amount of exercise, her digestion rate was high and as long as she is not fed, she would be like a balloon.......deflated.

Now that poor someone is scratching her body and was crouched in her seat. "I didn't feel itchy when you did not say anything but now since you have mentioned it, I feel itchier."

"If you can finish your checkup within an hour, you can still take your breakfast at the corner breakfast shop on the opposite side of the street." Zhen Lang swept his eyes over at Jia Shao. "After an hour and a half, the shop will cease serving breakfast."

When he had finished speaking, he naturally stepped on the accelerator. The moment the car stopped, the front passenger's door was opened quickly. The scratching itchy monkey was already standing outside the car with one hand knocking on top of the car hood. "Hurry up! Hurry up! Quickly finish the checkup and we can go!"

Someone did not seem to have the intention to get down from the car. He smiled pleasantly and said. "During this 20 years period you have rarely been sick and seeing that you are surprisingly sick once again, we will call a truce today. I will buy breakfast."

Jia Shao became on guard and looked at him suspiciously.

Zhen Lang was smoothly turning the steering wheel. "Jia Ma is here and bullying someone sick does not give me a sense of accomplishment."

Well, this reason did not sound wrong. She pursed her lips and walked straight into the hospital and Zhen Lang stepped on the accelerator, speeding away.

A parent is here......so they should not fight.

This is an unwritten dark agreement between them and they can even be friendlier to each other than in the past. On this particular point, their tacit understanding, just like framing each other, is also smooth and very natural.

After thinking about the countless possibilities while doing her checkup, Jia Shao was sure Zhen Lang would not plot against her at this time. So while she waited for the test results, she went to Zhen Lang's office.

Zhen Lang was not in. On his table were two portions of breakfast emitting a fresh sweet aroma that was seducing her hungry soul. The bags, imprinted with the name of a famous shop, made her drooled with hunger.

Although this shop was not far from her studio, every day the long queues that line up made the impatient her sigh as she looked at the crowd. Today she did not need to wait for her breakfast and her eyes lighted up like a 100 watt light bulb.

Carefully, she unpacked the bag and took out a bowl of plain porridge and a bowl of minced meat dumpling. Without any thoughts, she held up the bowl of dumpling soup and gulped down a big mouthful.

It was really worthy to be a product of the famous shop. The soup had a rich taste and with the bright green onions floating in the soup, it made her tummy emit cheerful tweets. Jia Shao picked up the small spoon and nestled in Zhen Lang's chair, she began to eat heartily.

When Zhen Lang appeared at the door with her test report, someone was holding her tummy and without a care to her image, she belched.

When she saw him, she jumped up abruptly from the chair. "What is the problem?"

"You ate too much seafood, drank too much wine and......" Zhen Lang clicked his tongue. "You have also taken too many fruits. Originally, with a single substance, it may not cause an allergy, however, in the situation when a large amount is consumed and in addition, the secretion of enzymes in the body varies constantly, all the things that you were not allergic to can combine and give you a sudden allergy."

"Then what should I do?" She scratched her neck and felt itchy again.

"During this time, you should eat light food. Don't touch alcohol, seafood......." When he came to this, Zhen Lang stopped and his eyes stared at his table.

On the table, a bowl of plain porridge exuded a fresh aroma as the hot steam drifted up. Another empty bowl sat in the trash bin confirming its end.

"You......" The corner of Zhen Lang's mouth twitched in a strange way. "Did you just eat the bowl of dumplings?"

"It tasted good." Jia Shao wiped her mouth casually. "It was not much and I can still eat another bowl."

Zhen Lang did not speak and looked at the sky.....no.....it is the ceiling. The corner of his lips lifted up into a strange smile and then the smile grew bigger and bigger, accompanied by the helpless shaking of his head. Then the sound of Zhen Lang's laughter filled the room.

"What are you laughing at?" With both hands on her waist, Jia Shao squinted her eyes and looked inexplicably at the man who was laughing so much that it seemed like he was going to collapse on the table.

"Nothing." Zhen Lang picked up the bowl of plain porridge, walked around her and sat down in his chair. He started to drink the porridge and leisurely said. "Those dumplings were stuffed with crabmeat."

"So what if they were stuffed with crabmeat?" Someone snorted.

"Crabmeat is poisonous*......."

(Crabmeat is poisonous does not mean the crabmeat contains poison. In Chinese Traditional Medicine, crabs and prawns are foods to avoid if one suffers from allergies, wounds or cuts as these foods will hinder the patient's recovery process.)

The word was spinning at the tip of her tongue. Suddenly she leaned forward in front of Zhen Lang. "Crabmeat is sea.......seafood, right?"

Zhen Lang calmly drank his porridge and solemnly nodded. "The food in this shop is value for money. When they say the dumpling is stuffed with crabmeat, then it is totally crabmeat."

An itch spread from the deeper layers of her skin and crawled to the surface just like tens of thousands of ants crawling under the flesh. The itch started from the soles of her feet climbing all the way up to the neck and continued its progress to the face. Jia Shao could only feel a buzz and her mouth started to disobey her.

After that, someone's head became swollen like a pig's head and had to stay home for three days staring at plain porridge and pickles while continuously conducting a self-reflection.

An enemy is an enemy.

An enemy's good gesture should never be accepted.

An enemy's food is indigestible.

An enemy's dumpling can cause........an allergy.