Qiao Mei sat in the courtyard and looked towards the apartment building. Although Lu Lin, the woman she met that day, was not a nice person, she still wanted to get to know the other people in the apartment building. It could not be that the entire building was filled with people like Lu Lin.
After tidying up the house, she went to the garden again. The people who lived in the apartments did not go near the single-story houses. They felt that the environment was not so nice and the women who lived there were rude and blunt.
Qiao Mei pushed the pram to bring Xia Fan and Xia Xing for a walk around the garden. They b.u.mped into the same pregnant woman as well as the other woman with a little girl.
"Oh, we meet again!" said the pregnant woman.
"h.e.l.lo, my name is Qiao Mei," Qiao Mei said with a smile.
"My name is Liang Die and this is Guo Feng. The little girl is her daughter. Her name is Cui Cui!" Liang Die said warmly.
"Liang Die has already said everything for me. Come and sit down." Guo Feng made some s.p.a.ce for Qiao Mei to sit.
Qiao Mei did not stand on ceremony and sat down beside Guo Feng. Cui Cui immediately ran over and crouched over the pram to look at Xia Fan and Xia Xing with her eyes wide open. Qiao Mei tilted her head and looked at Cui Cui without saying anything. From the looks of it, Cui Cui should be a well-educated and sensible girl.
"Elder Sister, what are their names?" Cui Cui spoke in a cute voice. She was so adorable that Qiao Mei wanted to lean over and hug her.
"Cui Cui, you have to call me Auntie. These two babies are my children. The boy's name is Tuan Tuan and the girl's name is Yuan Yuan," Qiao Mei said in a gentle voice.
"Oh… but Elder Sister is so good-looking, why do I have to call her Auntie?" Cui Cui asked her mother while looking confused.
Guo Feng was also stumped by this question. Cui Cui was five years old this year and Qiao Mei was not even 20 years old yet. It actually made sense for her to address Qiao Mei as elder sister. Cui Cui usually knew how to identify older women and to address them appropriately.
"Your mother and I are friends, so you have to call me Auntie. Do you understand?" Qiao Mei explained.
"Oh! I understand now! Then beautiful Auntie, can I be good friends with Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan?" Cui Cui asked happily.
"Of course you can! It's just that Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan don't know how to talk yet. When they're a little older, they will address you as elder sister," Qiao Mei said.
Look at this obedient and sensible child! Not every family's children turned out like Lu Lin's son.
Xia Fan seemed to like Cui Cui very much, but Xia Xing's reaction was a little unexpected. Qiao Mei realized that Xia Xing had a very bad temper. She was much more petulant than Xia Fan. So long as there was anything that did not go her way or if she met someone she did not like, Xia Xing would frown or pout to express her dissatisfaction.
Fortunately, Xia Xing did not know how to talk yet. Otherwise, who knew what earth-shattering things she could say!
"Your children are so good-looking, so fair and chubby. One look and you can tell that they're very healthy. I wonder what my baby will look like?" Liang Die said.
"It must be a chubby kid! When I was pregnant with Cui Cui, I couldn't manage to eat anything. Look at how much you can eat now. Your appet.i.te is so much better than mine back then!" Guo Feng said.
"That's not true!" Liang Die said embarra.s.sedly.
Liang Die was indeed a little plump and it was not just because of her pregnancy. Even when Qiao Mei was pregnant with twins, she did not lose her figure like Liang Die.
Actually, it was not Liang Die's fault. She was very slender before she got pregnant and could be considered one of the pretty women here. After she became pregnant, her appet.i.te increased by a lot. She would ask her husband to make food for her even at two or three in the morning. If there was nothing to eat in her house, she would ask her husband to get some from the neighbors. As time pa.s.sed, everyone knew that she had a big appet.i.te.
"It's also a blessing to have a good appet.i.te. I had morning sickness some time ago and kept throwing up. I couldn't eat anything and felt terrible. My elder sister was so scared that she almost brought me to the hospital," Qiao Mei said with a smile.
"Really! I thought that you're naturally so thin! Are you pregnant again at the moment?" Guo Feng said in surprise.
"Yes, still in the early stage now," Qiao Mei said as she gently stroked her stomach.
"Sigh, I'm so envious. You're so beautiful even when you're pregnant. I have thought about giving Cui Cui a younger brother or sister so that she can have someone to play with her. Her elder brother has already gone to school and they don't have many common topics due to the age difference. He's not willing to play with her," Guo Feng said regretfully.