‘Gu Jing, there’s really nothing going on between you and Zhen Lang?’ Mrs Gu asked.
Gu Jing rubbed her sore bottom, her mum caught her eating the roast chicken leg. ‘Um.’
‘Nothing?’ Mrs Gu asked.
Gu Jing sat at the dining table and she stared at the forbidden roast chicken thigh. ‘Um.’
Gu Jing’s hand bravely reached for the chicken leg and her mum hit her brave hand. ‘Zhen Lang won’t eat the chicken leg, why do you need to save it for him?’
‘You only know how to eat chicken leg! Zhen Lang’s a good man, why don’t you know how to eat Zhen Lang?’ Mrs Gu asked.
‘Eat Zhen Lang? His whole body is just bones, there’s no meat. What’s good about him to eat?’ Gu Jing said.
Mrs Gu hit her daughter’s head with a spoon. ‘When you were a child you didn’t need to hold onto Zhen Lang, but you held onto him. Now you’re an adult you need to hold onto him, but you won’t.’
Gu Jing’s brave hand was rewarded, it successfully grabbed a chicken leg. She chewed the chicken leg like it was Zhen Lang’s leg, it calmed her down after she heard her mum’s hard to swallow advice.
‘Ah!’ Gu Jing cried out. Her mum knocked the chicken leg out of her hand. ‘Mum, what are you saying? You want me to pursue Zhen Lang?’
‘Your older cousin needs to go to work, she asked me to babysit Dou Dou. I need to go back home in two days. You rotten girl, you’re twenty-five years old. If you don’t hurry up and find a man to marry you, you’ll become an old maid,’ Mrs Gu said.
Gu Jing picked up the newspaper and she folded a paper aeroplane. She reminisced too deeply about the past and she didn’t hear what her mum said. ‘Um.’
Suddenly Gu Jing heard her mum stopped talking, she looked up and she saw her mum was looking at her suspiciously. ‘Mum, your chest is flat. How did you entice dad?’
Mrs Gu knocked her daughter’s head. ‘Do you want to die?’
Gu Jing looked down at her chest. ‘Mum, why did you have to pa.s.s on your flat chest to me?’
Mrs Gu gritted her teeth. ‘What? You want your dad’s chest? Then your chest will be flatter.’
Gu Jing sighed. ‘Mum, what do I need to do to make my b.r.e.a.s.t.s bigger?’
‘You want bigger b.r.e.a.s.t.s?’ Mrs Gu asked. She ran to the bathroom and she brought a plunger back to the dining room. ‘Little girl, if you use this then your b.r.e.a.s.t.s will be bigger.’
‘What? Mum, what are you doing holding a plunger?’ Gu Jing asked.
‘A plunger is a powerful tool, it can unclog any clot in a toilet. If you use it on each of your breast twice a day, your b.r.e.a.s.t.s will be bigger,’ Mrs Gu said.
Gu Jing stared at the plunger in her mum’s hand and the thought of putting it on her b.r.e.a.s.t.s made her forehead sweaty.
Gu Jing sighed. She suspected it was wrong ask another flat chested person advice about how to own bigger b.r.e.a.s.t.s. ‘Do you have a better solution?’
‘Exercise, like swimming,’ Mrs Gu said.
Gu Jing’s suspicions were confirmed, she asked the wrong person. ‘Mum, have you ever seen a professional swimmer with big b.r.e.a.s.t.s? Professional swimmers’ shoulders are broad and their leg muscles are strong. If they had big b.r.e.a.s.t.s, they would drown.’
‘Then run,’ Mrs Gu said.
Gu Jing laughed. ‘Mum, have you ever seen a professional runner with big b.r.e.a.s.t.s? If they had big b.r.e.a.s.t.s they wouldn’t be able to run like the wind.’
‘It seems exercising won’t make your b.r.e.a.s.t.s bigger. Do you think because I let you learn Taekwondo, it made your b.r.e.a.s.t.s smaller?’ Mrs Gu said.
Gu Jing lowered her head and she sighed.
‘Aha! Find a man to marry, each day he’ll ma.s.sage your b.r.e.a.s.t.s and your b.r.e.a.s.t.s will be bigger,’ Mrs Gu said.
Gu Jing’s eyes travelled from the neckline of her shirt to her feet, and nothing obstructed her view of her feet. ‘Mum, you’re lying to me.’
‘Why would I lie to you for?’ Mrs Gu said. She proudly puffed her chest. ‘When I was younger, my b.r.e.a.s.t.s weren’t that much bigger than yours. After I married your dad, within a year my bra size doubled.’
‘Whoa! You’re not lying to me?’ Gu Jing said.
‘I promise I’m not lying to you,’ Mrs Gu said.
Mrs Gu didn’t lie to her daughter. Mrs Gu’s b.r.e.a.s.t.s were bigger after she married her daughter’s dad and she got pregnant. But she wasn’t going to tell her daughter her b.r.e.a.s.t.s were flatter after she gave birth to her daughter.
‘I’m determined to go on arranged dates, get married and have a family because I want bigger b.r.e.a.s.t.s,’ Gu Jing said.
Mrs Gu laughed happily, her daughter understood her vision for her daughter’s future. ‘You don’t need to look outside. You have a man at home.’
Gu Jing’s eyes became murderous. ‘Mum, you don’t mean Zhen Lang? I rather have a flat chest for the rest of my life than marrying Zhen Lang. I’m better off finding a female companion than marrying Zhen Lang.’ She envisioned herself with bigger b.r.e.a.s.t.s and she was determined to go on arranged dates. ‘I’ll make my b.r.e.a.s.t.s bigger! Afterward I need to show Zhen Lang my big b.r.e.a.s.t.s!’
Mrs Gu suspected there was something wrong with her daughter’s brain. ‘If you’re not going to marry Zhen Lang then don’t marry him. Why do you need to let him see you have big b.r.e.a.s.t.s?’
Gu Jing gave her mum the paper aeroplane she folded from the newspaper. ‘Mum, go and ask Zhen Lang why.’
Gu Jing stood and she walked to the front door.
‘Little girl, where are you going?’ Mrs Gu asked.
‘To socialise. I’m going to go on an arranged date, get married and I’ll shake big b.r.e.a.s.t.s home for Zhen Lang to see,’ Gu Jing said and she ran to the elevator.
Later that day, Zhen Lang returned home and he saw Gu Jing’s mum stared at a paper aeroplane in her hand and she mumbled to herself. ‘My daughter has a jelly brain…’
‘Aunty?’ Zhen Lang called.
‘Lang Lang, you’re home. Gu Jing said she wants to go on an arranged date. Your aunty’s daughter finally wants to start a family and I don’t need to worry no man won’t want to marry her anymore… but she said she needs you to see her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. Do you think there’s something wrong with her brain… and she said I should give this to you, do you know what it means?’ Mrs Gu said.
Zhen Lang accepted the paper aeroplane from Gu Jing’s mum. His heart calmed and he grinned. He coughed softly. ‘‘Aunty, don’t you know what Gu Jing is like? Half the day she’s sunny and the other half she’s all cloud and rain. I promise by the end of the night, she’ll be back to normal.’
Mrs Gu nodded her head. ‘You’re right. She’s cray cray. I’m going to forget about her, in two days aunty needs to go home. Help aunty to look out for my cray cray daughter.’
‘Don’t worry aunty, I’ll look out for Gu Jing properly,’ Zhen Lang said.
Mrs Gu stood and she walked to the kitchen.
Zhen Lang sat on the sofa and he stared at the paper aeroplane in his hand. He was still grinning and his eyes shone brightly. He was happy it’d been many years and Gu Jing still remembered clearly.
End of Chapter Ten