"Nightmare?" Mama Yao's expression changed, as if she remembered something terrible. "For a while, I often had nightmares, which made me restless and unable to sleep well."
"When was that?" Qingmu asked.
After thinking for a moment, Mama Yao said, "After we found out about this disease, Jingjing and her father tried to hide it from me at first, but how could we hide it from me? I found out as soon as she started chemotherapy. I also had nightmares during that time, every day, as soon as I closed my eyes. It was so painful. If I hadn't been worried about Jingjing's marriage and wanted to see what my son-in-law looked like, I would have died back then!"
She kept talking about life and death, but her face was full of smiles.
"Actually, I've long since come to terms with it. Life and death are all predestined. God took pity on me and insisted that I hold my grandson! Otherwise, how could so many good things have happened at this crucial moment? Look, the bone marrow match is complete, my son-in-law has come, and he even brought the money for my treatment."
As Mama Yao spoke, she suddenly grabbed Qingmu's hand, her face beaming with the joy of a mother-in-law looking at her son-in-law. "Now it's all right, I've met my son-in-law. Even if the surgery failed, I can die in peace!"
"Mom, what are you saying!" Yao Jingjing said reproachfully.
Qingmu, his hand still held by the old lady, asked, bewildered, "Um... Auntie, you still haven't told me when you started dreaming?"
Mama Yao slapped her forehead. "Oh dear, look at my brain, I got too excited. Was I dreaming? Let me think... My first chemotherapy session... that was shortly after the New Year, around March."
"Are you still doing it now?" Qingmu asked.
"I don't do it anymore," said Mama Yao. "The main problem was that I couldn't handle it psychologically at the time. I kept feeling like I was going to die, and the chemotherapy made me physically weak, so I had nightmares Tiantian. Later, I thought, I can't die. My Jingjing isn't married yet! I have to wait until she finds a home before I die. Once I thought about it that way, I felt better, and after getting through the chemotherapy, I felt much better and stopped having nightmares."
After rambling on for a while, Mama Yao suddenly changed the subject and asked, "When do you plan to get things done?"
Qingmu was taken aback and asked, "What is it?"
Mama Yao asked, "Getting married! When are you planning to get married?"
Qingmu looked completely bewildered, wondering why the old lady would ask him that, but he still honestly replied, "It's probably still early."
"I know it's too early to talk about this now, but I just think..." Mama Yao sighed, "While I'm still healthy, you should either finalize things."
Yao Jingjing stamped her foot and said, "Mom! What are you saying? They're asking about your illness!"
Just then Papa Yao returned with the washed grapes and said, "That's right, when people asked about your illness, what did you say? Come on, have some grapes."
Mama Yao said, "Oh dear, what's there to ask about the illness? The doctor already asked everything clearly. Is he more knowledgeable than the doctor?"
Papa Yao said, "How do you know? Maybe he's a doctor!"
Then Yao's parents realized they didn't know what Qingmu did, so they both looked at Yao Jingjing.
Yao Jingjing was incredibly embarrassed, especially seeing Qingmu's blank expression—this blockhead clearly hadn't understood what her mother meant.
"He... he's a psychologist." Yao Jingjing didn't really know what Qingmu did; she couldn't very well say he was a charlatan based on his business card.
"Oh, hello psychologist! Hello psychologist!" Mama Yao nodded happily. "Ask me anything you want to ask."
Qingmu nodded blankly and asked, "Can you tell me what your nightmare was like?"
"Huh?" Mama Yao seemed surprised that Qingmu would ask about the dream. "Speaking of that dream, it's terrifying just thinking about it! Ugh, can we not talk about that?"
Qingmu said very seriously, "No, this is very important. The more details you explain, the better."
Mama Yao looked at her daughter for help. Yao Jingjing didn't know why Qingmu was asking this, but she trusted Qingmu and said to her mother, "Mom, just tell me. It was just a dream, it's all in the past, what's there to be afraid of?"
When Mama Yao saw that her daughter's help was in vain, she complained, "Now you're siding with outsiders! You won't even help your mother. Sigh—okay, okay, let me think about it. I'm really scared just thinking about it!"
She leaned against the bed, closed her eyes, and frowned deeply. After a long while, she finally spoke, "Actually, to be honest, this dream isn't new. At first, I often dreamed that something was following me. Back then, it was all hazy, and I didn't take it seriously. But later, the feeling of that thing following me became more and more obvious, and the memories of the dreams became clearer and clearer. I started to get scared. Even during the day, I always feel like someone is following me."
"At that time, my health was already poor; I often felt dizzy and weak. One night, I was brushing my teeth in the bathroom, looking in the mirror, when I suddenly felt that the person in the mirror looked a bit strange, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Later, when I came out and lay down on the bed, I realized that the person in the mirror and I should be reversed left to right; when I move my left hand, she should move her right hand. But just now, when I was brushing my teeth, I moved my right hand, and she also moved her right hand. When I thought about this, I felt uneasy. So I went back to the bathroom and looked in the mirror again."
"But this time the mirror worked perfectly, looking exactly the same as usual. I was pretty sure I wasn't seeing things, so I moved my left hand and then my right hand in front of the mirror to see if anything changed. I don't know what got into me, but I started playing rock-paper-scissors with my reflection. Whatever I threw, my reflection threw the same thing, and we couldn't decide who won."
Yao Jingjing burst out laughing when she heard this, "Mom, you're so funny! How old are you, still playing these kinds of games by yourself?"
Papa Yao also said, "Yes, I've never heard you mention this before!"
Mama Yao glared at him and said, "Oh dear, how could I say something so embarrassing?" She then glanced at Qingmu somewhat sheepishly, "It's all for Jingjing's happiness, my old face doesn't matter!"
"Mom—" Yao Jingjing exclaimed playfully, "Why don't you just tell me what happened next?"
Mama Yao said, "Later, I remembered the tricks your father and I used to use when we played rock-paper-scissors when we were young."
Papa Yao chimed in, "You kept throwing punches, tricking me into throwing paper, and then at the crucial moment you threw scissors to win against me."
Mama Yao said, "That's because you're stupid!"
Papa Yao said, "Who's stupid! I just didn't want to call you out on it, I just wanted to make you happy, and you actually took it seriously!"
Mama Yao said, "You're so stubborn, always so concerned about saving face!"
Papa Yao laughed heartily.
Mama Yao continued, "Later, I kept drawing scissors, and the reflection in the mirror kept drawing scissors too. I played with the mirror for a long time, and just as I was about to draw rock, the reflection in the mirror drew rock first, while I was still holding scissors. The person in the mirror even made a face at me and said, 'You're so stupid!'"