The noisy bickering continued until noon. Li Baoceng had already finished making lunch and came into the room to find the mother and daughter still at it. He had to hand it to them. The two of them really did have the exact same temperament.
Seeing his mother-in-law was on the verge of erupting, he quickly stepped in to mediate. "Mom, don't listen to Yuan'ai's nonsense. All this time spent lying on the kang has addled her brain. Let's not talk about this for now. I've already made lunch in the main room. You haven't eaten since you arrived, have you? Let's eat first. We can talk about other things later."
At his reminder, Zuo Daya recalled that she and her daughter hadn't eaten since getting off the train that morning. She herself was fine; skipping one meal was no big deal. But her youngest daughter couldn't handle being hungry. Of course, they needed to eat right away.
