"Yeah... We both liked it; she always said that Xiao Xu's mouth is both annoying and endearing..."
The middle-aged man wasn't sure for a moment whether the elderly companion was speaking to him.
"I said Xiao Xu's porridge is often burnt, what's so good about it? But she said she just likes to chat with Xiao Xu. What's there to talk about in plain words? It's just her talking about her youthful days and taking me to task..."
The elderly companion continued speaking.
The middle-aged man listened for a long while.
When the elderly companion grew tired, he finally ate some of the porridge the man had cooked.
As he left, the middle-aged man seemed to understand something, but couldn't quite grasp it.
In the following three days, he came to cook porridge for Elder Lin, but this time, he no longer felt tortured as he did the first time. While cooking porridge, he would chat with Elder Lin, always starting with:
"What did Granny Wang like to eat in the past?"
