Chapter 3: The Vicious Mother-in-Law is Reborn—Help! She’s Even More Vicious…

Hu Honghua came to Li's house today and dressed up specially.

She was wearing a new red flowered dress, which was obviously a new style in the town. It must have been bought for her by her uncle Hu Chengjun in the town. However, Hu Honghua was dark and thin, and the bright red color did not look good on her. Instead, it made her look even darker.

She always hunched her back and read people's faces cautiously, making her look like a frightened rat, forced to walk in the sun, and scared by the slightest movement.

Of course, no one likes such a person.

Li Jianye actually didn't like her either. If Hu Chengjun hadn't saved her that time and she hadn't been drunk, he would never have promised her the marriage of his promising eldest son. Because of this marriage, his eldest son had been at odds with him for a long time. If Shi Meilan hadn't said that she would try to cancel the marriage, his eldest son Li Tianci would not have refused to talk to him.

So every time he saw Hu Honghua, he could only nod reluctantly, and felt regretful every time he looked at her.

But the more the Li family wanted to cancel the marriage, the more eager Hu Honghua became. She would bring something from time to time. Sometimes it was animal meat, which Hu Chengjun must have hunted, sometimes it was newly made leather clothes, and sometimes it was some medicinal herbs dug from the mountains. Today, when Li Jianye looked at her hands, he actually saw two books.

"My uncle brought this from town." Hu Honghua's face was filled with a stiff smile as she hurriedly introduced it, "He said it's a useful guide for the college entrance exams. I wanted to give it to Brother Tianci."

Li Jianye usually didn't want to talk to Hu Honghua, but today he forced a smile at her for the first time and greeted her, "Ah, Little Red Flower, how long have you been here?"

"I just arrived." Hu Honghua rarely saw Li Jianye's smiling face. She was very happy for a moment. Thinking that she had delivered the right thing, she quickly raised the book in her hand higher.

"Oh, I just arrived. Good, good, good." Li Jianye thought to himself, if I just arrived, I wouldn't have seen it. He rubbed his hands and, to cover up his panic, pointed to the front east room and said, "Your Aunt Shi is in there."

As Hu Honghua walked inside, she turned back and said to Li Jianye, "Okay, I'm going in. What was Uncle Li doing climbing over the wall just now?"

Li Jianye had just raised his leg and was about to go to the main hall to drink some water to calm down when he heard Hu Honghua say this. He almost fell to his death and stammered back, "Ah, the wall, a brick fell off the wall, I, I blocked it up! Don't worry about it, go find your Aunt Shi."

As he spoke, Li Jianye staggered back to the main room.

The main room is located in the middle of the four rooms, with two doors on each side, leading to two corridors and the front east and west rooms. The corridor goes back to a kitchen. Behind the kitchen are the back west room and the back east room. These two rooms are also large and are for the two sons to live in.

In rural areas, many families have two brothers, two sisters, or even three generations of a family sleeping on the same kang. Few families are as well-off as the Li family.

The main hall was also spacious, with a large octagonal table inside. The family usually had their meals here, and occasionally guests would stay overnight in the main hall. Li Jianye passed by the main hall and ran to the front west room.

When running from the main room, Li Jianye glanced at the east room in front.

Shi Meilan is still sleeping.

Li Jianye breathed a sigh of relief, turned around and quickly walked into the front west room.

Of the four rooms in the Li family's house, three were occupied, leaving only the west room empty. It was used by Li Jianye as a study, where he placed an expensive mahogany desk and the bookshelf behind it was filled with his books, most of which were prose and poetry.

He had studied in a private school before and even been to a big city like Beijing. He had seen a very wide world, but unfortunately, he did not have the opportunity to take the college entrance examination and could only stay in this small village.

He considered himself a cultured man, always talking about propriety, righteousness, integrity and shame. He often wrote books and submitted them to local newspapers. Occasionally, one or two of his articles would be published, and he would earn more than ten or twenty yuan in royalties. The fragrance of ink in the study made him feel particularly relaxed. He would proudly stick his writings on the walls of the room. The west room was where he placed his noble soul, and he never allowed anyone to enter or leave.

In the past, when he had nothing to do, he would stay in the west room, quietly facing his works, but today, after returning to the west room, he did not sit down, but rummaged through the drawers and cabinets in the west room.

He also secretly hid some money. He gave his monthly salary to Shi Meilan, but he also received royalties.

How can a man be without money?

But even if he put all his money together, it was still not enough for two hundred yuan!

Li Jianye sat on the chair in the study and was worried. Finally, he gritted his teeth, stood up and walked to the next yard on the right.

The yard next to theirs on the right is his eldest brother's house, which is about the same size as theirs.

The Li family has two children, the eldest Li, named Li Jianjun, and the second Li, named Li Jianye.

Li Jianye separated his family not long after getting married. Shi Meilan had a bad temper and didn't get along well with his mother or his sister-in-law. The two sides quarreled all the time and there was never a quiet day at home. Finally, they were forced to separate. Li Lao Da lived in the big house with his parents, and Li Jianye and Shi Meilan separated to live in a small house.

Later, the two of them expanded their house, and it became bigger than the Li family's next door.

However, although Shi Meilan and her eldest sister-in-law fought fiercely over money and land when the family was divided, she still had a good relationship with her eldest brother.

His elder brother is a few years older than him. He is dull and honest. As the younger brother, whenever he has any trouble, his elder brother will help him.

Li Jianye went to push the door of the next yard.

But Li Jianye was unlucky. Today, his honest and simple elder brother was not at home. The one at home was the fierce eldest sister-in-law of the Li family.

——

When Li Jianye went to the Li family's house next door, Hu Honghua also walked into the front east room.

She knew that Shi Meilan would take a nap at noon, so she didn't think of disturbing her. Instead, she stood alone in the corridor between the main hall and the front east room, holding the book in her hand and muttering what she was going to say in a while.

"Hello, Aunt Shi, this is the book I brought for Brother Tianci."

"Aunt Shi, you look so beautiful today."

"Aunt Shi, my uncle bought me a piece of cloth, and Aunt Zhao at the village head bought me a new dress. There's still half of the cloth left, so I can buy you one too."

"Aunt Shi——"

"What are you mumbling about?"

A voice came from inside the door. Hu Honghua exclaimed, "Ah!" and looked up to see Shi Meilan standing at the door. She was looking at her with a frown. After glancing up and down, she said, "Why did your uncle pick this dress?"

The bright red skirt wrapped around her thin and shriveled body, making her look even darker. It was a nice skirt, but it didn't suit her.

Hu Honghua hugged the book nervously: "Aunt Shi, Aunt Shi, I I I I——"

"Okay, I know what you're going to say."

I heard it through the door just now.

After a lifetime, when Shi Meilan saw Hu Honghua again, she felt only intimacy and a little guilty. In the previous life, when Hu Honghua came to their house, no one liked her, but later on, they realized that Hu Honghua was the only kind-hearted person in the family.

It's okay to be a little stupid, it's better than being bad. Just because Hu Honghua helped her in her previous life, she will never let Hu Honghua enter the door of Lao Li's family again in this life.

Thinking that Hu Honghua had buried her in her previous life, her tone of voice softened when she spoke to Hu Honghua. She said, "Let's talk about this later. Come with me first."

In her previous life, Hu Honghua buried her once, and in this life, she brought Hu Honghua wealth and prosperity.

Shi Meilan took Hu Honghua's arm and walked out, saying as she walked, "Keep your voice down, let's go and spy on Li Laoer."

Hu Honghua was dragged by Shi Meilan to the right wall. Shi Meilan stood stealthily by the wall, tiptoed, and peeked into Boss Li's yard.

At this time in her previous life, Shi Meilan was really sleeping, and she had no idea what Li Laoer had done. In this life, she had to take a good look.

Hu Honghua had no idea why Shi Meilan went to peek at Uncle Li, but when Aunt Shi asked her to, she followed her obediently.

Her uncle said that Aunt Shi is a good person, with a sharp tongue but a soft heart, and it would be a good idea to follow Aunt Shi.

The two of them didn't have to worry about being discovered, because when they separated, Shi Meilan didn't want to see the people next door in the yard as soon as they left the house, so she built high walls on both sides so that the people in the two yards could not see each other's actions.

Just as Shi Meilan was moving closer, she heard Li Jianye being scolded by Li's eldest sister-in-law.

"Do you want to borrow money?" The eldest sister-in-law of the Li family is called Zhao Erjie. She has an old grudge with Shi Meilan. Because of the division of the family, the two families fought over money. Zhao Erjie never beat Shi Meilan, and she has been holding a grudge until now.

Seeing Li Jianye, Zhao Erjie didn't even let him into the main hall. After hearing his purpose, she stood in the yard, her hands on her hips, and started yelling, "You're asking my wife for money? How can she be as rich as you? She works hard to earn her money! She's away from home all year round, and I'm the one doing all the housework and farm work. I'm a woman, working hard to make a living, and you still have the nerve to ask me for money?"

"You're educated and capable, and your father arranged for you to become a principal. But your older brother? He can only drive a truck! How is our family better off than yours? Your wife eats and drinks delicious food every day. When we divided the family property, your wife used the account book to settle accounts with me for three days in order to get a bigger share. She even made me pay back every time I ate one extra bite of her eggs. Now you're asking us to borrow money. Do you have a conscience?"

"We raised your parents. Did you pay a penny? You—"

The first thing Zhao Erjie said was about the quarrels she had with Shi Meilan in the past. Li Jianye felt dizzy and annoyed, so he turned around and ran away.

Zhao Erjie still felt it was not enough, so she chased after Li Jianye and scolded him until Li Jianye returned to his own yard. Only then did Zhao Erjie snort and go back home.

Li Jianye was scolded so badly that he staggered all the way back to his yard. When he got back, he saw Shi Meilan still sleeping and Hu Honghua waiting in the corridor. He cursed his bad luck inwardly and did not go over. Instead, he took two more steps and went back to the west room from the main room, and then sulked alone in the west room.

These women are always haggling over a small amount of money! They look like shrews scolding on the street, which is really ugly! If this gets out, who knows, there will probably be gossip, which is extremely embarrassing.

When it comes to the division of the family, Li Jianye still feels a little resentful.

Their family was originally doing well, but after he married Shi Meilan, the family became a mess and eventually ended up splitting up. In the final analysis, it was because Shi Meilan was too strong-willed and always wanted to dominate everyone she got along with, which led to the chaos of the family.

If he had married the gentle Wang Yulian, none of this would have happened.

Thinking of Wang Yulian's affectionate eyes, Li Jianye felt a surge of anger rushing to his chest.

What I have promised to Wang Yulian must be done well!

Where on earth was he going to get the money?

Money, money, money, money, Li Jianye was thinking about it, and suddenly remembered that the tuition and book fees from school had just been collected and were now in his hands, adding up to exactly two hundred yuan.

The tuition and book fees usually have to stay in his hands for two months, so he can divert some of them and give them to Wang Yulian.

As for the two hundred yuan deficit—he had his own way! Now, let's take care of Wang Yulian's matter first!

Li Jianye made up his mind, got up and went to school.

After Li Jianye left, Shi Meilan, who was lying in the front east room, sat up, walked to the front of the wardrobe, and called Hu Honghua from outside the room to come in.

"Aunt Shi, Uncle Li is gone." Hu Honghua came in from the corridor and asked in a daze, "Why did Uncle Li go out to borrow money?"

"This is for you." Shi Meilan took out two large boxes of vanishing cream from her wardrobe and said to Hu Honghua, "Take this and apply it every day. You will look fairer."

Hu Honghua took it flattered, probably thinking of something nice to say, but her mind was stuck and she couldn't say a word. She just stared at Shi Meilan blankly.

"Come see me tonight," Shi Meilan whispered, "and then you'll know why your Uncle Li went out to borrow money."

"What do you want to see your aunt for?" Hu Honghua asked again.

The child is silly, but really curious.

"Because we are going to catch an adulterer." Shi Meilan said calmly.

Shi Meilan only has one way to deal with these two bastards.

In consideration of the fact that Hu Honghua had helped her in her previous life, Shi Meilan would give half of this good thing tonight to Hu Honghua.