We can't afford to mess with them!

"Collecting junk?" Li Wanshi glanced at her eldest son. "Even a broken home is worth a fortune. Where are they going to find so much junk for them to collect?"

Li Wanshi was convinced that her son had been hiding a lot of money from her, and that picking up trash was just an excuse. Today, she was determined to set the rules: even if her sons separated from her and lived separately, they should still provide her with the best food and drink first, and she would be in charge of distributing it!

Li Jin was speechless for a moment, and kept giving his second son meaningful glances. Son, aren't you quite good at talking now? Hurry up and cover up the lie for your dad!

"Grandma, you're absolutely right. Our village is so poor, where can we find any junk to collect?"

Li Xiangdong spoke slowly. Li Jin was giving him a meaningful look, and his eyes were twitching. He thought to himself, "How did this kid become so stupid again? He can't read between the lines at all. Why is he still siding with his grandma?"

Then Li Xiangdong continued, "But we're still growing, and all we eat every day is coarse sorghum flour and bran flatbread with pickled vegetables. Don't blame us for being greedy. A few days ago, Jiabao saw you give my uncle ten yuan, and my uncle bought big meat buns and fatty pig's trotters at the state-run restaurant. He ate them with his mouth full of oil! When he got back, Jiabao was so hungry that he sleepwalked in the middle of the night and ate his little flat feet."

“My mother is heartbroken and tears are streaming down her face. But then again, what mother doesn’t love her child? Just like you, my uncle is all grown up and he’s a government official with a government salary. You still give him money from time to time! But my mother can’t do anything about loving her child. She doesn’t have a penny to her name. My father is the same. He can’t be as generous as you in giving us money.”

“My parents always taught us that we should always give the best food to our grandparents, and that we should always take care of them when we have money. I think my uncle is the same way. Every month, my dad has to give my fourth sister’s salary to my grandma. This is our monthly allowance for the elderly, and we don’t dare to say anything. If we’re craving something, we have to take care of it ourselves. Just a few days ago, I took Jiabao and Xiaoping around the county town. We ran around under the scorching sun until our legs were sore, and we finally managed to collect some scraps to sell for a little money.”

“We bought meat to send to Grandpa and Grandma, but after thinking it over, we realized that Uncle had definitely taken all the big meat buns and fatty pig's trotters to Grandpa and Grandma, and they would definitely not want our little bit of meat. Jiabao and Xiaoping were so greedy, so we just shamelessly ate it ourselves.”

Li Xiangdong rattled off a string of sarcastic remarks in one breath. Before Li Wanshi could interrupt him, her face turned as purple with anger. She jumped up from the kang (a heated brick bed), stood on the ground pointing at Li Xiangdong, and couldn't utter a complete sentence, "You, you, you..."

Li Xiangdong's voice was quite loud, and the house was open, so there was no soundproofing. Although Zhao Sufang knew that the money to buy meat was not earned by collecting scraps, it was still earned by her daughter and son getting up early and working late to collect cicada molts and dig up wild rehmannia. It was not that they did not work hard.

Thinking back on all these years, how her children had lived hand to mouth with her husband, barely scraping by to serve their in-laws, she was overcome with grief, and tears streamed down her face as she sobbed.

Zhao Sufang's suppressed sobs drifted over. Listening to Li Xiangdong's calm narration, Li Jin also felt a pang of sadness. He and his wife and children had scrimped and saved to support their parents, yet his mother was spending ten yuan at a time to treat his younger brother to a meal at a restaurant to improve their lives. He couldn't quite describe the feeling; there was disappointment, jealousy, and an inexplicable sense of rebellion.

Li Jin wasn't in a hurry to coax his mother anymore; his expression was rather indifferent.

Li Wanshi was a very shrewd woman. She could tell something was wrong just by looking at her son's expression. If she couldn't control her son, who in the family would listen to her?

Li Wanshi plopped down on the ground in desperation and began to wail, “Heavens above! I’m over sixty, practically on my deathbed, and my grandson is cursing me like this! What good is a son? I raised him with every drop of his poop and every drop of his diaper, worrying about him being cold in winter and scorching in summer. I cherished him like a precious gem, and after all that hardship, I spent all my money to get him a wife. And now, heavens above, he’s forgotten his mother after getting married! Heavens above! I’ve had such a hard life! Please, send down heavenly lightning to strike these unfilial people down!”

Li Xiangdong snorted and gave his mother a rating: "A sitting duck!"