Chapter 39
◎ On the weekend, Xu Zeli came back from school by bus. He walked into the house in silence and sat down.◎
There were no classes on the weekend, so Xu Zeli took the bus back from school, walked into the house in silence, and sat down.
But no one paid him any attention. Xu Huiqiu, wearing a floral blouse, busied herself in the kitchen, her back soaking wet. Xu Zhengqing, holding a borrowed radio, curiously switched between stations.
Xu Huiqiu brought the stir-fried chicken feather vegetables to the table and couldn't help but mutter to Xu Zhengqing, "Stop changing the tune all the time! Old Chen broke it, so you're going to compensate him for it?"
After she finished speaking, without looking at Xu Zeli's face, she reached out and picked up the teapot on the table, poured him a cup of cold tea, and said, "Xiao Ze, drink some water. I put fresh lotus leaves and small chrysanthemums in it to cool you down."
Xu Zhengqing put on his characteristic Xu Huiqiu face and said impatiently, "What are you afraid of? Once Xiaoze's wedding invitations are sent out and the title of father-in-law comes out, who knows how many people will want to get close to our family. Old Chen, haha, I'm giving him a chance to befriend me."
Xu Zhengqing was so arrogant and frivolous that he was not even as good as Xu Zeli, the son-in-law of a big leader. Xu Huiqiu pursed her lips, wiped the sweat from her forehead, and went back to the kitchen to work.
Xu Zeli picked up the water glass, his eyes full of gloom, and drank most of it in one breath.
Xu Huiqiu went in and out, serving dishes, getting bowls and chopsticks, and getting rice. She didn't sit down to eat until the last bowl of sweet potato porridge was placed in front of her.
The sweet potato porridge is sweet and delicious, with the rice grains blooming and the sweet potatoes soft and glutinous.
But Xu Zeli had no appetite. He said, "Mom, when I came back last week, didn't I say I wanted to eat stewed potatoes? Preferably potatoes from the northwest."
Xu Huiqiu took a chopstick of porridge and said calmly without even looking at him, "Haven't you had enough potatoes in the Northwest? My family usually eats sweet potato porridge in the summer. We've been doing it for decades. Xiaoze, you know that, right?"
Xu Zhengqing said, "Decades? You've only been married into my family for less than thirty years. My son wants potatoes, so just make them for him. Potatoes aren't expensive."
Xu Huiqiu glanced at him and said unhappily, "Northwest potatoes are hard to find in Shanghai."
Xu Zhengqing said, "You have nothing to do all day, so keep looking. I don't believe you can't find it in the whole of Shanghai."
As long as Xu Zeli and Zeng Linlin's marriage was a done deal, Xu Zhengqing would indulge his son in anything. It wasn't that Xu Huiqiu didn't indulge her son, but whenever Xu Zeli said he wanted potatoes, she'd think of his hard times in the northwest, and of Bei Bitang.
Xu Huiqiu still didn't agree. She said vaguely, "Eat it. The sweet potato porridge is ready. Let's eat it first."
Xu Zeli lowered his head and stuffed two mouthfuls of sweet potato porridge into his mouth. Xu Huiqiu didn't eat, but just watched quietly. Only when she saw Xu Zeli swallow the sweet potato porridge did she smile with satisfaction.
She quickly picked up a piece of tender braised pork and put it into Xu Zeli's bowl.
Xu Zeli ate a piece of delicious braised pork and felt a little better. He wanted to eat another piece, so he raised his head and used his chopsticks to reach for the braised pork on the table.
Xu Zeli paused with his chopsticks, looked at the bowl of braised pork with only a small piece, frowned and said, "Mom, can you please stop doing this? How can anyone eat this? You didn't spend a penny more on Linlin and I's wedding."
Xu Huiqiu said nonchalantly, "You have one piece, your dad has one piece, and Mom doesn't eat it. Isn't that enough? Just trying it is enough. Who can eat red meat as a meal?"
Xu Huiqiu never listens to others. Xu Zeli took back the chopsticks with an angry look on his face and slammed them hard on the table.
With a snap, the dishes and chopsticks vibrated.
Xu Zeli suppressed his anger and said in a low voice, "Mom, if you don't want to eat it, Dad and I will! Not only do we want to eat it, but we also want to eat more. A small piece the size of a thumb is not enough."
Before Xu Huiqiu could say anything, Xu Zhengqing said coldly, "That's just your mother's personality. She's from Anhui, and even after marrying a Shanghainese, she can't change her country ways."
Being accused by both her husband and son at the same time was more painful for Xu Huiqiu, who valued her husband and son more than anything else, than being slapped twice in the face by the person she hated the most.
Xu Huiqiu's eyes, filled with fatigue, immediately turned red. She choked up and said, "Is one piece of braised pork not enough? Who am I budgeting so carefully every day for? I don't have to worry about the wedding banquet, but when Linlin came in and knelt down to pour me tea, shouldn't I prepare a big red envelope for her? And what about the return gift? Don't I have to prepare that too? I can't give her the gift Linlin brought back, can I?"
Now, let's talk about this braised pork. You two said you wanted to eat it, so I didn't mind using too much fire to make it. Do you know how I did it? To save that little bit of coal, I used a wire ring to wrap the coal cake, lifted it up, and placed it against the bottom of the pot. I also broke the coal cake into small pieces and turned it back and forth by hand to save some heat.
"For more than half an hour, I kept holding it like this, turning it back and forth. Even then, you were still not satisfied and blamed me for being stingy."
"besides……"
Xu Huiqiu shed tears as she spoke.
Seeing that she was about to talk endlessly, Xu Zeli, in order to save his headache, quickly picked up some chicken feather vegetables with his chopsticks and said perfunctorily, "Okay, Mom, I was wrong."
Xu Huiqiu was the easiest woman Xu Zeli had ever met. After he said and did this, Xu Huiqiu immediately stopped crying.
Xu Zhengqing watched all this, sighed and shook his head, picked up the piece of braised pork, put it in his mouth, and ate it with his eyes squinted.
As Xu Huiqiu ate the chicken greens her son picked for her, she felt sweet inside.
She suddenly thought of Zeng Linlin, the woman she was about to marry into. Zeng Linlin's style showed that she was used to spending money lavishly. Such a style would definitely please the two people in the family, in order to avoid her husband and son being taken over by Zeng Linlin in the future.
The husband is not important. Zeng Linlin is a daughter-in-law, and the father-in-law and daughter-in-law naturally have to avoid suspicion. What is important is the son, and she has to give her son some preventive measures first.
Xu Huiqiu looked at Xu Zeli lovingly and said earnestly, "Xiao Ze, you're still young and don't understand many things. Your father and I are the only sons you have, so everything in the family belongs to you. Look at other families with multiple sons, and they can't wait to see each other eat a few grains of rice, saving more money for future distribution."
Xu Zhengqing frowned and asked, "What does this have to do with you being stingy? If you make more braised pork, and someone else is fighting with your son for it, doesn't that mean it's all for him?"
Xu Huiqiu said unhappily, "Wait until I finish! Xiaoze, your grandmother gave birth to three children: two pairs of twins, four sons. In the future, Linlin will most likely have twins. Those two sons will have to study, go to college, get married, and have children. How much pressure will that put on you? Mom is thinking about saving more so she can leave more for her grandchildren and reduce your burden."
"Only when you have children do you understand the kindness of your parents. Your mother is truly sincere to you and has even considered raising your child. You'll understand once you have a child. If you only care about living a carefree life and ignore your husband's hard work and the future expenses of your child, you're a heartless person."
Xu Zeli was speechless. He paused for a moment and said gently, "Mom, I know you're doing this for my own good. But a piece of meat is really too little. I'm going to university to become a cadre, so I can't afford to eat a piece of meat."
Xu Huiqiu picked up the bowl and poured the remaining red meat juice into Xu Zeli's bowl, saying, "You haven't received your salary yet. When you graduate from college and start working, give your salary to Mom. Then Mom will make you whatever you want to eat."
Speaking of salary, Xu Zeli thought of Zeng Linlin again, and his face became gloomy.
Zeng Linlin hadn't taken the initiative to look for him this week. Furthermore, she ignored him during breaks and hurriedly left the classroom with her roommate after class.
He didn't take it seriously at first, but when their relationship reached the stage of marriage, he was no longer as warm to Zeng Linlin as he was at the beginning, and he treated her coldly intentionally or unintentionally.
Later, he couldn't help but go to the dormitory to look for her, but it was her roommate who came down and said she was not in the dormitory. He didn't leave, but waited nearby and saw Zeng Linlin walk out of the dormitory.
Now, he was also angry and ignored Zeng Linlin. By the weekend, Zeng Linlin still refused to give in, so he had no choice but to be the first to give in and blocked Zeng Linlin on the road to campus.
He asked Zeng Linlin why she was angry again for no reason and how he had offended her.
Zeng Linlin looked at him coldly and said, "You have to ask your ex-girlfriend. I know everything you did to lie to her and to me."
After saying this, Zeng Linlin didn't say anything else to him and walked past him arrogantly.
Xu Zeli knew without asking that Bei Bitang had come to see Zeng Linlin.
He really wanted to call and scold Bei Bitang, saying she was so cruel and couldn't bear to see him prosper! Did he still want the money? A junior high school student actually had the guts to enter a university campus!
But he didn't dare. He knew he was asking for trouble this time. The wedding invitation had pissed Bei Bitang off. If he continued to curse, Bei Bitang would go crazy again, and might even go find Zeng Linlin and tell her in detail about what had happened between them.
He couldn't afford to offend, so he didn't even go to the library. He could only swallow his anger and go home.
Zeng Linlin didn't mention the breakup. She had already made her marriage to him public, and she couldn't afford to lose face, so she just went into a cold war.
But he also waited until Zeng Linlin was coaxed into doing what she wanted, remembering that Zeng Linlin had once said that she would keep both of their salaries in the future. Originally, he had thought of dragging it out, as Zeng Linlin was not someone to be trifled with, and neither was his mother.
After marriage, the two of them confronted each other directly and asked them to negotiate who would be in charge of his salary. He didn't care anyway, as long as he didn't lose his pocket money every month.
If he decided who would be in charge of the future salary and brought it to Zeng Linlin to take credit for it, perhaps Zeng Linlin's dissatisfaction would be alleviated.
Xu Zeli said to himself in his heart that he was not trying to please Zeng Linlin, but to please his father-in-law.
He looked at Xu Huiqiu and said, "Mom, Linlin and I are getting married soon. Since you mentioned the salary, there's something I need to make clear to you first."
Xu Huiqiu hadn't realized the seriousness of Xu Zeli's next words yet. She said with a smile, "What's the matter? Tell me."
Xu Zeli mustered up the courage to say, "Mom, I want to give my salary to Linlin for safekeeping after I start working."
Xu Huiqiu felt like the sky was falling. She was worried that Zeng Linlin would win over her son after she came in, but why did she need to come in? She had already made her son stand on her side, and on such an important matter as salary.
After a long while, Xu Huiqiu finally found her voice. She widened her eyes and opened her mouth wide as she said, "Xiao Ze, what are you talking about? Of course, your salary is managed by Mom. Only with Mom is it the safest place."
At the end, she smiled stiffly.
Xu Zeli smiled gently and said, "Mom, Dad has always given you his salary. So why not give my salary to Linlin? This is our family tradition."
Xu Huiqiu was completely furious this time, but her anger was not directed at her son, but at Zeng Linlin who was not present.
Her eyes were red as she said, "Xiao Ze, tell Mom, did Zeng Linlin tell you that she wants to take your salary?!"
Xu Zeli still looked unhurried. He said, "Mom, isn't this right? You told Dad that you would keep his salary, otherwise you wouldn't marry him. Dad started a fight with Grandma when he got home, and she was so angry that she didn't eat for several days."
Upon hearing this, Xu Zhengqing, who was watching the show, burst out laughing. As for who got the salary, his attitude was the same as Xu Zeli's. It didn't matter who got it. Why would he bother with just buying vegetables?
Because of the same man, mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law are often enemies. Xu Huiqiu immediately retorted, "How could your grandma not eat for several days? She lied to you!"
Xu Zeli pretended to be relieved and said, "That's good. I was worried that Mom would be like Grandma and get so angry that she wouldn't eat for several days."
Seeing Xu Huiqiu about to burst into tears again, Xu Zeli quickly said, "Mom, this is also my decision. My salary will be kept by Linlin in the future."
Xu Zhengqing didn't mind the excitement. He looked at Xu Huiqiu with a smile and said, "It's good to leave it to Linlin. At least she can have two pieces of red meat. She can't be more stingy than you."
Xu Huiqiu forced back her tears, regaining her fragile yet resilient demeanor. She sneered, "Just wait and see! You'll be out of food by the middle of the month, so don't beg me to intervene! Zeng Linlin is a good person, too. I'm so kind to her! I treat her like my own daughter. As a mother-in-law, I didn't set any rules for her, so she got angry and took away my financial control."
Xu Huiqiu couldn't eat anymore and kept talking. Xu Zeli ate the last mouthful of sweet potato porridge, put down his bowl and chopsticks, and stood up to call Zeng Linlin.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
