Chapter 18: Do you want to listen to it again?

At around five o'clock in the evening, the Zhou family's dinner was ready.

Chen Xiang sat down with her legs crossed, raised her eyes and asked, "Mom, why don't we wait for Mengzi?"

Zhou's mother: "No need to wait for him."

Zhou's mother didn't look up. She continued to fill the bowl with porridge and handed it to her daughter-in-law before saying, "It's still a long time before he comes back. Let's eat first and save Mengzi's portion to keep warm in the pot."

Chen Xiang took the bowl and nodded silently.

When she thought about Zhou Dongmeng going out at four in the morning and coming back at eight in the evening, she would not be able to eat three meals a day with him.

At night, they would sleep one on the bed and the other on the floor...

How can we cultivate feelings when we have so little time together?

The more Chen Xiang thought about it, the worse her mood became. She had no appetite at all. She slowly picked up the chopsticks and ate the rice grains one by one.

She absentmindedly picked up a few grains of rice, looked up at her mother-in-law, and asked unwillingly, "What time did Mengzi come back in the past?"

"In the past..." Zhou's mother thought for a moment.

Then he instinctively looked up at the old-fashioned clock in the room and said, "After eight o'clock."

ah……?

You're really coming back that late.

Chen Xiang sighed, then drank a mouthful of porridge with a depressed look.

Zhou's mother was an experienced person, so how could she not see her daughter-in-law's disappointment? She deftly divided the plate of fried eggs on the dining table into two portions, gave one to Zhou's father, and placed the other in front of Chen Xiang.

She licked the grease on the tip of her chopsticks and said, "Eat the eggs quickly."

Chen Xiang nodded: "Hmm..."

Just after taking a bite, she heard some heavy footsteps in the yard outside. She was startled, and a look of joy appeared on her brows: "Mom, is Mengzi back?"

Chen Xiang was so excited that she moved her butt and almost got up and pushed the door open to welcome him.

But then she thought, if she overacted, what would Zhou Dongmeng do if he hated her even more? Thinking of this, Chen Xiang sat there obediently again.

Pretending to bury his head in the porridge, his pair of black and bright eyes secretly glanced towards the door...

Hearing the footsteps getting closer, Chen Xiang's small fleshy hands holding the chopsticks began to strain slightly, and the joints of her fingers began to turn white.

Is he coming in soon...?

Zhou's mother turned around quickly, got off the kang in her cotton slippers, and as she pushed the door open, she muttered, "Why did Mengzi come back so early today?"

Pushing open the door of the east room, there was the kitchen. With the dim light, Zhou's mother could see who was coming.

The corner of her mouth dropped a little: "It's my sister-in-law who is here..."

Chen Xiang was extremely disappointed: "..."

Why is she here? Why not Zhou Dongmeng…?

…

Wang Ping stood at the door, stretched her neck to look inside, then tilted her head to look at Zhou's mother and said with a smile, "Oh, no wonder my sister-in-law looked a little unwelcome to me, it turns out they were having dinner, it seems I came at the wrong time."

Zhou's mother forced a smile awkwardly: "How could that be? Sister-in-law, come in and sit down."

Wang Ping raised her eyebrows: "Then I can come in."

After she entered the house, she sat down at the dining table without any courtesy, next to Chen Xiang, her eyes fixed on the fried eggs on the plate.

The woman smacked her lips and said, "Second brother, sister-in-law, your family has a great meal today!"

Mother Zhou asked politely, "Has sister-in-law eaten?"

Wang Ping: “Not yet!”

Zhou's mother: "How about eating here?"

"Then sister-in-law won't be polite to you. We are all family after all, and it will be more lively if we eat together." Wang Ping licked her face and squeezed closer to Chen Xiang.

Mother Zhou turned around and went to the kitchen to get dishes and chopsticks. The smile on her face was gone.

Chen Xiang glanced at the woman who claimed to be her sister-in-law.

She was thin, with narrow shoulders and an unusually large head. She had short hair, a men's style, which made her look like a big-headed doll, with extremely disproportionate proportions.

Chen Xiang remembered who Wang Ping was.

The old man of the Zhou family, that is, Zhou Dongmeng's grandfather, is still alive. He has three sons. The eldest son, Zhou Hong, works in the supply and marketing cooperative in the commune.

This Wang Ping is his daughter-in-law.

Zhou's father is the second child in the family. When Zhou's father was successful, the couple from the eldest family would always curry favor with the second younger brother. But since Zhou's father was diagnosed with a disease eight years ago and the family's savings were emptied, these people in the Zhou family began to become estranged from the second younger brother and his family.

I'm afraid I'll get into trouble if I'm not careful.

But in the last life, this Wang Ping often visited Zhou's house, but it was definitely not to help, but to fight against the autumn wind.

Wang Ping often kept an eye on the Zhou family's chimney. As long as she saw that there was no smoke coming out of the chimney, it meant that the meal was ready, and she would come in on time to eat and drink.

—

In Chen Xiang's memory, Wang Ping is not someone you can easily mess with.

Not only could he shamelessly come and take advantage of the Zhou family every now and then when the family was in such a state of decline, but he could also quickly withdraw and watch the Zhou family's predicament with cold eyes.

Chen Xiang snorted coldly in her heart.

This kind of person...

Maybe after eating and drinking enough at Zhou's house, he would leave the yard with his teeth shaved, and turn around to scold them, saying they deserved it.

Just like this morning when Dai Jinhua came to make trouble, it was such a big commotion, and the eldest and third families lived next door to the Zhou family, but no one came out to see what was happening.

Maybe they were all hiding in the house, leaning on the windows, watching their laughter.

This is not Chen Xiang's attempt to guess things from a petty perspective.

But that's who they are!

So Chen Xiang didn't give her any good face at all. She picked up the fried egg with chopsticks and finished it in two or three bites.

Wang Ping was eyeing the fried egg, but it was eaten by Chen Xiang in the blink of an eye.

She is so angry.

Wang Ping glared at her fiercely and said in a sharp voice: "Second brother, is this your new daughter-in-law? She is so ignorant."

"There are only a few fried eggs on the table, why don't you let the elders pick up the chopsticks first?"

She said the last sentence to Chen Xiang.

Chen Xiang blinked her eyes and said innocently, "Auntie, this fried egg was specially made for me by my mother-in-law. She told me to eat it well and give the Zhou family a child as soon as possible. What? Auntie, you also want to have another child?"

Zhou's father said, "Sister-in-law, Xiaoxiang is still a child, just eat it."

After hearing this, Wang Ping almost got angry.

She took a deep breath and saw Zhou's mother coming in from the kitchen. She immediately got angry: "Sister-in-law, you are so slow even in picking up a bowl. If you don't want me to stay for dinner, just say so."

Zhou's mother looked helpless: "Sister-in-law, that's not the case. I was just washing the dishes outside."

Wang Ping gritted her teeth, pushed the bowl in front of her away, and said angrily, "I won't eat it anymore! If I eat even a grain of rice from your family, I, as your sister-in-law, will probably be scolded to death by you guys."

The woman stretched her slender neck, waiting for Li Qiuju to beg her.

But this time, before Zhou's mother could say anything, Chen Xiang had already stood up and said with a smile: "Auntie, if you don't want to eat, then don't eat. Don't force yourself, and don't get angry."

"As the saying goes, anger is harmful to the body, and nameless anger is even more harmful to the heart, liver, spleen, stomach and kidneys in the stomach!"

Chen Xiang's last words were spoken with a strong tone.

When Wang Ping heard her say that, she looked up and stared at her in surprise. It’s not that she doesn’t want to eat, she just wants you to beg her to eat!

And there's that sentence that hurts the heart, liver, spleen, stomach and kidneys in the stomach even more. What bullshit!

This is a curse for her to have rotten intestines and stomach!

Wang Ping looked particularly unhappy. She stood up suddenly and was about to make trouble when Chen Xiang smiled innocently and patted her on the shoulder: "Auntie, this is your niece's first day home, and I haven't even offered you a cup of tea yet!"

"Please sit down and wait for a moment. Your niece-in-law will pour you some tea."

Wang Ping curled her lips and snorted coldly: "What kind of tea are you pouring! I'm already angry enough, I don't want to drink it!"

After saying that, she twisted her body, kicked the door open and left.

Wang Ping came to the fenced yard, put her hands on her hips, turned her head and glared at the mud house behind her. Her chest was heaving with anger, and finally she spat fiercely: "What bad luck! This family deserves it!"

At six o'clock in the evening in February, it was already completely dark.

Wang Ping walked towards her home with one foot deep and one foot shallow. The more she thought about it, the more aggrieved she felt. This was the first time she was embarrassed at her second brother's house!

What the hell is this? He actually plotted against her.

She has lived half her life, how could she not know that the new daughter-in-law offering her tea was to ask for money for changing her name!

You must be crazy about money!

Only Dai Jinhua can control this family. Why didn't she turn the second brother's family's wedding into a funeral in the morning?

Come to think of it, that Dai Jinhua is also a waste!

Wang Ping didn't get to eat, but she was very angry.

When she returned home in the evening, she saw her daughter-in-law squatting in front of the stove and lighting a fire. Wang Ping was so angry that she raised her hand and punched her daughter-in-law hard on the back.

She yelled, "You're so slow to cook. If you don't want to stay at our house, get out of here and stop occupying the hen's nest without laying eggs!"

"You've been married for so many years, and you haven't even farted. If I were you, I would have jumped into the river long ago. What's the point of still being alive? Hurry up and cook, and then wash that basin of clothes."

Wang Ping vented her anger on her daughter-in-law, who was acting as a punching bag for her, then turned around and went back to the house.

Never pay attention to the reaction of the daughter-in-law.

…

Zhou family.

Chen Xiang looked at Wang Ping's departing back and continued to play dumb in front of her parents-in-law, muttering, "Strange, how could my aunt leave so suddenly?"

Zhou's mother's mood turned from cloudy to sunny.

She had never expected that Xiaoxiang, the child, could help her sister-in-law recover from an accidental collision! It really helped her vent all the anger she had accumulated over the years.

Zhou's mother smiled and called Chen Xiang: "Xiao Xiang, eat quickly, don't worry about her."

"Okay, Mom, you should sit down and eat too. Then take a good rest after the meal." Chen Xiang sat down again, picked up the chopsticks and started eating.

Father Zhou said solemnly, "When I have time, I will go find my eldest brother and ask him to take care of my eldest sister-in-law."

Zhou's mother knocked on the edge of his bowl and frowned: "Don't look for it anymore. It's not like we haven't looked for it before, but in the end, we are the ones who are blamed!"

"Have you forgotten what your eldest brother said last time? It was us who ignored our brotherhood and refused to invite your eldest sister-in-law to have a meal. Why, do you want to hear such back-stabbing words again?"

Father Zhou was silent: "..."

Mother Zhou raised her head and looked at her daughter-in-law across from her. She whispered, "Xiaoxiang, stay away from your aunt in the future to prevent her from getting close to you, okay?"

Chen Xiang nodded obediently: "Mom, I know!"