"Oh dear, the rice is here? You child, you didn't even give me a heads-up. Have you eaten yet? Come on, bring me another pair of chopsticks."
Liu Hongjun treated his niece Xu Milu quite well, inviting her to eat with him and gesturing for his wife to fetch the bowls and chopsticks.
Tian Meiling, however, preemptively took the things from Xu Milu's hands, her fake smile impossible to conceal:
"You silly child, your mother told me you're making money for a big company now, you're really amazing. You're so thoughtful, coming to see your uncle as soon as you start earning money?"
"Uncle, Aunt, no need for chopsticks, I'll just get straight to the point. I came here today to ask Grandpa for help. It wouldn't be right for me to come empty-handed."
Xu Milu explained with a smile.
Upon hearing this, Tian Meiling's face darkened, and she said in a sarcastic, high-pitched voice:
"Oh, so you're afraid your poor relatives will borrow money from you? Everyone knows your family's steamed bun shop has made a lot of money these past few months, enough to open a fancy restaurant, and you still have to come to your uncle for help?"
"Meiling, what nonsense are you talking about?!"
Liu Hongjun was a little embarrassed and said in a low voice, "What's it to you? If you can't speak properly, then don't speak."
As he spoke, he turned to look at Xu Milu:
"Dami, are you and your mother facing some difficulties?"
Before Xu Milu could speak, Tian Meiling let out a cold laugh:
"What else could it be? He's borrowing money! He's never been kind enough to come over before, he only comes to see you, his father. But as soon as he heard we bought a car for our son, he came running over! It's all about your father's funeral money!"
Ignoring Xu Milu's presence, she opened the gift box with a flick of her wrist. Seeing the ping-pong grapes inside, she didn't even bother with pretense, simply rolling her eyes.
"If you ask me, don't you know your own family's situation? Why are you trying to open a restaurant? Don't you have any self-awareness?"
"Tian Meiling!!"
Liu Hongjun, losing face, smashed his rice bowl.
"If you keep talking nonsense, do you believe I'll slap you?!"
Tian Meiling wasn't afraid of him at all, and stubbornly kept pushing forward:
"Go ahead and hit me! Hit me! If you don't hit me today, you're a son of a bitch! That's how it is. What married daughter in the world is still eyeing her father's savings for her funeral?! Don't think I don't know how much this old man has secretly given his daughter! Look at this, look at this, he even brings such a pittance of fruit to fob her off—"
The box of ping-pong grapes was thrown to the ground and rolled around everywhere.
Xu Milu only heard a few scattered sentences, but she got the gist of it and finally couldn't help but ask:
"Uncle, did my cousin buy a car? Did he use Grandpa's savings?"
Old Liu naturally had a sum of money hidden away, not a large amount, fifty thousand yuan. The whole family knew about it, but no one had any designs on that money.
Xu Milu never expected that Liu Hongjun would dare to use his father's savings for his funeral to buy a car for his son.
That's the money the old man has to live off in his later years!
Do they really only need 50,000 yuan?
Not necessarily.
They just wanted to squeeze the last bit of value out of the elderly.
A flicker of embarrassment crossed Liu Hongjun's face. He dared not look at his elderly father's expression, nor at the disdain on his niece's face, avoiding Xu Milu's gaze.
“Your cousin is getting married soon. The girl’s family is asking for more than 100,000 yuan in dowry. They also want a house and a car. Your aunt and I have only saved 400,000 yuan in our lifetimes… I will definitely pay this money back when I earn it again.”
Tian Meiling immediately flew into a rage upon hearing this:
"Still? Liu Hongjun, are you out of your mind? My son isn't a member of your Liu family, is he? He's already been kind enough by not asking your sister for money when he got married and had a child. What's wrong with a grandfather subsidizing his grandson?"
Xu Milu finally couldn't hold back and retorted:
"That money was left by Grandma to Grandpa! If you need money, just say so. The money Grandpa has is a memento left by Grandma. Uncle, you can't act like this."
After being lectured so harshly by a junior, Liu Hongjun finally lost face. He abruptly stood up, pointed at Xu Milu's nose, and began to berate her:
"You think you're all grown up now? You've only been working for a few days and you dare talk to me like that? You have absolutely no manners, just like your father who's vanished without a trace!!"
After he said that, the whole room fell silent.
Everyone knows that Xu Haifeng, Xu Milu's biological father, is considered a "forbidden zone" in the entire Liu family.
Since Xu Haifeng disappeared five years ago, the entire Liu family has never mentioned his name again, for fear of touching on the painful memories of the mother and her two daughters.
The smile in Xu Milu's eyes gradually faded, and her pupils instantly turned into golden vertical pupils, resembling a wild beast poised to pounce.
"Uncle, what did you just say? I don't think I heard you clearly. Could you say it again?"
For some reason, Liu Hongjun felt his legs go weak and his whole body stiffen as he was stared at by those dark, cold eyes, and he could barely speak.
"Big, rice, Uncle didn't mean that—"
He stammered, inwardly cursing himself for being so useless, having been fooled by a little girl.
Tian Meiling, oblivious, muttered under her breath:
"What can't be said? Anyway, the old man has no money left. Let's see how she pretends to be a dutiful son and grandson. Doesn't your mother always talk about being filial to the elderly? She can take him back and support him for me without any problem..."
"Both of you shut up!"
Unexpectedly, it was Old Liu who spoke up this time, who had been drinking silently with his head down. He rarely stood up for himself in front of his daughter-in-law, and he slammed his wine glass down heavily on the coffee table.
He seems to have turned back into that domineering old Liu.
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