Xia Juhua carried Liu Baoguo into the house and took out a small jar of finely wrapped brown sugar from the kang cabinet. She scooped out some and brewed him a cup of light brown sugar water. While stroking his soft head, she said to Wang Caifeng who followed in, "Just now I didn't let your uncle give our family cotton. Don't think I don't feel sorry for Baoguo."

"Zhiquan should have told you how much your two uncles have given to our family over the years. When Zhiquan and his brother were still young, they would not have enough to eat if I did not accept the subsidy from my mother's family, so I took it shamelessly."

"Now that their brothers are married, how can I have the nerve to let my parents support me? Are my two sons not able to support me when I am old, and I have to rely on my brothers from my mother's side to support me? Then why did I give birth to sons and raise them with so much effort?"

Xia Juhua's words made Wang Caifeng, who was a little dissatisfied just now, feel ashamed. She said softly, "Mom, I don't think you don't love Baoguo."

Whether she was sincere or not, Xia Juhua took her words seriously and stared at the cotton piled on the west kang. The cotton was as white as snow, and it was obviously new cotton from the previous year. It had been fluffy and soft, and you could tell how warm it was without even touching it.

Wang Caifeng followed Xia Juhua's gaze towards the cotton, and an idea came to her mind: "Mom, this is enough cotton for eight quilts. If we can save a little from one quilt..."

Xia Juhua, who was concentrating on watching Mianhua, suddenly looked at her eldest daughter-in-law with an unusually cold look: "What are you talking about?"

"Mom?" Wang Caifeng felt guilty at the cold look and lowered her voice: "There is so much cotton. If we save a little on each quilt, no one will notice it."

"No one can see it, but your conscience can see it. Do you know where these quilts will be sent after they are made? They will be sent to the disaster-stricken areas. We, the Liu family, live uprightly, and we don't like to skin the victims of the disaster." Xia Juhua understood that Wang Caifeng had her own little plan, but she was not used to it when this plan hit the wrong people.

If there is a crack in the ground, Wang Caifeng will definitely be able to get in. What happened to the mother-in-law? It’s not like she hasn’t taken advantage of the production team before. When the production team has harvested the crops, the mother-in-law would often pick up the grains that fell on the ground while others were eating.

This time I just made a suggestion, and it has become a matter of conscience.

Suddenly, she remembered what her mother-in-law had just said, that her son could not support her in her old age. She felt a chill in her heart. Did her mother-in-law feel that she had a bad conscience and instigated Zhiquan to not support her in her old age?

I can't let my mother-in-law misunderstand me like this. Wang Caifeng was about to explain when she heard someone walking in the yard. Then her brother-in-law said sullenly at the window: "Mom, we're back."

Well, there was no way to explain it. Wang Caifeng stood up feeling uneasy, wanting to see why Liu Zhishuang and his wife had returned so early - Sunjiazhuang was not close to Ping'anzhuang, so even if they could take a oxcart along the way, they should not have returned so early.

Xia Juhua directly called Liu Zhishuang into the house.

Last time, Liu Zhishuang and his wife also came back at this time, and both of them looked unhappy. Xia Juhua was afraid that the young couple had a quarrel, and when she, as the mother-in-law, asked the new daughter-in-law Sun Hongmei, she was embarrassed and had to pretend that she didn't see the two people's long faces. This time she had to ask - to know where the problem was before she could deal with it.

As expected, Liu Zhishuang came into the room with a gloomy face, and he didn't even see the pile of cotton at the end of the kang. He sat on the edge of the kang and got angry. Seeing that he was alone, Xia Juhua asked, "Why are you alone? Didn't Hongmei come back with you?"

It would have been better if Sun Hongmei hadn't been mentioned. As soon as Sun Hongmei was mentioned, Liu Zhishuang became even angrier: "She came back and went back to her room to lie down."

Wang Caifeng had just been reminded of her conscience by her mother-in-law. Thinking of her mother-in-law's implicit hope for harmony between the sisters-in-law, she smiled and tried to smooth things over for Sun Hongmei: "That's because she was tired. After walking more than 20 miles, anyone would want to lie down and rest after coming back."

"Of course not," Liu Zhishuang said sarcastically, "If I only had a bowl of porridge in my stomach, I would be even more tired."

What? Xia Juhua and Wang Caifeng were both shocked by Liu Zhishuang's words. Today was the third day of visiting the parents' home, and the grandson's family only gave the new aunt a bowl of porridge?

Xia Juhua asked in disbelief, "That's impossible. When you went to Sun's house before, didn't you say that they were living well?"

Liu Zhishuang finally found a place to complain: "What kind of life is it? I'm just embarrassed to say that about their family. It's okay in the past, but every family has to treat the aunt well when she comes back for three days. Mom, I'm not fighting for food. Don't you think we brought a lot of things back for them? Even if there is nothing else at home, can't you cook some noodles and beat two eggs for us? Those are the things I brought!"

Liu Zhishuang almost cried when he said this: "Who knew that when it comes to eating, everyone gets a bowl of porridge and a plate of salted vegetables for the whole family, not even a bite more. Am I a new aunt? I'm almost like a beggar."

After saying this, he was still not satisfied, so he looked up and asked Wang Caifeng: "Sister-in-law, when you and my elder brother returned home, did Auntie also give you some porridge to drink?"

Without waiting for Wang Caifeng to answer, Xia Juhua quickly acted as if to interrupt Liu Zhishuang: "Don't talk nonsense. Every family has its own way of living. Your mother-in-law should be more careful in her life. You, as a younger generation, cannot make up stories about the older generation."

Seeing that Liu Zhishuang wanted to say something, Xia Juhua said to Wang Caifeng, "Do you have any leftovers from lunch? I didn't eat anything at noon either. Heat it up for us. And by the way, ask Hongmei if she's hungry. If she is, ask her to come and eat with us."

Wang Caifeng, who was unable to reveal the fact that her mother's family had killed an old hen to entertain Liu Zhiquan, felt a sense of regret when she heard that she was asked to call Sun Hongmei for dinner. If her mother-in-law pretended not to know and let Sun Hongmei lie in the house by herself, and wait until everyone had dinner together in the evening while her grandson's family treated Liu Zhishuang to porridge, she could only pretend not to know and not bring it up again.

It was different when my mother-in-law asked me to invite Sun Hongmei to eat together. It was not dinner time yet. In rural areas, people did not have the habit of eating at this time, except when they were very hungry. I couldn't hide why Sun Hongmei was hungry. I could use it as a handle to talk about her later.

Thinking of this, Wang Caifeng felt more relieved. She didn't even care that she had to get angry a little more. She walked briskly, not like a pregnant woman.

Xia Juhua, who was still talking to Liu Zhishuang, did not say anything bad about the Sun family. She just advised Liu Zhishuang to forgive his wife and warned him not to quarrel with Sun Hongmei because of this. She said that they would live together as a couple in the future, so he should go back to his mother-in-law's house twice as often, and if there was something bad, he could go less often.

Sun Hongmei, who was called up by Wang Caifeng, happened to hear Xia Juhua's last few words and felt mixed emotions.

Sun Hongmei was also angry that her parents didn't give her face. Just like Liu Zhishuang said, even if the family really couldn't produce good things, cooking some noodles was better than just giving her porridge - after all, it was fine food. Even if Liu Zhishuang knew in his heart that the things were gifts they brought back, and there was no writing on the noodles, he wouldn't complain after eating them.

But her mother had something good and wanted to keep it for her two brothers. She only gave them one bowl of porridge, which made her so embarrassed.

The mother-in-law told her husband to go back to her parents' home less often in the future, which made Sun Hongmei feel even more upset: in rural areas, the number of times a married woman goes back to her parents' home and the things she brings back are often regarded as evidence of the success of her marriage. If she goes back to her parents' home less often, doesn't it mean that she has no status in her mother-in-law's house?

After what happened today, Sun Hongmei was unsure whether her mother-in-law and husband would bring more things back to her parents' home next time. So after entering the house, she kept her brows lowered and didn't dare to look at Xia Juhua.

Xia Juhua already knew why Liu Zhishuang had come in with a sullen face in his previous life. She was very happy and said to Sun Hongmei in a friendly manner: "You must be hungry. Your sister-in-law has gone to heat up some food for us. It will be ready soon."

Liu Baoguo, who was playing on the kang, heard that there was food, so he looked up and asked Xia Juhua: "Eat, eat."

Xia Juhua turned around, took his chubby hand and patted it gently: "You only know how to eat. What did your mother give you at noon? Are you hungry now?"

Liu Baoguo didn't answer. He thought his grandmother was playing with him, so he shouted even more happily: "Eat, eat." While shouting, he showed a few puppy teeth and stretched out his little hands for Xia Juhua to pat again.

Xia Juhua touched his belly and found it was still bulging. She patted it with a smile and said, "Your belly is still bulging. You can't eat now. Let your mother steam some egg custard for you tonight."

When the word "egg" was mentioned, Liu Zhishuang couldn't help but glance at Sun Hongmei. Sun Hongmei didn't expect that she brought back 20 eggs from her mother's house, and her mother-in-law still had eggs for Liu Baoguo to eat with egg custard. Just when she wanted to say something, she felt her husband's gaze and was so scared that she didn't dare to say a word.

Wang Caifeng just came into the house with a hot meal. When she heard her mother-in-law say that she would give her son egg custard in the evening, she felt happy and distressed at the same time: "Mom, children are greedy and can't eat much. Don't spoil him like that."

"If he can't finish it, I can." Xia Juhua said jokingly, "We have five chickens at home, and we can get two or three eggs every day. Why should my grandson be short of an egg custard? It's not like I give it to him every day, so it won't break his habit. As long as my grandson remembers that his grandmother saved the egg custard for him from her mouth, he will be filial to me in the future."

Wang Caifeng didn't notice Xia Juhua's change of heart. She smiled like a flower and promised her son that Liu Baoguo would have to be filial to his grandmother in the future, otherwise she, as his mother, would not be able to forgive him. Xia Juhua just ignored it and didn't take it to heart.

Didn't she know whether her children and grandchildren were filial or not in her previous life? She just listened and laughed. So at dinner, she directly gave Liu Baoguo one-third of the egg custard to eat for herself, saying that Liu Baoguo couldn't finish it, and didn't care about the two daughters-in-law's good looks.

It’s the same old saying, I’ve seen enough in my previous life.

After dinner, Xia Juhua did not let her son and daughter-in-law go back to the house. She still had something to say to them: "I have taken on a job making quilts. The workload is quite tight. I will not be able to go out to work for a few days. But we cannot delay earning work points at home. We still have to rely on work points to eat. Caifeng and Hongmei will take turns to work for a day."