Chapter 67 The So-Called Savings
Quanmin said weakly, "My wife and I don't mean you any harm. We just hope that you won't help Aunt Zhou deal with Comrade Lin Yuanshu again next time. You can choose to stand by and watch instead of aiding and abetting evil."
Li Xiaohua sneered and said sarcastically, "I think this isn't your idea, but hers! You let her say these things, and you're the one who has to step in. What's the point of her hiding behind you? She's just trying to force me to admit my mistake!"
Quanmin explained earnestly, "Mom, she didn't mean that. You misunderstood her."
"Don't give me that nonsense, let her come out and talk to me," Li Xiaohua said firmly.
Everyone was in a difficult position. After all, he had just coaxed his wife back, and he didn't want her to argue with his mother again, and then he would have to go and appease her, saying, "Mom, she's in the room taking care of the baby..."
Li Xiaohua took a deep breath and said with great sadness, "You really have forgotten your mother now that you have a wife. You only know how to protect your wife now, and I have become an outsider. Don't forget who raised you with your own hands and feet. If it weren't for you, I would have remarried long ago. How could I be trapped in the family? Back then, you were the one who cried and begged me not to remarry."
Upon hearing this, everyone instantly lost their confidence, and he agreed without hesitation: "I'll go call my wife right now."
Li Xiaohua nodded expressionlessly.
Quanmin's home was partitioned from a single room into two bedrooms and a living room, so Zhu Huilan, who was behind the curtain, had already heard Li Xiaohua's words. At first, she was happy that Quanmin was protecting him in front of his mother, but she didn't expect that Quanmin would only protect him for a moment.
Everyone entered the room that belonged to him and Zhu Huilan. He looked at Zhu Huilan apologetically and said in a low voice, "Huilan, my mother wants you to go out for a while. Talk to her nicely and don't make her angry. It would be best to apologize and let her know that you didn't mean to blame her."
Zhu Huilan was so angry she laughed. She was speechless and said, "I did nothing wrong, why should I apologize? She's the one who's wrong, not me."
Quanmin said in a humble voice, "Wife, just lower your head for my sake. After all, she is my mother and the child's grandmother. My mother raised me with great difficulty. If it weren't for my mother, I wouldn't exist. Harmony in the family brings prosperity. Don't be like Comrade Lin Yuanshu next door, arguing with your elders. You don't want the tragedy next door to happen to us, do you?"
Zhu Huilan felt uneasy seeing everyone so humble and submissive. Back when they were on the island, there weren't so many conflicts.
"I understand," Zhu Huilan said reluctantly.
The whole family exclaimed excitedly, "Wife, you are so good to me, I will never let you down."
Zhu Huilan handed the child in her arms to Quanmin and said confidently, "Then you will be responsible for taking care of the child."
Everyone smiled and said, "No problem."
Zhu Huilan took a deep breath, lifted the curtain, and walked out, smiling broadly as she said, "Mom."
Li Xiaohua said sarcastically, "You've finally decided to come out."
Zhu Huilan pursed her lips and quickly explained, "Mom, I didn't want you to apologize. I was just worried that if you got involved again, Comrade Lin Yuanshu might take care of you while dealing with his mother-in-law."
Li Xiaohua stared wide-eyed in disbelief and said fiercely, "She dares!"
Zhu Huilan gave a helpless look. "Comrade Lin Yuanshu is not me. He won't give you any face."
Li Xiaohua snorted coldly and questioned, "Is it Comrade Lin Yuanshu who wants to deal with me, or are you trying to use Comrade Lin Yuanshu to deal with me?"
Zhu Huilan said helplessly, "Mom, you really misunderstood. I told you this for your own good. The thing you helped with is not a big deal, but it's not a small one either. Just apologize and make amends, and it will be over. I don't want Comrade Lin Yuanshu to find out one day and then settle scores later. I don't want to create any hidden dangers for the future."
Li Xiaohua remained unmoved, saying, "You're quite the talker; who can out-talk you?"
Zhu Huilan took a deep breath. At first, she felt sorry for Lin Yuanshu being sent to the hospital by her mother-in-law. But after learning that Lin Yuanshu's mother-in-law agreed that Lin Yuanshu could separate from the family in the future, her sympathy turned into envy.
If being sent to the hospital by her mother-in-law would allow her to separate from the family, then she would also like to be sent to the hospital by her mother-in-law. Unfortunately, her mother-in-law only has one son, her husband, so there is no possibility of separating from the family in this lifetime. Thinking about having to live with her mother-in-law for the rest of her life, she suddenly felt like the sky was about to fall.
She had been hesitant about carrying out the plan, but now she realized she had to. She couldn't let her mother-in-law focus all her attention on her and her husband.
The next day, Lin Yuanshu did not go to work at the factory. After all, she was really sick now. Fortunately, she went to the hospital and found that she had a problem with insufficient blood and qi, which was probably caused by the original owner's overwork in the past few years.
It's good that it's been found out now, so I can take care of my health. If I had never known, I would have suffered when I got old.
She asked Zhou Dafu to ask the workshop director for leave on her behalf, and she would submit the leave application form later, since she really didn't expect to be sick before she went to the hospital.
Chow Tai Fook readily agreed.
Lin Yuanshu smiled and reminded her, "I've already asked the doctor to change the diagnosis to 'qi and blood deficiency.' Whether it's because I ate something bad or Mom deliberately put seafood in the food, if this gets out, it could damage Mom's reputation. So, there's no need for the leaders and workers to know."
Zhou Dafu was stunned for a moment, then sighed, "Your mother treats you like this, yet you're still so good to her."
Lin Yuanshu shook his head and denied it, saying, "I'm not trying to be nice to her, but I understand the principle that we all share the same fate, and I hope Mom can understand that too."
Zhou Dafu awkwardly touched his nose. His wife understood this principle, but she just didn't care about Lin Yuanshu's achievements. She was happy as long as Lin Yuanshu was unlucky.
Director Xia knew that Lin Yuanshu was sick, so she granted her two more days off. Anyway, the study session wouldn't start for a while, and Lin Yuanshu didn't have anything important to do at the factory. Since she didn't have any production tasks to complete, it was better to let her take good care of her health.
Director Xia said with a smile, "Please pass on my message to Comrade Lin Yuanshu, telling her to take good care of her health and not to rush back to work at the factory. Health is the foundation of everything. Only with good health can she better serve the chemical plant in the future."
Zhou Dafu's expression was very complicated. Lin Yuanshu's boss was being far too easy to talk to! But then he thought, if Lin Yuanshu were his subordinate, he would be just as easy to talk to.
The workers are saying that Director Xia is very likely to be the next deputy factory director, after all, with Lin Yuanshu's help, his performance in the past six months has been outstanding.
"Okay, I understand." Zhou Dafu smiled ingratiatingly. Director Xia was very likely to be the next deputy factory director, so of course he had to cultivate a good relationship with him.
Lin Yuanshu's hospitalization led the older women in the tenement building to start throwing away the yellowed and rotten cabbage leaves.
Seeing this, Sun Yiyi strongly disagreed with everyone's actions. So she asked the older women she was on good terms with to give her the rotten cabbages they didn't want. She washed the cabbage leaves, cut off the soft and rotten parts, and kept the intact leaves to cook for her family.
The money saved on groceries was hers, and she suddenly felt that Lin Yuanshu had done a good deed.
She knew her mother-in-law would be angry if she found out, so she told the women not to tell anyone. In return, she offered to help them take out the trash.
These older women didn't actually tell Aunt Wei, mainly because they didn't know how to bring it up. They couldn't just see Aunt Wei and say, "Do you know that your daughter-in-law picks up the stale vegetable leaves that we don't want?"
If Aunt Wei doesn't know, that's fine. But if Aunt Wei does know, wouldn't it make them look like they're being sarcastic? Someone who can argue back and forth with Aunt Zhou, what kind of person is she?
So, to avoid trouble, they didn't publicize the matter.
Zhou Ma usually pays the most attention to two people: Lin Yuanshu and Aunt Wei. She has been keeping an eye on the Wei family's every move, and then she noticed Sun Yiyi's unusual behavior, seeing Sun Yiyi taking discarded vegetable leaves home.
She approached Sun Yiyi and said sarcastically, "Who is this? So you're the daughter-in-law of the Wei family. How did you end up picking up discarded vegetable scraps? Didn't the Wei family feed you enough? If you had listened to me and gone to work at the chemical plant, you would have had an endless supply of food and wouldn't have ended up like this."
Sun Yiyi took a deep breath. She didn't expect that Zhou Ma would find out about this. It seems that whether in her past life or this life, she can't get along with Zhou Ma.
She retorted without hesitation, "Of course the Wei family fed me. I experienced the hardships of famine, and I just didn't want these vegetable leaves to go to waste. During those three years, I would have eaten anything, even tree bark, let alone rotten vegetable leaves."
Aunt Zhou remained dismissive, saying, "You really aren't afraid of death."
Sun Yiyi argued vehemently, "It's not that I'm not afraid of death, but I don't think things are as serious as Comrade Lin Yuanshu made them out to be. She went to the hospital entirely because of her own poor health, not because the vegetable leaves were not fresh. I've been eating these kinds of vegetable leaves for over twenty years and have never had any problems. Comrade Lin Yuanshu's casual remark caused the neighbors in the tenement building to start wasting food. Aunt Zhou, you must have eaten quite a lot of these vegetable leaves too, did you have any problems? Did you go to the hospital?"
Zhou Ma's expression turned serious. She felt that Sun Yiyi's words made a lot of sense. If she followed Sun Yiyi's example and asked her neighbors in the tenement building to give her the vegetable scraps they didn't want, wouldn't she be able to save a lot of money and not have to buy vegetables this winter?
Sun Yiyi could tell what Zhou Ma was thinking just by looking at her expression. She pressed her advantage and said, "As long as you don't tell anyone about this, I'm willing to share some of the vegetable leaves I got with you. Free things are free, so why not take them? It's a waste to throw them away."
“You’re right,” Zhou Ma said excitedly.
For once, the selfish Zhou Ma was generous and told Li Xiaohua about it without hesitation. Li Xiaohua thought the same as Zhou Ma, both feeling it was a waste to throw away edible vegetable leaves.
Li Xiaohua and Sun Yiyi were more popular than Zhou Ma. Their family got more vegetable leaves than Zhou Ma. This was mainly because most of the older women in the tenement building had been offended by Zhou Ma. If it weren't for Lin Yuanshu, these older women wouldn't want to talk to Zhou Ma.
So, Zhou's mother had to think of another way and turned her attention to the nearby tenement buildings. Sure enough, Lin Yuanshu's matter had quite an impact. Now, not only the aunties in their own tenement building would throw away stale vegetable leaves, but the aunties in the surrounding tenement buildings were doing the same thing.
Sun Yiyi, Zhou Ma, and Li Xiaohua began to shamelessly ask unfamiliar middle-aged women for any leftover vegetable scraps. Every day at noon and in the evening when they were cooking, they would go out for a stroll, leaving empty-handed but always returning with a full load.
On the way home, Zhou's mother couldn't help but sigh, "If the second daughter-in-law were willing to come out and ask for cabbage leaves, I'm afraid not everyone would give them to her willingly."
Li Xiaohua said with a smile, "You don't need to think about it. She's unlikely to agree. It's already a good thing she's not stopping you."
With a complicated expression, Zhou Ma said, "She doesn't know I did this."
Li Xiaohua patted Zhou Ma on the shoulder and instructed, "Then you mustn't let her eat these cabbages. If she gets sick from eating them, you'll have to 'cede territory and pay reparations' again."
Aunt Zhou muttered under her breath, "I know, she's a pampered young lady, how could I dare to offend her?"
At first, the neighbors didn't pay much attention to the three people's behavior. It wasn't until they did the math that they realized all the vegetable leaves they didn't want had ended up in the hands of these three. Although it might not seem like much for one person, when a dozen or twenty people added it all up, the amount was quite considerable.
The stingy neighbors were unhappy to see this, feeling like they were being taken advantage of. They thought that these three people ate stale vegetable leaves every day without any health problems, so they figured Lin Yuanshu was just exaggerating. What's that saying again? Once bitten by a snake, twice shy.
They felt that it was better to eat it themselves than to let others benefit from it, so they reverted to their previous stingy ways.
More cautious neighbors didn't mind at all, exchanging their unwanted vegetable scraps for others to help take out the trash, which was quite nice.
Although the amount of cabbage leaves that Zhou Ma and her two companions received each day decreased, some of the older women still believed Lin Yuanshu's words and chose not to accept the stale cabbage leaves. Others were unaware of this, so it didn't affect them much.
Aunt Hua was worried that Lin Yuanshu would be sent to the hospital by Aunt Zhou again, so she went up to Lin Yuanshu and asked in a low voice, "Do you know what your mother has been doing lately?"
Lin Yuanshu shook his head. "What else can she do besides going to work?"
After all, her mother-in-law had just caused some trouble, and based on past experience, she should take a break for a while.
Aunt Hua recounted the whole story of Zhou Ma, Li Xiaohua, and Sun Yiyi to Lin Yuanshu.
Lin Yuanshu asked in shock, "Are they afraid they'll live too long?"
Aunt Hua explained with a smile, "People who experienced those three years of famine are reluctant to waste food. Besides, your mother has been eating stale vegetable leaves for so many years. If you suddenly tell her that these vegetable leaves can't be eaten, she definitely won't believe you. I just wanted to remind you not to eat those vegetable leaves."
Lin Yuanshu was very fortunate that during this period, the food she ate was separate from that of the Zhou family. In order to replenish her qi and blood, Zhou Xiangyang cooked for her separately, and even the steamed buns she ate were brown sugar steamed buns.
"It's a good thing you told me, otherwise I would have been kept in the dark." Lin Yuanshu showed a grateful expression.
Aunt Hua waved her hand dismissively and said with a smile, "It's nothing. Thanks to you for helping the women in the tenement building calculate their ovulation periods. Several of them have found out they're pregnant recently. Not every woman is as capable as you. They're able to get pregnant, which gives them more confidence in their future lives with their husbands."
Lin Yuanshu replied, "As long as they can live a better life, then my efforts back then weren't in vain."
Although it is said that women hold up half the sky, there are very few jobs available for women in this era, and most women can only be housewives.
After seeing Aunt Hua off, Lin Yuanshu went to Li Xiaohua's house, met Zhu Huilan, and told her about the good deeds her mother-in-law had done.
Upon hearing this, Zhu Huilan couldn't help but cover her mouth. She felt extremely nauseous thinking about how the cabbage she had been eating these past few days consisted of discarded cabbage leaves.
She said, speechless, "My mother-in-law and your mother-in-law are practically 'colluding,' doubling their troublemaking!"
Lin Yuanshu gave a helpless look. "I can't control my mother-in-law. I can only remind you not to eat those cabbage leaves."
Zhu Huilan glanced at Lin Yuanshu and couldn't help but sigh. Even someone as capable as Lin Yuanshu couldn't control his mother-in-law, so she felt even more helpless.
Lin Yuanshu never let things linger overnight. She told Zhou Dafu and the others about it after they got off work and went home.
Zhou Dafu didn't think there was anything wrong with it and advised, "Little Er's wife, don't get too caught up in the drama. You don't have food poisoning. Just cut off the rotten part and you can still eat it."
Unable to persuade Zhou Dafu and the others, Lin Yuanshu gave up and simply ordered Zhou Xiangyang not to eat the cabbage made by Zhou's mother.
Zhou Xiangyang always followed Lin Yuanshu's instructions when it came to household chores. When he helped Lin Yuanshu cook dinner, he also made an extra portion for himself.
Seeing this, Sister-in-law Xue lowered her voice and said, "Little brother, don't forget to make an extra one for me too."
She did this not because she thought Lin Yuanshu was right, but because she felt that she was pregnant and should eat some good food to nourish herself.
She's been seeing Lin Yuanshu eating eggs, brown sugar steamed buns, and red date porridge every day for the past few days, and she's almost craving them.
However, Zhou Xiangyang had only made one portion for Lin Yuanshu, so she was too embarrassed to ask for more. After all, these foods were meant for Lin Yuanshu to use for nourishing his body. Today, seeing that Zhou Xiangyang was preparing to make an extra portion, she shamelessly asked for some.
Zhou Xiangyang thought about it and agreed, after all, Sister-in-law Xue was pregnant and had always treated him well.
When it came time for dinner, the Zhou family split into two groups: Zhou Dafu, Zhou's mother, and his eldest brother ate together, while Sister-in-law Xue, Lin Yuanshu, and Zhou Xiangyang ate together.
Sister-in-law Xue thought she would be able to eat something good, but she didn't expect that she could only eat brown sugar steamed buns with pickled cabbage and tofu soup. Foods like eggs and pig's blood were only available to Lin Yuanshu, and she could only look on with envy.
But then again, brown sugar steamed buns are fine! If she went to her mother-in-law's place, she wouldn't even have brown sugar steamed buns.
Seeing Lin Yuanshu's behavior, Aunt Zhou snorted inwardly, thinking that Lin Yuanshu was just being pretentious. He said he didn't want perfectly good cabbage leaves. However, she was also grateful for Lin Yuanshu's words, which allowed her to get such a good deal. She hadn't bought any vegetables for the past few days, since she couldn't possibly eat all the cabbage leaves that the aunties around her had given her.
Chow Tai Fook and his elder brother didn't care about this. They weren't that particular about food; in their eyes, as long as it was edible, that was enough.
On the other hand, Zhu Huilan originally wanted to remind her mother-in-law that eating stale vegetable leaves could lead to food poisoning.
But then she thought again that if she said such a thing, her mother-in-law would easily turn the tables on her and accuse her of looking down on her. After weighing the options, she chose to keep quiet and pretend to be unaware of the situation.
Fortunately, she has been cooking extra refined grains for her child during this period, unless they are eating at someone else's house. So she is not worried that her child might eat cabbage leaves made by her mother-in-law without her knowledge. She just needs to be careful.
She didn't remind her partner, knowing he would definitely say she was making a mountain out of a molehill, and if he told her mother-in-law what she said, she would face a barrage of attacks from her mother-in-law.
As the days went by, the fact that the three of them lived in peace led them to believe that their idea was correct, and that they had even benefited greatly.
If they weren't worried that spreading Lin Yuanshu's ideas would make the neighborhood aunties unwilling to throw away the vegetable leaves, they would have taken action long ago.
That day, the building manager carried a dead chicken downstairs and happened to run into Zhou Ma, Li Xiaohua and Sun Yiyi returning home. As time went by, they received fewer and fewer vegetable leaves. These inflexible old ladies would rather throw the vegetable leaves into the trash can than give them away for free.
Zhou Ma thought she had some connections with the building manager, so she walked over and said with a smile, "Building manager, what a fat chicken! Looks like you're in for a big meal today. Where are you going to take this chicken to prepare it?"
The building manager waved his hand, looking sad, and said, "What's there to deal with! These are going to be thrown away. I guess I'm just unlucky and don't have the chance to eat them. These are chickens my mom sent over. I don't know what disease my mom's chickens got, but they all died. I was planning to make chicken soup tonight, but then I remembered what Comrade Lin Yuanshu said before, that you can't eat chickens that died of disease, so I'm going to take them and throw them away."
Upon hearing this, Zhou Ma's eyes lit up instantly, and she excitedly said, "I was just about to go to the trash can anyway, why don't I throw it away for you?"
For once, Zhou Ma was smart enough not to ask the building manager for it directly.
The building manager hesitated for a moment, "Wouldn't this be too much trouble for you?"
Aunt Zhou shook her head and said seriously, "What's the trouble? It's just a small thing. I don't know how to repay you for taking care of my second wife. I can only do this little thing."
After Zhou Ma mentioned Lin Yuanshu's name, the building manager no longer hesitated. Although her relationship with Zhou Ma was so-so, she had a good relationship with Lin Yuanshu. She handed the chicken in her hand to Zhou Ma and said with a smile, "Then I'll trouble you to make a trip and help me throw it away."
Aunt Zhou patted her chest and assured her, "Leave it to me."
After the building manager left, Zhou Ma thought for a moment and reluctantly said, "Everyone who sees it should have a share. I'm not the kind of person who would eat it all by myself. The three of us can share this chicken equally, but on the condition that you don't tell anyone about it."
If it were just her and Sun Yiyi today, she definitely wouldn't have shared with Sun Yiyi. If she weren't worried that Sun Yiyi would spread the word if she only shared with Li Xiaohua and not with Sun Yiyi, she wouldn't have shared equally.
Li Xiaohua said without hesitation, "You don't need to doubt me, I will never betray you."
Both of them turned their attention to Sun Yiyi.
Sun Yiyi didn't expect Zhou Ma to be so generous, but free chicken is always welcome, especially since it was taken from Zhou Ma's hands, making it even more precious.
She said solemnly, "Even if it weren't for your sake, I would keep quiet about this for the sake of the chicken. I have to say, Comrade Lin Yuanshu's words were quite harmful. Such a good chicken, just thrown away like that, such a waste of chicken meat."
Zhou Ma nodded in agreement, "That's right! These people just like to believe what the second wife says, treating her words as gospel. I told them that the second wife is two-faced, but they didn't believe me at all, so they deserve to be deceived by her."
Li Xiaohua didn't respond. After all, she didn't have any ill feelings towards Lin Yuanshu. She just felt that Lin Yuanshu was a difficult person to deal with and should be kept at a distance. Unfortunately, Lin Yuanshu was Zhou Ma's daughter-in-law, so even if she wanted to keep her distance, she couldn't.
Sun Yiyi nodded in agreement. Zhou Ma was quite good at judging people; she also felt that Lin Yuanshu was two-faced.
As night fell, the aroma of cooking wafted from every household. Because Zhou Ma, Sun Yiyi, and Li Xiaohua had all cooked chicken soup, the corridor was filled with its delicious scent, making everyone's mouths water.
After Zhou's mother finished cooking the chicken soup, she brought it to the table. Zhou Xiangyang went to the kitchen and found that his mother hadn't left any chicken soup for them. So he went over and scooped out a bowl of chicken soup. It didn't matter whether he and Sister-in-law Xue ate it or not, but his wife needed to eat the chicken soup to nourish her body.
Seeing this, Zhou Ma hurriedly and unceremoniously snatched the chicken soup back, then poured it into the vegetable bowl. With a cold smile on her lips, she said sarcastically, "This is chicken I picked up. Your wife is too precious to look at something that could easily cause food poisoning."
Sister-in-law Xue brazenly approached her mother-in-law, smiling ingratiatingly, "Mom, my second daughter-in-law may dislike this stuff, but I don't. It's okay if you go hungry, but you can't let your grandson go hungry!"
Aunt Zhou pushed Sister-in-law Xue away and said with a fake smile, "I didn't see you thinking like this a few days ago. But now that you see us eating chicken, you don't seem to mind. I'm telling you right now, none of you three can have my chicken soup. There's no chicken soup for you."
Zhou Xiangyang pursed his lips and silently returned to the kitchen to cook. It's just chicken soup, what's the big deal? He'll go to the black market tomorrow to buy a fat chicken and stew it into chicken soup for his wife.
Sister-in-law Xue became dejected. She should have known better than to side with Lin Yuanshu for that little bit of brown sugar steamed bun.
But you can't blame her. Zhou's mother is stingy when it comes to cooking, and she doesn't even put in much oil. In comparison, her younger brother's cooking is much better. Even the same steamed buns taste extra sweet when he makes them.
Lin Yuanshu sat at the dining table, eating brown sugar steamed buns, while Zhou Ma and the other two happily drank chicken soup. Zhou Ma said with a smile, "This free chicken soup is so delicious. It's such a pity to throw away such good chicken just because we listened to what others said."
Lin Yuanshu continued eating her brown sugar steamed buns; after all, she didn't care about living too long and cherished her life.
Out of humanitarian spirit, Lin Yuanshu reminded her again: "Mom, chickens that die of disease may cause food poisoning. Besides, you don't even know why it died, yet you dare to eat it. You're really brave."
Aunt Zhou retorted smugly, "You're just being a sour grapes. I've been eating this kind of chicken since I was a child, how could there be a problem?"
Lin Yuanshu raised an eyebrow, choosing to give up trying to persuade him, pretending not to see it, setting aside his desire to help others, and respecting their fate!
Looking at the pitiful Sister-in-law Xue, and remembering that she was pregnant, the elder brother prepared to scoop a bowl of chicken soup for her.
Aunt Zhou coughed twice forcefully and said with a serious expression, "Traitors have no right to drink chicken soup."
Sister-in-law Xue muttered under her breath, "I'm not a traitor. Why should we, as family, eat at two different restaurants?"
Very well, she became the unluckiest person again, unable to even get a sip of chicken soup, and could only watch helplessly as the three of them drank every last drop of the soup and ate every last piece of chicken.
The same was true at Li Xiaohua's home. Zhu Huilan only dared to eat spicy cabbage and steamed buns made with two kinds of flour. She didn't know where her mother-in-law's chicken came from, so she didn't dare to try it easily. Now she only dared to eat some pickled vegetables and didn't dare to try her mother-in-law's cooking at all.
She had been trying to dissuade the older women from giving her mother-in-law cabbage leaves, and it had been quite effective; her mother-in-law brought home far fewer cabbage leaves tonight.
As long as she keeps trying to dissuade her, her mother-in-law will eventually run out of free cabbage leaves. She really can't live like this anymore; getting a meal is harder than stealing.
"Don't just focus on eating, also ladle a bowl of chicken soup for Xiaobao," Li Xiaohua reminded him.
Zhu Huilan refused without hesitation: "Xiao Bao has had a bit of diarrhea recently, so he can't eat anything too greasy. That's why I won't give him chicken or chicken soup. He can just have some porridge."
Xiao Bao looked at the chicken soup and swallowed hard. He tugged at Zhu Huilan's sleeve and said pitifully, "Mom, drink it."
Zhu Huilan said with a serious face, "Your stomach will hurt if you eat this. I'll give you some cake later."
Upon hearing the words "gao gao," Xiao Bao nodded happily, his gaze no longer fixed on the chicken soup, but instead obediently drinking his porridge.
Seeing this, Li Xiaohua didn't say much. After all, she didn't know much about Xiaobao's health. She didn't care why Zhu Huilan didn't drink the chicken soup. She wished that Zhu Huilan wouldn't drink a drop of chicken soup and would leave it all for her son.
At Grandpa Wei's house, Grandma Wei looked at the chicken soup in the pot and asked Sun Yiyi where the chicken came from. After all, she hadn't given Sun Yiyi any money to buy meat, so the sudden appearance of chicken was very suspicious.
Sun Yiyi thought for a moment and said ambiguously, "The building manager was about to throw away the dead chicken when Aunt Zhou from next door saw it. Aunt Zhou used the excuse of helping the downstairs throw away the dead chicken to take it for herself. I happened to see this, and in order to keep me from telling anyone, she gave me some of it."
Aunt Wei looked at the pot of chicken soup with a solemn expression. In the end, she couldn't bear to throw it away. After all, it was already cooked, and it was meat, not cheap cabbage. If she just threw it away, she would be punished.
"Don't do this again next time," Aunt Wei reminded her.
Sun Yiyi's lips curled up slightly. She knew that her mother-in-law was reluctant to throw away this pot of chicken soup. Faced with the benefits, she still didn't believe Lin Yuanshu's words.
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