28.028 Jealousy and temper tantrums
The work in the logistics department wasn't important, but it was tedious, and it was busiest during the holidays. It's no surprise that the factory manager wouldn't dare put a vegetable washer in an important position. Su Yu had just arrived when reporters came to do publicity. Everything in the factory was arranged perfectly. She sat there for three days without being ostracized. This ruthless woman, who dared to report someone else's family affairs to the police and even made a public appearance in front of the factory manager, was viewed with a wait-and-see attitude by everyone. They neither flattered nor offended her, and even when trying to skim profits, they did so behind her back, fearing she would report them again.
Going to work, drinking tea, chatting, and going home after get off work—it's the perfect retirement life! Su Yu noticed that her other colleagues were wary of her, so she decided to do something minor to give them leverage.
"Go to bed early tonight, and don't take a nap tomorrow at noon. I'll take you to the river to collect snail shells, and I'll stir-fry them for you when we get back. They'll be spicy and delicious." Su Yu gave the two boys the order after washing the dishes.
The next day at noon, after lunch, she took Xiaoyuan and Ping'an with small bamboo baskets to the small river outside the town where they planted willow trees. The river was not narrow, but it hadn't rained for a while, so the water level had dropped considerably, revealing the dry, sun-dried soil. There was no grass growing there, so Su Yu wasn't worried about snakes darting out of the grass.
At midday, snail shells were sunbathing by the water. Su Yu and her two children simply scooped them up with both hands and threw them into a bamboo basket. In no time, they had filled half the basket. She saw frogs jumping around by the water. "Are there any shrimp in here?" she asked her two children.
"I don't know, Mom. If you want to catch shrimp, you can go to the ditch behind Grandma's house. The shrimp there have long legs," Xiao Yuan said.
"Long legs?" No crayfish would ever say that it has long legs. Su Yu immediately thought that crayfish are an invasive species. She had eaten crayfish when she was a child. By now, they should have already come to our country, right?
"Do you have any red-shelled shrimp?" she asked.
"Yes, Mom, you want to go fishing for red-shelled shrimp? Didn't you say before that red-shelled shrimp eat rotten meat and that their shells are hard and pinch people painfully, so you wouldn't let me catch them?"
"If people can't even get meat, where will the shrimp get to eat?" Su Yu muttered. She took off her shoes and killed a toad, untied the rope from the bamboo basket, broke off a twig, and squatted by the river to fish for shrimp.
Xiao Yuan and Ping An squatted next to her for a while, but they couldn't stay still any longer, their eyes fixed on the river in front of them.
"It's so hot!" Ping An shouted loudly, and Xiao Yuan nodded in agreement.
"Let's go back then, we've collected enough snail shells anyway." She said, and was about to reel in the hook, but as she pulled up, she felt a shrimp bite. "Shh, don't talk." She pulled the rope towards the shore with a combination of tightening and loosening, and when the shrimp floated to the surface, she flicked the stick backward.
"Ha, I caught one." Su Yu clapped her hands. It was a green shrimp, more like a white shrimp, with long legs and a slender body. The shell was very thin, and you could see the shrimp meat.
She had seen this kind of shrimp before, back in her hometown before she started school. By the time she grew up, there were only red-shelled crayfish in the ponds of her hometown. She had heard that these long-legged white shrimp could only be seen in the large ponds where fish were raised artificially. This kind of shrimp has high requirements for water quality.
"Mom, you keep fishing for shrimp. We can just wash our faces and feet in the river when we get hot." Xiao Yuan said these thoughtful words, but what she really meant was that she didn't want to leave.
"I'll just catch one shrimp to look at, you guys are the most important. Come on, let's go back." Su Yu threw the shrimp into the basket and was about to leave.
Xiao Yuan was unhappy but didn't try to be unreasonable anymore. He reluctantly picked up a stone, threw it into the water, and got up to go home.
"Mom, let's play a little longer." Ping An turned around and hugged Su Yu's leg. "I want to go swimming. Didn't you say you'd teach me and Xiao Yuan to swim when you had time? Now I have time."
Xiao Yuan looked up at his mother and saw her give him and Ping An a good whack on the head with a stern face. She smiled and said, "Just tell me what you want and what you want to do. Stop playing tricks. You're still too green. I've already mastered all these tricks."
"You can play in the water today, and you can learn to swim, but you two can't go into the water alone in the future. I or your dad must be there. Otherwise, if you fall into the water like Er Ya, you'll be doomed if no one comes to your rescue."
Ping An nodded his head like a spindle, grinned and agreed. In no time, he was completely naked and ran into the river.
"The water is shallow, only up to my chest. Xiao Yuan, come down quickly, I feel a bit floaty, I'm about to lose my footing," he shouted from the water.
"Are you scared?" Su Yu asked her son, worried that Xiao Yuan was frightened by her jumping into the water to save Er Ya and wouldn't dare to go into the water.
Xu Yuan watched Ping An splashing around in the water and shook his head absentmindedly. "No, I'm not scared. I'll go down now." He also took off his clothes and went into the water naked.
Su Yu then realized that the two children didn't have underwear, so they were just wearing pants. That's right, she was also wearing "Su Yu" underwear and vest, except for a stiff fabric bra. For more than a month, she hadn't been picky and had just worn whatever she had.
She plans to get the cloth ration coupons she received last month when she gets back to buy cloth, and make the inner garments first. She'll just have to make do with the pants and outer jacket. Autumn will be here soon, and she'll need to buy autumn clothes then.
"Mom, how do I swim? My head is in the water but I just float up and can't get any strength," Ping An chirped again.
Su Yu also took off her shoes, tucked in her pants, and went into the water to teach the two children how to hold their breath and breathe, and how to exert force with their hands and feet. Ping An wanted to try it after listening, but after gulping down two mouthfuls of water, he ran up and said it wouldn't work, "The more I splash around, the deeper I sink."
"I'll hold you." Su Yu bent down and supported his body, teaching him to swim.
The child was bold and quickly mastered the technique. Su Yu's clothes were also wet. She beckoned Xiao Yuan over, "Come on, silly boy, I'll teach you step by step."
Xu Yuan pursed his lips and went over, but as soon as his feet left the ground, he panicked. "Relax, relax, I'm supporting you, I definitely won't let you drown." Su Yu put her arm around his waist.
He tried again, and in his panic, he opened his mouth to speak, feeling water getting into his nose as well. "No, I'm not going to learn anymore, I can't learn it," he said sadly.
"I'll teach you, don't panic, just drink water, don't stiffen your arms and legs..." Ping An walked over and taught him the techniques.
"Shut up, don't talk to me, you thief, I'm not talking to you." Xu Yuan suddenly lost his temper, pounding the water hard with his hands, his eyes bloodshot.
Su Yu and Ping An were both stunned. "What's wrong? Ping An was teaching you, and I was teaching you too. Why are you suddenly getting angry? If you don't want to learn, you don't have to. Why are you cursing at people?" Su Yu stopped laughing and scolded him.
Xiao Yuan's tears immediately fell. "You like him more, my grandparents like him too. He's a thief. You're my mom, not his. He has a grandma, yet he tries to steal my grandparents' place." He wiped away his tears and continued, "You even promised to teach him to swim. I didn't even know. I'm not going to learn to swim like that bastard. I'm not going to learn." He kept jumping around in the water, splashing water all over Su Yu's face.
Ping An remained silent; he had indeed gotten the better deal.
"I told him I'd teach him to swim with you, the day I rescued Er Ya. I even coaxed you into going to the kitchen, and you sprayed my neck with snot, don't you remember?" Su Yu explained. No wonder he was so happy before, but he became less enthusiastic after she agreed to let them go into the water. She hadn't expected this little brat to be so sensitive.
“I don’t like either of you more. You are my child, and Ping’an is my child. You two will be living together for more than ten years. I love you both.” Even siblings from the same mother will compete for their parents’ love. Su Yu didn’t think there was anything wrong with Xiao Yuan’s desire to compete. But in front of Ping’an, there were many things she couldn’t say, lest she accidentally hurt the other child’s feelings.
"You've never hugged me. You used to love hugging me and calling me your son. You haven't hugged me in so long." Xiao Yuan cried even harder. Ping An liked to talk and laugh, so his mother must have liked him more.
Su Yu didn't dare to sigh and immediately picked up her beloved son from the water. "You're so big now, I think I shouldn't kiss and hug you anymore. Just like I won't ask my mom to hug me or walk hand in hand with her, I still hold your hand every day now. When you're a few years older, you definitely won't let me hold your hand anymore."
Children and small animals are indeed very sensitive to emotional changes. Su Yu's refusal to hold the two children was intentional, or rather, a deliberate avoidance. Maternal love probably begins to grow with pregnancy, accompanies the child's birth, and grows alongside the child. She wasn't pregnant or had given birth, and with two waist-high children, she simply couldn't reach out to them. The children nestled affectionately in her arms, and that pure emotion made her scalp tingle. It was too pure, making the maternal love she had always acted out seem ugly and stiff.
"I'll definitely hold your hand." Xiao Yuan hugged his mother's neck and wouldn't let go.
“I still want to be your friend. Good friends are for life. Like now, will Mom allow you to play around in the water? Did I not let you go in the water before? Good friends will. Friends and brothers will play games with you, swim with you, and go shrimp fishing with you. I want to be your mom and take care of you, and I also want to be your friend and play with you.” She picked him up and walked towards the shore. “Can you get down now? You’re too heavy, I can’t carry you anymore.”
Xiao Yuan hesitated for a moment, but still made a request: "You still have to hug me in the future. I like it when you hug me."
"Fine, I'll hold him until the day you get tired of me." Su Yu compromised, put her own son on the ground, and went to the water to pick up another one.
"Come on, Ping An, let me carry you up too, so you won't get jealous again after I appease Xiao Yuan."
"I won't be as petty as him," Ping An muttered, but his arms weren't as stubborn as his words, and he wrapped his arms around his stepmother's neck without much hesitation.
The two children were dry, but Su Yu's clothes were soaked through and still dripping water. She carried the bamboo basket and started walking back.
"Mom, shall we come again?" Xu Yuan asked.
"What are you doing here? Just to watch you throw a tantrum? You're not even going to learn that shitty swimming." Having just calmed the sullen guy down, Su Yu started to settle scores with him.
“Ping An has learned it, so I want to learn it too.” He glanced at his mother’s face, and seeing that she didn’t frown, he repeated firmly, “I want to learn it too.”
“You want to learn but I don’t want to teach you anymore. I don’t like it when you throw tantrums.” Su Yu pinched his ear and continued, “Don’t hold back your opinions. Just say it on the spot. For example, just now, you asked directly, ‘Mom, how come I didn’t know you were going to teach us to swim?’ It’s a very common thing. This kind of thing will definitely happen again in the future. Sometimes I forget what I was going to do when I go out. How can I remind you and Ping’an about everything? If you feel uncomfortable, ask on the spot. Ping’an too. Otherwise, you’ll be so frustrated, and I’ll be happily unaware.”
"Then do you prefer peace?"
"No, I like both of you. I don't favor one over the other. I like that you're insightful and sensible, and I also like that Ping An is cheerful and forgetful." Su Yu insisted that she liked them both.
“Okay, then you can’t like Ping An even more,” Xiao Yuan instructed.
These naive kids, making such a request right in front of the person involved... Su Yu glanced down at the two little brats and decided not to interfere; let the children resolve their conflict privately.
It was almost four o'clock when she changed out of her wet clothes. She hurried to the cannery, giving perfunctory replies to those who spoke to her on the way. When she entered the logistics office, she first looked around and patted her chest in relief: "No leaders are here, right? I'm late."
"Of course you're late! It's almost time to get off work. Why are you so late today? Is something wrong at home?"
"Sigh, I used to come here on time every day but didn't have much to do. Today at noon I took my two boys to go shrimp fishing. They got into a fight and I got into trouble. I fell into the river. I came back to take a shower and wash my hair, so I was late. Is there anything I need to do today?" She asked them as she sat down at her desk, smoothing her wet hair.
"No, but don't come too late. It would be terrible if the boss couldn't find you when he needed to make arrangements. We wouldn't be able to cover for you then."
"Okay, I'll definitely pay attention in the future." Su Yu replied repeatedly, drank two cups of tea while sitting, went to the toilet twice, and then went home.
That evening, Su Yu was drying her hair in the yard when the old lady sat down next to her, glancing at her repeatedly. When Su Yu didn't react, the old lady got angry and slapped her.
"Ouch, Mom, why did you hit me?" Su Yu cried out in exaggerated pain.
"Don't play too wildly, and don't carry heavy things. What if you're pregnant and you're going to cause a miscarriage?" She was unhappy that Su Yu came back soaking wet today, carrying half a basket of snail shells.
"There are no children. There are no children."
"You're healthy, you've had children, and you have a husband, so how come you don't have children?" The old lady grabbed her arm. "You're twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, be more careful! You've been married for almost a year, aren't you worried about not having any babies?"
There's no way she married into the family at the beginning of the year, three days before September.
Su Yu couldn't say she was using contraception, and she didn't want the old lady to keep urging her, so she thought to herself, "I might have a problem with my body. I've been with Xiao Yuan's dad for more than 5 years and I've only gotten pregnant with Xiao Yuan. I probably don't get pregnant easily. It's fine if I don't have any more children. Two kids are enough. They're both sons. Neither Ning Jin nor I are at a disadvantage."
“Nonsense, I’ve had eight children. You’re my child, how could it be difficult for you to get pregnant?” Yu Anxiu grabbed her again. “Your three older sisters all had three or four children. They all took after me, and you took after me too.”
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