133. One is not obligated to eat what others give.
Li Wei and Luo Er were joking around, but when it came to feelings, not to mention Luo Er, even Xiao San'er felt closer to the Li siblings.
As for her cousin, she only started visiting frequently after her family moved to the city, or more specifically, after they moved into their villa. Before that, she rarely came over.
Actually, she wasn't even a blood cousin. Before Grandma Luo married into the Luo family, Grandpa Luo's ex-wife had two daughters who were over ten years old and quite sensible. They had always had some conflicts with Grandma Luo, their stepmother.
However, perhaps Grandpa Luo had good genes, as both of his daughters were beautiful and married young. The eldest daughter married into an intellectual family in the city, and within two years, she also found a husband for her younger sister in the city. The two of them became city dwellers and basically only came home to visit their father during holidays. Since Grandpa Luo has passed away, they have basically lost contact.
Now, if we're talking about closeness, we're actually closer to the daughter of one of Grandpa Luo's older sisters, who was also the cousin of Uncle Luo's third brother who used to help him with his business.
The most intriguing thing is that Luo Sanjiu's half-sister, whose husband died early, remarried with her child, and Zhong Xin is the youngest daughter of that family she remarried.
Although the relationships are quite complicated, Zhong Xin and the Luo family are indeed not related by blood. After years of hardship and displacement, Luo's eldest sister has come to terms with her grandmother. Besides, her younger brother Luo Gang is doing quite well now, so it wouldn't be difficult to reconnect with him. After all, he is her own brother. Therefore, the two families have re-established friendly relations.
Zhong Xin was a product of this friendly diplomatic relationship. Since the school was near Luo Sanjiu's house, and Luo Sanjiu's aunt took a liking to the girl after meeting her, they eventually became relatives.
But perhaps because she was older and more cunning, Zhong Xin knew how to please Aunt Luo, who treated her like her own daughter. It just so happened that Aunt Luo had nothing to do at home all day and needed a close, caring daughter. It was like raising a pet; it was a kind of emotional support.
After a while, Zhong Xin started acting like she was part of the group. Luo Da, who spent little time at home and had a dull expression, was hard to approach. Luo Er and Xiao San, on the other hand, were much easier to talk to, so Zhong Xin really acted like the older sister to them, often acting coquettishly, which made Luo Er and Xiao San very uncomfortable, but there was nothing they could do about it.
Zhong Xin, having spent a lot of time with her third aunt, naturally knew some of Li Wei's achievements and felt a degree of shared resentment towards her. However, she certainly didn't go so far as to give Li Lin and the others the cold shoulder. As for why she was so hostile towards Li Wei…
The problem was back to square one. Luo Er, as usual, tried to keep everyone in suspense, but Li Wei slapped him away. He could only shrink back and say, "This matter...it really does have something to do with you. I don't know if you've seen it, but there's a photo in my brother's room of the six of us from both families. It's from when we were in the first year of junior high and went to the park together. It's on his bedside table. In that photo, you're kicking my brother and scratching him, right..."
Li Wei couldn't take it anymore. She interrupted Luo Erdi's slander: "I lost my balance and was about to fall, that's why I grabbed your brother. What do you mean by kicking and scratching... I remember now. It seems like you pushed me. In the end, you're the culprit! Make a long story short. What exactly happened? Don't go off on a tangent!"
Luo Er quickly straightened his expression: "Then... well... that day, the day we went to the movies, Zhong Xin somehow sneaked into my brother's room. She took that photo out of the frame and tried to cut you out with scissors. And then..."
Li Wei was extremely upset. How could she just cut someone's hair like that!
Luo Er: "Well, the night before, my brother was accidentally beaten up by his sixth senior brother and ended up in the hospital. He was already in a bad mood when he came back in the afternoon. Then, he saw someone touching his things. I guess he didn't say anything nice and got kicked out. So he went to my mom to complain. Of course, my mom sided with her and forced my brother to apologize. My brother just wouldn't say a word. In the end, my cousin Zhong came out to smooth things over. My mom made my brother go to the movies with her. My brother wouldn't go. So, I, his poor little brother, had to be dragged along. And we watched some lousy romance movie. I was so annoyed. I guess my mom is trying to make my cousin Zhong my sister-in-law. Otherwise, why would she be so nice to her?"
After speaking, he glanced at Li Wei, seemingly casually. Li Wei, upon hearing this, thought, "So this is all there is to it?" She realized she had truly been caught in an undeserved misfortune. "Luo Da is really something," she thought. "Why did you have to display that photo? It's so misleading! It's making my aunt angry every time she sees it! And if she stays angry for too long, something bad can easily happen. And now, nothing bad has happened."
Seeing that Luo Er still seemed to have something to say but hesitated, Li Wei said impatiently, "Just say what you have to say all at once. Stop stammering like an old lady."
"Well, we went home together the night after the movie, right? After dropping you off, we hadn't been out of the neighborhood for long when my cousin Zhong suddenly got really angry. She grabbed my brother's arm and insisted that he take her home. My brother wasn't expecting it, and we... crashed into a tree on the side of the street."
Oh? Is that so? No wonder Luo Da didn't drive to school after that... Luo Er seems to be hesitant to speak again.
Li Wei had lost all patience. She raised her leg and kicked Luo Er in the shin: "Speak!"
Luo Er hopped around on one leg twice, groaning, before adjusting his expression. He grinned and said, "Then my brother got out of the car, looked around, kicked the poor car a few times, and left. Later I found out that he went to Geng Xinyang's house nearby and stayed overnight. Sigh, leaving my poor little brother and a random girl shivering in the cold wind."
Li Wei was quite confused. It seemed like this matter didn't really concern her. Why was she involved in hitting a tree and staying out all night? Was it all because of cutting up photos? But the photos weren't of her, so what did it have to do with her?
Luo Er suddenly realized that he had wasted half a day talking. Someone didn't understand anything she should have understood. Now he was starting to believe what Li Lin and her brother said. This Li Xiaoming is really a bit stupid!
Li Wei felt she had been implicated by Luo Da. Zhong Xin was taking her anger out on her and didn't dare do anything to Luo Da, so she could only give her a hard time. But could this 18-year-old cousin have taken a liking to Luo Da? Otherwise, why would she throw a tantrum for no reason? It sounded like a lovers' quarrel!
Thinking of this, Li Wei asked Luo Er, "Is your brother having a puppy love affair with Cousin Zhong?" Li Wei felt that she was thinking about the issue very objectively.
Luo Er, however, seemed to have suffered a major blow. He staggered, his face contorted with grief, and said, "Big sister, why do those who should be having puppy love not do so, but insist on doing it when they shouldn't? I've said everything, I'm leaving." Li Xiaoming probably won't ask his brother if he's having puppy love, right? Maybe? No way?
Li Wei stood there for a long time, thinking and getting more and more confused. She hadn't done anything, it seemed. At most, her cousin had violated her portrait rights, but she hadn't even sued her for illegally cropping someone else's portrait. Yet her cousin was causing her trouble. Was there no justice in this world?
As the waiters began serving the dishes one after another, Li Wei hurriedly went to the restroom to wash her hands before returning to prepare for dinner.
Back in the private room, I found there were many more people. My aunt's husband, Ding Hong, was there too, along with several unfamiliar faces. I had no idea who they were related to. The room was filled with a lot of noise.
Since it seemed that the large round table was no longer enough, the waiter started arranging for a small round table to be added in a corner of the room. Although it was called a small round table, it was actually just a normal ten-person table and not small at all.
Li Wei and her group of younger members naturally took their seats at the small round table. There were fewer than ten people, so it was quite spacious.
Li Wei casually found a seat and sat down, only to find that Luo Da was to her left, Luo Er was to her right, and Xiao San was opposite her.
When the food was served and they started eating, there were no formalities at their table; everyone simply picked up their chopsticks and began to eat. This contrasted with the formalities at the main table, where there were speeches from leaders and toasts from guests.
Seeing that Xiao San seemed to enjoy the shrimp balls, Li Wei picked up two more and placed them on his plate. Ding Anni had seafood she didn't like, so Li Wei moved the plates closer to Luo Er and Li Lianhui, who preferred seafood. There was eggplant, which Luo Da disliked, but Li Lin seemed to enjoy it…
In short, she took care of almost everyone she knew in the group. As for the people she didn't know, only Cousin Zhong, with a grim expression, put a big mouthful of steamed fish on Luo Da's plate: "Don't you like eating fish? If someone won't let you eat it, I'll make it for you, hmph!"
Li Wei paused for a moment, then looked at the fish again. That's right, this kind of small treadmill fish is indeed something Luo Da doesn't like to eat, although he seems to like most fish.
Li Wei glanced at her cousin again, who glared at her back. Li Wei understood then; her cousin only knew that Luo Da liked fish, just like a cat, but didn't know what kind of fish this cat didn't like. And most importantly, it seemed like her cousin was taunting her.
Li Wei was furious. Who do you think you are? You're neither a relative nor a friend. Now you're eating and drinking at our house, and you still dare to give me attitude? Do you think you're the moon that everyone has to look up to unconditionally?
Li Wei grew increasingly annoyed with her cousin, reaching over with her chopsticks to take all the steamed fish from Luo Da's plate, saying, "You don't like this, but I do." She then put it all on her own plate.
My cousin angrily picked up another piece of fried rice cake and put it on Luo Da's plate, but Li Wei took it away again: "Luo Jianhua, you don't like sweets, so I'll eat it for you. See how good I am to you?"
My cousin picked up another piece...
Li Wei kindly helped Luo Da solve his problems again...
My cousin finally couldn't hold back anymore and glared at Li Wei: "What are you doing? What do you mean?"
Li Wei looked at Luo Da innocently: "I didn't do anything, what does she mean?"
Seeing the mountain of food in front of Li Wei, Luo Da was laughing so hard he almost slid under the table.
Li Wei, adhering to the principle that "if you're happy, I'm unhappy," finally managed to completely offend her cousin.
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