Chapter 73 Isn't she?
Li Banxia went back to her room to change her clothes. After thinking for a while, she took out her notebook where she usually kept accounts and found the money that her eldest daughter had taken from home to her husband's family in the three months since her wedding, as well as some valuable items such as table fans, ginseng that was ten or twenty years old, other medicinal herbs, and fabrics. She folded them up to make them easier to find later.
Because her family was poor, she couldn't develop the habit of keeping accounts and carefully spent every penny she had.
Every day, she racks her brains to save money and tries her best to make money, but in her eldest daughter's mouth, it becomes "Anyway, it's easy for Mom to make money."
Li Banxia gripped the notebook and sighed deeply.
After putting her notebook in her bag, Li Banxia went out and told her eldest son and his wife to call the medicinal herb warehouse when they arrived at school, and then ask for a morning off.
"Mom, how about we go with you?"
The eldest daughter-in-law glared unhappily at her heartless sister-in-law, feeling sorry for her mother-in-law. How could her sister-in-law take advantage of her mother-in-law's affection for her and bully her like this?
Her mother said that a daughter is a mother's little cotton-padded jacket, and that her sister-in-law was probably heartless and leaky.
Li Banxia paused for a moment, then smiled at her eldest daughter-in-law, "It's alright, Mom can handle it."
He told the eldest brother to take good care of his wife, and then gave Su Laosan two yuan.
"After I leave with your older sister, wait twenty minutes, take a bus to the cotton mill, and ride my bicycle back."
Su Laosan asked in confusion, "Mom, aren't you riding your bike anymore?"
"I'll ride."
Su Laosan exclaimed, "If you're going to ride, why should I ride?"
"Second son."
After Li Banxia finished speaking, he called out to Su Lao Er.
Su Lao Er was startled, thinking he was hallucinating. His mother hadn't said a word to him since the day she made him follow Cui Yuxia, and now she was suddenly calling him.
He choked on his words, craned his neck to look over, and hummed in response.
"Go to He Taohua's place later and tell your dad that I'm waiting for him at the Civil Affairs Bureau and that he should go to complete the divorce procedures around ten o'clock."
Su Lao Er, "..."
"Mom, hurry up, what are you dawdling about?"
Su Hongying stood on tiptoe outside the courtyard and peeked inside. She saw Li Banxia talking to Su Lao Er and stamped her foot anxiously, "Hurry up, or it'll be rush hour!"
"That's perfect."
Li Banxia glanced over, slung her bag over her shoulder, and pushed her bicycle out of the yard.
Su Hongying held onto the back seat and tried to sit up.
Li Banxia handed the bike to her, saying, "You can ride it. I remember you showing off to me, saying that your mother-in-law praised you for riding steadily. I'd like to ride on my eldest daughter's bike too."
"...Mom, riding a bike is tiring, and you're so heavy..."
Su Hongying complained, her face full of displeasure, and patted the car seat, "Let's hurry up, my mother-in-law will have to go to work soon."
Li Banxia watched her without moving.
"Your mother-in-law can sit here, but I can't? How can I expect you to bathe me and feed me if you act like this?"
Su Hongying frowned. "Mom, you're not completely immobile right now. It's pointless to say that."
"What's so interesting about that? You get whatever you want, and your mother-in-law can coax you with just a few sweet words, making you want to move your whole family to your husband's house. Is that really interesting?"
Li Banxia knew this was her own child, her own flesh and blood.
But thinking about all the sacrifices I made in my past life, and how my children took advantage of and rejected me, it would be a lie to say I don't feel resentment or hatred.
Su Hongying sighed, feeling that her mother's anger was inexplicable.
"When did I move my family home to my husband's? Do you think I can take things you don't want? Didn't you give them all to me willingly...?"
Thinking that her mother was going to deliver a bicycle to her husband's family, she was worried that it would delay things, so she reluctantly accepted the bicycle.
"Okay, I'll take you."
Su Hongying got on her bike, and Li Banxia followed for a couple of steps. She then tiptoed onto the back seat, pulled her handbag in front of her, and, looking at her eldest daughter's back, began to plan how to compete with Su Hongying's mother-in-law, Zheng Xiulan.
Along the way, Su Hongying kept complaining that Li Banxia was too fat and should lose weight, or that she couldn't ride anymore and should let Li Banxia get off and take over. Li Banxia said that if she would ride, she would turn around and go home.
Su Hongying pedaled her bicycle forward angrily, with Li Banxia occasionally giving her directions. When they arrived at the entrance of the cotton mill, they indeed encountered the morning rush hour.
People surged through the factory gate like a tidal wave.
Exhausted and panting heavily, Su Hongying complained to Li Banxia, "See, we've caught up with the peak! I told you to hurry up..."
"Yeah, you're riding too slowly."
Su Hongying choked, then cried out angrily, "Mom!"
Why is it that after she got married, her mother became less and less patient with her? She even talks back to her when she speaks.
Once the crowd had thinned out a bit, Li Banxia started walking into the factory.
Su Hongying exclaimed but couldn't stop her, so she could only push the cart and hurry to catch up. "Mom, how are we going to find my mother-in-law with so many people?"
"If you don't know something, just ask."
Li Banxia glanced at Su Hongying, then stopped a gossipy-looking woman. "Comrade, I'd like to ask you about someone, Comrade Zheng Xiulan from the factory's labor union... We're related by marriage. I'm here to deliver a bicycle to my in-laws, they said they don't have enough... Yes, their son is currently dating..."
"She said she wanted my daughter to bring a new bicycle as part of her dowry for their second son. But our family's circumstances aren't good enough to bring a new one, so we can only send an old one... This bicycle is a bit worn out. Do you think Comrade Zheng will mind?"
“My daughter is honest; she does whatever her mother-in-law says. She’s only been married for three months, and I give her whatever she wants—money, medicine, fabric—because I’m afraid she’ll be mistreated in her husband’s family. Sigh, children are always a burden. I understand Comrade Zheng’s good intentions in wanting to find a wife for her second son; it’s all for the sake of her children, and I can understand…”
“I was afraid she would get scolded by her mother-in-law, so I came to talk to her in-laws in person. I really can’t give them that bicycle; it belongs to someone else, and they don’t want to exchange it for my old one. I… I really have no other choice. I hope her mother-in-law won’t blame my daughter for this…”
The woman immediately sensed the trickery in such plain language.
Pointing to a two-story building not far away, to the one on the east side, "Zheng Xiulan is in that office. The work bell hasn't rung yet, you'll definitely see her when you go over there."
Many passersby overheard the conversation and their eyes gleamed with gossip.
The woman thought for a moment, then forced a smile and said, "Come on, I'll take you there."
Li Banxia quickly thanked her and gestured for Su Hongying to follow.
Su Hongying's brows were so furrowed they could trap a mosquito.
She tugged at Li Banxia's arm, "Mom! Why are you saying these things? People will misunderstand my mother-in-law!"
"She can do it but I can't say it? Have I told a single lie, falsehood, or blunder?" Li Banxia looked at her.
Su Hongying, "..."
"No, that's true, but you can't say it like that. It makes people think my mother-in-law is taking advantage of our family..."
"Isn't she one?"
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