Chapter 96 Don't Force It
Li's mother hardened her heart and said, "You are all grown up and have the right to choose. If... you feel that I, as your mother, have gone too far, you can disown me as your mother from now on."
The two shook their heads frantically.
He knelt down at Li's mother's feet with a thud.
"Grandma, please don't abandon us. We never thought of that. We... we just don't want to become children without a mother..."
"I'm sorry, Grandma..."
Looking at the two children she had raised with her own hands, Li's mother's eyes welled up with tears.
She bent down and patted the two children's heads. "Alright, go see your biological mother. She'll be sentenced in a couple of days, and the next time we see her, it'll probably be in prison."
With tears streaming down their faces, the two nodded and said yes, their voices choked with sobs.
Meanwhile, Boss Su got up early and went to the place where Li Banxia had arranged to meet someone. He met the landlord and his wife, signed the contract, and agreed that the money would be paid after Li Banxia finished her work. The landlord and his wife readily agreed.
Su Laoda breathed a sigh of relief, then rushed to school to catch up on the missed lessons. He then asked for leave from his own school and went to Su Xiaosi and Su Hongmei's school.
He first went to Su Xiaosi's school. Su Xiaosi was no longer attending classes; she was working on test papers with several classmates who were participating in a math competition in the teacher's office.
Hearing that his older brother was looking for him, he didn't even raise an eyebrow. "Tell him to wait a while, until we solve this problem."
Brother Su waited outside for half an hour, but Su Xiaosi didn't come out, so he couldn't help but peek out and call out to Su Xiaosi.
"Brother, wait a minute, we'll figure it out soon," Su Xiaosi said.
Seeing that Su's older brother looked unhappy, the other classmates nudged Su Xiaosi, saying, "We've been working on this all afternoon, and we still don't know when the results will be out. You should go see what your older brother wants to talk to you about..."
Su Xiaosi left the office with a frown and a sour face.
"Brother, what brings you here now?"
Brother Su said, "My third uncle was hit on the head by the Zhou family and is seriously injured and unconscious in the hospital. Go ask your teacher for leave and we'll go see him together."
"My third uncle was injured by the Zhou family?"
Su Xiaosi didn't believe it. "Aren't the Zhou family the best at currying favor with Third Uncle? Would they really let go of Third Uncle, their cash cow? Why didn't Third Aunt stop them..."
Brother Su looked at him, his expression indescribable.
Knowing that it was because his third aunt had stopped his third uncle that the Zhou family had the opportunity to harm him, Su Xiaosi was stunned for a long time. Looking at her older brother, she said, "Third aunt has gone mad. Has she thought about the consequences? She's trying to kill her own children..."
"Let's go, everyone's back, we're the only ones missing," Brother Su said.
"I have a competition in two days, every second is precious now, brother..."
Su Xiaosi frowned. "I'm not going. So many people are already going, it doesn't matter whether I go or not. I'd just be standing there doing nothing. I'd rather use that time to do a few more practice tests and tackle a few more difficult questions so I can get a good score and make my parents proud. My future depends on this exam, and I don't think my third uncle will blame me."
What are you saying?
The eldest brother frowned and gave Su Xiaosi a deep look. Remembering what his mother had said, "If they don't want to come, there's no need to force them," the eldest brother still wanted to persuade his younger brother.
She said, "All the other kids in the family went, even my cousin who's doing her PhD at Xiamen University rushed back. How can you not go? No matter how important the exam is, it can't compare to family. You need to understand that..."
"Brother, stop!"
Su Xiaosi raised her hand to stop her, "You don't worry about this because you have a stable job, but if I don't go to a good university, how will I get a good job in the future? I don't want to be like you, earning only a hundred or so yuan a month, nor do I want to be like my second and third brothers, relying on Mom to make a living. I want to have the ability to earn money in my own hands..."
Suddenly, a student's excited voice rang out in the office, "...It's solved!"
The sound of applause instantly echoed throughout the corridor.
Su Xiaosi felt a pang of annoyance and gave her older brother a reproachful look. "That's it, I'm going back now."
"Hey, Xiao Si!"
Su Laoda called out twice, but couldn't stop Su Xiaosi. Seeing his eagerness to ask about the solution, he sighed softly, turned around and left to pick up his younger sister Su Hongmei from her school.
Su Hongmei looked troubled and asked him, "Brother, did everyone else go?"
“…They’ve all gone, except for your fourth brother. I haven’t called your eldest sister yet,” said Su Laoda.
Su Hongmei hesitated for a moment, then said, "Big brother, if fourth brother isn't going, then I won't go either. As long as third uncle is alright, it won't make any difference whether I go or not..."
Boss Su frowned deeply and used the same words he used to advise Su Xiao Si to persuade Su Hongmei.
Su Hongmei frowned, thought for a while, and then shook her head, saying, "Big brother, I don't want to go. My cousins at grandma's house are all better at studying than me. Whenever we meet, they'll ask me how my studies are going, what my ranking is in the class, what my ranking is in the whole school, and whether I want to go to Tsinghua, Peking University, or Shanghai Jiao Tong University..."
Boss Su, "..."
"...And my uncle and aunt also like to lecture me, telling me to study hard and be filial to my mother, etc. It's the same every year, I only see them twice a year..."
Su Hongmei pursed her lips, thinking to herself that seeing them twice a year was enough for her, and she didn't want to go to their door and be scolded.
Boss Su was helpless.
He said, "Little sister, your third uncle almost lost his life. No one will say anything to you at this time. Besides, everyone else went, only you and your fourth brother didn't. Do you think that's the right thing to do?"
“I can’t help much even if I go. My third uncle doesn’t like me. He likes Mom.”
For a moment, Su Laoda didn't know what to say, and asked her one last time, "Really not going?"
Su Hongmei shook her head.
Boss Su nodded and said, "Then you should study hard."
He turned and left, found a phone booth outside, and called his younger sister, Su Hongying.
The person on the other end of the phone said they would go and call someone, but Su Hongying didn't arrive until about ten minutes later.
The eldest son told Su about his third uncle's injury and asked Su Hongying to go to the hospital. Su Hongying was immediately in an uproar.
"Mom has ruined my good life, why should I go back to her parents' house to see her brother? I'm not going! What does it matter to me whether he lives or dies? If she wants me to go, she'll have to come to my house to apologize to my mother-in-law and return the bicycle and the money!"
The eldest son of the Su family was stunned for a moment, then his eyes darkened. "Su Hongying, how can you talk like that? What do you mean by 'return'? Is the bicycle yours? Is the money yours? How dare you say such things? And, just because you're married, does that mean you're no longer my biological daughter? Does that mean you're no longer my uncle's niece? Every time I go back to my parents' home, haven't my uncle and his family given us some money? All those things I brought back, did you not eat any pickled vegetables, did you not spend any money, or did you not wear any clothes made of that fabric?! How can you say such things without a conscience?!"
"...I have no conscience! Fine, I have no conscience, okay? You're the only ones with a conscience. Have you ever cared about the kind of life I'm living? Zhang Haijun has been giving me attitude these past few days, and his whole family is constantly making things difficult for me. As soon as I open my eyes, there's a mountain of housework waiting for me to do. My hands are swollen from being soaked in the sweltering summer heat! And you're telling me you have a conscience?"
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