Chapter 199 Apology
Mr. Li stood up, and Old Qiu made the woman apologize.
The woman glared at Li's father and spat lightly on the ground.
Old Qiu gripped the old man's wrist tightly, causing the old man to cry out in pain. He cursed at the woman, "You wicked woman, are you trying to kill me with pain? Hurry up and apologize to him!"
The woman felt sorry for the old man and reached out to help him up, but Old Qiu was watching her, so she could only lower her head and apologize.
"Brother, look, she's already apologized, you should let go now."
The old man was yelling and screaming. Old Qiu threw him aside and said, "This is the last time. If there's a next time, I'll cripple your hands."
"Cripple my hand?"
The old man clutched his hand, on the verge of tears, and bargained, "Why didn't you cripple her hand since she went to find someone?"
"Qiu Lao Er, you bastard, who am I doing this for?"
The woman lunged at the old man, trying to tear at his clothes, but the old man, impatient, raised his hand and slapped her across the face.
The woman's eyes turned even redder.
He turned and glared hatefully at Old Qiu and Li's father.
Old Qiu glanced at his younger brother, "Would your wife dare to do this without your indulgence? Don't push all the blame onto a woman! You two are perfectly capable, yet you choose to deceive her, and you still don't know how to repent..."
"Why can your wife do it but I can't? We're all wives of the Qiu family! I'm not convinced."
Old Qiu glanced at her and said, "If you don't want to be Qiu Wangshi, I can make the second son divorce you right now. Go and act tough at whose house you want!"
The woman's expression changed. She glanced at Qiu Lao Er, who was smiling obsequiously at Old Qiu, and dared not raise her voice at Old Qiu again. She then turned her attention to Li's father.
"All I did was spit twice. Not a single drop of it fell on your wife or your daughter. I didn't take a penny, and I even cooked you a meal for free. Why did you have to come and ruin my plans?!"
Mr. Li frowned and gave her a half-smile. “I asked Sister-in-law Qiu to help take care of my nephew’s wife and great-grandson. You went and ruined everything, and now I’m not allowed to come to your door to ask what happened?”
Old Qiu's face turned cold.
"You lied to me, and now I can't even talk about it?"
He kicked Qiu Lao Er, who cried out and fell to his knees with a thud.
Enraged, he glared at the woman and cursed, "You wretched woman, if you keep babbling, get the hell out of the Qiu family right now!"
"Why should I?!"
The woman was so angry that she was panting heavily. "I gave birth to a son and a daughter for your Qiu family. I am a meritorious person in your Qiu family. You can't drive me away."
“Any woman can give birth, how come you only had one son? If you had given birth to another child and he could have been adopted by the eldest son’s family, my brother’s family line wouldn’t have ended. You shameful thing, get back home right now.”
Qiu Lao Er looked up at Lao Qiu with a forced smile, "Big brother, if you want to hit someone, hit her. My old arms and legs can't take a beating. If you break them, no one will call you big brother anymore."
Old Qiu looked down at him and said, "I'm a man, I don't hit women, and I certainly won't hit my sister-in-law. Just remember this: if I ever find out she's using the Qiu family name to cause trouble for others behind our backs again, I'll take one of your fingers. If I don't have enough fingers, I'll chop off your toes..."
Qiu Lao Er's expression changed drastically.
He shook his head vigorously, shouting, "If she dares to do that, I'll kill her first!"
The old woman glared angrily at Qiu Er.
Old Qiu, impatient with the couple's lawsuit, waved for them to leave.
Qiu Lao Er couldn't get up immediately and asked the woman to help him. "You have no sense at all! You want to get me beaten by my older brother?"
The woman, with a cold face, pulled him up and helped him away.
After everyone had gone, Old Qiu solemnly apologized to Li's father.
How can this be your fault?
Mr. Li helped him up, and the two chatted for a while. Mr. Li had lunch at Old Qiu's house and rushed home in the afternoon, by which time it was almost dark.
In November, the nights are even cooler, sometimes even a bit cold.
Li's mother sat under a tree in the yard, with an old-fashioned glass-shaded lamp hanging from the trunk above her head. When the wind blew, it would spin like a carousel, casting different shadows on the ground.
As Li's mother was watching the shadow, a bicycle bell suddenly rang outside the door.
She looked up and met Li's father's gaze as he pushed the cart into the yard, and a smile immediately appeared on her face.
The next moment, he stood up and went to greet her, "You're back? I'll go get dinner."
The elderly couple ate and talked at the same time.
Mr. Li briefly recounted what had happened at the Qiu family's house. Mrs. Li sighed, "It must have been tough for the couple. Taking care of a little granddaughter like that will definitely attract unwanted attention and people will try to take advantage of them."
Speaking of the Qiu family's granddaughter, Li's mother looked at Li's father and asked, "...Will that granddaughter go with her grandmother to Xiaxia's place? Isn't she going to take over her grandmother's job?"
Mr. Li, "..."
Oh no, I forgot to ask.
"She'll probably be following along. She was twelve a few years ago, but now... she'll be a grown woman."
Li's mother frowned slightly. "Isn't this inconvenient?"
"How about we meet the person first?" Li's father suggested.
Li's mother hesitated for a moment, then nodded, "Let's see her after she finishes her last job. I don't dare bring her directly to Xiaxia again. That girl has been so busy lately that her eyes are always dark and swollen. She's been handling so much on her own..."
Thinking of her daughter's current situation, Li's mother sighed with heartache.
"Okay, I'll listen to you," said Mr. Li, who was also worried.
A few days later, Old Qiu arrived with his wife and granddaughter.
As soon as Li's mother saw Old Qiu's wife, she knew that Li's father had not lied to her.
Old Qiu's wife seemed to be a good-tempered person. She spoke gently, had a kind face, and her hands were fair and fleshy, as soft as cotton to the touch.
She explained, "My hands are used to hold children, and when I change their clothes, wash their faces, or bathe them, they come into contact with their skin. They need to be soft and tender so as not to hurt them. It's the same principle as how people used to nourish their hands to do embroidery."
This meticulous method was unknown to Li's mother.
"That……"
Li's mother glanced at the kitchen, then at her hands, wondering if these hands were still capable of cooking for a new mother.
Old Qiu's wife noticed her worry at a glance and smiled, offering to prepare some dishes for them to see first.
She asked Lao Qiu to open the large and small bags he had brought, and Li Tou found them overflowing with ingredients.
She herself put on a pair of leather gloves, which fit snugly on her fingers.
The granddaughter assisted, while Old Qiu's wife took the lead. Her knife skills were so swift and precise that Li's mother's eyelids twitched; she clearly had some real skill.
Old Qiu explained with a smile, "Her family runs a martial arts school."
"That's very rare."
Li's mother turned to look at Li's father, but she had never heard him mention this before. She was eager to spar with someone her age who also knew martial arts.
Mr. Li shook his head; he didn't know.
When he met Lao Qiu, his wife was already like this.
With the ingredients prepared, the granddaughter tended the fire and controlled the heat, while Old Qiu's wife cooked the dishes, explaining the techniques to her granddaughter as she cooked. The granddaughter multitasked, and the grandmother and granddaughter worked together seamlessly, quickly preparing about twenty nutritious meals.
With a balanced mix of meat and vegetables and a rich array of colors, this dish is not just a meal, but a visual treat at first glance.
Old Qiu's wife took off her leather gloves, handed over a pair of chopsticks, and asked Li's mother to taste the dish.
Li's mother didn't refuse and tried them one by one. She had to admit that the taste was indeed superb. Compared to the one made by the woman earlier, it was worlds apart and simply incomparable.
As she tasted the food, Old Qiu's wife meticulously explained the precautions for caring for children and new mothers, covering every aspect and detail. Li's mother was extremely satisfied.
But when she saw her sixteen or seventeen-year-old granddaughter, she hesitated.
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