Chapter 22 None of them are easy to deal with.
Li Banxia glanced at him indifferently, "The job I found for you requires you to be hardworking and resilient. If you don't do it well, you'll get beaten up!"
"ah……"
Su Laosan twitched the corner of his mouth. "Well, I'll try to find it myself first, and if it really doesn't work, I'll trouble you, Mom... okay?"
Li Banxia lowered her eyes and hummed in agreement.
"I'm done eating."
Su Lao Er put down his bowl, stood up, and had only taken two steps when Li Banxia called him back.
"If you wash your own dishes, who will wash them for you?"
Su Lao Er frowned deeply and glanced at Li Banxia, but Li Banxia didn't even look up.
Su Lao Er took a couple of breaths, walked back, picked up the bowls and chopsticks, went to the hand pump well, pumped it hard, and quickly rinsed the bowls and chopsticks with the water from the spout.
I was going to put it back on the square table, but after taking a couple of steps, I turned around and took it back to the kitchen.
He had a strange feeling that if he dared to put it back on the square table, his mother would definitely make him take it back to the kitchen!
Su Lao Er gritted his teeth, came out of the kitchen, went back into the house to pick up his tool bag, and went to work.
With his example as a precedent, after Su Laosan finished his porridge, without Li Banxia having to say anything, he obediently went to wash his own bowl and chopsticks and put them back in the kitchen.
Li Banxia and her husband finished eating. Li Banxia cleared the dishes and told Su Laoda and his wife to go back to their room to clean up and hurry to work so they wouldn't be late for their morning class.
Old Su followed Li Banxia into the kitchen, intending to take a steamed bun from the steamer basket.
Li Banxia grabbed the aluminum pot lid and slammed it hard against Old Man Su's arm.
"ah!"
Old Su winced in pain, clutching his arm and backing away. "Li Banxia, you hit me again! You've gone mad! Where did the gentle and kind Li Banxia go..."
"Dead!"
Li Banxia looked at him coldly, "Before I brought the money back, I found out you were stealing food from home, so I went to your auto parts factory again..."
"What are you doing now?"
Old Su felt a lump in his throat and said angrily, "Haven't you made me suffer enough? Why are you still going!"
"So, keep your paws to yourself and don't touch what you shouldn't!"
Li Banxia put the steamed bun basket on the cabinet, covered it with a cloth, washed the dishes and put them in the bowl holes, came out of the kitchen, went back to the house to get her bag and car keys, and went to work.
Old Su was furious. He wanted to take the food without a care, but he was worried that Li Banxia would really cause trouble. He didn't know how to face his colleagues at the factory. If she caused another disturbance, he might as well just retire on medical grounds.
"Fine, I won't eat then. I'm not going to starve to death if I skip a meal."
Old Su lifted his foot and stomped heavily on the ground with a sense of pride, leaving the kitchen.
"Mom and Dad, we're going to work."
Old Su pushed his bicycle and left the courtyard with his wife.
Li Banxia sighed and set off a step behind them.
Old Man Su was a step behind Li Banxia. When he came out after changing his clothes, only Su Laosan was left, fanning himself with a palm leaf fan.
"Your mom rode off on her bicycle again?"
Su Laosan nodded.
Old Man Su: "...Then what should I do?"
He asked his second brother for that little bit of money, but he's already spent it all.
How will he go to the factory today?
"Third brother, lend me yours..."
Su Laosan slumped in his rocking chair, spreading his hands. "Dad, you think too highly of me. When have I ever had any money?"
Old Man Su glared at him, "Go out and find a job right now!"
"...Look, look, look, I'll go in a bit."
Old Su shook his palm-leaf fan and covered his face. Hmm, he felt sleepy after eating. He would sleep for a while, just a little while, and then go back to work when he woke up...
Old Su went out and ran into a colleague. He wanted to ask the colleague for a ride fare.
To his surprise, the person saw him, curled their lip in disgust, and walked away, avoiding him.
Old Su was so angry he almost fell over. He cursed Li Banxia a few times, then went to He Taohua's house and borrowed ten yuan from her.
He'll be paid in two days, and he'll have money soon.
Su Hongmei drank so much water that the teachers thought she was sick because she had to run to the toilet so often.
Finally, school was over, but Su Hongmei couldn't hold back any longer. She ran to Su Hongying's in-laws' house, hugged Su Hongying, and cried uncontrollably, saying that her mother was abusing her, not giving her any food, and was going to starve her to death.
Su Hongying was completely confused. Her mother-in-law felt sorry for Su Hongmei and gave her some food, telling Su Hongying to take her home and have a good talk with her mother. There was no way the mother and daughter could hold a grudge overnight.
While Su Hongmei was wolfing down her food, he pulled Su Hongying aside and whispered a few words of advice to her.
Su Hongying patted her chest with a smile, "Mom, don't worry, my mom will definitely agree. Anyway, my older brother and sister-in-law's school isn't far away, so it's the same as letting them take the government bus to work."
"I heard your sister-in-law is pregnant. It's safer to ride in a car than on the back of a bicycle."
Su Hongying's mother-in-law smiled and said, "Please thank your mother for me."
Su Hongying nodded in agreement.
After leaving the Zhang family's house, Su Hongying patted Su Hongmei on the back of the head and asked her, "What's going on? You eat like a starving ghost."
"Big sister..."
Su Hongmei tearfully recounted everything Li Banxia had done in the past two days.
"Mom's gone mad! She wants to starve me to death for some outsider! All I said was one sentence about Yao Jianshu..."
Su Hongying frowned.
"Didn't Mom dislike Yao Jianshu? Back then, in order to buy a job for my second brother, she forced Yao Jianshu to hand over her dowry money. And didn't she control both her and my eldest brother's salaries?"
"No way! Yesterday, Mom set rules for my eldest brother and the others. I heard it all from inside the room. Mom told my third brother to find a job and that my second and third brothers should pay living expenses to the family every month. If they don't pay, they won't eat. My eldest brother and Yao Jianshu only paid forty yuan!"
Su Hongmei pouted and said indignantly, "Mom also said that when my second, third, and fourth brothers get married, she will only give them 660 yuan and a bicycle ticket. If the other party has any other requests, they can figure it out themselves."
"ah?"
Su Hongying looked puzzled. "What's wrong with Mom?"
"have no idea."
The two sisters boarded the bus and soon arrived at the auto parts factory residential area stop.
Back home, Li Banxia was cooking in the kitchen. She heated the pan, poured in oil, and sautéed dried red chilies, garlic slices, and chopped green onions until fragrant. Then she added shredded potatoes, vinegar, and stir-fried them until just cooked through before adding scallions and other seasonings.
The seasonings at home are homemade by Li Banxia. More than a dozen kinds of herbs are stir-fried, ground, and mixed together in a certain proportion. Adding them to dishes can regulate the spleen and stomach.
"Wow, Mom, there's braised pork today..."
Su Hongying's eyes lit up when she saw a large lunchbox of glistening, tempting braised pork on the stove. "Mom, save half a box for me. I'll take it home for my mother-in-law and the others to try. And steamed eggs... Do we have any eggs at home? Pack them all up for me in a bit..."
"Buy it yourself if you want to eat it. This was bought by your older brother and sister-in-law at the school cafeteria."
Li Banxia glanced at her and Su Hongmei, who was hiding behind her, and refused outright.
After the shredded potatoes were cooked and plated, Li Banxia asked Su Hongying what she had come for.
Su Hongying said "Oh," then pouted and scolded, "Mom, what's wrong with you? My little sister didn't mean anything by it, why won't you let her eat because of an outsider? She came to my house hungry, and my mother-in-law felt sorry for her and cried pitifully, so she gave her all the pastries she had saved for her brother-in-law. A box of them cost several yuan, you have to make up for that later..."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
