"Please don't be angry. After this warning, I doubt she'll dare to do it again. I'll just be more careful in the future," Qin Xiaoyu said, trying to calm her down, afraid of upsetting his wife.
"Over the years, I've always been soft-hearted and tried to save face for her, but she never gives me any face. I'll go back and lie down for a while and let me think about it." When the lady got up from the kang, she no longer had the imposing manner she had when she arrived. Her back was much more hunched, and a strand of white hair fell from her head, making her look even more haggard. Qin Xiaoyu quickly stepped forward to help her up and saw her out the door.
She saw her cousin-in-law waving through the glass door, so she quickly ran over.
"You're really something! I was worried you'd get the short end of the stick!" My cousin-in-law said with a smile. She had suffered enough humiliation over the years to fill a book, and today she was finally able to get her revenge.
"This fight has made me so hungry," Qin Xiaoyu sighed.
"Come over and have another meal if you're hungry. I'll fry some dumplings, you two sisters can go eat." The cousin got up and went into the kitchen. Qin Xiaoyu was initially a little worried, since this was someone's own mother who had been beaten, but the son didn't seem to care. It was clear that the aunt was truly unpopular.
"Second sister-in-law, I was just angry about what happened today, and I feel really bad for my second brother. Please help me persuade him." Qin Xiaoyu still wanted to save face for her cousin.
"You don't need to worry about that, your second brother won't feel sorry for his mother," his sister-in-law said nonchalantly.
"They are, after all, my own flesh and blood." Qin Xiaoyu smiled.
“Just because his mother did that kind of thing, even blood relatives are fake.” After saying that, the cousin’s wife told her cousin to stay busy in the kitchen, pulled Qin Xiaoyu into the inner room, and whispered, “I don’t consider you an outsider. To tell you the truth, your second brother in my family is not the second oldest, but the eldest.”
Qin Xiaoyu was taken aback. The two sons of her aunt's family were twins. The older cousin who lived at home was the younger one. The older one had been admitted to university and was doing well. He was a professor at the university and usually disdained to associate with ordinary people like them. They would only see each other twice a year. When he came back, he acted as if he was unapproachable. Now, her cousin's wife suddenly said that the older cousin was the eldest. Qin Xiaoyu felt that there must be something going on.
Sure enough, the twins looked exactly alike, but their academic performance was different. Tang Long's father had always been a top student, consistently ranking first from elementary school to high school. However, his younger brother was disappointing, always causing trouble and blaming his older brother for everything, which ultimately led to his poor college entrance exam results. Unfortunately, the older woman, being biased, called Tang Long's father over and told him to give his grades to his brother and take the exam again next year.
Tang Long's father was reluctant to agree, but his aunt was always domineering, and at that time his grandfather was seriously ill and the family was in chaos. He was a sensible child and used to being weak. He didn't want his wife to worry about him, so he reluctantly agreed.
"Did he repeat a year and still not pass the exam?" Qin Xiaoyu knew that if her cousin had passed the exam, he wouldn't be working in an electronics component factory.
"Hmph, she wouldn't let him take the exam. When the second child went to university, my mother-in-law started acting up again, saying we didn't have any money and forcing Tang Long's dad to go to work. Oh, you don't know, we were dating back then, and he cried in my arms. I felt so sorry for him. How did he end up with such a mother?" My cousin's wife said, her eyes welling up with tears as she recalled the past.
"That can't be! They're all the same sons, how can there be such favoritism?" Qin Xiaoyu felt this was illogical.
“How can you be close to a child you didn’t raise yourself? Didn’t you give birth to two at the same time? Tang Long’s father was not in good health when he was born, and we were afraid he wouldn’t survive, so my wife took him in and fed him herself. She has been with him ever since.” After her cousin-in-law explained it this way, Qin Xiaoyu understood everything.
"So, it's already pretty good that we can build you a house for your wedding," Qin Xiaoyu sighed, shaking her head.
"Nonsense! What good intentions does she have? From the moment Tang Long's father started working, she took all his salary to support his son's university education. When we were about to get married, she kept postponing it. Finally, the madam spoke up, and only then did she build us a house, saying she had taken out a loan and we had to pay it back. We still hadn't finished paying it off by the time Longlong was born. My postpartum period was so miserable; she wouldn't even give me an egg a day. She didn't care at all. My family couldn't stand it anymore and brought me some chicken soup. She would even curse me in the yard, saying I was ruining her reputation, not taking care of her daughter-in-law during her postpartum period, and that I was a bad mother-in-law. My family was so scared that when they came to bring me things, they had to stuff them in through the window. I cried so much during my postpartum period that I developed a condition where my eyes water in the wind. I used to have a job, but after Longlong was born, she wouldn't help take care of him, and eventually, I lost my job too." The cousin-in-law said, wiping away tears. Qin Xiaoyu felt a chill run down her spine. She searched her memory; Hanhan's grandmother wasn't good, but she wasn't as bad as the aunt. How did the host develop postpartum depression? My cousin's wife is quite strong.
"Sister-in-law, how did you get through it?"
“Isn’t it because of your second brother? He’s on my side. He’s coaxing me and persuading me. For his sake, I have to live well, don’t I?”
Qin Xiaoyu was enlightened by her cousin's words: men are a woman's strong support, and her cousin's sister-in-law didn't suffer from postpartum depression because she had her cousin's love and care. But the host had nothing, so of course she couldn't handle it.
"Stop chatting and come eat dumplings," my cousin called out as he opened the door.
This time he drank another glass of wine, more than an ounce. His eyes were red, and he didn't say much. His sister-in-law didn't stop him and even poured him another glass herself.
Qin Xiaoyu didn't have any external injuries, but her lower back was aching slightly. She didn't go to the hair salon anyway, since there would be less work after the holiday. She figured she could explain to Master Wang tomorrow and he would understand.
That night, she locked the door, afraid that someone might cause trouble again, as scaring the children would be a serious matter. Watching the two little ones lying on the kang (a heated brick bed), the younger sister quickly fell asleep. Qin Xiaoyu stroked her hair and awkwardly said, "Stroking your hair won't scare you." This was a method the adults used when she was a child; whether it worked or not, she'd give it a try.
Hanhan watched her do these things intently, her big eyes blinking.
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