Chapter 98 Bah! You penniless wretch!
Shen Xuewei glanced at the expression on Chen's grandfather's face and sensed something was wrong.
If she doesn't step in soon, her grandfather might actually lend the money out.
She loosened her grip on the bowl, and a crisp "crack" sound interrupted Chen Xiangheng's complaints and drew everyone's attention to her.
Grandma Xi took her hand and looked her over, then quickly bent down to check her feet, saying anxiously:
"Weiwei, how could you be so careless? Are you hurt anywhere? Let Grandma check..."
Shen Xuewei shook her head. "Grandma, I'm fine. I just thought about some things and got a little lost in thought."
Seeing that she indeed had no wounds, Grandma Xi sat back down.
"It's good that you're alright. Let's clean up the mess after we finish eating, otherwise it won't taste good with the food covered in smoke and dust. By the way, did you remember something?"
“I remembered some things my second uncle told me to tell my maternal grandfather.”
Shen Xuewei stood up, walked to Grandpa Chen's side, and pulled him outside.
"Grandpa, come out quickly, I have something to tell you."
Grandpa Chen didn't know what she wanted to say to him, but seeing that she looked anxious, he figured it must be something urgent. He gave Chen Xiangheng an apologetic look, telling him to wait, and then followed Shen Xuewei outside.
Shen Xuewei led Grandpa Chen to the threshing ground, and seeing that no one from inside the house followed or eavesdropped, she finally spoke:
"Grandpa, you can't lend him money."
Grandpa Chen was taken aback for a moment. “Grandpa knows what’s going on. This isn’t something a child should be concerned with. Go back now.”
He really thought Shen Xuewei was going to say something important, but he didn't expect that she only pulled him out to prevent him from lending money to Xiang Heng.
Shen Xuewei, with a stern face, said:
“Grandpa, this isn’t what I wanted to say, it’s what my second uncle told me.”
Grandpa Chen was confused. "How did this get back to your second uncle?"
Chen Fangyang, who was used as a shield by Shen Xuewei, was sunbathing and dozing off on the beach.
For some reason, he suddenly sneezed twice in a row, instantly chasing away his sleepiness.
He pulled off his sunglasses, rubbed his temples, and muttered, "One sneeze means someone is thinking of me; two sneezes in a row probably mean someone is talking badly about me behind my back. Who did I offend this time?"
He couldn't figure it out, so he simply stopped thinking about it.
He leaned back and lay back down.
Shen Xuewei, on this side, first sighed, then said with a deep expression:
“Grandpa, don’t be fooled by how glamorous my second uncle’s life seems. Behind the scenes, he has told me countless times how difficult it is to be a live-in son-in-law, but he just doesn’t want to tell you.”
"As you know, our family is dirt poor. We have no house and no car, so his position as a live-in son-in-law is not secure."
When Grandpa Chen heard that Chen Fangyang's position as a live-in son-in-law was unstable, he was not worried about Chen Fangyang; in fact, he seemed rather pleased.
"If it's unstable, it's unstable. If it really becomes unstable someday, we can just bring him back."
Upon hearing this, Shen Xuewei choked for a moment. It turned out that her maternal grandfather still harbored resentment about her second uncle becoming a live-in son-in-law.
However, she quickly composed herself.
“Grandpa, the situation is different now. Don’t forget, my second uncle has already had a tubal ligation. Even if he divorces my second aunt and marries someone else, he won’t be able to have children.”
"Putting aside everything else, at least Xiannan gets along well with Second Uncle and treats him very well. If they really get divorced, Second Uncle will have nothing to do with him and won't take care of him in his old age."
"Besides, what's done is done now. At least my second uncle will still have money to spend with his wife."
"If he gets divorced, he won't have any money to spend, no children to support him, and he'll be lazy and unwilling to work. Won't he starve to death when he gets old?"
Grandpa Chen hadn't thought that far ahead at first, after all, Chen Fangyang was only thirty years old and had a long life ahead of him.
However, after Shen Xuewei mentioned it, he also began to worry about Chen Fangyang.
"Fang'er seems like a very practical person, she shouldn't look down on A-Yang, right?"
Shen Xuewei added fuel to the fire, saying, "Grandpa, people's hearts are fickle, and no one can guarantee what will happen in the future."
"That's why I just told you that I can't lend you this money."
“We need to leave some options for our second uncle, so that if he falls on hard times in the future, he'll still have a place to live. If we have money, why don't we build a house first?”
"Once the new house is built, my second aunt might be willing to bring Xiannan home to stay for a while each year when she has some free time. That way, my second uncle will have some face, and maybe the relationship between him and his wife will be better. The things my second uncle is worried about won't happen..."
"Besides, there's still my uncle, right? He has a bad reputation, and no one wants to marry him. Maybe someone will be willing to marry into the family because they've built a house there?"
She listed several benefits of building a new house, successfully persuading Grandpa Chen to change his mind.
"However, if we build a new house, we might not have enough money..."
Seeing that he was persuaded, Shen Xuewei became even more enthusiastic.
"Don't my second uncle and aunt send money home every month? If that's not enough, we can borrow some more from relatives, that should be enough. The sooner the house is built, the better..."
This house was going to be built sooner or later, so it's better to build it a few years earlier.
No matter what, she would never let Grandpa Chen lend money to Chen Xiangheng.
Chen Xiangheng didn't just come to his maternal grandfather's house to borrow money; he borrowed from other relatives as well, and then several years passed without him paying it back.
He even mocked others when they came to collect debts.
They say he's desperate for money, constantly asking about even a few thousand yuan, but he never said he wouldn't pay it back.
It dragged on for months, then a year, then several years, until finally someone couldn't take it anymore and insisted that Chen Xiangheng pay back the money.
Chen Xiangheng refused to repay the debt, and the man lost control and killed Chen Xiangheng's entire family...
After a few words, Grandpa Chen was successfully persuaded.
"Okay, Grandpa understands. Grandpa won't lend him money."
Hearing these words from him finally made Shen Xuewei breathe a sigh of relief.
The two returned to the house and sat back down in their original seats to eat.
Shen Xuewei changed to a new bowl and added some rice to her bowl.
Grandma Xi picked up a chicken leg for her. After she finished eating the meat, she tossed the chicken bone to Big Yellow, who was sitting behind her waiting.
Big Yellow opened its mouth and grabbed the chicken bone, then lay down on the ground and started gnawing on it.
After being persuaded by Shen Xuewei to go back inside, Chen's grandfather either avoided talking about Chen Xiangheng's complaints and his intention to borrow money, or made excuses that he had no money. Until the end of the meal, he did not agree to lend Chen Xiangheng a single penny.
Chen Xiangheng failed to borrow any money and left in a fit of rage, spitting at the Chen family as he went.
"Pah, you poor wretch! Your whole family died long ago, what are you pretending for!"
Shen Xuewei, who was standing on the drying ground teasing the dog, had extremely sensitive ears and clearly heard Chen Xiangheng's cursing.
Without the slightest hesitation, she opened her mouth and began to complain to the people inside the house:
"Grandpa and Grandma, he called us poor wretches! He even told us to die sooner!"
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