Chapter 42 Why did you bring him back again?!
Her sister-in-law, Wang Hongxiang, immediately rolled her eyes, her voice sharp and sarcastic enough to peel off a layer of skin.
"Oh! I knew it! A married daughter is like water spilled from a bowl; why are you trying to bring that water back in?"
"You run back to your parents' home after being mistreated at your in-laws' house? Do you think your parents' home is a refuge?"
"Still such a temper? Arguing with a man? I think you've had too comfortable a life and don't know your own limitations!"
Wang Hongxiang stood with her hands on her hips, spitting almost onto Li Hongjuan's face.
"You keep running back to your parents' house every other day. Doesn't your parents' food go to them? Our big and little babies still need to eat!"
From then on, Li Hongjuan's days at her parents' home became even more difficult.
Her brother and sister-in-law would frequently nudge her, urging her to go back to her husband's family home.
“Hongjuan, what couple doesn’t argue? They’ll make up before they get out of bed. You should go back home. Staying at your parents’ house all the time isn’t good; people will laugh at you.”
Li Hongjuan spent several more days at her parents' home, feeling as if each day was an eternity.
Her brother Li Dajiang's gaze towards her became increasingly strange, and her sister-in-law Wang Hongxiang made veiled accusations, constantly referring to her as a "freeloader."
Li Hongjuan couldn't take it anymore. One day, she found an opportunity and secretly ran to the grove at the entrance of the village to meet Zhong Chengfa.
Upon meeting, Li Hongjuan's eyes immediately welled up with tears.
"Chengfa, I can't live like this anymore!"
Her voice was choked with sobs, suppressing her anger and grievances.
"I'm at my parents' house, working myself to the bone, taking turns with my sister-in-law to do the chores, and she still gives me the cold shoulder every day!"
"I can't eat a meal in peace, for fear they'll accuse me of freeloading!"
"Tell me, what kind of mess is this?!"
Li Hongjuan wiped away her tears and looked at Zhong Chengfa: "Give me a straight answer, what are we going to do?"
Zhong Cheng rubbed his hands together, looking worried; he hadn't had a good time lately either.
He lowered his head, kicking at the pebbles at his feet, and after a long while, he finally stammered, "I've thought about it..."
Li Hongjuan's eyes lit up, and she hurriedly asked, "What did you think of?"
Zhong Chengfa then raised his head, a calculating glint in his eyes.
“I was thinking, maybe… I should take Hongqing back first.”
"Isn't Mom the one who loves her grandson the most? When she sees Hongqing, her heart softens, and maybe her anger will subside."
"Then you can go back to your mother, apologize, and the matter will be over, right?"
Li Hongjuan listened and felt that although the idea was not very clever, there seemed to be no other way at the moment.
She gritted her teeth: "Then... let's give it a try!"
Upon receiving these words, Zhong Chengfa felt as if he had received a royal decree, and that very afternoon he took Zhong Hongqing back to the Zhong family home.
As a result, Zhong Chengfa never expected Zhang Chunxue to be so ruthless, even abandoning her grandson.
We rushed as fast as we could, and by the time we arrived at Lijia Village, it was completely dark, probably past nine o'clock at night.
Zhong Chengfa steeled himself and went to knock on the door.
"Knock knock knock!"
"Who is it? It's so late!" came the impatient voice of Li Hongjuan's older brother, Li Dajiang, from inside the house.
The door creaked open a crack, and Li Dajiang poked his head out. When he saw Zhong Chengfa holding a child, his face immediately darkened.
He simply opened the door and blocked the entrance, showing no intention of letting Zhong Chengfa into the house.
"Hey, brother-in-law, it's so late, what's this all about?" Li Dajiang asked with a forced smile.
Zhong Chengfa felt uncomfortable under his gaze and gave a dry laugh: "Big brother, I...I brought Hongqing here..."
"Bring Hongqing over?" Li Dajiang raised an eyebrow, his voice suddenly rising several decibels.
"What's going on? Your daughter lives at her parents' house all the time, and now even your grandson wants to live at his maternal grandparents' house?"
He looked Zhong Chengfa up and down, his eyes full of disdain.
"Our Li family isn't a wealthy family; we can't afford to support so many idle people!"
"Brother-in-law, you've got a really clever plan!"
"When you married Hongjuan, why didn't you think of marrying into our Li family?"
"Wouldn't that make it perfectly legitimate? It would save us from having to send our kids and wife to our father-in-law's house like this. Doesn't that look embarrassing?"
Li Dajiang's words were like a series of awls, piercing Zhong Chengfa's heart.
Zhong Chengfa's face turned bright red, and his hands, which were holding Zhong Hongqing, trembled with anger.
He's never been caught in this kind of situation before!
“You…” Zhong Chengfa was so angry that his lips trembled, and he couldn’t utter a complete sentence for a long time.
"Let's go!" He stomped his foot, grabbed Zhong Hongqing, and turned to leave.
Li Dajiang snorted from behind and slammed the door shut.
Zhong Chengfa, seething with anger, carried Zhong Hongqing and hurried back, stumbling along the way.
The night breeze was chilly, and the father and son's stomachs were growling with hunger.
By the time they returned to the Zhong family home, it was past midnight.
The courtyard was quiet, and the lights in the main room had long been turned off.
Zhong Chengfa tiptoed into the courtyard carrying Zhong Hongqing, afraid of disturbing Zhang Chunxue.
He first peeked into the kitchen.
Hey! There really are leftovers in the pot!
Although it was already cold, it was a delicacy for the starving father and son.
Zhong Chengfa didn't care about anything else and quickly brought out the food. Not daring to eat in the main room, he squatted under the eaves at the kitchen door, and the father and son wolfed down their food in the cold night wind.
After finishing their meal, Zhong Chengfa secretly washed the dishes and chopsticks, then carried the sleepy Zhong Hongqing back to his room and quietly fell asleep.
The next day, Zhang Chunxue woke up as soon as the sun shone on the windowpane.
She shuffled into the kitchen and immediately spotted the clean pots and pans on the stove.
Looking at that empty rice cooker, how could one not understand?
Zhang Chunxue immediately snorted coldly, and a surge of anger rose up in her chest!
Without saying a word, she turned around and went to Zhong Chengfa's room.
"Bang!"
With a loud bang, Zhong Chengfa's door was kicked open by her!
Zhong Chengfa was fast asleep when the noise startled him so much that he jumped out of bed with a start.
"Who...who is it?!"
He was still sleepy and hadn't finished speaking when Zhang Chunxue grabbed his ear.
"Ouch! Mom! Mom! It hurts, it hurts, it hurts!" Zhong Chengfa howled like a pig being slaughtered, his face instantly losing all color, looking as guilty as a mouse that had seen a cat.
Zhong Hongqing, who was on the inside of the bed, was also startled awake by the commotion. He burst into tears with a shrill and pitiful cry.
In no time, the Zhong family's small courtyard was filled with angry curses from the old, wailing cries from the young, and screams from the men—it was more lively than a grand opera performance!
Zhang Chunxue completely ignored her grandson's crying; all she could see now was her good-for-nothing eldest son!
"Didn't I tell you to send this little brat back?!" she demanded sharply, increasing the pressure on her hand. "Why did you bring him back again?!"
Zhong Cheng grimaced in pain and begged for mercy, "Mom! Mom! Let go! I'll talk! I'll talk!"
Zhang Chunxue relaxed a little, but her gaze was still like a knife scraping his face.
Zhong Chengfa rubbed his burning ears, his face contorted with grief, and said, "Mom, it's not that I don't want to send him off! It's...it's that the Li family doesn't want him! His uncle, Li Dajiang, said that Hongqing is a descendant of the Zhong family, and his surname is Zhong, so the Li family doesn't care about him!"
As he spoke, his eyes darted around, and he suddenly knelt down before Zhang Chunxue, grabbing her legs and wailing.
"Mom! You're my own mother! Hongqing is your own grandson!"
Even if... even if he's wrong and makes a huge mistake, he's still just a three-year-old child!
"You're a magnanimous person, please don't hold a grudge against a child, okay?"
"Look how thin he is! He hasn't been eating or sleeping well these past few days, he's practically unrecognizable!"
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