Breakfast ended in a scramble between Qin Xiaoxiao and Qin Ye. Qin Xiaoxiao refused to give in, and Qin Ye didn't act like a big brother at all today, so he got hit several times, which made Qin Yue and Su Yun cover their mouths and laugh.
The atmosphere at the Qin family's house was harmonious, but the atmosphere at the Su family's house was gloomy, and Su Zhiyuan had a very unpleasant breakfast.
The reason was that Su Zhiyuan saw Qin Xiaoxiao and Su Lu getting along quite well yesterday, which lessened his guilt somewhat. In a moment of joy, he had Wan Guihua cook a wild rabbit that night.
This wild rabbit was actually caught by Su Lu when he was at home. Wan Guihua made it into dried rabbit. As soon as Su Zhiyuan tasted the rabbit, he thought of his youngest son again.
Wan Guihua felt the same way. The couple looked at each other and understood what the other meant; they both missed their youngest son.
So the two of them mentioned Su Lu during dinner, which made the other families object.
"Father, do you regret separating the family?"
"You're not happy that your family and children were separated from you, are you?"
"Speaking of which, this house we live in now was built by my younger brother. He doesn't live here anymore, but we're living here just fine. Dad, you've regretted it for a long time, haven't you?"
“Father, if that’s how you are, then we have to have something to say. Yes, my younger brother bought a lot of things for the family, but he hasn’t really worked in the fields much over the years. The food in the family is earned by us. Without food, no matter how capable he is, it’s useless. He’ll starve to death sooner or later.”
“That’s right. He hasn’t worked in the fields to earn work points all these years, so what have we said? Even though he bought a lot of things for the house, we haven’t been idle either.”
"That's right, we're not idle either. Every day we're working ourselves to the bone in the fields to earn work points and food. It's just that my younger brother is lying at home all day like he has nothing to do."
...
Once one person started it, the others followed suit and criticized Su Lu. They were only doing so because Su Lu wasn't there; otherwise, they wouldn't have dared to say such things to his face.
A perfectly good meal turned into this just because Su Lu was mentioned. Su Zhiyuan and Wan Guihua lost their appetite. While they were angry at their three sons for being ungrateful, they were also angry that Qin Xiaoxiao and Su Lu had abandoned them. If they had lived together, they wouldn't have had to put up with their sons and daughters-in-law's temper today.
Su Zhiyuan sighed deeply, unable to eat anymore, put down his chopsticks and got off the table.
As soon as he put down his chopsticks, Wan Guihua couldn't eat anymore and also got off the table.
At night, the elderly couple couldn't sleep, so they blew out the oil lamp and chatted in the dark.
"Do you think if we said we wanted to live with Lao Xiao now, would he... Xiao Xiao agree?"
Wan Guihua was unwilling to let her beloved youngest son, whom she had cherished for over twenty years, be separated from her family. She missed her son.
Su Zhiyuan sighed, "Let's not even talk about whether they will agree or not. Even if they do agree, where will the four of us live? Will we live with them in the educated youth compound?"
Besides, we already offended our youngest son to death by dividing the family property. Now he doesn't even greet me when he sees me, acting like he doesn't see me at all. Do you still want to live with him? Are you counting on him to take care of us in our old age?
Don't get your hopes up, that's impossible.
And then there's the old daughter-in-law.
With her temper, do you think she'd accept us?
Don't forget the scene she caused at home back then; she beat up the entire Su family, not even sparing the children. Besides us, only our parents escaped her beatings. If you were to live with her, could you really get over it?"
Upon hearing Su Zhiyuan's words, Wan Guihua suddenly remembered her old daughter-in-law's fierceness and couldn't help but shudder.
"Little girl, she's quite a fighter."
"That girl never suffers any loss and always protects her family. Her youngest son married her, and she protected him."
You wouldn't believe it, when she saw me during the day, she didn't even greet me, completely ignored me, and even after I stood up for her and dealt with that girl Zhou Ying, she didn't say thank you at all, and even turned around and left.
After hearing this, Wan Guihua felt even more resentful towards Qin Xiaoxiao.
If Wan Guihua liked Qin Xiaoxiao a lot before, she hates Qin Xiaoxiao just as much now.
She used to think she was good enough for her youngest son, but now she only regrets agreeing to the marriage.
Of course, she couldn't refuse; her youngest son was determined to marry her, and even separated the family property before the wedding for her sake. There was nothing she could do about it.
She'd already hurt the jade bottle by hitting the rat; if she dared to punish Qin Xiaoxiao, her youngest son would definitely not let it go, even if she was his own mother.
Wan Guihua's lips twitched bitterly. "If our youngest son were willing to listen to us, I would never agree to him marrying Qin Xiaoxiao."
Su Zhiyuan sat up on the kang (a heated brick bed), grabbed a cigarette box from the side, and rolled a cigarette by the moonlight. "What's the use of saying all that? It's too late to say anything now. I even regret spoiling my youngest son too much. Is it any use? No!"
Sometimes I wonder if we were too greedy? If we hadn't had the idea of him taking care of our three sons, things wouldn't have turned out this way.
The eldest, second, and third sons are hopeless; they're like mud that can't be helped, and that's absolutely true. They're just a lump of mud that can't be helped up no matter what.
Su Lu, sigh, this child is the most shrewd and capable among his sons, he's really smart enough, but he's just too disobedient.
We're all family. Knowing what happened to the older brothers, why can't we lend a hand?
After rolling the cigarette, Su Zhiyuan pushed the cigarette box aside, lit the pipe, and took a deep drag. He coughed for a long time because of the smoke, which startled Wan Guihua, who quickly got up to massage his back and then got out of bed to pour him a glass of water.
The two of them did everything in the dark without turning on any lights. Fortunately, the floor of the house was paved with cement and they were familiar with the layout of the house, otherwise Wan Guihua would have bumped into things a few times.
After taking a sip of water, Su Zhiyuan handed the water tank to Wan Guihua and then took another puff of his cigarette.
“I went there today, but my youngest son wasn’t there. He must have gone out again. Although he only gives us a little each time, I know that he always brings back a lot of money when he goes out, and he hides it all in his room.”
"If it were before, we would have had a share of this money, but now... we have nothing."
To be honest, he never expected his eldest, second, and third sons to support him in his old age. He was really counting on Su Lu. But now that things have turned out this way, it's impossible for Su Lu to support him in his old age unless he abandons his whole family and shamelessly follows him. Otherwise, the money will never reach his hands.
Su Lu and Qin Xiaoxiao never expected that even now, Su Zhiyuan would still be eyeing the money in Su Lu's hands. If they knew, the two of them would probably immediately find a way to leave Qinjiagou and never come back in this lifetime.
The couple sighed deeply and quickly lay down again, but both were preoccupied and neither could fall asleep. They spent the night like this, until the next morning at breakfast, when a new round of arguments began. (End of Chapter)
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