Aunt Pan from next door smelled the aroma of meat, her face darkened, she slammed down her chopsticks, and angrily said, "Look at you, look at you! All you do is stay at home and enjoy capitalist lifestyles. You only know how to eat something good every now and then, but you never send us anything good to eat. Bah!"
She looks like a vixen, and she seems like a troublemaker. Bo Gong is so handsome and has such a good job, but he married a jinx who's never home and doesn't act like a proper wife at all. I bet she's having an affair.
She went on and on, but everyone else just kept eating and drinking, completely ignoring what she had just said. This made Aunt Pan even angrier: "Eat, eat, eat! Didn't any of you hear what I said? Stop eating!"
She reached out and snatched the bowls from her granddaughters, placing them in front of her grandsons. With a loving smile, she urged them to eat quickly, saying she had snacks in the house to satisfy their cravings if they weren't full. The granddaughters, however, could only watch helplessly as their grandmother divided her food among her younger brothers, too afraid to cry.
When Pan's eldest daughter-in-law saw her daughters looking aggrieved, she pretended not to see anything. She touched her own belly and secretly cursed her for being so useless, giving birth to such worthless things. Even though she was the eldest daughter-in-law, she still had to bow her head to the second and third sons' families and endure their ridicule.
She thought that no matter what, she had to give birth to a boy to prove herself.
Old Man Pan dipped his chopsticks in a little wine. He was used to Old Woman Pan's complaints. She took care of everything at home. He only needed to go to work and come home to a meal. He didn't need to worry about anything else.
Seeing Old Man Pan like this, Aunt Pan got angry and snatched the small wine cup from him, preventing him from drinking: "Drink, drink, drink! Why don't you drink yourself to death? You said last time the factory distributed wolf meat, why didn't you get any? You're one of the factory's old folks, why can't we get any? I think that vixen is bullying us and withholding our meat!"
"Why did you snatch my wine glass? Look at all that's spilled on the table! It breaks my heart! You spendthrift old woman, do you know how expensive this little bit of wine is? I only dare to dip my chopsticks in it every day just to taste it, and you've spilled three months' worth!"
Old Man Pan felt sorry for his wine, and after saying that, he quickly bent down to lick the wine off the table. He didn't notice Old Woman Pan's ugly face. Then, there was a loud "waa" and Old Woman Pan lay on the ground, throwing a tantrum and crying about how hard she had been all these years.
"I don't want to live anymore! Who am I doing this for? Isn't it all for this family? You, on the other hand, don't have to worry about anything, leaving me to worry about the family all by myself. Now I even have to be at your beck and call. What's the point of me living? I might as well let God take me!"
Seeing this, the others quickly finished their porridge and returned to their respective rooms. This house was where Old Man Pan had worked for decades. The factory allocated two-bedroom apartments to them. Their house was built a long time ago, one of the earliest ones to be completed.
Bo Jingran's row of dormitories was a newly built mixed dormitory, with rooms of all sizes. Their family lived in the row behind Bo Jingran.
Seeing that no one paid attention to her, Aunt Pan cried louder and louder, and gradually began to curse with all the swear words she could, from the old to the young, cursing everyone she disliked, especially Xu Qingqing, whom she cursed the longest and most swearing.
Xu Qingqing was slurping noodles when she suddenly heard Aunt Pan making a fuss behind the house. At first, she didn't pay attention, but when she heard her being cursed with foul language and even being cursed to die, she realized that this was going too far.
She ran out with a large bowl of noodles in her hand, her gaze falling on the boiling water. She paused for three seconds, and Bo Jingran behind her immediately understood. He carried the pot of boiling water and followed behind Xu Qingqing, watching her slurp a mouthful of water as she walked. By the time they reached the other side, she had almost finished eating the noodles, leaving only the bone broth.
With her back against the wall, Xu Qingqing saw Aunt Pan's dirty appearance and, after finishing the large bone soup in one go, mocked her:
"Hey! Whose old female dog is barking like that in heat? It sounds like a ghost howling. Anyone who didn't know better would think a pig was being slaughtered. Even the neighbor's cat in heat sounds better than you. You're so old. No matter how thirsty you are, don't you think about your husband's health? At the speed at which you go into heat, your husband is in danger!"
"Bullshit! You vixen, you're always out there seduceing men, and you even dare to spread lies about me! Bah!" Old Mrs. Pan retorted immediately upon recognizing her as a vixen.
“Auntie, don’t think that just because you’re old I’ll tolerate you. I’m not one to respect the elderly and care for the young. If you swear again, I won’t hit you, I’ll hit your son and grandson.”
When Aunt Pan heard Xu Qingqing say she was going to beat her precious grandson, she was furious. She immediately got up, bared her teeth and claws, and charged at Xu Qingqing, yelling, "You vixen, how dare you touch my grandson! I'll fight you to the death!"
The Pan family only had two or three precious boys, and they doted on them immensely. They were the most important in the family, and everything had to be prioritized for them. They couldn't be allowed to suffer any grievances. Everyone in the neighborhood knew that Old Mrs. Pan loved her grandsons the most, wishing she could hold them in her hands and cherish them. So, when she suddenly heard Xu Qingqing say this, she couldn't bear it.
Her eyes hardened; she was determined to teach this vixen a lesson. She had never been defeated in decades, and she had beaten countless people on her own. She refused to believe that she couldn't handle this little girl.
Unexpectedly, as soon as she got close, Bo Jingran poured the basin he was holding toward her. Although it didn't pour directly onto her, the boiling water still splashed onto her shoes, instantly soaking her cotton shoes and making her feel the scalding water.
"Ah—! It's so hot! You guys are going to die!"
Aunt Pan screamed from the heat and immediately took off her shoes, glaring angrily at the culprit, Bo Jingran. Facing Aunt Pan's rage, Bo Jingran pushed up his glasses, his eyes indifferent, showing no remorse whatsoever. He hadn't known before that this man had a problem with his wife and had been badmouthing her behind her back. Now that he had caught him red-handed, he certainly wouldn't let him off easily.
If it weren't for the fear of losing money and upsetting his wife, he should have poured a basin of boiling water all over Aunt Pan to wash away her foul mouth.
Hearing the commotion, the others around came out to see what was going on. Some, like Xu Qingqing, even came out with bowls in their hands, eating and watching with great interest.
Seeing such a commotion, Xu Qingqing noticed that while others came out, none of the Pan family members showed their faces, as if they hadn't heard anything. They hid in the house pretending to be dead, neglecting their elderly husband and mother. It was clear that even their closest relatives ignored her, making her life seem like a complete failure.
How tragic and lamentable!
She doesn't deserve any sympathy; she brought all this upon herself, and the karmic retribution will eventually fall on Aunt Pan as well.
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