NOVPUB
Chapter 179: Chapter 172: You Can’t Regret Once You Split the Family (Part 1)
Li Hongjun saw his father return and stood up.
After entering the room, Li Wangcai first checked his son’s leg. "Is your leg all better?"
Li Hongjun repeated what he had just told his mother.
Li Wangcai nodded in relief after hearing this, pleased that his son could join the army.
Seeing that both her husband and eldest son had returned, Qiu Shuping quickly got up, grabbed her eldest with one hand and her second son with the other, pulling them to her, and then began to cry.
"You are both my sons, flesh that fell from my body; I only talked about splitting up the family because I listened to your wife’s instigation," Qiu Shuping glared at Wang Dan by the door.
Wang Dan curled her lips. If you hadn’t had the thought, even if she had tried to instigate, it would have been impossible; you just wanted to get rid of that waste of a second son.
"These past few days, I couldn’t sleep well at night; all I think about are my children, I can’t bear to part with any of them. Hongjun, your mother has raised you from a baby, and now all of a sudden we’re like two separate families; my heart aches," Qiu Shuping said to her second son but meant for both sons to understand, believing they shared her feelings.
Both Li Hongjun and Li Hongxing understood that their mother regretted the family split.
Li Hongxing turned to look at his younger brother and stole a glance at his wife behind him; after receiving a stern look from his wife, he slowly bowed his head.
If he dared to agree with his mother, his wife would scratch him.
Li Hongjun did not look around; his wife was outside cooking, but he remained expressionless, pretending not to understand.
As Qiu Shuping looked at her sons, neither responding to her, she grew increasingly upset. She was about to sit down and have a good cry to vent her frustration and, by chance, to threaten her sons, but she was interrupted by a loud shout from Li Wangcai.
"Enough, what’s the use of talking about those useless things? Old Second and his wife have finally come back; hurry up and cook, let’s eat," Li Wangcai shouted with a frown.
The family was already divided. Once divided, it could never return to how it was before.
Qiu Shuping thought her husband meant she was too hasty and should wait for a better time, like during dinner, to bring up the issue amid a more congenial atmosphere. She also realized this was right; by then, she could reminisce about their childhood and how hard it was for her to raise them—they wouldn’t be able to let her down.
Thus, without saying anything more, she put on her shoes and went down to watch her daughter-in-law cook.
Soon, Shen Yunfang had cooked the food, and the dinner was set up on the kang in the west room. Qiu Shuping asked Li Xianghe to take her eldest’s children to the kitchen to eat, leaving the rest to sit around the kang.
Shen Yunfang cooked with whatever was available in the kitchen; without much time, she made a few unleavened bread cakes, a bowl of cornmeal mush for each, stir-fried shredded potatoes, stir-fried cabbage slices, and a plate of fried peanuts.
There was barely any oil left in the jar in the kitchen; she wanted to fry the peanuts but couldn’t, so she slowly roasted them in a big pot instead.
It was just an ordinary meal, but Li Wangcai was still bustling about, telling his wife to bring out the wine so he could have a good drink with his sons.
Qiu Shuping, surprisingly, did not stop him and took a bottle of liquor out from the kang cabinet.
The three men drank lightly, chatting as they ate.
Mostly, Li Wangcai asked about Li Hongjun’s life over the past two months.
He nodded when he heard that his second son’s in-laws were good to him; he felt relieved.
He also asked about the army, and Li Hongjun talked about everything that he could.
Qiu Shuping watched impatiently as her old man spouted useless things.
"Hongjun, no matter how good someone else’s house is, it’s not as good as your own. Don’t they say, ’A golden nest, a silver nest, none is as good as your own dog’s nest’? You should move back home," Qiu Shuping finally found another opportunity to speak up.
When the two daughters-in-law heard this, they immediately perked up. What did their mother-in-law mean?
Shen Yunfang definitely couldn’t live in Taoshu Village; she wasn’t stupid. After finally moving out, to be coaxed back by a few words from the old lady—what kind of joke would that be?
Wang Dan felt the sense of crisis that her home was being invaded by outsiders. Half of the house had already been divided and given to her family. If her husband’s second uncle and his wife moved back in, where would they stay? The rooms that belonged to her husband’s younger brother were definitely not up for grabs, so they would have to live in her portion. That was out of the question.
"Mom, that’s not someone else’s house, that’s my house," Li Hongjun said calmly.
"What nonsense, your father and I aren’t dead yet. I’m right here; this is your home," Qiu Shuping was displeased with her son’s comment.
"Mom, Yunfang and I are married; we’ve moved out. This is my younger brother’s home, and mine and my wife’s is in Gaijiatun," Li Hongjun replied quite bluntly.
That was the agreement when they had divided the house: the property had been given to the eldest brother and the youngest, leaving no share for him, the second son. He had to follow his wife, and her home would be their own from now on.
Qiu Shuping was somewhat shamed by what her son said. Indeed, she had been biased when they divided the house because she was worried about her son’s leg not healing properly and because he had married a daughter-in-law she did not like. She had not given him a room.
"Oh, my son, are you blaming me? But what could your mother do? We were poor; that was our situation. How about this, you move back, and this time you’ll definitely have a room to live in," Qiu Shuping promised.
"Mom, the rooms in my house are for your three grandsons now. Don’t go getting any ideas," Wang Dan warned preemptively, not wanting people to move back only to have them ask her to lend rooms again.
"Nonsense, that’s my house. I can let whoever I want to live there." Qiu Shuping bristled at the response.
"Oh my, Mom, have you forgotten? We’ve already divided the house; those two rooms were given to us in the main house; those are our rooms now." She implied that her mother-in-law’s word no longer had weight.
"My son, look at how your wife is speaking to your mother. Aren’t you going to give her a good slap for me?" Qiu Shuping looked at her eldest son, expecting him to back her up.
"Hmph," Wang Dan let out a cold snort.
Li Hongxing glanced at his mother and then at his wife, then his head drooped again. "Mom, Xiaodan didn’t mean it, don’t take it personally," he said.
He merely mumbled a few words to appease her verbally, but the idea of hitting his wife according to his mother’s wishes was out of the question.
"Oh my, I knew it; none of you have a conscience. You’re all ungrateful wretches who forget their mother after getting a wife. I slaved away to raise you lot, and this is how you repay me?" Qiu Shuping threw down her chopsticks, pointing and scolding her eldest and second sons.
Li Wangcai sipped his wine with furrowed brows, but this time he made no attempt to stop his wife’s tirade.
Li Hongxing was pinched under the table by his wife and lowered his head to rub his thigh. 𝓷ℴ𝓋𝓅𝓊𝒷.𝒸𝓸𝓶
Li Hongjun remained expressionless, though he was fumbling under the table, holding his wife’s tender hand.
Seeing this, Qiu Shuping immediately changed her tactic and, losing all concern for her image, covered her face with both hands and began to sob at the dining table, "My sons, we’re a family. These past two months, your mother has had sleepless nights every night, my heart aching and writhing at the thought of you."
Shen Yunfang quietly curled her lip. She had heard this all before. Couldn’t she be more professional, try something new?
"My sons, to let your old mother live a few more years, all of you come back home. Let’s not divide the family anymore. Remember how well we used to live together, harmoniously and happily? Wouldn’t it be nice if we could live just like that again?"
