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Chapter 428: Chapter 418: Li Xiaodi Causes Trouble Again
The second day of the Lunar New Year was the day when married daughters returned to their parental home.
Early in the morning, Old Li was sitting on the edge of the kang, craning his neck to look outside.
"You think so too, don’t you?" Qiu Shuping smiled at her talented college student youngest son, but turned to see the old man looking outside and became upset, "What are you looking at? I’m talking to you about Hongqi."
Only then did Old Li reluctantly focus his attention on his youngest son.
Last December, Li Hongqi graduated from university and was assigned directly to the R County Government as a publicist, earning a salary of thirty-two yuan a month, plus thirty-three kilograms of grain. However, due to the high demand for accommodations, it was not immediately possible to find him a dormitory, so he had been staying at home these days.
Qiu Shuping, concerned about her son’s hard work, managed to get a bicycle voucher through connections and bought a brand-new bicycle for her youngest son, for him to ride to and from work.
Li Hongqi had been working for two months and had already received praise from his leaders. Now his enthusiasm for work was higher than ever. He felt that living at home and having to cycle to work wasted time, and if he could live in the county, he would have more time to work, to serve the country. So, these days, he was pestering Qiu Shuping, trying to persuade her to buy him a house in the county.
"Whatever you say goes, do I still have a say in this family?" Old Li said somewhat distractedly.
Qiu Shuping was delighted, "What are you talking about, starting a fight during the New Year?"
"Alright, alright, I’ll stop talking, isn’t that enough? You two decide," Old Li said, always giving in step by step, which spoiled the mother and son so much that they were becoming unreasonable.
"Nonsense, I’m asking you how to handle the money for buying the house. I certainly don’t have that much," Qiu Shuping rolled her eyes.
"All the money is in your hands, how would I know what to do?" According to Old Li, if they didn’t have enough money, they shouldn’t buy the house, and could just save up until they had enough. "Besides, don’t they say that full-time staff will be assigned housing by their work units? Let Hongqi wait a bit. Why must we buy one ourselves?"
"What do you know? Hongqi just started working at the unit; by the time it’s his turn to be assigned housing, the opportunity will have long passed." Qiu Shuping was secretly intent on matchmaking her son with a leader’s daughter.
Li Hongqi had used that argument to persuade her. She didn’t care about lofty ideals like serving the country; she agreed to buy a house for her youngest son in the county primarily because Li Hongqi mentioned that his superiors thought highly of him and had hinted at introducing their daughter to him.
Li Hongqi came back and told Qiu Shuping about it, stressing that as a country boy, without any impressive assets, how could he expect to attract a "phoenix". Therefore, he wanted to buy a house in the county to show the leaders that, although his family was rural, they weren’t doing poorly. By first securing the leader’s daughter as his wife, and later on moving into housing provided by his unit, Qiu Shuping and Old Li could move in, thus reuniting the family under one roof again.
Qiu Shuping had been captivated by the bright future Li Hongqi described, not stopping to consider her own capabilities, and had begun making arrangements to buy a house.
"You, not even aware when the oil bottle tips over, expect me alone to worry about everything at home. How much money do we have, after all? We spent almost all of it when Hongqi bought his bicycle, and now thinking of buying a house, we’re at least short by three hundred yuan," Qiu Shuping weighed in her heart.
The son had already picked out the house, three rooms for a total of five hundred fifty yuan. After tallying up what she had, which was a bit over three hundred yuan, she couldn’t spend it all; she had to keep some emergency cash, so she planned on putting forth two hundred fifty yuan, which meant she still needed three hundred yuan.
Old Li gasped at the thought, three hundred yuan was more than he could earn in three years.
"Dad, Mom, I’m back." Just then, Li Xianghe’s voice rang out from outside.
"Ah, another debt collector has returned," Qiu Shuping grumbled under her breath.
"Mom, Second Sister is back. Let’s not talk about this now," Li Hongqi said, looking very much aware of the bigger picture.
Li Xianghe came in carrying two paper packages. She wasn’t surprised to see Li Hongqi there; she had already been back to her parents’ home once after her little brother returned from school.
"Mom, this is for you and Dad to show my respect. Why isn’t my older sister here? Who’s going to cook today?" Li Xianghe said, tossing the things in front of her mother and immediately started worrying about today’s meal. n𝚘vp𝚞𝚋.com
"All you know is to eat. What use are you, to bring such trifles to your parents?" Qiu Shuping scorned, seeing that the paper packages contained nothing but biscuits or small cakes like castella. They were cheap.
"If you don’t fancy them, give them back to me. I want them," Li Xianghe said, not at all bothered by her mother’s cutting remarks. It’d be even better if she didn’t want them; she could take them home to eat herself.
"Dream on," Qiu Shuping retorted as she quickly turned and stashed the items behind her in a standing cabinet.
"Tsk," I knew it would be like this, "What time is it now? Why hasn’t my older sister come back yet? What are we going to do about lunch?" Every year on the second day of the lunar new year, her older sister would come over early in the morning and take care of everything in the kitchen on her own. They didn’t need to worry and just had to wait for mealtime to eat.
"Hmph, who knows? It’s better if she doesn’t come. It saves me the trouble," Qiu Shuping said, somewhat uncomfortably.
She knew exactly why her eldest daughter hadn’t come. Was it not because she had refused to lend her money? Humph. She did it for her daughter’s own good. Which married daughter still cares about her parents’ money? Her child from the Liu family was sick, so they should be asking the Liu family for money. Her eldest daughter was just foolish, with a mind that doesn’t work well and can’t distinguish between inside and outside the family. Thinking this way, Qiu Shuping felt a bit more at ease.
Not long after, Wang Dan, the eldest daughter-in-law, came over with her three children in tow. To eat this meal at her mother-in-law’s place, she had been making the trip back to her own family on the third day of the lunar new year for many years.
The first thing Wang Dan said upon arrival was the same as Li Xianghe’s, "Eh, why is only Xianghe back today? Where is my sister-in-law? If she doesn’t come back, who’s going to cook?"
"You can’t eat if she doesn’t come? You lazy woman," Qiu Shuping’s anger was ignited.
Qiu Shuping had been feeling uneasy these past days with her eldest daughter not coming over. Setting aside everything else, her eldest daughter used to visit every few days, and not only did she bring things home, but she also washed and cleaned her and her husband’s clothes. It had been several months since Xianglian had come over, and the house had become a mess and filthy. To prepare for the New Year, Qiu Shuping had finally made an effort to tidy up the surface and she and Old Li had put on their only clean set of clothes. The rest of the dirty laundry was still hidden in the cupboard.
Wang Dan wasn’t one to be bossed around by her mother-in-law, so the three women started a verbal battle over cooking in the house.
The men in the house were used to these situations, so they all found safe places to hunker down.
At around 10:30 in the morning, the Li family’s front door was pushed open once again. The three women in the house had been concerned about her, and now Li Xianglian walked in.
