NOVPUB
Chapter 680: Chapter 670: Sharp Exchanges at the Dinner Table (Part 1) (Extra for Undersea Catching Snow)
"Hongjun, is your mom... doing well in there?"
Li’s old man’s question abruptly silenced the laughter in the room.
Li Hongjun and his wife exchanged glances and finally decided to tell the truth, "Dad, I visited my mom once since last Chinese New Year; she seemed fine to me, and she looked quite healthy." He spoke rather tactfully; the way Qiu Shuping had been cursing then, she indeed seemed very well.
"This, it’s been almost a year, haven’t you gone to see her again?" Li’s old man was somewhat displeased. What kind of son does this?
Once again, the room fell silent, with the children sneakily glancing around at one another, all unanimously keeping quiet.
"Dad, you know as well as anyone that Hongjun is a soldier; he doesn’t have the freedom to come and go whenever he pleases. And he just got stationed in a new place; of course, he needs to work hard to secure his footing first..." Li Xianglian tried hard to explain to her own father.
In her heart, she truly believed this. After all, there were so many people in the Li family who had time to visit their mother; only Hongjun couldn’t because he was a soldier. This matter really couldn’t be blamed on her younger brother.
Smack!
Li’s old man’s face was dark as he slammed his chopsticks down on the dinner table and then stood up to put on his shoes without a word.
"Dad, where are you going?" Li Xianglian quickly asked, reacting to the situation.
"I’ve eaten my fill, just going out for a stroll," said Li’s old man, and, with hands behind his back, he walked out the door.
Li Xianglian didn’t know what to do for a moment; a day that was supposed to be joyful, and her dad had just left with a sour face. How were her younger brother and his wife supposed to feel about this?
"Yunfang, our dad is done eating, let’s not fuss about it. You go on and eat."
"Hmph!" Li Xianghe made an odd noise from the side, but she was smart enough not to say anything more.
Shen Yunfang smiled, wanting to tell her eldest aunt that she had anticipated this situation when they first talked about returning to their hometown, just not that Li’s old man would act out so soon, unable to even hold it in for a day.
"Yeah, big sister, don’t be polite now. You’ve been the busiest today, go ahead, you eat more." Shen Yunfang extended her chopsticks, just in time to snatch the chicken leg Li Xianghe was about to take, and placed it into Li Xianglian’s bowl.
"Ah, no need to pick that for me, no need, I’m good with anything, leave the chicken legs for Pangpang and Manman." With only two chicken legs, of course Li Xianglian didn’t feel right eating them herself. But there were several children at the table; choosing whom to give to and not to give was difficult. She could only say that she was saving them for Pangpang and Manman, who were not at the table.
"Hmph!" Li Xianghe almost lost her temper upon seeing the chicken leg she almost had snatched away. She was about to start cursing, but when she caught the gloomy look in her second brother’s eyes, she swallowed hard and held her tongue, continuing to play the quail.
"Big sister, no need to save for them, they definitely won’t be waking up tonight, what’s the point of saving for them?" Shen Yunfang disagreed.
"If they don’t eat today, they can eat tomorrow." Li Xianglian wouldn’t listen to her, picked the chicken leg out of her own bowl and placed it on the very edge of the plate, then continued searching for the other chicken leg, preparing to save that one too.
"Elder sister, don’t keep it, Pangpang and Manman don’t like it, and if you save it for tomorrow, reheated it won’t taste good either. Just divide it among the kids and call it done." Influenced by his wife, Li Hongjun knew that leftovers were bad for health, so even though he knew his elder sister meant well, he had to refuse.
"Two drumsticks, two wings, just right for four kids, one each." Saying this, he picked up a chicken drumstick from the plate and placed it in Li Xianghe’s child’s bowl, then found the remaining drumstick and wings, giving the drumstick to Shuanzi, and Shitou and Jiajia each got a wing.
"Thank you, Uncle!" The three children all smiled sweetly as they thanked their uncle. 𝔫𝖔𝔳𝖕𝖚𝔟.𝔠𝔬𝖒
"You just spoil them, they are getting out of hand." Li Xianglian, who was happy to see the kids eating joyfully, laughed along but, out of habit, she still chided them.
Shuanzi pouted, mimicking the old aunt’s manner, and snorted.
Liu Jianjun went up to him and smacked him, saying, "Have you no manners?" There was an undertone in his statement.
Everyone present could hear the implication, and Li Xianghe was no fool; she heard it too. And since her brother-in-law wasn’t her second brother, she was not intimidated, "Elder sister, look at what brother-in-law is implying, what does he mean by that?"
"Dumb as a club, you can’t even understand that?" Before anyone else could speak, Shuanzi, clever for his age, mumbled quietly, although loud enough for everyone at the table to hear.
"Hurry up and eat, you’re in everything," Li Xianglian said, looking at her youngest son’s bluster and raising her hand to indicate he was asking for trouble.
Watching her family’s back-and-forth, Li Xianghe really felt like walking out just like old Dad would have, dropping her chopsticks and leaving. But then, looking at the table full of good food, she hadn’t had her fill and couldn’t let go of her chopsticks. Besides, she wanted to hear what her second brother had to say about the outside world, so she had to bear it. Turning her head and seeing her daughter eating so slowly and messily, she vented her anger on the child.
"You useless thing, can’t you even eat properly? What do I need you for? Eat faster." She gave her child a smack on the back of the head without thinking.
The child was holding chopsticks, and with the hit, her head lurched forward, causing one end of the chopsticks to jab her face. This startled half the people at the dining table.
"What are you doing? Niuniu, lift your head quickly, let Auntie see, did it poke you badly?" Li Xianglian hurriedly called the child to lift her head to check her condition, feeling anxious that if the child really got hurt in her house, it would trouble her conscience forever.
Shen Yunfang and Li Hongjun also looked sternly at the child who had been so quiet and inconspicuous since they had arrived.
The little girl slowly lifted her head, and everyone saw a small, red patch on her cheekbone near her nose, clearly from the chopsticks. If it had been any higher, it could have poked the child’s eye.
"Look at you, an adult throwing tantrums at a child. Why hit her for no reason? Didn’t you see she was eating with chopsticks? If they had accidentally jabbed her in the eye, what then?" Li Xianglian angrily scolded Li Xianghe, the irresponsible mother.
At that moment, Li Xianghe also felt regretful. She hadn’t thought about the consequences at all, having grown used to hitting the child. Now, being reprimanded by her elder sister, she felt embarrassed and couldn’t help but retort, "What are the odds of that happening, and besides, can’t I discipline my own child?"
Li Xianglian was so angered by her words that she was left speechless.
Liu Jianjun couldn’t let his wife be bullied in their own home, "You can discipline your child all you want, but not in my house. If you want to hit her, do it back at your own place." He couldn’t be subtle with someone who didn’t know right from wrong.
"Brother-in-law, is that necessary? I’m just staying here for a few days, and you’ve tried to kick me out several times already. If my mother were at home, do you think I’d even need to rely on your hospitality?" Li Xianghe also lost her temper. She was freeloading for a few days, but they were relatives after all; what was wrong with letting her stay for a while? When her mother was alive, she let their family of five come over to eat several times a year, didn’t she?
