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Chapter 681: Chapter 671: The Edge of Wit at the Dinner Table (Part 2)
"You talk as if it’s our fault that your mother isn’t at home, like we made her go out and scam people for money. I’ve been wanting to say this for a while, and now that the conversation has come to this, let me ask Xianghe, your dad’s come to our house, and sure, as his children we have a duty to support him, but what are you doing here? You tag along without an ounce of self-awareness, lazing around, expecting your sister to wait on you hand and foot as if she were your servant. What gives you the right?" Liu Jianjun didn’t hold back, taking advantage of his father-in-law’s absence to vent all his displeasure.
"Sis, sis, listen to what your husband is saying. Aren’t you going to do something?" Li Xianghe, taken aback by her usually amiable brother-in-law’s sudden outburst, instinctively grabbed onto her older sister, looking for protection.
"Don’t interfere; I’m still the head of this household," said Liu Jianjun, glaring at his own wife, anxious that she might undermine him.
Li Xianglian fell silent; this was the Liu household, and as a Li, she automatically took a back seat.
Of course, Li Xianghe knew her older sister was hopeless, now controlled by her husband and afraid to speak up—hardly surprising, but she still spitefully cursed, "You’re just useless, letting a man shit all over you." Then she turned to face off with her brother-in-law. She knew if she couldn’t win this argument, life at her sister’s house would be unbearable. "Brother-in-law, don’t you dare try to drive me away. Like I said, I didn’t come here by choice, I followed our dad. Wherever dad is, that’s my family home, and as a daughter of the Li family, nobody can kick me out."
Shen Yunfang couldn’t help but laugh when she heard this, and she glanced at her husband, curious to see his reaction to his sister’s shameless words.
Who was Li Hongjun? When his wife’s subtle glance came his way, he immediately glared back. Was it funny to make a joke out of her own husband?
"Well, since you’re so devoted, insisting on following dad wherever he goes, then you might as well take our father to your place. After all, you’re his daughter; taking care of him is your duty. Plus, it’ll give your sister and me a break," said Liu Jianjun, seizing the opportunity.
Truth be told, he barely tolerated his wife’s family at this point, his feelings towards his father-in-law especially complex. Given another choice, he would have preferred not to deal with the Li family at all—Hongjun being the exception, of course.
"Alright, Liu Jianjun, oh, Liu Jianjun, you’ve finally shown your true colors. You’re not just trying to send me away, you’re scheming to drive my dad out," Li Xianghe said, as if she had uncovered some great secret, then turned to berate her older sister, "Li Xianglian, you’ve really got a heart, just letting your man get away with this. Humph, I won’t let you succeed. I’m going to bring dad back right now." With that, she didn’t even bother with her daughter; she jumped out of bed, slipped on her shoes, and dashed out.
No one present tried to stop her. Instead, after she was gone, Li Xianglian turned her head and beckoned Shen Yunfang and her husband to keep eating, "Let’s not mind her, keep eating, have some more."
"Hee hee, finally there’s room," Shuanzi, noticing a vacant spot at the table, quickly took a seat, happy to be closer to the table for easier access to the food.
"You silly boy, don’t forget to serve some dishes to your sister," Li Xianglian scolded with a smile.
"Ah, got it," Shuanzi responded and immediately acted accordingly, offering a chopstick-full of egg to his bowl-holding, stunned-looking sister. He whispered something in Niuniu’s ear, and then she began to eat.
Shen Yunfang frowned as she watched Niuniu’s movement, faintly sensing that something might be off with Li Xianghe’s child, but it was not the sort of thing one could easily inquire about.
"Now that’s really weird. We were just talking about not hitting children willy-nilly, and all of a sudden the topic changed," said Shen Yunfang, dropping her concerns and initiating a new conversation, "Big sister, were meals always this lively when we weren’t around?" She was really asking if Li Xianghe was always this disruptive.
"Humph, it’s about the same," Liu Jianjun chimed in before anyone else could.
"Heh, big brother-in-law seems pretty fired up," Shen Yunfang said nonchalantly, feeling that only a member of the old Liu family would bring up such a topic and find common ground.
"That’s for sure, Yunfang, I’m not hiding anything from you. If it weren’t for your sister still holding on to that sisterly bond, I would have kicked them out long ago. I’ve been holding back for days, and it’s also for our dad’s sake. I don’t want him to be uncomfortable here. No matter what, since the old man has come to us, as his children, we should treat him well," he said. 𝖓𝔬𝔳𝔭𝔲𝔟.𝖈𝖔𝔪
Li Hongjun and his wife both nodded in agreement.
"Alright, alright, no need to spout nonsense after a few sips of booze, especially with kids around. Why bring that up?" Li Xianglian quickly chided him.
Sure enough, Liu Jianjun glanced at the four children sitting side by side, aware that he should not be a bad influence on them, and could only swallow his grievances along with a sip of wine.
Shen Yunfang thought this wasn’t good. It’s better to speak out when there’s a conflict to solve it, and couples shouldn’t keep grievances to themselves either. If one holds resentment for too long without venting, it could turn into an illness. When it finally erupts, it’s no laughing matter.
However, this wasn’t something she could discuss in front of everyone. She decided it would be better to talk to her sister privately.
After this topic had passed, the adults began to talk about the changes over the past year. Shen Yunfang also mentioned to her elder sister that she had started a farm and invited her and her brother-in-law to bring the kids over for a visit when they had time.
Of course, farms weren’t that exciting for rural children. They were used to helping with farming at home and seeing it every day; nobody was eager to go out just to look at more fields.
However, the news surprised Liu Jianjun and Li Xianglian.
"Yunfang, did you really start a farm, renting so much land?" Li Xianglian was astonished. "Have you lost your mind? How much money can farming make? It’d be better to find something else to do during the new year."
As old farmers who toiled the soil, they were well-acquainted with the yield of the land; simply growing crops didn’t bring in much income each year. Even if Yunfang had a lot of land, it was offset by the fact that she hired workers. The little money they made might not even suffice to pay the workers’ wages.
She had heard Yunfang say that the farm now employed over thirty permanent workers, who earned over two thousand a month for doing nothing; that’s twenty to thirty thousand a year. Just thinking about it made her heart ache.
"Don’t butt in when you don’t know anything. Yunfang knows what she’s doing," Liu Jianjun said, even though he too wasn’t quite optimistic about the farm. But he had faith in Yunfang, feeling that if she started that farm, there must be some trick to it.
"Heh," Shen Yunfang didn’t expect her brother-in-law to trust her so much. "Don’t flatter me, brother-in-law. I just felt that having studied this field, it would be a waste not to do something with it. Besides, the opportunity arose, so I leased more land. Right now it’s just the construction phase, and the farm is just getting started, so obviously we can’t make much money. But once the farm is running smoothly, I think that even if we don’t make a fortune, we should have no problem sustaining our family."
Moreover, while farming might not bring in big money, if you’re not afraid of hard work and use raw materials for further processing—like growing potatoes and opening your own chip factory—then you can certainly turn a profit.
Also, her short-term goal is to get the farm up and running, and once it’s stable, her ambition is to export agricultural products. Ultimately, what she wants to do is engage in foreign trade and earn money from foreigners.
