After giving it some thought, Lu Jiao smiled brightly, turned around, and went out, but her face turned dejected as she approached the door.
In the hallway, Mrs. Tian stared angrily at Mrs. Ruan, who was thumping her hand again and again on the ground, and said: "Old witch, you are here to ruin my daughter's reputation again. My daughter's reputation is so bad in this village, all because of you. It's all been ruined by you. I don't understand how you have the guts to come to your son's house to ask for something. You see, look at this house. Does this empty house even have anything? What more do you want now? "
It's a pity that Mrs Ruan simply closed her eyes and kept beating the ground.
"I can't live past this day anymore. My son and daughter-in-law are so unfilial. Oh God, just let me die."
Many villagers had gathered in front of the fenced courtyard of the Lu Jiao's family at this time to see the drama.
Many said that Mrs Ruan was an abusive mother-in-law, and, of course, there were some people who felt that Lu Jiao was not a good daughter-in-law. They all saw that Yunjin's classmates had brought over a lot of things, and wouldn't it be just fine to give Mrs Ruan a small portion of those things? After all, Yunjin was her son.
Mrs Tian was about to come out of the hallway to talk some sense into Mrs Ruan when Lu Jiao came out from behind her and stretched out her hand to stop Mrs Tian before looking at Mrs Ruan with melancholic eyes.
"Mother, it's not that I don't want to give you these things. Those things are going to be sold in the town to buy medicine for Yunjin. At this point, for me, attending to Yunjin's injuries is of utmost importance."
Many of the villagers standing outside the fence sighed and stopped saying "Lu Jiao is not good" after hearing Lu Jiao's words.
Yunjin's daughter-in-law indeed has a severely injured patient at home who is paralyzed and confined to bed. Life is not easy for her either.
Ignoring the villagers, Lu Jiao looked at Mrs Ruan, who had stopped thumping the ground but was still lying in a disheveled state on the ground. She continued speaking,
"Mother, tell me, did the fourth brother provoke you to come to our house to ask for something? He doesn't want to kill his third brother, does he? "He provoked his aged mother (you) to kick his seriously injured third brother for his marriage room, didn't he?"
[T/N: It is common in Chinese to refer to yourself and other people in the third person even when speaking directly to them.]
"Now that he saw his third brother's classmates bring things over, he provoked you again to come here to ask for some good things as marriage gifts for him, didn't he?"
Just as Lu Jiao finished speaking, a whimpering cry came from behind her.
When Lu Jiao looked back, she saw all four of the little ones crying. Even the eldest child, whom she had never seen crying until now, had his eyes brimming with tears.
While crying, the eldest child said, "Grandma, why don't you like us? Why do you like only the fourth uncle? In the past, the fourth uncle had eggs every day. We never got to eat eggs. The fourth uncle drank sugar water every day. We have never had it even once. The Fourth Uncle has new clothes to wear. We have none."
The more the quadruplets talked, the more sad they became. When she saw the quadruplets sad, Lu Jiao felt sad in her heart and knelt down to give the quadruplets a hug to comfort them.
"My good children, don't be sad."
As Lu Jiao was comforting the quadruplets, the eldest child leaned next to her ear and whispered, "We are pretending."
Lu Jiao's face turned black, while the four little boys continued to cry.
The group of four children crying while their mother comforted them as they stood at the main door, painted a dejected and miserable picture, and many of the villagers had red eyes. They all agreed that the Xie family's fourth child, Xie Yunhua, was not good.
In the past, Old Lady Xie always used to complain that Lu Jiao is such a terrible daughter-in-law, Lu Jiao snatched her sons' food, Lu Jiao beat her children, Lu Jiao doesn't want to make clothes for her children, and so on.
It turns out that it was all because of their Fourth Uncle.
Mrs. Ruan listened to the words of the group of five mother and sons. How could she not be aware of how she had treated them? Her face turned gloomy. She finally looked up from the ground and yelled at the quadruplets.
"Shut up, four unscrupulous children. You forgot that your Fourth Uncle gave you something to eat."
The four kids continued to cry, their sadness evident in their sobs.
Compared to other children their age, since they had started learning earlier, although their voices sounded childish, they were pretty articulate. But now, with the sadness seeping in their voices, it instantly pierced the onlookers' hearts.
The eldest child held back his sadness and stared at Mrs Ruan with red eyes.
"That's the money that my father worked hard to earn, and my father gave it to you to buy something for us to eat. All that you bought with it, you always gave it to the fourth uncle to eat. The fourth uncle eats eggs, drinks sugar water, and eats delicious snacks every day and wears new clothes. But we have nothing to eat."
"Grandma, you are too bad. Obviously, all the good things in the house are eaten by the Fourth Uncle and the Youngest Aunt, and none of the good things are shared with us. Woo woo. Our lives are so hard. God, why? Just why did you give us such a Grandma!" said the second child, wiping away his tears with his sleeves.
"The Fourth Uncle dresses beautifully every day. We have no clothes to wear. We look so ugly," the third child continued.
The Youngest Child was a little frightened when he saw Mrs Ruan's glare, but all three of his brothers had already performed their parts, and he shouldn't chicken out at the last moment.
He quickly glanced at his mother, who was standing beside him, calmed his heart, and then started crying.
"Fourth Uncle doesn't even do anything the whole day. All he does throughout the day is eat delicious food, play, and have fun. Woo woo. Grandma orders us to dig earthworms to feed the chickens, and says we won't be given food if we don't dig. She only cares about the Fourth Uncle and leaves us to starve."
Mrs Ruan's face was so dark that it couldn't get any darker as she gnashed her teeth and struggled to get up hurriedly to beat the quadruplets.
"You four little beasts, I will kill you. Are you trying to ruin your Uncle's reputation!"
The quadruplets hid behind Lu Jiao, who took a few steps forward and stopped right in front of Mrs Ruan and roared through gritted teeth, "Mother, the Fourth Brother is trying to force our whole family to death. Since he has resorted to using these tactics, as his sister-in-law, I must teach him a lesson. All he does is eat delicious stuff and roam here and there. You see, I must straighten him up."
After Lu Jiao finished speaking, she immediately walked out of the courtyard, heading towards the old house. It was clear that she was going to beat the fourth child of the Xie family.
When Mrs Ruan saw this, her expression changed. She turned around and chased after her while reprimanding her, saying, "Lu Jiao, do you dare beat the fourth child? I dare you to try and beat him and see if I don't beat you."
Lu Jiao stopped just as Mrs Ruan almost caught up to her. She grimaced as she stared at her and said, "If he provokes Mother again and Mother comes to my house again to cause trouble, I will definitely clean him up."
The Second Grandmother came to persuade Mrs. Ruan, saying, "Fourth Sister-in-law, hurry up, go home, don't cause any more trouble, it's ridiculous, Yunjin is injured right now."
Mrs Ruan still wanted to say more, but the Second Grandmother dragged her away. Mrs Ruan didn't resist.
This is because she was afraid that Lu Jiao would really run up to her house to beat her youngest son. She has heard that the last time Lu Jiao severely beat up Shen Xiaoshan, Shen Xiaoshan had been lying on the bed for three days, and the key point is that, to the naked eye, he looked totally uninjured. If she really ran to her house to beat her youngest son, it would be her youngest son who would suffer in the end.
Mrs. Ruan stormed towards her house while cursing indignantly.
Xie Lan and Chen Liu, who were following behind her, kept staring at Mrs Ruan in disbelief when they saw her walk back home. What about those good things? Are they not taking anything anymore?
Lu Jiao stared down at Xie Lan and Chen Liu.
The two women were both afraid, but their hearts couldn't just let go of these amazing things, so they spoke one after the other.
"Third Sister-in-law, you have so much. It's not a big deal for you to give out some of these things to honor Mother. If you act so rude, aren't you concerned about what other people may think of you." said Xie Lan.
Chen Liu continued, "Third Sister-in-Law, I noticed there was a lot of food in there. As a sign of your filial piety, you should give half of it to your parents."
Lu Jiao pointed out to these two women mockingly, "As I said before, those things are going to be sold. Hurry up, otherwise I'll drag you out if you don't leave."
While walking out of the fence, Xie Lan and Chen Liu, who were angry but helpless to do anything, started cursing Lu Jiao, "You damn girl who has no conscience! Sooner or later, I will tell my Third Brother to divorce you."
"My Xie family really doesn't need this kind of unfilial daughter-in-law. She eats all the good food by herself and doesn't pay any respect to her parents at all."
From behind them, Lu Jiao said angrily, "If it was to show my filial piety to my parents, I would have done it without any opinions. But all the things that I give to my parents to show my filial piety end up in the Fourth Brother's hands. You tell me, is he my father or mother? Why should I give my things to him?"
She couldn't believe how eccentric this family was.
I'm back! I know sorry isn't enough, so I'll try to post more frequently. BTW, I think this is the longest chapter till date.
— Un nouveau chapitre arrive bientôt — Écrire un avis