"Chiang Xiao, let me tell you, I didn’t come here to argue with you this time!" Ho Laidi said, "I have serious business!"
Chiang Xiao couldn’t help but laugh. "Auntie, you have serious business? Fine, let’s say you do, but what does your ’serious’ have to do with us? Go talk to your own family! Why run over here to make a fuss? And another thing, who told you we live here?"
They hadn’t told anyone in Siyang Village about this house, so who knew they lived here? They even said it was rented.
When Ho Laidi thought about the person who had told her not to mention their name, she swallowed the name back down and huffed, "What does it matter how I know? What matters is that you all have money now, your wings have grown hard! But I’m telling you, Chiang Xiao, no matter what you say, you’re still part of the Chiang Family. If it hadn’t been for us taking pity on you, you wouldn’t even have a last name to call yourself; you’d just be going around answering to ’Little Little’. We gave you the Chiang Family name, and you don’t even feel grateful for our kindness. Think about it, isn’t that improper?"
Chiang Xiao helped Ge Xiaotong sit down on the chair before turning back to Ho Laidi with a sneer. "My last name is Chiang because it’s my mother’s name, my maternal grandfather’s name—it’s none of your business! Stop bringing up the Chiang Family all the time as if you have any right to talk. You still have the last name Ho yourself."
"I married into the Chiang Family fair and square; what’s wrong with mentioning my own family? When I married in, I became the wife of the Second Son. Back then, Chiang Laoer and I hadn’t separated our family household. I was the one running around busy with everything. Otherwise, do you think Chiang Laoer could have found a wife? What’s more, your great-grandfather even saved Chiang Laoer’s life. Look at him now, his wings have gotten too stiff now that he has some money, and he wants to cast aside his own brother and sister-in-law? If people found out, they would poke at his spine!"
"You talk as if my maternal grandfather’s marriage was all thanks to your meddling. I’ve heard that when my grandfather wanted to get married and needed to provide a dowry, you almost took the hen that laid eggs at home and hid it in your own bedding, just to keep it from being used as a dowry by my grandfather."
Ge Xiaotong almost burst out laughing.
Actually, the story should have been quite bittersweet—it was a tumultuous marriage for her aunt, after all! But, somehow, as Chiang Xiao phrased it, she couldn’t help wanting to laugh.
"Little Little, is that really true?" she couldn’t help but ask.
"Of course it’s true. Some people here, playing the role of the ’revered elder sister-in-law’," Chiang Xiao said coldly, looking at Ho Laidi, "are afraid that their younger brother-in-law might get an extra thing or eat one more grain of rice. As for that so-called life-saving grace from my great-grandfather, if Chiang Songtao has thick enough skin, we might as well go and hash it out under the big tree at the village entrance, see whether his own life-endangering act back then, and later dragging my grandfather along, amounts to saving a life or attempted murder!"
Ho Laidi was stunned.
She hadn’t expected Chiang Songhai to have told Chiang Xiao about that incident from those years ago.
They had exploited Chiang Songhai for too long, believing they firmly held him in their grasp. Back in the day, Chiang Songtao had warned Chiang Songhai that the incident must be kept secret, that it couldn’t be revealed, and Chiang Songhai had kept that secret for decades.
It was because they believed he wouldn’t speak up that Chiang Songtao and Ho Laidi freely used that so-called life-saving favor to pressure Chiang Songhai.
The truth didn’t matter; what mattered was that Chiang Songhai acknowledged it.
But now, why did it seem he had spoken of it?
Ho Laidi felt that Chiang Songhai had now slipped from their control, and she was slightly panicked inside. She resolved to have a serious talk with her husband when she got back home to decide how to deal with this matter.