"Mom, do they often hit you?" Lin Wan asked with reluctance.
Shen Qing glanced at her daughter-in-law and sighed, nodding her head.
"Does Uncle Hu know?"
Shen Qing shook her head again, "Mostly, he doesn’t know. At first, I didn’t want to make things hard for him. Later, he found out a few times and argued with his mother, but his elder brother and sister-in-law played the good guys behind his back. His mother is unreasonable, and every time it ends unresolved. In the beginning, we thought about living separately, but when Lijuan and Xiao Dung were born, his mother said if we separated, she wouldn’t help with the children. We had no choice. Later, as the kids grew up, it became hard to separate."
The mother-in-law should be about the same age as Mom. She might have lived in the city and never worked in the fields, her skin is very fair, and she doesn’t look old. Comparing her to Mom, who just arrived in the city, she is probably much better. Perhaps too much distress weighs heavily on her heart, making her always appear lifeless.
"Mom, sometimes keeping things bottled up inside, with only you knowing, is useless. Uncle Hu doesn’t see it. It will only make those people more arrogant. They think you’re easy to bully and get more wanton. They see that in you, Mom, so they are bold. If you had been tougher when being bullied, maybe life would be different." If that were the case, perhaps Han Yi would be different too.
Shen Qing, perhaps understanding something, looked silently at Lin Wan.
"I lost my dad when I was very young. It was my mom who raised my brother and me with great difficulty. My mother used to be a gentle woman, but where we come from, such women are the easiest to bully. We had no backing in the village, no power, and some people just saw us as easy targets. They’d trouble us, either taking over our land or shortchanging us when distributing fields... When bullied, no one stood up to help. My mom had to rely on herself because she had two kids to raise. Without a choice, she learned to be unreasonable, to lie, and to throw tantrums."
"And then what happened, did anyone still bully you?"
This time it was Lin Wan who shook her head, smiling playfully, "Things got much better. When some people thought about picking on us, they had to consider my difficult mother."
Shen Qing looked at the cheerful Lin Wan and thought about the state of Lijuan. She sighed in her heart, questioning if this was fate or her own fault.
The mother-in-law and the young aunt were fine; they could squeeze into Grandma’s room. Hu Dong, being a boy, could only sleep in the shop at the gateway. Fortunately, it’s summer now, and laying a mat on the floor would suffice.
"Saozi, this is good. When I was at home, I didn’t even have my own room, always squeezing in with Mom and Dad in one room." His and his sister’s biggest wish now is to have their own rooms.
Lin Wan observed the situation today. The conditions at her in-laws weren’t great, but they weren’t bad either. Grandma Wang said that many of her neighbors had siblings sharing a room with bunks.
Some married couples without a house didn’t want to spend money renting one and just built a wooden cabin in their yard. It’s okay in summer, but living there in winter is impossible.
"Okay, let me know if you need anything. I’ll bring you some of my brother’s old clothes from high school in a bit. You can wear them for now. They might be a little worn out, but don’t mind," Lin Wan said. The clothes were Han Yi’s old high school clothes, with patches on them. Grandma couldn’t bear to throw them away or give them to someone, so she kept them at the bottom of a box.
"I don’t mind," Hu Dong said, scratching his head shyly.
He knew from a young age that he had an older brother from the same mother but a different father. Other than the initial confusion, he ended up admiring him deeply. It was all in his heart.
Because this brother wasn’t particularly close to them, he didn’t dare to get too familiar.
After arranging things for Hu Dong, Lin Wan saw Hu Lijuan coming out after a bath. She was still wearing the same clothes from today.
"Saozi," Lin Wan could sense Hu Lijuan was a bit reserved.
This might be because of Han Yi.
"Come sleep with me tonight."
"No need, I can sleep in Grandma’s room with Mom."
"Three people squeezing on one brick bed is a bit cramped. My side is big, and there’s even a fan."
"Lijuan kicks the covers when she sleeps. Let her sleep with me in your grandma’s room," whether it was Han Yi or his wife, she didn’t want to trouble them. Because she had no right to.