The eldest sister-in-law could absolutely take advantage of when the Third family wasn’t home to cook other foods besides the cornbread and the cornmeal cakes; as for the children, with the threats of the old lady, who would dare to say otherwise?
Lin Lan guessed that they were instructed to say that they ate the same things if they were ever questioned, so she thought for a while and came up with an idea.
She wanted to catch onto their current scheme and see what they had to say for themselves.
The next day, she got up early before dawn and crept on the kang before going over to the Han family’s place.
The gates were closed.
She first sneaked to the back of the house, and sure enough, she heard the sound of the eldest sister-in-law making a fire as well as some occasional muttering.
Then, she heard the sister-in-law shouting, “Gaoliang, Xiaofu, hurry up and get off the kang! Eat your pancakes! When your third aunt and their family comes, you will only be able to eat the cornbread.”
Sure enough, they were playing tricks behind their backs!
Lin Lan thought for a while before she hurriedly went back and asked Erwang and Maisui to go to the house together.
Han Qingsong was up as he got some water to plant the vegetables. When he saw them scampering, he asked, “What are you doing? Why are you all in such a hurry?”
Lin Lan raised her eyebrows, “I’m getting the evidence for you!” To show them that she was worthy of being feared, she wanted to catch them while they were in the act!
When they got to the Han family’s house, they didn’t knock on the door. Lin Lan went directly over the low courtyard wall in the south. When she was climbing on the top of the wall, she happened to see the second sister-in-law leading a few children to grab the pancakes and said, “Someone go and watch the gates. When you see them, just give us a good shout. Hurry up and eat!”
Lin Lan shouted unceremoniously, “You’re all feasting!”
She shouted out in a cold voice, frightening the women and children in the yard who were guilty of secretly eating as Xiaofu even dropped his pancake on the ground.
The second sister-in-law almost threw the basket of rice away out of shock. She turned her head to look at Lin Lan and met her gaze. She was terrified as if she had seen a ghost because for a long while, she couldn’t believe that Lin Lan was there.
Lin Lan found out that in this family, instead of being rude, one had to be cold and intimidating. Then, when it was time to take action, she should do it without hesitation!
She jumped down, ran forward and snatched the rice basket from the second sister-in-law’s hands, “I’ll say, you guys are impressive.”
Erwang and Maisui had also climbed in by now, “Hmph, how shameless!”
The Han family’s second sister-in-law’s first reaction was to snatch the rice basket back because she hadn’t eaten yet. But because of that reflexive reaction, she was so embarrassed that her face flushed red. She didn’t know what to say for a while as her lips twitched, “Third family, come, come… Today I am improving the food; I even told the kids to call you guys.”
This sort of shameful situation could only be carried out by Old Lady Han. If it were to reach Han Qingsong’s ears, what a dire situation that would be!
The key point was that the food they served for the Third family wasn’t completely made out of fresh sweet potato leaves. Many of the cornbread were made last year and they didn’t want to know how it tasted. In fact, even in those three years of famine, the old lady didn’t want to eat them.