Eldest sister-in-law Han was so embarrassed that she wanted nothing more than to find a hole to crawl in. She smiled awkwardly, “Old Three, n-no, it’s nothing. Mother said that we’re raising the quality of our lunch today; we were just worried that it would take up time so we just started earlier. The children were a little greedy so they just ate first without waiting. You see, even father hasn’t eaten yet.”
Han Qingsong’s emotions threaded as deep as the ocean, but he didn’t say anything. His deep eyes were cold and his lips were pulled in a straight line.
Xiaowang hurried over to grab his mother’s hand as Lin Lan stuffed a piece of pancake at him. She also distributed the pancakes in the basket to the children, letting them eat the food one after another.
At this time, Sanwang ran over from outside and wondered, “Why didn’t you guys get me when you all left? Has my eldest brother come home? Aiya, you’re all eating now? There’s even pancakes!”
Lin Lan immediately gave him two pancakes, which this kid scarfed down happily.
Sanwang smiled and showed his little canine tooth, “Mother, how is grandmother so generous today. Didn’t she usually provide our family’s meals reluctantly?”
Listening to Sanwang’s words that were full of innocent curiosity, Han Qingsong felt like a needle had made its way through his heart and it was not a sensation that he enjoyed.
Although he knew that his mother and his wife were constantly at odds with each other and often quarreled about money, he never thought that she would give his children and his wife the worst servings of food.
Lin Lan’s words about pig food, especially, hurt his heart immensely.
In the past, she only argued and insisted for him to come home; otherwise, she would demand him to give her a share of his earnings— never was there any mention of anything horrible treatment, however. Even when he did return home, he was always flocked by distant relatives and nosy neighbors that didn’t know how to mind their own business. Because of his pliant nature, he would attend to them a lot, thus making the already low number of times they meet even less frequent. These days, he finally garnered the chance to speak to her at night, but if she wasn’t resenting him, then she would be avoiding him.
He didn’t know what else to do.
He suddenly felt a deep sense of guilt; perhaps it was right for him to change his career. He served the country gallantly, yet, he neglected his own family. Back then, he didn’t think much of it as he was still carrying out his duties as a soldier of the army. But now that he had returned home, seeing his wife and children being so wronged, he felt that he could be the man of the family as long as he let go of his responsibilities as a soldier.
He wanted to protect them and give them a better life.
He walked to the main room and faced the door of the east room and asked, “Mother, what do you mean by this?”
Old Lady Han felt a little guilty at first, but she muttered, “Don’t listen to her nonsense; when have we let you suffer alone? Ask your sister-in-law, does she not eat the hideous steamed cornbread? And which child refused to eat it? You shouldn’t pay much attention to that shrew’s words because all she knows is how to spew nonsense all day long.”
When she said that, she became emboldened and scolded, “What’s the problem now? You actually dare to start suspecting and interrogating your own mother? What do you take me as— another mission that you have to tackle? Fine then, go ahead and capture me then; I was a fool to have given birth to you and raised you!”