Xiaofu, who was currently in the second room, could relate his feelings as the good and delicious foods were always left for his aunt and uncle under the insistence of his grandmother.
The little girl in the big room, Gumi, also once served as a maid for her aunt before. When her aunt was at home, she was the one who served the water to wash her feet. As she now had to earn her share of the work points, it was only recently that her grandmother assigned that task to Maisui.
It was as obvious as day to all of them that the old lady favored the youngest uncle and aunt. Every time they had pork to enjoy, the old lady would always make a delicious pork belly stew for her two favorites. Instead, the rest of the family would have to merely sip on some pork oil soup.
Even that, apparently, was not considered ‘favoritism’ as she once defended. She argued that the youngest aunt and uncle were tired and worn out from going to school and she had to make up for it, even going to the extent of asking their nieces and nephews to love the two even more.
Old Lady Han, upon hearing the commotion, decided that something was wrong— why was the entire yard focusing their anger on her?
She jumped off the kang in anger and scolded, “You white-eyed wolves, did I raise you in vain for you all to condemn your mother or grandmother? Are there any children as insolent as all of you?”
She started crying as soon as she sat down on the bench in the main room.
Eldest sister-in-law quickly helped her up, “Mother, what are you thinking? No one is putting the blame on you.”
The old lady looked at Han Qingsong and said, “Old Three, what do you mean by this? Are you finding faults with your mother now? My son, you didn’t stay home to serve your parents and went out to serve the military— perhaps was this act of defiance taught by the military? Did they teach you to not be filial?”
Han Qingsong, “I couldn’t serve you two at home because I simply had no choice since it meant that I needed to serve in the military. My allowances and wages— I kept not a cent of those and sent them back here. Half were meant for my parents and half were for my wife and kids.”
Eldest sister-in-law Han quickly settled down the situation, “Mother, it’s not easy for the Old Three as well. He had to stay away from his wife and children to the point where they’re not even close with him anymore. If you keep saying stuff like that, you’re going to really hurt him.”
The second sister-in-law, however, was irritated, “I’ll say, Old Three, are you perhaps resenting your mother for making you enlist in the military? Father and mother are both old now, and it was true that you never remained home to fulfill your duties, so there is no need to bring up anything unrelated.”
Lin Lan looked at them and said, “The old lady sent him to be a soldier and he has mailed his wages back to raise this entire family on his own without leaving a single penny for himself. Though, it appears that even though he contributed to our entire survival, you guys are trying to be calculative? If you’re going to bring up everything, then you shouldn’t have had him become a soldier in the first place. Well this is nice, isn’t it— he’s changed his career now, so your filial expectations can be carried out now, can’t it?”
Aren’t you all used to your bad habits? If every word were accordingly transpired from your mouths, we are definitely going to be described as people who can’t do anything right.