Yang Da’an then said, "When our father sees us brothers visiting together, he will be in a good mood, and when he’s in a good mood, his illness will get better."
"Tch, you’re really overthinking it. Just don’t make our father so angry that his illness worsens, that would already be good enough, let alone him being in a good mood." Ms. Liu snorted coldly and hurriedly pulled Yang Da’an away with her.
And it wasn’t until the first branch of the family had left that Yang Xiaochuan opened the door from the inside.
He poked his head out and spat disdainfully after looking at the tightly shut door of the first branch, "What rubbish. The day our father really passes away, I’ll see that I don’t kick you out. By then, no one will stand up for you."
If Yang Chuxia heard him say such things, she would definitely say, "You’re daydreaming."
"Hubby, today is the first day of the Lunar New Year, aren’t we going to pay our New Year’s respects to father?" Ms. Luo, who had finally had her fill, noticed Yang Xiaochuan peering outside.
"Go? Why go? They’re living the life over in the third branch of the family, eating and drinking far better than us during the New Year’s feast. Do you know what kind of dumplings people in the third branch have? One dumpling has five or six different fillings: crab meat, shrimp meat, radish, pork, and even fish meat. Now look at what we have here?"
Even after all these years, Yang Xiaochuan’s gluttonous habit remained. If it weren’t for the thrifty Ms. Luo, the silver they got from selling Tian Nan Xing would have been long gone.
"Humph, if you’re not going, then don’t, but what’s all this hemming and hawing about?" Ms. Luo glared at him irritably, her hands on her obviously protruding belly, and snorted confidently, "If you won’t go, I will. I still need to take Dongxue with me to wish our father, and our eldest brother and sister-in-law, a Happy New Year. We have to collect the New Year’s money for Dongxue, right? And for this one in my belly too. Even though it’s not born yet, it’s still a child and deserves a share. We should get double the amount this year."
"You foolish woman, I always said you’re short-sighted," Yang Xiaochuan couldn’t help but criticize. "Do you have any idea what I overheard at the third branch from the Divine Doctor? Do you know what our father has to eat every day now?"
He would have kicked her out long ago if this had been in the past. He remembered all these things to settle the score properly later.
Hearing this, Ms. Luo looked at him suspiciously and asked, "What is he eating? Surely not cubilose or abalone?"
"Hmph, it’s nearly as expensive as cubilose. The Divine Doctor and that tyrant woman from our family said that if our father were to nourish himself with porridge made from ginseng, he could live for another year or two. That means he has to consume ginseng for these one or two years, right? Do you know how expensive that stuff is? Just a small piece of it, and it’s around a hundred or two hundred taels."
As he spoke, Yang Xiaochuan gestured with his fingers, then continued, "Such expensive stuff, how much would one year’s consumption cost? Even if we sold ourselves, it wouldn’t be enough to cover the cost of that ginseng."
Upon hearing this, Ms. Luo’s complexion worsened, and she couldn’t help but murmur, "Our father really is lucky, getting to eat ginseng. I haven’t even tasted ginseng once since I got pregnant."
As she spoke, her eyes darted around, and Yang Xiaochuan could tell she was cooking up some scheme. He asked, "What’s on your mind now?"
"I’m thinking you’re worrying too much," Ms. Luo reflected for a while before answering. "First of all, it’s not certain that the third branch of the family will even let us share the cost of the medicine. Even if they do, there’s still the first branch. The first branch earned some money these past years, but Qingbao’s schooling costs a lot each year. They definitely don’t have much left over, and they surely can’t afford the ginseng just like us. When the time comes, we can just follow what the first branch does."