"Don’t worry, Mom’s guaranteeing it for you. Go back and sweet-talk Jiandang a bit. Be a little gentle and kinder, and don’t be so brash all the time. He’ll make up with you. Look at your dad and me; after all these years of ups and downs, haven’t we still made it through? It’s not so easy to just get divorced, right?"
"Let’s say, worst comes to worst, even if Ruan Jiandang doesn’t want to be with you anymore, don’t you still have your three sons? Would they let you leave? No stepmother can be better than their own mother, you can be absolutely sure of that!"
"..." Liao Zhaoji wavered.
Seeing her silent, with downcast eyes, Li Family knew her words had sunk in and continued to press the point: "Zhaoji, you can’t afford to be confused right now. You need to ingratiate yourself with your brother. Once your dad and I are in our graves, he’ll be your family, your one and only support. You understand?"
Liao Zhaoji pursed her lips tightly and nodded.
Li Family’s face broke into a smile. She patted her hand, her face full of sympathy. "Look at you, you’ve lost weight these past few days, haven’t you? You must not be eating well. Eat dinner at home tonight; Mom will make your favorite dishes."
"Mom, you’re so good to me," Liao Zhaoji said, moved, as if all the hurt she’d suffered at the Ruan Family had healed right there.
Li Family pretended to scold her: "You’re my daughter. If I don’t treat you well, who will I treat well? There now, get some sleep here, rest up. Mom will go and make dinner."
"Okay!" Liao Zhaoji nodded firmly and lay down on her bed.
She was indeed exhausted over the last couple of days. She closed her eyes, her thoughts in a jumble, and soon fell asleep.
Outside, Liao Laifu saw his mother come out and rushed to meet her. His expression was anxious. Li Family nodded at him, and Liao Laifu immediately breathed a sigh of relief, then turned and rode off on his bicycle.
Liao Zhaoji slept soundly at her family home for the first time in days. When she woke up, it was almost dark. She walked into the living room, and Li Family was setting up bowls and chopsticks. Spotting her, she beckoned, "Awake, are you? Come and eat. Your dad ate out tonight, so it’s just us three girls."
Liao Zhaoji sat down and started eating the dishes Li Family had made, feeling much more at ease. She thought about the incident at the hospital with the Ruanlin Family during the day, still feeling indignant, and talked about Ruan Jianguo wanting to build a new house.
At last, she added, "Mom, do you think my mother-in-law gave Ruan Jianguo the money? Where else could he get so much money to build a house? To think that when it comes to her sons, she could be so blatantly biased?"
"Sis, are you serious?" Liao Laifu, who had stopped eating, asked earnestly, "Is brother-in-law’s older brother really going to build a house?"
"Yeah, right at the entrance to the village."
"Wow, your mother-in-law must have put in quite a lot of money. Building a house nowadays costs at least several hundred thousand, right?"
"Mom, several hundred thousand couldn’t possibly build a house; it has to be over a thousand," Liao Laifu countered, rolling his eyes.
"A thousand..." Li Family gasped: "Then your mother-in-law must have helped out."
"You’ve got to have a good talk with Jianguo. With so much money involved, how could it all benefit just the senior branch of the family?" Li Family said, her face full of sympathy as if her own money had been taken away.
Talking about this only reignited Liao Zhaoji’s anger and sense of injustice.
She couldn’t understand the way the minds of the Ruan Family worked at all.
Ruan Jiaojiao was nothing but trouble, yet they treated her like a treasured child. This time she got into trouble, and instead of taking responsibility herself for running off to the back mountain and causing a commotion, they had the nerve to blame her!