Chapter 126: Chapter 125: Not Afraid of Eating Hot Meat
Ye Shuying wanted to say more, but someone from the village entered the yard carrying something in their hands.
“Hongji, Hongji’s father, our family is poor and we don’t have much to offer, but these are freshly harvested peanuts from our home. I hope you won’t disdain them.”
Seeing that it was an elder with the same surname from the village, Hongji looked at him with confusion and said, “Paternal elder uncle, you should keep the good stuff to eat at home, don’t bring it here. Life isn’t easy for you either.”
“Hongji, your uncle really can’t take out anything of value, nor do we have the money to buy things. I hope you’ll accept these peanuts and take my useless son as an apprentice!”
“This… There will be a time when we formally take on apprentices. Don’t leave the things here, take them back with you. Your family also has a hard time.”
Hongji knew that this elder uncle had lost his wife, and there was a constantly ill mother at home who needed medication, along with a 13-year-old son. The father and son had no skills, and the land they farmed wasn’t enough to feed them. Perhaps the peanuts were the most valuable food they had?
Of course, rice was even more valuable than peanuts, but since their family rented land from the landlord, they didn’t have much grain left after paying the rent, not enough even for a family of three.
“Paternal elder uncle, you brought peanuts! That’s wonderful, give them to me!”
Mrs. Lai had just put down some pork and, hearing someone bringing peanuts from the kitchen, knew that peanuts were as valuable as grain. They could be used to make oil, dishes, and cakes.
“Mother, how could you do this? Uncle’s family is having such a tough time, how can we accept his stuff?”
Hongji saw his mother had already taken the peanuts from the elder uncle’s hands and his face showed an annoyed expression.
If he had money, he would have kept quiet then supplemented the elder uncle’s household at night. But without money, and unable to accept the gift, all the more because they were fellow villagers and the factory would really take people in—even without gifts, they were bound to hire.
“Hongji, it’s okay, your uncle entrusts this matter to you. I will leave now, ah!”
Hongji saw the elder uncle was about to walk out of the yard, and he had no choice but to drop whatever he was doing and hurriedly try to grab the peanuts from his mother’s hand, while still saying, “Paternal elder uncle, wait a moment.”
“No need, no need, Hongji, your uncle entrusts this matter to you.”
Mrs. Lai dodged her son’s attempt to snatch the peanuts, her plump body surprisingly agile at the moment.
Hongji didn’t dare to hurt his mother and could only anxiously say, “Mother, how can you accept gifts ? We’re fellow villagers, and the factory will take people anyway, gift or no gift. But if you accept gifts and the factory doesn’t hire, what am I supposed to do?”
“Since I’ve already accepted it, I don’t care anymore,” Mrs. Lai said, true to her surname, which implies stubbornness.
“Elder brother, you’ve accepted elder uncle’s gift, and you’ve agreed to his request. I gave pork, and mom accepted it as well. So, the construction subcontracting is up to you, elder brother.”
At this moment, Ye Shuying, who had vanished, no longer spoke with the meekness of making a request—it was replaced by a hint of bossiness in her tone.
“Father, won’t you say something to mother? Doing this, how can your son face people?”
Having heard Ye Shuying’s words, Hongji, burdened with constrained frustration, was unable to be stringent with his family and could only plea to his father for help.
Hongji’s father hadn’t spoken before because he thought accepting a gift or two wasn’t a big deal, given that the factory would contract out projects and hire people anyway.
Since his son put it that way, all he could do was admonish his wife half-heartedly, “You shouldn’t accept gifts carelessly in the future, to avoid causing trouble for our son.”
Mrs. Lai, who had a mutual understanding with her husband, knew his words were just to appease their son. She nodded, smiling, and took the peanuts to the kitchen.
Following this, the house became lively, filling up with even more people bringing gifts. Hongji politely asked each of them to take their gifts back.
With wave after wave of merry crowds, Hongji couldn’t concentrate on his carving, and he also had to stop his mother from accepting gifts, causing sweat to break out on the face of this honest man even in the depths of winter.
He wouldn’t accept gifts, but others said he had already accepted the elder uncle’s gift, so was he looking down on them by not accepting theirs?
When Hongji heard such talk, he felt so embarrassed. Not handling matters well with fellow villagers could offend people. In such a helpless situation, he could only have the guard block Mrs. Lai, preventing his mother from accepting any gifts.
If anyone else came to the courtyard later, he had the guard stop them, saying he was too busy to receive visitors, and if there was any business, they should speak with Housekeeper Tang.
Those who had managed to enter the courtyard but had not been able to offer their gifts felt somewhat unlucky, wondering why they hadn’t been as quick on their feet as that elder uncle.
And the villagers who later couldn’t even enter the courtyard could only hope for better luck next time.
When Ye Shuying sent out gifts, she felt confident about her husband’s affair. Feeling that it was somewhat a loss to buy meat and leave her parents’ home without eating, she decided to stay put regardless of her son being at home, lingering at her parents’ and not leaving.
Ye Shuying’s mother-in-law, wanting to help her son’s situation, not only gave the daughter-in-law money to buy meat but also busily looked after the grandson. Yet, she usually shirked household chores onto her daughter-in-law and didn’t do any at home while caring for the grandson.
By noon, the daughter-in-law had not returned home, and Mother-in-law, not wanting to cook, came to her parents-in-law’s home with the grandson in her arms.
Ms. Ding, Ye Shuying’s mother-in-law, had visited the in-laws’ husband once before, when she had brought the matchmaker to the house during the wedding arrangements for her daughter-in-law.
In the same village, she had not visited this place in over a year.
It was the same house as before, more rundown than a year ago, but for some reason, it felt grander than before—perhaps because of the two energetic young men standing at the gate?
“Our small boss has instructed us not to let any guests in,” one of them said.
Mother-in-law Ms. Ding, attempting to enter, was stopped by the two guards.
“Young men, let me tell you, we’re not just any guests. Do you know who this child in my arms is? Hongji’s nephew. Your small boss’s nephew. I’m from Hongji’s in-laws, his sister’s in-laws.”
Despite Ms. Ding’s explanations, the guards at the door remained unmoved, as the group before them had all claimed to be close relatives as well.
After trying to reason with them to no avail, Ms. Ding could only shout loudly at the door, “Ye Shuying, come out now! It’s already noon, aren’t you going to come home and cook for the child?”
Ye Shuying was in the kitchen with Mrs. Lai, directing Daya and her three sisters in cooking, saying that the meat she had bought shouldn’t be wasted by being poorly cooked.
Hearing Ms. Ding’s shouting, Ye Shuying was startled. Although she wanted to stay, she couldn’t ignore her mother-in-law’s call. But to go back now also felt unsatisfying, especially with the nearly finished meat looking so tempting in the kitchen.
“Elder sister, your mother-in-law is calling for you,” Ye Shuzhen and Ye Shuzhi, who were in the room looking through the window at the kitchen, observed. The enticing aroma of meat wafted from the kitchen doorway.
Hearing her mother-in-law’s summons, Ye Shuzhen thought that if her elder sister went back home, there would be one less person to compete with for meat, meaning she could eat a couple more pieces herself.
“Shuying, why don’t you head back?” Mrs. Lai, who had the money but was too stingy to buy meat, wanted to eat a few more pieces of the meat her dutiful daughter brought.
“Mother…” Ye Shuying, seeing the meat was almost ready, couldn’t bear to just give up.
Grabbing a pot spatula, she shoveled two pieces of the boiling hot meat, bravely reaching with her hand to put them into her mouth.
The piping hot meat was scalding in her mouth, and after blowing on it a few times, she no longer felt the burn and savored the two pieces of meat contentedly.