His sleeve was tugged, and when he saw it was Mrs. Li, she was using her gaze to urge him to wash his hands and prepare for dinner.
Hongji silently turned around and then ignored his mother to go wash his hands.
Hongji’s father watched as the situation unfolded, glared at his son’s back, and then glanced at Mrs. Li and her daughters. He noticed the baby Mrs. Li was holding was sucking on its hand, wanting something to eat!
The baby’s expression helped soothe the grandfather’s anger, and then he glared at Mrs. Lai, who was still sitting on the ground:
"Are you going to just sit there and act dead? Are you not going to eat? Such embarrassing behavior, look at how well-dressed you are, sitting on the ground like that? What a sight!"
Scolded by the old man, Mrs. Lai, also holding her breath, retorted softly, "What if I just wanted something, how about that? With a son so unfilial, besides, if the clothes get dirty, don’t we have servants to wash them?"
The more Hongji’s father looked at his elderly wife, the less he liked her, pondering why he had married such a woman years ago.
Logically speaking, considering he wasn’t very old, being just over fifty, he could take a concubine if he wanted, especially now that he had money, which made him resent Mrs. Lai even more.
He wondered if perhaps remarrying was possible.
Mrs. Lai never imagined that her actions would make her husband consider taking a concubine; had she known, she surely would have been furious enough to spit blood.
As Mrs. Lai had the maid help wash her hands and feet and clean her soiled pants and clothes, she entered the living room for dinner, glaring fiercely at Ye Shiqi, who had snatched the bag.
Her anger hadn’t subsided yet, and whenever her granddaughter received a gift, she planned to search her room later, but she never found anything.
She didn’t hate any of her granddaughters as much as she did this one, and her son and daughter-in-law always protected her.
"Wuwa, you little brat, what are you doing with such precious wood material?"
Ye Shiqi knew her grandmother wouldn’t let this go so easily; during her grandmother’s tirade, she innocently gazed up at her with those adorable eyes!
Her large, innocent eyes looked up at her grandmother, her expression so guileless that anyone else would have found it difficult to scold such a cute child.
As the grandmother, Mrs. Lai had never felt much affection for her granddaughter and had never held her when she was a baby. In fact, she somewhat resented her granddaughter for taking her son’s attention!
"Look—what? Get those things out now!"
Hongji frowned, tired of his mother’s relentless attitude, and distressed that his daughter was being scolded!
"Mom, what are you doing now? I’ve already said if you want something, just pay, and I can get more material from the wood factory!"
Hearing her son mention money again, Mrs. Lai glared at Hongji angrily: "Money, money, money, even when you show a little filial piety you demand money, to have such an unfilial thing like you!"
"Mom, you know that the estate needs investment, all the money has gone there."
With this explanation, Hongji again drew relentless accusations from Mrs. Lai:
"Investment, investment, sending all the money to the estate, then why still hire a teacher?"
Mrs. Lai ranted, and as the whole family sat at the dinner table waiting to begin eating, her spittle nearly flew into the food!
Ye Shiqi felt disgusted, but she couldn’t express this out loud, or she wouldn’t just be scolded; her father would also be implicated.
To calm Mrs. Lai’s fury, she calculated in her mind, planning to carve statues from the larger piece of wood her father brought home and to make hairpins and combs from the rest of the wood!
There was quite a lot of wood her father brought home. It would be feasible to make a wooden hairpin for each of her grandparents, and if possible, to make them each a comb, as using such wood to comb their hair daily would be beneficial for the elderly.
"Grandma, don’t be angry, when your granddaughter has time, I’ll make a comb for each of you, so you can comb your hair every day."
Mrs. Lai felt a bit better and muttered, "Just saying this earlier would have sufficed; I want not just combs but also hairpins."
"Grandma, depending on the material, once I’ve fulfilled what’s to be sent to the Tang family young Master, I’ll make some trinkets for you two elders as well!"
Mrs. Lai still wanted to say more, but Hongji’s father felt warmed by his granddaughter’s words; raising daughters is said to be like raising Little Mianao, and indeed, his daughters had never given their parents any significantly valuable items, always expecting subsidies from their paternal home!
Always hoping that their elders would provide their family with money and goods, they had never given any jewelry.
Having such a caring two-year-old granddaughter warmed his heart; he had long changed his opinion about her dislike for the granddaughter.
In these past two years, as their family kept growing, since his bright and clever granddaughter was born, everyone praised his granddaughter and remarked how wonderful it would be if she were a grandson!
As long as a person has a heart that feels gratitude and is filial, whether male or female, the person will show filial piety. What does an old man want?
Isn’t it to hope for successful descendants and filial children for a blessed twilight of life?
They were now the envy of everyone in the village, as their home environment had improved. He and his wife were more lenient toward their son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughters, sometimes even taking their side and scolding his spouse.