Chapter 74

Late at night, Lu Baiwei climbed into the hall and slept on He Ting’s bed.

Early in the morning, Tang Yunling woke up but didn’t want to get up.

She thought it would be less awkward to ask Xiao Ran to wake Baiwei and He Ting up, but instead, she ended up getting a mouthful of “dog food”—the kind that could fill you up with just one bite, yet they kept forcing it into her mouth, enough to make her feel suffocated by it.

She came to stay with Baiwei to heal from the wounds caused by Zhao Yongshen’s betrayal.

But instead of healing her old wounds, she ended up with new ones.

“Are you two done yet? Look outside, it’s already bright out. My brothers are coming to help with the foundation work soon. Do you two plan on staying holed up in the clinic all day, lying in bed?”

At the entrance of the state-owned restaurant in town.

Shen Guixiang’s second daughter, Yin Yueping, stood with her husband, a frown on her face, clearly troubled.

“Get me some big meat buns, I’ll take them to the hospital for Mom and my brother.”

Yin Yueping reached out to her husband. “Do you have any meat ration coupons?”

“If you do, give them to me. I’ll head to the supply and marketing cooperative and see if I can get some meat.”

Yin Yueping whispered to her husband, “Mom said Zhihe and his wife are recovering from injuries. Meat soup will help them heal faster.”

Yin Yueping’s husband was a cook at the state-owned restaurant.

Since his wife’s family member had been injured and admitted to the commune hospital, his peaceful days had ended.

His mother-in-law would constantly demand meat or big meat buns from the state-owned restaurant, and despite his job as a cook, he couldn’t keep up with the demands of his wife’s family.

Not to mention his peculiar mother-in-law, whose appetite was growing larger by the day, always clamoring for meat.

Yin Yueping’s husband darkened. “I don’t have any coupons left.”

“Can you borrow one from your coworkers?”

Yin Yueping begged. “Mom said if we had gone to Xiangyang Brigade for support earlier, things wouldn’t have gotten so out of hand.”

“It’s our fault we didn’t go back to Xiangyang Brigade to back her up. Now Mom’s all beaten up.”

Oh no!

Yin Yueping’s husband’s heart sank.

With his older sister, Yin Yue’e, setting an example, he knew he couldn’t back down this time.

When the Xiangyang Brigade called for their help, he pretended not to know anything about it.

When the Xiangyang Brigade called for their help, Yin Yueping’s husband pretended not to know about it.

When his mother-in-law and brother-in-law had just been hospitalized, she would constantly demand that they take care of her, and his wife had been quite annoyed with her family.

But just a few days later, after being nagged by his mother-in-law, his wife began to feel guilty and took the blame for the incident, saying that it was because of them being beaten.

“You made me borrow two pounds of meat coupons and didn’t return them. Where am I supposed to get more coupons?”

Yin Yueping’s husband replied irritably, “That’s your brother’s wife, not my wife. Why should I have to serve her meat every day?”

“That’s not what I meant.”

Seeing that she had angered her husband, Yin Yueping softly defended herself, “I’m doing this for the family. Once my sister-in-law is better, I’ll send Mom and Zhihe back to Xiangyang Brigade as soon as possible.”

Her husband interrupted her, “You said the same thing yesterday.”

“Yesterday, you asked me to borrow meat coupons, saying your mom and Yin Zhihe were having their last meal of meat.”

“I see, as long as there’s meat and someone to serve them, their whole family’s wounds will never heal.”

His wife was good at heart but too soft, always protecting her family.

But her family was like an endless bottomless pit.

Yin Yueping’s husband, Chen Fuguo, had been running around taking care of things at the hospital for days, and he was burning with frustration.

“What kind of family is this? Always wanting to eat meat.”

“I’m just a small cook. Your mom is always shouting for meat, and even though we have someone in the family who’s an official, we still can’t just go to the supply and marketing cooperative every day to get meat.”

“I’m telling you now, don’t blame me for not considering our marriage if you keep running after your family like this. If you love your family so much, just go back to them.”

“It’s not like that.”

Shen Guixiang would always use filial piety as a way to pressure her, threatening to make a scene at the state-owned restaurant if she didn’t get the meat.

Yin Yueping was worried her husband would lose his job over all this and hoped to take care of her family as quickly as possible so that they could go back to Xiangyang Brigade.

She was doing it all for the family, why couldn’t he understand?

Yin Yueping felt wronged, her eyes glistening with tears, and she was about to say something else when two young intellectuals from the commune passed by them on their way to the state-owned restaurant.

“Lin, is it true that the Yin family is involved with thieves?”

Another intellectual chimed in, “Is there any doubt about it?”

“The wife of Liu, the Party secretary’s neighbor, has a plot of private land in the Yin family’s mountain hollow. She was late coming back after weeding and saw someone sneaking into the Yin house in the dark.”

“Ah, Yin’s wife broke her head and is hospitalized at the commune hospital. Should we help report it?”

“Ah, Yin’s wife broke her head and is in the commune hospital. Should we help report it?”

“Are you stupid? Did you ever think about why the aunt who saw the thief didn’t help report it?”

The two young intellectuals were speaking in such a way that it sounded like they had witnessed it themselves.

The one who had suggested reporting it, upon hearing his companion’s reminder, likely thought about Shen Guixiang’s true nature. He immediately began shaking his head, clearly avoiding getting involved.

He clearly feared being dragged into something and quickly stopped mentioning the incident.

The speaker didn’t mean it, but the listener took it to heart!

Yin Yueping’s husband, who was already struggling with how to deal with his troublesome mother-in-law’s family, felt a sense of relief upon hearing this.

He exchanged a glance with his wife.

Turning around, he went into the state-owned restaurant and grabbed a few meat-filled buns he had set aside.

“Yueping, take these buns to the hospital for Mom.”

He reminded her, “Mom’s external injuries are almost healed. Tell her to go home and rest.”

With her second daughter and son-in-law taking care of her, Shen Guixiang was living a life of luxury, with plenty of food and drink. She had become accustomed to eating meat every day, and she didn’t want to leave the hospital.

Shen Guixiang and Yin Zhihe had been beaten badly by Liu Chunhua’s family, but they weren’t seriously injured—just some external bruises, which would be healed in a couple of days in the hospital.

But Shen Guixiang, enjoying the daily supply of large meat-filled buns, refused to leave the hospital, complaining of pain here and there.

While chewing on a fragrant meat bun, Shen Guixiang, hearing her daughter say there were thieves at their home, immediately became suspicious and didn’t believe it.

“Yueping, I’m not saying this to criticize you, but you’re being unfilial.”

“If you and your son-in-law had come to help us in Xiangyang Brigade, Zhihe and I wouldn’t have been beaten like this.”

“I raised you from the ground up, and even found you a job as a cook at the state-owned restaurant. You’re living comfortably now, but you don’t even care about me, your mother. Now that you’ve brought me some meat-filled buns, you’re worried about me, trying to get me and Zhihe back to Xiangyang Brigade.”

Being criticized for being unfilial, Yin Yueping felt wronged, her eyes filled with tears and her eyes reddening.

She urgently said, “Mom, those two young intellectuals from the state-owned restaurant spoke about it in detail. You should think about it. How many people did you and Zhihe offend in the brigade?”

If her family was about to lose something, given her mother’s nature, she would likely turn around and try to make up for it through her daughters.

Yin Yueping tried to persuade her gently: “Whether this is true or not, just go home and check if thieves really entered. If you still feel pain, you can go back to the hospital to see the doctor.”

Shen Guixiang thought about it. If her second daughter tried to deceive her, she could claim that her pain was due to internal injuries that the doctor hadn’t detected.

Then, if she went back to the commune and lay in the hospital again, she could still ask her son-in-law, who worked as a cook at the state-owned restaurant, for more meat.

“Alright then, Zhihe can stay at the hospital to take care of your sister-in-law. I’ll go home for a bit.”