The bowl was slippery, and Lin Yongnian couldn’t hold onto it.

Not only did he wash them slowly, but he also broke two bowls.

Fortunately, they were his own.

He was worried about breaking a neighbor’s bowl and having to pay for it, so he gave five cents and asked a little girl from the courtyard, Guo Xiaochun, to help him wash the dishes.

Guo Xiaochun, happy to earn some money, eagerly washed the dishes.

Once the dishes were washed, the neighbors took theirs, and then another neighbor urged Old Lin Yongnian to sweep the yard.

By the time Lin Yongnian finished sweeping, the sky was already dark.

Every household in the courtyard had cooked dinner, except for the Lin family, whose stove was still cold.

“My mom still hasn’t come back? Is Qin Qin hungry?” Lin Jianshe, fastening his buttons, walked out of the room.

Since Liu Qin had toasted the guests, she had stayed in the room and hadn’t come out.

Lin Yongnian frowned. “Your big brother said the doctor told us your mom is fine. She just got dizzy from getting too upset, and they gave her some fluids. She’ll be fine once she wakes up. She still hasn’t come back.”

“Could it be something serious? Should we take her to the hospital?”

Lin Jianshe felt like a super-good son for still worrying about his mother after she made a mess of his wedding, which had embarrassed him in front of everyone.

“Your sister is there. If there was something serious, your sister would have come back and told us already. I think she’s just staying at the hospital to slack off.”

She probably didn’t want to deal with all the things she had to sort out at home, so she was deliberately avoiding it.

Lin Jianshe felt his dad’s reasoning made sense.

If something really was wrong, Xiaoyu would have come back to inform them, so there was no need to worry.

“So what are we going to eat tonight?”

Lin Yongnian looked at Lin Jianshe. “You’ve been in the countryside for so many years. You must know how to cook, right?”

They say life in the countryside is tough, and everything has to be done by oneself, including cooking.

Lin Jianshe shook his head. “When I was in the countryside, I cooked with the other educated youths, and the girls usually did the cooking.”

“How about letting your wife cook dinner?” Lin Yongnian suggested, speaking in a tone that sounded like a suggestion.

Lin Jianshe rolled his eyes. “No newlywed wife is going to cook on her first day in the house.”

He wasn’t about to have his wife start working right after moving in.

Lin Yongnian replied, “Your mom made dumplings for the whole family the night she married me.”

He still remembered they were shepherd’s purse dumplings, and they all loved them.

He really wanted some shepherd’s purse dumplings now.

“That was my mom,” Lin Jianshe said, as if implying his mother couldn’t be compared to Qin Qin.

“Dad, you grew up in the countryside. You must know how to cook, right?”

“There are no men cooking in the countryside; it’s all the women who cook,” Old Lin Yongnian glared.

He could make porridge and boil noodles, but when would an elderly man cook for his daughter-in-law?

If he did, he would truly become a servant to his daughter-in-law!

Lin Jianshe asked, “So, should we go out and buy something?”

“Go buy it then. Jianshe, you go,” Lin Yongnian waved his hand.

“Give me the money,” Lin Jianshe held out his hand.

“Don’t you have money? You’ve been working for two months and getting paid,” Lin Yongnian said.

Lin Jianshe replied, “I gave all the money to Qin Qin.”

Before their marriage, they had agreed that Qin Qin would manage their finances.

In the afternoon, he gave her all the money, though he secretly kept twenty bucks for himself.

Lin Yongnian didn’t know what to say, so he went inside, took out some money and tickets, and asked Lin Jianshe to go to the state-run restaurant and buy a few pounds of dumplings.

By the time Lin Jianshe came back with the dumplings, Liu Qin finally came out of the room.

It had been an uncomfortable day for Liu Qin.

Her mother-in-law made a scene, and her elder sister-in-law, along with the children, went back to her own family.

Liu Qin felt upset and didn’t look too happy.

“Don’t be upset. When mom comes back tomorrow, I’ll make her apologize to you,” Lin Jianshe said, adding some dumplings to Liu Qin’s bowl.

Liu Qin glanced at her father-in-law. “She even hit dad. Why would she apologize to me?”

Even if she did apologize, she couldn’t forgive the old woman.

Lin Yongnian remained silent.

“My brother didn’t mean any harm. He just wanted to liven up my wedding. He didn’t expect her to be so petty and hit someone,” Liu Qin continued, adding salt to the wound.

Lin Yongnian nodded. “We all know that. Your mom’s just had a problem today. Don’t worry, when she wakes up tomorrow, I’ll talk to her, and she’ll apologize.”

Li Shuping, who was usually so soft and obedient, must have been overworked the night before. She hadn’t slept, and it affected her judgment. It was probably why she had even dared to hit him. Once she recovered, she would surely regret it.

Liu Qin said, “Well, I’ll wait for her to apologize. As long as she’s sincere, I’ll be willing to live peacefully with her.”

“Dad, look at how sensible Qin Qin is. She’s not like my mom…” Lin Jianshe made a face and didn’t want to talk about his mom.

Liu Qin shot him a reproachful glance.

“Achoo, achoo…” Old Madam Li sneezed twice on her hospital bed.

Lin Xiaoyu, who was sharing the bed, heard it and thought her mother was cold, so she hurriedly pulled the blanket toward her.

Old Madam Li held her hand down. “No need to pull it. I’m already covered. I must have sneezed because your dad and brothers are scolding me.”

“Dad is really too much,” Lin Xiaoyu pouted, muttering softly.

Old Madam Li snorted. “He never changes. When the kids were young, he used violence. Now that he’s older, he uses emotional coldness.”

“Your dad and your two brothers all think I’m wrong and shouldn’t have made a scene. Do you think I was wrong?” Old Madam Li asked her daughter.

Lin Xiaoyu frowned. “They’ve been bullying you like that. You should have made a scene. It was obviously dad’s fault for not stopping the Liu family from bullying you. If I had known, I would have stopped them from bullying you.”

Old Madam Li sighed, hugging her daughter, her voice choked. “In this family, only you know how to feel sorry for me.”

Lin Xiaoyu tightly hugged her mom. “You’re my mom.”

Even though her mom usually asked her to do this and that, or complained about her not doing things right, she was still the one person Xiaoyu loved the most.

The next day was Sunday.

After breakfast at the hospital cafeteria, Old Madam Li completed the discharge procedures.

While waiting for the bus outside the hospital, Old Madam Li glanced down and saw her daughter’s toes sticking out of her cloth shoes.

The shoes were obviously too small.

She remembered that she hadn’t bought shoes for her daughter in over a year.

Then she thought about the shoes she had bought for her sons.

She bought shoes for her oldest son before the New Year and for the second one last month, and they were leather shoes.

“You’re biased, you prefer your sons. You treat your sons so well, and yet they don’t even come to visit you,” Old Madam Li thought of what her daughter had said.

It turned out, her daughter hadn’t wronged her.