Chapter 27: Mooching Off

“Ahem, Auntie, we’ll head to the canteen now. You’d better hurry and deliver that lunch,” Director Liu quickly said, noticing the old lady’s worried expression and knowing exactly what was on her mind.

“Alright then, off you go.” The old lady waved them off without fuss.

Once they were out of earshot, Director Liu turned to Zhao Sihai to explain.

“That was Secretary Wang’s mother. She’s a decent person, but she really loves to push people to get married. Though, in your case, you probably don’t need to worry about that.”

Zhao Sihai nodded with a smile, slightly surprised. “The Secretary’s still unmarried?”

Director Liu coughed lightly into his fist and chuckled awkwardly. “Our Secretary has devoted himself to the Party. That kind of dedication—we should all aspire to it.”

Zhao Sihai raised an eyebrow, hearing something more behind those words, but didn’t press the issue.

The group chatted and laughed as they headed to the canteen.

While eating, Lao Liu, the agricultural technician, suddenly asked, “Comrade Sihai, watching you repair the tractor this morning—you were really skilled. Can you fix other machines too?”

Zhao Sihai looked up. “What kind of machines?”

“The cotton carding machine at the textile mill. Know how to fix that?”

Zhao Sihai thought for a moment and gave a measured answer. “I haven’t seen it yet, so I can’t say for sure.”

Lao Liu’s eyes lit up. “That’s fine. When you have time, I’ll take you over to have a look. It’s in Qingyang County.”

Naturally, Zhao Sihai didn’t refuse and nodded in agreement.

—

Nanyang Village

Bai Ruoqiao saw the aggressive figure of Zhao Pozi marching up like a storm to settle scores and greeted her with a bright smile.

“A-ma, what brings you here?”

At the sight of Bai Ruoqiao’s face, Zhao Pozi felt a surge of rage and nearly wanted to tear it apart.

But after the drugging incident, she had developed a bit of fear toward Bai Ruoqiao. At the very least, she no longer dared lay hands on her—worried any physical contact might result in being poisoned again.

She scowled. “What, I’m the mother of the man who owns this land. Am I not allowed to visit? Were you all hoping I’d never set foot here again?”

Bai Ruoqiao kept her temper, wearing a helpless, soft expression like a steamed bun.

“A-ma, how could we think that? Actually, I was just about to head over to the main house myself.”

In the past, Bai Ruoqiao’s soft-spoken tone made her seem like someone easy to push around.

Now, hearing that same soft voice, Zhao Pozi’s guard went up instantly—every cell in her body on alert.

“What are you going to the main house for? Up to no good again, I bet?”

Bai Ruoqiao sighed, her face looking even more helpless. “A-ma, what bad could I do? We’re all family. I had no choice before, but things should be fine now. Just yesterday, we had some guests over for a meal and received a few gifts. We bought a few new things for our side of the house and thought we’d bring some over to the main house.”

The mention of entertaining guests immediately set Zhao Pozi fuming again—but the moment she heard they were bringing things over to the main house, her eyes narrowed, and her demeanor calmed.

“What kind of things? Don’t bring over a pile of junk and act like you’re being all filial,” she said mockingly.

Bai Ruoqiao didn’t mind in the slightest and smiled patiently.

“A-ma, just wait a moment. I’ll go get them.”

Once Bai Ruoqiao turned and walked toward the kitchen, Zhao Pozi quickly stepped into the courtyard.

She took a quick look around. Compared to the main house, this small courtyard wasn’t even a third the size. And though the earthen house had been somewhat repaired, it was still quite shabby. Zhao Pozi curled her lips in contempt—but inwardly, she felt a little better.

Bai Ruoqiao came out carrying a basket. “A-ma, here’s a bottle of Moutai—it was a gift from one of Hai-ge’s friends. A little something for Dad and Third Brother to enjoy. There’s five jin of meat for everyone to share, and some malted milk powder—also from Hai-ge’s friend—for you to boost your health.”

Zhao Pozi had been sulking, but the moment she saw what was in the basket, her eyes lit up.

These were all high-quality items.

But Zhao Pozi’s face quickly darkened.

If this woman could so easily offer such things, did it mean there was even better stuff hidden at home?

She sneered. “I heard you’ve been feasting these past couple days. Clearly, you’ve got plenty of good things. And this little bit? You think you’re giving alms to a beggar?”

Bai Ruoqiao explained patiently, “A-ma, that’s just gossip. When folks came to eat, they also brought things. We just pooled it all together. Really, this is the best of it. Hai-ge specifically told me to send these to the main house as a token of respect.”

Of course, Zhao Pozi didn’t believe a word she said. She immediately snatched the basket and strode right into the kitchen.

There was no hiding anything in the kitchen—it was all laid bare at a glance.

Right now, there were two bags of grain. One had just a single jin of flour, the other maybe three or four jin of cornmeal.

On the shelf basket: two radishes, half a Chinese cabbage, and two eggs. The stove held the usual oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar—nothing else.

It was pitifully meager.

Zhao Pozi squinted, then simply took the eggs and the flour and stuffed them into the basket.

“Don’t act like these aren’t precious. Since you look down on me, I’ll just take it all.”

Bai Ruoqiao looked like she wanted to say something, but in the end, she didn’t.

Seeing her still putting on that same meek and submissive expression, Zhao Pozi gradually let her guard down.

She wandered into the main room and took the half-eaten can of preserved fruit An’an had left in the morning, along with a packet of candy.

Finally, realizing there was really nothing more worth taking, she hurled a few more sarcastic remarks and left.

After she was gone, Bai Ruoqiao stood by the door for a while before locking up and heading to the Fang household.

As she passed by, a neighboring auntie called out with concern, “Comrade Bai, I just saw your mother-in-law walking away from your house with a whole bundle of things. Did she come to bully you again?”

Bai Ruoqiao forced a smile. “No, just a few things we bought recently, plus gifts from Hai-ge’s friends. We were going to bring them to the main house anyway.”

The auntie could see her smile was strained and immediately understood there was more going on.

Her face filled with sympathy—marrying into a family like that was just bad luck.

Just yesterday, everyone had been envious that Zhao Sihai had landed such a good job, and that Bai Ruoqiao would finally get to enjoy some comfort.

Now it seemed that joy had come too soon.

With someone like Zhao Pozi around—so shameless and brash—and that whole Zhao family of freeloaders, whether Zhao Sihai’s job was a blessing or a curse was still up for debate.

Looked like there would be plenty of drama to come.

Seeing the auntie’s sympathetic expression made Bai Ruoqiao’s smile even more forced. “Auntie, I’ll be going.”

“Oh, off to the Fang’s to pick up An’an? Go ahead. If you’re ever too busy, you can always leave An’an with me.”

Bai Ruoqiao smiled faintly. “An’an just loves sticking to Jingguo.” With a wave, she continued on her way.

After she left, the auntie headed off to find her old friend and gossip about Zhao Pozi’s shameless behavior.

In no time, nearly the whole village had heard.

—

Meanwhile, over at the Fang household, Fang Hanwu had also caught wind of what happened and frowned.

Everyone knew how difficult Zhao Pozi could be—and no one really had a good way to deal with her.

After all, even though Zhao Sihai had split from the family, the blood ties were still there. A mother taking things from her son’s household technically wasn’t illegal.

He sighed. “Maybe starting tomorrow, let Caihua go over more often to keep an eye on things. Sihai’s gone for the next few days, and we don’t want that poor mother and child getting bullied again.”

Zhang Aiju looked helpless. “We’re not even related, and there’s no real excuse. What reason would Caihua have to drop by? People might think we’re trying to curry favor with Sihai because of his job.”

Hearing that, Fang Hanwu had to admit she had a point.

All they could do in the end was sigh and make a mental note to talk to Sihai about it once he returned.