Chapter 29: Someone in Our Little South District

Lin Xiangnan, after playing his trick, didn’t care about Liu Honghe’s reaction and immediately dragged Lin Xiangxi away.

On the way back, Lin Xiangxi was a little regretful, “That coward Liu Honghe, if only he really put rat poison in it. I just can’t stand Liu Hongying, she dared to steal your man.”

“Don’t talk nonsense. I never liked that Zhao guy, it’s just that Liu Hongying sees herself as a hot commodity. But with Liu Honghe like this, their family is bound to have more trouble.”

Both families are divorced, it’s better to completely separate, she’ll just fan the flames and stir the pot, but she doesn’t want to get involved.

Lin Xiangxi sighed, “I just feel sorry for you and Mom. Big brother is not home, I have to protect you both.”

“Don’t be silly. Mom didn’t suffer any losses.”

In Lin Xiangnan’s opinion, Hu Meili and Liu Laoblack’s marriage had nothing to do with love, it was purely a partnership to raise children.

Now their children are all grown up. Without any conflict of interest, the two can still be together until old age. Once their children’s interests are involved, the two will break up.

After the divorce, Hu Meili didn’t owe any debts, and she even got 80 yuan. Moreover, Lin Xiangnan guessed that Hu Meili should have another one or two hundred yuan in private savings.

If she didn’t have a penny, how could she dare to buy a job for Lin Xiangnan? She couldn’t have borrowed all the money.

People of Hu Meili’s generation are used to being frugal, they dare not spend money recklessly, and they don’t have any requirements for food and housing.

The private space that Lin Xiangnan wanted was not a necessity in Hu Meili’s eyes. Even if she had extra money, as long as the house was still livable, she wouldn’t think about building a house.

If they were to build a house, four or five hundred yuan would be enough, but Lin Xiangnan took out a thousand. Five hundred yuan was enough to build a house, but it couldn’t persuade Hu Meili. With a thousand yuan, without much persuasion, Hu Meili ran off quickly.

When Lin Xiangnan and Lin Xiangxi got home, Hu Meili was already gone.

They went to the room and sure enough, their things had been rummaged through.

Hu Meili, as a mother, had no sense of privacy. The two of them lived in the same room, Hu Meili could look and rummage whenever she wanted.

But Lin Xiangnan had already anticipated this, and there was nothing in the room, Hu Meili couldn’t find a single cent.

Thinking about how Hu Meili searched the whole house, found nothing, and finally left grumbling, Lin Xiangnan burst into laughter.

“Trying to hide things from me, don’t you know who I am?”

Lin Xiangnan’s room was searched, Lin Xiangxi didn’t escape either. Seeing the new bed sheet on his bed, he said foolishly, “Didn’t we just change this bed sheet? It’s not dirty, why did Mom change it again?”

“I don’t know. Maybe Mom wants to wash it.” Lin Xiangnan chuckled to himself.

“But Mom’s not home.”

Lin Xiangnan said, “The meat in the cabinet is gone. Mom must have gone to my uncle’s house.”

“Why didn’t Mom call us when she went to my uncle’s house?” Lin Xiangxi was anxious, he quickly pulled Lin Xiangnan towards Hu’s house, while walking he said to Lin Xiangnan, “Grandma’s meatball is the best. I wonder if we can eat at my uncle’s house tonight.”

They had meat for lunch, but Lin Xiangxi was still craving it.

Even in a worker’s family, they could only eat meat once a month at most, sometimes not even that. Because there was another person in the family working as an educated youth in the countryside, Hu Meili would save some tickets and money to send to her eldest son, so that he wouldn’t go hungry and cold in the countryside, and wouldn’t end up in trouble.

Lin Xiangnan and Lin Xiangxi ran all the way, and soon caught up with Hu Meili on the road.

“Mom, why didn’t you call us?” Lin Xiangxi complained.

“I wanted to call you both.” Hu Meili glanced at them with disdain, “You ran off right after dinner, faster than a dog, who knows where you two went to play around.”

Speaking of the word “play around,” Hu Meili looked at Lin Xiangnan with dissatisfaction, clearly still angry. She had just searched the whole house, found nothing, and was exhausted.

There were no outsiders here, Hu Meili asked directly, “Where did you hide your things? It’s not safe outside!”

“I’ve been carrying them with me.”

“I don’t believe you can keep one eye open while you sleep.”

“Yeah, I sleep with one eye open and one eye closed.”

“You kid…” Hu Meili couldn’t argue so she wanted to hit him.

Lin Xiangnan proudly shook his head at her and ran ahead, Hu Meili chased after him relentlessly.

The other two at home were running, Lin Xiangxi, although confused, also quickly ran after them.

The journey that would normally take half an hour, they ran in twenty minutes.

When Hu Meili finally reached Hu’s house, she saw Lin Xiangnan already sitting down, leisurely drinking water.

Hu Meili kicked the iron cabinet, making a “bang” sound, “You ran ahead so fast, you didn’t even help me carry the things.”

This was Hu Meili’s old trick, whenever she got angry, she would make a lot of noise in the house, so everyone could hear.

Grandma glared at her and scolded, “You’re getting bolder, you’re taking your anger out on me?”

Hu Meili, even though she was domineering, didn’t dare to be rude to her own mother, she stood there awkwardly, handing over the basket of meat and peaches she was carrying, “Mom, I brought you some things.”

“You come here, why bring things? You’re already struggling to raise three children.”

Hu Meili didn’t hesitate, she said directly, “I dare not come empty-handed. Otherwise, my sister-in-law will gossip behind my back. Where are Dad and my elder brother, I want to talk to them about something.”

“Your elder brother went to your sister-in-law’s house for a wedding banquet, your second brother and his wife went to the supply and marketing cooperative to queue up for things, your father is playing chess with people at the factory gate, go find him yourself.”

Many factories only had one day off a week, on Sunday. Everyone was busy going to visit relatives and buying things on this day. Hu Meili didn’t need to queue up at the grain, oil, and food store, thanks to Lin Xiangnan, who was free.

Hu Meili knew that Old Man Huhad the final say in the family, so she put down the things and went to find him.

Lin Xiangnan was worried, so he followed, reminding her, “Don’t slip up.”

Hu Meili raised her chin slightly, “Do I need you to teach me how to do things?”

What Lin Xiangnan did was risky. Although Hu Meili was greedy, she was also afraid. So when she told Old Man Huwhere the money came from, she blamed it on her dead ex-husband.

“Living in the same courtyard with the Liu family is too inconvenient, now the children are all grown up, and they need to prepare for their wedding houses in advance, so I thought about building one myself.”

“That makes sense.” Old Man Hun odded in agreement, he was also anxious about his grandson’s wedding house.

“I wanted to ask my elder brother and second and third brothers if they wanted to join in, and we could figure out a way together.”

Old Man Hu sighed, he would love to build one, but he didn’t have enough money, so he hesitated.

“If your elder brother and the others don’t want to, then forget it.”

Hu Meili pulled Lin Xiangnan, who was eavesdropping, aside, winking at him while saying boldly, “Our little South has someone in the Housing Management Office. We can ask around to see who wants to build a house, and we can join in.”

Her classmates hadn’t even started working at the Housing Management Office yet, listening to Hu Meili’s tone, you would think her classmate was the director of the Housing Management Office.

But Lin Xiangnan knew that Hu Meili wanted to force the family’s hand, so he didn’t expose her.