Chapter 33

Su Qiaoyue looked down on her mother-in-law.

She came from a good family, with both parents being workers and small cadres in the factory. She herself was a high school graduate and now a Chinese language teacher at a government primary school.

She received a salary every month and was considered the most beautiful in the family compound.

Even though people now said that Shi Tingyu was prettier, she didn’t think there was much difference.

How much prettier could she be?

At most, they were evenly matched.

However, in one aspect, she was superior to Shi Tingyu—her husband.

Lu Wenbin was refined and handsome, unlike the rough soldiers in the camp. Compared to Lu Wenbin, Lu Weiguo’s appearance fell short.

So, she still felt she was better than Shi Tingyu.

As for her mother-in-law, before she had a child, the old lady nagged all the time. Thankfully, she wasn’t affected and lived her life as she pleased.

She wouldn’t let the old lady’s words make her seek medical treatments and remedies every day. And indeed, the child came when it was time.

However, she didn’t expect her mother-in-law, who came to take care of her during confinement, to be so stingy.

Aside from being frugal with food and daily necessities, she now scrimped on the child’s full-month banquet.

Su Qiaoyue had been well-known in the family compound, and now, thanks to the mother-in-law’s meddling, how was she supposed to interact with people after her confinement?

Wouldn’t she be looked down upon?

Especially since her mother-in-law’s scheming had failed and she returned only to sulk, not even cooking. She didn’t cook and didn’t let her sister-in-law help either, clearly showing she didn’t care about her daughter-in-law.

And she was still in her confinement period.

If it weren’t for her agreeing, her sister-in-law would still be in the countryside.

She had agreed to let her sister-in-law come along because her husband mentioned that the sister-in-law was of marriageable age and he wanted to find her a military officer.

She thought that if her sister-in-law could marry a military officer, it would be an added support for the family.

But it turned out that the sister-in-law was ungrateful.

She believed she had treated her sister-in-law well, yet now the girl took money to eat out, not thinking about her and her son at all.

Seeing her daughter-in-law not responding, Aunt Lu raised her voice, “Jinbao’s mother, I’m asking you, what did you send Binzi out to do? Are you mute?”

Su Qiaoyue glanced at her son, seeing his little brow furrowing. She gently patted him a few times before turning to look at her mother-in-law.

“Binzi, as a man, should take on the responsibility of supporting the family. If we don’t have food, shouldn’t he, as the head of the household, get us some? Or are we supposed to wait for you to remember to cook for us?”

Aunt Lu’s eyes flickered, and she said, “If you were hungry, why didn’t you say so? Binzi works all day and is tired. Don’t you have any conscience? Don’t you know how to care for your own husband?”

Su Qiaoyue picked up her son and gently rocked him. “It’s not that I don’t care for him, but Binzi can’t stand to see us suffer. If you cared so much about him, why didn’t you cook earlier? It’s not like I stopped you from cooking.”

She had indeed called out for the old lady to cook earlier, but she pretended not to hear.

Aunt Lu felt a bit guilty.

She was angry, yes, but it wasn’t necessary to throw a fit and refuse to cook. She just wanted to put her daughter-in-law in her place.

She could tell that her daughter-in-law had looked down on her before.

Now that the child was born, she wasn’t worried about starving her daughter-in-law to the point of illness. As long as her grandson was well-fed, that was enough.

But she hadn’t expected it to end up tiring her son out.

Su Qiaoyue was impatient to argue with the old lady, so she said, “If you want to take care of me during my confinement, do it properly. If not, take my sister-in-law back to your hometown. I’ll have my own mother come help me, and the child can take my surname.”

“And that way, my mom can see her grandchild without having to find a place to stay.”

The old lady’s chest heaved violently at her words. “What do you mean? The child belongs to our Lu family.”

Su Qiaoyue was an only daughter, and before her marriage, Aunt Lu had worried that once her son had children, both families would fight over them.

Hearing Su Qiaoyue repeatedly refer to the child as her grandchild and mentioning the possibility of the child taking her surname made Aunt Lu anxious.

What grandchild? That would be Su’s family’s grandson!

It’s not the same as their grandson!

Su Qiaoyue rolled her eyes.

Her husband treated her well, and she was only saying this to scare the old lady, who was always causing trouble. It was to prevent her from constantly trying to manipulate her.

She wasn’t one of those submissive daughters-in-law. What era was this? The days when mothers-in-law bullied their daughters-in-law were long gone.

If the old lady treated her well, she would naturally reciprocate with filial piety. If not, she didn’t care what happened to her.

“If you don’t want my mom to come and take care of the child, then help properly and stop making things up as you go.”

Su Qiaoyue’s words were enough to leave anyone speechless.

Aunt Lu nearly spat blood in anger.

When Lu Wenbin returned, he saw his mother tidying up the house and washing the baby’s diapers.

Had she finally come to her senses?

Carrying the food, Lu Wenbin first brought it to Su Qiaoyue on the bed.

Aunt Lu, watching, instinctively wanted to say something but swallowed her words.

Forget it, she thought. She could deal with her daughter-in-law later. She didn’t want to push her to actually change the child’s surname.

She had no confidence in her own son. He seemed bewitched by his wife and always went along with her.

She couldn’t guarantee that if Su Qiaoyue tried to change the child’s surname, her son wouldn’t agree.

After all, in the five years without children, her son never said a word against that woman.

When Lu Wenchan returned after eating, she noticed that the atmosphere at home was still not good and quietly went back to her room.

Actually, she didn’t like living here at all.

Here, she had to act according to her sister-in-law’s whims.

But the reason she stayed was because there were excellent marriage prospects, and she had also found a job here.

This job was snatched from a bunch of military wives because she had a high school diploma.

She believed that with her qualifications, she could definitely find a young and promising officer.

Shi Tingyu was unaware of the chaos in the Lu family; it had nothing to do with her.

At this moment, she was reading a letter from her brother.

She had previously informed Shi Muchan that their parents had settled in Qianxi Brigade, and this time Shi Muchan was replying to her letter.

In the letter, he asked about her well-being and subtly inquired about how Lu Weiguo was treating her.

Reading this, Shi Tingyu felt a warm current flow through her heart.

She took out a piece of stationery to write back to her elder brother.

She focused on describing her life over the past few days.

The vegetable garden in the yard, having guests over for meals, the helpful neighbors, the work at school, and the considerate Lu Weiguo.

Shi Tingyu believed her brother would sense her contentment and not worry about her.

After sealing the letter, Shi Tingyu started sketching on paper.

The drawing was of Lu Weiguo’s face.

She was about to start her official work tomorrow and hadn’t picked up a brush in a while, so she practiced a bit with a simple sketch.

When Lu Weiguo returned to the room to change clothes, he saw a drawing on the desk.

He picked it up and his eyes lit up.

The drawing was simple, just a black and white sketch, but anyone who had seen him would immediately recognize it was him.

He even thought the drawing looked better than the real him.

Was this how she saw him? Lu Weiguo couldn’t help but feel a little pleased, secretly happy.

It wasn’t until he heard Shi Tingyu calling him for dinner that he put the drawing down.

Seeing the pleased look on his face, Shi Tingyu asked, “Did something good happen today?”

Lu Weiguo initially wanted to say nothing, but seeing her curious face, he suddenly didn’t want to be so vague.

He said, “I saw the drawing you did of me.”

Under his intense gaze, Shi Tingyu felt slightly uncomfortable. She cleared her throat and said, “Well, I’m starting work tomorrow, so I just did a quick sketch to practice.”