Chapter 114

Looking at the various foods on the ox cart, Shuiqing muttered, “I feel like I’m a thief stealing from someone’s house.”

Bringing this and that back home.

Fan Jin smiled gently and sincerely said, “This is a gesture from Mother and younger brother.”

In the past, her parents-in-law were the same, feeling sorry for Shuiqing, often supplementing her with meat, grains, and eggs to take home.

But back then, the family wasn’t divided yet. Mother controlled everything; all food had to go through her distribution.

Mother said unmarried daughters-in-law’s things had to be handed over to the public fund, and when it came time to eat, the excuse of too little meat was used, and Shuiqing and her daughters’ share was gone.

After a few years, her parents-in-law found out that the supplemented food didn’t reach their daughter’s stomachs, and they never gave it again.

But Mother thought her parents-in-law were stingy. Giving meat and refined rice and eggs was just for show. Later, she became stricter with Shuiqing.

Shuiqing didn’t feel good about what Mother did and said. There was barely any interaction between the two families.

After the division, Shuiqing could freely come and go with her own parents.

Shuiqing thought it was fortunate that Fan Jin had let her bring so much home.

Then she wondered if he knew that her parents and younger brother would pack things for her to bring back, and he was worried her parents would be taken advantage of, so he told her to bring more?

She looked up at Fan Jin’s smiling eyes and felt warm inside.

The wind in December blew on her face, but it wasn’t too cold.

When the ox cart returned to Shanshui Village, the sun was already setting in the west.

Fan’s mother and Sun Jinhua were gossiping under the big tree at the village entrance, sleeves bundled.

Other women were either stitching shoe soles or making hats, but Fan’s mother and Sun Jinhua were chatting with empty hands.

Seeing Fan Jin and Shuiqing sitting on the ox cart, Fan’s mother’s eyes were full of anger. She angrily asked, “What kind of woman runs around all day like this!

Is this how your mother taught you when you were a girl?”

Sun Jinhua was quick and pulled up the oilcloth covering the cart, revealing a full load of bacon inside, immediately shining with excitement and shouting, “Mother, look!

Little brother and sister-in-law bought so much bacon!”

With her shouting, not only did Fan’s mother’s gaze turn over, but the eyes of everyone in the village also gathered over.

Seeing everyone looking over, Sun Jinhua proudly said, “Sister-in-law, this was all bought with little brother’s money. He won’t give any to me, his sister-in-law, but he certainly can’t not give any to his own mother, right?”

Before Shuiqing could speak, Fan Jin frowned and said first, “This wasn’t bought with my money.”

Sun Jinhua pursed her lips. “Are you saying it was bought with sister-in-law’s money?

But even if it was bought with sister-in-law’s money, Mother-in-law is still Mother. At the very least, half should go to Mother-in-law to be considered filial!”

“This wasn’t bought with Shuiqing’s money either,” Fan Jin said coldly.

Everyone widened their eyes in surprise.

If it wasn’t bought with their money, could it have fallen from the sky?

Fan Jin calmly said, “Mother-in-law specially prepared this for us to bring back, mainly for her daughter and several grandchildren to eat.

I can’t bring myself to let my wife’s family’s gifts be eaten by my own mother.”

With that said, Fan’s mother couldn’t keep her composure.

She couldn’t take her daughter’s bacon, but she also gave it to her grandchildren! How could she, as their grandmother, live with that?

Wouldn’t that be humiliating?

A woman in the crowd immediately asked loudly, “Grandmother Fan, you can’t let your daughter-in-law outdo you. She gave bacon to her grandchildren, who are your own grandsons!”

“Didn’t you always say they were from the old Fan family? Now that someone from outside has sent a basket of bacon, as their grandmother, shouldn’t you show something?”

The women in the crowd were eager to see a commotion, each adding their own comments.

Fan’s mother’s face turned red. In the past, she could keep it to herself when the door was closed, but now that outsiders knew, she couldn’t deny it.

Now that the family had split, she couldn’t refuse to accept it, and she was forced to speak up. She glared at her eldest daughter-in-law, whispering angrily, “You’re the only one who’s so careless!”

There’s no need to recklessly lift someone else’s oilcloth.

Now, it’s embarrassing. It’s really embarrassing.

Sun Jinhua was also filled with grievances. When she saw the bulging inside the oilcloth, there must be something there.

She just wanted to take advantage of it when she went back. Who knew her little brother-in-law would say in front of everyone that it was from his father-in-law’s family.

He didn’t even mind eating things from his wife’s family!

“Go back! What a shameless person!” Fan’s mother turned away without looking at Fan Jin and Shuiqing.

Sun Jinhua hurriedly followed.

Fan’s mother, more and more angry, scolded all the way, “Look at your in-laws. You can’t see anything!

In the past, we could still eat the pork and eggs sent by the Hu family. If you hadn’t been greedy and eaten Shuiqing’s share, wouldn’t the Hu family still send it?”

“No, tomorrow you go back to the Sun family and ask! If they don’t send food over, you go hungry!”

Sun Jinhua panicked. She had sent good things to her mother’s home, and her mother and brothers were still dissatisfied. If she went back to ask for things now, wouldn’t they just drive her out the door?

She sighed repeatedly.

Why did she have to lift the oilcloth so carelessly?

Listening to her mother-in-law and sister-in-law blaming each other, and bidding farewell to the women in the village, Fan Jin walked towards home with the ox cart.

When he climbed the hill, away from the crowd in the village, Shuiqing saw that the surroundings were empty and no one was around. Taking advantage of the cover of the oilcloth, she began to put things she had bought from the marketplace inside—thinking of the careless Sun Jinhua, it was indeed wise not to buy beforehand!

Thirty fat rabbits came first!

Pig’s trotters, pig’s kidneys, pig’s liver, pig’s head, spare ribs, pig’s big bones… Anyway, everything related to pigs was bought!

There were many people, and they consumed a lot of food every day.

Plus, it was cold, so it would be fine to keep some for a few days and eat it slowly.

She bought a lamb leg.

She bought twenty live ducks and a basket of duck eggs. There would be plenty of salted duck eggs to eat later.

There were also tofu, dried tofu, bean curd skin, oil gluten, dried bean curd, and a series of bean products.

For tofu, dried tofu, and other non-storable items, she only bought two days’ worth.

She also bought a lot of braising and seasoning ingredients. After calculating, she spent less than two thousand yuan in total.

The balance didn’t even touch the first three digits.

Shuiqing: … It feels so good to be rich!

At this moment, the ox cart was truly packed to the brim.

Fan Jin watched Shuiqing buy and buy, and looked at the cart filled with food covered by the oilcloth, his eyes gentle.

They hadn’t been able to pretend to buy things from the marketplace and bring them back for quite some time, as they either asked Fan He or went with Ling Ran.

Today, the two of them returned alone after going out, so of course they had to buy a little more.

Originally, they were worried that there would be many people asking questions when they returned home, but except for Yan Qiu and the few others who were already at home, they were actually the first to arrive home!

Fan Jin began to unload the goods.

First, he took the rabbits and ducks to where they were kept, then he took the food that could be stored to the warehouse.

Looking at the increasingly full warehouse, Fan Jin thought about how from not having enough to eat to having a dedicated storage room for grains and food, it had only been a few months.

And all of this was thanks to Shuiqing’s efforts.