Chapter 69

His beloved youngest son actually said something like he wouldn’t support his parents in old age? Qiao Xinyi walked over quietly beside Fu Qingshan and whispered, “These elders always say ‘the world’s gone upside down.’ It’s just because they’re getting older and still think they’re the center of the universe.” Chen Ju said this often, Qiao Laiwang said it too, and the troublesome folks in the Qiao family said it as well. Whenever these elders lost their temper, this phrase was their go-to.

Qiao Xinyi spoke loud enough that Zhang Zao and Zheng Youliang naturally heard. Seeing her still reveling in others’ misfortune, Zhang Zao couldn’t take it anymore and yelled at Qiao Xinyi, “Shut up!”

“Sorry, Auntie, I can’t. I’m an outgoing person—I just love to talk,” Qiao Xinyi said, feeling quite polite. “If you don’t like harsh truths, I’ll try to soften the mood with some compliments.”

Qiao Xinyi sat back down. “Auntie, you’re amazing—two sons in a row, such good fortune! And you’re great at raising children.”

“Look at Zheng Dajiang—he’s already nineteen and so filial. At that age, he still loves to stay with his elderly parents. He skips work, doesn’t farm the land, has no girlfriend—he’s definitely dedicating his whole life to you, being a full-time good son.”

“As for Zheng Dahe, he’s only sixteen. He just stole five yuan, that’s all—no responsibility, but not a big deal. After all, he stole from his own family, not from others, and he hasn’t disgraced the family outside the door. As long as he keeps to the rule of only stealing from his own home, there’s no place for him in jail, no shame brought to the ancestors. Not so bad.”

Zhang Zao nearly fainted.

“Look at the two fine sons you raised!” Zheng Youliang was so angry he swung the bamboo stick at Zhang Zao twice again. After beating them, he threw the stick on the ground and stormed off.

Zhang Zao quietly exhaled, glared at Qiao Xinyi, then hurried inside to change into long sleeves to cover the red welts from the bamboo stick, and left the house.

Qiao Xinyi looked innocently at Fu Qingshan. “Why is everyone leaving?”

Fu Qingshan chuckled softly, reached up through Qiao Xinyi’s sun hat, and patted her head sincerely. “Really impressive.”

Back then, if he and his older brother and sister-in-law had even half of Qiao Xinyi’s gift of gab, they wouldn’t have let Zhang Zao, that stepmother, be so smug all these years.

Qiao Xinyi raised an eyebrow. “That’s right~ Big brother, you’ve still got a lot to learn.”

Fu Qingshan gave up correcting her use of “big brother.” She was just being deliberately annoying, and no matter how many times he corrected her, it was useless.

Fu Linzhou and Fu Zeyu ran over to Qiao Xinyi, the two little guys reaching out eagerly. When they realized they were too short to reach her head, they patted her arms instead.

“Bald Auntie, you’re so awesome~” the two brothers said in unison.

“Are you tired? If you are, you can go rest in my room for a bit. If not, come with me to the town supply and marketing cooperative to buy some things, then let’s visit the neighbors next door,” Fu Qingshan asked.

Seeing Qiao Xinyi look at him, Fu Qingshan continued, “Every month for years I’ve sent five yuan to Aunt Feng next door, asking her to watch the two kids for me. You know how harsh my stepmother can be with the kids. I worry sometimes they don’t get enough food at home, so if Xiaozhou or Xiaoyu get hungry, they go next door to Aunt Feng.”

Fu Qingshan even sent five jin (about 2.5 kg) of national grain coupons along with the money. He had planned that no matter how much was spent on the kids, the rest would be a gift to Aunt Feng. But Aunt Feng was honest—she made her daughter keep records of every expense, and over all these years, she herself hadn’t used any of the money.

Fu Linzhou and Fu Zeyu obviously liked Grandma Feng next door very much. When they heard they were going next door, they immediately smiled.

“Grandma Feng says my little brother and I are little foodies. A few days ago, Grandma Zhang bought some egg cakes and hid them, only giving them to Uncle Three and Uncle Four. My brother and I saw it, so we asked Grandma Feng to buy some for us too. Grandma Feng bought us half a pound and told us to go to her house every day to eat one each,” Fu Linzhou said, giving a thumbs up.

“One each, only one each,” he added, sounding a little greedy but resigned that they could only eat one per day.

Qiao Xinyi pinched the two kids’ cheeks. No wonder they’re so well-built; it seems they’ve never gone hungry. No wonder these two kids have big tempers—now that they know their uncle can take them away, they won’t tolerate even the slightest injustice. If they want to find their uncle, they just go. Before the uncle comes to take them, they have to endure it.

To be honest, Zhang Zao was really disgusting to do this—buy food and not give it to the two kids, but deliberately let them see it, hoping the kids would go complain to Grandpa Zheng Youliang, so the stingy grandpa would punish his grandsons.

It was still early. The meat stall had some leftover meat others didn’t pick. After weighing, there were about four jin left. Fu Qingshan bought it all. The seller also gave two bone-in sticks. Then they went to the supply and marketing cooperative and weighed out two jin of biscuits, two jin of candy, and bought two cans of canned food. These things were definitely considered heavy gifts these days.

The two kids held hands, bouncing and skipping ahead to lead the way. When they reached the door, they shouted loudly, “Grandma Feng, are you home? We’re here! And our uncle and Bald Auntie are here too!”

Aunt Feng was washing clothes in the yard. Hearing the kids’ voices, she thought they had come for the egg cakes. But when she heard the rest, she realized Fu Qingshan had brought company.

Aunt Feng hurried out to greet them. “I heard early this morning that Qingshan, you brought your girlfriend home. So this must be your girlfriend, huh? She looks really energetic—a handsome young lady.”

Fu Linzhou jumped in front of Aunt Feng, shaking his shiny bald head like a marinated egg. “Grandma Feng, look at the new hairstyle my brother and I have! So cool! My uncle’s girlfriend has the same hairstyle.”

Aunt Feng looked carefully and noticed that indeed there was no hair under Qiao Xinyi’s hat.

Fu Qingshan quickly explained, “My girlfriend has a wound on her head. When the doctor treated it, they shaved her hair so the wound wouldn’t get infected.”

“That’s okay. Once the wound heals, the hair will grow back. Young people’s hair grows fast—within a year, it’ll grow to ear length,” Aunt Feng said.

Just then, a snicker came from a corner of the yard.

“Heh, so ugly.”

Hearing the voice, Qiao Xinyi and the others all looked toward the speaking girl. Qiao Xinyi noticed that under the eaves in the corner stood two girls, one tall and one short.

The taller girl, about the same age as Qiao Xinyi, was rolling her eyes at her. The shorter girl, maybe fourteen or fifteen, looked impatient.

“Auntie Zhenzhu, don’t play with this bad woman!” Fu Linzhou ran over and pulled Feng Zhenzhu onto their side. He put his hands on his hips, standing in front of Qiao Xinyi and pointed at the other woman.

He said, “Bald Auntie, she also wants to be my and my brother’s auntie! But she only likes my uncle’s salary. She always asks how much money our uncle makes every month. My brother and I both hate her.”

Feng Zhenzhu was also annoyed with Zhang Mengdi. She was Zhang Mengdi’s younger brother’s classmate. Since Zhang Mengdi found out her family was close with Fu Qingshan, these past few months Zhang Mengdi had been coming to her house every now and then, using the excuse of playing with her but really trying to pry information about Fu Qingshan.

Zhang Mengdi was like a persistent fly that couldn’t be swatted away. She often tried to convince Feng Zhenzhu that studying so much was useless for girls, and the important thing was to find a good man to marry.

She even told her that her aunt planned to introduce her to Fu Qingshan, and once she married Fu Qingshan, they’d be neighbors too.