Lu Chaonan took the letter, but before he had time to open it, Lu Chaoxi grabbed him by the arm and dragged him back home.
Before they even entered the courtyard, Lu Chaoxi shouted at the top of his lungs, “Mom, Second Brother is back!”
Inside the house, Li Chunhua froze when she heard his voice, thinking she must have misheard.
When Lu Chaoxi shouted again, she opened the window and peeked through the gap.
The young man standing beside Lu Chaoxi, dressed in an army green uniform, was none other than Lu Chaonan.
She had not seen him in two years, and Li Chunhua was instantly excited.
Bracing both hands against the kang bed, she shifted her body and prepared to get down.
She had already reached the edge, her feet slipping into her shoes and touching the floor, when she suddenly thought of Lin Shuya and stopped.
She drew her legs back, sat cross-legged on the kang, and remained silent, waiting with a cold expression for Lu Chaonan to enter.
A moment later, Lu Chaonan walked into the room.
He set his things aside and went straight to Li Chunhua. “Mom, I’m back.”
“You’re back?”
Li Chunhua’s cold response was like a basin of icy water poured over Lu Chaonan’s head.
The smile on his face faded. He took out the cotton fabric he had bought and handed it to her.
“Mom, I bought this especially for you. Ask Aunt Dongqin to make you a new outfit.”
Li Chunhua glanced at it from the corner of her eye and sneered. “Did you tell Lin Shuya before buying fabric for me? Did she agree? Don’t let me take this fabric to someone to make clothes, only for her to come chasing after me and demand it back. Your mother is already fifty years old. I can’t afford to lose that kind of face.”
Lu Chaonan understood the hidden meaning behind her words and followed her temper.
“A son should be filial to his mother. It’s only right. Shuya won’t ask you for it.”
Li Chunhua finally looked at him properly and reached out to take the fabric.
It was good fabric, soft to the touch and thick in appearance.
After setting it aside, Li Chunhua spoke again.
“Chaonan, it’s not that your mother is narrow-minded. It’s just that your wife is too much for me to handle. You have no idea what she’s been doing during the two years you were away.”
Lu Chaonan did not argue. He pulled over a stool and sat down.
“Mom, tell me. What has Lin Shuya done?”
The moment Li Chunhua heard this, she knew Lu Chaonan was taking her side.
She immediately turned toward him, sat cross-legged, and began listing Lin Shuya’s faults one by one.
“When you got married, everything happened in such a hurry. You told me about it that morning, and before lunch, you had already gotten your marriage certificate. Did I say anything about it as your mother?
“It’s been two years since then, and I can count the number of times Lin Shuya has entered this house on one hand.
“A mother-in-law and daughter-in-law are naturally bound to have conflicts. If she has something against me and doesn’t want to see me, I don’t care.
“After all, your mother is still young. I’m not seventy or eighty yet, and it’s not like I need anyone to serve me.
“But she went even further and humiliated me. She brought a whole crowd of people to my door and demanded money from me.
“Chaonan, your mother may not be capable of much, but I still raised you brothers.
“You’ve been away for so many years, and I’ve never once taken the initiative to ask you for a single cent. Your mother isn’t the kind of person who covets money.
“But in front of all those people, she claimed that I had pocketed your money. She’s trying to kill me with shame!”
At this point, Li Chunhua pulled up her sleeve and wiped at her eyes with the edge of it.
“I’ve lived an upright life for fifty years, only to end up being ruined by my own daughter-in-law. Chaonan, I won’t even have the face to go out and see people anymore.”
Lu Chaonan lowered his gaze and said nothing.
Was there anything wrong with what Li Chunhua had said?
Apparently not.
Every time his unit paid his wages, he had voluntarily mailed the money home. As far as he remembered, his mother had never once asked him for money.
Had Lin Shuya done anything wrong?
Apparently not either.
That money should have belonged to her. Taking it back was only natural.
Neither side seemed to be entirely wrong, so Lu Chaonan did not express an opinion.
Li Chunhua sniffled for quite a while, but when she received no response, she looked up and found Lu Chaonan sitting with his head lowered, lost in thought.
She could not help thinking to herself that he really had not been raised by her side and had always been distant from her.
If it had been her third son, he would have already gone looking for trouble with his wife by now.
Lin Dahai and his daughter were both clever people. They had practically coaxed Lu Chaonan into becoming a member of the Lin family.
What a waste of a son.
Li Chunhua let out a long breath before continuing.
“Lin Shuya is young, and as her elder, I won’t hold it against her. But she doesn’t know when to stop and even joins outsiders in bullying her own family.”
Seeing Lu Chaonan finally raise his head, Li Chunhua continued, venting her resentment.
“Third Daughter-in-law has always wanted to study and get into university. She works at the village primary school, spending her days looking after the children, so she only has a little time to study at night.
“Whenever the schoolchildren had to do farm work, she wanted to stay home and study a little more. Yet Lin Shuya always sided with outsiders and came to our house every single time to drag Ye Qing off to work, threatening to deduct her work points if she refused.”
Because of Lin Dahai’s connections, Lin Shuya was the brigade accountant.
The village primary school followed a half-study, half-labor system, so as a teacher there, Ye Qing was also required to work during the busy farming season.
If she did not work, she naturally would not receive work points.
Lu Chaonan saw nothing wrong with that.
“Teachers at the village primary school earn work points based on the days they work. If she neither teaches nor works in the fields, then it’s only right that she doesn’t receive work points.”
Li Chunhua’s words caught in her throat as she stared at Lu Chaonan with wide eyes.
His elbow was practically pressed against hers, yet he was still siding with outsiders.
Lin Dahai was a stubborn fool, and he had raised a whole bunch of stubborn fools.
Why did people become officials in the first place? Wasn’t it so they could do less work themselves and secure more benefits for their families?
That stubborn fool, Lin Dahai, had worked himself to death as a cadre. All he had left behind was the empty title of hero before ending up beneath the ground far too early.
That stubborn fool, Lin Shuya, was a brigade accountant who targeted her own family every day. Even as her mother-in-law, Li Chunhua could not slack off and had to go to the fields every day to earn those few work points, becoming a laughingstock for the entire village.
And Lu Chaonan was just as stubborn. Ever since getting married, he had forgotten his own mother and sided with outsiders in everything.
The more Li Chunhua thought about it, the angrier she became.
“Lu Chaonan, have you been planning to become the Lin family’s live-in son-in-law all along? Do you even remember that your surname is Lu?
“What kind of benefits did the Lin family give you that you put the elderly and the young of their family ahead of your own family every single time?”
Lu Chaonan was in no hurry. He answered leisurely, “I started following Brigade Captain Lin when I was nine years old. I ate, slept, and lived in the Lin household. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the Lin family raised me.
“I can’t eat from their bowl and then turn around and curse them afterward. I’m not that ungrateful. If word got out, people would condemn me for the rest of my life.”
“You… you ungrateful wretch!”
Li Chunhua trembled with anger.
Pointing at Lu Chaonan, she demanded, “I refuse to recognize Lin Shuya as my daughter-in-law. In the Lu family, it’s either her or me. If she stays, I go. If I stay, she goes.”
Lu Chaonan remained calm.
“There are only five rooms in the Lu family home, and each of us four brothers has one. The Lin family, on the other hand, has only one child, Lin Shuya, and she has an entire five-room courtyard house to herself.
“Even if you were willing, Lin Shuya would never agree to move here. You can rest assured about that. The two of you won’t be living under the same roof in the future, so you won’t have to see each other and get irritated.”
Li Chunhua could no longer endure it and roared, “Lu Chaonan, if you still want to recognize me as your mother, then divorce Lin Shuya!”