Ren Chaomei could tell at a glance that Ren Ganying was rummaging through her parents’ room, so naturally, Second Auntie could see it too.
“Ganying, where’s your mother?” Second Auntie asked with a strange look on her face.
“She went to the river to wash clothes.” Ren Ganying bit her lip and explained, “My mom can’t find something, so she asked me to help her look for it.”
“Really? I don’t believe you.” Ren Chaomei commented. “If you weren’t doing something shady, why did you lock the door? And why are you sneaking around? There’s obviously something fishy going on.”
Ren Ganying angrily retorted, “Believe it or not!”
Seeing that the two sisters were about to start arguing again, and might even start fighting, Second Auntie was afraid she wouldn’t be able to hold them apart later, so she quickly interrupted, “Chaomei, didn’t you say your waist hurts and you wanted me to massage your back? Stop dawdling and go lie down on the bed.”
“I don’t want a massage anymore. Let’s go wash clothes by the river. While we’re there, we can ask my aunt whether she really asked Ren Ganying to look for something.”
“Ren Chaomei, are you deliberately looking for trouble?”
“Yes, yes, yes~”
Ren Chaomei admitted it without the slightest hesitation. When it came to her uncle’s family, she was particularly happy to do things that might not benefit her but would annoy them.
Whether she gained anything wasn’t important.
What mattered was getting some of her anger out.
When you’re alive, sometimes all you have is your pride. Letting out the resentment bottled up inside you is more important than anything else.
The two of them were still tugging at each other when Wang Xiaoqin returned carrying a load of freshly washed, wet clothes.
Wang Xiaoqin was weak, and after carrying such a heavy load all the way home, she set down the basket and was still panting heavily when Ren Chaomei immediately got straight to the point.
“Auntie, what did you ask Ren Ganying to help you find? Do you want me to help you look for it?”
Ren Ganying hurriedly grabbed Ren Chaomei’s sleeve. “Ren Chaomei!”
“No need for you to help.” The moment Wang Xiaoqin heard that Ren Chaomei wanted to help, her first reaction was to refuse. “I didn’t ask her to look for anything.”
“Oh-ho! You’ve been exposed. So you really were in Uncle’s room stealing things.”
“Can you stop putting it so harshly? I was just looking for something that had been lost.”
That “lost thing” could only be the little purse. For the sake of that purse, Ren Ganying had already talked back to her parents several times. Now she had even gone into their room and rummaged through it.
Wang Xiaoqin’s entire face fell.
Seeing the situation, Second Auntie felt a headache coming on. She earnestly advised Wang Xiaoqin, “Xiaoqin, the child is still young. Teach her slowly. I still have things to do, so I’ll head back first.”
When she left, Ren Chaomei didn’t stop her either.
If Ren Chaomei’s own words had been enough and people trusted what she said, she wouldn’t have deliberately brought someone over as a witness.
But Ren Chaomei wasn’t the type to use someone and then discard them.
After enjoying the spectacle of the mother and daughter arguing, she ran to the river and helped Second Auntie carry the washed clothes home.
“Didn’t you say your waist hurt?”
“But I’m young! Even if my waist is sore, I still have more strength than someone your age.”
“You child. If only you could change that foul temper of yours…”
Second Auntie couldn’t help sighing as she looked at Ren Chaomei. With such a fiery temper, it was already difficult to find her a suitable match. And now she had even been deceived into a marriage. It would be even harder for her to get married in the future.
But no one dared to say those painful truths directly to Ren Chaomei.
Second Auntie could only patiently advise her, “You should behave yourself for the next couple of years and stop fighting with your uncle so much. Once things have settled down a little, you can slowly look for a good family. You’re going to marry out eventually, so why keep fighting with your uncle? Aren’t you afraid that one day you won’t have any relatives from your maiden family to stand up for you?”
“Stand up for me?” Ren Chaomei asked in return. “When I was deceived by the Wang family, did my uncle go over there and make trouble for them?”
Second Auntie fell silent.
Forget being tricked into a marriage—even back when she had first married into her husband’s family, when her husband slapped her twice, her parents had brought all her uncles and male cousins over and given her husband a proper scolding.
If something like what happened to Ren Chaomei had happened to her, her parents would probably have smashed the other family’s house.
Of course, that had been decades ago.
Her own parents had been dead for many years.
Ren Chaomei’s parents had also been dead for many years.
Second Auntie sighed. How could an uncle be the same as one’s own father?
Children without parents were truly pitiful.
She had originally wanted to say that once Ren Chaomei married and had a family of her own, things would get better. But when she thought about Ren Chaomei’s current situation, she swallowed those words.
After hearing Second Auntie sigh several times, Ren Chaomei still said nothing. She didn’t want to listen to the lecturing. Once she set down Second Auntie’s basket, Ren Chaomei happily ran back toward her own house.
Even the kindest nagging wasn’t as entertaining as gossip.
She had to hurry back and watch the drama.
When she had been at home earlier, Wang Xiaoqin and Ren Ganying had both been putting on a front in front of her, so neither of them had really let loose.
Only when she was gone could the mother and daughter truly start arguing.
So when Ren Chaomei reached the doorway, she didn’t go inside. Instead, she crouched by the door and listened carefully.
“Look at you! What kind of worthless little purse could possibly be so important? If you keep being this disobedient, don’t blame me for telling your father and letting him deal with you.”
“Was that purse given to you by some man?”
“No wonder I thought that young man last time was pretty good, yet you refused to consider him and kept finding fault with him. How many more years do you think you can afford to be this picky at your age?”
Ren Ganying was at a complete loss for words. “I didn’t! I don’t have anyone! That man from the blind date last time—you only saw that he had two of his front teeth knocked out, but you didn’t know that every time he spoke, he sprayed saliva everywhere.”
“So what if he spits everywhere? He has a proper state job!” Wang Xiaoqin warned her. “Next time, I’m not going to indulge you anymore. At your age, you should have been married off long ago.”
Already feeling guilty, Ren Ganying could only swallow her anger. “I know.”
“And this time, absolutely do not let your little sister interfere with your blind date. Last year, things were finally about to work out, but she went and ruined it.”
Listening from outside, Ren Chaomei couldn’t help rolling her eyes.
She had interfered a little, but the real reason the blind date had failed was that she had secretly told the man that Ren Dahe liked to sneak off to gamble on nights when he had less work.
Ren Guodong did the same.
The father and son shared the same bad habit.
Of the three vices—gambling, drinking, and drugs—most families were unwilling to get involved with any of them.
Even though Wang Xiaoqin had said they didn’t want any bride price, that their vegetable patch produced more vegetables than the family could eat every year, and had hinted that they loved their daughters and would subsidize her after marriage, the match still fell through.
Because the two women had brought up keeping Ren Chaomei out of it, mother and daughter briefly formed a united front.
But at noon, when Ren Dahe and Ren Guodong returned from work, Wang Xiaoqin immediately complained to Ren Dahe, telling him that their daughter had rummaged through their room that day while looking for the purse.
“She’s really gone too far!”
During lunch, Ren Chaomei’s ears were filled with Ren Dahe and Wang Xiaoqin lecturing their daughter.
While scolding Ren Ganying, they also took the opportunity to make pointed remarks about Ren Chaomei, calling her an unfilial daughter as well.
After listening for a while, Ren Chaomei suddenly asked, “Isn’t Big Sis going on a blind date? Have you decided when it’s going to be? Where are you meeting the man? At the matchmaker’s house?”
And just like that, the entire table fell silent.