Mother Zhao gave a mocking snort. “Well? Make your choice.”
Chen Rou lowered her eyes, crystal-clear tears sliding down her cheeks. “Mom, forget it. How could our family possibly come up with that kind of money?”
Wang Cuilian’s gaze hardened with determination. She raised a hand to wipe away Chen Rou’s tears and comforted her, “Don’t cry. Even if I have to sell everything we own, I’ll keep Zhuzhu by your side!”
Holding her daughter tightly, Chen Rou threw herself into Wang Cuilian’s arms and cried out, “Mom!”
The scene was so moving that even those who rarely cried found their eyes turning red.
The rest of the Meng family—except for Meng Qiufeng—were speechless.
Meng Qiushi frowned in distress and lowered his voice. “Instead of wasting money buying Meng Zhu back, we’d be better off buying a few more pounds of pork.”
Meng Qiucan glanced sideways at Meng Dazhuang, who was pretending to be dead in the corner, and said in confusion, “What’s the point of a man living like him? This family doesn’t act like a family, Mom doesn’t act like a mom, Dad doesn’t act like a dad. Our father sure can endure things—like some spineless turtle.”
Xu Chunhua burst out laughing, spraying sunflower seed shells from her mouth.
Fortunately, everyone’s attention was focused on Wang Cuilian and Chen Rou, so nobody noticed the small commotion on Xu Chunhua’s side.
Wang Cuilian wiped away her tears with her sleeve and turned toward Mother Zhao. “How much do you want?”
Mother Zhao raised one finger.
“One hundred yuan.”
“One hundred yuan?!” Wang Cuilian’s eyes widened, fury blazing within them. The Zhao family was demanding an outrageous price!
Gasps sounded all around them. How many years would an ordinary family need to save up one hundred yuan?
Chen Rou hugged her daughter tighter, biting her pale lips. The Zhao family was clearly making things difficult for her.
“Mom, forget it. Our family can’t afford that much money…”
Mother Zhao smiled and stretched out her arms toward Chen Rou. “If you can’t pay, then hand my granddaughter back to me.”
Meng Zhu angrily spat at Mother Zhao. Nobody was going to separate her from her mother.
“Bad person!”
Wang Cuilian stepped forward and slapped Mother Zhao’s arm away. “Isn’t it just one hundred yuan? We’ll pay it!”
The people who had originally sympathized with Chen Rou and her daughter turned their eyes toward the rest of the Meng family.
The Meng siblings were truly pitiful.
One hundred yuan—how many years would a large family need to save that much?
Wang Cuilian walked up to Meng Qiushi and held out her hand. “The ten yuan I gave you two days ago—give it back.”
Meng Qiushi shrugged innocently. “Spent it. Used it for the meal yesterday.”
“You spent all ten yuan?!” Wang Cuilian’s voice rose sharply, disbelief filling her eyes.
“So what? Yesterday was my son and daughter’s first birthday celebration. Besides, compared to what was spent on Chen Rou’s daughter’s birthday banquet, my ten yuan was nothing.” Meng Qiushi grinned shamelessly and pushed Wang Cuilian’s hand aside. Money that entered his pocket was never coming back out.
Wang Cuilian raised her hand to slap him, but Meng Qiushi quickly dodged.
“Mom, you’re planning to use the family savings to pay the Zhao family, and we haven’t even said anything about it. Yet now you’re trying to take money from me? I don’t have any money, and you still want to hit me?”
Looking hurt, Meng Qiushi continued, “That family money is everyone’s hard-earned savings from years of labor. And you want to spend all of it for a granddaughter who isn’t even biologically ours?”
Wang Cuilian turned and walked toward Wang Yun, unwilling to waste more words on Meng Qiushi. “I’m the head of this family. I control the money, and I’ll spend it however I want.”
Her face darkened as she looked at Wang Yun. “Don’t tell me you spent the ten yuan too?”
Wang Yun lowered her head awkwardly. “Yesterday I gave the money to Third Sister-in-law and asked her to buy me some stationery in the county town. Then my older brother from my natal family borrowed the rest.”
Wang Yun’s brother really had come by yesterday to borrow money, but Wang Yun hadn’t agreed.
The two families lived several villages apart, so Wang Cuilian couldn’t exactly run over there to verify the story.
“Oh, heavens above! What sins did my Meng family commit to raise such prodigal children? What a disaster!” Wang Cuilian spread her arms wide and howled at the sky.
Meng Dazhuang sat nearby, squatting on the ground with his brows deeply furrowed as he puffed on his pipe. Hearing Wang Cuilian’s shouting, he glanced at her before silently shaking his head and looking away again.
Mother Zhao made a move to snatch the child from Chen Rou’s arms. “Are you paying or not? If not, I’m taking my granddaughter away.”
“Take your filthy hands off her! Don’t you just want money? I’ll give it to you right now!” Wang Cuilian slapped her hand away and pulled out a roll of money from a hidden pocket sewn inside her pants.
After counting it, she painfully stuffed the money into Mother Zhao’s hand. “I only have seventy yuan for now.”
Chen Rou’s eyes flickered slightly. Secretly, she had saved twenty yuan of her own private money. It was her safety net—if she ever needed money one day, she wouldn’t end up trapped in a desperate situation.
Mother Zhao counted the bills in her hand. “You’re still thirty yuan short.”
Chen Rou looked around, trying to find someone willing to lend her money.
The surrounding villagers immediately avoided her gaze, afraid she would ask them for a loan.
Chen Rou stared deeply at Xu Chunhua. She refused to believe Xu Chunhua didn’t have private savings.
Meeting her gaze, Xu Chunhua rolled her eyes dramatically and spat another sunflower seed shell onto the ground.
“Chen Rou, if you really can’t come up with one hundred yuan, stop pretending. Just give your daughter to your mother-in-law. The child carries the Zhao family bloodline. Your mother-in-law isn’t going to eat her own granddaughter, is she?”
Chen Rou sucked in a sharp breath, clutching her chest in anger. At a time like this, Xu Chunhua was still making sarcastic remarks.
Her eyes reddened as she wiped away tears. “Third Sister-in-law, you’re a mother too. What mother would willingly separate from her child? You should understand how I feel right now.”
Meng Zhu lay on Chen Rou’s shoulder with her lips puckered, her nose tingling with sadness.
“Can’t,” Xu Chunhua replied coldly with a sneer. “I’m just here to watch the drama. This has nothing to do with me.”
Chen Rou’s hand froze mid-motion as she wiped her tears. Then she turned toward Wang Cuilian and Mother Zhao, who were still locked in a standoff.
Lowering her voice, Wang Cuilian gritted her teeth. “Seventy yuan is already more than enough. You’re too greedy.”
Mother Zhao snorted. “I said one hundred yuan, and that means one hundred yuan!”
Meeting Chen Rou’s hopeful gaze, Wang Cuilian’s temples throbbed as she glared at Mother Zhao. “I’ll write you an IOU. Can’t I pay the remaining money later?”
“You country bumpkins—how long would it take you to pay back thirty yuan? What if you refuse to acknowledge the debt later?” Mother Zhao curled her lip disdainfully.
Suppressing her rage, Wang Cuilian asked darkly, “Then what do you want?”
Mother Zhao jerked her chin toward the kitchen. “The meat dishes prepared for today’s birthday banquet should be worth about thirty yuan, right?”
“You shameless—” Wang Cuilian finally lost control and started cursing.
“What? You don’t want to? Then I’ll take my granddaughter away.” Mother Zhao pretended to head toward Chen Rou.
Panicked, Wang Cuilian hurriedly blocked her path. Turning toward Chen Rou, her expression filled with conflict and helplessness, she said, “Xiao Rou, Mom really can’t come up with the remaining thirty yuan.”
Chen Rou gently touched her daughter’s little face.
If she took out her hidden savings now, she would seem calculating and manipulative. But if she didn’t, her daughter’s first birthday celebration would be ruined.
Pressing her lips together, she looked at the deep guilt in Wang Cuilian’s eyes and forced out a bitter smile. “Mom, you’re the head of the family. You decide.”
Good. Feeling guilty was exactly what she wanted.
From now on, Wang Cuilian would surely compensate Zhuzhu more.
Mother Zhao led her large family into the kitchen and packed up all the dishes Kang Youcai had prepared.
The freshly cooked food was swept clean.
The villagers who had been waiting for the feast: …
Thankfully, nobody had registered their gift money yet. Otherwise, it would’ve gone completely to waste.
The Zhao family left fully loaded with food. Wang Cuilian glared fiercely at their backs, spat heavily onto the ground, and ground her foot down hard as if she were stomping on Mother Zhao herself.
“May you choke to death on it, you immoral bastards! A whole family of cursed devils!”
The other villagers gradually dispersed. The excitement was over, and the food had all been taken away by the Zhao family. There was no reason left to stay.
Unable to hold back any longer, Chen Rou returned to her room, threw herself onto the bed, buried her face in the blanket, and quietly sobbed.
Meng Zhu crawled beside her and lay across her back, gently patting her with tiny hands.
“Mommy, don’t cry.”
Wang Cuilian sat in the courtyard clutching her chest for a long time, trying to calm herself. The atmosphere in the house was utterly gloomy.
Everyone silently returned to their own rooms.
Xu Chunhua said thankfully, “Good thing I secretly ate something in the kitchen earlier. Otherwise I’d feel awful watching meat that was practically in my mouth disappear.”
Meng Qiushi lay down on the bed with his hands folded behind his head. “I can already imagine that for a long time to come, there won’t be even a trace of meat on the dinner table.”
“It’s none of our business. Even without Xiao Yu’er, you’d still find a way to get me meat.” Xu Chunhua stretched out an arm and pulled Meng Yu into her embrace, planting a loud kiss on her cheek.
Her daughter was so adorable!
Meng Yu blinked and kissed her fragrant, beautiful mother on the cheek in return.
Her mommy was so pretty!