Su Mo leaned close to his ear and whispered softly.
“Husband, did Mom take the key to our bedroom this morning?”
“Could you ask her to give it back? If she keeps coming in whenever she wants, it’ll be really inconvenient for us, right?”
Su Mo shot Lin Yuyi a meaningful look he would definitely understand!
Su Mo hadn’t gone out all morning. Zhang Lanhua had gone to the market to buy some groceries, and by noon she was already complaining.
“Tsk tsk, who would’ve thought a single cabbage costs two yuan per jin? And they even told me it’s organic.”
“I only know that the ones I grow in my own field are healthier and tastier.”
Su Mo had only taken two sips of porridge in the morning. By noon she wanted to go out for a proper meal. She truly didn’t want to eat anything spicy anymore not even a little.
“Mom, shall we go out to eat for lunch?”
Zhang Lanhua opened her mouth to refuse, but suddenly thought of something and immediately changed her tune.
“Okay, okay, okay. Yuyi, take Momo out for a good meal. I happen to have something to discuss with you.”
Su Mo was overjoyed when she heard Zhang Lanhua agree.
After all, who wouldn’t be happy to eat what they wanted?
Lin Yuyi drove Zhang Lanhua to a homestyle restaurant he and Su Mo often visited.
During the meal, Su Mo had expected to hear complaints from Zhang Lanhua, but to her surprise, she didn’t say a single word.
Su Mo enjoyed this meal immensely.
At the end, she deliberately sent Lin Yuyi a message on her phone:
“Don’t let Mom see the bill.”
Knowing Zhang Lanhua’s personality, if she found out the meal cost five hundred, she would probably call her wasteful again.
As soon as Lin Yuyi left, Zhang Lanhua moved to sit beside Su Mo.
“Momo, are you going to deposit money later?”
Indeed, aside from the two hundred thousand her parents had given in a bank card, all the other red-envelope gifts she received were in cash.
Su Mo nodded. “What’s wrong, Mom? Are you going to the bank too?”
Zhang Lanhua waved her hand. “No, no. Mom has something to tell you.”
“Aren’t we going back to the village to hold the wedding banquet? Mom wants to borrow some money from you. You two can pay for the banquet, and the red envelopes we receive will definitely exceed the cost. Then you can still use the extra to travel, right?”
“Doesn’t that make sense?”
Su Mo understood Zhang Lanhua didn’t want to spend a single cent herself.
She fiddled with her phone. It wasn’t that she cared about the money; it just made her feel a bit uncomfortable.
“Mom, it’s possible… but I have one condition!”
Zhang Lanhua’s eyes lit up when she heard she wouldn’t have to pay.
“Go on, what condition?”
“Could you return the bedroom key to me? You can keep the keys to every other room, but just give Yuyi and me some privacy for our own room, okay?”
That was her only request.
The smile on Zhang Lanhua’s face immediately froze.
It wasn’t impossible she was just a little worried.
But thinking about the money, Zhang Lanhua agreed first.
“Alright, Mom agrees!”
She proactively handed over the key and placed it in front of Su Mo.
Holding the key, Su Mo felt much happier.
“Mom, how much do we need for the banquet?”
Zhang Lanhua held up five fingers. “Fifty thousand!”
Su Mo was slightly shocked. She hadn’t expected hosting a banquet in Zhang Lanhua’s hometown to cost that much.
“Isn’t that a bit too expensive?”
After all, she only planned to spend thirty thousand on travel, and the extra red-envelope cash she received totaled exactly fifty thousand.
She couldn’t shake the feeling that she had fallen into one of Zhang Lanhua’s traps.
She hesitated until Lin Yuyi returned.
“What are you two talking about?”
Su Mo told him everything Zhang Lanhua had said without hiding anything.
“Yuyi, do you agree?”
Lin Yuyi looked at his mother, also somewhat suspicious.
Zhang Lanhua clutched her chest. “I already said the red-envelope money would all be yours. Do you think I’d secretly keep it?”
She only had Lin Yuyi as a son; the rest were daughters.
She favored sons over daughters Su Mo knew that.
Even if she gave the money, it would ultimately belong to Lin Yuyi.
Not wanting to make things difficult for him, Su Mo agreed.
“Husband, then let’s give it to Mom. She’s not an outsider.”
“Momo really is sensible. Yuyi, look at you sigh!” Zhang Lanhua praised her with a smile, fully revealing that petty opportunism in her bones.
“Oh right, when are we going back to hold the banquet? I want to go on our honeymoon soon.”
Zhang Lanhua suggested, “Let’s leave tomorrow.”
“Okay.”
After returning home, Su Mo bought the tickets and also booked flights for their later trip to France.
She imagined having a wonderful honeymoon.
Back at Lin Yuyi’s hometown, there was another long mountain road. This time, with Zhang Lanhua present, Su Mo had to walk the entire way.
Luckily, she had learned her lesson and wore flat shoes instead of high heels.
Even so, when she took off her shoes that night, her feet were covered in blisters.
Lin Yuyi immediately boiled water and took a needle, preparing to lance the blisters on her feet.
“You’ve suffered, wife.”
“Hmph, you know that’s true. So how are you going to make it up to me in the future?”
“However you want me to. My life is yours.”
In the dim light of the room, Lin Yuyi carefully placed Su Mo’s foot on his lap and worked attentively, afraid of hurting her.
The old house in the countryside was poor in every way, and the soundproofing was terrible.
Every word Zhang Lanhua said while chatting with the neighbor in the courtyard could be heard clearly by Su Mo.
“Lanhua, you’ll enjoy life living in the city from now on.”
“Exactly. Your son married such a good daughter-in-law you must wake up smiling even in your dreams.”
Everyone praised Su Mo for being beautiful, cultured, and refined.
Only Zhang Lanhua didn’t quite think so.
Sitting in the courtyard, fanning herself, shaking her head, her face pulled long, she spoke loudly without caring whether Su Mo heard.
“You don’t know my daughter-in-law needs me to personally serve food into her hands.”
“Enjoying life? I’ve gone to be her nanny!”
“You don’t know she even demanded a 200,000 bride price and gold jewelry!”
“Do you know what idea I came up with in the end?”
“The gold wasn’t pure it was very cheap!”
“In short, I’m afraid I’ll suffer in my old age with this daughter-in-law.”
Several visiting aunties exchanged glances.
“Not that bad, right? Momo seems quite nice very sensible, I think.”
“Sensible? Not at all. She doesn’t care about the household and dresses up beautifully every day. And you know what? On the very first night after the wedding, she ran out saying she was going to eat barbecue.”
At this point Zhang Lanhua grew especially agitated and slapped her thigh.
“Tell me, what kind of young woman runs out late at night like that?”
“Isn’t that just embarrassing herself?”
People in the hometown loved gossip. Once this story spread from Zhang Lanhua’s mouth, who knew what it would turn into.