nycdaug Chapter 130 Taking Advantage
Chapter 130 Taking Advantage
The days may seem calm, but there are hidden waves underneath.
After Zhuang Mingde got a stable job in the town, he developed the habit of going home to visit his father on Sundays.
Yang Lijuan and Xiaolu lived with Uncle Liu in the big house at the entrance of the village. The residential land and wooden house at the back were sold to a family from the fifth team. They have moved in and the two families have become neighbors.
Because Yang Lijuan is a woman and it is not convenient for her to take care of Sixth Uncle closely, the Sixth Uncle's hygiene issues are still taken care of by the younger generations of several relatives.
On this day, Sixth Uncle's nephew Zhuang Mingsheng wiped his body and helped him solve his physiological needs. Then, Sixth Uncle kept him to talk for a while.
The implicit meaning of the words was to ask Zhuang Mingsheng to go to town tomorrow and tell Zhuang Mingde that he didn't need to go home.
Although Zhuang Mingsheng didn't understand why Sixth Uncle didn't want his son to come back to visit, but since the old man had a request, he just ran errands to pass on the message.
The next day was the weekend. Yang Lijuan got up early in the morning, combed her hair, changed into clean clothes, asked Xiaolu to clean the yard, and began to wait for Zhuang Mingde to come home.
The sun slowly moved to the center, and the scorching temperature made the cicadas chirp. Yang Lijuan's expectation turned into doubt, and finally anxiety.
Xiaolu looked at his mother who had not started cooking yet. She was squatting under the eaves of the kitchen in silence, looking at the ants on the ground and enduring hunger.
Uncle Six was lying on the kang in the main room, listening to the cicadas' chirping and feeling drowsy.
Yang Lijuan couldn't wait any longer. As soon as she saw the sun, she stamped her feet in annoyance, went into the kitchen and casually steamed two steamed buns and a small sweet potato.
Served with shredded mustard greens, this is lunch for the three of them.
Uncle Six looked at Yang Lijuan unkindly, "If Mingde doesn't come back, you'll give me this to eat?"
Yang Lijuan was a little embarrassed. "No, Dad, I just forgot the time, so I cooked a little late. I was worried that you would be hungry, so I just cooked a simple meal."
"Mingde gives you 5 yuan every month just so that an old man like me can eat better. If you want to deduct it, I can only ask him not to give it to you in the future." Uncle Liu had always disliked Yang Lijuan for not being able to have children. If she hadn't been paralyzed and unable to take care of herself, he would have asked Zhuang Mingde to divorce her and remarry!
But this woman didn't know what was good for her and wanted to deduct his food? Uncle Liu thought to himself that he might as well give money to the villagers to cook for him, since he had other brothers anyway.
Yang Lijuan's face turned pale and she waved her hands repeatedly, "No, no, I didn't want to hide the money." It was just because the town was too far away and the ox carts in the brigade did not go to the town every day, and she really didn't want to walk such a long way to buy vegetables.
Besides, there wasn't much to buy at the meat stall in town. Every time she went there, all that was left were organs or bones, and she didn't want to eat those things.
Xiaolu moved to another roof and squatted outside the main house, eating sweet potatoes. He listened to Uncle Six inside criticizing his mother, feeling inexplicably relieved.
There is a hidden storm at the head of the village, and there is also chaos at the end of the village.
Ever since Luo Xinci changed her tactics, she seemed to have come to her senses, and became possessed by the legendary vicious sister-in-law.
"Sister-in-law." She had to call Li Fenfang sister-in-law now, as if she had married her brother. "Help me cook. You were going to cook anyway, so just add an extra bowl of water."
Yuan Jiaojiao hid at the entrance of the alley and watched Luo Xinci go in with half a bowl of rice bran and talk to Li Fenfang.
Li Fenfang frowned and looked at the food in the other person's hand, "Xinci, I've already put it in the pot..."
"It's just the beginning! I'll help my sister-in-law get some water, and we can cook together, saving firewood." Luo Xinci opened the lid, turned the bowl upside down, and poured the corn shavings into the pot. Then she scooped a ladle of water from the water tank next to it and stirred it with a spatula beside the pot.
Li Fenfang pursed her lips.
This was not the first time. Last time, Luo Xinci brought at least half a bowl of food, but this time, it was only half a bowl.
Isn't it just to take advantage of others? Li Fenfang thought, I won't go anywhere this time, I will just wait for the porridge to be cooked and be the first to serve.
The idea was good, but Luo Xinci and her companions had two people and they just went up and squeezed, pushing Li Fenfang to the back.
Luo Xinci took the bowl and scooped out the thick porridge from the bottom with a spatula. She scooped out three bowls in a row, leaving only a shallow bottom of the pot for Li Fenfang.
Humph! Do you think it's so easy to take advantage of our family? Luo Xinci carried the bowl and left in a heroic and arrogant manner.
Luo Chengli took the porridge handed over by his sister and said with satisfaction, "Xiaoci has become much more sensible recently. She even knows how to help your sister Fenfang."
Luo Xinci cursed him in her heart for being an idiot, and quickly returned to her room with her bowl.
"Hiss—it's so hot, so hot!" Luo Xinci quickly put the bowl of porridge on the table and pinched her earlobes with her burned fingers to cool them down.
Yuan Jiaojiao took out a can of fish hidden in the kang cabinet, shared it with the other, and ate it deliciously with corn porridge.
Li Fenfang was still standing in the alley, staring at the wall with gritted teeth. If her gaze could become reality, she would have collapsed the wall long ago and crushed to death the two shameless people who were taking advantage of others.
It's hard to say who is taking advantage of whom since Luo Xinci started to take unconventional approaches.
Luo Chengli had money, and his family was willing to send money to the two children. Luo Xinci was lazy before, so Luo Chengli would go to get the money with the certificate, but now Luo Xinci has grown up and thinks that her brother's money may have been coaxed away by Li Fenfang, so she must go to get the money herself.
In fact, this did affect Li Fenfang. In the past, she could ask Luo Chengli to buy some fine grains, meat and the like to improve the food, but since the economic power changed hands, this kind of good thing has nothing to do with Li Fenfang.
Luo Xinci would go buy fine grains, and she also bought braised pork from the state-owned restaurant a few times, but they would always share it among the three of them and she would never bring Li Fenfang along.
That was fine, anyway, Li Fenfang and Luo Chengli's rations were put together, all in Li Fenfang's room. Every time she would hide half of her own share and eat Luo Chengli's. The two of them, plus the sweet potatoes and Luo Chengli's fine grains, were enough to eat, so she could continue to take advantage of this.
But now Luo Xinci even wanted to grab the food in the pot, eating out the amount for herself and taking away the porridge for two people, which made Li Fenfang very angry, but there was nothing she could do.
Because every time they asked to share a meal, they would show up in front of Luo Chengli with two servings of grits in their hands, leaving Li Fenfang with no reason to complain, and in the end Luo Xinci would ask her if she didn't want to help.
Luo Chengli would look at Li Fenfang with disapproval. After all, Luo Xinci was his sister and the apple of the family's eye. She couldn't cook, so what was wrong with Li Fenfang lending a hand?