Aunt Leng couldn’t stand being put in her place by soone younger, yet she didn’t dare to keep causing a scene. She ekly said, "Leng Yuan, don’t be angry. I was just talking nonsense. It’s all my fault."
Aunt Leng admitted she was wrong in public.
The onlookers were dumbfounded.
"What’s going on? What did Leng Yuan an by that?"
Aunt Leng was afraid of Leng Yuan, but not of these people. Her beady eyes shot them a glare.
"What do you an, ’what’s going on’? This is our family’s business. What’s it got to do with you?"
"Why are you all so nosy? Scram, all of you! Can’t you see I’m talking to my nephew?"
After yelling at everyone and venting so of her anger, she finally turned back to Leng Yuan with a fawning smile.
"Leng Yuan, I was just running my mouth. Don’t take it to heart."
Leng Yuan couldn’t be bothered to waste any more words on her. Seeing that she had admitted her mistake, he walked straight over to Aunt Zhao. "Auntie, thank you for speaking up for and my parents."
Aunt Zhao was also taken aback.
She nodded, still dazed. "There’s no need to be so polite."
Leng Yuan gave a polite nod and turned to leave. His wife was still waiting for him!
It took a long ti for the villagers to co to their senses.
In the past, Leng Yuan had always been the one getting bullied. In everyone’s eyes, he was the weak one.
But today, the sight of Aunt Leng not even daring to breathe too loudly in front of Leng Yuan was utterly mind-boggling.
Aunt Leng felt humiliated. Muttering that she had things to do at ho, she hurried away.
By the flatbed cart.
Gu Jiaojiao waited for Leng Yuan to return. Seeing how the villagers behind him had suddenly gone quiet, she looked curious.
"What did you say? How co they all went quiet all of a sudden?"
Pushing the flatbed cart with ease, Leng Yuan said nonchalantly, "Nothing much. They probably just realized they were mistaken about so things."
’He used to think that being pitied was beneficial to his life.’
’But now that he had a wife, the stares from the people at the threshing ground today had annoyed him.’
’He needed to let everyone know he wasn’t a pushover.’
"Let’s go ho."
Gu Jiaojiao’s eyes lit up. "I want to eat hand-pulled noodles."
"We still have eggs and tomatoes at ho."
Leng Yuan had no objections.
When the couple got ho, Leng Yuan started on the hand-pulled noodles while Gu Jiaojiao made the tomato and egg sauce.
As Gu Jiaojiao watched him earnestly kneading the dough, head bowed in concentration, she suddenly asked, "Leng Yuan, what were your parents like?"
Leng Yuan’s hands stilled for a mont. Then he looked up with a smile. "You want to know?"
Gu Jiaojiao nodded.
’She hadn’t dared to ask before, afraid of touching a sore spot for Leng Yuan.’
’But today, she felt like it was okay to ask.’
A nostalgic look flickered across Leng Yuan’s face before he began to tell Gu Jiaojiao about the past.
"You probably know my dad was the eldest brother in his family, followed by my second and third uncles. My dad married before they did, yet I’m the youngest of all the cousins."
Gu Jiaojiao nodded.
’That was strange indeed.’
’And Leng Yuan didn’t have any siblings; he was an only child.’
"My grandmother always favored my two uncles. Plus, life was hard back then, and my grandfather was in poor health and needed dicine, so my dad had to shoulder the family’s burden from a very young age."
"He used to work at a unit in the city as an accountant."
"He was great with numbers—really fast. A manager took a liking to him and made an exception to hire him."
"Back then, earning over ten yuan a month was a lot of money."
"Later, he fell for my mother, and the two of them got married."
"After they married, my dad continued to work in the city, coming ho once every two weeks. My mother has a gentle temperant. After marrying, my grandmother forced her to earn full work points. When she ca back, she still had to take care of the whole family, young and old, and the food she ate was terrible. That’s how her health was damaged."
"My dad didn’t know about any of this. Then one ti, he ca ho unexpectedly. The family wasn’t prepared, so he saw my mother’s tattered clothes and her injuries. In a fit of rage, he quit his job and ca ho to farm."
"My dad’s visits used to be on a fixed schedule. Before he ca back, my grandmother would make my mother change into new clothes and eat a full al. My mother didn’t want my dad to worry about her, so she just endured it and never said a word."
"After my dad ca ho to farm, my mother couldn’t get pregnant for a long ti, and my grandmother looked down on her for it. My dad took her to the hospital for a check-up, and that’s when they found out. Because of all the hard labor she’d done, her body had been weakened, making it difficult for her to conceive."
"Because of that, my dad found a way to separate from the extended family. He then started helping my mother build her strength back up. That’s how I ca along later. But her health was still fragile, and she was very weak after giving birth, so my dad decided they would only have one child."
Gu Jiaojiao’s face was filled with admiration as she listened.
’Her father-in-law wasn’t just wise, his way of thinking was quite progressive for his ti.’
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