Mediocre: Good Shoots Can Come from Bad Bamboo.
Su Xiaoman also felt very surprised.
It seemed that the third sister-in-law also harboured deep resentment towards Sun Mei’s favouritism.
After coming to her senses, the eldest sister-in-law first looked at Zhou Xiaohui in disbelief, then at Su Xiaoman. Suddenly, she found herself overwhelmed by the impulsive urge of the moment. Not knowing where she found the courage, she followed suit and said defiantly, “Then let’s take turns. How can we let the Second Daughter-in-law bear all the burden alone?”
Sun Mei stared at the three daughters-in-law in front of her, dumbfounded.
Everything had turned upside down!
When Xie Lao heard about it after returning home that night, Sun Mei immediately complained to him, “Look at your daughters-in-law. They want to turn everything upside down today.”
“They’re clamouring to take turns delivering food in front of me.”
“That Su Xiaoman even dared to argue with me… How dare she! Our family is in chaos. I’m burdened with so many people.”
Xie Lao didn’t particularly like listening to her mutter. Although he favoured the second son more, he also disliked Sun Mei’s excessive favouritism. “If they want to take turns delivering food, let them. They’re all daughters-in-law.”
Sun Mei widened her eyes. “But what if they eat while on the way?”
“They wouldn’t do such a thing,” Xie Lao squinted, smoking. “The eldest daughter-in-law and the third daughter-in-law are honest people.”
Even if they weren’t honest, Su Xiaoman’s contributions were also seen.
There wasn’t enough food for the men. Even the fifth son barely got his share. Xie Mingtu hadn’t returned home yet that evening, saying he went to the mountains to chop wood, but he actually went to pick sour berries to fill his hunger.
Xu Yanlan’s stealing had become more and more excessive. Today, there were barely a few pieces of fat meat, and Xie Lao guessed it was halved…
The second family was truly dishonest.
Xie Lao had never mentioned this matter to Sun Mei because he knew it would be useless even if he did. What Xu Yanlan embezzled would definitely go to the second son and Yaozu. Sun Mei wouldn’t blame her even if she knew.
But these men who worked hard in the mountains always wanted to take a bit more profit.
Xie Lao was happy to change the people. The eldest and third families, even if they stole, wouldn’t dare to do it excessively.
“What honesty? They’re all cunning. The eggs in our chicken coop might have been taken by someone with dirty hands…”
“Hey hey hey, calm down. Don’t think too much.”
“They’re the daughters-in-law you picked. How can you not trust them? I see Xiuying and Xiaohui are doing fine…” Xie Lao didn’t mention Su Xiaoman, but he was actually very dissatisfied with the marriage between Su Xiaoman and the fifth son.
The whole village knew about Su Xiaoman’s pursuit of Educated Youth Jiang. How could he let the fifth son marry such a woman?
In the beginning, Xie Lao had advised Sun Mei not to make a fuss about this marriage and to find a simple and hardworking girl for the fifth son to marry and live a peaceful life at home. But Sun Mei stubbornly refused to listen.
She was probably going to reap what she sowed.
Xie Lao leaned against his body, took a puff of his cigarette, and exhaled comfortably.
Seeing this, Sun Mei pushed him on the shoulder very dissatisfied and said fiercely, “Hey, old man, do you really agree with this? From now on, let them take turns delivering food.”
Xie Lao didn’t even lift his eyelids. “Let them try.”
“Hmph, then you just wait. If they steal food, you’ll go hungry. Serves you right.”
“The second family has been working hard to bring you food for so long, but you heartless people never think about them.”
Xie Lao swayed his body half-heartedly, thinking that without her, they might have been able to eat a bit more.
“I also want to favour her…”
But he also wanted to eat a few more pieces of fat meat.
“But they are all daughters-in-law.”
Xu Yanlan came back and learned about this matter, infuriated.
“The eldest and third families are actually plotting against me.”
The eldest daughter-in-law was an orphan. Although she had two sons, without her husband at home and without the support of her family, she had always been timid and allowed herself to be bullied. The third daughter-in-law’s family was poor, her mother was sick, and she secretly supported her family. Plus, she had two unprofitable children, so she didn’t dare to cause trouble.
“Oh, so Zhou Xiaohui thinks she’s all that just because she’s pregnant? With her frail constitution, she won’t even be able to give birth to a healthy child. She deserves to suffer.”
Xie second wore glasses on his nose. In their rural area, few men wore glasses. Many people had never seen such things before, and now only he and the educated youth from the city wore them.
Wearing glasses made many people who didn’t know him mistakenly think he was an educated youth from the city.
He seemed like a very cultured city person.
Hearing Xu Yanlan’s words, he found them very unpleasant. “Don’t say such disgusting things,” he replied.
“Huh!” Xu Yanlan sneered, “It’s still Su Xiaoman causing trouble.”
“Did our dad see Educated Youth Jiang and the other educated youths today?”
“They’re all working.”
Sure enough, Xu Yanlan thought that Su Xiaoman must have had a purpose in making a fuss about delivering food. Look, here she comes.
“Do you want to follow Dad to work in your spare time and earn some work points for our family? Maybe there will be some good drama to watch.”
“What good drama?”
“Tomorrow, I’ll ask Mom to let Su Xiaoman deliver the food. Just wait and see.”
As soon as Xie second heard this, he understood immediately. “Okay, I’ll go take a look tomorrow.”
Although Xie second liked to join in the fun, he felt a bit uncomfortable being one of the spectators when his brother was involved.
“Mom shouldn’t have let the fifth son marry her.”
Xu Yanlan sneered several times. “Why, do you think she dares to cause trouble again?”
She thought that Su Xiaoman and the others wouldn’t be able to deliver food for a few days.
Xie 3rd , Xie Huadong, was a simple and honest man, a bit foolishly filial. When he came back and saw Zhou Xiaohui, he couldn’t help but complain, “How come you had a quarrel with Mom today?”
“Mom is angry, so she took it out on me when I came back.”
Zhou Xiaohui listened and felt annoyed. “She has always favoured the second family, hasn’t she?”
“The second family has been taking more food before, isn’t that what you told me? I feel sorry for you. You’ve worked so hard all day, and finally got to taste a bit of meat…”
Xie Huadong waved his hand. “I don’t need your sympathy.”
“I also want to care for my daughter.”
“Chunjuan and Xiajuan, aren’t they fine?”
Hearing his words, Zhou Xiaohui felt angry, sad, and didn’t know what to say. She thought that even strangers cared more about her daughter more than he did.
Thinking of the way she looked when she secretly looked at herself in the mirror today, her heart felt sour and blocked.
Zhou Xiaohui muttered, “Didn’t you notice that Chunjuan seemed different today?”
Xie Huadong was indifferent. “Girls are all like that. As long as they have food to eat, it’s fine.”
“Don’t talk to the wife of the fifth son, and don’t scold her either. Su Xiaoman is not a good woman.”
“First, focus on giving birth to the child, and don’t cause any trouble.”
Xie Huadong felt that his mother shouldn’t have let Xie Mingtu marry Su Xiaoman. This woman didn’t know how to respect her elders, yet her mother was the head of the women’s association, and her uncle was the head of the production team. She was good-looking and had three older brothers.
Although it didn’t cost them anything, the Xie family didn’t dare to mistreat her.
Su Xiaoman’s family was the toughest, and they were from the same village. If she was mistreated in the Xie family, her three older brothers could come over with sticks and hoes.
As dusk fell, Xie Mingtu came back carrying a bundle of firewood. After entering the yard, he first unloaded the firewood. Xie second’s son, Xie Yaozu, saw him come back and yelled, “Xie Mingtu is back! Xie Mingtu is back!”
He made a few funny faces. His mother had told him that when Uncle Fifth Brother Xie returned, he should shout out so that Grandma would be the first to hear, and she would give him candy at night.
Sun Mei inside indeed heard it. She had a gloomy old face, with a slightly harsh expression. The hair on her temples had turned gray a lot. She shouted, “Who is calling Mingtu? That’s your Uncle Gouzi (Dog).”
Hearing this, Su Xiaoman was puzzled. “???”
Uncle Gouzi?
The handsome and sinister villain… nicknamed Uncle Dog? Uncle Dog?
Every time she thought of the description of Xie Mingtu in the book, Su Xiaoman felt a sense of absurdity and ridiculousness.
Sun Mei stood up, gave Su Xiaoman a glare, muttered a few words in a low voice, and said gloomily, “Pah, he doesn’t even deserve to be called Mingtu.”
Su Xiaoman heard this sentence, and her heart suddenly sank.
Perhaps Sun Mei had always known that Xie Mingtu was not her biological son, and even back then… she deliberately swapped the child.
Could there really be such a malicious person?
Su Xiaoman felt somewhat dazed, suddenly remembering that if things hadn’t gone wrong back then, she wouldn’t be the daughter of the wealthy Su family. Her father was a math teacher, and her mother was a dance teacher. She spent her childhood learning classical dance from her mother…
As a child, she also loved beauty, enjoyed singing and dancing, but her mother disliked it. In order to please her mother, she never touched those things.
If she and Xue Zhenzhen were victims of fate, was Xie Mingtu and Educated Youth Jiang’s situation manipulated?
Su Xiaoman smiled bitterly in her heart, wondering who between her and Xie Mingtu had it worse.
Sun Mei called Xie Mingtu into the room and scolded him harshly, telling him to manage his wife, Su Xiaoman.
Xie Mingtu remained silent with his head lowered.
Beside him, Old man Xie smoked a pipe, his cloudy eyes looking at his youngest son standing in front of him. Tall and thin, but untidy, he looked even more unkempt than some of the village ruffians, unlike his other brothers in the family.
Xie’s second and third sons were not tall, with square faces and sturdy limbs. Only the eldest son who had served in the army was slightly taller, while the fifth son unexpectedly grew tall and thin.
Old man Xie squinted his eyes, suddenly recalling something from long ago. When the fifth son was a baby, he was clearly a very beautiful child. When they brought him home, the villagers all came to see him, saying that the child was fair and clean, like the blessings depicted in New Year’s paintings… But for some reason, he became uglier as he grew older.
At that time, many people said to Sun Mei, “You and Old Xie actually managed to produce such a child.”
“Good bamboo grows in bad soil.”
“Maybe he’s a fairy baby stolen from somewhere.”
“I don’t believe he was born to Sun Mei. Look at him, does he resemble the couple at all?”
…
Some of these words were hurtful, but old man Xie didn’t take them to heart. After all, it was also praising his youngest son. However, Sun Mei took this matter to heart.
Before he was born, Sun Mei had high hopes for this youngest son, and even gave him the name “Mingtu,” meaning “bright future.” But after he was born, where was the bright future?
Sun Mei didn’t like this youngest son at all and often scolded or hit him from a young age.
A once beautiful child became as messy as the other children in the village as he grew up, fading into the crowd.
Not many people remembered what the youngest son looked like when he was little.
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