"When did she say she wouldn't lend it? She clearly said she was out of pencils!"
Then I heard my mother-in-law curse, "This stingy idiot of a woman, I'll have a word with her."
So I hurried over to explain, "Mom, I didn't say I wouldn't lend it, it's just that Zhiwen and Zhiwu ran out of pencils at school."
"They're already out of pencils I just bought last month?!"
Zhang Guihua's voice suddenly rose eight octaves, and with a darkened face, she accused, "Are you also trying to swindle money out of me?!"
If it had been her biological son, that would have been one thing, but if her daughter-in-law even thought about it, a harsh beating would be getting off lightly!
"I swear to heaven and earth, I'm not lying to you, Mom! There's just a lot more homework at the end of the term, so the pencils are used up faster," Sun Lixia protested with an aggrieved face.
She wished she could, but she didn't dare; her mother-in-law was too shrewd.