Chapter 27 Stealing the Leftover Meat

"Mother, don't hit me…" Hongji was being hit by his mother, standing obediently and letting her strike him several times; the hits were quite painful.

"If not you, then who should I hit? Ah… Such a rotten idea, suggesting your father take a concubine, and you had the nerve to speak it."

Mrs. Lai's anger led her face to turn crimson; her plump body twisted as her chubby hands continually slapped her son.

"Mother, let's not talk about this matter anymore, otherwise my stance remains the same," Hongji said, unwilling to compromise, as he slightly turned his body due to the pain in his chest, now presenting his back to his mother's strikes which actually felt like a bit of a massage after a morning of tiring work.

"Pfft…" Ye Shiqi couldn't help but burst into laughter upon hearing this.

"Sister, what's so funny that you are laughing so hard?" Siwa had been listening too, but she couldn't make sense of the commotion outside.

"An gui an gui," her younger sister replied to Siwa, speaking the language that puzzled her.

Ye Shuying had come by the day before and was turned away by her own family; returning home, she didn't know how to explain it to her family members.

Keeping the incident secret, the next day at lunch, her husband, who was five generations removed and also bore the Ye surname, mentioned it while she was holding their son and feeding him.

"Shuying, did you notify your elder brother and others to come help harvest the rice? And your mother, she hasn't come to help with the child these past few days either. Don't just stay at home with the child all day; all the outdoor work falls on my shoulders."

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Shuying's husband possessed the skill of building houses, learnt from his father, but unfortunately his father had died young. Now he had only his mother and an unmarried younger brother, along with an elder sister married within the village.

The two brothers hadn't separated households yet, working together in construction, while his mother, rather than helping with the child, was busy with her own side jobs, leaving childcare to the mother-in-law.

Their family had grown accustomed to it, believing that it was only right for Ye Shuying's family to help out.

"Husband, my elder brother and father as well as my mother all disapprove, saying they have their own work to do. My elder sister-in-law isn't home either, and a lot of the work falls to the children," Shuying replied under the reproachful gaze of her mother-in-law and the disapproving look from her husband.

"What? They aren't coming to help? Our house has so much land, and if they don't come to help with the child, I don't care. Don't you think I, this old woman, will go out and harvest rice," said the mother-in-law, being the first one to complain.

"We two brothers also have to go out for construction work. With so much land, if they don't come to help, when will we finish harvesting?" Ye Senhai glared at his wife with widened eyes.

The younger brother-in-law also glared, suggesting that without the help from his sister-in-law's family, would they not be worked to death?

"Let the younger aunts come to help; not even one of them coming would be too heartless, wouldn't it?" Senhai followed up.

"Husband, I already said harsh words, that if they don't help, we should cut ties with them. Let's see if that makes them come," Shuying said, feeling troubled by her in-laws' complaints, her own family's unwillingness to help felt like a lack of support for her.

"What did your mother-in-law and father-in-law say? And your elder brother too; they used to help, and your mother would help with the child without complaint. Is it because you said something wrong that they won't come?" Senhai paused, ready to speak to his wife.

"No, I went to my family's home yesterday and everyone was there; they said they needed to harvest their own rice in a few days and didn't have the time to help. I said if they don't help, we should sever ties, but they ruthlessly said they won't come, and I had no other options," Shuying explained feeling very wronged; her widowed mother-in-law had never helped with the child, always relying on her own family.

"You useless thing, I'll take care of the grandchild. You three go harvest the rice! If the in-laws don't come to help, from now on don't let them come to see the grandchild," said the widowed mother-in-law, to which her two sons dared not object.

Shuying painfully nodded her agreement. Back then, she had been attracted to Senhai for his handsome looks, tall figure, and his skill in building, hopeful of a good family life.

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She hadn't expected that her widowed mother would not treat her well at home and that she could only seek help from her own family. Her mother pinched every penny, but fortunately, her first child was a son, and her family was happy to help; this was the only way she could live comfortably.

But all that changed when Mrs. Li became a wet nurse. Suddenly, her family no longer came to help with the children or the rice harvest. She could imagine the additional burden and how much harder she would have to work in the future.

...

Mrs. Lai brought home some fatty pork, and today, work fell on the children to cook. When Daya and her two younger sisters returned from outside, they smelled the aroma coming from the kitchen.

Daya saw the second aunt and the third aunt in the kitchen with their cheeks puffed out, as she caught Mother-in-law stuffing a piece of pressed oil cake into her mouth without fear of it being too hot.

Seeing the meat, Daya swallowed her saliva and, along with her two sisters, went to wash their hands. The well-behaved girls knew they wouldn't receive any of the good stuff, and as long as they weren't hit or scolded, they would keep to their room after washing up.

Siwa, in the room, was peeping out the window stealthily at the kitchen, and Ye Shiqi could also see the kitchen from the window.

However, she never ate such deep-fried food before; high in fat and heat-inducing, especially when made from pork fat, she never touched such things.

Ye Shiqi never entered the kitchen and didn't know how to cook the fatty pork. She had never anticipated that one day, she would become a character from a book, where she would see fatty meat scraps as treasures.

She felt somewhat sorry for her four elder sisters, who certainly hadn't tasted such fine foods.

Come lunchtime, there was dry rice for a change on the dining table, along with vegetables cooked with lard scraps, and Daya and her three sisters eyed the lard scraps.

To their surprise, Mrs. Lai served them rice, just a small bowl each, and some vegetables cooked with lard scraps, without a single piece of meat.

The four sisters didn't dare speak, their eyes fixed on their father Hongji's bowl of meat.

Mrs. Lai gave a bit of the lard scraps to the head of the household, Hongji's father, and to Hongji as well.

Seeing the rare treat of lard scraps in front of him, Hongji's face broke into a smile. Catching the gaze of his four sisters, he hesitated before apportioning a piece of scrap from his bowl into each of their bowls.

"Hongji, you eat what you've got; you can't be sharing with these money-losing goods. If they eat it, they'll just get lazier at work."

As Mrs. Lai spoke, her hand and the chopsticks of her two daughters reached toward the four sisters' bowls.

Daya and her four sisters quickly grabbed the piece of meat in their bowls and threw it into their mouths, picked up their own bowls, and the one belonging to Wuya, and ran back to their room.

"Such audacity... daring to revolt, huh!" Mrs. Lai's hand wasn't quick enough, and again she cursed.

"Mother, you're always favoring brother, and he's bound to favor his own children," Ye Shuzhen mumbled resentfully.

"Exactly, brother doesn't even bother to care about his sisters," Ye Shuzhi added fuel to the fire.

"Hmph, you still call yourselves aunties? Just now, when cooking, you each had something in your mouths; you think I didn't know? My children didn't even dare to enter the kitchen when they got home."

Accused by his two sisters, Hongji, who was usually an honest man that never talked back, started to defend his children.

"Brother... look at you talking..." Ye Shuzhi blushed from embarrassment.

"Mother... look at brother," Ye Shuzhen glared at Hongji.

"Enough, even eating a meal can't be peaceful. Your brother is right; you are grown-up yet not as well-behaved as the children."

Hongji's father spoke up, siding with justice for the first time.

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