Witty Wife, Better Life-Chapter 809 - 799: Quarrel

Thinking about it, Old Li still took out all the money from his pocket, "Gensheng, your uncle didn’t know it’d be so much money, as you see, I don’t have that much on me. What should we do?"

The team leader looked at the money in his hand, all one yuan bills, and the rest were just small change, probably only adding up to three or four yuan at most.

"Uncle, it’s not that urgent. It’s fine if you know about it. If you didn’t bring enough today, just forget it. You can bring it to me when you have time." The team leader still trusted Old Li. After all, he had several sons.

Just like that, the team leader stood at the Xue Family home for a short while before hurrying off. As for the messy affairs between the Xue Family and the Li Family, he really didn’t want to get involved. Such matters of man-and-woman relations, no one who got involved ever ended well.

Madam Xue only came out of the kitchen after the team leader had left. She had also gone out to hide her embarrassment.

"The man has left; let’s hurry up and eat. You eat your meal and then go home, otherwise that tigress of yours will come looking for me again." Madam Xue picked up her bowl and chopsticks to resume eating.

Old Li couldn’t even think about eating right now; he was worried about the five yuan he owed to the team.

He had never worried about money before since his wife managed all the finances. He just had to speak up whenever he needed something. When his wife wasn’t there, even though he was the one holding the money, it didn’t last long before it was given to Xue Suqin for food expenses. He really didn’t have much money in his pocket. Anyway, he had no use for spending much, so he never cared before. Who would have thought that five yuan could give him such trouble now?

He knew there was no money at home, so he looked at Suqin, thinking of asking her for some.

But what kind of person was Xue Suqin? She wouldn’t let him open his mouth for that request, so after a tasteless lunch at Old Li’s, Madam Xue swiftly kicked him out the door.

The old man trudged back to his own home, dispirited.

"You old thing, you know to come back, huh? You didn’t come home for lunch, where have you been all morning?" When Old Li arrived home, Qiu Shuping was sitting on a small stool in front of the stove, starting a fire.

After sending off the team leader, Qiu Shuping was hungry and had no choice but to get up and cook despite being bruised all over.

As for the mother and daughter from the Zheng Family across the road, she didn’t want to provoke them; only one who is hurt knows where the pain is.

Just as the rice was about to be ready, the old man came back. She couldn’t help but curse him a few times in her heart, thinking about how timely his return was. When there was work to be done, there was no sign of him, but as soon as the meal was ready, he sure ran home fast.

At that point, Qiu Shuping didn’t know that her husband had been lured to Madam Xue’s these past few days. In her mind, now that she herself was back, Xue Suqin, a person who couldn’t stand the sight of her, should have been avoiding her. So she didn’t think much of her husband’s frequent outings, assuming nothing of that sort. If she had known that another woman had already emptied his pockets, there was no way she would have let him eat, not even if it were dished out from a cesspit.

"Did you call Hongjun yesterday?" Old Li asked with a gloomy face as soon as he got home.

"Yeah, I just got back. Shouldn’t I call my son and let him know? If no one else cares for me, at least I have a son," said Qiu Shuping confidently.

Having sons is for that very reason – to have someone to support you when you’re being bullied. Besides, if the old man can go to a widow’s house for meals, why can’t she talk to her own son?

"What did you tell the boy?" asked Old Li.

"What did I say? What else could I say? Just talking about your mess. At your age, you have no shame; then, I shall have my son come back and deliver justice for me."

"Has Hongjun come back?" Old Mr. Li asked in a bit of a hurry.

"Hmph!" Qiu Shuping gave a snobbish snort.

"You this old woman, do you have any sense of right and wrong left? Hongjun is so busy in the military, why do you bother him with these matters? What if he gets distracted by a mission or something?"

"Don’t just say things that sound good, if you hadn’t done what you did, would I have needed to tell our second son?" Qiu Shuping didn’t care about that, right now she just wanted her son to take her side.

"You, you ungrateful thing, if because of your blabbering, our son gets distracted and has an accident on a mission, you’ll have time to regret it." Old Mr. Li spoke with a mix of harshness and vulnerability.

"Who’s to blame for that? Blame his shameless father." Qiu Shuping didn’t show any weakness and immediately fired back.

"Shut your mouth, how many times have I told you? There’s nothing between me and Suqin. It’s just that with you not at home, there’s nobody to cook or do the laundry, so I thought of hiring her to do some chores..." Old Mr. Li tried his hardest to explain. In his own mind, although he did harbor some other thoughts, nothing had happened yet, so it didn’t count as wrongdoing. Now that everyone was back, things should have gone back to how they were before. Why was this becoming endless?

"Right, you ’hired’ someone so that they could come to the house and do ’work’? What kind of ’work’? To end up in bed, that’s what. And you keep mentioning Suqin, you really have lost all shame." Qiu Shuping’s mouth wasn’t clean at all.

"You foolish woman, turning nothing into something, what are you trying to imply? No longer want to be together, is that it?" Old Mr. Li was also losing his patience and his words were becoming less measured.

He mainly felt cornered by his wife’s sudden return and the demand for the five yuan famine relief. It was only the first half of the year, and the pension from Hongjun was still half a year away. He was a man who valued face, and if others found out he couldn’t pay the five yuan he owed the team for half a year, how would he be able to hold his head high? Over the years, he had been praised by the village folk, and he flattered himself into believing he was quite the lord, living each year without doing anything because his son provided for his pension. Now, if others discovered he couldn’t even produce five yuan, even if they didn’t say anything to his face, who knows what they would say behind his back?

"What, you want to divorce me like Old Zheng? You bastard, I always knew you were no good. Don’t you dream about it, if you think of throwing me aside to find someone younger, it’ll only happen over my dead body. You old reprobate, I’ll make sure our son knows just what kind of Chen Shimei you are." Qiu Shuping was also ruthless.

"You old woman, what nonsense are you spouting, who’s Chen Shimei? And stop bothering our son with every little thing, as a mother, can’t you consider his feelings..."

The two of them started arguing again, initially about calling their son, then moving on to Xue Suqin and then, somehow, circling back to the children.

"Mom, they are quarreling again in that room," Zheng Huilan said softly, listening to the noise from the other room.

"Hmph, dog biting dog, a mouthful of fur, let’s not get involved. Ah, ouch..." Zheng’s mother had also been severely injured in the morning’s battle, lying on the kang all morning, and was now in no condition to go out and watch the commotion.

"Mom, let’s not provoke my mother-in-law. Look how she was this morning, truly frightening." Zheng Huilan was always timid, and after a stint in jail, she became even more so. Her temperament was the polar opposite of her mother’s carefree attitude.

"Ouch, you think I want to provoke her? That old witch, if I’m not harsh with her, it wouldn’t take many days for her to kick us both out. Your father, the heartless man, doesn’t want us anymore. If we can’t stay here, what will we do?" Zheng’s mother let out a sigh, expressing her true feelings.

Upon hearing this, Zheng Huilan started to wipe her tears, "It’ll be better when Hongqi comes back." This was her last hope.

Zheng’s mother didn’t see it that way, "Don’t keep your hopes up for that Li Hongqi, he’s no good either." After a moment of thought, she continued, "Your body might not be able to have children in the future. Before, with your father’s support and your own job, even if you couldn’t have children, the Li Family would have had to provide for you. But now things are different. What will my daughter do in the future?"

"It’s not like that, Hongqi isn’t that kind of person, sob sob..." Zheng Huilan, speaking, couldn’t help but start crying again.

Zheng’s mother could only sigh beside her, hoping in her heart that her daughter was right.