Chapter 150: Heeding Advice Brings a Full Meal
Chapter 150: Chapter 150: Heeding Advice Brings a Full Meal
When Xiao Cui returned home, she found the house in silence. Her mother-in-law, who was usually very talkative, sat there without saying a word.
"I’m back, Mom. Don’t be upset anymore. I went to another village to get some medicine and I’ll brew it to drink later." Xiao Cui said to her mother-in-law, raising the jug in her hand, which contained child’s urine she had gotten from the neighboring village.
Upon hearing Xiao Cui’s words, Aunt Chen and Chen Hao finally came around. Aunt Chen saw the jug in Xiao Cui’s hand and remembered how she had been so demanding recently, yet Xiao Cui had not uttered a word of complaint.
"Xiao Cui, it was my fault. I wronged you." Aunt Chen took the jug from Xiao Cui’s hands and threw it directly into the courtyard.
With a loud "crack," the jug hit the ground heavily and shattered into pieces, the collected child’s urine spilling everywhere.
"Mom?" The precious child’s urine, painstakingly gathered, was casually tossed away by her mother-in-law? Xiao Cui was dumbfounded and couldn’t understand why.
"Xiao Cui, I’ve already told Mom the truth. It’s entirely my fault that you’ve been wronged during this time. I’m truly not much of a man." Chen Hao looked at his wife, feeling self-reproach.
"I’m fine." Xiao Cui shook her head. The Chen Family were good people. Although her mother-in-law did many things to her for the sake of descendants, she was really grateful to the Chen Family for taking her away from that hell.
Compared to the old days, her current life was something she had never even dared to dream of.
"Silly girl!" Seeing her daughter-in-law say such things, Aunt Chen felt she had been too harsh.
"It seems this is the calamity of the Chen Family." With a heavy sigh, Aunt Chen pulled her son and daughter-in-law to her husband’s memorial tablet.
"Mom?" Chen Hao looked at his mother, puzzled.
"Do you know why other families have many children, but I only have you?" Aunt Chen looked at her husband’s memorial tablet. "Because your father had the same problem as you."
"I always thought that after giving birth to you, I’d definitely be able to give him another child. But later, I got pregnant several times, yet could not keep the babies." Aunt Chen looked at her son.
"Seeing you grow up lively and active, I thought you’d be like me. Later, your dad became ill and passed away, and I continued to raise you alone. As a widow and child, I thought of giving you a wife early to continue the Chen Family line."
"So I have the same illness as Dad?" Chen Hao understood his mother’s implication.
"Can’t this illness be cured?" Xiao Cui looked at her mother-in-law.
Aunt Chen sighed. "It seems we really should heed advice. You two shouldn’t sleep at night for the time being, and we’ll secretly take him to the hospital."
"Alright." Xiao Cui nodded in agreement.
Chen Hao patted Xiao Cui’s hand; Aunt Chen glanced at Xiao Cui. "Xiao Cui, stay behind. I want to speak with you."
"Okay." Xiao Cui nodded and stayed behind. Chen Hao looked at his mother and then stepped out of the room.
"Did you know Haozi had this illness, and why didn’t you tell me?" Aunt Chen looked at her daughter-in-law, her expression complex.
"Mom raised Brother Hao alone, and on the day Haozi married me, he said you brought him up single-handedly. If you knew he had this illness, you would definitely be heartbroken." Xiao Cui looked at Aunt Chen’s expression and then lowered her head.
She thought her mother-in-law was blaming her, but Aunt Chen remained silent for a long time. "So no matter how many weird remedies I came up with that made you suffer, you never refused?"
"I’m alright." Xiao Cui shook her head with a smile.
No matter how difficult, she had drunk it all, even rancid water; these things were really nothing to her.
"What kind of place did you live in before, to think it’s alright?" Aunt Chen looked at Xiao Cui, incredulous.
"Mom, please don’t ask. I can’t tell you." Xiao Cui covered her mouth; she couldn’t speak of it.
If she said it, she would be taken back, and she’d never get to see them again.
Aunt Chen paused. "Aren’t you the daughter of the Li Family?"
Xiao Cui hesitated, unsure how to reply.
"Mother-in-law, at this point, you are all good people, so I won’t hide it from you anymore." After a long silence, Xiao Cui decided to tell the truth.
Apart from things about that place, she could tell them everything else.
"I am not the daughter of the Li Family. They took your bride price, but their daughter saw the male educated youth in the village and didn’t want to marry here. She even got pregnant with the educated youth’s child, threatening suicide, so they secretly bought me to marry in her place." Xiao Cui closed her mouth; she could only tell her this much.
"What?" Aunt Chen was truly stunned now. "How could the Li Family do such a thing! If she doesn’t want to marry, then don’t. This is harming others!"
"Mom, if you’re willing, and don’t mind me, I’ll stay here, serve you all my life without leaving." Xiao Cui knelt in front of Aunt Chen, kowtowing. "If you don’t want to keep me, you can send me back. But the Li Family’s daughter won’t be willing to marry here either."
Aunt Chen slumped onto the bed, suddenly losing her composure.
No wonder the married daughter-in-law had no temper at all, not even slightly like the matchmaker had said: prone to petty temper, exceedingly good-natured, doing whatever was asked with no complaints.
Turns out, she wasn’t even the same person.
Re-evaluating Xiao Cui, Aunt Chen opened her mouth but couldn’t say a single word for a long time.
She wasn’t keen on exchanging the Li Family’s daughter for anyone else either.
"Let it be! You’ve been with us for three years now. During these three years, you’ve put up with so much of my temper without a word. You’re taking good care of Haozi. If I sent you back, where would I find such a good daughter-in-law?" Aunt Chen remembered that in the three years since Xiao Cui came to them, she managed the household chores and cared for Chen Hao meticulously.
Compared to the Li Family’s daughter, who broke her promise and got pregnant before marriage, Aunt Chen felt Xiao Cui fit in very well.
"I will take good care of you." Xiao Cui kowtowed heavily in gratitude, looking at Aunt Chen. "When I married in, I knew Mom was a good person. Even though she’s tough, when she saw I had no clothes, she immediately got some new fabric to make clothes for me. Wintertime, when she feared I’d freeze my hands, she’d boil a pot of hot water for me to wash clothes in warm water."
"This...what’s so good about it? Isn’t it just what’s normal?" Aunt Chen was embarrassed by Xiao Cui’s praise and waved her hand.
This child hadn’t seen good people. She was just doing ordinary things, not as good as Xiao Cui said.
Who washes clothes in cold water during winter? That would be intentional harm.
"From now on, our family will live well together; striving for things is not as important. I’ve come to terms with it. Haozi’s illness, we’ll treat it if possible, if not, I’m resigned." Aunt Chen glanced at Xiao Cui; if her son indeed had the same illness as her husband, then she knew it was incurable.
His father endured it for many years before finally succumbing, leaving her and their son. Life was hard, but she grit her teeth and lived through it.
"Mom, don’t worry, I will always take good care of Brother Hao." Xiao Cui firmly patted herself, promising.