Chapter 527 - 528: Family Business
Chapter 527: Chapter 528: Family Business
Bai Suihe truly found it to be a headache. She had zero experience dealing with such matters. As the saying went, even the wisest judge found it hard to settle family disputes. If she didn’t handle it well, she would end up being blamed by both sides.
Although this matter was clearly the fault of Zhuang Datou and the others, it had not yet reached an irreversible stage. For now, she would first see how Zhuang Datou’s side handled it. After asking about a few other household matters and learning that everything was normal, she decided to just wait for the sun to nearly set before going out for a stroll.
Having been questioned, Mrs. Li felt quite apprehensive. After giving some brief instructions to the others, she hurried out the door. She had to go gather some news. She couldn’t afford to be speechless when her masters asked about it later.
She bumped into Lin Wei right as she left and hurriedly went over to greet him. It was then she learned that the Master was also concerned about this matter and had sent him out to gather information.
With the same goal, the two turned a corner onto the small stone path that Zhuang Datou and his family had meticulously paved earlier. Back then, their whole family had been so united. How had things changed so much?
Before they even reached the houses where Zhuang Datou and the others lived, they could already hear the clamor ahead. The people living nearby had also come over to watch. The two of them hid among the crowd, making themselves less conspicuous.
The one causing the scene was Huang Pingguo’s mother. The skinny, white-haired old woman was currently sitting on the ground, slapping her thighs as she cried out, "What sin have I committed to have such an unfilial son like you?
"They say men marry a wife and forget their mother, and today I have truly experienced it.
"That damn Chunxiang, who does she think she is? She’s nothing but a..."
Lin Wei finally understood what a shrew was. These insulting words were truly vile beyond belief. Fortunately, the Master and Madam had not come over, otherwise, who knew how angry they would be upon hearing these words. Ms. Chunxiang was such a good person, yet she was being humiliated by this woman like this. He took a deep breath, barely managing to hold himself back from rushing forward.
Mrs. Li was also dumbfounded. She had heard before that these two families were rather difficult to deal with, but she had always been busy managing matters in the main courtyard. Since she rarely had time to come over here, she hadn’t really understood the extent of it.
Seeing this scene today, she finally understood why Dongmei and Chunxiang, despite their excellent temperaments, couldn’t endure it. Just look at what was spewing from her mouth! All the curses she had heard in the past couldn’t even compare to a fraction of this woman’s.
Huang Pingguo looked troubled, clutching his head in frustration. He turned to the rest of his family for help, only to be met with their angry glares.
"Mother, stop cursing," Huang Pingguo pleaded. Seeing more and more people gathering, he wanted to save face. He was a steward now, after all. Why couldn’t his family be a little more considerate?
"Why can’t I curse?" Lu Cuihua pointed at Huang Pingguo. "Your mother raised you on shit and piss, and this is how you repay me!"
Hearing this familiar phrase again, Lin Wei wanted nothing more than to cover his ears. He used to think there was nothing wrong with this common saying. However, during one of their trips, they had come across some women arguing, and they had happened to use this exact phrase.
At the time, the Madam had worn a look of disgust and remarked, "It truly is a miracle that a child can be raised on shit and piss. It’s a wonder they don’t find it disgusting themselves."
Just this one sentence made Lin Wei feel like he would remember it for the rest of his life. Right now, his stomach was churning.
"What’s wrong with you?" Mrs. Li asked with some concern. He had been fine just a moment ago; why had his face suddenly changed color?
Lin Wei felt he shouldn’t suffer this mental damage alone. He raised his voice. As a martial artist, even though he wasn’t shouting at the top of his lungs, his unique voice projection still reached the ears of everyone present. "I just find it a bit disgusting. This auntie here says she raised Steward Huang on shit and piss. Their family must have been incredibly poor to have to rely on feeding him those things to survive."
The scene instantly fell into a dead silence, followed closely by the sounds of dry heaving.
The corners of Lin Wei’s mouth curled up slightly. It seemed these people had also heard this phrase before, and now they were vividly picturing it in their heads.
Even Huang Pingguo was dry heaving. Previously, when his own mother said this, he had actually found it quite endearing. After all, she was his biological mother; without her, he truly wouldn’t have grown up into an adult. But with his mother saying this now, he feared that from now on, everyone would think he had grown up eating feces. Never mind others, he found it absolutely repulsive himself.
Lu Cuihua was a rural village woman and didn’t immediately process the words. But seeing everyone’s physical reactions, she didn’t know what was going on and could only look back at her family for help.
Her old man stood there with an ashen face, while her other sons and grandsons were also dry heaving.
"What’s wrong with all of you?" Could it be that there was a problem with the water in the village, causing everyone to fall ill?
At this thought, Lu Cuihua could no longer bother settling scores with Huang Pingguo. She jumped up and rushed over to check on her most beloved youngest son. "Huang Pingan, what’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell somewhere?"
Frightened, Huang Pingan quickly took a few steps back. "Mother, don’t come near me. Let me catch my breath first."
Seeing the guarded look on her beloved youngest son’s face, Lu Cuihua felt hurt again and blurted out, "Oh, my heavens, what is going on? This is the son I raised on shit..."
"Shut up!" the Huang family members shouted in unison. The cursing that used to sound quite rhythmic to their ears now felt like a shit-stirring stick directly churning their stomachs.
However, Lu Cuihua felt that her authority in the family was being challenged. Seeing all her family members yelling at her, she plopped right back down onto the ground. Slapping her thighs, she began to wail, "Heavens above, open your eyes and see what I’ve done for this family..."
"Mother, can you please stop making a scene?" Huang Pingguo asked helplessly. If she kept this up, he truly wouldn’t be able to stay in Tian Village any longer.
His mother wasn’t like this before. How had she changed so much? The gentle, hardworking mother who couldn’t even bear to take a bite of delicious food, saving it all for her children, was completely different from the old woman before him. If Bai Suihe were here, she would tell him that once the rose-tinted glasses were shattered, a person’s most authentic face would be revealed.
"You call this making a scene? Why don’t you listen to what you’re saying! The moment you came back, you inexplicably told our whole family to find another place and move out.
"You said we tore your home apart. Just listen to that! Are those the words a son should say? What do you mean ’your home’ and ’my home’? We never split the household, so this is our home!"
The observing crowd erupted in an uproar upon hearing this. She was here to seize the house!
However, there was nothing logically wrong with what she said. Although Huang Pingguo had been away from home for many years, as long as his parents hadn’t divided the household, and there was no family separation clerk involved, they were still considered one family.
Huang Pingguo’s mouth filled with a bitter taste. While he did want to treat his family well, human nature was inherently selfish, and of course, he would consider his own interests to some extent. Moreover, this home didn’t belong to him alone. The Madam had only spent silver to build it for them on account of Chunxiang.
Everything inside had been accumulated bit by bit together with Chunxiang.