Chapter 443 - 433: Teasing
Chapter 443: Chapter 433: Teasing
"Jingyi, find some bedding for Yuanshan and his family."
Night fell, and it was time for everyone to rest. Xu Jinsan asked his wife to find some bedding for his brother’s family. After all, even if they were sleeping on the floor, they couldn’t just sleep directly *on* the floor.
"Alright."
Zhou Jingyi came out of the room with a quilt.
"Is that the only one?" Xu Jinsan frowned.
As the older brother, he already felt guilty making Yuanshan and his wife sleep on the floor. If there wasn’t even enough bedding, he would be truly embarrassed.
Xu Yuanshan and Tan Jing stared intently at their sister-in-law.
The floor was so hard. Even if they went without a blanket to cover themselves, they couldn’t just sleep directly on it.
They might be from the countryside and used to sleeping on a kang, but they couldn’t go without a mattress pad! That would be unbearable.
"There are no more. This is the one we use on our own bed; I just brought it over for Yuanshan and his family."
Zhou Jingyi spread her hands. There were only three of them in the house originally. They didn’t usually have guests, so they weren’t in the habit of keeping spare bedding.
"Then let’s bring our mattress out for Yuanshan and his wife,"
Xu Jinsan said after a moment of thought.
"Jinsan, our bed is made of pear wood. Without the mattress, it’s practically the same as sleeping on the floor. And haven’t you been saying your back hurts these past few days?"
In the past, Zhou Jingyi would have done whatever her husband said without a second thought.
But the Zhou Jingyi of today, enlightened by Tang Mo, was different. She had started to think more about her own family’s needs and was no longer blindly obedient.
Xu Jinsan hadn’t really thought before he spoke. Now, hearing his wife’s words, he took them to heart.
He had been exercising with his daughter recently, and the intensity was increasing. Backaches were a common occurrence. Without a mattress, forget about him—even his wife wouldn’t be able to stand it.
Xu Jinsan didn’t even consider taking things from his daughter’s room. As for Pingping and An’an’s room...
’No, Pingping and An’an are still so little. Besides, Big Sister is sleeping on that bed too.’
Watching Pingping and An’an, who had been playing nearby, get tired and leap into his and his wife’s arms, Xu Jinsan immediately abandoned the idea of taking bedding from their room.
The two-year-old toddlers couldn’t remember much, but they knew who was good to them. It was an age where their affection for family was truly endearing.
"How about the property management center after all? They have plenty of bedding there."
Xu Jinsan suddenly felt that Yinyin was the one who thought things through. Having his brother’s family sleep at the property management center was actually a great idea.
"No, no! A little hardness is good. It’s good for your health."
Xu Yuanshan’s face darkened, but the moment he heard about the property management center from Xu Yin, it had sounded terrifying. It was safer to sleep on the floor at home. His life was what mattered most.
In the end, there was no other choice. They could only spread the single quilt beneath them and cover themselves with the overcoats Xu Jinsan had personally dug out.
And so, Xu Yuanshan’s family of three was settled for the night.
"Thank god there’s air conditioning. Otherwise, even if we hadn’t died outside today, we would have frozen to death in Xu Yin’s house."
Xu Ru thought resentfully as she lay on the sofa, wrapped in a jacket. She had thought that after finally making it to her uncle’s house, she would get to live in comfort. She never expected it to be worse than her own home.
"Exactly. Yuanshan, does your older brother even see you as his little brother? We came from so far away, and this is how he treats us."
Tan Jing and Xu Ru truly were mother and daughter; their thoughts were exactly the same.
In her mind, Xu Jinsan and his wife would probably have to give up their own room to be considered proper hosts.
In the darkness, Xu Yuanshan’s expression was terribly grim, and not just because the hard floor was digging uncomfortably into his back.
He was also filled with resentment. ’Why is it that we’re all part of the Xu Family, yet my brother gets to live so comfortably while my wife, my child, and I have to sleep on the floor?’
From his room, Tang Mo listened to the family of three’s hushed conversation and sneered inwardly.
As a precaution, Tang Mo had been monitoring every move in the house, and that naturally included everything in the living room.
’This world is full of ingrates. No matter how well you treat them, you can never win them over.’
A sliver of spiritual power, like a small knife, instantly severed the power cord of the standing air conditioner in the living room.
’Aren’t you complaining about the accommodations? Fine, let’s make them truly bad. We’ll see if you have any energy left to complain when you’re freezing.’
The weather was already quite cool, and the air conditioner in the spacious living room was normally left on 24 hours a day.
Now that the air conditioner had stopped working, the entire living room cooled down immediately.
Each bedroom had its own separate air conditioner, but the warm air couldn’t reach the living room.
Tang Mo, as well as Xu Jinsan and his wife, all slept with their doors closed. Fearing the children might cry in the middle of the night and wake her brother’s family, Xu Shan also kept her door shut tight.
"Mom, don’t you think it’s a little cold?"
Lying on the sofa, Xu Ru suddenly shivered.
’Did I catch a cold after such a rough day?’
If even Xu Ru on the sofa felt cold, how much worse must it be for Xu Yuanshan and his wife?
"Yuanshan, go check if the air conditioner is off."
Tan Jing pulled the clothes she was using as a blanket tighter around herself, but it was obviously of little use.
’Did they turn it off because they were worried about the electricity bill?’ Tan Jing’s resentment toward her brother-in-law’s family grew by another measure.
Xu Yuanshan glanced at the air conditioner and saw that its indicator light was off. His mood soured as well.
’First, they make us sleep on the floor, and now they’ve even turned off the AC. My brother’s family is going too far!’
He got up to inspect the air conditioner. After looking it over and over, Xu Yuanshan finally discovered that the power cord had been severed. The cut was perfectly clean.
"What happened?"
’Now he couldn’t blame anyone else. There was no one in the living room besides his own family of three. It was working fine just a moment ago, so how could it have suddenly been cut?’
Glancing at the pitch-black mist outside, Xu Yuanshan felt an even deeper chill.
The cord was cut. It couldn’t be fixed without spare parts. With no other option, the family of three could only try to sleep and endure the cold.
The next morning, all three members of Xu Yuanshan’s family were sneezing.
"Why is the living room so cold?"
Zhou Jingyi had planned to play with Pingping and An’an in the living room, but the moment she stepped out, she realized the temperature difference from the bedroom was too great. She had to go back to the bedroom to grab a thick overcoat before coming out again.
Xu Shan had already put thick coats on Pingping and An’an. One had to admit, their great-aunt was very meticulous when it came to childcare.
"Why isn’t the air conditioner on?"
Xu Jinsan asked, looking at his brother’s family, who were all sneezing and looking unwell.
"Don’t worry about saving a little on the electricity bill. Your health is more important."
Xu Jinsan said with all sincerity, assuming they had turned it off to save electricity.
Tan Jing cursed inwardly. ’Who the hell would want to save you money on electricity?!’
’If she could, she would have turned on twenty air conditioners at once rather than suffer in the cold.’
"Huh? Why is the power cord cut? Uncle, Auntie, why did you break it?"