Reborn One Week Before the Apocalypse

Chapter 444: Chapter 434: A Change of Mindset

"Stop your slander! We didn’t break it—it just broke on its own!"

Xu Ru had been freezing all night and was already furious with nowhere to vent. Hearing her cousin falsely accuse her like this, she immediately shouted back in protest.

’Are they crazy? Why would we deliberately break the air conditioner just so we could freeze?’

"Why are you being so aggressive? The cut is perfectly clean—it was obviously sliced. If you won’t admit it, fine. We won’t make a big deal out of it."

Tang Mo leaned against Xu Jinsan, looking pitiful and wronged.

Everyone looked at the cut. It was, indeed, perfectly clean. No one would believe it hadn’t been sliced with a knife.

Seeing his daughter being wronged when she wasn’t at fault, Xu Jinsan felt a pang of displeasure.

He patted Tang Mo’s shoulder. "Let it go. Your uncle and aunt didn’t mean to do it. What’s broken is broken."

That "didn’t mean to" was a clever choice of words. It sounded like he was dropping the matter, but it also cemented who was to blame for the broken air conditioner.

Xu Yuanshan and Tan Jing were so cold and furious they were about to spit blood.

But in the dead of night, only their family of three had been in the living room. It was like some kind of paranormal event—truly impossible to explain.

Xu Ru was so angry she bared her teeth and stomped her foot.

Seeing his niece’s tantrum and recalling the injustice his own daughter had just suffered, Xu Jinsan grew even more displeased.

He had originally planned to let their family of three warm up and get some sleep in his room, since they had been freezing all night. But now, it seemed that wouldn’t be necessary.

Tang Mo watched the family’s reactions, feeling a little thrill of delight.

’So it’s not just crushing someone with brute force that feels this good,’ she thought. ’Outsmarting them is just as satisfying.’

During the day, everyone bundled up in thick clothes and gathered in the living room as usual.

"It’s actually not that cold without the air conditioner."

After sitting on the sofa for a while, Xu Jinsan took off his jacket. He actually felt a little warm.

Tan Jing’s family had obviously noticed it too. The AC was still off, so why was the temperature during the day so much different from the night?

"I opened the doors to a few of the rooms," Zhou Jingyi replied, holding her child. "The warm air from inside is spreading out, so it’s naturally not as cold."

In reality, the house was far too large for the warm air from the bedrooms’ air conditioners to heat the living room so effectively. Of course, the real reason was Tang Mo.

Since everyone was in the living room during the day, Tang Mo naturally wouldn’t let Xu Yin’s parents, Pingping, or An’an catch a cold.

But come nighttime... that was another story.

"I see. In that case, we can just leave the doors open at night. Then Yuanshan and his family won’t be cold while they sleep."

Xu Jinsan had considered letting Yuanshan’s family sleep on the floor in one of the bedrooms, but seeing that the living room temperature was quite pleasant, he dismissed the idea.

After all, the living room floor was much more spacious than a bedroom floor.

Since they only had one meal a day, it was served very late, around two or three in the afternoon.

Tan Jing eventually managed to squeeze into the kitchen to "help," and just as she’d hoped, she got to see exactly how much food her brother-in-law and sister-in-law had.

"Sister-in-law, what’s inside these two large freezers?"

Seeing the kitchen piled high with food, Tan Jing was overjoyed. This would last them for a long time.

And there were two large, locked freezers, which must be packed with even better things.

"Oh, those two freezers? Those are Yinyin’s. I don’t know what’s in them either."

Tang Mo had instructed Mrs. Xu long ago that if Tan Jing asked about the freezers, she should just say they belonged to her.

As soon as she heard they belonged to Xu Yin, Tan Jing ran her hands over them a couple of times but didn’t press the issue.

She wasn’t an unperceptive woman. She knew perfectly well who in the family was easy to deal with and who wasn’t.

Xu Yin was polite to her in Xu Jinsan’s presence, but as soon as he was gone, the girl wouldn’t even give her a second glance. On the rare occasion their eyes met, Xu Yin’s gaze was like ice. Tan Jing didn’t dare speak to her now.

’I don’t know what’s wrong with that girl. She was always aloof and proud, but now it’s even worse. She looks like she’s about to attack someone at any moment.’

’I wouldn’t dare provoke her. Better not to know what’s in those freezers. It’s not like I’d be able to get my hands on any of it anyway.’

At first, Zhou Jingyi had been worried that once Tan Jing got into the kitchen, she would recklessly squander their food supplies.

But to her surprise, when it came to cooking, Tan Jing was even more calculating than she was.

The single daily meal was already not enough to feel full, but now that her sister-in-law had taken over, the portions went from leaving them seventy percent full to barely fifty.

Zhou Jingyi couldn’t figure it out, so that evening she went to her daughter’s room for a private chat.

Tang Mo explained to Mrs. Xu, "It’s simple. They’re planning to freeload here indefinitely. Since they’re not leaving, they’ve started treating our supplies as their own. Naturally, they’re going to ration everything carefully. Otherwise, none of us will survive long enough to see the world recover."

Hearing her daughter’s explanation, Zhou Jingyi finally felt relieved.

’Let them freeload, then,’ she thought. ’With Xu around, I can’t kick them out anyway. At least now someone else is worrying about the food, and I’m saved the trouble of cooking for this huge family.’

Having come to this realization, Mrs. Xu completely ceded control, handing over her position as head of the kitchen. She then went to leisurely play with Pingping and An’an.

Cooking for nine people was no easy task, but Tan Jing reveled in it.

In times like these, what could provide a greater sense of security than being in control of the food?

At first, Tan Jing didn’t dare to sneak extra food for her own family. The house was only so big, and she was constantly under the watchful eyes of others.

But as time went on, she grew bolder.

The longer she lived in the house and the more time she spent in the kitchen, the more Tan Jing began to develop the mentality of a matriarch. It was as if she were the true mistress of the house. She even started putting on airs, trying to control who ate more and who ate less.

But no matter how much she wanted to be in charge, nobody listened to her.

Tang Mo was the first to ignore her. She had been indulging Tan Jing, but only because she saw her as nothing more than a nanny who happened to be a decent cook.

To be fair, Tan Jing’s cooking was much more delicious than Zhou Jingyi’s.

As for Zhou Jingyi, her mindset had changed significantly under Tang Mo’s influence. She certainly wasn’t going to take orders from her sister-in-law in her own home. When Tan Jing occasionally overstepped, Zhou Jingyi had even learned how to retort.

As for Xu Jinsan, he was the head of the household, so Tan Jing had even less authority over him.

The only people she could control were her own family of three, Xu Shan, and the two young children, Pingping and An’an.

However, Pingping and An’an couldn’t really understand Tan Jing’s accented Mandarin. They just felt an old woman chattering noisily in their ears. Whenever Tan Jing started to speak, they would simply close their eyes, rendering her words useless.

Besides, Pingping and An’an still drank milk formula and couldn’t eat much solid food anyway.

Unable to control the people, Tan Jing gradually began to harbor other ideas.

"With great power comes great audacity." That saying probably described Tan Jing perfectly at that moment.