Chapter 179 - 167: The Wu Family
Chapter 179: Chapter 167: The Wu Family
Xiao Man was returning to Wancheng by helicopter. Meanwhile, in a city in H Province, inside a slightly run-down apartment, the living room was so dim the lights had to be kept on even during the day. A round table and a square table were pushed together, laden with an array of bowls and plates. There was every kind of chicken, duck, fish, and meat, along with dried seafood. Two bottles of aged liquor had been opened. Over a dozen adults and children were crowded around the table, but they had all managed to find a seat.
The rich aroma of food and liquor filled the air. Faced with such a sumptuous feast, the adults managed to restrain themselves, but the children couldn’t keep their chopsticks from darting out. The sounds of men making toasts and encouraging everyone to eat mingled with women smacking and scolding their children, creating a constant, overlapping din.
Tang Yaxuan frowned. After two nights at her grandmother’s house, she still wasn’t used to such a scene. She gently tugged the corner of her mother’s clothes.
Wu Xiaowen shot her daughter a reassuring glance and placed some food in her two children’s bowls. Then, she looked up at her eldest sister-in-law, Yang Qianrong, and said, "That’s enough. It’s the New Year, and the whole family is here for a reunion dinner. Can you stop making such a racket? It sounds awful. That’s not how the Wu Family raises children!"
Yang Qianrong met her mother-in-law’s warning glare. She lowered her head to pick the bones out of a piece of fish for her younger son, but still retorted under her breath, "Well, we’re just country folk. We can’t compare to you, the elegant and noble Mrs. Tang. As for how the Wu Family teaches their children, I wouldn’t know. No one ever told me!"
"You..." Wu Xiaowen’s chopsticks, reaching for the chicken dish, froze.
"Hey, Qianrong, just drop it and eat, will you? Xiao Xiao, here, your big brother will get you a chicken wing. I know this is your favorite. I always let you have them when we were kids!"
Wu Xiaoyang placed a chicken wing in Wu Xiaowen’s bowl. Wu Xiaowen glanced at Tang Qingyun, who was busy chatting and drinking with her father, Wu Yuxuan. She pursed her lips and, in the end, said nothing more.
Mother Wu placed a piece of fish in the bowl of her second son, Wu Xiaofeng, who sat beside her. She glanced at her second daughter-in-law, Yu Min, who was tending to her own daughter’s meal as if she’d heard nothing. With a soft sigh, she turned to Wu Xiaowen with a smile. "Xiao Xiao, make sure you look after Xuanxuan and Hao Hao, but you need to eat well, too. You have a long train ride ahead of you. If Qingyun weren’t so busy, it would’ve been wonderful for you to stay a couple more days!"
"Mom, we’ll be reunited soon. Qingyun’s father..."
Mother Wu gave her daughter a reproachful look. "What kind of way is that to talk? You’ve been married for over a decade. He’s still ’Qingyun’s father’? Isn’t he your father too?"
Wu Xiaowen smiled, took out a handkerchief, and elegantly dabbed the corner of her lips. "Mom, you and Dad don’t need to worry. I spoke with them in Beijing before the New Year. My father-in-law said he has personally looked into it. By the end of February at the latest, you and Dad can return to Beijing, and your positions will be reinstated at your original work units!"
"That’s good, that’s good. We’ve made it back step by step, and things are pretty good here in Feng City now. But in the end, it’s someone else’s place. Besides, the conditions for teaching and everything else are far worse than in Beijing. You can’t get anything you need. And your father’s temper... plus his health is very poor. He needs to get back to a major hospital in Beijing for proper treatment! Xiao Wen, it’s all thanks to you, and to our good son-in-law, Qingyun!"
Mother Wu looked at her daughter with a smile. She and her husband had been exiled to the countryside for many years and had suffered a great deal. Her ear-length hair was already streaked with white, but the smile that bloomed on her face held a noble elegance, revealing a distinctive temperament.
"Mom, come on. Isn’t this what we’re supposed to do?"
"That may be so, but if you didn’t have this status, and if we couldn’t borrow your father-in-law’s influence, our family wouldn’t have been in the first group to come back! Of those who were sent down with us back then, more than half still haven’t heard any news! If your father and I were like them, waiting until the policy was twisted and worn out in the hands of others, only then being able to slowly climb back step by step, by then, not only would we be finished, but your brothers, sister, nieces, and nephews would be in an even worse state!" As she spoke, Mother Wu thought of the bitter days that were now behind them and sighed endlessly with lingering fear.
Wu Xiaoyang gave Wu Xiaowen another chicken wing. Wu Xiaowen smiled at her brother and accepted it without fuss.
Her three nieces, sitting side by side—the eldest fifteen and the youngest ten—all looked at Wu Xiaowen with eyes full of admiration and envy.
Tang Haocheng had already put down his chopsticks. He whispered to Tang Yaxuan, "Are you still eating? Let’s go outside. It’s too stuffy in here."
Tang Yaxuan nodded. "I’m done. Let’s go."
When Wu Xiaowen saw her two children stand up and acknowledge the adults, she quickly added, "Xuanxuan, sweetie, look after your brother and don’t go too far. We have to catch our train soon!"
"I know, Mom. Don’t worry," Tang Yaxuan said in a clear voice.
Yu Min looked up, her eyes following Tang Yaxuan once more.
Wu Xiaofeng laughed. "It’s fine. Your train isn’t for another three hours. You’ll have no trouble making it."
Mother Wu personally got up to open the door, saw her granddaughter and grandson downstairs, gave them a few words of instruction, and then came back. She gestured for Wu Xiaowen to follow her into her room.
The mother and daughter closed the bedroom door and sat on the edge of the bed. Mother Wu asked, "They sent a lot of things from abroad again. I picked out the best for you and had it mailed over. Did you receive it all?"
"We got them. The styles of the clothes and the toys... Xuanxuan and Hao Hao love them. They keep saying how good Grandma is to them!" Wu Xiaowen said with a smile.
"Grandmothers dote on their grandchildren; it’s always been that way. Your sister-in-law is short-sighted. She doesn’t dare say anything to my face, but she complains about me behind my back plenty. She doesn’t stop to think, what kind of children are my grandchildren? How can the ones she gave birth to possibly compare?"
"Mom, Meina and the others are getting bigger now, too. You can leave the things for them to use in the future. It’s okay if you send us less!"
"You don’t need to worry, I know what I’m doing!" Mother Wu coughed lightly and changed the subject. "About Xuanxuan’s matter, how was it discovered? Xiao Feng and Yu Min called me before they came and told me everything. They couldn’t decide whether to bring that child over. I didn’t tell your father. I told Xiao Feng to lock the child up for now and give her enough food for a few days. It should be fine."
Wu Xiaowen paused, her eyes turning red. "Mom, because of this, Qingyun almost turned on me. I was so angry I nearly fainted! But what could I do? The babies were switched back then; it wasn’t my fault! Now that child has turned out like... that... She’s my biological daughter, don’t you think my heart aches for her? But wasn’t I doing it for the whole family? I can’t just pity this child and ruin Qingyun’s future. If that old hag finds out, who knows how she’ll torture me? What would happen to our family then?"
Mother Wu sighed. "You’re not wrong. Your considerations are all correct! But you need to watch your attitude. You can’t just act on your own, understand? No matter what you want to do, you first have to be strategic. You need to make Qingyun accept it, or even make him think the idea was his own! Qingyun is a good, sentimental man. He fell out with his own mother for the child in your belly back then. If it weren’t for him and the Tang family all these years, your father, your brothers, and I would have had it much harder. I’m afraid we... Your Uncle Zhou and Uncle Hu were beaten to death right before our eyes. Aunt Hu hanged herself. But your father and I were just taken along for a few rounds and were never beaten, all thanks to Qingyun! So, child, no matter what, you have to keep your cool. Treat Qingyun well and don’t fight with him!"
"We didn’t fight. Qingyun, he... he always gives in to me."
"Why must he always be the one to give in to you? For a man like Qingyun, you should revere him like an emperor. That way, he will surely grant you the honor of an Empress! You’ve experienced this yourself, I don’t need to say more, do I?"
"Mom, the things you say!" Wu Xiaowen laughed in spite of herself. But when she thought of her own little family and how well her husband treated her, her heart swelled with sweetness and bliss. ’With such a loving husband and such an outstanding pair of children, I wouldn’t trade this life for an Empress’s crown!’