Chapter 910 - 909: Looks Good but Useless
"Our neighbor, Madam Gu, has been very considerate to our family since we moved in. Her children smelled the aroma and wanted to try the sauce. Given the relationship between our two families, it would have been fine to give it for free! But Madam Gu picked half a basket of eggs to exchange for just that one small bowl, and she still felt embarrassed, thinking she’d taken advantage of us!"
"We didn’t expect this to be seen by the kids outside. We don’t know what they said when they went back, but seven or eight ladies came banging on our door. Our maid was so scared her legs were shaking, and she didn’t dare open the door."
"It wasn’t until my mother heard and figured it was our neighbors that she asked to open the door. The ladies barged into our yard without even a greeting, holding giant bowls, and charged straight to the kitchen! If Aunt Wu hadn’t stopped them, I’m afraid we’d not only lose the sauce but even the pot!"
"Because of this, my mother couldn’t help but say a few words, and those ladies scolded her, saying she’s a country bumpkin with no manners! You tell me, what child can stand outsiders talking like that about their parents? And how could we let bygones be bygones and share the sauce with them? Madam Gu next door, upon hearing the commotion at our house, came over to speak for us, but she too was chased and scolded by those ladies."
At this point, who doesn’t understand?
Some families, who had also been taken advantage of by those few ladies before, couldn’t help but speak up: "Scholar Song’s Wife, you don’t need to say more! Don’t all the neighbors know what they’re like? They’re the kind who would even take a feather from a passing bird! Who among us hasn’t been shamelessly exploited by them? Today they borrow vinegar from one house, tomorrow salt from another, and they never return it!"
"Relying on the fact that we’re all longtime neighbors on the same street, they treat everyone else’s home like their own vegetable garden! Not long ago, we made egg pancakes and they lived next door, smelled the aroma, and without a word used a ladder to climb over and ate most of the pot! They were meant for my elderly mother-in-law, who can’t digest food easily, but most of it ended up in their stomachs! I was so angry - if my husband hadn’t stopped me, I would have gone over to their house and scolded them myself!"
"Exactly! Every few days they come over, borrowing this or that, and never returning anything! My youngest son, who just recovered from illness, was given a candy figurine to cheer him up, and he was sitting outside to eat it. I went to fetch something, and in the blink of an eye, the boy next door had snatched it and shoved my son over! My little boy cried until his face turned white..."