Chapter 1546 - 1535: Scumbag Repents
"Mom, are you sure this won’t put you in a tough spot? After all, they’re from our village, refusing them might be hard to handle!" Ye Qiu said, looking rather embarrassed.
"No problem, when we went to them for help, they didn’t hesitate to turn us down. If they dare to gossip, I’ll use this to shut their mouths," Jiang Xiuqing said with a face full of resentment.
Ye Qiu breathed a sigh of relief: "Mom, I’m glad you think that way. If it weren’t for considering your face, I’d have refused them long ago. It’s like a joke when they act as if I owe them something every time they come. They want to go here, want to eat there, all that driving exhausts me. And when they get back home, they don’t even bother with cleanliness. They don’t flush the toilet, leaving it filthy, and they smoke without considering Xinrui. Second-hand smoke is really harmful to a child’s lungs."
"Is it really that serious?" Jiang Xiuqing’s heart sank. "Why don’t you two go to the hospital for a check-up then?"
"Mom, don’t worry so much. I’ll take the whole family for a check-up once I have some time off."
Listening to her husband mentioning all those things, Mei Ya suddenly realized this was what she’d talked about before. How did he suddenly say it all today and even successfully get his mother to agree not to let the folks from the old home come anymore? She wondered what else he might say.
"But didn’t you say the company had issues and you were busy lately? How can you find time to go to the hospital?" Jiang Xiuqing asked worriedly.
"I’ve already thought this through. I’m planning to have Xiao Ya help at the company," Ye Qiu said shockingly, startling the two women present.
"Her?" Jiang Xiuqing frowned, looking at Mei Ya.
Mei Ya pointed at herself: "Me?"
"Yes." Ye Qiu nodded affirmatively.
"Can she handle it?" Jiang Xiuqing looked dismissive. "What big things can a woman accomplish?"
Mei Ya was furious, ready to retort, but Ye Qiu said, "Xiao Ya and I were college classmates. She won scholarships back then, why wouldn’t she be capable?"
"But she’s been idle at home for so many years now, surely she’s forgotten a lot of things."
"Mom, that’s your prejudice. How is Xiao Ya idle at home? You often say how tiring it was raising me, isn’t it tiring for Xiao Ya to raise Xinrui?"
"How could that be the same? She doesn’t have to go to work or cook. I think taking care of a child now is quite easy."
"It’s not as simple as you say. The competition among kids now is intense! Xiao Ya has to take Xinrui to tutoring every day. Xinrui is about to start primary school, and she has to assist with homework. Back then, we didn’t need anyone to pick us up for school, but now the roads have so many cars, and there are kidnappers, we can’t take our eyes off the kids for a second. Is she sleeping till noon every day or shopping outside all day? Look at the great food you cook; she’s still losing weight every day. Isn’t it all exhausting?"
Hearing her husband recount her hardships, Mei Ya couldn’t help but tear up. He knew all along, why didn’t he understand her before? Though she felt she should be responsible for the child’s affairs and not find it tiring, it wore her out when she returned home to unappreciation and never received a kind word.
"Is she tired from that? Or is it because she dislikes my cooking?" Jiang Xiuqing muttered.
Mei Ya was filled with rage. The family could afford better, so why not eat better? Eating leftovers every day wasn’t healthy either! But Mei Ya had gotten used to enduring it silently, so she said nothing.
However, Ye Qiu spoke up: "Mom, no disrespect, but can’t you just throw those leftovers away? Why heat them again for the next meal? If you eat them, how can we as juniors let you, the elder, eat worse than we do?"
"But throwing them away is so wasteful!" Jiang Xiuqing said miserably, "Meat is so expensive now. You don’t eat it, you’re really spoiled."
"That’s where your thinking hasn’t opened up. Think about the folks from the old home, their conditions are far better than ours, yet every time they come, they want big meals and seafood. The leftovers they don’t even touch and call me stingy. If you spent the money used to host them for yourself, imagine how much we could enjoy. They’re thinking so freely, why can’t you?"
Ye Qiu’s words left Jiang Xiuqing speechless. Actually, hosting the folks from the old home always pained her, but guests are guests, and hosting requires the best things, right?
But her son was right. Using that money on the family could make it last quite a while.
"Mom, do you know how much the visit from Fifth Aunt’s family cost me last time?" Ye Qiu said coolly.
Jiang Xiuqing cautiously asked: "How much?"
"A whole fifty thousand," Ye Qiu sighed.
"That much?" Jiang Xiuqing was surprised. "Why didn’t you tell me?"
"Didn’t want to upset you since hosting them was so important to you. Back when they gave me just a piece of bread, they made sure the whole world knew. Now, you treat them with such open-heartedness, just the seafood dinner they demanded cost me over ten thousand. They said their kids hadn’t been to the city and that rural stuff wasn’t as good, so Xiao Ya was dragged to the mall for clothes, shoes, and toys; another nearly ten thousand gone. By the time they left, Aunt even mentioned winter in the countryside is cold and took two of your coats. Those were nice things Xiao Ya bought for you, costing nearly ten thousand each!"
"Ten thousand each? But you said it was just a few hundred!" Jiang Xiuqing’s heart ached like bleeding; her coats, she’d barely worn them twice!
"We said that so you wouldn’t worry and get upset. You’re getting older and have endured many hardships, we just wanted to treat you better," Ye Qiu sighed. "Let’s not talk about Fifth Aunt’s family, at least they are some sort of relative. Zhao Er’s family was even worse."
"What did they do now?" Jiang Xiuqing leaned on the chair, afraid she’d faint from anger.
"They didn’t really buy anything, just visited countless tourist spots. You know how expensive places are now, they wanted to try everything and insisted on dining inside, saying it was romantic. Just for those two days of fun, I spent twenty thousand. Before leaving, they cried poverty to me and borrowed another twenty thousand."
"Those shameless scoundrels, how do they have no shame?" Jiang Xiuqing gritted her teeth, regretting her vanity, thinking of all that white money, her son worked sleeplessly to earn!
How could she have been unaware that Zhao Er’s family was being all sentimental with their expenses, all while holding back even a single chicken back home, yet they cost her son so much money? No more, she wouldn’t let anyone from the old home visit, no one would take advantage of her family again. She herself couldn’t even bear to buy a single bottle of water at tourist places!