Ouyang Meihua went to the kitchen to claim credit from her sister-in-law.
Tian Jing shook her head and chuckled, "Alright, you'll have dinner here tonight, as a reward."
Ouyang Meihua nodded repeatedly, then realized, "Wait, when you asked me to stoke the fire, I already said I'd be eating here tonight."
"Then tomorrow night."
"It's settled then. Eating alone at home, staring at each other, is too boring."
"You can come over more often recently, anyway, Li Min is tied up with her two little grandsons."
"Great!"
...
Li Weili was surprised her grandmother called. When she heard it was to ask her to buy fabric in the capital and mail it back for the babies' clothes, she refused:
"Grandma, I'm entrusting this entirely to you. Whether you make them or buy them, I don't care. I don't have time to buy fabric."
On the first of next month, she would officially take over the company, which would involve a reception and an all-hands meeting for senior management. She was very busy.
A construction company that had undertaken the villa project was investigated in April.
The publicly stated reasons were that the company had engaged in bribery and fraud during the bidding process and had severely cut corners in the projects it undertook.
The hidden crimes were very serious. Brother Lu only told her that the entire company was suspected of drug trafficking, and there were other more serious charges that were not suitable for her to know.
Construction on the dozen or so villas undertaken by this company was also halted as a result.
Before returning to Kuku Mountain, it was detected that all the construction materials for these dozen villas were unqualified. They immediately sued the company and demanded the termination of the contract.
Although the contract with that company was terminated, there would be no compensation.
Fortunately, she had heeded Brother Lu's advice and had long ago delayed payments to that company, otherwise Jingyuan Company would have suffered greater losses due to the company's bankruptcy.
Currently, Brother Lu was busy with the re-bidding for the dozen or so villas in that area.
Both of them were swamped, how could they have time to buy fabric?
It was fortunate that her granddaughter wasn't buying. Mother Li could buy whatever she wanted, and after reminding her granddaughter to take care of herself, she hung up the phone.
Upon reaching the kitchen, Mother Li informed her two daughters-in-law about the matter.
Ouyang Meihua again patted her chest and promised, "Mother, if you want to go to the county town any day, I'll accompany you. If I'm not home, ask Liguo to go with you."
Mother Li thought for a moment, "Let's do it in the next few days. After buying, they'll need to be pre-shrunk and dried."
Ouyang Meihua nodded, "Alright, you decide."
Three days later, Lin Hua'er was discharged from the hospital.
Tian Jing and Ouyang Meihua each pushed a baby stroller to Chen Fu's small Western-style house.
Upon seeing the baby clothes, Li Min opened her mouth to say something, but was startled into silence by a finger extended by Ouyang Meihua.
"Hmph!" Ouyang Meihua snorted heavily, "We didn't hit you before because we didn't want to fuss with you."
"Now we hit you because you disregarded Mother's efforts and didn't take her seriously."
"Hitting people is a habit. Hit a few more times, and you'll get used to it, and so will I."
Li Min... She really wasn't disregarding her mother.
She took the chicken soup back to the clinic and heard that her younger sister-in-law had gone home to cook. She had a hunch that her younger sister-in-law would bring food to her mother.
Now, not only were her two sisters-in-law still angry, but her two brothers were also ignoring her.
Even her mother was giving her the cold shoulder.
Ouyang Meihua pointed to the items on the baby stroller and said to Chen Fu, "These clothes should be washed before wearing. We brought them as new clothes, so we didn't wash them."
Chen Fu nodded, "Thank you, eldest aunt, thank you, second aunt."
Tian Jing and Ouyang Meihua played with the two babies for a while before leaving.
After her two sisters-in-law left, Li Min once again explained to her husband and son that she had really not forgotten her mother and failed to bring her food.
Chen Suozhu patted his wife's shoulder and sighed without speaking.
"Mother, I was wrong that day too." Chen Fu lowered his head and sorted the clothes on the baby stroller:
"Since you didn't bring Grandma's meal, I should have given her my portion and driven home to eat."
"Even if I didn't eat, and went hungry for a meal, I should have let Grandma eat first."
"We're all used to being doted on and protected by Grandma. Clearly, we're adults now, not little children who need Grandma's care."
"Grandma is already over seventy years old. Eldest aunt and second aunt, as daughters-in-law, know to be grateful and care for Grandma. Yet we two..."
Chen Fu couldn't finish his words. Big drops of tears fell onto the plastic bag outside the clothes, making a "drip, drip" sound.
"I, I'll go find Mother to apologize." Li Min turned to leave.
Chen Suozhu grabbed her, "Some things can't be fixed by words. Looking at the small, you've really hurt many people this time."
"You blame me too?" Li Min looked at her husband in disbelief.
Chen Suozhu shook his head, "I don't blame you. Just like Little Fu said, we are no longer children, and Mother is no longer in her prime. Our roles should be reversed in our actions."
"It should be reversed so that we, the younger generation, care for Mother, care for her meals and her well-being through the seasons."
Li Min was stunned for a long time, then slowly said, "Mother has really gotten old. Time flies too fast."
Afterward, she quietly began unpacking the clothes on the baby stroller, and after unpacking them, she carried them to the bathroom to soak and wash.
...
Mother Li noticed that when she went to visit her great-grandchildren, her daughter was no longer boisterous but quietly did the necessary housework.
When she wanted to do something, before she could move, her daughter and eldest grandson had already done it.
She didn't even have to pour her own water; someone would pour it for her and place it within her reach.
She just had to hold the babies and play with them.
This made her feel uneasy.
She simply stopped going and asked her eldest daughter-in-law to go to the county town to buy fabric.
After buying the fabric, they returned and put it in a basin to pre-shrink and dry.
After three days of this, her daughter came to visit.
"Mother, why aren't you going to see Ji Nian and Ji Yang anymore?"
Mother Li rolled her eyes at her daughter, "You treat me like a guest, so what else should I do?"
Li Min... Too casual was not good, too polite was also not good. What exactly was the right way?
She looked pleadingly at her eldest sister-in-law.
Ouyang Meihua shook her head; she didn't know how Mother had behaved when she visited the Chen family.
Mother Li urged her daughter, "Go back quickly and take care of Hua'er and her three children."
Li Min went back to her husband for help.
Chen Suozhu also shook his head, "You've gone too far."
"Then what should I do?" Li Min was about to explode. Didn't her husband tell her to change?
Chen Suozhu still shook his head, "I don't know. Go and see how Eldest Aunt and Second Aunt do it."
"No time!"
The person who claimed to have "no time" secretly went to the courtyard house during lunchtime.
Hearing the voices of her eldest brother and eldest sister-in-law from the dining room, she suddenly froze.
Her eldest brother and eldest sister-in-law were also there, only she and Suozhu ge were absent.
Had she been excluded?
No, it seemed she had always been the one to shamelessly come back.
Listening to Mother ask her eldest and second sisters-in-law to eat more, Li Min's heart churned uncomfortably. This was her mother.
Then she heard her second sister-in-law tell her mother to eat more too, saying that making baby clothes wasn't urgent, there were still three or four months to go.
Then she heard her eldest sister-in-law laughingly say that Mother would soon be holding her great-grandchild and wished she had more hands to sew small quilts for the great-grandchild.
Great-grandchild? Lili's?
That's right, Lili had a live-in son-in-law, so the baby in her belly was Mother's great-grandchild.
Li Min turned and left the courtyard house.
Tian Jing and Ouyang Meihua exchanged a glance and continued to eat, drink, laugh, and chat.
Li Zhengguo glanced out the window at his sister's lonely retreating figure, then turned his gaze back, pretending not to have seen her.