Chapter 27

Liu Guimei did not take her mother’s words to heart at all.

In a fit of anger, Madam Song insisted for her to get out and go back again.

“Got it, got it.” Liu Guimei answered half-heartedly.

In any case, she would never find out whether she did apologize in the end.

“Mother, I came over very early in the morning without eating. I’m starving. Go get me something to eat.”

She ordered her mother around like a little king.

Staying at her parents’ house was still the best. She wouldn’t need to do any house-chores and could slack off the whole day.

Madam Song refused to let her have her way this time and said,”You go and make whatever you want to eat by yourself.”

She didn’t want her to form the habit of coming back to this home and staying comfortably here every time she had a squabble at the Fu’s house. If she kept on doing that, her in-laws’ unhappiness towards Liu Guimei might just spread to her too.

She needed to nip her thoughts of slacking off in the bud.

“Mother, I’m a guest now at this house. How can you treat a guest like this?”

If she had known that she was required to work when she returned to her parents’ house, why would she even want to come back?

At the Fu’s house, she could still take advantage of Jiang Xinghua so that she could slack off and wait for dinner.

“Wretched girl, you think you’re a guest? If you’re really a guest, you wouldn’t have come with empty hands every time.”

She was already so lazy at her parents’ home, let alone at her in-laws’ house.

Madam Song was grateful that Fu Erxing did not divorce Liu Guimei despite all these flaws.

“Mother, why are we fussing over this? I’m your daughter.” Liu Guimei didn’t feel the slightest tinge of shame and continued, “Besides, everything in this house will belong to us sisters in the future anyway.”

“You want me to die, don’t you?” Madam Song hit her again on the head.

Not only was she scheming towards others, but she was also scheming towards her biological mother.

“No, I wouldn’t dare, Mother. Besides, isn’t that an obvious fact? You couldn’t give birth to a son.”

Madam Song’s hurt.

Being unable to give birth to a son was the biggest regret of her life.

The Fu family had a lot of sons.

As for her, she had given birth to four daughters. Villagers had gossiped about her and called her a jinx because of this.

Out of her four daughters, only her youngest daughter Liu Guimei had given birth to a son. They were on friendly terms with the Fu family. As for her other three daughters, they all gave birth to daughters. As a result, her three families of in-laws had rather spiky attitudes towards them, making their lives difficult there.

However, her youngest daughter was not at all appreciative of how lucky she was and was constantly causing trouble.

Liu Guimei started to place orders for food. “Mother, I want to eat fried dough sticks, soy milk, and a few meat buns.”

Mdm Song said unhurriedly, “Alright, tell me what else you want to eat.”

Liu Guimei didn’t recognize the strangeness in Madam Song’s tone and took her words seriously. “That’s about it for this morning. For lunch, I want to eat rice and roasted chicken. For dinner, pork trotters sound great.”

For the time being, that was all.

She would add on if she thought of more later on.

Staying with her parents was great. She could eat whatever she wanted.

“Sure, no problem.” Madam Song agreed readily.

Liu Guimei was stunned. Could it be that her mother had made a fortune recently?

Otherwise, how could she agree to her requests so readily?

The next second, Madam Song pointed at the house. “Go straight into the room and sleep. Everything can come true in a dream.”

Soy milk, fried dough sticks and meat buns?!

She even wanted roast chicken and pig trotters? Dream on?!

Instead of investing her efforts to work hard and earn money, she would waste her time daydreaming about the impossible.

Did she really think that she had lots of retirement money?

Even if there was, they would have been depleted by her four daughters who took turns to come by every few days.

Liu Guimei’s initial excitement instantly dissipated. “Mother, it’s alright if there isn’t, but why would you bring up my hopes just to shatter them later? You made me happy for nothing.”

After talking for so long, she was pulling her leg.

“Then stop daydreaming. If you don’t have money, why will I have money?”

She had raised four daughters, but each time they returned home, they came empty-handed. Instead, they would take items from her home to their in-laws’ houses.

They were all a bunch of leeches.

Moreover, she had to constantly worry whether they were divorced by their husbands and thrown out from their in-laws’ places.

At the thought of this, Madam Song felt extremely troubled.

“Then Mother, can you go and get me something to eat? Anything will do. I’m so hungry that my stomach hurts.”

Afraid that Madam Song would turn angry again, Liu Guimei didn’t dare to ask for too much. She hugged her stomach and pretended to be in pain.

“There’s no more rice at home. There are only a few steamed buns.” At the end of the day, Madam Song still did care about her own daughter. She walked into her kitchen to take out the steamed buns. They were given to her by her employer’s family, whom she was working as a helper for.

Half a month ago, she had bought more than ten catties of rice. However, her four daughters had taken turns to come to her house and finished them all in the process.

She was left with steamed buns for all three meals every day.

The steamed buns had little appeal to Liu Guimei. Liu Guimei asked, “Mother, can’t you go out and buy something delicious?”

As compared to the scrumptious meal with fish and meat last night, these steamed buns were way too unappetizing.

If she had known earlier that there would be nothing to eat here, she wouldn’t have thrown a tantrum and come to her parents’ home.

However, if she went back now, she would lose face.

If there was indeed nothing delicious to eat at her parents’ house, she would plan to head back in the late afternoon.

Madam Song stretched out her hand. “Sure, no problem.”

The next moment, the smile on Liu Guimei’s face froze. Madam Song continued, “If you could give me the money, I’ll buy you whatever you want to eat. Even if you want to eat lobsters, I’ll find a way to get them for you.”

She treated her mother like a never-ending source of gold.

If she consistently depleted her own reserves for her four daughters, how long more could her retirement money last?

She did not expect them to be absolutely filial in the future. However, at the very least, they should not keep coming along to ask for money and food.

One day, she would starve because of them.

“Mother, it’s not like you don’t know the situation at my in-laws’. They would count themselves lucky if they had food on the table on any day. Don’t you know…”

She made the situation sound as tragic as she could make it.

Although she had more than a hundred copper coins in her own pocket, Liu Guimei was not foolish enough to spend her own money.

Similar to her, her three sisters also come over to their parents’ house to eat every now and then. None of them had the habit of giving money to their parents.

In any case, she should try to get as many benefits from her parents as she could. Otherwise, her sisters would get it anyway.

Liu Guimei started to lament about being poor again to her mother. “You don’t know how hard it is. I can’t even fork out the money to buy school supplies for your grandson. He could only borrow from others…”

Fu Xiaoma was dragged into the conversation once again.

This was the umpteenth time that Madam Song had heard something similar. These words were reused and repeated so many times that they were almost causing calluses to grow in Madam Song’s ears.

All four of her daughters would lament about being poor every day. Each of them would bring in the names of their daughters and say that they need to buy this and that. They all used the same tactic.

This time, she steadied herself to remain unmoved.

She replied, “Then you should go and find some work to earn money for him.”

Was she really expecting an elder to be responsible for the expenses of her own son? How shameless.

Liu Guimei turned her head away and pouted.

“Mother, are you sure I’m your biological daughter?”

How could a biological mum keep nagging and pushing her own daughter to work?

Other people’s mothers would wish for their daughter to enjoy life comfortably at home. Whereas her own mother kept asking her to find work outside.

A woman would age quickly once she had given birth. If she further went out to work, she would age even faster.

Liu Guimei was not interested in suffering like this.

“If you think you might be someone else’s daughter, get lost.”

Madam Song couldn’t be bothered to say anything more.

“Mother, then just get me some finger food for me to snack on, is that okay?”

There were a lot of vegetables at home. She could make her some pickled radish.

Madam Song stood up and massaged her back.

She complained, “I must have really owed you in my previous life.”

“Granny!”

“Granny, we’re here to see you.”

“Grandma, I miss you so much.”

As she spoke, there was the sound of rapid tapping of feet outside her door.

One after another, three little girls ran quickly into the house and dashed straight into Madam Song’s arms.

“Ouch!”

“Slow down. Don’t hurt Granny.” The person who spoke was Liu Guihua, the third daughter of the Song family. She was Liu Guimei’s third sister.

Liu Guihua walked forward with great difficulty, her hands on her back and big belly. Madam Song was surprised and asked, “Guihua, aren’t you about to give birth in the next few days? Why are you here?”

Looking at all of them, Madam Song’s head started to hurt.

Alright, they would probably not even have steamed buns left at home after this.

“Exactly. Guihua, why did you come here when you’re about to give birth? Aren’t you afraid that you might give birth while walking here?”

Liu Guimei spoke in an unwelcoming tone.

Why did she come here too when she was already about to give birth? That would mean more mouths to divide the food for.