Chapter 130: The Xu Woman Slacks Off

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With Mrs. Li away from home, things indeed became quite inconvenient. On Grandpa Gu’s side, there was no one capable of hosting the mother-in-law, so Grandpa had no choice but to accept Mrs. Zhao’s arrangement without complaint.

When the mother-in-law arrived, naturally, the son had to go over to keep her company. “Good, go and have a proper meal with your mother-in-law, let her stay a few days before she leaves. The Zhao family treats you well—don’t you dare treat them poorly,” Grandpa emphatically reminded his son.

Gu Chengyi quickly agreed and followed the elderly Mrs. Zhao and others back to the west courtyard. After Gu Chengyi and the Zhao family members left, Grandpa’s expression darkened. “Fourth son, it’s your wife’s turn to cook today, right? Where has she gone off to this time? The whole family is starving, and she’s off wandering around all day. How are we supposed to live like this?”

Grandpa had been inside the house with his children and grandchildren for quite some time but hadn’t seen the fourth daughter-in-law return to prepare the meal. Everyone was exhausted from working in the fields and had empty stomachs; they all wanted to eat soon and rest. Yet, there was still no sign of the person cooking, and Grandpa’s anger was boiling.

Gu Chengxin shook his head. “How would I know? She’s been wandering all over town all day. Who knows where she’s off to again? Dad, isn’t my third brother cooking over there? Why don’t we just go eat with them? You see, my third sister-in-law even sent over some food. Maybe they have plenty of good dishes. We can just eat together—what could my third brother and sister-in-law say?”

Gu Chengxin was hungry too, eyeing the plate of cooked food on the kang bed, salivating.

“Nonsense! Your third brother’s place doesn’t even have grain. The food they’re eating was sent by the old Zhao family. How can you be so shameless? Bringing so many people over there to eat, are you trying to consume everything the Zhao family sent in one meal?” Grandpa scolded his son angrily.

“Dad, we haven’t separated households yet. What belongs to my third brother should belong to all of us. It’s unreasonable for my third brother’s family to be feasting while we starve here,” Gu Chengxin argued loudly, feeling a bit unjustly treated.

“Are you talking or just spouting nonsense? There’s food here in this house. Your prodigal wife won’t cook and insists on going to the third brother’s place to eat. Do you still have any shame? Do you want to disgrace the entire Gu family in public?” Grandpa, furious, knocked his pipe against the edge of the kang several times.

“Wensheng, go check the kitchen for any leftover rice from this morning. Don’t we usually cook extra so we can eat cold food at noon? Go see if there’s anything—we need to get something to eat quickly; there’s still work to be done this afternoon,” Gu Chengzhong instructed his son.

Wensheng, also hungry, got up and rummaged through the kitchen. “Dad, there are leftovers in the cupboard—some rice, pancakes, porridge, and some pickled vegetables. It looks like enough to eat. Let’s bring it out and have a meal,” he said, eyeing the food.

So, everyone set the table, brought out the dishes, and quickly ate. Normally, this amount of food wouldn’t be enough, but since Mrs. Li had taken several family members to the county seat and Gu Chengyi’s family was cooking for themselves elsewhere, these leftovers were sufficient for today.

Gu Chengxin eyed the plate of cooked food eagerly and reached out with his chopsticks. Unbeknownst to him, Grandpa, still irritated, glanced at his son with displeasure and pushed his chopsticks aside. “Step aside. Your own wife can’t even be controlled and won’t come back to cook. How do you still have the face to eat?”

As he spoke, Grandpa began distributing portions of the cooked food onto Wensheng, Wenjie, and Wenqing’s bowls. “By the way, where are Wenjing and Wen’an? It’s noon—why haven’t they come to eat yet? Fourth son, why don’t you go find them? Is this how you act as a father?”

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Taking advantage of Grandpa’s distraction, Gu Chengxin quickly stuffed some meat into his mouth. With his mouth still full, he mumbled, “Who knows where they’ve gone wandering? Don’t worry about them. If they’re hungry, they’ll come back. They’re grown-ups—can’t possibly get lost, right?” He hurriedly chewed and swallowed.

“You, you, do you even act like a father? You and your wife live like this—how will you manage in the future? While I’m still alive, I can look after you a few years, but when I’m gone, I want to see how you’ll survive,” Grandpa sighed deeply, seeing his son’s lack of responsibility. This fourth son was truly spoiled blind by his wife.

Gu Chengxin was indifferent. “Dad, you’ll live to one hundred years old. What am I afraid of?” He then buried his head and continued eating.

Grandpa could only shake his head and sigh, with no other solution. His son was nearly thirty now—how could he still manage him? He would have to worry more himself; there was no other way.

Meanwhile, while everyone in the east courtyard was eating cold leftovers, Wen Fei went to call for the Jiaoyan siblings, but they had already finished their meal. This morning, Mrs. Feng had prepared plenty of food, and Wen Xiu had reheated it. The three siblings quickly finished their lunch. Seeing this, Wen Fei had no choice but to return and eat.

“Big brother, third brother, do you have anything to do this afternoon?” Jiaoyan asked after finishing lunch and washing the dishes.

“Nothing much. We gathered a lot of firewood in the forest this morning. There’s plenty at home already. Why? Do you need our help?” Wen Xiu thought for a moment—really nothing was planned for the afternoon.

“I want to go pick apricot kernels in the forest. Could you help me? I want to collect quite a few to press for oil later,” Jiaoyan nodded. She had seen that the forest was full of wild apricot trees with many kernels to be gathered. She had a plan that required a lot of apricot kernels, and with only Shaoyuan and Jiaoyan themselves, it would take a long time.

“Apricot kernels? Can those be pressed for oil? What’s the oil for? They probably can’t be eaten—maybe for lamp oil? That’s not bad,” Wen Xiu didn’t understand what his sister wanted to do, but as her brothers, they naturally supported her fully. “Fine, we don’t have anything else to do anyway, so we’ll help. Tomorrow Wen Tao and the others have a day off, we can drag them along too. With our help, you’ll probably gather enough.”

Jiaoyan was pleased to hear this. Since they had already eaten lunch and had nothing else to do, they grabbed their baskets and went out to collect apricot kernels together.

In the afternoon, with Wen Xiu and Wen Qi’s help, the number of apricot kernels gathered increased dramatically. Jiaoyan didn’t bring the kernels back home but left them at the Miao family’s place, to avoid drawing too much attention by bringing them home. Later, when there was an opportunity, she planned to crack open the kernels and extract the almonds.

Although Miao Suwen wasn’t sure what Jiaoyan intended to do, she trusted this imaginative apprentice. After all, they were just apricot kernels, and the family had storage space, so keeping them wasn’t a problem.

By evening, Jiaoyan and her brothers stopped venturing into the forest and went home to cook. Upon returning to the Gu household, they found that the Zhao family had already left. It made sense—during the busy season, just a brief visit was already generous. Who had the time to stay? Besides, with Mrs. Li away and no one to host, and Mrs. Zhao expecting a child, it wasn’t appropriate to make a fuss. Mrs. Zhao was not unreasonable; after seeing her daughter, she naturally prepared to leave.

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Jiaoyan went to check on Mrs. Zhao and was about to return home to cook when suddenly she heard someone shouting loudly from the east courtyard. The voice was unmistakably Grandpa’s. Usually, he was a man of few words. Today, however, he was shouting.

“Big brother, go see what’s going on over there. I’ll get the fire started,” Jiaoyan was curious but worried about being late with the meal, so she sent her brother to check while she prepared to cook.

Soon, Wen Xiu returned. “Auntie Fourth has been out all day and hasn’t come back. Grandpa and the others had leftovers for lunch, and there’s nothing left for dinner. Grandpa got angry and told Uncle Fourth to go find Auntie Fourth. If he can’t find her, he’s not to come back.”

Jiaoyan shook her head. Auntie Fourth usually disliked work and dawdled when it was her turn to cook. Seeing Mrs. Li absent and no one watching over her, she probably took advantage of the freedom to go somewhere else.

“Probably went back to her mother’s house. Wenjing and Wen’an haven’t been seen all day either. They wouldn’t skip meals like that. I guess Auntie Fourth took them back to her mother’s,” Wen Qi said while tending the fire.

“What if no one is cooking over there? Are all those people supposed to starve?” Jiaoyan worried.

“Auntie Third has already taken Wenfang and the others over to cook. Auntie Fourth dares to slack off because she knows Auntie Third is home and won’t allow everyone to starve. But Grandpa was furious and actually kicked Uncle Fourth out to find Auntie Fourth. He said he wants to divorce her—such a lazy woman, the Gu family can’t keep her,” Wen Tao recounted everything he had heard.

Jiaoyan sighed. She didn’t know what kind of person Xu Shi was before marriage, but from what she’d seen recently, she was not a proper daughter-in-law. Lazy to the extreme, unwilling to do her own work, always trying to boss others around. Perhaps she was used to ordering Zhao Shi and Wen Fang before, and now that no one was willing to help her, she felt powerless.

Grandpa was also very angry. Of the four daughters-in-law, two were out running errands, one was pregnant, and the last was always away, wandering aimlessly. Once Mrs. Li left, Grandpa simply couldn’t control the daughters-in-law, and they nearly ended up with no meals. It was no wonder he lost his temper.

Who else could be blamed? It wasn’t others’ fault but Mrs. Li’s own indulgence. If she hadn’t teamed up with Xu Shi to bully the other two and spoiled Xu Shi’s temper from the start, this chaotic situation wouldn’t have arisen.