Li Hongmei rolled her eyes, and Chen Chunhua did the same where she couldn’t be seen.
Lin Chuxia saw everything clearly but said nothing.
Looking at the shopping net next to Li Hongmei and Li Dongmei, filled with quite some purchases, it seemed they now had money to spend in the city?
In her past life, it was the same—every time she and Li Guangyuan made a bit of money, these two younger sisters-in-law would find every way to pinch pennies from them and once even stole their money.
After she found out, she didn’t have an immediate outburst but had Li Guangyuan deposit their money in a term account, only to tell him the next day that the cash set aside for restocking was gone.
The clients had been arranged in advance, and failure to restock on time not only affected their business but also their relations with clients.
Just that once, they lost a considerable sum.
Having been terrified of poverty since childhood, even earning money didn’t encourage Li Guangyuan to spend, let alone how he felt about losing money.
Li Guangyuan investigated thoroughly without her needing to say anything and in the end traced it back to the two younger sisters-in-law.
Li Guangyuan flew into a rage. Despite Mrs. Li’s protection, it was to no avail; he taught the two a lesson, and they were well-behaved for quite some time afterward.
It’s unknown where Li Hongmei and Li Dongmei got the money to spend now; Lin Jiayi wasn’t that generous.
Daqing Mountain Village and Xiaoqingshan Village are adjacent; Li Hongmei was only a year younger than Lin Chuxia, and they had met before.
Worried about being recognized, Lin Chuxia didn’t go out but just watched through the glass as the two ate a bowl of pickles with eight buns and two bowls of porridge, finishing with a bowl of free plain boiled water from the restaurant.
When leaving, they didn’t go empty-handed, taking five meat-filled buns to go.
After a satisfying meal, Li Hongmei with her meat buns and Li Dongmei with her shopping net were ready to leave.
Li Hongmei was gesturing and talking about something with Li Dongmei just as they reached the entrance, they bumped into a man entering.
Li Hongmei’s meat bun was knocked out of her grip.
“Ouch! What kind of person are you? Are you blind?”
The man was not old, with tanned skin and a buzz cut, he appeared somewhat simple and sincere.
Seeing he had bumped into someone, he quickly apologized, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…”
“Just saying sorry and that’s it? You knocked my buns onto the ground; these are freshly bought meat buns. How can we eat them after they’ve fallen? Compensate us!”
The man was just about to bend down to pick up the meat buns off the ground; it was awkward whether to pick them or not.
“Comrade, these buns aren’t dirty…”
The meat buns were in a plastic bag and even after falling to the ground, they hadn’t been touched by any dirt through the bag.
Li Hongmei didn’t even look, “Do you expect us to eat something that fell on the ground? Let me tell you, you must compensate us with new ones today, or I’ll accuse you of hooliganism—bumping into a lady in broad daylight, have you no shame?”
Zhang Guilan put down what she was doing, “I’ll go out and have a look.”
The confrontation outside continued, especially after hearing Li Hongmei’s words, the man’s face turned beet red with embarrassment.
Zhang Guilan came out wanting to mediate, but the man had already given in, “I’ll compensate her. Please pack the same amount of buns; I’ll pay for it.”
Since that was the case, Gui Lan didn’t say anything else and asked Chunhua to pack another portion of pork buns for Hongmei.
Hongmei accepted the pork buns with a cold snort, “You know what’s good for you,” then bent down to pick up the buns that had fallen on the ground.
Chunhua couldn’t help but blurt out, “They’ve already compensated you with new ones, why are you still picking up the ones from the ground?”
Hongmei responded with an air of entitlement, “I bought these with my own money, of course I am going to pick them up.”
“But…”
“Trouble you, big sister, to get me 5 buns and a serving of cold dishes.”
Chunhua was about to say something when a man interrupted her, signaling her to just let those two women go, not to fuss over it, clearly eager to avoid them as if they were a plague.
Chunhua didn’t say anything more, turned around to get the man 5 buns, and filled a serving of cold dishes.
The sisters, Hongmei and Dongmei, had already left, Chunhua was still feeling indignant, and said to the man, “You really are too honest. Since you’ve bought them a fresh new bag, the original one should be rightfully yours. I saw it—although they fell on the ground, they didn’t get dirty at all, they were still hot from the pot.”
Times are hard these days, 5 pork buns are worth 50 cents.
The man gave a toothy grin, “A few pork buns for some peace and quiet,” he thought those two women were unreasonable from the look of them. It was just an accidental bump, yet they accused him of being a pervert.
It was better to let them go quickly, he would consider it paying to avoid disaster.
Gui Lan also returned to the back kitchen, having understood roughly what had happened upfront. Although she knew that running a bun shop would entail encountering all sorts of people, she still couldn’t help but mutter under her breath in complaint.
Chuxia observed the man eating outside, her gaze was complicated.
Unknown to everyone, this man was Hongmei’s husband in her previous life.
Hongmei was arrogant, always longing to marry a city dweller, which caused her to delay marrying until her late twenties, becoming the village’s notorious old maid.
Later, when her and Guang Yuan’s business started doing well, Hongmei always egged on Mrs. Li to help her look for a prospective husband from the city with a job.
By a stroke of fate, she met Guo Hao who worked on the railway, the very man dining in the hall.
Guo Hao was also a bachelor of advanced age at the time, because his job took him to various places, and in his late twenties, he was still single. It was under these circumstances that he and Hongmei got married.
Guo Hao was an honest man; after marrying Hongmei, he handed over all his wages to her to manage. The family was simple, the in-laws both had pensions, plus with the backing of her natal family like that of Guang Yuan’s, Hongmei’s life was not too shabby.
Speaking of which, both Hongmei and Dongmei married well in their last life.
Dongmei was younger, and when it was time for her to talk about marriage prospects, Guang Yuan’s business had made a name for itself across Ancheng County, and eventually, Dongmei married someone who worked at the Tax Bureau.
Both became true city dwellers.
Corners of her lips twitched with a sarcastic smile; in this lifetime, with a sister-in-law like Jiayi, it was uncertain whether the two haughty sisters, Hongmei and Dongmei, could still fulfill their wishes to marry city men with stable jobs.
At the Li Family in Xiaoqingshan Village
Jiayi looked at Guang Yuan with icy eyes, interrogating, “Are you really not going? Let me tell you, Guang Yuan, this home isn’t just yours, nor is it your mother’s or your sister’s. Without me, would you be able to go out and do business? Now every penny in the house comes from my dowry. They do nothing all day, why should they use my money?”
She discovered today upon returning that her box had been tampered with, and upon checking, another 20 dollars were missing.
It was not enough that they took her dowry last time, this time they actually stole the money.