Once the son gets promoted, the base salary is 40, and with the business he pulls in, there’s also commission and bonuses. My sister-in-law is not stingy at all. When has Lihua ever just taken her salary home?
Qin Wen, a cashier, earns a measly fixed salary, and she looks down on her own daughter and son?
Although the last sentence wasn’t loud, Ma Suyun heard it loud and clear, and it struck right at her sore spot.
In the past, she used to brag among her sisters-in-law because Qin Wen was the one with a steady payroll job.
Now, Qin Han and Qin Wu both work as couples and earn money, the eldest brother and his wife may not have jobs, but their children are all working, and Qin Jiang is even going to be the deputy factory manager in the village.
In the end, it seems like her Qin Wen is the least impressive of all.
Each and every one of them, what’s so great about working for themselves? And they dare to look down on her?
No wonder they used to help her with the farming, and now they just wash their hands of it. Do they feel they no longer need them?
“Big sister, your words are so heartless. My family’s Qin Wen works at the Hardware Company and has always helped out our family. Don’t forget, it was Qin Wen who helped Jianjun get the bike voucher when he wanted to buy a bicycle, and also Lihua, if it weren’t for me, could she have found such a perfect match?”
Had this not been brought up, it might have been fine, but mentioning it made Qian Chuncao incredibly angry.
“Ma Suyun, don’t think I don’t know what’s going on in your mind. Are you really thinking about my daughter’s best interest? If it weren’t for the fourth son’s wife, I still wouldn’t know what you’d have done.”
Ma Suyun couldn’t take it anymore, “How could I not be thinking about your daughter’s best interest? Without me, you would match her with some farmer from the village, could he be better than her current match? I have been wholeheartedly helping you, and now you’re accusing me instead.”
“Wholeheartedly helping us? That’s for your own benefit, don’t think I’m unaware of that. You and Qin Yang, as a couple, feel inferior and are using my daughter as a pawn in your games, Ma Suyun, who would’ve thought you as an elder…”
“Who said I was competing with them?” Ma Suyun raised her voice sharply, “It was your daughter who told me she liked Cai Jun, I was kindly helping her…”
“Enough, we cannot afford your kindness. If you have that much spare time, better go and educate your own daughter. Oh, right, in order to educate your daughter, you first need to have one, don’t you? I say, Suyun, you’ve been married for almost two years now, right? How come there’s still no news? Are you thinking too much and exhausted? I heard that mental exhaustion isn’t good for conceiving children.”
Qian Chuncao said this with utmost seriousness, and Ma Suyun’s face flushed red with anger.
She knew that after being married for so long without children, people gossiped about her behind her back, but those talks were always behind her back, and she pretended not to know, taking it as envy because Qin Wen worked for the county.
She couldn’t believe that someone had the audacity to say it to her face, and that person was her own sister-in-law.
She was so angry that she rushed up to her.
Qian Chuncao was not to be outdone; she had long since wanted to square things with Ma Suyun, who never does any real work and always makes trouble, even almost ruining her daughter’s reputation.
The sisters-in-law tangled and fought with each other. Qin Liang, as the eldest brother-in-law, didn’t dare to pull his own wife away or to favor his brother’s wife, and could only try to calm things from the side.
But the two had both been holding back anger for too long and the fight only got more intense, even startling the elders in the house.
When Qin Lihua returned, she saw her mother and sixth aunt fighting in the courtyard.
She couldn’t help but get involved.
If it wasn’t for her sixth aunt’s bad advice, she wouldn’t have lost so much face, becoming the gossip of the entire factory.
If she had spoken with her fourth aunt earlier, her aunt would definitely have helped her, and the situation wouldn’t have ended up like this.
Even more so, if that day, her second aunt had suggested that she and Su Wensong get matched, and it hadn’t been for her sixth aunt’s scornful mockery at the side, she might now be the factory manager’s wife.
Everything was ruined by Auntie Liu in her lifetime.
……………
Chuxia Lin came home in the evening to find only Mr. Qin, Mrs. Qin, and Little Zhuangzhuang at home. Her eldest brother and sister-in-law had finished work but weren’t there.
They did occasionally eat together nowadays, especially Chuxia Lin. Tired of the food from the Bun Shop, she liked to freeload off her mother-in-law’s cooking.
Of course, she did not skimp on living expenses each month, and even if she hadn’t given any money, Mrs. Qin enjoyed having the family eat together.
She served herself a bowl of porridge and, eating the home-cooked dishes fried by Mrs. Qin, asked about Qin Han and his wife.
Mrs. Qin sighed, “Today, during the day, Mom Jianjun and Qin Wen’s wife got into a fight. So when your elder brother and his wife get back they’ll call everyone together to mediate.”
“They got into a fight? Over what?”
Chuxia Lin thought about it; the couples of Qin Liang and Qin Wen seemed to get along quite well, since they were brothers after all. Even when there were disagreements, they’d usually show some respect.
If a fight had broken out, it must be serious.
“Who knows? I heard that Qin Wen’s wife went to ask Qin Liang’s couple about farming, and one way or another, it escalated into a fight. Later on, Lihua came back and even joined her mom beating her aunt. Things got so intense, nobody could pull them apart. In the end, Qin Wen’s wife had her head busted open and that’s when they stopped.”
Mrs. Qin sighed again, “I mean, what can’t be talked out? They didn’t have to get so violent.”
Hearing that Qin Lihua was involved, Chuxia Lin had a guess about the nature of the dispute.
She passed a steamed bun to Mrs. Qin, “We can’t intervene in this, let’s just eat. When elder brother and sister-in-law come back, we’ll understand what happened.”
Mrs. Qin figured that made sense. They started eating, but before they’d finished, Qin Han and his wife returned.
Just as Chuxia Lin had guessed, although Qin Lihua had an engagement with Cai Jun, the matter with these two was ultimately somewhat disgraceful.
And the reason Qin Lihua took the initiative to pursue Cai Jun was all because of Ma Suyun’s incitement from behind the scenes.
Qian Chuncao had been convinced that Ma Suyun led her daughter astray, and had been harboring this grievance. Because of the issue with Cai Jun’s resignation, Qin Lihua also began to resent her Auntie Liu.
Today’s incident was like laying all their cards on the table.
“Qin Wen insists on not letting it go, demanding 200 yuan as compensation from my elder brother, and my sister-in-law doesn’t want to pay a cent. Now, the injured is still lying in the hospital. I think this issue will be tough to resolve.”
200 yuan was no small sum; previously, they could not earn that much even from selling vegetables for a whole season.
Qin Wen was really asking for the moon.
Mr. Qin weighed in, “Let’s not interfere with them anymore. Life is what you make of it. I’ve long noticed that Qin Wen’s household is always restless, and Mom Jianjun is quite stubborn. Even the village chief can’t handle this.”
Everyone present knew the severity; with the brothers at odds like this, not only would they not work the fields together, but they might not even speak when they met.
As for Ma Suyun, she didn’t expect things to escalate to the point where she completely offended her elder brother and sister-in-law.
Chuxia Lin didn’t follow up on the outcome of the matter. Qin Han and his wife were busy working at the Bun Shop every day and didn’t know much about the situation either. It wasn’t until the third day that Qin Jiang sought out Chuxia Lin.
Out of Qin Yang’s several brothers, aside from Qin Wen, Chuxia Lin had the least contact with Qin Jiang.
Though Qin Jiang was indeed a bona fide farmer as well, he was different from those other brothers who also farmed the land.