Parsed with an automated reader. The content accuracy is not guranteed.
Chapter 25: Fish Meat is Too Delicious!\n“Fifth, we…it’s around time to go back!” Grandmother Ciying raised her head and glanced at the setting sun, feeling a little unwilling to go back.\n
She always felt that if there was no Li Family, her son and grandchildren could all be living a carefree, happy life. \n
As for the question of dinner, she wasn’t too worried.\n
Because, for so many years, the chores at home and the work in the fields had all been done by the Third Branch.\n
Moreover, today’s fish had been so delicious!\n
It reminded her of the fish that her father used to cook for her many years ago.\n
She remembered that she had always liked to eat fish. \n
Her father would always buy one fresh from the market from time to time, and cook it for her. Because she was without a mother, he took care of all her affairs.\n
Thinking back to when Bailian said that Secondary Wives are equal, she reminisced the times when her father had given her all the family property just so she could marry over equally to the Li Family.\n
Even though he was no longer here.\n
But, she knew.\n
He was afraid of people wronging her.\n
Even with his good intentions, I was still wronged.\n
It was only a measly fish, but it made her feel awkward and uncomfortable.\n
If only there were no Li Family, it would be great.\n
As for Patriarch Li, Grandmother Ciying never showed affection to him, but still, she had been saved by him when she was younger. He was her benefactor after all, and perhaps she had been grateful back then.\n
However, after so many years of cold treatment, how could there be any affection left?\n
She thought of it as nothing more than just a traditional marriage and husband, with absolutely no love in it.\n
However, compared to her own son and daughter-in-law, the rest had embezzled her own family property and exploited the Third Branch. Just with how they treated the Third Branch, how could she have any good feelings toward him now?\n
But, she had endured and resisted the severe beatings, wasn’t it all to survive?\n
“Then let’s head back!” Bailian agreed, “Father should head back with us!”\n
The Third Master rubbed the back of his head, “Father hasn’t finished weeding the fields yet!” Feeling a little guilty, he continued, “If we don’t pluck out the weeds, the crops this year will turn out bad.”\n
Grandmother Ciying sighed when she heard these words.\n
“Mother…” The Third Master peeped at his mother’s face, feeling a little confused as to why she was sighing.\n
“Father, we don’t get enough to eat even when the harvest is good. Even if you work so hard, we’ll still be beaten and not eat our fill. They’ve never worked before, but they eat more than pigs do!” Bailian asserted, her expression turning dark.\n
Who let one’s own family’s father be too simple-minded and naive ah!\n
“But…”\n
The Third Master originally thought that if he didn’t do it, there would be no harvest this year. But seeing everyone looking at him so disappointedly, he was stuck on what he should do.\n
“Father, just go, let’s go back and eat!” Bailian pulled her two brothers with her and left.\n
Grandmother Ciying and Madam followed closely behind, leaving a confused and baffled Third Master with an uprooted weed still in his hand, staring at his family. Blinking a few times, he followed after them.\n
The Third Master rationalized that Bailian was in a bad mood because of her engagement getting annulled.\n
He had also been deeply saddened after hearing Madam Zhao’s and Grandmother Ciying’s resigned cries. He had always thought that it had been Bailian’s best destination for a happy future.\n
However, after personally hearing from Madam Zhao that Bailian had annulled the engagement herself, after contemplating for a while, he resisted going to the Zhang family to reconcile with them.\n
The marriage has already been broken off, and revisiting old acquaintances will only lose more face for my daughter.\n
Therefore, the Third Master thought it was best not to annoy his daughter during this sensitive time.\n
As for when she brought up the Third Branch’s mistreatment, although he did indeed feel a little dissatisfied, he didn’t really want to separate.\n
After all, Patriarch Li was his father.\n
He longed for his father to care and love him since he was a child, but he had never gotten what he had wished.\n
Along the way, everyone meekly stayed quiet, feeling that Bailian was truly angry this time.\n
“Still not cooking? Trying to starve us to death huh?!”\n
As soon as the Third Branch entered the courtyard, one could hear Matriarch Wang’s howling loudly, wailing acrimoniously of her grievances. Hearing this, the Third Branch subconsciously stiffened for a second.\n
Bailian glanced at the First Branch’s residence, saying nothing. After a while, she heard Patriarch Li’s gruff words travel out from the room.\n
“The Eldest Wife will do it.”\n
Liu Meijun walked out from the main room with a gentle expression and smiled in the direction of the residence’s doors, “Third Brother and Sister are back! What do you want to eat? I’ll cook it for you!”\n
“Really giving them face hmph!” Matriarch Wang’s gritted and petty words trailed from the main hall.\n
Bailian walked over and nonchalantly said, “Then let’s all test out Auntie’s cooking skills! I’ve never had the chance to try Auntie’s cooking, presumably, the Matriarch and Patriarch probably haven’t tried it either!”\n
Liu Meijun’s face turned stiff, and she went into the kitchen without another word.\n
Bailian’s words had been a bit sarcastic. In the village, which daughter-in-law didn’t cook for her mother-in-law?\n
“Really cause one to feel troubled, how about you just starve to death instead!” Matriarch Wang’s spiteful muttering voice came out from the room.\n
Perhaps it was because of Patriarch Li’s repeated reminders from earlier, but besides flapping her tongue, Matriarch Wang did not come out and scold the Third Branch, nor did she ask them to cook.\n
“Mother, Meijun is going to cook for you, just wait for the feast!”\n
The Eldest Master’s voice quickly soothed his Mother. Bailian cynically smiled and then motioned for the people in the Third Branch to return to their rooms.\n
The people from the Third Branch fearfully looked the direction of the main house with horror and hurriedly retreated into the inner courtyard.\n
“I’ll…go and feed the pigs!” Grandmother Ciying had been a little nervous and jumpy since she had arrived in the house, walking outside without even bothering to sit down first.\n
Madam Zhao also got up and went to help.\n
Seeing Madam Zhao’s trembling body, the THird Master hurried over to help his wife, closely watching over her.\n
After always being forced to work, relaxing around in the house felt really uncomfortable.\n
Bailian didn’t try to stop them either, knowing it was impossible for the people in the Third Branch to break off hard to die habits.\n
Moreover, it would take time before everyone in the Li Family would be able to accept that the Third Branch had the same status as the other branches.\n
But, this was just the beginning.\n
The most important thing right now was to let them experience for themselves the difference in treatment, and completely lose faith in the Li Family.\n
In this way, the Third Branch’s best option would be to separate from the family.\n
What Bailian could do, for now, was secretly supplement them with nourishing ingredients and prevent them from getting beaten up.\n
“Sister, why are you so angry today?” Yuhang held Bailian’s hand, looking concerned for his sister.\n
“If you compare Yuyang and Yuwen, is Yuyang really so undeserving of food and the chance to study as compared to Yuwen?” Bailian looked pointedly in Yuyang’s direction.\n
Yuyang looked at Yuhang silently, his dark eyes glittering like a gem in the night sky.\n
The innocent Yuhang shook his head vigorously, “For me, Yuyang is good, Yuwen is not good, he even hits us!”\n
He had long felt that Yuwen wasn’t suited for studying at all. He had personally witnessed Yuwen tearing up books and playing with them, even deliberately wasting the expensive paper in front of him.\n
If he had so many papers to spare, then just give it to me!\n
If it were Yuyang or him, they would never waste such good paper.\n
“That’s just the way it is. Yuwen isn’t that much better than us. We all have the same high nose and eyes, we are just the same, but it’s all because of the Li Family’s outrageous bias. If we separated from the family, our parents and Grandma will never let you suffer again!” Bailian pinched Yuhang’s soft cheeks, officially starting the brainwashing.\n
<hr class="wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-foreground-dark-background-color has-foreground-dark-color is-style-wide">\nAnnouncement: If you would like to support us, please check out the other novels on this site as well as the ‘Support Us’ page (tab located near top of website)! We have a kofi and patreon account for any one interested!\n