Rebirth Counterattack with Space

Chapter 71 -71 Milk Powder Scandal (Part 3)

Chapter 71 -71 Milk Powder Scandal (Part 3)

Lu Aimei kept blinking, but she couldn’t stop the tears from falling.

“I’ve tolerated everything before. Have you ever seen me quarrel over anything? Every time I brought something from my parents’ home, didn’t I hand it all over to your mother? It was all up to her to decide, and I neither questioned nor asked. Even when she secretly gave some to your sister-in-law to take to her parent’s home or to sell for money, I didn’t ask. But this time, I made it very clear that the formula was for Dabao and Xiaobao’s nourishment and that no one else could touch it.”

“To see the children crying from hunger, your father, your mother, your brother, your sister-in-law could pretend not to see or hear. Yet, they turn around and feel sorry for your two older nephews, thinking of taking food out of the mouths of our young children to feed their own sons and grandsons.”

Lu Aimei felt wronged and regretful. Why had she always thought that only Aiguo’s oldest sister-in-law was problematic, and that everyone else in the family was good? The scene that unfolded today had hit her like a heavy blow and completely awakened her.

She had just stepped out briefly, after preparing the formula and entrusting it to her mother-in-law for the two children. But when she returned, she saw Aiguo’s two nephews taking turns drinking from the bottles, while her own children were wailing. Her mother-in-law and Aiguo’s sister-in-law were on the side, laughing and urging, “Drink up quickly, drink up quickly…”

All grandsons, yet are my children adopted?

“Dabao and Xiaobao are my lifeblood. I can’t watch them go hungry and pretend not to see or hear, and neither can you. We are their real parents. If we don’t care for them, who else will?”

“Mom just got confused for a moment. What’s the point of being so hard on an old person?” Aiguo looked at Lu Aimei’s expression and felt vaguely afraid, his tone gradually softening.

“Fine, I won’t make a fuss. But can you take back what you said about giving the formula to Jiabao and Jiacai? Can you guarantee that from now on, the formula will only go to Dabao and Xiaobao’s mouths?” Lu Aimei wiped her tears away and asked with a sneer, “Can you make your mother guarantee that what happened today will never happen again?”

“That formula, Aiguo said it can still be bought. What’s the harm in letting Jiabao and Jiacai eat a little? You know my sister-in-law’s parental home is even worse off than ours. The two kids hardly ever get anything good to eat, not like Dabao and Xiaobao, who can occasionally go back to your parents’ home for some treats. Where else could they get anything good to eat…”

Aiguo hesitated for a moment, his face showing discomfort as he spoke. These were the words his mother had just told him. Although he also felt they sounded a bit off, he thought they were true and that his mother hadn’t said anything wrong.

“So the fact that your sister-in-law’s family is struggling and her children can’t get good food at their grandparents’ place is also my fault?” Lu Aimei watched as Aiguo nodded, while she laughed bitterly.

At that moment, she was certain she must have been blind to not see that the truth was actually like this. Just because her own family was doing better, did that mean her children should starve at her in-laws’ home, yielding to much older cousins? And she still had this injustice even though she had given birth to twins—a boy and a girl? If they had been two girls, would they not even get a taste of the good things and the occasional egg custard sent from her maternal home?

“Don’t make it sound so ugly. Jiabao and Jiacai are just the same as Dabao and Xiaobao. They’re all children of this family. They’re not outsiders. Why can’t you have some sympathy for them too?”

Aiguo’s irritation grew, feeling his wife was truly unreasonable and impossible to talk to.

“Aiguo, I can’t go on talking with you. It’s already late. Tomorrow morning, please take me and the kids back to my parents’ house to stay for a while. Let’s both cool down separately before discussing anything else. You should also think about what you said today. With you and your mother acting like this, I’m not comfortable leaving the children here.”

Lu Aimei suddenly felt so tired in her heart, a sense of playing the lute to a cow, “If you’re unwilling to send us three back home, then I’ll just send word for my family to come and pick us up.”

“No way, if you want to go back to your parents’ house you can go by yourself, the children can’t possibly go with you.” Xie Changgen panicked all at once, fearing that if the children went back to their mother’s place, it wouldn’t be so easy to get them back. With the children as leverage, his wife would return on her own in no more than two days.

“If you really want to stand in the way, and make things even more unmanageable, I’m not afraid. It could come to us just not being together anymore. As for these two children, do you think I’d want to take them and couldn’t?” Lu Aimei looked at Xie Changgen indifferently, “Are you sure you and your family want to block me from taking the kids back to my parents’ house?”

Lu Aimei had this confidence. Not to mention her brothers and male cousins, even the more distant male relatives who were many. Just her father’s reputation alone, when she had married over, which of the older generation in this Xie village had not looked at her and her sisters with added respect?

If faces were torn, even here in Xie village, she might not be the one at a disadvantage. If Xie Changgen wasn’t afraid of airing the family’s dirty laundry, then she really wanted to make a big deal out of it, seeing whose face would burn with panic and wouldn’t be able to calm down.

“Aimei, this is just a trivial matter, why must you escalate it to return to your parents’ house and alert your in-laws? Haven’t you always been sensible?”

Xie Changgen paced back and forth non-stop. If it weren’t for the children sleeping in the bed, he would have wanted to grab his wife and shake her hard to wake her up. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Of course, he knew that what Lu Aimei said was true. He hadn’t failed to hear his grandfather talk about how, before the liberation, her father had been a well-known strong and resourceful man from around these parts. Many people from the neighboring villages knew him, and somewhat owed him favors. His prestige was high around here.

Originally, his family had been proud to marry a daughter from the Lu family, to become in-laws with such a person, but now, why did he suddenly feel like having such a father-in-law was a huge pressure, as if it all had taken a bad turn?

Heh, now he suddenly remembers to call her “sensible”?

“I really feel that we can’t continue to talk anymore. Just say if it’s okay or not? If it’s really not okay, then I’ll have my sister go back and inform our parents to come get us personally.”

Lu Aimei completely gave up on the idea of continuing the conversation with Xie Changgen, and signaled with her hand to stop the words he was about to say.

“Don’t say anything else. I don’t want to listen.”

“I’ll go talk it over with my parents,” Xie Changgen stomped his feet in frustration and left, pushing open the door.

“Heh heh.”

Lu Aimei watched the doorway and laughed coldly twice, tears falling down again as she sat dazed for a long while. Then she stood up and slowly started to pack up her and her children’s things. By the time she had finished packing, Xie Changgen still hadn’t returned. She had no intention of waiting for him and simply turned off the light and lay down next to the children. She thought she wouldn’t be able to sleep, but she almost immediately fell into a deep slumber as soon as her head hit the pillow.