novel-bin Chapter 7 Dispute
Chapter 7 Dispute
“You, you…you’re talking nonsense,” Li was speechless.
"If there's nothing else, I'll go inside. I still have to help my mother split the thread. I'm not as free as my second aunt." After saying that, she turned around and went inside without waiting for Li's reply, closing the door behind her.
Li was turned away at the door and almost had the door slapped in the face, making her stomp her feet in anger. "Lin Yan, you little bitch, you just wait!"
Outside the main house, Li rolled her eyes, stomped her foot, and headed straight for Old Lady Lin's room. As soon as she entered, she shouted, "Mother! The eldest son and his family are eating meat behind our backs!"
"Eat meat? What meat! Look at your own fat body, and you still want to eat meat!" Old Mrs. Lin thought that Li was asking her for meat, so she immediately scolded her in a sarcastic and mean way.
Li: "Mother, it's the eldest son's family who are eating well behind your back. They're secretly eating roasted meat in their own room, and it smells so good there."
"Hmph, where would they get the money to buy meat!" Old Mrs. Lin sneered.
The money that Lin's father, the eldest son, earned as a carpenter all had to be handed over to the family's finances. He barely had any money in his own hands. As for the money he earned from farming and selling grain, it all went directly to Old Madam Lin. Neither the eldest nor the second son's families had any money. She knew this all too well.
"Oh my, I can smell the delicious aroma coming from their house! I wonder where Lin Yan went off to today. Xiao Jie saw them come back this afternoon with a whole basket of stuff on their backs! And if Boss Lin really didn't have any money, how did Lin Yan recover so quickly when she was sick? He must have been secretly hiding some money."
"What?!" Old Mrs. Lin frowned, also becoming suspicious. She hadn't given the eldest son's family money to hire a doctor. Lin Yan had gone to the village doctor for treatment, and she recovered so quickly. Could it be that the eldest son's family had really hidden money?
Forget about the money I earn; even if it's something I find, I have to give it to her as a token of my respect. After thinking for a short while, Old Mrs. Lin stormed out of the house and headed straight for the main room.
Lin Yan and the others had already finished eating the roast chicken. She and her mother were examining the tattered wolf skin. Since Lin's father had bad legs, they planned to sew him a knee brace for warmth in the winter.
Lin Yan told her parents that the wolf skin was taken from a dead wolf, and that it probably had so many wounds from fighting with other wild animals.
Lin Yan continued weaving without blushing or skipping a beat, while Lin Yu's lips twitched violently beside her.
The family was having a good time when suddenly Li burst through the door, and Old Mrs. Lin stormed in. After looking around, she noticed the leather in Lin's mother's hand, grabbed it, and demanded, "Where did this come from?"
Lin's mother: "These are what Yan Yan and the others found in the mountains today. They're all broken and can't be sold for money."
Grandma Lin took it in her hand and examined it. She found that it was indeed an incomplete piece of leather with many tears. "Hmph! Although it's broken and can't be sold for money, it can still be used after being sewn up. It can be used to make a pair of gloves for He Rui."
Lin Yan was speechless: "I found these, why should I make gloves for Lin Herui?"
Old Mrs. Lin glared at them fiercely, "Everything you own in this house belongs to me. I can give it to whomever I want. If you bring anything back from the mountains, don't hide it from me, you have to hand it all over."
After saying that, they started rummaging through the basket Lin Yan had placed on the ground. Li Shi glanced at them as well, and together they searched through the room.
The Ganoderma lucidum had already been placed in Lin Yan's spatial storage, and the roasted meat was all gone, so naturally there was nothing else to look for. But the way Old Madam Lin acted was really infuriating.
Lin's mother didn't know what to do either, and stood nervously to the side. Lin's father comforted her, then went up and pushed Li away. Li cried out and fell against the wall.
However, Lin Hai couldn't do that to his mother. He called out, "Mom, we don't have anything valuable here. We hand over all the money we earn to the central government, don't you know that?"
"You handed it all over? If you handed it all over, where did you get the money to buy medicine for that sickly person?"
As she spoke, she pulled Lin's mother away from the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed), then went onto the kang and started flipping over the quilts. Lin's mother lost her balance when she was pushed away and fell to the ground.
"A-Yun!" "Mother!" Lin's father, Lin Yan, and Lin Yu ignored Old Madam Lin and Madam Li and rushed to help Lin's mother.
"Ah Yun, are you alright?" Lin's father asked worriedly.
"I'm fine, I just fell!" Lin's mother fell to the ground and couldn't get up immediately, so she held onto Lin's father's arm.
Lin Yan was furious. "Don't go too far!" She threw Old Lady Lin off the kang (a heated brick bed), and Old Lady Lin cried out and bumped into Li Shi.
Before Li could recover, she was struck again and fell to the ground groaning in pain along with Old Lady Lin.
Old Mrs. Lin cushioned her fall and wasn't hurt, but she still shouted in a strong voice, "Oh, you little bitch, you even dare to hit me! Oh, what a misfortune for the Lin family, to have such an unfilial wretch."
Lin Yan gave her a cold look, then pulled out a dagger and slammed it into the table, startling Li Shi. Lin Yan said, "Unfilial! If you dare touch my mother again, I'll show you what unfilial behavior really means!"
Old Mrs. Lin was also frightened into silence by Lin Yan's murderous intent. She kicked twice, then scrambled to her feet and ran outside. She only calmed down after sitting in the yard, shouting, "Help! Murder!"
The villagers in this small village were mostly uneducated farmers; they had no idea what murder was. When they heard someone shout "murder," they immediately panicked. Neighbors gathered around and, seeing Old Mrs. Lin sitting in the yard, asked her what was wrong.
Old Mrs. Lin cried out, "What a misfortune for our family! My granddaughter is trying to kill her grandmother!"
"What?!" The villagers gathered together and started discussing it excitedly.
Old Mrs. Lin embellished the story of the eldest son's unfilial behavior, and Lin Yu angrily ran out: "You're talking nonsense! It was clearly you who pushed my mother first!"
The two sides were arguing loudly, and the villagers who were watching the commotion could tell that it was Old Mrs. Lin and the eldest son of the Lin family having a fight.
Over the years, everyone in the neighborhood knows each other. Lin Hai and his wife are kind and honest, but Old Lady Lin is cunning and stingy, and she treats the eldest son's family poorly. However, it's quite a show to watch Old Lady Lin throw a tantrum here.
A short while later, Old Man Lin, who had rushed over upon hearing the news, came in and yelled at Old Lady Lin, "What are you yelling for? Aren't you ashamed? Get inside right now!"
Although Old Mrs. Lin was domineering towards the younger generation, she was very afraid of Old Mr. Lin. When she heard him scolding, she immediately stopped.
"Get in here!" Old Man Lin led Old Woman Lin into the inner room. The people outside the door couldn't see inside and dispersed, bored, to go home and describe the excitement they had just witnessed to others.
Old Man Lin puffed on his pipe, his brows furrowed. Old Mrs. Lin sat to one side, panting heavily; the commotion she had just caused had taken its toll. Li Shi sat timidly below, not daring to speak.
After catching her breath, Old Mrs. Lin started cursing again: "That wretched Lin Yan dared to push me and threaten me with a knife! What kind of child has the eldest son raised?"
Li added fuel to the fire: "That's right, and there's Lin Hai too. He's greedy for money, eating well at home, and he doesn't even respect his parents."
“Even if there’s a problem, you can’t make a scene in public. You’ll embarrass the whole village.” Old Man Lin didn’t care how Old Lady Lin treated the eldest son, but he valued his reputation and couldn’t let the villagers laugh at him.
"Go and call the eldest son's wife over. I want to talk to him." Old Man Lin sat in his chair and told Li Shi to go and fetch her.
Li went to the main house excitedly.