Chapter 78: Stealing Food
"Dad, you’re back from work? You must be tired. Come, come, sit down and let me massage your shoulders."
Lu Deyao’s heart pounded as he watched Jiang Moli fussing over him so attentively.
As the saying goes, when someone fawns over you for no reason, they’re up to no good.
"Xiao Jiang, if you have something to say, just say it. Don’t be like this; it’s a little scary."
Jiang Moli blinked. "Alright, I’ll just say it then. Dad, the family housing Lu Cheng applied for before he left—has it been approved yet?"
Lu Deyao froze for a moment.
An Hui, who was bringing dishes out from the kitchen, couldn’t help but look over when she heard this.
"Oh, that. I’ll ask about it tomorrow."
"Okay! If the housing hasn’t been assigned yet, please help me hurry them along, Dad. I need it urgently."
Lu Deyao nodded. "Alright."
That night, lying in bed, Lu Deyao couldn’t help but remark to An Hui, "That girl Xiao Jiang might be a bit of a handful, but with her around, the house is a lot livelier. I was thinking of just having her live with us, but I didn’t expect she wouldn’t want to and would be so eager to move out. What a situation."
"Since she wants to move out, you should help her hurry it along. The sooner she gets the house, the sooner she can get settled."
Lu Deyao looked at her. "If you can’t bear to see Xiao Jiang move out, I can talk to her tomorrow..."
"What is there to talk about? And what’s there for me to be reluctant about!"
’Her tone clearly showed she was reluctant.’
But Lu Deyao knew his wife was prideful, so he changed his approach. "I just think Xiao Jiang is used to being lazy and waited on. If she lives outside by herself, I’m afraid she won’t even be able to feed herself. It’s worrying. Our third son entrusted her to us, so we have to take good care of her for him, right?"
"How about this: she can live wherever she wants, but she can still come home to eat with us."
An Hui didn’t say anything, clearly acquiescing to the suggestion.
Lu Deyao secretly sighed in relief.
’Even though our third son’s wife is always stirring up trouble and causing mischief, she’s not actually that bad.’
...
In the dead of night.
Jiang Dahai opened his door and looked up to see Jiang Peng standing in the hallway like a door god, his eyes glaring at him like lightbulbs.
Jiang Dahai glared back. "What’s wrong with you, not sleeping in the middle of the night?"
"Dad, where are you going?"
"This is adult business, none of your concern. Go back to your room and sleep."
As Jiang Dahai spoke, he started to walk out, but Jiang Peng blocked him. "Dad, you’re going to give things to Uncle, Grandpa, and Grandma, aren’t you? You’re feeding a tiger with your own flesh!"
Jiang Dahai stared at him. "Nonsense! That’s your own uncle and grandfather! Have you no manners?"
Jiang Peng was full of confidence. "That’s what Sis said, anyway. If we want to move back sooner, we can’t worry about whether they live or die. If we give them good food and drinks, they could stay here for a lifetime and never leave."
Jiang Dahai was at a loss for words. "When did your sister say that?"
"Earlier. She told me on the phone."
"What else did she say?"
"Sis said she found a house for us to live in."
It wasn’t that Jiang Dahai was unaware of how difficult his three brothers-in-law were; he just couldn’t shake his soft-hearted nature so easily. He was worried the old couple would starve themselves sick.
Housing these days was even scarcer than jobs.
Who knew how much effort his daughter had gone through to find them a place to live.
As a father, he couldn’t help, but he absolutely couldn’t hold his daughter back.
With that thought, Jiang Dahai abandoned the idea of bringing blankets and food to his brother-in-law and father-in-law and went back to bed.
「The Jiang family’s house.」
As the night grew deeper outside, Ruan Fuqiang turned to the old man, Ruan Zishan, and said, "See? Dahai is heartless. He didn’t leave us a single grain of rice when he left, and he isn’t bringing any food over. He wants to starve us to death."
Ruan Zishan was already pale with hunger, and his expression soured even more upon hearing his second son’s words.
"He can bring it or not. We don’t need his scraps."
Chen Guifen looked at her husband, then at her second son, and tried to persuade them, "I think we should just forget it. Let’s go back tomorrow. Dahai has helped our family a lot over the years. It’s not easy for him either."
Chen Guifen was still very fond of her son-in-law, Jiang Dahai, and didn’t want to truly burn all bridges with him.
Ruan Fuqiang snorted. "Mom, you feel sorry for Dahai, but why don’t you feel sorry for me? He’s got an iron rice bowl, earning sixty or seventy a month, and now he’s related by marriage to a commander. His life is countless times better than ours! He can arrange a job for Jiajin; he just doesn’t want to help us."
Ruan Zishan was completely illiterate and didn’t understand any grand principles. Hearing his son say that Jiang Dahai refused to help his grandson, he became convinced that Jiang Dahai was heartless and ungrateful.
He said angrily, "If he won’t arrange a job for Jiajin, I’m not leaving! I’ll die on his doorstep if I have to."
The walls were thin, and the Zhou Family next door heard the Ruan Family’s entire conversation crystal clear.
Wang Lianhua cursed her bad luck.
Her family and the Jiang family lived in the same courtyard. Dying on the Jiang family’s doorstep was as good as dying on hers.
But she also secretly gloated over their misfortune.
’That detestable Jiang Moli has finally met her match. I’m just waiting for the show to start.’
The next day, Wang Lianhua got up to make breakfast.
She opened the cupboard and saw that the four white-flour steamed buns she had bought last night were gone.
At first, she thought she’d forgotten where she put them, but even after turning the house upside down, she couldn’t find a trace of the buns.
The siblings Zhou Xiaoqing and Zhou Xiaojun both said they hadn’t secretly eaten them.
Even if they had snuck some, one would have been the absolute limit. They wouldn’t have dared to eat all four.
Wang Lianhua’s suspicion fell on her next-door neighbors.
Despite all the commotion, the Ruan Family next door was completely silent, not making a single sound.
Ruan Fuqiang, Ruan Zishan, and Chen Guifen had been awake for a while, but none of the three dared to make a peep.
They were, in fact, the ones who had eaten the steamed buns.
In the middle of the night, unable to bear the hunger any longer, Ruan Fuqiang had secretly pried open the lock on the Zhou Family’s cupboard.
Chen Guifen was thin-skinned and wanted to go apologize to Wang Lianhua.
Ruan Fuqiang wouldn’t let her. He didn’t think stealing a few steamed buns was a big deal.
’Besides, we’re not staying for long. We’ll be going back in a few days, so who cares?’
"You shameless things! Such greedy dog mouths! Stealing my damn buns, I hope you die a horrible death!"
Not satisfied after her tirade, Wang Lianhua then grabbed her neighbors and tearfully complained about her stolen buns.
In those days, food was not abundant. People could barely get by eating coarse grains mixed with fine grains at every meal.
Getting to eat white-flour steamed buns was considered a treat to improve one’s diet. Who would have thought they’d all be taken in one go, without a single one left? It would be strange if Wang Lianhua wasn’t furious.
In less than half a day, the news that the Zhou Family’s steamed buns had been stolen by the Jiang family’s relatives had spread throughout the entire residential complex.
The city wasn’t like the countryside. In the countryside, where people were too poor to eat, petty theft like stealing chickens and dogs was all too common.
City dwellers were relatively well-off, social conduct was proper, and citizens had a higher moral awareness. They despised acts of theft.
The Ruan Family was certainly cursed at, but Jiang Moli didn’t escape the blame either.
If she hadn’t stirred up trouble and brought the Ruan Family into the residential complex, something like this would never have happened.
"That shit-stirrer is truly detestable. She got herself married off and still brought thieves into our residential complex!"
"From now on, we’d better lock our doors, windows, and cupboards tight. Mr. Jiang’s brothers-in-law are notoriously shameless. If they can’t steal from the Zhou Family, who knows, they might come steal from us!"
"I don’t know what sins Mr. Jiang committed in his past life to be saddled with such an unfilial daughter as Jiang Moli."
Whether they were out buying groceries, taking their grandchildren to school, or visiting relatives, people inevitably made Jiang Moli a topic of conversation.
The gossip spread from one person to the next.
Even many who had never met Jiang Moli held a great deal of disdain and revulsion for her.
[Disdain Value +1, 10,000 yuan credited.]
[Disdain Value +2, 20,000 yuan credited.]
Jiang Moli was quite surprised to hear notifications of Disdain Value being credited from time to time.
She hadn’t even left the house today, but since early this morning, the system had been continuously notifying her that Disdain Value was being received.
She didn’t yet know it was because Ruan Fuqiang had stolen the Zhou Family’s steamed buns; she assumed it was a chain reaction caused by the issue with arranging the job.