Chapter 436 Can I Not Run Away?

When the old man could no longer hold back his laughter, he heard the old lady's voice coming from the kitchen:

"Old man, are you ready? I asked you to clean the fish but you took your time. Bring it in when you are ready."

After the old man came to his senses, he looked down and started to fiddle with things in a panic. Looking at his grandson who was taking his time, the old man frowned and was about to ask him for a hand to help him through the difficult times.

Then he found his grandson fiddling with the sack on the bicycle, so he quickly lowered his head and started to clean up the fish.

While the old man was struggling with the fish, Zhang Xingwang dragged the sack into the kitchen. The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law were quiet for a moment when they saw him come in, and then they continued to work as if nothing had happened...

The old grandmother saw her grandson digging non-stop and even forgot to sprinkle salt. She looked at the two extra geese and a chicken in the kitchen and the veins in the corners of her eyes twitched.

Then she saw the grandson carrying out rice and meat endlessly. The old lady, unable to bear it any longer, threw down the spatula, looked at the grandson who was startled by the sound of the spatula, and said loudly with a forced smile:

"Xingwang, grandma thinks that we should have almost taken out all the things in the sack!"

Zhang Xingwang was busy scooping things up, and when he heard this, he looked at the pile of things on the ground, and on a whim, he put the remaining things in the bag into the space, rolled up the sack as if nothing had happened, and replied calmly:

"Grandma, that's all for now. I'll send you two more ginsengs later. If you feel unwell, make some soup or something. Let me know when you're done. Don't save them."

"Xingwang, you have a family now, so you should put your family first and don't come to see grandma during festivals."

"No, that won't work. What if you miss me? You older generations are afraid of delaying your children's affairs, but I'm different. I have plenty of time. When I'm free, Xiaoya and I will come back to see you."

Wang Xiulan waited for her son to go out, and looked at her furious mother-in-law. While packing up her son's things, she tentatively said:

"Mom, just keep what Xingwang gave you. Anyway, we can't cook meat in our yard anymore. Now the smell of cooking fumes has caused people to gossip. Only you, who is so great, are not afraid of being complained."

"Don't fool me. Let's cook these after dinner and take them with you when you leave tomorrow. It doesn't matter if they are cooked. I can't eat them because of my bad teeth. If you don't want to eat them, give them to Xiaoya. Only by eating more good food can you give birth to a big fat boy."

"Mom, I really can't do that. I told Xiaoya that the food at home is average..."

The old lady's face darkened and she replied unhappily:

"It's settled. Granddaughter-in-law, you have to figure it out yourself. The people in the village are out of food now. It's normal for an old woman like me to eat meat every day. It's already a headache for me to have to deal with eggs every day."

Bai Xiaoya listened to her mother-in-law saying for the seventeenth time that the food at home was just average and that today was a special case. She found goose, fish, and scrambled eggs on the table, and then she looked at the bowl of rice in front of her and felt extremely regretful.

You know, life in Beijing is like this. She should have gone home with her brother last year. She must have missed so many meals in half a year.

As for the special days that her mother-in-law mentioned, Bai Xiaoya, who had only eaten two vegetarian meals since she arrived, thought that she should listen to her mother-in-law's words in the opposite way. Maybe the non-special days here refer to festivals or something like that.

Zhang Xingwang looked at the old couple who had calmed down. He was just about to ask the aunts to come the day after tomorrow to have a meal and hold a ceremony, but before he could open his mouth, he heard a male voice coming from outside the house:

"Auntie, is Xingwang at home?"

The old lady held down Zhang Xingwang who was about to stand up, and replied as she walked out:

"Xingwang is at home, why doesn't Genwazi come in and talk?"

"How can I come in when you're eating? Xingwang, I'll wait for you outside. Come out when you're done. I have something to ask you."

As soon as he finished speaking, the old lady pulled him in and said unhappily:

"Why are you being embarrassed? Why are you pretending to be so polite in front of me?"

After Uncle Yougen entered the room, he greeted everyone with a wry smile, then turned his head and sipped his saliva and said:

"I'm not in a hurry. Let's talk about it after you finish eating."

The old man couldn't sit still anymore, pointing at the scrambled eggs on the table and said:

"Today is the first time that my granddaughter-in-law comes to our house, so you can just take advantage of it and have some eggs. Don't even think about anything else. This is brought by Xingwang, so you should be aware of it."

"Uncle, look at what you said. I am also an uncle and a village chief. How can I eat with my niece's wife? I came here after I had dinner."

However, the old couple obviously did not believe this. After all, everyone in the village over the age of ten knew about his story of beating up the egg thief and his shameless behavior, not to mention his new hobby of climbing walls.

The old lady added half a bowl of food to his bowl in a bad mood, then said if he didn’t want to eat it, then forget it, and ignored him.

Zhang Xingwang looked at Uncle Yougen who finished eating in a few bites, then licked his lips and sat on pins and needles, feeling helpless to complain.

Helplessly, he got up and went out with Uncle Yougen to the wall. Uncle Yougen habitually leaned on the ladder against the wall and said in a low voice with a bitter face:

"Xingwang, you know that our area has suffered from floods this year. I didn't intend to trouble you anymore, but the old man scolded me for more than an hour..."

"Wait a minute, you are talking about the food issue, right? I should be able to help you with this. I just want to know how the old man scolded you. Given his temper, why didn't he do anything? That shouldn't be the case, right?"

Uncle Yougen's face turned dark. Before he could say anything, a goose cry came from outside the courtyard wall, and then a big-headed man appeared on the wall.

The man seemed to have forgotten about the open gate and struggled to climb up the wall. Under Zhang Xingwang's sullen gaze, he sat on the wall to steady his body, and said while laughing:

"Xingwang, you don't know that the old master didn't do anything. It's just that the old master didn't expect him to run away. Now the old master is waiting for him in the cafeteria. If he hadn't heard that you were back, he would probably have no food to eat tomorrow."

After the big-headed uncle finished speaking, he was still not satisfied, and vividly imitated a few of the old man's curse words in the face of Uncle Yougen's despair:

"Besides embarrassing yourself, what else can you do? You don't have the ability and you don't know how to ask for help. All you do is chase young wives around to exchange eggs. You have brought shame to our village. Not even a bit of it remains."

"Nonsense! If you hadn't made two mistakes in your calculations, would it be necessary for me, the village chief, to come out in person? I earned the eggs with my own ability, and my wife doesn't care, so why would he say that to me?

Besides, I am the head of the village. If the old man hit me with his walking stick, I can just run away. If he hits me with his shoe soles, how can I not run? If I get hit a few times, how can I, as the head of the village, put my face aside? "