Chapter 150 My Boy Has Grown Up
Liu Cuihua who sat at the table poured a cup of tea for herself and took a few deep breaths to calm herself down. "It's much too annoying to get into such a scene on the first day of the new year. We shouldn't have been there."
Wu Chuan puffed on his pipe before saying, "Er'zhu has been spoiled by his father. How could he turn my son away even in front of me?"
Liu Cuihua had been oblivious of that. Then she slapped the cup on the table and turned to glare at Wu Chuan. "What? Why didn't you say so? If I had known it, I would have got them for that!"
Wu Chuan waved his hand. "Just let it go. I don't want another scene on this special day to make us objects of ridicule."
Liu Cuihua thought it made sense. After all, family scandals should be kept dark.
She sighed and turned to the others, saying, "Don't go there anymore, or you'll deserve kneeling at the door for half an hour as a punishment."
Tain Xiuniang, who held Guo'er in her arms at the table, was the first to go along with it. "I can't agree more. Er'zhu seems far from a nice guy with shift eyes."
Chen Zhaodi also told Tao'er in a low voice, "Have you got it? Don't go play with Huahua anymore."
Tao'er nodded. "I won't, mom."
The family members' agreement over it satisfied Liu Cuihua a lot.
"Good. Then let's have lunch at home. The food is ready-made and all we need to do is heat it up."
Then the family wound up spending the first day of the new year at home and welcomed the second day when married women would visit their parents by convention.
So women had been preparing for the visit since the early morning.
As for the Wu family who had got no daughters, they chose to lock the door.
Liu Cuihua kept telling Wu Xiyuan to speak less and not t make a scene on such a special day.
Su Jiuyue had no such concern since Wu Xiyuan had been well-behaved and wasn't as noisy as before.
It even gave her an illusion that her boy had grown up.
In his previous life, Wu Xiyuan had seldom visited Su Jiuyue's parents. He married Su Jiuyue as a seventeen-year-old girl and later passed the Provincial Examination. Then he left for Yong Zhou City to further his studies with Su Jiuyue since his mother felt uneasy about letting him be away from home alone. After that, the two of them seldom came back.
Upon entering, Su Jiuyue received a big hug from Maomao. "Sister! It isn't a lie! You're really back."
Su Jiuyue stroked his hair and looked at his clean face which was a rare sight. "Of course. I couldn't wait to be home with you as soon as I got up."
Maomao put his arms around her legs, turned to look at Wu Xiyuan, called happily with his eyes narrowed, "Brother!"
Maomao was eight when Wu Xiyuan got married in his previous life, while he just turned five after the new year in this life.
Wu Xiyuan couldn't help thinking if his future child would look like Maomao who somewhat resembled Su Jiuyue. He believed their story would have a happy ending this time.
Since he was distracted by his thoughts, Maomao complained, "Brother, you've neither hugged me nor shown me the gifts you brought. You don't like me anymore?"
Maomao's words reminded Wu Xiyuan that the two of them used to be friends after he was out of his mind.
Then Wu Xiyuan hurriedly took out a beanbag and handed it to him. "Of course not. Look, I've got a great gift for you."
Maomao took it with a beam. "I like it! You're the best."
Then he was going to hold Wu Xiyuan's hand to play. Wu Xiyuan used to join him when he was insane, but he declined this time.
"Just go play with Wuyue and the others. My mom told me to behave myself to finish the visit perfectly with Jiuyue."
The beanbag sufficed for Maomao and he couldn't wait to show this new toy to his playmates, so he loosened his grip on Wu Xiyuan's hand. "Well."
Then Su Jiuyue took Wu Xiyuan inside, only to find her mother waiting there, ready to go out.
As for her father, he also sat quietly. But Su Jiuyue could feel something was wrong and thought the two of them had probably quarreled.
"Mom, Dad," she called and so did Wu Xiyuan.

Her father glanced at them and said nothing, while her mother picked up a basket and said, "We've been waiting for you to visit your grandma together with us."
It surprised Su Jiuyue a lot when she saw the basket full of things. She knew her family couldn't afford such a generous gift which meant what they lived on for days.
"Mom, what have you prepared? It seems that you've got a lot," she asked.
Her mother showed it to her. "Nothing, just some meat and eggs. I've also got some pickled vegetables you brought before for your grandma to have a taste of."
Su Jiuyue's face darkened as she leaned in and looked inside it. "Mom, then is there anything left for yourselves?"
Her mother laughed, saying, "Of course. We've got some remains of buckwheat, as well as what you brought this time."

Su Jiuyue didn't like the way her mother took whatever she brought for granted.
What she did was to make her family better off with Liu Cuihua's support, not to make it a gift for her grandma.
"You can't take so many things there!" It was the first time that Su Jiuyue had been so tough on her parents.
Wu Xiyuan looked at her in dismay since it was very unlike her who used to be compliant and never say no to others.
But recently, he had seen her refute Wu Er'zhu without fear and remain resolutely opposed to her mother's idea.
He wondered if such a change was under the influence of his mother day by day.
But anyway, he thought it was a welcome change. One should have a mind of his own, not put himself at the mercy of others.
Su Jiuyue's mother had never been refuted by her daughter like this. It shocked her a lot that Su Jiuyue was no longer as sweet as before.
Then she glared at Su Jiuyue even with her face twisting in anger. "Even you're going to stop me? How can you be ungrateful for your grandma's affection for you as a kid?"
It implied that her father also stopped her and that was why the two of them quarreled on the second of the new year.
Su Jiuyue used to be afraid of her mother's anger, but now she wasn't.
"Save such lies. You know grandma doesn't like me at all. I'm not stopping you from making a gift of all these things, but I want to know whether you think of us as your family or grandma and uncle."