Chapter 174: Selfishness and Self-interest
Bai Ruozhu barely seemed to care and laughed, saying, "Grandpa hasn’t favored me for a long time. I married and had a child, all in the Bai name, yet you refuse to accept my child into the ancestral hall. My son doesn’t even have a hall to enter, why should I stay in the Bai’s ancestral hall? If you want to expel me, then do it. I’ll establish my own family."
Her casual last statement made quite a few people draw in a breath of cold air.
"Look at your arrogant manner. A woman like you dares to establish her own family and is not afraid of becoming a laughingstock?" The old man said with a scoff on his face, as if he had just heard something utterly ridiculous.
Bai Ruozhu indifferently shrugged her shoulders, "Let them laugh. Everything will come to light in time, we’ll see. But now I have to go back home to comfort my child. Grandpa, you continue to worry about my uncle and see how long my third brother can wait."
At this time, the Wang Family had already brought Doctor Lee over. When Doctor Lee saw the old man, he asked, "Where is the patient?"
The old man’s face darkened even more, "He hasn’t been brought down yet. The children are disobedient and refuse to go."
"Grandpa, my father is willing to go. It’s uncle who refuses. If need be, my dad can carry him down by himself," said Er Lang coldly at this moment.
Upon hearing this, Doctor Lee was anxious, "Isn’t San Lang your elder brother’s son? Why doesn’t he go? If the broken leg hanged longer, there will be no point in treating it. Don’t bring him to me if he ends up limping and claiming it’s due to my lack of medical skills!" After speaking, he made a gesture to leave and refused to have a look.
The Wang woman grabbed Doctor Lee’s sleeve and cried out, "Doctor Lee, don’t leave. What should I do with my son?"
Doctor Lee shrugged her off distastefully and said loudly, "What can I do if I can’t even see the patient?"
The Wang woman was furious now, she yelled at Bai Yihong’s family like a crazy woman, "Who among you isn’t physically stronger than your uncle, yet can’t you save your cousin? Aren’t people’s hearts made of flesh too? Did a dog eat your hearts?"
Bai Ruozhu was angry and said loudly, "The uncle himself doesn’t want to save him, so what does his heart consist of?" After speaking, she once again told her family, "Let’s go home. They don’t want to save people, not that we didn’t want to help."
Onlookers had various comments. It was Zhou Deshun who finally said to Bai Fu, "Old man, don’t drag it out any longer. Your third son is in trouble, wouldn’t his father go to save him? Yihong has also agreed to help. Can’t you compromise a little? It’s already getting dark and we still don’t know how San Lang is doing on the mountain."
Others also urged, but essentially everyone agreed that Bai Yibo should go to help carry the patient. Eventually, Bai Fuqi’s face turned bright red from anger, he had no choice but to agree.
Except for Bai Yihong going to help, Bai Ruozhu’s family didn’t join the crowd. When Bai Yihong was leaving, Lin Ping was visibly worried, muttering, "San Lang...always rash and reckless, even cruelly bullies his brother, who knows what he has done to offend which deity? In my opinion, your father shouldn’t have agreed to go. Oh, Buddha, please bless..." She joined her hands in prayer and bowed to the Buddha.
Bai Ruozhu comforted her by holding her arm, "Mother, father is upright and honest, he hasn’t done anything to feel guilty about. If anything, it should happen to the bad people, not him."
Lin Ping thought for a moment and felt that it made sense, which somewhat relieved her concerns.
It was only then that Bai Ruozhu remembered Xiaosi in the yard just now. Luckily, during the old man’s tantrum, he didn’t enter the yard and see Xiaosi; otherwise, he would dislike Xiaosi even more.
When they came back, Xiaosi peeked his little head out from the kitchen. He seemed to know to hide.
Bai Ruozhu was pleased with his self-protective instincts. She smiled and beckoned to him, "Come on, go inside and play with your nephew. The old mansion is in chaos right now. You can go back later, you can eat dinner here."
Xiaosi nodded. He seemed to enjoy getting close to Dengdeng, whether because he felt that children pose no malice or because he cared for Bai Ruozhu and her nephew too.
The family originally planned to wait for Bai Yihong to return before eating dinner. However, after waiting for a long time without any sign of him, they became worried. Finally, they hurriedly ate their dinner. They decided to send Bai Zehao to the old mansion to see what was happening. Just as Bai Zehao was about to leave, Bai Yihong returned home, looking utterly disheveled.
"Husband, how did you end up like this?" Lin Ping was startled and quickly checked if Bai Yihong was injured. Once she confirmed that he was unharmed, she went to fetch water and a cloth to help him clean up.
The whole family gathered around, listening to Bai Yihong’s story. Bai Yihong was extremely tired; he gulped down several mouthfuls of water to moisten his throat before he began to speak.
It turned out he was delayed quite a bit going to the old mansion asking Bai Yibo to go up the mountain. Bai Yibo struggled hard to climb the mountain. He kept complaining of leg pain or stomachache intending to go to the toilet. It wasn’t until Doctor Lee scolded him severely that he reluctantly left his house.
"Uncle really is selfish, isn’t he? Even if he’s scared, shouldn’t he rescue his own son?" Lin Ping said in disdain.
Bai Ruozhu nodded. If it were her or her elder brothers in a similar situation, their parents would rush up without hesitation. Therefore, she felt some sympathy for San Lang at that moment. It was indeed a helpless situation to have such parents.
Of course, she wasn’t a saint, so this hesitation lasted for only a few seconds. However, she didn’t approve of the Jiang’s actions any longer, as it resulted in causing her father a lot of trouble and suffering. Their family ended up suffering the consequences, too.
Jiang Yichun, who had already returned to town, was drinking tea and thinking in his room when he suddenly sneezed twice. He was unusually immune to colds, so he mumbled to himself, "Is someone talking about me?"
Bai Yihong continued speaking to everyone, "I went up the mountain with my elder brother, but the children accompanying San Lang refused to go. They only vaguely pointed us in the direction. San Lang fainted again and stopped shouting. My elder brother and I took quite a while to find him."
Bai Yihong shook his head as he continued, "San Lang’s broken leg was quite scary. A fall like that, which resulted in such severity is rather odd."
Bai Ruozhu secretly speculated that Jiang must have used some kind of hidden weapon to break San Lang’s leg, it’s just that they couldn’t see it. Upon thinking like this, she was even more envious of the martial arts skills in ancient times. With just a flick of a finger, they could injure their opponents. Compared to them, she had suffered a headache for quite a while because of San Lang.
Upon thinking, she suddenly remembered that when she was studying abroad in her previous life, one of the assignments was to make an ancient Chinese crossbow. She still remembered how to do it. She thought that she should also find a way to make a mini crossbow, or at least have something on her for self-defense.
Her thoughts were once again interrupted by Bai Yihong’s voice. Bai Yihong didn’t talk much on normal days, but at this moment, because he was probably too poignant, he spoke very vividly. However, when Bai Ruozhu heard the rest of his words, she couldn’t help but burst into laughter.