Chapter 576 - 578: If She Causes Trouble Again, She Will Be Sent Away
Everyone else understood, knowing what should be spoken and what should not be mentioned.
Grandma Bai glanced at Bai Ruozhu with disbelief, not knowing whether she simply didn’t care or if she noticed but chose not to ask. Either way, she acted as if she hadn’t noticed anything was wrong with Bai Ruozhu’s health.
Lin Ping’er looked at the yard and said, "We’ve run out of room. Let’s have Mom stay in Ruolan’s room for the night?" She didn’t ask Grandma Bai directly; it was mainly Bai Yihong she wanted to consult.
Upon hearing this, Grandma Bai jumped up, "I don’t want to live with an idiot. What if she hits me in the middle of the night? Why don’t you sleep with her? You’re a wicked woman with a heart as black as coal!"
Bai Ruozhu was infuriated by hearing this and said: "Grandma, Ruolan is your own granddaughter. Stop insulting her every time you open your mouth. You forced her into the state she’s in today. If you don’t want to stay with her, the only place left is the kitchen."
She managed to say these few sentences before she felt a surge of qi and blood rush to her chest. Seeing this, Lin Ping’er quickly went over to support her, saying, "Ruozhu, don’t get worked up. Go back to your room and rest. Leave this here, mom is here."
Bai Ruozhu knew she couldn’t push herself now and, with no desire to deal with Granny, she returned to her room to rest.
Outside, Grandma Bai made a fuss again, finding fault with everything. Insisting on sleeping with her son, and telling Lin Ping’er to sleep in Ruolan’s room. Lin Ping’er straightforwardly refused, "No, it’s not convenient."
Grandma Bai’s eyeballs rotated as her feet suddenly became agile. She rushed towards the main room and threw her bundle onto the brick bed before starting to groan in pretended agony, saying, "My old back is going to break. I’ll sleep here, and won’t go anywhere else!"
Lin Ping’er felt that Grandma Bai had become even more defiant. Not knowing whether she had learned it from widow Zhou, she glared at Bai Yihong in frustration, "You put your mother to bed. We’ll go eat."
Dinner was an uncomfortable affair. The Zhang and Lin family members brought their meals back to their own rooms. Grandma Bai wanted to eat but feared losing her bed spot, so she kept pestering Bai Yihong to bring her meal to her bed. Yihong argued that eating in bed is unsanitary, but she refused to listen—instead accusing him of being unfilial and trying to starve her.
The originally cheerful yard suddenly became much colder. Rongrong and Niuniu had never seen such a commotion before, and were so scared that they hid in their rooms. The baby Dengdeng, probably finding the racket too noisy, cried a few times. Grandma Bai, hearing this, snorted, "What a delicate baby, not at all like our Bai family."
Bai Zehao ran into Bai Ruozhu’s room to check on her, asking, "Little sister, how did you get hurt?"
"Big brother, I’ll explain it all to you later. Just don’t be scared." Bai Ruozhu sighed. She was not in a good mood today and even less willing to mention her incident with Li Yi.
"What about Xiaosi? I haven’t seen him since I got back," wondered Bai Zehao.
"Xiaosi, like me, is injured. He’s recuperating somewhere else. I’ll bring him back in a few days," replied Bai Ruozhu.
Bai Zehao opened his mouth to ask more, but seeing the thinness of Bai Ruozhu’s face, he couldn’t bring himself to probe further.
"Don’t let Grandma’s presence bother you too much. It’s all my fault for being incompetent. I initially agreed to set out with Uncle Zhou. But on that morning, Grandma showed up demanding to come with us. When we refused, she sat at the village entrance crying, accusing us of abandoning her now that we had become well-off," Bai Zehao said, his face full of regret.
"I did my best to calm her down, taking turns with Caiyue to persuade her. But we ended up delaying our trip. After two days of unsuccessful persuasion, she caused such a fuss that the whole village knew about our ’unfilial behavior’. Then, the village chief came to see me."
Bai Ruozhu guessed what happened. In those times, filial piety was paramount. Even though Grandma Bai had once sold Bai Yihong, now that she was old, if Bai Yihong didn’t support her, it would be considered unfilial.
"Big brother, don’t blame yourself for this. If I had been there, I couldn’t have stopped her either." Bai Ruozhu attempted to lighten her brother’s mood with a smile.
"If you and second brother had been there, even if we couldn’t have stopped her, at least the whole village wouldn’t have known about it," Bai Zehao sighed heavily, "Caiyue and I are too easily bullied because we’re not good with words."
"Big brother, don’t blame yourself. If she behaves herself, I don’t mind her staying here. But if she continues to be so unreasonable, I’ll find a way to send her back to the Back Mountain Village," Bai Ruozhu asserted.
Bai Zehao nodded. "You take care of yourself, I’m going back to rest."
After a while, Bai Zepei, who had been out socializing, returned home. He still had a faint smell of alcohol on him. He was surprised to see that it wasn’t Fang Guizhi but his mother who opened the door. In the past, whenever someone knocked, it was Guizhi who answered.
Upon seeing her second son, Lin Ping’er felt a bit steadier. She whispered, "Your grandma is here, stirring up trouble. You go check on her."
Bai Zepei’s expression changed. "She came back with big brother?"
Lin Ping’er nodded. "I heard she got swindled out of all her money. The whole village knows about third brother’s scandal with widow Zhou."
Bai Zepei’s face frosted over, colder than ice in the winter. "I’ll go check on her."
When he entered the main hall, his grandmother was slurping noodles from a bowl on the bed, spilling soup all over the bedding. Bai Zepei frowned and asked, "Grandma, why aren’t you eating in the dining room?"
Grandma Bai glanced at him and grumbled, "It’s because your cold-hearted mother won’t feed me. She wants to starve an old woman to death. You want to be an official, don’t you? Does being an official mean you can be unfilal? I need to go complain to the city’s officials."
Lin Ping’er stormed in, furious, "Mother, you’re the one who claimed this room and refused to leave. When we called you for dinner, you were afraid of losing your spot. You should be grateful we’re willing to bring the food to you; what more do you want in order to consider us filial?"
Bai Zepei narrowed his eyes. His grandmother’s intention to settle down in the main house and establish her status in the courtyard was all too clear. But why should she be allowed to do it? Just because she held the power of ’filial piety’ and wanted to oppress them with it?
"Well, grandma, you enjoy your meal. We’ll go rest." After saying that, Bai Zepei pulled his mother out and whispered, "You and dad should squeeze in my room tonight, don’t stoop to her level."
Lin Ping’er was not content, but it seemed like she had no other choice. Thinking for a moment, she stormed back into the living room, grabbed a small casket from the cabinet, and quickly left.
Grandmother Bai’s eyes followed the casket in her hand, glowing bright and green as though she had already seen piles of silver within it.
Bai Zepei then went to Bai Ruozhu’s room. Seeing her calmly sitting on the bed reading, he couldn’t help asking, "Do you already have a plan?"
Bai Ruozhu put down her book, grinned at him, revealing eight white teeth, "What plan could I possibly have? I’m injured so badly that I can barely take care of myself."
Bai Zepei suddenly burst into laughter, "It’s always the little sister who is the most clever."