Chapter 42: Laying Down the Law
Qian Yafen was shocked when she heard Old Mrs. Mo’s words. She hadn’t expected the matter to have been discovered by the two elders, and immediately thought of Mo Yiyi.
Aside from that troublesome girl, she couldn’t think of who else would have leaked this information.
However, it wasn’t the time to get angry, so she suppressed her fury and forced a smile, saying, "Mom, there’s no such thing."
"Hmph... No such thing? You still want to deny it at this point." Seeing her younger daughter-in-law refusing to admit the truth, Old Mrs. Mo became even angrier.
"I’ve already confirmed with your family, and I’ve even gone to the town to check out the restaurant you opened. When we went there, your sister-in-law was busy at the shop. You’re quite capable to have hidden it for so long, and we were kept in the dark all along."
As she finished speaking, Old Mrs. Mo felt even more annoyed, thinking how she had been sharp-eyed her whole life, yet she had missed this one.
Beside her, Mo Guoping, Mo Ke Fei, and Mo Meina were all too shocked to speak. It was Mo Guoping who first snapped back to reality, looking at his mother and asking, "Mom, what exactly is going on? What restaurant? When did Yafen open a restaurant?"
Seeing her younger son’s clueless look, Old Mrs. Mo said with some disappointment, "Your dear wife and her family opened a small restaurant in town. The business is quite good, and they’ve made a lot of money. Now the Qian family is already building a house in Lingxia Village. Aren’t you aware, as the son-in-law of the Qian family, that your wife’s family is building a house?"
Mu Guoping did know about the Qian family building a house, but it was only this morning that he had heard about it. He tried to process this information and finally turned to his wife and asked, "Yafen, is what Mom said true? Did you really open a restaurant in the town?"
With Old Mrs. Mo speaking so bluntly, Qian Yafen didn’t deny it any further. She nodded and said, "Yes, I did open a restaurant in town with my brother and sister-in-law."
Seeing his wife admit to it, Mu Guoping disapproved, saying, "Since you opened a restaurant, why didn’t you tell the family? And... did you really use all the money you earned to help your brother build a house?"
Although he usually listened to his wife and let her take charge of family decisions, Mu Guoping was upset about such a big matter. He felt that his wife didn’t truly care about their family.
Speaking of this matter, Qian Yafen naturally wouldn’t admit it.
"Of course not. My brother built the house with the money he earned, not from me."
Before Mu Guoping could say anything, Old Mrs. Mo had already scolded from the side, "If it wasn’t from you, where did your brother get so much money? Building a house isn’t cheap; it must be at least seven or eight thousand yuan. Can your family afford that much money all at once?"
Although she did give her family two thousand yuan for the house, Qian Yafen was absolutely not going to admit it, so she firmly denied, "I really didn’t give them money. It was all earned by my brother. Our restaurant business is good, which is how they made so much."
Upon hearing this, Old Mrs. Mo decided not to argue further with her younger daughter-in-law about the matter.
She looked Qian Yafen up and down, then said, "Since your brother opened a restaurant with you and earned enough to build a house, surely you’ve made money too. I won’t pursue past matters, but now you have to use that money to build a house for us. Otherwise, I’ll cause a scene at Lingxia Village and have everyone judge whether it’s right for a married daughter to send money back to her family’s home."
Qian Yafen hadn’t expected Old Mrs. Mo to come up with this idea, and her expression darkened immediately.
Initially, she had enough money to build a house, but after lending her brother two thousand yuan, she was a bit short.
Seeing her daughter-in-law’s expression, Old Mrs. Mo coldly sneered, "What, can’t you come up with the money? In that case, how dare you say you didn’t send money back to your family?"
Mo Meina had never seen her grandmother scold her mother so fiercely before, and she shrank back in fear, although the doubts in her heart had cleared up.
No wonder her mother had been running to the town often the past two years, and would scold her whenever she wanted to tag along. It turned out it was because of the restaurant her mother opened.
Her mother was unbelievable, opening a restaurant without telling her and her brother, but their maternal family knew everything, and her uncle was even building a house. Why couldn’t her mother think of them? She also wanted to live in a spacious and bright house.
Initially, Mo Guoping had always stood by his wife, but this time, even he was angry. So he looked straight at Qian Yafen and said, "Yafen, Mom does have a point. You should use the money you earned to build a house for our family."
Seeing her mother-in-law and husband saying this, Qian Yafen breathed heavily with anger.
She had always known that if Old Mrs. Mo found out about her opening a restaurant, things would turn out this way. But why did she have to give up her hard-earned money? Back when she opened the restaurant, no one from the Mo family had helped her.
Seeing her daughter-in-law remain silent, even Mr. Mo couldn’t stay quiet.
"Yafen, what you’re doing is wrong. You’re already part of the Mo family, so you should consider our family in whatever you do. Your mother doesn’t necessarily want you to spend money on building a house, she just wants to know if you care about us as your family."
"What kind of family are we to her? It’s her family that’s her true family. See how she’s given all her money to them while we mean nothing." Old Mrs. Mo shouted sharply.
Though Mu Guoping was unhappy too, he still defended his wife.
"Mom, Yafen doesn’t think that way. We are her closest family."
Seeing her son defending Qian Yafen, Old Mrs. Mo was shaking with rage, "Guoping, have you been bewitched by her? Even now you’re speaking for her."
"Mom, I..."
Before Mu Guoping could finish his sentence, Old Mrs. Mo interrupted him.
"I’ve said my piece today. If Qian Yafen doesn’t use the money to build a house for our family, then she should just go back to the Qian family. We don’t need such a daughter-in-law. If she is so devoted to her family, I’ll let her be."