Chapter 18 (1/2)

Chapter 18 A Shrew ComesLin Luoran feels terribly upset. Li Anping’s mother falsely accuses her as expected and makes up a lot of rumors to malign her, even getting her mom filled with anxiety.

“Mom, I’m raised by you. Why do you think I go astray? Why do you believe outsiders but not your own daughter? I make money on my own. Absolutely legally. I’ll talk to you when having dinner. Is it ok?”

Mrs. Lin still worries a lot. Lin Luoran does not get angry. She explains it and makes a promise initiatively.

Mrs. Lin wants to say more, but Mr. Lin, after moving the last pack of beef, says impatiently, “Our daughter has been driving for a long time to come back. She’s tired. Let’s talk after dinner!”

Mr. Lin is the head of the family at a crucial time and Mrs. Lin stops. The three go to cook in the kitchen together. Mother cuts vegetables, father cooks, and Luoran makes a fire, as the definite division as usual.

Mr. Lin is different from other men in rural areas. He never thinks that wives must do all the housework. Actually, he is better at cooking than his wife.

Looking at the vegetables Lin Luoran brings back, Mrs. Lin babbles, “We have everything at home. Why do you waste money?”

These vegetables are from the s.p.a.ce, but Lin Luoran can’t tell them frankly now. So she has to lie to them, “Mom, this is a new species. It is difficult to buy outside!”

Mr. Lin picks a stick of celery into her mouth. It tastes crunchy, a little tingle and refres.h.i.+ng. He nods constantly:” The vegetables our daughter brought are really better than what we grow. It’s her love toward us. Why do you keep blaming her?”

Lin Luoran sees dad blink his eyes just like what he did when she was a child. It is easy for them to form a joint front “against” Mrs. Lin. Mr. Lin is dull and ineloquent in the eyes of outsiders, but he is quick-witted only in front of his daughter.

Looking at dad’s wrinkles and gray hair when he blinks, Lin Luoran is going to cry. Her father, only in his fifties, has been tortured by a hard life. She must keep them from suffering.

Lin Luoran lowers her head to make fire, hiding her rolling tears, and secretly determines to protect her parents from toiling days!

Pouring oil into the pot, Mr. Lin takes the celery cut by Mrs. Lin, and is ready to cook “stir-fried beef with celery”. The courtyard is full of noise, so Lin Luoran and her parents involuntarily stop.

The Lin family lives in a single courtyard surrounded by walls made of fences, so they can see it straight if something happens.

During the cooking time, so many people come to their yard.

Li Bajie, with her own two children and other children in the village, seven or eight in a pile, is around Lin Luoran’s car to touch it curiously.

There are also countless onlookers sneaking outside the fence. Do they have some bad ideas or just want to enjoy the farce?

The old woman standing in the yard, short-statured and inconspicuous, is Li Anping’s mother!

When seeing Li Anping’s mother stand in the doorway with her two daughters, a son-in-law and several brothers, Lin Luoran laughs cynically. Do these people want to bully the Lin family just because their surname doesn’t belong to Li’s village and even force them to capitulate?