Chapter 267 - What a cute and cunning man. (1)
Tong Mianmian blinked her teary eyes and her lips pouted, “Big Sister, Mianmian knows that she is wrong and Mianmian won’t do that again!”
Tong Jiaxin scratched the floor with his feet and said, “Big Sister, I know I am wrong too. I won’t do that again in the future!”
Tong Jiaming, “Me too. I should have stopped them.”
Tong Xuelu pointed at the sugary ginger soup on the table and said to them, “Drink a bowl, each of you. We don’t want to spend more money when you get a cold tomorrow!”
The three quickly drank the ginger soup docilely before they stood back into a row waiting to be lectured some more.
Tong Xuelu looked over all of them. “It is a good thing to know to change your way after you had made a mistake. But there are still consequences for bad behaviors. Tong Jiaming and Tong Mianmian will have no malt for three days. Tong Jiaxin will clean the chicken coop for a month. If Xiao Lu dies, you will not have pocket money for 3 months!”
Tong Xuelu had been giving the children 5 cents a month. They were free to spend the money on candies or to save them up. Once the money was spent, that was it.
Tong Jiaxin was dispirited like a mourning son when he heard that.
Crocodile tears came rolling down Tong Mianmian’s cheeks. Her nose red and she couldn’t look more pitiful.
But Tong Xuelu did not comfort her. She would dote on her at the right time, but also chastise her when the situation called for it. She didn’t want to raise unruly kids.
***
Let it be her being riled up in the day time or that her appendicitis had worsened, Mother Tong who was scheduled to be discharged the next day, was in pain again that night.
This time even the medicine failed and she needed a surgery.
Her incision site hurt madly after the anesthesia had worn off.
Laying in bed, Mother Tong was pale. “I had already recovered. It was all because Xuelu had jinxed me!”
Mother Tong was no longer worried about speaking loudly, as the Aunty next to her had switched to a different room.
Father Tong handed her a glass of warm water. He frowned when he heard her, “How could that be Xuelu’s fault? Stop being so silly.”
Mother Tong gasped. “Of course it was her fault. Had she not came and riled me up, would this have happened?”
Father Tong looked at her, baffled, “Whatever had happened to you? We didn’t give birth to Xuelu but we had raised her all these years. Hadn’t you said in the past that you will continue to treat her as if she is our own?”
Leaning up against the pillow, Mother Tong lowered her eyes and remained silent.
She didn’t even know when she started to change.
She had wanted to keep both daughters and love them the same at the beginning, but the two just didn’t get along with each other. They would fight every time they see each other.
At the beginning, it was Tong Xuelu who bullied Tong Zhenzhen and Tong Zhenzhen would hide in the corner and cry. That made Mother Tong very sad.
Her real daughter had never lived a good day in her life. Now that she was back, she had to be bullied by the adopted daughter? How did that make sense?
That was probably when she started to have ill feelings toward Tong Xuelu.
She was sad when Tong Xuelu left but then her ill feelings toward Tong Xuelu returned after Tong Zhenzhen was sent for reforming at the ranch.
Her ill feelings toward Tong Xuelu had reached its max when she saw how skinny her daughter was right now.
Had Tong Xuelu not insisted on calling the cops or she was willing to say a nice thing or two about Tong Zhenzhen, Tong Zhenzhen would not have been sent to the ranch. Now, Tong Zhenzhen was at the ranch and Tong Xuelu was living it up at the government-operated restaurant!
Mother Tong found that very disturbing!
In addition, there were other downsides for the family after Tong Zhenzhen was sent to the ranch. Many mocked them for raising someone else’s child and her own daughter was a bad seed.
She could have became an advanced member this year but that, too, was spoilt.
Tong Xuelu had switched a job and moved. Not only did she not mention that to them at all, she had never visited. All of those factors added together had made her the way that she was right now.
Seeing that she didn’t say anything, Father Tong had a good idea of what was bothering her. “Just don’t say something like that in the future. If you don’t like her, just don’t see her as much in the future.”
Truth was it would be difficult for the relationship between the two families to go on.
Tong Zhenzhen had a lot of issues with Tong Xuelu. If she was to see that the family was nice to Tong Xuelu when she returned, she would certainly be very sad.
The Tong family would need to distance themselves from Tong Xuelu for their sake of their own daughter.
Mother Tong remained silent for a long while before she responded. “Alright, I won’t mention that again in the future.”
She wouldn’t mention it, but whatever mother-daughter relationship between the two was also gone.