CHAPTER 62: CHAPTER 62 JEALOUSY

On the 28th day of the lunar year, every family was united, and this time Tang Mingli came back, bringing a lot of food, which made Granny Tang extremely happy.

Tang Zhengde’s family hadn’t been back home in a long while, and the house hadn’t been tidied up yet. The family of four immediately set to work cleaning up.

Earlier, they had brought the quilts to the county. This time, besides the one Tang Yue brought back from school, Tang Jun also brought a set of quilts back from school. They took advantage of the good weather to air and wash them, so they could also celebrate the New Year.

After bustling about, everyone ate dinner and went to bed early.

The next morning was New Year’s Eve.

Zhang Hualian got up early and tidied up the house inside and out. After breakfast, she and her husband went to her mother’s home with their two children. First, as a gift, as daughters married out are expected to visit their natal family during the three main holidays to give some gifts. Secondly, it was also to celebrate the New Year at her mother’s home.

In past years, Zhang Hualian always felt particularly miserable on this day. The disdainful looks from Liu Cuixong, and her mother’s guilty looks, always made her feel terribly unimpressive. Each visit was embarrassingly poor. Sometimes they couldn’t even afford two pounds of meat, let alone anything else.

But this year, Zhang Hualian felt the most relaxed she ever had. In addition to buying two pounds of meat, they also bought wine and two pounds of apples, which were quite expensive during this era.

Elder Mrs. Zhang had been eagerly waiting for her daughter’s return and got up early to have Zhang Huafeng kill a chicken, made some braised pork, and pulled some green vegetables, radishes, and chives from the vegetable garden. She also dug out the sweet potatoes that had been left in the cellar and not eaten.

Zhang Huafeng squatted on the ground plucking the chicken, handling it deftly.

Zhang Min tried on new clothes in the house, while Zhang Qiang went out to play.

"Mom, do you think my clothes look good?" The clothes Zhang Min was wearing, which she had pestered Liu Cuixong to buy, were a bright red jacket, very festive.

"Good-looking." Liu Cuixong praised: "My daughter is so beautiful."

"Of course." Zhang Min proudly examined herself in the old-fashioned mirror, scrutinizing herself again and again. She would tie up her hair, then let it down, trying different styles to see which looked best.

Zhang Min took after Liu Cuixong, quite delicate-looking, except her eyes were a bit small.

"Mom, Huafeng." Zhang Hualian arrived just as Zhang Huafeng had finished with the chicken, and Elder Mrs. Zhang was picking through chives in the yard.

"Xiao Yue, Xiao Jun, you are here." Elder Mrs. Zhang’s face immediately broke into a smile, her wrinkled face forming creases from the laughter, and her eyes shone with kind warmth.

"Grandma." Tang Jun loved coming to his grandma’s house, where he was always treated to good food.

"Ah, Xiao Jun has grown taller." Elder Mrs. Zhang sized up Tang Jun, noticing his new clothes, and then she saw that both Tang Yue and Tang Jun were wearing new clothes.

"Grandma." Tang Yue stepped forward, choking up as she called out, her eyes lowered, afraid her emotional agitation would raise suspicions.

She still remembered, in her previous life, when Grandma passed away, she hadn’t even managed to see her for the last time. At that time, she had given all her money to Wu Xinming, Xu Zhenzhen’s child was sick and borrowed money from her, so by the time her mother came to borrow money, she had none left.

Later, she went to look for Wu Xinming, but Wu Xinming said he had no money. She thought about giving money to her mother next time she received her salary, but by then her grandmother had already passed away.

She deeply regretted that incident.

Now, seeing her kind-hearted grandmother again, Tang Yue secretly swore to herself that she would take good care of her grandmother in the future. If there was an opportunity, she would rebuild her grandmother’s house so that her grandmother wouldn’t fall because of the high threshold of the wooden house, which led to her final departure.

"Xiao Yue is getting prettier and prettier," Elder Mrs. Zhang took Tang Yue’s hand.

"Grandma, my sister went to the Provincial City for a mathematics competition and won first place. She was also the top of her grade this term," Tang Jun said proudly, showing off as if he was the one who had achieved first place.

Tang Jun’s voice was intentionally loud, deliberately looking toward the room where Zhang Min stayed.

He still remembered that after the last high school entrance exam, when Zhang Min heard that her sister had been accepted into No. 1 Middle School, she had a disdainful look and said it wasn’t a big deal even if Tang Yue got in.

"Wow, our Xiao Yue is really amazing," Elder Mrs. Zhang looked at Tang Yue happily, as Xiao Yue’s achievements also made her, as a grandmother, very thrilled.

"Impossible," Zhang Min ran out of the room. She was about to speak when she saw Tang Yue standing there with a smiling face, tall and elegant, her high ponytail revealing her whole face, and her bright, expressive eyes were very attractive.

Zhang Min originally liked her new clothes very much, but looking at the new clothes that Tang Yue was wearing, she suddenly felt unbalanced. She wore a pink jacket, which was very stylish, with pure white fur at the collar and cuffs, particularly attractive.

"How could it be impossible? My sister’s grades are no fake," Tang Jun immediately chimed in. "The report card is still at home. If you don’t believe it, you can go to our house to see it."

Tang Jun looked at Zhang Min with pride.

"Xiao Jun, it’s just luck," Tang Yue patted Tang Jun’s shoulder and smiled at Zhang Min: "Xiao Min, you’re going to get into No. 1 Middle School next year, right?"

"Of course," Zhang Min answered without hesitation. She pursed her lips and looked at the clothes on Tang Yue with a sarcastic tone, "Didn’t our aunt come over to borrow money before? Your clothes must have cost a good amount of money, right?"

Zhang Minmin’s gaze stayed on Tang Yue’s clothes; the beautiful outfit she had seen her classmates wear was said to cost over twenty yuan.

"This is bought by her uncle," Zhang Hualian immediately said, signaling Tang Zhengde to bring the things over.

"Mom, I bought these wines, meats, and apples. The apples are really delicious," Tang Zhengde approached cheerfully. Regarding the tension between the children, he didn’t say much. In the past, Zhang Min always disliked Xiao Yue and Xiao Jun.

"People are already here, why bring things," Elder Mrs. Zhang saw these items and knew that her daughter’s life must have improved a lot recently. She smiled, took them, and warmly invited everyone into the house.

While the kids were outside, Elder Mrs. Zhang and Zhang Hualian chatted in the kitchen. She asked, "Hualian, I heard Zhengde is no longer working at the forestry station. What are you both doing in the county?"

"We opened a breakfast restaurant in the county, and the business is okay," Zhang Hualian said, feeling that she had been quite bold at the beginning, but now it had finally paid off, making their life better and better.

Zhang Hualian took out ten yuan and offered it, "Mom, over the years, you’ve given me quite a bit of money. Although this ten yuan isn’t much, it can at least buy you some good food."