Chapter 221: The Rules

Chapter 221: Chapter 221: The Rules

Before her voice had faded, she shot to her feet.

"Is she here or not? I’m going to find her and ask! I’ll confront her and find out if there’s any justice in this world!"

"Does she think my daughter is a pushover?"

"I’m telling you right now, there’s no way I’m letting this go! I’ll chew her out until she comes to her senses!"

Song Yao quickly grabbed her arm.

"Mom! Mom! Please, sit down first! Sit down! Don’t rush, we can talk about this calmly."

She patted the sofa beside her.

"Catch your breath, have some water, and let me finish. I haven’t hidden anything about this from you, from start to finish."

She then recounted the incident where she had faked a pregnancy scare, gotten herself hospitalized, and forced the other party to come and apologize in person.

Then she added another thing.

"My grandmother and sister-in-law went to their place and gave that mother-daughter pair a piece of their minds before. They said everything that needed saying and didn’t back down an inch."

Wei Guilan let out a long sigh after hearing this.

"It’s a good thing your grandmother was there to hold down the fort. Otherwise... how could a girl like Song Yao handle all this heartache on her own?"

She paused for a moment, then seemed to remember something.

"Oh, right. Does your grandmother live nearby? Is it within walking distance? How long does it take by bike?"

"If it’s not far, I’ll pay her a visit first thing in the morning to thank her properly. I’ll bring a little something and express my gratitude in person."

"She is, very close! Mom, if you want to go..."

Song Yao suddenly trailed off, her sentence left hanging.

Wei Guilan immediately lowered her voice.

"Oh, is it not a good time for us to visit? Would it be an inconvenience?"

"If it’s not a good idea, then we won’t go. I don’t want to put anyone in an awkward position. There’s a difference between proper etiquette and imposing on someone, and I know which is which."

She was insistent on visiting, but really, she just had one thought: proper etiquette must be observed.

If the other family was truly against a visit, well, she wouldn’t be the one to blame for bad manners.

Song Yao waved her hand and smiled. "It’s not that."

Li Hanchen chimed in, "Song Yao’s grandparents and her biological father live separate lives. They’re registered as separate households, live apart, and barely see each other even for holidays."

Wei Guilan immediately nodded in understanding.

"Oh! Then we should pay our respects to the two elders first. Elders always come first! That’s the proper custom."

"We can visit her parents later when we have time. The future is long; there’s no rush."

Song Yao hesitated for a moment before speaking up.

"Well... my mom and dad haven’t been together for a long time. They divorced years ago and have moved on with their own lives."

Wei Guilan was stunned into silence.

She opened her mouth, but the words were stuck in her throat. Not a single one came out.

"D-divorced?"

she murmured again, her fingers unconsciously picking at the seams of her pants.

’Divorce?’

The word sounded as shocking as desecrating an ancestral shrine. It was terrifying.

Song Yao nodded.

"Yes, they did. It’s because when I was a child, my mother threw me away."

She wasn’t afraid to talk about the divorce, but whenever she had to speak about being abandoned by her own mother, her tongue always seemed to get tied in knots.

The old folks say that even the cruelest wolf won’t eat its own cubs, but what Yao Yuzhen did was more horrifying than anything a wolf could do.

Song Yao didn’t dare to dwell on it, terrified that if others heard, they would immediately turn and say:

"That girl... she hasn’t taken after her mother, has she?"

Song Yao sighed internally. ’What a mess!’

’But there’s no avoiding this today.’

’If I don’t clear the air now, things will only get harder down the line.’

’Telling her is also a way to see what my mother-in-law is really made of.’

Wei Guilan blinked, her face a mask of utter confusion.

"Huh? Song Yao, what did you just say? I... I don’t think I heard you correctly."

If it had been a poor family unable to afford a daughter, leaving her at a temple gate or by the roadside, she could at least understand the bitter necessity of it.

But Song Yao’s family were officials!

And officials weren’t just some nouveau riche.

The family was well-off back then, and it’s not like they had too many children. So what was the reason?

Song Yao peeled a grape, popped it into her mouth, and said while chewing, "Mom, you heard me right. I wasn’t abducted. My own mother found someone to give me away."

Wei Guilan was speechless once more.

"But why?"

Her voice was hoarse.

"Because she couldn’t stand my dad."

Song Yao replied simply.

Wei Guilan was completely floored.

’Back in my day, who even saw the face of the person they were going to spend the rest of their life with before the wedding?’

’Whether they were reliable and decent, or a total dud...’

’Either way, you just had to get on with life, one day at a time.’

’As long as they were honest and kind-hearted, that was enough!’

’Who could have imagined...’

Wei Guilan quickly slapped her thigh, rushing to smooth things over.

"Song Yao, dear, you mustn’t bottle up these feelings! Some people...唉, their heads are full of mush, they can’t get their priorities straight. Why would you listen to anything she says? Don’t take it to heart! You have your own happy little life now, and that’s better than anything!"

She was genuinely afraid that Song Yao was dwelling on being abandoned by her own mother as a child.

Song Yao immediately chimed in.

"Mom, I’m really not upset! I haven’t been around her since I was a kid. I’ve only seen her a handful of times. What kind of emotional attachment could I have?"

Only then did Wei Guilan breathe a sigh of relief.

She moved the cloth bag she had brought over to the coffee table and began to unfold its opening.

Song Yao leaned in, reaching out to help sort the vegetable leaves.

"Yes! This is exactly what I’ve been craving, vegetables grown in our own soil. You stir-fry a plate of these, and the aroma is just heavenly!"

These words were music to Wei Guilan’s ears.

"Next time I come, I’ll haul a whole burlap sack of them for you!"

Song Yao quickly grabbed her wrist.

"Oh, Mom, you can’t do that! It’s a long trip back and forth. Carrying something that heavy... you’d be exhausted, not to mention the vegetables would wilt on the way! You don’t need to bring so much. Just a small basket each time so I can get a taste of their freshness is enough!"

"It’s no trouble at all! I’m just sitting on the bus, it’s a smooth ride!"

Li Hanchen cut in.

"The train station has a two-bag limit per person. They were lenient this time, but if you try to bring a whole sack next time, they’ll stop you right at the gate. Trains are for passengers, not for hauling vegetables."

Wei Guilan froze.

"Huh? They don’t let you bring more? Oh... well, never mind then."

Song Yao secretly winked at Li Hanchen and gave him a quiet thumbs-up.

「The next morning.」

Song Yao was up bright and early. She helped Wei Guilan carefully wipe down a bamboo basket, into which they then placed a live chicken.

After breakfast, the two of them left the house with the basket and walked all the way to the bus stop.

While waiting for the bus, Wei Guilan kept glancing down at the basket, worried the chicken would move and break the eggs inside.

Once on the bus, they stood close together. Wei Guilan gripped a handrail with one hand and supported the bottom of the basket with the other.

Song Yao stood sideways, shielding her from the jostling crowd.

The bus ride was bumpy, and they even had to transfer once along the way.

Wei Guilan clutched the handrail, her mouth twisting into a grimace.

"Whew... this place is really far out!"

Song Yao smiled. "That’s just how it is in the city. Nothing is ever close by."

Wei Guilan pressed her face against the window, looking out.

Cars filled the road, one after another, their horns blaring in a constant cacophony.

"No wonder there are so many cars in the city!"

"Look at that! That whole stream of bicycles... we don’t see that many in our village in a whole year!"

"Tsk, what a sight!"

Song Yao linked her arm through her mother-in-law’s.

"Mom, tomorrow I’ll take you on a tour of the whole city! Beijing is so lively, you could explore all day and never see the same thing twice!"

Wei Guilan beamed.

"Deal! When I get back home, I’ll have to tell Third Auntie and the others all about what our nation’s Capital is really like!"

"You got it! We’ll pick out a couple of new outfits for you, too. You’ll look so respectable, and it will reflect well on you in front of the relatives!"

Wei Guilan looked down and tugged at the sleeve of her t-shirt.

"Oh, I really don’t need new clothes! This fabric is Dacron I bought at the market. I just had this shirt made this year. It’s so breezy, it’s like having a built-in fan!"

Song Yao smiled and gave her arm a little shake.

"Wearing new clothes is about celebrating! And later, when people ask, you can tell them your daughter-in-law bought them for you. I guarantee they’ll be clicking their tongues with envy!"

At this, Wei Guilan’s face instantly broke into a wide, joyous smile.

"You bet they will! All the neighbors will be green with envy!"