Chapter 498: No Comparison, No Harm

Mrs. Gao went to her daughter’s room.

"Lan! Seeing as Yao Hui has moved in, why don’t we go ahead and get his household registration transferred over? That way, he can switch schools and start studying here after the New Year."

She peeked at her daughter’s expression before adding, "It has to be done sooner or later anyway. Besides, I just asked Yao Hui, and he said he’s adjusting very well here!"

"And I think he should stop calling him ’Uncle.’ When Wenzhe gets back, Yao Hui should just start calling him ’Dad’."

Gao Lan thought for a moment, then nodded. "Alright. I’ll talk to Wenzhe about it when he gets home."

Mrs. Gao was overjoyed to hear this.

"What do you want for lunch? How about I stew a chicken for you?"

She had seen two chickens cooped up in the yard, obviously meant for helping her daughter recuperate.

’Might as well eat them now,’ she thought.

"Okay." They hadn’t butchered a chicken yesterday because they had just moved in, so having stewed chicken today sounded fine.

"By the way, why didn’t your mother-in-law come today?"

It wasn’t that she actually wanted to see Qin Wenze’s mother. Every time she saw her well-dressed counterpart...

...she always felt inferior.

But the woman knew she was here to help her daughter recover, yet her counterpart hadn’t bothered to show up.

It left a sour taste in her mouth.

’Is she looking down on me?’

’Not even bothering to visit?’

"Wenzhe said he heard she went to the Forbidden City with his sister-in-law and her family today."

"What? Sightseeing?" Mrs. Gao was displeased. "She—she certainly has the time for that."

What also irked her was that they were both mothers-in-law to the Qin sons.

’So why the difference in treatment?’

’Hmph. Why didn’t they invite her to go with them?’

Hearing her mother’s passive-aggressive remarks, Gao Lan felt a sense of unease as well.

’It was true that her mother-in-law treated them differently.’

’It wasn’t just how she treated her versus Fu Mingxue.’

’Her attitude toward their respective families was completely different, too.’

She had seen her mother-in-law getting along wonderfully with Fu Mingxue’s mother, their faces alight with smiles and laughter whenever they spoke.

But she had never seen her mother-in-law smile at her own mother that way.

When with her mother, there was always a sense of detachment.

If she had to put it into words, it was that her mother-in-law seemed condescending toward her mother.

Of course, Mrs. Qin was oblivious to these thoughts.

If she knew, she would have been utterly speechless.

’How was she being condescending?’

Mrs. Gao was so stiff and reserved every time they met that it was impossible to make small talk.

Besides, she simply got along better with Fu Mingxue’s mother.

Mrs. Qin really liked the frank and open personality of Fu Mingxue’s mother.

"If you ask me, you need to be smarter about this. You have to learn how to please your mother-in-law. Don’t let that scheming sister-in-law of yours sweet-talk her out of the family inheritance. Didn’t you say last time that she has a refrigerator? You’ve moved out now, but did your mother-in-law give you anything like that? No! You even had to buy your own television."

"Mom, my mother-in-law gave us money for it."

"Hmph. Did that money go to you? If she truly saw you as her daughter-in-law, she would have given the money directly to you, not to her son."

Gao Lan pressed her lips together, saying nothing.

She hadn’t been in a good mood to begin with, and now she felt even worse.

Qin Wenze did give her money.

In the past, she thought receiving forty yuan a month from him was quite good.

After all, that was as much as some people earned in a whole month.

But then she heard that Qin Wenze’s brother, Qin Wenhao, gave his entire monthly stipend to Fu Mingxue. Wenhao didn’t keep a single cent for himself.

Meanwhile, Qin Wenze had never told her his exact salary, nor how much he received in bonuses.

Comparison is the thief of joy.