Chapter 454: Don’t Even Think About It

Old Madam Han sneered. "There is nothing to discuss. I am putting it right here: even if my granddaughter stays at my home for another year or two, I will never send her back to that fire pit that you call home. Do you think I don’t know how you have treated my Xuehan? There is not a single patch of skin on her body that is unharmed. She has been beaten black and blue by you lot, and you still have the nerve to claim that you are wrong and this matter is between you husband and wife? Who are you looking down at!?"

She raised her finger and pointed at Qiao Tingyan’s nose before saying, "My Xuehan has to wake up at three fucking am in the morning, and not only that, she has to spin like a top from morning till night. She has to go out and work on the farm to earn work points, then she has to come back and cook for your mother and you. You lot don’t even wash your clothes; she has to take care of them as well. Qiao Tingyan, did you marry a wife or did you spend two hundred yuan to buy a slave?"

"Why can’t your mother help out my Xuehan? If my Xuehan is working hard outside to earn work points, your mother can at least cook a meal or two. But she just waits to be served. Who does she think she is? Is she the queen dowager? Or you are the son of a landlord?"

Even though reform had happened, many people still panicked when they were connected to capitalism. As soon as Qiao Tingyan heard Old Madam Han pointing at his nose and calling him a landlord, his face turned pale. "You are talking nonsense. How am I a landlord? What Xuehan did is something that every daughter-in-law does. Which wife doesn’t serve her husband and mother-in-law? How is she any different?"

Qiao Tingyan felt that Old Madam Han was making a fuss for no reason. A woman was supposed to follow her husband through thick and thin. Even if she was made to suffer, what could she do? That was the life of a woman.

"Heh." Old Madam Han scoffed with a sneer playing on her face. "You are right; a woman is supposed to follow her husband and serve him."

As soon as she finished speaking, Qiao Tingyan nodded, looking relieved. But then he heard Old Madam Han continue speaking, "But a woman only follows a man when he can earn well and feed her three meals a day. Can you do that? When my Xuehan married you, she was the most beautiful girl of the village. I wouldn’t dare to say that she was chubby and well-endowed, but at least she looked like a human being. But what about after she married you? She resembles a ghost! It’s as if life has been sucked out of her body."

"You cannot even feed my Xuehan well, and you still dare to quibble with me?"

Inside the house, when Han Xuehan saw her grandmother fighting for her, she could not help but wipe her tears. She thought that she had hidden it well, but her grandmother and little sister still saw through her sufferings and knew what she had gone through at the Qiao family. She looked down at the patches of black and blue that were spread on her skin and sucked in a breath. A part of her still wanted to go and stop her grandmother, but when she thought about how her grandmother was fighting for her, she pursed her lips.

Her grandmother was doing this for her; even if she could not help her, the least she could do was not to become a burden for her.

Qiao Tingyan, on the other hand, turned bright red after listening to Old Madam Han’s accusations. He never thought that this old hag would be so vicious that she would actually say such things. She actually said that he was not a man! How dare she?

Just wait. Once Han Xuehan returned with him, he would teach her a good lesson. How dare that woman tell these things to her natal family? Did she even know that she had thrown his face on the ground?

"Old Han, what kind of talk is this?" Old Madam Li frowned hard when she heard Old Madam Han scold Qiao Tingyan. But inwardly she was quite satisfied and pleased. It seemed like Han Xuehan’s life was not good at the Qiao family. This was good. In the past, everyone compared Han Xuehan with her daughter. But look at what happened? Her daughter married well while Han Xuehan couldn’t even eat enough! Hoho. Sure enough, good people would naturally be rewarded. Who asked Old Madam Han to be so arrogant in the past and snatch Old Master Han from her?

She smiled coldly and said in a loud voice, "Old Han, Qiao Tingyan is your grandson-in-law; even if he is poor, you cannot look down on him, and since Xuehan married him, even if she has to suffer with him, this is what she should do. After all, the Qiao family married her through a legitimate matchmaker. How can you just say such things? Are you trying to ruin their relationship as a couple?"

She was still gloating when there was a whoosh followed by a smack. Old Madam Li did not even understand what was happening before she was scolded, "You damned woman, do you think that I have been too nice to you? How dare you cause trouble for me? Who are you to speak in matters of our family? Just because I have been lenient to you, you think you can ride on my head?"

Old Madam Han had restrained her temper in the past few years, which was why many people seemed to have forgotten that she was the tigress of the small fishing village. When she was young, even her mother-in-law did not dare to bully her, so who was Old Madam Li?