Her Cultivation Diary
Chapter 358 - Chapter 358 358. Brother Xiaozhangs Anger_1

Chapter 358: 358. Brother Xiaozhang’s Anger_1 Chapter 358: 358. Brother Xiaozhang’s Anger_1 Song Dafang wasn’t even satisfied and continued to instruct:

“No wonder Qiaoqiao said your watermelons are 20 yuan a pound, and he used that to ask me for a favor… The price must be all in the shipping fees!”

–I can’t tolerate that comment.

Brother Xiaozhang was so angry he put his hands on his hips.

“Who said that? Song Tan never includes shipping when selling stuff, what ‘expensive because of shipping fees’… It’s not your business, what do you know?!”

He had become tanned from running around recently, and now every day he’s either carrying watermelons or shouldering green peaches, and his frame had also toughened up. Now, as he stood up angrily, Uncle Song instinctively took a step back, feeling a bit short of breath.

Luckily, Uncle Song wasn’t fighting alone. Mao Li showed she really was from the same family when she frowned:

“Why are you being so aggressive? We were just asking you to send a parcel, and you’re getting fierce. What’s with this ‘can’t find any courier service and it has to be you’? Get out of the way!”

“What are you doing?!”

Song Tan set the cardboard box on the ground, watching this clueless couple:

“It’s my family’s business, and I choose the courier. If you have an opinion, you pay for it!”

“Uncle, you say Qiaoqiao and I are ignorant, but you’re wise? Going to grandpa’s door and not planning to see the old man first, you just start talking nonsense. If the villagers hear about it, they’ll surely laugh at you!”

Heh, if it weren’t for grandpa’s old age and dad’s soft heart, who would bother with relatives like these!

But considering grandpa’s recent attitude… perhaps he’s even better than her dad!

Song Tan couldn’t help but laugh.

Song Dafang’s face turned dark and gloomy.

He was particularly concerned about his own reputation, and as he couldn’t lash out upon hearing these words, he felt utterly frustrated and strode off into the courtyard with a “hmmph”.

He then saw his own father squatting under the corridor, holding the familiar smoking pipe, puffing and exhaling smoke while looking at him with an indescribable expression.

This made him involuntarily shudder.

At that moment, Brother Xiaozhang, who had just confronted Song Tan’s relatives, was feeling a bit regretful but then saw Song Tan give him a thumb up with a firm lift of her hand!

He immediately laughed–

Understood, doesn’t every family have one or two annoying relatives?

…

Inside the courtyard, there was an eerie silence between Song Dafang and his father, Song Youde, as they avoided each other’s gaze.

Meanwhile, Mao Li, thinking they had something on their minds, started looking around the yard.

She first approached Qiaoqiao and asked, looking at the pile of stuff on his chopping board: “Qiaoqiao, what are you doing?”

Qiaoqiao looked at Auntie bewilderedly: “I’m cutting watermelon rind. Don’t you recognize it, Auntie?”

Mao Li: …deep breath.

She suppressed a roll of her eyes: “Of course, I recognize watermelon rind. I’m asking what you’re cutting it for? Don’t tell me you can’t bear to throw it out after eating the watermelon?”

Lucky I didn’t bring Ziyi today, otherwise she would just learn the stingy ways of the countryside and never amount to anything!

But Qiaoqiao seriously nodded: “Yeah, the watermelon rind is really tasty, can’t bear to toss it. Just last time I made watermelon candy, Seventh Uncle said it wasn’t done just right, so I thought I’d practice some more.”

After speaking, he buried his head and resumed his work.

Mao Li curled her lip.

Their Ziyi, so young, eats imported goods. Watermelon candy, homemade, and who knows how much sugar is in it? Not healthy at all.

Looking again at the sun-dried cowpeas outside the courtyard and the stacked layers of green peach jars in the corner of the wall, she couldn’t help but take another look and said with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes:

“Living with our dad is great. Now that our own place is all filled up, we can even take over Dad’s yard. Sancheng, living here at Dad’s place must feel different from being at your own home, doesn’t it?”

What nerve!

Song Tan stuffed the cardboard box into Brother Xiaozhang’s hands, thinking to herself, I haven’t even gotten started, and you dare to sneer at my dad like this?

She also snorted with laughter, “Pretty good, actually. So, my grandpa wants to build a new house, great-aunt, how much are you and my uncle planning to contribute?”

“I forgot to mention that.”

“We will prepare the materials for our family when the time comes, which will cost about ten to twenty thousand. Uncle is the eldest son, surely he can’t contribute less than us, right?”

Mao Li felt a lump in her throat.

Contribute what? They want to fish for money from them by using old bricks and rubble from the other house?

In your dreams!

Her face became serious:

“Tantan, it’s not that I want to criticize you, but ever since you came back home, the things you’ve done have been pretty unreliable.”

“Not to mention your insistence on farming in your own yard, let’s talk about this idea of making the old man build a house–How old is he? Can he withstand this kind of trouble? Aren’t the houses here already in good shape? Why must you encourage them to dip into their savings for this?”

“I ask you, once the house is built, there’s also the interior decoration and buying furniture and appliances, where will the money come from?”

“Besides, you didn’t discuss this matter ahead of time. I’m telling you now, your uncle and I do not agree.”

“Why the hell do you disagree!”

Song Youde knocked on his tobacco pipe on the steps, “It’s my own house, and I want to build it; why the hell don’t you agree? Did you spend your money when the house was built?”

Of course, that was not the case. The house was built when Song Dafang was in his teens; over the years, it has been maintained and slowly improved upon.

“That’s not the point…”

Song Dafang tugged at the corners of his mouth, “Dad, you’re also getting on in years, and sometimes your mind isn’t that clear. I’m just worried about you getting cheated by others.”

Song Youde gave him a look, “You sure are considerate–but let me tell you this, when you bought that house in the city, you took 50,000 from me, and I never told Sancheng about it.”

“Now that I want to build a house, I don’t want any interest. I’m not going to talk about inflation or anything like that. Just give me back those 50,000 yuan, and you won’t have to worry about the construction.”

Song Dafang bought that house twenty years ago, back when it was still a small city with cheap real estate prices. Plus, the land hadn’t been developed much back then–housing prices were incredibly low compared to today!

Who needed 50,000 yuan?

With 32,000 yuan and the rest added from his savings over the years, he managed to buy the small storefront.

Having long since forgotten about this episode over the years–as a father keeping his promise to buy his son a house was the natural order of things–he was now embarrassed with his face turning purple and feeling as though his skin was being peeled off as Song Youde brought up the matter in front of everyone.

Resentment began to fester within him–he had given Sancheng countless financial help over the years, and now his father was holding this 50,000 yuan against him as if he didn’t trust his eldest son at all!

At this moment, his back felt burning hot, as if everyone was staring and laughing at him.

All he could do now was to suppress the resentment and say in a low voice, “Dad, we were talking about you building a house. Why do you have to build a new one when this house is fine as it is?”

“And concerning that 50,000 yuan, could I ever shortchange you? It’s just that Ziyi has a lot of expenses right now and I can’t free up the money at the moment. Would I, as your son, fail to be filial?”

“That remains to be seen.”

Song Youde spoke leisurely, “There’s no shortage of sons in the village who don’t take care of their old fathers. Ziyi has a lot of expenses–whose fault is that? Her parents don’t have the ability to support their daughter, do they?”

“As a father, you’ve really failed to teach Ziyi’s dad properly.”