Proofread by Claire.KK
Wang Mudan (i.e. Peony) blushed and asked, “You, you were sneakily watching us eat meat in the middle of the night?”
“Well, now you admit that you were eating dog meat, don’t you?” said Li Hongmei angrily. “Humph, I was also fumbling down to your place with the smell of the meat. At the time I didn’t expose this since I didn’t want to embarrass you. But look at you! We were rarely eating anything good while you’d rather shout it out for the whole village to hear!”
Chen Ju was smiling to herself. Chen Ju looked to be in a good relationship with Wang Mudan but she was actually hoping to see them make a scene like this.
But Chen Ju’s pleasure from others’ misfortune did not last, since Li Hongmei suddenly pointed to Chen Ju and said, “So did my third sister-in-law. Last night, third brother came back from the town with some osmanthus cakes, right? Wrapped in oil paper which you brought back. The oil paper is still in the backyard!”
Then Li Hongmei asked Chen Ju’s five-year-old daughter Xiao Baoxue, “Baoxue, tell auntie. Was the cake sweet at all?”
Chen Ju was trying to cover her hands over her daughter’s mouth but it was too late and Baoxue cried excitedly, “Very sweet!”
“Sister-in-law, you…” Chen Ju had been helping Wang Mudan to attack Li Hongmei. Now Li Hongmei suddenly exposed her secret, which made her flush with anger.
Old Mr. Xiao pounded his walking stick on the ground. “You selfish and mean women. You dare…dare…”
But Wang Mudan had recovered. In order not to let old Mr. Xiao scold her, she once again aimed her fire at Li Hongmei. “So what if we were really hiding something to eat? We somehow still know to eat secretly. How about you? You eat openly, and we have caught you. Aren’t you too cocky?”
“What am I cocky about? I was eating pig’s offal, some garbage that you would have complained about if I cooked for you! Why should we not eat it openly?” answered Li Hongmei, standing akimbo.
“Pig’s offal? You think I’m blind or what. You’ve got meat-roasted pork!” said Wang Mudan.
Chen Ju also followed. “Pig’s offal smells like shit but yours clearly has a meaty smell. You not only think we are blind, but treat us like we have stuffy nose.”
“You don’t believe me, do you? If you don’t believe me, I’ll find evidence for you!” Li Hongmei was not afraid of them. She simply picked up a stick and picked out some pig manure from the yard when cleaning up the pig’s offal.
“Sister-in-law, is it pig’s dung or not? Third Sister-in-law, come and have a look too. Isn’t it pig’s shit?” Li Hongmei approached Wang Mudan and Chen Ju with a stick stained with excrement.
Wang Mudan and Chen Ju both were worried about being touched by it, so they then withdrew.
Li Hongmei was about to hold the stick in front of old Mr. Xiao and let him smell it, when Xiao Baoshan came out and stopped her. “Ma, why aren’t you going back to the room?!”
Xiao Baoshan took the leftover pig’s offal and went to old Mr. Xiao and said respectfully, “Grandpa, this is indeed pig’s offal, but it’s not been cooked the same way. You can taste it.”
The light outside the yard was good. One could see clearly that what was on the plate were pig’s guts.
Old Mr. Xiao wasn’t going to eat any but Xiao Baoshan was standing still in front of him like a tree with a forceful aura, so he had no option but put one piece in his mouth.
It was actually tasty and there was no funny smell to it.
Old Mr. Xiao was going to eat another piece, so he asked, “Who made this?”
“It was…” Xiao Baoshan looked at Ye Xiaoxian, wondering how he should address her.
Ye Xiaoxian curved her lips and was only wanting to see if Xiao Baoshan would address her as “my wife” or “my young bride” or something similar.
“Little Ye made them.” Xiao Baoshen didn’t address her with any title but just called her by her pet name.
“I didn’t know that you could cook something nice like this. Before you lived apart, you didn’t cook anything nice but now you are really capable!” Old Mr. Xiao ate while scolding Ye Xiaoxian.
After he finished scolding Ye Xiaoxian, he began to scold Wang Mudan and Chen Ju. “You two, get the hell out of the Xiao Family next time if you hide away food again! How dare you!”
Wang Mudan and Chen Ju felt extremely wronged. Didn’t your sons bring those things back home? Why should you only scold your daughters-in-law instead of your own sons?