CHAPTER 326: CHAPTER 326: SCARED THE CHILD

Xiuxiu had no idea that the package she sent had caused a disturbance at the Song Family’s home. After mailing the package, she began to busily deal with the trivial matters of Soup City, occasionally picking Cheng Guang up from school and, during rare moments of leisure, taking her boy and girl twins to the Sichuan Pavilion flagship store to check the business report.

She was only waiting for the successful opening of Soup City, after which she could take her children to Imperial City and meet with Song Yuanhuan, not putting much concern on other matters.

However, the Song Family still couldn’t settle down after the incident with the mailed package, the most troublesome being the crying of the baby girl born to Wang Qinghua. That baby girl had started wailing loudly since that night, waking up several times each night, and no matter how anyone tried to comfort her, it didn’t help; thus, no one in the Song Family had slept well.

It wasn’t until the baby girl refused to eat or drink and had cried continuously for two days that Mrs. Song began to lose her composure, "Let her suffer the consequences, letting her not know how to accumulate some verbal virtue. Now, look, she has frightened the child, and the retribution has fallen upon the child!"

Innately, Mrs. Song felt that the relentless crying of the baby girl was due to being scared by Wang Qinghua scolding Xiuxiu during the day. Although she complained verbally, when dawn broke, she specifically went to the temple behind the village to get a "Night Crying God" talisman to put on the baby. After midnight, Mrs. Song superstitiously muttered a child’s nursery rhyme for those who cry at night.

But even so, it still had no effect, and Mrs. Song had no choice but to take the baby girl to see Old Song, the village’s barefoot doctor. After feeling the baby’s pulse, Old Song shook his head and advised Mrs. Song to take the child to the county hospital when she had the time, apparently at a loss over the baby’s relentless crying.

"Mom, how is Little Wanwan doing?" Little Wanwan was the baby girl born to Wang Qinghua, officially named Song Xiaowan, and the person asking was Wang Qinghua. As she was still not fully recovered from her forty-day postpartum confinement, Wang Qinghua hadn’t dared to take the child out herself. Yet, the child was still a piece of flesh that had grown inside her for ten months, and since Little Wanwan was plump and cute, she naturally invested her motherly love in her.

"Not too good, Old Song couldn’t figure out what’s wrong," she said. "He suggested I give the child some calming tea today to see if it helps. If she still keeps crying nonstop, I’ll have to send her to the county hospital tomorrow for a check-up." Mrs. Song looked quite worn out after two days of the child’s crying, and her face showed her concern.

Although it’s just a girl who can’t carry on the family lineage like a firstborn son, she’s still a granddaughter, and Mrs. Song couldn’t bear to see the baby crying day and night. The little girl, who used to be chubby and plump, seemed pale and pinched after just two days of crying, which pained Mrs. Song’s heart.

"Do you think Wanwan’s constant crying could be because of the pushing incident with Song Chengguang that day?" At night, as Wang Qinghua watched her baby girl finally stop crying and sleep for a while, she started to complain and speculate to Yuantao.

She never wanted to let Song Chengguang, the little brat, off the hook easily. If it weren’t for Xu Xiuxiu, that woman being difficult to mess with and her threatening words, she would have clung to Song Chengguang and torn off a layer of his skin no matter what. But now, with her daughter crying and making a scene, Wang Qinghua felt sorry for her and thought about the upcoming visit to the county hospital for a check-up, which would cost money. The last trip to the county hospital was not cheap. Out of concern for money, Wang Qinghua’s previously settled thoughts began to stir again.

"Don’t always think about such nonsense. Chengguang is just a kid; why do you insist on relentlessly picking on him?" Song Yuantao was already headache-ridden from his younger daughter’s crying, and just as the child finally fell asleep, his eyelids were drooping shut, but Wang Qinghua insisted on dredging up old issues, which instantly annoyed him.

His sister-in-law was quite all right in every aspect, had a good temper, and knew how to behave. Looking at the time when he was injured, she was much better than Wang Qinghua, his bedside companion—not by a little bit. However, Wang Qinghua was just so obtuse. Clearly, she could get along well with his sister-in-law but chose to stir up a heap of troubles instead.

"Who the hell is clinging to him? If that damned ghost hadn’t pushed me, why would I have had a premature birth? The doctor at the county hospital said that I was still seven or eight days away from my due date! It must have been him, if he hadn’t shoved me, our Little Wanwan wouldn’t have been born prematurely and wouldn’t be crying day and night. It must have hurt her when she was born prematurely," Wang Qinghua asserted confidently, even audaciously pushing Song Yuantao.

"Are you going to sleep or not? If you’re not sleeping, well, I need to sleep!" Song Yuantao, with a throbbing headache, angrily threw off his covers and glared at Wang Qinghua.

Wang Qinghua immediately felt aggrieved, "What do you mean? All you know is sleep, sleep, sleep. You might as well sleep to death! You don’t have any great skills, and yet you have quite the temper, always lashing out at me. Song Yuantao, you’re just a cowardly waste, I must have been blind to marry you. After giving birth to a daughter and enduring mistreatment from your family, now that I can’t bear children anymore, have you already started having other plans?" Filled with her prejudiced ideas, Wang Qinghua said while poking Song Yuantao’s brow and eyes.

In the rural context, this action was utterly disrespectful; after all, traditional rural ideologies still held the husband as paramount. There weren’t many like Wang Qinghua around.

"Haven’t you caused enough trouble already?" Song Yuantao irritably brushed her hand away. As a man, he inherently had his pride. If he had not felt incompetent, unable to provide a good life for Wang Qinghua, and considering that she had born him a child and now could not even bear more children, he wouldn’t have tolerated her ill-temper. But everyone’s patience and temper had its limits, and it couldn’t stand up to Wang Qinghua’s excessive provocations.

"Wang Qinghua, if you want to live together, live together; if not, just get the hell out. If I divorced you, I might still be able to have a son to carry on the family lineage!" Song Yuantao said indignantly. These words contained a component of scaring Wang Qinghua, but, of course, they also reflected some of his deep inner thoughts. As a person from the rural areas, he harbored deep-seated traditional thoughts. He did hope to have a son to provide for him in his old age, but having no sons, there was nothing he could do. However, if Wang Qinghua kept looking for trouble, one day he might indeed go out and find another woman.

"Oh, so now you’re willing to speak your heart, aren’t you? Song Yuantao, you bastard, your family has ruined me. Now that I can’t bear children, I’m useless to you and you want to kick me to the curb, I tell you, no way. Better put those thoughts to rest, or else even if I, Wang Qinghua, die, I’ll drag you down with me." Wang Qinghua was no pushover. As a rural wife, she was well aware of the kind of life that lay ahead of her; however, the more she thought about it, the more aggrieved she became. And now that Song Yuantao had revealed his true feelings, Wang Qinghua was absolutely furious; this useless man actually dared to think such thoughts.