CHAPTER 1371: CHAPTER 1371: TURNING THE TABLES AGAINST THE AGGRESSOR

Lu Yiting must have been truly infuriated; she downed another large glass of water without hesitation.

Lu Yichen watched her finish and refilled her glass again.

Taking a moment to calm down, she continued, "Of course, we couldn’t agree to their request. Xiangrui flatly rejected them, picked up his son, grabbed me, and left.

That evening, when we returned, their family didn’t even come out.

Since we were already here, I thought we might as well watch the sunrise. We had brought warm clothes with us.

I asked Xiangrui to go next door and tell the couple that we planned to start hiking at 1 AM to watch the sunrise.

The door was opened by her husband Lin Zhiming, who said their two kids probably wouldn’t wake up, so they’d wait until daylight to climb the mountain.

Before we went to bed, I set an alarm just in case we struggled to wake up for the hike. After washing up, we went to bed early.

Come morning, we got dressed and stepped out, only to see their family of four coming out at the same time.

Since they were up and about, we decided to just hike together.

But when it came time to buy tickets, their family stood in line behind us. In front of everyone, He Anmei shouted, "Xiangrui, can you help us buy tickets too? We rushed out, and the kids need to use the bathroom."

Luo Qiao laughed, "Wow, this cousin’s family from Sister-in-law’s side is quite a character."

Lu Yichen took a sip of water and asked, "So did you end up buying their tickets?"

Lu Yiting, furious, punched the sofa. "Of course we did! I said we shouldn’t, but Xiangrui figured we could just ask them for the money later. If we didn’t buy them, we’d seem stingy and overly petty."

The tickets were bought, and they came back.

During the hike, things got even more ridiculous. Their two kids couldn’t make it halfway before stopping. Then He Anmei had the audacity to suggest I carry Yangyang and have Xiangrui carry one of her kids. Can you believe it?

When she saw we were unwilling, she claimed she had poor health and couldn’t manage to carry her own child.

Xiangrui got fed up and snapped back, saying, "My wife isn’t in great health either and can’t carry Yangyang. If you can’t keep up, there’s a cable car ahead."

He Anmei actually retorted, "But taking the cable car costs money!"

You hear this nonsense? If you’re so afraid of spending money, why did you even come?

At the summit, after watching the sunrise and taking in the view of the surrounding mountains, I was reminded of the line, "One stands above all at the mountain’s peak, viewing the smaller peaks below." The earlier irritations faded somewhat.

But this family... they’re the pinnacle of absurdity. When it was time to descend, they wanted to take the cable car but couldn’t bear the expense, so we all walked back down.

By the time we reached Zhongtianmen, their bratty kids started whining about wanting to eat. To be fair, the food prices here are ridiculously high since everything is carried up the mountain. We didn’t want to eat either and figured we’d wait until we were back down to have a meal.

Thankfully, Yangyang wasn’t too hungry since we had packed snacks for him and he’d already eaten while waiting for the sunrise.

But their kids refused to move. Eventually, even He Anmei seemed annoyed and started scolding them. Then, realizing it was embarrassing, she insisted on eating there.

We didn’t really care, thinking, "Fine, we’ve covered enough meals; surely this one’s on them."

But they only ordered three small dishes and, of course, small portions. Who could possibly get full from that? Seeing this, Xiangrui had no choice but to order other dishes. Still, neither of them offered any protests—they just dug in once the food arrived.

When it was time to pay the bill, He Anmei stood off to the side. And forget about the extra dishes Xiangrui ordered—even the three they chose initially weren’t paid for. Her husband was even more ridiculous, pretending to cough and disappearing to another corner.

Xiangrui quickly settled the bill to spare me any further aggravation and dragged me out of there. It completely ruined my mood for visiting Dai Temple on the way down.

Xiangrui tried to cheer me up, reminding me not to let others ruin my trip. Thinking it through, I realized he was right. After touring Dai Temple, it was already quite late.

Back at the hotel, Xiangrui’s friend was waiting for us in the lobby. We greeted He Anmei and her husband briefly before following Xiangrui’s friend outside.

By the time we returned at night, it wasn’t early. It was as though He Anmei had timed her complaint for when we’d be there, whining to us about how expensive the accommodation and nearby restaurants were.

She practically drove us insane.

The next morning, we wandered around the city, bought some local specialties, and grabbed lunch at a small street stall. Just bowls of noodles—not a big expense. This time, her and her husband rushed to pay the bill.

In the afternoon, as we prepared to leave and buy tickets, Xiangrui’s friend brought over two tickets and some local specialties. But then He Anmei started complaining, saying Xiangrui’s friend wasn’t considerate enough since they knew we were traveling as a group but didn’t buy tickets for everyone.

She kept rambling until we got on the bus. Thankfully, we didn’t sit together; otherwise, Xiangrui wouldn’t have held his temper. Seriously, anyone would snap after dealing with someone like her.

After getting off the bus, they didn’t mention a word about reimbursing us for the train tickets. Whatever—it’s not about the money; we’ll just chalk it up to a lesson learned and avoid them in the future.

But what I didn’t expect was for He Anmei to return and brag to acquaintances about their Mount Tai trip, claiming that we covered all of their food and lodging expenses, and even complained that we were rude to them.

Second Brother, Second Sister-in-law, can you believe this?

When I got home from work yesterday, people were pointing at me and whispering everywhere I went. Is this not infuriating? This morning, I went to He Anmei’s house to confront her, only for the neighbors to tell me they’d already headed back to the city early.

Luo Qiao looked at her sister-in-law, whose eyes were red with anger. "So basically, for one measly bowl of noodles, they trashed your reputation and made you this upset?"