CHAPTER 958: CHAPTER 644

The third watch has come.

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Even though their daughter and son-in-law had stayed in City A for a while, Old Master Zhao and Old Lady Zhao missed them dearly. They knew this time their daughter and son-in-law couldn’t stay home for long, so they decided to go back with them and stay for a few days. When the time came for the daughter and son-in-law to leave, they would be brought back home.

At four in the afternoon, the group returned in high spirits to Dalin Village.

On the way, Chuxia told Zhao Yulan and Lin Baohe about Wang Meifeng’s big change, and the couple was delighted with the news—finally, older sister Zhao Yuying’s good days were coming!

...

At Lin Baojuan’s house in Poer Village.

Old Lady Luan lay on the kang in the eastern room, wailing loudly and softly. Earlier in the month, she slipped and fell when she went to the toilet, breaking her leg. Since returning from the hospital, she’s been like this.

No one knew if she was truly in pain, but she was certainly shouting as if she was.

In the western room, Luan Qingshu, Lin Baojuan, and Xiaoxiang sat on the kang, all with worried expressions. Even the most patient people would get irritable with such an ungrateful patient in the house—noisily complaining, but when you ask her what’s wrong, she just murmurs for more food. Frankly, she’s not in pain; she’s just greedy and using the pain as pretense.

All of the food coupons that Luan Dajiang sent each month went into the old lady’s belly, and the food and cloth coupons that Qingshu, Baojuan, and Xiaoxiang earned with work points were gone too. Yet despite all this, she never spoke a good word about her son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter to visitors.

She even told others that it was her daughter-in-law’s fault she fell, saying her daughter-in-law disliked her for just eating and not working, and deliberately put a stone in front of the toilet to try to kill her, only she was lucky and only broke a leg...

Most people, of course, didn’t believe her, but there were always those who loved gossip, who went out and spread rumors, and some people inevitably believed what outsiders said.

Luan Xiaoxiang’s fiancé’s family canceled their engagement before the New Year.

Although they said it was because they didn’t want to burden Xiaoxiang given their poor conditions, everyone knew the real reason was they worried Xiaoxiang wasn’t filial.

Initially, Luan Qingshu wanted to explain, but Xiaoxiang stopped him, saying there was no need to seek validation from those who didn’t trust her; she didn’t believe that they wouldn’t eventually tell right from wrong.

Thus, one can imagine how the Lunar New Year went in the Luan household.

During the New Year’s Eve dinner, Old Lady Luan deliberately soiled her pants, causing everyone to miss the meal.

Don’t think for a moment that the old lady simply lost control; she did it on purpose so that everyone wouldn’t eat and would leave the good food for her.

In later years, such behavior might be laughable, but in this time of extreme scarcity, it was neither funny nor unusual.

From the first to the third day of the lunar month, Old Lady Luan would either defecate or urinate every mealtime.

But as guests started arriving on the fourth day, her incontinence suddenly stopped.

This further validated her scheming nature and her inner pettiness.

Therefore, each time guests left, Qingshu, Baojuan, and Xiaoxiang were troubled; they figured old lady wouldn’t change her ways until all the holiday foods were gone.

"Mom, did I just hear a car?" Xiaoxiang suddenly said.

"How could that be..." Lin Baojuan sympathetically patted her daughter’s head, "Is it your grandmother’s shouting that’s making your ears ring?"

"Well, I’m used to it." Xiaoxiang sighed, "Dad, Mom, why don’t we put all the good food in Grandma’s room? Once she knows we don’t have any left, she might ease up."

Luan Qingshu looked helpless: "Once it’s in her hands, don’t expect to get it back. What if guests come again? We can’t let them eat just pancakes during New Year, can we?"

Lin Baojuan agreed: "Right, there are still two cousins’ families who haven’t come yet, plus your Uncle Baohe’s entire family. They’ll probably come back soon, and we must put on a decent spread, right?"

Luan Qingshu nodded firmly: "Indeed, especially for Second Brother and Second Sister-in-law, we must treat them well. Without their help, Dajiang wouldn’t have his success."

"Hey!" Luan Xiaoxiang sighed again, staring blankly out the window. Suddenly, she rubbed her eyes, then rubbed them again, and then slapped Lin Baojuan’s leg. "Mom, it looks like Xia He is here." As she spoke, she jumped barefoot off the bed to put on shoes.

At this moment, Chuxia and Zhou Mikang had already pushed the door open and come in. Luan Xiaoxiang quickly straightened up, with one foot still bare on the ground. Chuxia hurriedly pushed her back onto the bed while greeting Luan Qingshu and Lin Baojuan, "Aunt, Uncle, Happy New Year!"

Zhou Mikang also followed closely with New Year greetings to Luan Qingshu and Lin Baojuan. Both of them were filled with excitement, their lips quivering for a while before they managed to say, "Happy New Year."

"Oh dear, oh dear..."

The sudden shouting from the east room startled Chuxia.

"I’ll go take a look," Luan Qingshu said quickly, getting off the bed and heading to the east room.

Lin Baojuan hurriedly explained, "She broke her leg before the New Year, and she’s been shouting like this every day."

Luan Xiaoxiang curled her lips, "She’s doing it on purpose. It’s almost healed. The doctor said when she was discharged that as long as she doesn’t walk, it wouldn’t hurt. But she keeps shouting every day, saying she’d pretend to be deaf and mute if we take her for another check-up. It’s just her way to hog all the New Year’s goodies."

"Anyway, since she broke her leg, I should go check," Chuxia winked at Zhou Mikang and then headed towards the east room. Zhou Mikang quickly followed.

Lin Baojuan wanted to stop Chuxia, but with Zhou Mikang in the way, she hesitated and just sighed, following them. She didn’t mind being upset herself, but why should Chuxia have to put up with it too?

Luan Qingshu was gently trying to persuade Old Lady Luan, "Mom, tell us where it hurts, and if necessary, we’ll go to the hospital for another check-up, okay?"

"Granny Luan, Happy New Year!" Chuxia cheerfully greeted as she climbed onto the bed. "Granny Luan, I studied medicine in the military. I’ve seen many injuries like yours and assisted in many surgeries. They were all very successful.

Let me take a look. If it’s growing crooked, we’ll have to go to the hospital, reopen it, and do the surgery again. But before the surgery, it has to be rebroken, and that will hurt much more than when it first happened.

Granny, you have to be mentally prepared. I’ve seen an elderly patient go through this. A big axe..." she gestured the size, continuing, "one chop to rebreak the crooked part, and the old man rolled his eyes immediately. I had to give him oxygen..."

By this time, Old Lady Luan had already forgotten about her pain. Seeing Chuxia reaching out towards her calf as she climbed onto the bed, she quickly shrank back, waving her hands repeatedly, "It’s not crooked, not crooked, definitely not crooked."

"Granny, if it’s not crooked, why would it hurt?" Chuxia looked at her seriously. "You can’t hide it just because you’re scared of the pain. The longer you drag it out, the more you’ll suffer.

Come, let me give it a try. I’m quite skilled in this area. But granny, you need to be mentally prepared. It’ll hurt a bit during the test.

Also, originally you could get off the bed in 100 days, but if we test again, it will delay that by about 30 more days because the test requires some force, which will cause secondary damage. You understand what secondary damage is, right? It’s injuring the injury again..."

Zhou Mikang stood below the bed, his face expressionless, but his eyes full of laughter. He knew that his little wife wasn’t just here to greet—see how she nearly rolled Granny’s eyes back...

Old Lady Luan was so anxious that she waved her hands frantically at her son, "No test, no need to test. You stop her quickly, no need to test, don’t test..."

"Uncle, if it weren’t for you and Aunt’s sake, I wouldn’t offer to help. If it’s delayed, the risk of rebreaking increases more than twice, and it’ll cost more too..."

"It doesn’t hurt, it doesn’t hurt, I’m just pretending, I’m just pretending. If you don’t believe me, I’ll get up and walk to show you..." Saying this, Old Lady Luan attempted to get up. Chuxia quickly stopped her, "Granny, you can’t lie to evade the pain. The longer you drag it out, the more you’ll suffer, and you’ll end up wearing down Aunt and Uncle too..."

"I’m not lying, it really doesn’t hurt, look at how straight my leg has grown..." The old lady said while pulling up her pants to reveal her mostly healed calf, "Now it doesn’t hurt at all when I walk with a stick, I’ve secretly tried when they weren’t around, really, I’m not lying to you..."

Chuxia nodded seriously with a look of understanding, "Then get down and show me. Anyway, if it’s not healed properly, it’ll have to be rebroken and fixed, so it doesn’t matter if you can’t walk well."

Once everyone returned to the west room, the east room became completely silent.

"Xia, do you think Granny is really healed? If she’s not, does she really need to be rebroken and reset?" After all, as his own mother, Luan Qingshu couldn’t help but voice his worries.

"She’s quite nimble with a cane, so it’s obviously healed. As for whether it hurts or not, it’s easy to tell—looking at her when she walks, there’s no expression of pain on her face, which means she’s not lying to us.

As for the need to rebreak and reset if it’s not healed well, I wasn’t just scaring her. If it were crooked, we couldn’t let it heal crooked. But it’s more about doing a gentler surgery, and that’s not even likely—it’s not like she’s on the battlefield without hospital access. How could it be improperly healed?"

"That’s good, that’s good," Luan Qingshu nodded repeatedly, lowering his voice. "Xia, thank you. Otherwise, we wouldn’t know how long we’d be tormented by the old lady." (To be continued. If you like this work, please vote for it on Qidian.com with a recommendation or monthly ticket, your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read at m.qidian.com.)