The Prime Minister’s Little Wife

Chapter 46: The Overbearing Maternal Relatives*

Third Aunt Xu said in a strange tone, “You don’t even recognize your maternal grandmother and aunt? Oh, I forgot! You’ve never seen them since you were born.”

Xu Xiaowu asked innocently, “Why haven’t Grandmother and Aunt come to our house all these years? Why are they here today? Did they hear we have money now?”

Hearing Third Aunt’s sarcastic remarks, Sun Yulan didn’t care. She wasn’t afraid of this.

Xu Xiaowu was just a little kid. What did he know? She could easily ignore him.

Sun Yulan, being thick-skinned, said, “Xiaowu, I’m your aunt. It’s fine if you didn’t know me before. We’ll visit often from now on.”

She walked up to Xu Zhizhi with a smile, pushing Old Lady Li in front of her.

“This is your grandmother. You remember her, right?”

As she spoke, her eyes darted around the yard. The courtyard was so big! It could probably fit their entire family.

“Oh, how could I not recognize Grandmother and Aunt? These must be my cousins,” Xu Zhizhi said with a smile.

Mother Xu, being simple and honest, smiled and said, “Yes, they’re all your cousins.”

Old Lady Li’s eyes also wandered around the yard. The courtyard was huge! The blue bricks made it look so grand.

Xu Zhizhi’s eyes darkened. When her family was starving, no one cared. Now that they had built a house, people were starting to take notice.

In Xu Zhizhi’s memory, her grandmother used to visit often when they were young, taking whatever she could find.

Her uncles and aunts also came frequently, eating and then taking things away. They always came empty-handed but left with bags full.

Later, as the Xu family grew poorer and had less to eat, the visits became less frequent.

After Xu Zhizhi got engaged, the family became even poorer, and her maternal relatives stopped coming to Qili Village altogether.

Her maternal family had been even poorer than the Xu family at first, but later they became slightly better off. Afraid that the Xu family would come begging, they cut off contact.

Thinking about this, Xu Zhizhi understood why the Xu family had been so poor.

[What family could withstand such relatives who only took and never gave? Especially when the Xu family had two such families of relatives!]

It was no wonder they were so poor!

Mother Xu would bring gifts during festivals but never brought her children along. She never even got a glass of water at her parents’ home. She would just deliver the gifts and leave.

Last time, when they were building the house, Mother Xu went to invite them, but no one wanted to come. Only one aunt came to check if they were really building a house.

[Who knows which aunt it was?]

But when that aunt arrived, she saw a table full of food. Not only did the whole village come to eat, but they also took leftovers home.

And they were building such a big house.

When she went back, she exaggerated how well the Xu family was eating, saying they had forgotten their old mother, who was eating chaff and wild vegetables at home.

The Li family never expected that the Xu family, who had been skin and bones, would suddenly have money to build a house.

After the aunt went back and told the Li family, Old Lady Li spread the word that the Xu family was building a house but hadn’t invited her to eat.

Now that the roof beam was being raised, Mother Xu hurried back to invite her parents for a meal.

Old Man Li and his sons would come tomorrow, but Old Lady Li and her eldest daughter-in-law brought over a dozen grandchildren and granddaughters first.

The Li family had three sons and three daughters. Mother Xu, Li Dani, was the third child. The eldest brother and his wife, Sun Yulan, had two sons and four daughters.

The second brother had three sons and three daughters. The third was Mother Xu, Li Dani. The fourth was Li Erni, the fifth was a son who was already married with one daughter and two sons, and the sixth was Li Yulian.

If everyone came, there would be about four full tables.

“Grandmother and Aunt brought so many cousins. There’s no place to sit here. Why didn’t Mother take them home to sit?” Xu Zhizhi said.

Old Lady Li and Aunt Sun were stunned. Why would they go to the old house? There was no food there!

They had come to the new house because they smelled the delicious aroma. What did they see?

They saw a large, bright courtyard under construction and a pot of steaming, fragrant buns.

Old Lady Li put on a kind expression and said, “We just missed you and wanted to see you.”

“Grandmother, now that you’ve seen me, why don’t you go home and rest? I’ll come back later to cook for you,” Xu Zhizhi said.

Mother Xu thought about it. There really was no place to sit here, so she said, “Mother, Sister-in-law, let’s go home first. Zhizhi will come back to cook for you.”

Sun Yulan’s face immediately darkened. “What are you saying? Your mother invited us. If you’re not welcoming, we’ll leave!”

“Then, Grandmother and Aunt, you must come tomorrow for the meal. We’re raising the roof beam tomorrow and inviting guests,” Xu Zhizhi said bluntly.

Sun Yulan was left speechless.

The dozen or so children stood still, staring at the pot of almost-ready buns.

The sound of them swallowing their saliva was loud.

Old Lady Li patted her daughter-in-law’s arm and pretended to scold her. “You’re a grown-up. Why are you arguing with a child?”

“I haven’t had lunch yet! I see the buns are almost ready. Let’s just have some.”

What? They hadn’t had lunch? They came here on purpose to eat?

And eating buns was just a casual snack?

The aunties were dumbfounded!

Seeing that her grandmother was determined to eat, Xu Zhizhi didn’t want to argue. She had originally planned to cook for them.

There was enough flour, and they could afford to give away some buns.

She mischievously thought that if she made dinner even more delicious, there would be quite a show.

She said, “Aunt Hua, could you bring a basket of buns for my grandmother and aunt to try?”

She thought to herself, One pot of buns won’t be enough for so many half-grown children. Would ten pots be enough?

If not, then twenty pots!

The aunties are going to have a hard time!

As soon as the basket was placed on the rack, the dozen children rushed forward. Their dirty hands grabbed the white buns, leaving black fingerprints.

Old Lady Li and Aunt Sun each took one, and the basket was empty in no time.

The freshly steamed buns seemed to disappear no matter how many were eaten.

Especially for the children who had been hungry for half a day.

Could they steam enough?

The answer would soon be revealed.

Third Aunt Xu watched the children, who looked like refugees, snatch the buns as soon as she lifted the lid, not even afraid of the heat. She shook her head and sighed.

Xu Zhizhi had gone to the construction site to give instructions to the workers.

She didn’t let Xiaowu and Xiaohua follow because there were bricks and other materials that could fall and hurt the children.

Aunt Hua and Aunt Er could only speed up the kneading…

Wang Daya, who was tending the fire, had to work even faster to increase the heat.

The aunties fetching water quickened their pace.

One pot after another was emptied as soon as it was opened.

By the tenth pot, Xu Xiaowu and Xiaohua still hadn’t gotten a single bun to try. Although they weren’t hungry, they really wanted to taste the steamed buns. Xiaowu had never eaten buns made by his own family before! He felt so wronged.

(End of Chapter)