The Stepmother's Counterattack: Raising a Child in a Bygone Era-Chapter 821 - 820: Yi Family Borrowing Money

"Sister Pei, coming to visit your family member again?"

At the cemetery gate, seeing Pei Wenping walking toward the graveyard with some items, the caretaker, Old Zhang, greeted her with a smile.

"Old Zhang, Happy New Year, and thank you for your hard work, having to stay here during the New Year."

Pei Wenping handed over a pack of cigarettes and a red envelope as a token of appreciation.

Old Zhang initially declined but ultimately accepted the gifts, his face blossoming into a wide grin.

"Thank you, and I wish you a prosperous and thriving new year."

"It’s nothing, you’ve taken great care of my husband’s grave; I’m the one who should be thanking you."

"It’s no bother at all—it’s something to do to pass the time."

After exchanging pleasantries, Pei Wenping finally approached Chen Yi’s grave carrying the items.

To be fair, Old Zhang was quite dependable.

Other graves were somewhat covered with a layer of ice and dust, but Chen Yi’s gravestone and its platform were spotlessly clean and shiny.

"Today is the first day of the New Year, and I came to see you. Time flies so fast, it’s been almost a year since you left."

While chatting with Chen Yi, she arranged the food and pastries she had brought.

"Have a taste, I made them myself. Forgive me if they’re not very tasty; I’ve been busy with work and haven’t spent much time in the kitchen lately."

After setting up the offerings, Pei Wenping took out a towel and meticulously wiped the gravestone.

It wasn’t dirty, but doing something with her own hands made her feel more at peace and grounded.

"Xiaolu and Xiaochao are doing really well; they both ranked in the top ten of their classes this term, so getting into Yucai is definitely not a problem."

Yucai High School is the best high school in Fengcheng and a dream school for countless middle school students and their parents.

"My parents are also in good health. Whenever I have time, I take the kids to visit them, and Xiao Liang’s job is going well too; you don’t need to worry."

After paying respects to Chen Yi, Pei Wenping returned to the family complex.

The family courtyard felt much colder than in the past, a few elderly people wrapped in cotton coats sat on old, creaking bamboo chairs. Upon seeing Pei Wenping, their cloudy eyes looked at her with scrutiny.

"Is that Wenping?"

Hearing an elderly person quietly ask their companion, Pei Wenping took the initiative to go over and hold the withered hands, "Granny Li, don’t you recognize me?"

The old woman showed surprise, her face craggy with age, cracking a smile, "It really is Wenping. I’ve gotten old, my eyesight isn’t what it was."

"You are so robust, living to ninety-nine wouldn’t be a problem."

The old woman laughed heartily and chatted with Pei Wenping for quite a while before letting her go.

Walking toward the apartment building, she hardly encountered anyone. However, the walls were plastered with the character "Demolition" in red paint, which added a sense of decline and desolation to the old family complex.

The area was planned for new commercial housing. The compensation scheme was finalized last year, and many residents had already moved out with the money.

Those who remained were either elderly people unwilling to relocate or ’nail households’ dissatisfied with the compensation.

The belongings in the apartment were moved out last year, but Pei Wenping still wanted to come back for one last look.

The apartment was empty except for the bare walls, but even smelling its age-worn and decayed air felt exceptionally familiar and comforting.

Reaching middle age, perhaps the most powerless feeling is watching everything and everyone around you leave and disappear in various ways.

It’s like Zhu Ziqing wrote in "In A Hurry": "I came into this world bare, and in the blink of an eye, I will leave it just as bare."

It wasn’t until the evening that Pei Wenping finally returned to the Chen family home.

Upon entering, she immediately sensed that something was off.

"I thought you were going to stay in the graveyard overnight."

Before leaving, Pei Wenping had informed the members of the Chen family that she was going to visit Chen Yi’s grave.

However, having left in the morning and not returning until now, it inevitably made the Chen family members suspect she had taken the opportunity to go out for other reasons.

"In the afternoon, I went to the family courtyard, which will be completely demolished after the festival."

Hearing this, Mother Chen grudgingly shut her mouth.

Seeing that everyone was still in the living room and no one was cooking, Pei Wenping asked subconsciously, "Are we going out for dinner?"

"Eat? I am full of anger already!"

Pei Wenping didn’t ask what Mother Chen was angry about and said, "Then I’ll call a restaurant and book a private room. We can go out to eat tonight."

After saying this, she walked over to the landline and had to make several calls before finding a restaurant that was open on the first day of the new year.

After booking the private room and telling the Chen family the address, she called her siblings and went out first.

Once in the car, before Pei Wenping could ask, the siblings relayed blow by blow why Mother Chen was furious.

Mother Chen had been annoyed by Yi Ling’s brother-in-law’s family.

The Yi family members had arrived at the Chen family’s around noon and had lunch there.

At the dining table, everyone was happily chatting and eating when somehow the conversation turned to how the older brother of the Yi family was partnering with others in a herbs trading business.

No sooner had this business been mentioned than Yi Jinbao, drooling profusely, began to complain that the business was tough and that he had lost a bunch of money.

Mother Chen was quite unhappy at that moment. Who would want to hear such things on New Year’s Day? But she held her tongue due to social decorum.

However, Yi Jinbao, failing to sense the mood, brazenly asked to borrow money while under the influence of alcohol.

The old Chen couple’s faces turned dark with anger.

Father Chen stopped eating, threw down his chopsticks, and returned to his room.

A good meal was thus ruined.

Lending money to others on the first day brings a year of financial outflow.

Mentioning borrowing money on New Year’s Day is simply bad luck, especially from in-laws; how could the old couple not be angry?

Besides, this wasn’t the first time Yi Ling’s relatives had asked to borrow money.

Last year, just after Chen Yi’s inheritance was settled, the Yi family came asking to borrow money to buy a house.

Buying a house is good, and the sooner the better. The elderly couple gladly lent out Thirty Thousand Yuan.

But just two months later, the Yi family came to borrow money again.

Yi Jinbao, a railway worker who worked through wind and sun and earned very little, wanted to start a business to quickly repay the debt he owed the Chen family.

With a brother-in-law who had ambition, the Chen family naturally wanted to support him, and thus they lent him another Fifty Thousand Yuan.

In half a year, the Yi family had taken Eighty Thousand Yuan from the Chen family, not repaying a dime, and still wanted to continue borrowing.

...

Perhaps feeling guilty or having another motive, Yi Ling fawned over the elderly couple at the dinner table, picking fish bones and peeling shrimp for them, hardly managing to eat anything warm herself.

Seeing the elderly couple’s attitude soften under Yi Ling’s attentiveness, after the meal, Pei Wenping took the opportunity to remind them by calling them aside to the car.

"Save for urgent needs, not chronic poverty. You should hold on tight to the money you have and not lend it out casually; it’s easy to lend but hard to get it back."

"So this is what you were whispering to Mom and Dad about, putting some drops in their eyes behind my back?"

Yi Ling, appearing from nowhere, angrily scolded Pei Wenping.