Chapter 21: The Man Named Jiang Jingtao

Yesterday, the eldest son told her that his wife was being discharged from the hospital today, and suggested they prepare a lavish lunch to celebrate her recovery.

At that moment, Old Lady Leng felt extremely displeased. As a mother-in-law, what kind of business was it to be fussing over the younger generation?

The last time Leng Mei was discharged, Sun Xiaojuan had handled everything herself.

To spite Tang Lin and her daughter, Old Lady Leng had woken up early and taken half a pound of brown sugar to visit her daughter and the newborn grandson.

Consequently, she had meandered back to the city after noon, intentionally stopping at a restaurant for a bowl of noodles before heading home.

At the entrance of the residential compound, she happened to run into Sun Xiaojuan returning home with a vegetable basket.

Although Old Lady Leng wanted to spite Tang Lin and her daughter, she hadn't specifically instructed Sun Xiaojuan on what to do.

"Second daughter-in-law, are you just getting back from the market?" Old Lady Leng suppressed her shock and glanced at the few wilted vegetables in the basket.

"Mom, how are my aunt and the baby? They should be recovering well during their confinement, right?"

Sun Xiaojuan wasn't surprised to run into Old Lady Leng here. Knowing that she had gone visiting relatives just to embarrass Tang Lin, she was simply following her lead.

"They are both doing very well. Why are you returning so late from grocery shopping?"

"I don't know what happened today, but the farmers' market was incredibly crowded. I had to queue for hours just for these few vegetables; I'm nearly exhausted," Sun Xiaojuan complained, rubbing her leg with exaggerated effort.

Old Lady Leng: "..."

The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law walked home in a silent understanding.

Just as they reached the second floor, Auntie Li emerged from the washroom carrying a basin of bowls.

Seeing the two of them, Auntie Li hurried forward and grabbed Sun Xiaojuan. "Where have you two been all morning?"

"My mother went to visit my aunt, and I—"

Auntie Li didn't seem to truly care where they had been.

Before Sun Xiaojuan could explain, Auntie Li pointed toward the Leng residence. "This morning, Yongkang picked up Tang Lin to bring her home. The aroma of meat from your house at noon was enough to make all the neighbors in this building cry from hunger. Plenty of children were clamoring for meat."

"Meat?"

Old Lady Leng's heart sank; she knew something was wrong.

Auntie Li nodded. "Yes, that meat smell really put us neighbors through a hard time. Everyone's lunch felt tasteless. My grandson lost his appetite after only half a pancake. Old Lady Leng, do you have any extra meat? How about we trade? Otherwise, my grandson will be throwing a fit tonight."

Old Lady Leng had no interest in dealing with Li Daniu right now. Before getting married, Auntie Li's full name was Li Daniu.

Over the years in the residential compound, the younger generation had grown accustomed to calling her Auntie Li; only her peers called her by her name.

Old Lady Leng hurried back into the house in a few strides. Ignoring everything else, she rushed straight into the kitchen to check on the cured meat she had hung up.

To her horror, the dark wall was empty.

"Eldest daughter-in-law!"

Old Lady Leng's heart bled. The meat she had saved for so long was gone. Seeing the leftovers on the table, her blood pressure spiked instantly.

Tang Lin had long since finished eating. When Old Lady Leng rushed in, she merely looked on indifferently. "Mom, I'm not deaf. You don't need to yell so loudly; it's quite frightening."

Seeing that Leng Hui seemed to treat Old Lady Leng's fury as thin air, continuing to unhurriedly pick up pieces of meat, Leng Mei felt a sense of admiration. She quickly grabbed another piece of meat and stuffed it into her mouth before putting down her chopsticks.

Seeing that the people gathered around the table treated her as if she were invisible, Old Lady Leng was so enraged that she felt like she might explode. Her face flushed red as she raised her hand, intending to flip the table.

However, noticing there was still some meat at the bottom of the bowls, she ultimately restrained herself.

She turned and slammed the table, demanding, "Who told you to cook all my cured meat? Who gave you the right?"

Feeling guilty, Leng Yongkang rubbed his nose and gave a dry cough. "Ahem, Mom..."

Meeting Old Lady Leng's furious gaze, Leng Yongkang lost his nerve and choked on his words.

Leng Hui swallowed her last bite of rice and wiped her mouth. "Grandma, we're just eating some meat. Is it really necessary to make such a scene here?"

To have the audacity to call her "making a scene" after eating that large piece of cured meat she had saved, Old Lady Leng's rage boiled over. She raised her hand to slap Leng Hui's face.

Seeing this, Leng Yongkang rushed forward to stop her.

Leng Mei secretly gloated.

Seeing the remaining pieces of meat on the table, Sun Xiaojuan's heart ached; she desperately wished Old Lady Leng would give them a harsh lesson.

Among them, perhaps only Tang Lin remained calm.

Old Lady Leng's palm did not land on Leng Hui's face as intended; instead, it was caught and pressed down onto the table by Leng Hui.

Old Lady Leng tried to pull her hand back, struggling for a long time, but the hand Leng Hui was holding remained motionless.

"Let go!"

Leng Hui released her as desired, patted her hands, and took a step back. "You're so old, yet you still have such a temper. How unsightly. Dad, you should advise Mom more often. With those old bones, she's acting like a youngster; anyone seeing this would think she was trained in Sanda."

Old Lady Leng trembled with rage. She realized that in this house, her attempts to treat Tang Lin and her daughter with tyranny no longer worked.

She couldn't win a fight.

She couldn't win an argument.

The nonchalant attitude of Tang Lin and her daughter was like punching into cotton; in the end, she was the one left feeling stifled and humiliated.

"Oh! My granddaughter dares to lay hands on her grandmother! I might as well not live! What's the point of living? You unfilial descendants, aren't you afraid of being struck by lightning on a rainy day!"

Old Lady Leng sat on the floor and began to throw a tantrum.

Her dramatic, rhythmic wailing caused even Tang Lin and Leng Hui to show expressions of astonishment.

Seeing the meat left in the dishes and the few remaining Qingming dumplings in the basin, Sun Xiaojuan felt as though they had missed out on a fortune this noon.

"You've gone too far! Too far! Taking advantage of the fact that Mom and I weren't home to eat all the good food—do you have any respect for your elders?"

Leng Yongkang hurried forward to support Old Lady Leng. He was terrified that this scene would become known to the entire residential compound.

It would be too embarrassing.

Seeing her eldest son panicking, Old Lady Leng had no intention of stopping. She wouldn't consider it a victory unless she turned the place upside down.

If she didn't suppress them this time, she would lose her voice in this family forever.

In Old Lady Leng's mind, the authority of the head of the household was inviolable.

"Don't touch me! You 'filial' son, you useless coward! You can't even manage your own wife and child, and you just sit there watching them bully me! What use are you! Heavens, strike this unfilial son with lightning! The world cannot tolerate this!"

Having lived through the apocalypse, Tang Lin and Leng Hui had never seen an old woman act this way. In the apocalypse, you fought for supplies based on capability; if you lacked ability, you had to endure even if the King of Heaven himself arrived.

To them, Old Lady Leng's behavior was nothing more than that of a common hooligan.

Leng Mei looked at Old Lady Leng and Sun Xiaojuan with disdain. They were missing the point entirely. The cured meat hanging in the kitchen was out in the open; taking it was one thing, but it would be unforgivable if Leng Hui had broken the lock to get it.

She pushed the remaining dumplings in the basin toward Sun Xiaojuan. "Mom, there are a few dumplings left. You probably didn't eat lunch and must be hungry. Eat them quickly."

Sun Xiaojuan finally snapped out of it. "Where did these come from?"

Leng Mei glanced at Leng Hui, then at Old Lady Leng who was throwing a tantrum on the floor. "Sister made lunch. It tasted quite good. Just eat them and don't worry about where they came from."

Upon hearing this, Old Lady Leng's wailing stopped abruptly, like a hen having its neck squeezed.

She and Sun Xiaojuan simultaneously looked toward the space under their beds.

*Gasp!*

The newly purchased locks were gone again.

Without a doubt, the rice flour in the chests had been scavenged clean.

"Curse you! You little wench! You're lazy and gluttonous! Every good thing in this house has been ruined by you! If this continues, you might as well just kill me!"

"Stop crying!"

Leng Hui had intended to watch the drama with cold indifference, but Old Lady Leng's piercing voice was giving her a headache.

"If you don't want to live, then go die. Don't wail here like you're at a funeral; it's bad luck!"

Old Lady Leng's eyes bulged. "You... you... you unfilial girl! You disrespect your elders! You will die a horrible death!"

Leng Hui couldn't be bothered to argue. "My mother earns the highest salary in this house and contributes the most. She has the right to eat. If you have any objections, keep them to yourselves. If you're so dissatisfied, do you have the ability to earn as much as she does every month?"

"Furthermore, this house was allocated to my mother by her workplace. If you have any backbone, move out and stop living off her.

You enjoy the benefits my mother provides, yet you still want to pull rank and control her? You want everything and nothing at the same time—where is your shame?

To act like a harlot while trying to maintain a reputation for virtue—that describes you perfectly!"

With this performance, Leng Hui had effectively stripped away the masks of these ungrateful members of the Leng family and trampled them into the floor.

Looking at the weeping Old Lady Leng, the resentful but silent Sun Xiaojuan and Leng Yongkang, and the indignant Leng Mei, Leng Hui felt a surge of triumph.

She was not the original owner of this body; she was not someone to be easily bullied.

Tang Lin added, "In the future, if anyone in this house wants to cause trouble again and annoys me, I will directly have my workplace take this house back. At worst, Huihui and I will rent a place elsewhere. My salary is more than enough to support both of us."

Unable to control Tang Lin and her daughter, Old Lady Leng felt a surge of panic and immediately turned her fury on Leng Yongkang. "Look at what you brought home as a wife! I told you before she wasn't woman material for a household, but you wouldn't listen. Now look! This family is going to fall apart!"

Tang Lin replied, "It should have fallen apart long ago. Breaking up early is a relief."

"Shut up!"

Leng Yongkang, pained by seeing his elderly mother disheveled and bullied while Tang Lin continued to press her, couldn't help but roar at her

"How have you become so sharp and mean? You can't even practice the most basic respect for elders! Your mother is an elder after all; can't you just accommodate her a little?"

"No! She doesn't treat me like a human being, so why should I treat her as an elder?" Tang Lin's face was frost.

In truth, she found this kind of internal family friction exhausting. Having traveled from the apocalypse, she only wanted to live a quiet, simple life with Leng Hui.

The constant chaos was also very annoying to her.

"You—" Enraged, Leng Yongkang lunged forward, raising his hand to teach Tang Lin a lesson.

Having survived for years in the apocalypse, Leng Hui was in no way vulnerable to a weakling like Leng Yongkang. Just as she was about to kick him back, Leng Hui stepped in front of Tang Lin like a young wolf protecting its mother. She pointed at him and threatened, "Try touching my mother and see what happens!"

Seeing the father and daughter at each other's throats, Sun Xiaojuan grabbed Leng Yongkang to stop him from attacking.

"Big brother, let's talk this through. Let's not get physical. Once hands are raised, it's hard to settle things, and we'll just become a laughingstock for outsiders."

"Second daughter-in-law, don't stop me! Unfilial brats deserve a beating! Give them a good beating!"

Having completely torn off the mask of civility today, Old Lady Leng hated Tang Lin and Leng Hui to the bone; she no longer cared to maintain even the most basic mother-in-law decorum.

Seeing Old Lady Leng fueling the fire, Sun Xiaojuan said angrily, "Mom, please say a few less words! Do you really want to tear this family apart?"

If they truly provoked Tang Lin today and she went to her workplace to have the house reclaimed, the whole family would truly be sleeping on the streets.

Sensing Sun Xiaojuan's resentment, Old Lady Leng clutched her chest, feeling as though she couldn't breathe.

"Holy crap, is this a full-on brawl?" As soon as Jiang Jingtao entered the door, he was startled by the tense confrontation among the Leng family.

Leng Hui pushed Leng Yongkang aside and asked with a frown, "What are you doing here?"

In front of an outsider, Leng Yongkang felt too embarrassed to continue the dispute and helped Old Lady Leng up from the floor.

Jiang Jingtao shook the mesh bag in his hand. "My mother knew Aunt Tang was being discharged today, so she asked me to bring some nutritional supplements to help her recover."

Only then did the Leng family notice the items in Jiang Jingtao's bag.

There was malt extract, milk candy, canned oranges, and a bag of brown sugar.

Jiang Jingtao was very tactful. He took a can from the bag and pressed it into the hands of the pale Old Lady Leng. "Grandma Leng, you look unwell. It might be low blood sugar. Have some of this to sweeten your mouth."

It is hard to strike someone who is smiling at you. Old Lady Leng managed a forced, awkward smile. "Which family's child are you?"

"Grandma Leng, my surname is Jiang."

"Oh, a good child." Remembering that he had come to visit Tang Lin, Old Lady Leng's smile faded again. She handed the can to Leng Yongkang. "Help me open it."

Jiang Jingtao turned to give Leng Hui a pleasing smile, then greeted Tang Lin and Leng Yongkang. "Aunt Tang, Uncle Leng."

Tang Lin nodded to him. "I am fine now. Buying so many supplements is a waste of your mother's money."

"Before coming, my mother instructed me to apologize to you. She should have visited you in the hospital much sooner, but there have been too many trivial matters at the neighborhood office lately, and she's been quite busy. She asked me to come on her behalf. Please forgive her."

Leng Hui looked at Jiang Jingtao in astonishment, as if she didn't recognize him. Usually, he was a carefree and somewhat unruly person, but today he seemed like a completely different person—polite, well-mannered, and composed.

How rare!

"Your mother is very thoughtful. Once I have fully recovered, I will invite her to get together."

After a few words of pleasantries with Jiang Jingtao, Tang Lin nudged Leng Hui, telling her not to just stand there and to go pour a glass of water for him.

Jiang Jingtao smiled politely, his gaze accidentally meeting Leng Mei, who had been sitting quietly to the side. "Uh, hello."

Suppressing her shock, Leng Mei curled her lips slightly and returned a smile.

After falling from a train a few days ago, she wasn't sure if it was because she had hit her head, but when she woke up, she found she had the memories of another lifetime.

To put it another way, she had been reborn.

If she hadn't seen Jiang Jingtao today, she might have almost forgotten who he was.

Jiang Jingtao came from a family of officials. His mother was a neighborhood office director who later joined the municipal government, rising steadily until she reached the provincial level.

His father was a deputy factory director at a textile mill who later went into business, accumulating initial capital and eventually expanding it under Jiang Jingtao's management.

As for Jiang Jingtao himself, although he didn't become the wealthiest man in the country, he was at least among the top three in the province.

In her previous life, she hadn't paid attention to him in the early stages. By the time she did, the height Jiang Jingtao had reached was far beyond what she could casually access.

"Here, have some water."

Leng Hui handed an enamel cup to Jiang Jingtao, simultaneously interrupting Leng Mei's reminiscence.