Chapter 262
Chapter 262: That Depends On What She’s Done
Du An Rao froze for a moment, then turned her head and called in the direction Madam Shen had left: “They’re at Western District Maternal and Child Hospital right now.”
Madam Shen stopped for a second. Then she started walking again, even faster this time!
Watching her back as she left, Auntie in Yellow said angrily: “A dog of a man like that should be thrown into a pig cage and drowned!”
Everyone at the scene turned their eyes to her at once, which scared her so much she jumped.
“D-don’t look at me like that. I’m talking about the deed, not the person. Men or women, whoever does something like that should be thrown into a pig cage.”
Du An Rao couldn’t help laughing at her mix of timidity and toughness: “We just think you’re absolutely right.”
Realizing she had misunderstood, Auntie in Yellow scratched her head and laughed sheepishly.
One of the culprits had run off. The situation of the other party involved became even more awkward.
Seeing Du An Rao’s gaze fall on her, Madam Kou felt her skin tighten all over: “Don’t look at me like that. My husband died ages ago. He wouldn’t even have the chance to cheat on me.”
“Who said your family’s problem was a cheating husband? Just now you seemed to have a lot to say about my granduncle driving his eldest nephew’s family, the ones he cut ties with, out of City B.”
“S-so what if I did?” Madam Kou’s eyes flickered with panic for a moment. But then it was like she thought of something, and her back straightened at once.
“Did I say anything wrong? Elder Du has no children, and the bride is already so old she’ll definitely never have any. That family is his closest blood relatives and the most suitable people to take care of him in his old age and see him off.”
“For your own selfish desires, you tricked Elder Du into driving them out of City B. In the end, wasn’t it just so you could get rid of his real relatives and keep his inheritance all for yourselves? You’re so young, and your heart is already that scheming. Aren’t you afraid of retribution?”
Because Du An Rao had been sticking to Qin Yan Qing’s side all day, Madam Kou took it for granted that she was Qin Yan Qing’s family. Even though she had just hit the mark with Madam Shen’s story, Madam Kou still held a grudge against her. Her words were not polite at all.
The way Madam Kou kept talking about children, bloodlines, and who should serve and bury their elders was so old-fashioned that Du An Rao almost reeled backward from the smell of it. She turned to ask Du De Sheng: “Grandfather, do we have a throne in our family or something? Is this child something that absolutely has to be born?”
Du De Sheng snorted: “Anyone else can have as many kids as they like. Your grandmother and I are too lazy to. We still haven’t enjoyed our two-person world enough. Why would we be bored enough to have another little one come torment our old bones?”
“And besides, if we had a child as sweet and sensible as you, that would be one thing. But if we ended up with brats like them and had to count on those kids to care for us in our old age? We’d be lucky if they didn’t anger us to death.”
As for the inheritance that everyone cared about the most, there had been a time when Du De Sheng really wished he could throw it all into the river or burn it to ash, just so those so-called relatives who wanted to suck him dry wouldn’t get a single cent.
To put it plainly, having children and raising children was a big gamble. If you won, everyone was happy. If you lost, you could die alone in some corner and no one would care.
Du An Rao couldn’t help giving him a thumbs up. If you wanted to talk about forward-thinking ideas, you really had to look at her granduncle.
Just staying true to one person his whole life, and choosing not to marry or have children if he could not find that person, was already something almost no one could do.
Most people did not have his courage, and even fewer had his confidence.
“I’m really curious. Where do you get the nerve to show up at someone else’s house and run your mouth about their relatives, their descendants, and their future after death? Does it come from those sons of yours who avoid you like the plague and wish they could cut ties so they don’t have to support you? Or from those grandsons who treat you like a nanny and ATM, then burn the bridge after crossing, and look down on you for being poor and shabby?”
Madam Kou’s face went iron blue. She almost screamed: “What nonsense are you talking about? My children are the most…”
“The most what? Filial?” Du An Rao cut her off. “You can fool outsiders with that, but don’t fool yourself. You gave birth to three sons and one daughter. In the end, do you really have a place in any of their homes?”
Madam Kou’s whole body shook. Her gaze toward Du An Rao filled with panic and shameful anger at having her secrets exposed.
The air suddenly turned cold. Auntie in Yellow, who had just shocked everyone with her bold words a moment ago, stepped up again.
She asked in confusion: “Madam Kou, didn’t you say your sons were the most filial and sensible, and your daughters-in-law were all kind, gentle, and proper? Didn’t you also say you stay with a different child’s family every month? How could you not have a place in any of their homes?”
If looks could kill, Auntie in Yellow would already have been stabbed into a hedgehog by Madam Kou’s eye-daggers.
Auntie in Yellow: “???” What was going on? Was she wrong to try to stand up for someone?
Seeing Madam Kou’s reaction, the people around them understood everything at once.
“Looks like An An was right. She had so many children, and not one of them is willing to be filial and look after her in her old age.”
“That depends on what she’s done in the past.”
With that one line, Du An Rao hooked everyone’s curiosity. Madam Kou’s face changed again because of it.
It turned out that Madam Kou was just like Madam Shen’s mother-in-law: she also favored sons over daughters and was extremely biased.
She had three sons and one daughter. By common sense, in a family like that, the daughter should be very cherished.
It was like in Du An Rao’s own family. Before they knew she existed, Du Yu Xi had always been the most beloved child. Not only did their parents love her, her brothers loved her too.
But the Kou family was different. Madam Kou loved her first child, her eldest son, the most. From childhood on, he always got the best and most expensive of everything.
When her eldest son got into college but they had no money for tuition, she directly forced her second son to drop out of school and work to earn money for his big brother’s tuition.
The only reason she didn’t make the eldest suck the blood of the youngest daughter as well was because the little girl was still too young back then. No one would hire her even if she went to work. Also, she still had a third son.
That third son was also her favorite, the one she loved most after the eldest.
After the eldest son had drained the second son dry, finished college, and gotten a manager job at a big company, she wanted to save up tuition money for the third son. But instead of asking the now successful eldest son to help his younger brother a little and fix the urgent problem easily, she chose something else.
She took a bride price of eighty thousand and married off, or rather sold, her daughter to a lame man in his thirties from the next village, an old scoundrel with a terrible reputation.
When they heard this, everyone present looked at Madam Kou in a completely different way.
If Madam Shen earlier still had some pitiful parts that could win sympathy, this Madam Kou in front of them really deserved the words “worse than an animal.”
Auntie in Yellow, who not long ago had been thinking of standing up for her, quietly took a few steps back now to put some distance between them.