Stumbling Block

"It's true. My father, Fourth Uncle, Qingmu, and I moved everything together. At the time, Grandfather and Uncle and Aunt tried to stop us, but my father argued with them and insisted on moving the stuff away. Not only did we bring back what they took this time, but also what they took before — all brought back home," Su Shirong said.

Sun's eyes reddened instantly. She never expected her meek husband, who had been so submissive for most of his life, to finally stand up! And he even argued with his father and elder brother?! This was something Sun never even dared to imagine before!

"Wife, I told you I’m going to stand firm now, protect you and the children, and won’t let you suffer any more injustices," Su Sanyun said, lowering his head. "I was too foolishly filial and confused before."

Tears dripped down Sun’s face as she held Su Sanyun’s hand. "You’ve finally woken up. Now our three women have hope for the future!"

So the couple, along with Su Shirong, gathered by the bedside to look at Su Lanxiang.

Su Sanyun touched his daughter’s forehead, saw that the fever had truly gone down, and sighed, "Luckily Lanxiang is fine. If anything happened to my daughter, I’d have no face to live."

"Enough, enough, the kids are all here. Isn’t this a bit mushy? Hurry and wash up and go to sleep!" Sun laughed, wiping her face. "Tonight we’ll all squeeze into this side room anyway, the kang is big enough. Ali’s house is really nice. Look, the ground dragon stove keeps the room warm like spring. If Lanxiang slept in our cold room, she wouldn’t have gotten better so quickly."

Su Sanyun wiped his face, chuckled, and took off his shoes to get on the kang. "We’ll work hard and earn money, and one day we’ll build a house like Ali’s with a ground dragon stove."

Sun smiled, lying beside her daughter, softly saying, "Yes, we’ll work with Ali, earn well, and surely have a nice house to live in."

Su Shirong finished washing up, took off his shoes, and lay beside Su Sanyun, teasing his mother, "Mother, then you can’t sell people short-weighted, rotten vegetables!"

Sun blushed, spat, "Bah, you brat! I was just momentarily blinded by greed and foolish once. How come you still remember it! I absolutely won’t do that stupid thing again. I’ll also tell your uncles to sell properly, no cheating or sly tricks that ruin their own livelihood."

As Sun spoke, she felt Su Lanxiang turn over, hurriedly leaning down to touch her daughter’s face.

Su Lanxiang woke up, groggily saying, "Mother, I want to live in a big house and eat meat."

Sun kissed Su Lanxiang's forehead, "Alright, your father, mother, and brother Shirong will work hard to earn money, and build a big house with meat for my daughter to eat!"

Su Lanxiang, still groggy but seemingly very satisfied, snuggled comfortably into Sun's arms and fell back asleep.

Sun held her daughter close, blew out the lamp, and said softly, "Sleep now. Tomorrow, you and Shirong will get up early to sell vegetables. I’ll go to my mother’s house to talk to my brothers about the vegetable selling. Ali said Lanxiang caught a cold and got sick because our house is too cold, so she should stay here a few days until fully recovered before going back. Ah, Ali really has a kind heart. How could I have been so blind before..."

On the other side, the third branch of the Su family fell asleep dreaming of a bright future, but the Su family members themselves were sleepless all night.

Zhao’s stolen charcoal brazier was gone, and with no firewood at home, the thin quilt left them shivering. Su Daqi couldn’t sleep from the cold either. The couple squeezed into one quilt and scolded Su Sanyun, Su Laosi, and Su Li.

Early the next morning, Zhao got up to cook and saw that all the things Su Sanyun’s family had scraped together were gone. With only coarse flour and hard salted buns left to eat, she was both angry and scolding as she made breakfast.

The Su family gathered around the table, each with a worried frown, especially Su Shimao, who was spoiled growing up and couldn’t stomach the black buns.

So Su Shimao held a grudge against Su Sanyun’s family, thinking it was mostly that troublesome Su Lanxiang’s fault. She was slapped once, so delicate — how could she almost die from illness? That was what caused Su Sanyun to suddenly explode and take everything away.

No, he would never let go of Su Lanxiang, the troublesome stumbling block!