Joyful Motherhood in a Rural Family

Chapter 76 - 76: 73: Filial Piety

Only Di Ah-bao seemed unperturbed, yawning loudly, rubbing his eyes, and turning to leave the room: “Ugh! I’m so sleepy, you guys stay here, I’m going back to sleep.”

As he passed by Liu Sisi, he reached out to pull Di Xuan’s ear, which frightened the two children and made them hide behind Liu Sisi.

Liu Sisi was annoyed and glared at Di Ah-bao’s retreating back, thinking that he had grown up crooked indeed!

What would become of him in the future?

Seeing Di Ah-bao leave, Ms. Wang also wanted to slip away but was stopped by a fierce glare from Ms. Zhao, forcing her to return.

“Why is it that he, as their son, can leave, but I, as their daughter-in-law, have to stay and serve by my father-in-law’s sickbed? I’m not afraid of being laughed at if I say it out loud!”

Naturally, Ms. Wang was not one to be trifled with and couldn’t help muttering a few complaints.

“What a joke! Who dares to laugh at you, Ms. Wang? Ha!”

Di Ah-bao was Ms. Zhao’s darling, and when she heard Ms. Wang’s complaint, she couldn’t help but scold her loudly: “It’s all because of you, the troublemaker, who keeps stirring up trouble and making a fuss! My husband ended up spitting out blood and passing out, and my Di family must have had bad luck for eight generations to have married such a white-eyed wolf like you!”

“How am I the white-eyed wolf or the troublemaker? Why don’t you talk about your precious baby boy? If he hadn’t repeatedly defied Mr. Land Officer, how could Mr. Land Officer have scolded my dad for not disciplining him properly? If Mr. Land Officer hadn’t scolded my dad, would my dad have used family punishment?” Ms. Wang retorted without a second thought.

Ms. Zhao couldn’t let her daughter-in-law get the better of her and immediately returned the scolding: “It’s you! How come this troublemaker doesn’t say that the whole thing started because of you! That’s 20 taels of silver, and when it was just a little bit to honor your parents, you pushed and pulled. I think your conscience has been eaten by dogs!”

“That money is from my family! Why do you want ten taels just by stretching out your hand? Do you think that’s ten wen? If my conscience had been eaten by dogs, I would have left and been snoring long ago! Why would I be staying here guarding this place?”

Ms. Wang scolded ambiguously, smugly responding: “Your precious baby boy even hit his own father, and then he covered his head and went back to sleep! Such an unfilial son, and you still treasure him! I spit!”

After being accused like this by her daughter-in-law, Ms. Zhao was enraged!

“If it weren’t for your big brother Gao constantly instigating, would my husband have coughed up blood in anger? Let me tell you, Ms. Wang, if anything happens to my husband, this account will be on your head…”

In a short time, the quarrel between the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law was in full swing.

Their loud quarrels grew louder and louder, while Liu Sisi held her lips tight and hugged the two children, not saying a word.

Seeing the two becoming more and more excessive, she suddenly roared in anger!

“Shut up! When are you going to stop?”

Liu Sisi was truly angry!

In her previous life, her parents died early, and she had to rely on her grandfather for survival. She longed to be by her parents’ side, holding their arms at all times, but her loneliness and hardships from a young age were a pain that would never leave her heart!

Now, the way these two were acting naturally enraged Liu Sisi!

“My father-in-law is still unconscious, and if you two aren’t worried, so be it! But to be standing by his sickbed, arguing loudly, what kind of heart do you have?”

Ms. Zhao and Ms. Wang opened their mouths wide, obviously not expecting Liu Sisi to confront the two of them.

“Good! Who gave you the courage of a bear and a leopard? You actually, actually dare to…”

Ms. Zhao was quite angry, she couldn’t believe this wretched woman dared to yell at her here.

“You’re nothing but a piece of merchandise our Di family spent ten taels of silver to buy! Who do you think you are!”

Liu Sisi’s face was frosty as she scanned everyone.

“What if I’m just merchandise? My father-in-law is still lying in bed, and one of you is his concubine and the other is his daughter-in-law, and you have the nerve to argue here? Do you want to anger him to death?”

Suddenly, she turned around, not giving the two a chance to react, and unexpectedly grabbed a broom by the door, sweeping her sharp gaze over them, her cold voice saying, “If you dare to make a scene again, don’t blame me for being rude to you two!”

“You?… Humph! I won’t yell if I don’t want to, who cares!”

Angry, Ms. Zhao and Ms. Wang were intimidated by Liu Sisi’s ferocity. They dared not say more, stared at each other angrily, and sat down in separate places.

Time slipped away quietly.

Liu Sisi ignored the two, and quietly put down the broom, leading the two children to sit down on a long bench next to the door.

In such a situation, it was hard on both of the little children, who were neither noisy nor troublesome.

YingEr somehow curled up in Liu Sisi’s arms and fell asleep, while Di Xuan leaned on her shoulder, sleeping soundly.

Such a sensible child!

After an unknown amount of time, a noisy commotion suddenly came from outside.

Liu Sisi, delighted, hastily woke up the children and went out to meet them.

The figure of a tall man suddenly broke into the main entrance. It was Di Yelei, carrying an elder doctor on his back, stepping into the old house.

Before Liu Sisi could speak, Di Gaoyuan, who had been silent next to her, quickly passed her and approached the doctor.

“Aiyo! It’s the famous Dr. He from the town! Thank you for making the effort to come all this way. Please, come inside quickly. Ms. Wang! Ms. Wang! Quickly serve Dr. He some tea!”

Di Gaoyuan kept shouting, trying to help the elder doctor.

“No need for the tea! Saving a person is like putting out a fire! Where’s the patient?”

The elder doctor got off Di Yelei’s back, shook his limbs, and walked inside.

“He’s in the wing room! We appreciate Dr. He’s help in diagnosing my father. Please go ahead!”

As he spoke, Di Gaoyuan swiftly escorted the elder doctor inside.

Di Yelei’s face was pale, and after setting down the elder doctor, he could not help but fall to the ground, unable to get up for quite a while.

“Ye Lei, what’s wrong?”

Liu Sisi was shocked and hurriedly tried to help him up.

Di Yelei weakly waved his hand, his whole body appearing as if he had just been fished out of the water.

“Ye Lei…”

Liu Sisi tried several times but could not pull him up and was terribly worried.

“Dad! Dad, are you okay? Dad!”

Di Xuan, who was beginning to understand, saw his father’s distress, and with tears in his eyes, he almost cried on the spot.

“I-I’m fine! I just…ran too fast…”

Di Yelei’s pale face was dripping with large beads of sweat, and after a long while, he barely responded, smiling faintly: “I…just need to rest for a bit…”

“Get up! Ye Lei, you can’t suddenly stop after running so fast. You have to get up and walk a few steps.”

Liu Sisi understood that Ye Lei had run too quickly, and suddenly stopped to squat down to help the elder doctor, causing him to feel dizzy and lightheaded from insufficient blood supply to the brain.

“I’m fine. I’m catching my breath now. You and the kids stay here, I’ll go in and check on Dad.”

Di Yelei persisted in standing firm and gently squeezed Liu Sisi’s small hand.

Liu Sisi could only let him stagger inside.

“Oh! I’m so tired! This big brother’s pace is so fast, even with someone on his back! Let me…rest for a while, I’m exhausted! Oh, oh!”

A medicine pageboy carrying a medicine box finally stumbled into the doorway behind them.

He wiped a handful of sweat off his brow: “Fortunately, I came here a few years ago; otherwise, I would have gotten lost.”

Liu Sisi hurriedly approached with an apologetic face: “It’s been tough on you, coming out to see patients so late at night…how about you take a break in the next room?”

“No…healing the sick and saving lives is a healer’s duty! My master will need me soon, so I’ll go in first.”

The medicine pageboy protected his medicine box like a precious treasure, barely managing to stand up from the ground and enter the wing room.

Inside the wing room.

“My father suddenly vomited blood and fainted at night, and he hasn’t woken up yet. So we’ve asked Dr. He to take a look. How is my father now?”

Di Gaoyuan’s face was full of worry as he ushered in the elder doctor. Ms. Zhao and Ms. Wang on the side were also constantly wiping their eyes, their grief and pain making the onlookers cry.

“Don’t crowd in here, everyone go out! Quickly open the window; the patient needs good ventilation while unconscious!”

The elder doctor casually sat down on a stool nearby, flicked his robe, and said, “Worry not! Old me is not tired from the journey. Thanks to that young man who carried me all the way here. If it were up to my pace, I would not have arrived by daybreak. He truly went to great lengths to not even take a break or drink a single drop of water on this trip!”

As he spoke, he directed everyone to open the doors and windows, and, after cleaning his hands, he began to prepare to take the patient’s pulse.