novelraw Chapter 3: Grandma Tong is a smart and wise woman
Chapter 3: Grandma Tong is a smart and wise woman
Tong Yuheng's voice was laced with sarcasm, his eyes filled with contempt and disgust, looking at him as if he were trash. This terrified Fan Eryong!
Fan Eryong shook his head repeatedly, thinking to himself, no wonder his niece said that the eldest daughter of the Tong family was a violent woman. Didn't she have someone beat her up and then send her to the hospital?
"Mom, use the basin you use to rinse your calligraphy brushes on the table, pour the water from your cup over, and give it to Fan Eryong to drink. If it's poison, he's on his own!"
Tong Jiahui immediately obeyed the order. As the eldest child in the family, she took on half the responsibility of managing the household, as her husband had raised her like a boy. Now, she has become the backbone of the family.
Tong Jiahui brought over the broken cup used for rinsing pens, and Tong Yuheng poured most of the cup of water down his throat before stuffing it back into his mouth. She didn't use her own cup because she didn't want it to get covered in his saliva; it would be disgusting to use later!
"I have to see you out. Don't go through the front door, go through the window!" The small cubicle had a double window, so it wouldn't be a problem for an adult to go out.
"Should I throw you down headfirst or feetfirst?" Tong Yuheng's smile made Fan Eryong tremble all over.
This is the second floor. If he's thrown down, he might not die, but he could easily break his leg. He's also taken medication. What should we do?
However, Tong Yuheng didn't let him think too much. He untied the ropes binding him, pushed open the window, stood on the windowsill, lifted him up, and threw him out!
With a "thud," Fan Eryong fell to the ground. He landed on his side, and luckily, he didn't hit his head or break his leg. However, the ground was quite hard due to the cold, and he suffered internal organ displacement, causing him excruciating pain.
He pulled the rag out of his mouth, howling in pain. Unfortunately, there was no one around, so his cries were futile. He rolled on the ground several times in agony, struggled to his feet, and glared fiercely at the mother and child like a hungry wolf!
"What are you looking at? If you dare to mess with my mother again, I'll kill you!" Tong Jiahui glared at him fiercely and pulled her daughter to go home.
Fan Eryong hurried home. He had been drugged and needed to find someone to take the fire off his body as soon as possible!
At this moment, Section Chief Hu was arguing with his wife at home. It was obvious from the argument that his wife was being paranoid and asked him what he had been doing all afternoon.
He said he went to Old Zhang's house to play chess, but Han Ailian didn't believe him and insisted on asking him directly. Old Hu felt embarrassed and they started arguing! Later, Old Hu got so angry that he actually went to the office and didn't even want to eat dinner!
The Tong family and the Hu family lived in rows of single-story houses, one behind the other. Their argument could be heard clearly by everyone nearby.
"Han Ailian is really something else; she manages to make every day so chaotic!"
The sisters were all at home. The second sister, Tong Yuyao, pouted, thinking to herself, how could she be so shameless as to be jealous of her elegant and beautiful mother?
"She has a mental illness, delusions. You all need to stay away from her! She just ran to Mom's office, acting all aggressive. Anyone who didn't know better would think she was going to fight!" Tong Yuheng instructed.
"Huh? Is she looking for trouble? That old ugly woman, I'll curse her to death next time!" Unlike the eldest brother, who loves to fight, the second brother is good at talking.
"Alright, why are you arguing with this lunatic!" Tong Jiahui told the two older girls to help with the cooking, while the younger ones went to do their homework.
"Mom, our family is being watched. My sisters are still young. This can't go on," Tong Yuheng said.
"Won't they bring up my family background? But your father was a martyr! We are the family of a martyr!"
Previously, her husband protected her and her daughter. Since the Cultural Revolution, although her father's family was sent to the countryside, no one has used this incident to attack her.
Tong Jiahui's father and brother were reported as descendants of bureaucratic capitalists, but thanks to her husband's intervention, they were not severely punished.
Tong Linsheng also asked someone to arrange for his father-in-law's family to go to a rural area in Liaoning Province, a place with fertile land, simple folk customs, and where his comrades-in-arms could take care of them.
In the past two years, they have been secretly sending things to their comrades, asking them to quietly deliver them to their fathers and brothers, so that they can manage to get by over there.
At first, people sympathized with her after her husband passed away, but after a while, some people started having other ideas.
"Being a family member of a martyr won't always be a good thing. The key issue is that someone has their eyes on our family. People are envious of Dad's pension, his monthly survivor's allowance, and the job he left behind."
What worries me most is that some people think we're hiding a large sum of money, and they'll definitely try every means to get their hands on it!
"But we have no money left! My grandmother donated all her money to the army to fight the Japanese, and all that's left in the family is a small pharmacy."
Our Tong family isn't some kind of bureaucratic capitalist. When the People's Republic of China was established, we were registered based on our social class; we were just small business owners, not even considered petty bourgeoisie.
Tong Jiahui did not feel that her family background was too high. After several divisions and clan splits during the Republic of China period, the Tong family was no longer the prominent family it once was.
Her grandfather favored his concubine over his wife and treated her father, the legitimate son, poorly. Her grandmother divorced during the Republic of China era, and her father lived with his grandmother and changed his surname.
They no longer acknowledge their paternal relatives. Her grandmother's surname was Tong, and her father took her surname and was named Tong Anfu.
Her grandfather's original surname was Guo. The Guo family were indeed comprador capitalists. Later, his family business was secretly transferred by his second uncle, who was an illegitimate son. It is said that they ran to Hong Kong before the founding of the People's Republic of China.
Grandma Tong was a very insightful person. She came from a prominent family and was a renowned talented woman in her day, the daughter of an official. Many people said she made a huge mistake marrying that纨绔 (playboy) Guo.
She was shrewd in business and, after marriage, didn't focus on fighting with the concubines. She used her dowry to invest and secretly made a considerable fortune.
The husband favored his concubine over his wife. She used her family's influence to separate from her husband, taking her dowry with her and taking half of her husband's family business.
Later, amidst the revolutionaries, the Beiyang government, and the warlord conflicts, she advised her family to follow the revolutionaries. This helped the family survive the turmoil and maintain a certain degree of influence within the Tong family.
Later, when she fought against the Japanese, she had already become quite wealthy. However, her father was strictly disciplined by her from a young age, and he even became an apprentice at the pharmacy owned by her family when he was seven or eight years old, so that he could learn traditional Chinese medicine.
The old lady said that money is just an external thing, it can be gone in an instant, but skills are something you can use anytime.
He wanted his son to study medicine, forbade him from going into business, and refused to mention that his family had served as officials. In this new era, past experience as an official is no longer a good thing.
Because most of their money was donated during the fight against the Japanese, leaving only a small house and a small pharmacy, their family's social status was not high when they were classified as low-class.
It must be said that Mrs. Tong is a smart and wise woman.