abcnovels
Chapter 79
Chapter 79
Chapter 79
“I bet they thought that it’s so easy to serve mother and father at home; in reality, serving as a soldier is the real blessing…”
Seeing that she had to confuse black and white(2) and the fact that Han Qingsong was not good with words, and also because it was frowned upon for a man to argue with a woman, Lin lan couldn’t watch this unfold any longer and retorted, “Eldest sister-in-law was the one cooking for us all this time; what else do you know how to do besides eating? If so, do you want to return us our portion of the food that you gobbled up? Do you think he voluntarily didn’t want to serve his parents at home? How else was he supposed to earn to support this family?”
(T/N: Confusing black and white is by somehow twisting an evil narrative with a good one. Someone with really good ability to manipulate and deceit can change your outlook on who’s the good guy and the bad guy just by their words alone— pretty terrifying)
Hearing Lin Lan’s words, the second brother of the Han family was not happy with her choice of approach, “I’ll say Third family, how can you say something like that? According to you, would my eldest brother and me remaining at home to care for father and mother be wrong?”
Lin Lan said coldly, “You guys are right; we’re the ones in the wrong, okay? He shouldn’t have become a soldier and should have remained home to take care of both the elderly. That way, he wouldn’t have to deal with this empty hatred.”
Looking at things this way, it seemed like everyone had an issue with Han Qingsong working in the army.? They were all berating him for not needing to stay at home to work, bearing no responsibility to take care and serve the elderly— and most importantly, not needing to hear the profanities and complaints spewed out of the old lady’s mouth.
But why wasn’t anyone mentioning the fact that he had to serve in the army as a substitute for his brothers?
Why didn’t they mention that he wasn’t here because he had to earn the wages to keep this family alive?
Eldest brother Han had been trying to cut into the conversation but he somehow couldn’t find the right timing, so when Lin Lan paused, he hurriedly spoke, “What are we talking about? We’re a family of brothers; why are we all saying such hurtful words?”
“What’s the matter?” The voice of the Secretary Head, Han Yongfang, echoed from outside. He came in with a bag of grain, “Qingsong told me a while ago that his family was short of grain and needed to borrow a bag of it for his family to last till the autumn so I quickly brought it over.”
Han Qingsong nodded to Han Yongfang, “Thank you, sir,” He took the bag of cornmeal. He didn’t look at the others and said to Lin Lan, “Come on, let’s go back and cook.”
“What are you doing, what are you doing! You’re acting against us, right?” Old Lady Han shouted fiercely.
Eldest brother Han and the second brother were also stunned.
The second brother of the Han family stopped Han Qingsong, “Old Three, what are you talking about? Didn’t mother say that we would divide the rations after the autumn harvest? Why are you dividing it now? Are you not piercing our mother’s heart this way? As a son, how could you?”
Although it was imperative to separate the family, they were also willing to do so. However, it had to be because the old lady wanted to separate the shrew from her family, and not be separated due to Old Three’s resentment and anger towards his own family.
(T/N: In case it wasn’t clear, it meant that they should be separated because the old lady wanted it to happen. But, the families separated not because of her will, it’s because Han Qingsong was fed up with her— the reasoning is important)
These two reasons were starkly different. If rumours were to spread, the importance of the phrasing was very crucial as well!
Who didn’t want their reputation to be upheld? How could they just let their names be slandered like that?