Chapter 41 - Women should Protect the Children

Xie Yunjin realized what the child was worried about right away and said, “First Born, you go as well. I’m going to take a nap at home. We can spend some time together once you return.”

The First Born thought about it and nodded, “Okay.”

Xie Yunjin watched the First Born leave. Out of the four children, the First Born looked like him the most. The First Born was also the most sensitive, so it was good for him to hang out with children his own age.

After Lu Jiao cleaned up the dining utensils, she picked up her ax and went to the Second Grandma’s place with the quadruplets. She first returned the ax, chitchatted with the Second Grandma, then finally brought up the matter about the puppies.

The Second Grandma was supportive of Lu Jiao’s idea of getting a dog, “You guys really do need a dog. Or else how can you sleep peacefully when the children are home without you? It’s impossible to be with them all the time and your children might get hurt if someone with bad intentions trespasses.”

“Would you know someone from the village who has dogs?”

The Second Grandma smiled, “Your Third Grandpa’s family just got a new litter of three to four. They just turned a month old. Yesterday, they were asking around to see if anyone wanted one.”

Lu Jiao’s father-in-law, Xie Laogen, was born into a family of six children – four boys and two girls. The eldest brother died young due to illness. One of the sisters also passed away a while back. Now, there were only three of the brothers and one of the sisters left.

Xie Laogen was the youngest so Second Grandpa and Third Grandpa were his elder brothers. He also has an older sister. But due to Lady Ruan’s distant and cold behaviors, the siblings didn’t really keep in contact with Xie Laogen.

This Third Grandpa’s family mentioned here essentially treated Xie Laogen as their enemy.

Rumor has it that before the family branched away from each other, one of Third Grandpa’s sons got sick and so he asked his parents for money. Lady Ruan objected to that and threw a tantrum. The parents didn’t have the guts to allocate money without everyone’s approval and ended up not giving Third Grandpa the money needed to treat his son. In the end, their son died.

Due to the death of their son, the Xie siblings branched off and lived separately. Third Grandpa’s family and Xie Laogen’s family became nemesis and never interacted with each other again.

Lu Jiao bitterly grinned, “It’s probably better that we don’t go?”

Why would that family give up a dog to their nemesis?

The Second Grandma took Lu Jiao’s hand and sighed, “Your Third Grandpa and Grandma are very kind people. It was your mother-in-law who was in the wrong back then. For the money, she was willing to let someone die. Your Third Grandpa ended up having three daughters before having another son.”

The Second Grandma sighed while she spoke about the past. But after a while, she smiled again, “That was so long ago. Your Third Grandpa feels bad over what happened to you. Why would they hate the young generation?”

Lady Ruan treated her own son so poorly, it wasn’t difficult to imagine how poorly she treated others.

The Second Grandma started to walk, “Come, come, I’ll bring you over to their place and fetch you a puppy.”

Lu Jiao wasn’t confident and worriedly said, “Are you sure?”

She was scared that a fight might break out. That would not be very pleasant.

The Second Grandma patted her own chest and promised, “Don’t worry. That old man won’t lecture you.”

Lu Jiao wanted to say something more but the four little ones all stared at her with high hopes. What else could Lu Jiao say at this point? She could only go and try to get those puppies.

1

In recent years, people didn’t even get to eat until they were full, let alone dogs. So, in this village, it wasn’t likely that another family had dogs.

The Second Grandma lived close to the Third Grandpa’s place so the group quickly arrived.

The Third Grandpa and Grandma had three daughters and two sons. Their first son died, their daughters all married off, and now, they lived with their youngest son here in the village.

Inside their home, the old man and his son weren’t home. The Grandma and her daughter-in-law were cleaning up the garden. When they saw the Second Grandma come in with Lu Jiao and her four children, the Third Grandma froze. Her face was a little numb but she didn’t say anything over the line.

The Second Grandma glared at her, “What are you doing? There are children here. Don’t put on that stinky face.”

It was obvious that these two Grandmas were rather comfortable with each other.

The Third Grandma was skinny but appeared high energy. After she heard what the Second Grandma had to say, she smiled and waved, “Yunjin’s wife, how rare for you to visit with the children.”

She took out two little stools for the adults to sit on, then shouted into the room, “Gousheng, come out and play with your little cousins.”

A thin and dark boy ran out of the room. He was shocked to find the quadruplets here. However, he quickly rushed over and happily asked, “I heard from Datou and Maomao that your bamboo copters were made by your mom?”

The Fourth Born nodded, “Yes, my mommy made it.”

Gousheng looked at their hands and saw that they were empty. Disappointed, he turned to Lu Jiao, “Third aunty, can you make me one too?”

Children these days didn’t have many toys to play with. A simple craft was enough to be a hot commodity.

The Third Grandma angrily lectured, “Do you want a beating?”

Gousheng’s mom pulled her son over and told him to stop asking for things.

Lu Jiao checked out Third Grandma’s daughter-in-law. Her name was Jiang Zhaodi.

Jiang Zhaodi also checked out Lu Jiao. She was there yesterday when the commotion happened at Lu Jiao’s place. Lu Jiao’s tactful behavior yesterday stunned Jiang Zhaodi. Due to that, she was scared to even look at Lu Jiao right now.

The Third Grandma noticed how scared she acted and didn’t like that.

Lu Jiao smiled at the Third Grandma, “Yesterday, Widow Li went to my house. I’m sure you heard of that?”

The Third Grandma nodded. She admired Lu Jiao very much for how she dealt with that woman. She’d been thinking about it ever since she heard about it.

If her son was Lu Jiao’s son, would Lady Ruan dare to refuse them money? Lu Jiao would’ve beaten Lady Ruan to death. At the end of the day, the death of her son was her own fault. She was too weak and that ended up costing her son’s life.

The Third Grandma looked at Lu Jiao and didn’t find her actions to be at all too violent. Women should protect their children. Even the wildest animals knew to do that.

“You are a good kid.”

Lu Jiao didn’t expect that from the Third Grandma and she felt relieved.

“Though I taught Widow Li a lesson yesterday, it’s impossible for me to stay home to take care of my children every day. Yunjin also can’t move around right now, so, when I heard that your dog gave birth, I wondered if I could take one of the puppies?”

The Third Grandma agreed, “Okay.”

But Gousheng wouldn’t have it, “No way.”

Hmmph, he had asked his third aunty to make a bamboo copter and his grandma got mad at him.

The First Born heard that and walked over, “Can I trade my bamboo copter for your puppy?”

They had four bamboo copters at home. With his gone, they would still have three. He could share with his siblings.

Gousheng instantly laughed joyously at that suggestion, “Alright then! Let me bring you to the litter and you can pick.”

He then ran to the dog’s house while the four little ones followed.

The Third Grandma speechlessly looked at her own grandson. So their puppy was only worth one bamboo copter?