Chapter 452: Awakening

Chapter 452: Clear-Headed

"Do you know what we had for dinner today? Garlic-braised prawns, home-style tofu, eggplant with minced pork... all cooked by my wife."

Li Linghui knew Lu Hanchuan's wife couldn't cook well—usually, it was Lu Hanchuan who cooked at home. He came by just to brag about how dexterous and talented his own wife was.

Lu Hanchuan couldn't care less. "Oh, so a grown man like you, with hands and feet, still needs his wife to wait on him? What a loser."

Li Linghui: "...What? How am I pathetic?"

He wanted to say that someone like Lu Hanchuan, who spent all his time in the kitchen, was the real loser.

But he didn’t dare.

Besides, if someone like Lu Hanchuan was considered pathetic, then what did that make him—older in age and lower in rank?

Li Linghui turned and left, not out of anger, but because he realized Lu Hanchuan wasn’t a good audience for his boasting.

With anyone else, he’d be showered with praise for marrying such a gentle, virtuous, beautiful, and kind-hearted wife.

Only Lu Hanchuan would stubbornly insist that his own wife was the best in the world.

Ye Xiaoxiao happened to step out of the house just then. "What did Deputy Regimental Commander Li come for?"

Lu Hanchuan: "To show off."

"Huh?"

"Bragging that his wife cooked him a whole table of delicious food."

Ye Xiaoxiao laughed from the doorway. "Looks like they’ve completely made up, then."

"It was never a big deal to begin with. Li Linghui puts on a macho act on the surface, but he’s actually whipped. If Teacher Kong gave him the silent treatment for three days, he’d be desperate."

Lu Hanchuan had long seen through Li Linghui’s true nature.

Ye Xiaoxiao: "As long as they’re happy, that’s all that matters."

Ye Xiaoxiao’s schedule at the medical clinic was working every other day.

On her days off, she offered free medical advice at the local market.

Within a few days, she had gotten chummy with the island’s grandmas and grandpas.

"Dr. Ye, here’s some watermelon you like. Homegrown—help yourself."

An elderly man had brought her a cart full of watermelons.

A couple of days earlier, Ye Xiaoxiao had performed acupuncture to help with his rheumatism. Grateful but with little to offer, the old man—a watermelon farmer—had hauled over a cart of his harvest straight from the field.

"Grandpa, this is way too much!"

The old man shook his head. "These melons aren’t presentable anymore. Can’t sell them."

The typhoon had ravaged the watermelon field, completely wiping out the crop.

The ones he’d picked out were the last remaining salvageable ones.

Ye Xiaoxiao hated seeing the old man's worried look—it always made her think of her grandpa.

"Grandpa, these watermelons are perfectly fine. I can't take them for free. At least let me pay you something."

Xiao Xiao originally intended to pay the market price, but she knew the old man would never accept it.

So she took out five yuan from her pocket. "Grandpa, I'll buy your watermelons for five yuan."

The old man waved his hand. "No, no. You gave me acupuncture, and I haven’t even paid for the treatment. If you give me money, it’s like slapping me in the face."

After some arguing, Xiao Xiao still couldn’t get him to take the money.

In the end, she could only thank the old man for his kindness and take the watermelons home.

The old man had given her a cartful of watermelons and even dropped them off at her door.

Xiao Xiao couldn’t finish them all alone, so she first handed two to each of her neighbors.

Some watermelons had cracked open and had to be eaten right away.

She kept two for herself and gave the rest to Lu Hanchuan to bring to the army base.

"So many watermelons couldn’t be sold, and the old man missed out on a big chunk of his earnings."

The island barely had any decent-paying work to begin with. The old man had fished at sea when he was younger, and now that he was older, he worked a few acres of watermelon patches.

A single typhoon had hit him hard again.

Xiao Xiao sighed. "Yeah, I offered to pay him, but he refused."

Life on the island wasn’t rich, but no one starved. The old man certainly wasn’t going hungry, but at his age, he still had to work hard.

Lu Hanchuan, after getting so much from him, also felt he should help.

"I’ll swing by his place and see if there’s anything he needs help with."

Xiao Xiao knew she could count on Lu Hanchuan with anything he took on.

"Alright. If there’s anything I can do, just let me know."

Lu Hanchuan gave Xiao Xiao a fond look. "Okay, I know."

The watermelons let the neighbors feast.

Xiao Xiao’s good standing in the neighborhood grew even further.

...

Hai Yan and A Bang were sorting stock in their small shop—all of which A Bang had shipped in by freighter.

This was their first restocking since the typhoon.

"Hai Yan, Hai Yan... something’s happened at home!"

Before Hai Yan could finish her work, her mother came running in a frenzy.

"Mom... if this is about money, I’m sorry, but I don’t have any."

"Hai Yan, they arrested your brother."

Hai Yan sneered, "Isn't he in and out of jail all the time? What's so special about being arrested this time?"

"Hai Yan, this time is different. Even the police chief said he might not get out this time."

Hai Yan's mother was stretching the truth—at least, the police chief hadn't phrased it quite like that.

"Oh? So what did he do this time? Murder? Arson?"

Hai Yan gave her mother an icy look.

If only you'd shown this much concern when Hai Yan herself was in trouble.

"How can you curse your own brother like that? He really didn’t do anything this time! The cops aren't even saying what’s going on."

Hai Yan shook her head helplessly at her sobbing mother. "That just means whatever he did was too serious for the police to look the other way."

Hai Yan told her to leave and stop disrupting her shop.

Only then did her mother reveal her real reason. "Hai Yan, can you give me some money? I’ll try again."

Hai Yan: "Do you see any money here? It’s all invested in inventory. I don’t have a single cent now."

Hearing this, her mother immediately resorted to her old trick—flopping on the floor wailing.

A Bang stepped forward and grabbed her arm. "Ma, this place is small. You’d better wait outside."

Seeing that neither of them would budge, Hai Yan’s mother started cursing them out. "You cold-hearted bastards! You clearly have money but refuse to give it to me. Just sell this stock—once it’s sold, you’ll have money for me!"

She even threatened: "If you don’t sell it, I’ll get someone to smash it all!"

Hai Yan had been disappointed too many times. Her heart had long been broken by her family.

"This stock is worth hundreds, even thousands. If you touch a single thing, I’ll call the police, and you can keep Yu Dahai company at the station."

Hai Yan’s coldness surpassed her mother’s. Seeing her so unyielding, the older woman softened her tone.

"Then at least give me some support payments. Your father and I are getting old, and your brother’s useless now. You have money—you should give us more."

Hai Yan gave a bitter laugh. "Since when does our island have a rule where daughters support their parents? I remember you always said, ‘A married daughter is like spilled water—she has no claim to anything in this house.’"

"Nothing in the house was mine. You took the dowry, gave no wedding gifts, and now you want me to support you? Have you no shame?"