Chapter 60: Lu Tong's Visit

Granny Shen worked in the town. Chen Xiao Mi would bring Shen Chi and Chen Xiao Cai when he went back to the village.

Green vegetables and radish were quite pricy in town. In the spirit of frugality, Chen Xiao Mi would go to the village from time to time to harvest the veggies.

When Chen Xiao Mi came home this time, Lu Tong happened to visit the Lus for the first time after she got married.

In this time and space, the brides and the grooms would visit the brides' family after they got married for a month. The more things the groom bought for his in-laws, the more it showed the bride was living well with her new family, and her parents could rest assured.

Lu Lin was married into Chen Xiao Mi's family, he was supposed to go back to the Lus to visit them. However, Lu Lin and Chen Xiao Mi didn't go back because they couldn't be bothered.

When Lu Lin married Chen Xiao Mi, he was sick and no one accused him of not paying a visit to his parents' family. However, some people started to blame Lu Lin for not going back to his family after he got married, they even called him ungrateful. However, neither Lu Lin nor Chen Xiao Mi took it to heart.

Lu Lin was sure they would still be ridicule even if they visited the Lus with a bunch of nice stuff. Neither of them was bothered by things like reputation, so naturally they didn't do that thankless task.

Lu Lin and Chen Xiao Mi moved to town. Actually, Chen Xiao Mi's First Uncle Chen Shou Xin had secretly come to their house already. However, it was basically an empty house at this point. Chen Shou Xin made a fruitless trip, he left the house without gaining anything.

Lu Lin and Chen Xiao Mi lived in a relatively remote place in the village. No one noticed it at first, but some people had discovered it after some time.

Lu Lin just told people that he and Chen Xiao Mi found a job in town and temporarily they would stay in town.

Lu Lin's words instantly provoked an uproar in the village. People were so jealous. A stable job in town was equivalent to a a royal job. Lu An worked in town, people always talked about him and his job in an admiring tone. Now that Lu Lin also was lucky enough to work in town, the villagers all said a good fortune had befallen him and Chen Xiao Mi.

"Gege," Chen Xiao Cai walked to Chen Xiao Mi and whispered, " Lu Tong came back alone."

Chen Xiao Mi couldn't help but widen his eyes. He and Lu Lin's reputation was too bad, so they couldn't be bothered to try to follow those traditions, but Lu Tong had always been very sensitive about her reputation! On such an important day, Lu Tong came back alone, Chen Xiao Mi dreaded to think how the long-tongued women in the village would mock her.

However, Lu Tong's husband actually let her come back alone on such an important day. It seemed that the new husband didn't care about Lu Tong that much.

Lu Lin thought of Lu Tong's disgusted expression after the host Lu Lin committed suicide. He felt that Lu Tong deserved it.

......

In Lu family.

Tang looked at her daughter and couldn't help but feel flustered.

Tang only felt that things had been bad recently. Her eldest son's wife was not as great as she expected. The Secretary-General didn't take them seriously at all, neither did her son-in-law's family. She was married for a month and now she came back home to visit them alone.

In contrast, everyone thought that Lu Lin would suffer after he married Chen Xiao Mi, but they were doing so great.

Although most people in the village were still criticizing Chen Xiao Mi, there were still many people who thought that Chen Xiao Mi was capable and visionary. 'Reputation is something floats in the air, but silver is real.'

"Where's your husband?" Tang asked.

Lu Tong said sullenly, "The kid at home is sick. My husband went to ask a doctor to treat him."

Tang pulled a long face and said, "That damn boy, why isn't he sick early or late? He's sick at this time. Is he faking it on purpose?"

Lu Tong pouted and said, "Who knows!"

Lu Tong had a bad time since she married into her husband's house. Li Ji treated her well, but her mother-in-law always picked faults with her in various ways.

After Lu Tong got married, her mother-in-law would order her to cook, wash the clothes, and she even asked her to sew piles of clothes.

Lu Tong felt that the Li family was looking for a maid instead of a daughter-in-law!

When Lu Tong was in the Lu family, she had always dreamed of becoming a lady of a rich family. She was afraid that her hands would become rough and she would not get involved in cooking and washing. Tang also felt that her daughter had a pretty face, and it was obvious that she was going to become an official wife's life. Tang would just spoil Lu Tong and ordered Lu Lin and his mother to do the house chores and farm work.

Lu Tong's mother-in-law ordered her to cook all the time. But she wasn't good at it, the food always turned out either burned or uncooked. Her mother-in-law was very dissatisfied with Lu Tong and always scolded Lu Tong for being a slacker.

Li Ji's son was hostile towards Lu Tong, he was worried that Lu Tong might steal his father away from him, so he treated Lu Tong as an enemy.

Lu Tong wasn't a patient or mellow person. She saw the child treat him as an enemy and she just ignored the child.

Tang looked at her daughter and felt depressed. Her daughter-in-law disrespected her. And now her son-in-law didn't even accompany her daughter on the first trip back home, and her daughter just showed up empty-handed. Tang felt like this was the most humiliating day in her life.

Tang looked at Lu Tong with resentment and said, "Why didn't you bring anything, not even one gift today?"

Lu Tong noticed her mother's disdain for her and her heart sank.

Lu Tong recalled how Grandma Lu waited by the door when she entered the gate. Lu Tong was touched that her grandmother missed her so much that she had been waiting for her since morning. However, when Grandma Lu saw that she came alone with nothing in hand, Grandma Lu just scolded her and walked away.

"My mother-in-law didn't prepare anything."

Tang's face darkened, "Your mother-in-law is bullying you."

"Where's my sister-in-law?" Lu Tong asked.

Tang said sullenly, "She went back to her parents' house."

The last time Li Fang Yue and Lu Cheng Yu visited Li Fang Yue's parents, they still didn't see Secretary-General. Lu Cheng Yu and Li Hong argued. When the couple came back, Tang heard that her son still hadn't met Secretary-General, she was greatly disappointed.

Grandma Lu was getting more and more dissatisfied with Li Fang Yue recently as well. She felt that Li Fang Yue didn't deserve her grandson Lu Cheng Yu at all. Every now and then, she would scold Li Fang Yue. Grandma Lu went further and further because she felt that Secretary-General didn't care much about this sister-in-law, he and didn't show up on the wedding or in the returning banquet. Grandma Lu thought probably she didn't need to hold anything back when she scolded Li Fang Yue.

Li Fang Yue couldn't take it one day, she went back to her parents' house in anger.

Tang was faintly worried that they tried to be clever with this marriage only to end up with making a blunder.

"Your brother went to apologize to her. After all, she's married, people will talk if she stays at her parents' house." Tang said worriedly.

Lu Tong smiled sarcastically, "Mom! If Sister-in-law wants to go back, then let her go back. It's no big deal, you're deceived this time!"

Tang glanced at Lu Tong and asked, "What do you mean?"

Lu Tong smiled and said, "I only found out this by chance. Li Ru is not the wife of Secretary-General, she is nothing but a concubine."

Tang exploded and said angrily, "Tong, you can't talk nonsense like this!"

The status of wife and concubine was very different. The children of the concubine did not have the right to inherit anything, and people just looked down on them.

"Mom, am I such someone who talks nonsense? I found out this by chance, but it shouldn't be wrong. You just think about it. Li Fang Yue is not young. If her conditions are so good, why does she wait until now? The people in town know about it, that is, we are tricked by the matchmakers, we are not as well-informed as the people in town," Lu Tong sighed, she actually gloated in her heart.

Lu Tong was actually very angry with her parents. She had a bad life in the Li family and that had a lot to do with her dowry. The Li family had given her twenty taels of silver as betrothal present, and she didn't get anything from her family when she got married. Lu Tong felt that she was sold by her family.

Lu Tong hated her big brother and sister-in-law because of this. When she found out that Li Fang Yue's sister, Li Ru, was just a concubine, she suddenly felt a pleasure rising in her heart.

Tang was so angry that her face turned livid. She always thought it was strange that why the Secretary-General didn't come to the wedding ceremony. If Li Ru was Secretary-General's concubine, everything made sense now.

The position of the concubine was low, so the Secretary-General naturally didn't have to worry about a concubine's sister's wedding.

Tang gritted her teeth, she was so mad that she was about to vomit blood, but she had to help cover up for the family's reputation, "Don't tell anyone about this."

There were quite a lot of rumors about their family in the village already. If people knew that the 'lady from an official's family' that they had spent a lot of effort marrying was just the sister of a lowly concubine, their family would definitely be laughed to death.

Lu Tong nodded and said, "I know, but Mother, you have to be careful too. Li Fang Yue thinks too highly of herself. Mother, you can't always let people ride roughshod on your back!"

Tang said hatefully, "The Li family is too shameless. How dare your sister-in-law go back to her house to threaten your big brother?" Tang was stunned by the news that Lu Tong had brought back, and she forgot to pursue the matter of Lu Tong came home alone.

"Mom, is there any news about Lu Lin and Chen Xiao Mi?"

Tang sighed, "Who knows? I heard that these two are running to town all day. They seem to have found a job in town. I don't know who actually has hired them. Chen Xiao Mi is not a kind-hearted person."

Lu An's job was envious by many people in the village. Many people hoped to snatch it. In order to keep that job, Grandpa Lu would bribe Lu An's manager every year.

"Why are you asking this?" Tang asked.

Lu Tong shook her head and said, "It's nothing. Recently, a Sino Commercial House has risen to fame. They feature a product called schoolbag, and the exquisite ones is worth one or two silver each. They must have made a fortune already. My mother-in-law bought a small bag for her grandson. 700 cents! It is a luxury."

"What does this have to do with Lu Lin and Chen Xiao Mi?"

Lu Tong was silent for a moment and said, "Someone saw Chen Xiao Mi talking to the steward of commercial house. Chen Xiao Mi and Lu Lin might be working in that store."

Tang said sullenly, "I've never heard of this Sino Commercial House. I'm afraid it's not a legit store. If the boss knew the details of Chen Xiao Mi, he would fire him for sure."

Lu Tong vaguely felt that Lu Lin and Chen Xiao Mi had been mysterious recently. However, never could she imagine that Chen Xiao Mi and Lu Lin had already bought a huge commercial property in town.

Lin Xiu'er looked at Tang and pulled a long face, " Tong is back. Why didn't she bring anything? Is she having a bad time in her husband's house?!"

Tang tried to act normal, "That's not the case, something special happened in the Li family, that's all."

"No matter how special the situation is, he shouldn't let Tong come back home alone! Can you imagine how the villagers are going to mock us behind our back?"

Lin Xiu'er felt that her days were getting worse and worse. She had more and more work to do, but her food was getting worse and the Lus' reputation was getting worse as well.

Recently, Grandma Lu became more and more stingy. Lin Xiu'er had been hoping that Lu Tong and her husband would bring back some meat, but Lu Tong came back home empty-handed!