Lin Zhilan's voice came from the side, carrying a hint of a smile.
The fawning smile on Old Lady Ma's face froze for a moment.
She still remembered this young wife.
She was fierce; last time she had nearly tortured her third son to death.
This time, when Old Lady Ma broke her leg, her third son was originally supposed to bring her over.
But the third son was too scared and refused to come.
Old Lady Ma knew that Liu Chunhua had a good relationship with this young wife. She cursed a few times in her heart but still had the thick skin to ask, "Young wife, I see the bamboo shoots you dug up are quite nice. How about you spare a few for me? Later on, I'll have Chunhua go dig some up and return them to you."
She was certainly good at using her daughter-in-law to do favors. Lin Zhilan was so angry she laughed.
"Dad, these bamboo shoots are ours. Please help me take them inside."
"Oh, okay, okay."
Su Bingcheng quickly agreed. He wasn't good at handling this kind of situation either, so upon hearing his daughter-in-law's words, he hastily carried the basket into the courtyard.
"Mom, how about you take the kids inside first?"
Xu Yueyun shook her head slightly, holding her hand and saying softly, "Don't be angry. How about we wait until Su Lang comes back to deal with this?"
Lin Zhilan laughed, "Mom, I'm not going to fight, so why wait for Su Lang to come back? Besides, let alone the fact that Auntie Ma only has one good leg right now, even if she had four legs, I could still beat her."
She didn't lower her voice at all when she spoke.
Old Lady Ma's face darkened when she heard this.
What has four legs?
Isn't that an animal?
Wang Rou looked down at her son, "Li Xuan, take your sister to play in the yard."
Lin Zhilan: "..."
What was going on?
Why did it seem like everyone assumed she was about to get physical?
With Old Lady Ma in this state, even if she could beat her, she wouldn't actually hit her.
It would only bring a whole load of trouble onto herself.
Wang Rou didn't like Old Lady Ma either.
She still remembered how Old Lady Ma had previously fought with her mother-in-law and even scratched Li Jiang.
If Sister Chunhua hadn't been reasonable and personally come to the door afterward to apologize on Old Lady Ma's behalf...
Wang Rou's family probably wouldn't have wanted anything to do with the Ma family anymore.
After her parents-in-law and the children went inside, Lin Zhilan rolled her sleeves up to her elbows and walked over to the Ma family's gate.
Old Lady Ma shrank back a bit. "What do you want to do?! I just asked you for a few bamboo shoots, I didn't do anything."
Lin Zhilan smiled. "Auntie Ma, I'm just curious. Didn't the leaders say back then that you couldn't come to the military base for three years? Why are you here again now?"
She turned to look at Wang Rou. "In this situation, we can report her, right?"
"We should be able to," Wang Rou nodded seriously.
Auntie Ma panicked. "Report what report? I'm here to see a doctor. The leaders approved it. It's none of your business!"
Old Lady Ma knew very well in her heart that no matter how much she favored her two younger sons, Ma Daniu was still the one most willing to spend money on her.
The atmosphere in the military base was strict, and reporting on others wasn't exactly a common trend.
However, Old Lady Ma knew the power of a report.
Otherwise, she wouldn't have gone to the leaders back then to report Liu Chunhua for not supporting her.
Now that it was turning back on her, she was scared.
Lin Zhilan leaned against the door frame, looking at her with a smile. "Did the leaders really approve it? Which leader? I'll go ask. How can the military's rules change from morning to evening?"
Old Lady Ma didn't understand the idiom about changing rules, she only knew that this young wife was refusing to let her off the hook.
Besides...
She had only managed to stay this time by shamelessly refusing to leave.
Old Lady Ma had planned it out long ago. She had her Second Son drop her off right outside the military base and then told him to go back.
As an old lady with a broken leg, she just sat at the base entrance and cried.
When the leaders tried to reason with her, she simply wouldn't listen.
In the end, Political Commissar Zhuang stepped in and told Ma Daniu to handle it himself.
Ma Daniu couldn't do anything about his mother, so he could only plead with the leaders to let her stay until her leg was treated, promising to send her back immediately afterward.
"Dr. Lin..." Ma Daniu suddenly appeared carrying a lunchbox, an awkward expression on his face.
How could he not know his mother's temperament? But what could he do? He was his mother's son.
His wife and son didn't understand him, and Ma Daniu had a belly full of grievances with nowhere to vent them.
Seeing Lin Zhilan standing at his door right now, he immediately understood that his old mother must have said something again.
"Dr. Lin, my mother is old and confused. Please don't hold it against her."
Lin Zhilan turned around and glanced at the lunchbox in his hand.
There were only two.
"Commander Ma, have you split the family?"
Commander Ma hid the lunchbox behind his back and said sheepishly, "Your Sister Chunhua took the kids to eat at the factory canteen."
"I see," Lin Zhilan said meaningfully. "Sister Chunhua isn't eating at home, and just now Auntie Ma asked me for bamboo shoots. Are you going to cook them for her?"
Lin Zhilan had heard Sister Chunhua mention it before.
Ma Daniu didn't know how to do chores at all; if a soy sauce bottle fell over at home, he wouldn't even pick it up.
Did he suddenly become enlightened in the culinary arts just because his mother arrived?
"How would I know how to cook?" Ma Daniu looked at his mother helplessly. "Mother, why did you ask her for bamboo shoots? If you really want to eat some, I'll go dig them up for you."
In this season, the mountains were covered with bamboo shoots.
Ma Daniu didn't understand why his mother even opened her mouth to ask.
He had left home early, so Old Lady Ma's image in his heart had been beautified layer by layer.
But during this time, with Chunhua washing her hands of the matter, Ma Daniu stayed by his mother's side and finally realized how difficult she was to serve.
He couldn't disobey her, otherwise he would be unfilial.
Not only that, she would also drag Chunhua and the kids into her scolding.
Whenever Ma Daniu tried to speak up for his wife, his mother would point at his head and curse him, "You marry a wife and forget your mother."
Now Ma Daniu would rather stay on the training ground than go home.
It wasn't that Old Lady Ma wanted to eat bamboo shoots; her bad habit of wanting to take advantage of others had just flared up again.
"Eat what eat! Why haven't you closed the door yet? I'm starving to death." Old Lady Ma bullied the weak and feared the strong. Since others wouldn't indulge her anymore, she could only bully Ma Daniu.
"Dr. Lin, I'm sorry." Ma Daniu forced an awkward smile.
Lin Zhilan snorted, "Your mother didn't manage to take advantage of me, so there's nothing to be sorry about. Commander Ma, you really are a good son. Sister Chunhua, Xiao Dong, and the others are truly blessed to be with you~"
She sarcastically dropped that sentence, clapped her hands, and linked arms with Wang Rou to go home.
A good son...
But absolutely not a good husband or a good father.
Ma Daniu stood at the door with his lunchbox for a long time, only snapping back to reality when Auntie Ma cursed a few more times.
When Lin Zhilan returned home, Xu Yueyun and Su Bingcheng were still at the courtyard gate listening to the commotion.
Hearing a man's voice earlier, Xu Yueyun had almost pushed Su Bingcheng out.
She was terrified that her younger daughter-in-law would be taken advantage of outside.
"Is everything alright?" Xu Yueyun patted her chest. "It seems his son is quite reasonable."
"Mom," Lin Zhilan clicked her tongue. "The reason his mother is the way she is today is entirely because he spoiled her. How is he reasonable? He just has no sense of boundaries."
Filial piety is certainly a virtue.
But who ever praised blind filial piety?
Old Lady Ma dared to be so arrogant precisely because she had a firm grasp on Ma Daniu's mindset.
If Ma Daniu could earn a lot of money for the family, to the point where they wouldn't have to scrimp even on the children's schooling, Sister Chunhua might have just endured it.
