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Chapter 18

Fat head, big earlobes, fat head, big earlobes...

The last time Yu Shu saw Second Aunt was when she was still in high school. At that time, she did not have work-related weight gain and had a slender, beautiful, and youthful figure. Now compared to that time, she had gained some weight, but was definitely not "fat head big earlobes."

She was, at most, slightly overweight! Slightly overweight! Slightly overweight!

Yu Shu wanted to swear on the spot. She squeezed her chopsticks so hard they almost snapped before she was able to restrain herself. Looking at the table full of delicious food carefully prepared by Ye Ping, she instantly lost her appetite - she was too angry to eat!

The other middle-aged female relatives at the table realized she was unhappy and tried to change the subject with some small talk. But Second Aunt either could not or would not read the situation and kept piling oily, meaty dishes into her bowl while laughing and lecturing her:

"I\'m just joking with you a little bit and you\'re already unhappy? Second Aunt only teases people she\'s fond of. Second Aunt doesn\'t tease just anybody! Come on, have another chicken leg."

I\'d prefer if you teased somebody else.

Yu Shu did not respond and pushed her rice bowl aside with the back of her hand. She refused to eat the dishes Second Aunt had piled onto her plate.

Second Aunt\'s smile faded somewhat. She was about to sarcastically comment on Yu Shu\'s upbringing when Second Paternal Aunt interrupted, "Yuemei, that gold necklace of yours looks truly beautiful!"

"Oh this old thing? I told him I didn\'t want it but Yu Hai insisted on buying it for me. Couldn\'t stop him at all." Second Aunt immediately forgot about Yu Shu and turned to show off her gold necklace to everyone.

The little son of Third Aunt\'s family, Chen Chen, was not seated at the kids table and was being held and fed by Yao Jinhua. Chen Chen saw how lively the kids table was and kept struggling to go join his big brother, twisting and turning in Yao Jinhua\'s lap until she smacked his bottom a few times in anger. The young daughter-in-law then shot Yao Jinhua a look of warning.

Yu Shu watched the drama unfold with the corner of her eye and lamented in her heart how theatrical this whole family was. The next second, Chen Chen was stuffed into her arms.

Yao Jinhua said, "Yu Shu, you feed him. Yu Yang was raised eating your feeding."

"..."

When Yu Yang was little, Yu Shu would often help Ye Ping feed him. But it was precisely because Little Yu Yang pestered her so much back then that she grew to strongly dislike little kids - she could barely tolerate her own little brother, let alone someone else\'s child!

Just as Yu Shu was about to dump the child in her lap onto the floor, she caught her mother\'s warning glare - this meal was truly exhausting to get through.

She grabbed a new pair of chopsticks and, using the bowl of dishes Second Aunt had just piled food into, began feeding Chen Chen. Perhaps due to her unfriendly expression and also not being used to the unfamiliar Yu Shu, Chen Chen obediently ate everything she brought to his mouth at first without fuss. But before long, he began bawling loudly, "I wanna...I wanna go find big brother!"

Taking advantage of his wide open mouth, Yu Shu heartlessly stuffed in a mouthful of braised pork. Chen Chen choked for a moment and then began crying even harder, as his spit also caused him to gag violently.

Third Aunt grabbed him over at once, tenderly comforting her precious darling, "Bad Sister Shu! You choked our Chen Chen on purpose didn\'t you? We won\'t bother with you anymore, you bully!"

The sound of crying was giving Yu Shu a splitting headache. Having completely lost her appetite, she threw down her chopsticks to watch the dramatics.

It took Chen Chen a long time before Third Aunt finally calmed him down, and he lay sniffling and hiccuping on her shoulder.

After comforting her son, Third Aunt started in on Yu Shu: "Grown up already but still can\'t even feed a child properly. How do you expect to marry out in the future?"

Yu Shu retorted in a mild tone, "Even three-year-old dogs can feed themselves. How\'s he going to grow up like this?"

Third Aunt was about to snap when Third Uncle stayed her, "If she doesn\'t wanna eat then she\'s not hungry, just let him go play on the floor, why make such a fuss over it? Yu Shu, c\'mon over and eat at my table."

"Thanks Uncle, but I\'ve had my fill."

Yu Shu left the table and went upstairs to her room, with Wenwen following behind. "Sis, can I come in your room?"

"Sure, come on in." Yu Shu sprawled out on her bed, her muffled voice sounding very sullen.

Wenwen sat down on the sofa chair and pouted while complaining, "I didn\'t even get to eat my fill."

When those rude boys from Second and Third Uncle\'s families came to the table, they ate like bandits. An entire cooked carp got ripped to shreds in a few bites. They used soup spoons to noisily slurp down mouthfuls of soup directly from the bowls, spitting into it as they stirred it around - the whole bowl was filled with their spit. And the special egg tarts Ye Ping made especially for the little ones were taken away by them whole platefuls at a time too; Wenwen didn\'t get a single one.

Yu Shu gave her some snacks and dried fruit to eat, "Come over to our house by yourself in a few days and Auntie will make you your own meal."

Wenwen finally cheered up at that and gossiped away while munching on snacks.

After a little while longer, Yu Yang knocked on the door, "Sis, it\'s me."

"Come in, let out whatever farts you need to."

Yu Yang cut straight to the chase, "Second Uncle wants to borrow money from you to open a shop and Third Uncle wants to borrow money from you to buy a car."

"No money," Yu Shu answered even more concisely.

"Yeah, that\'s what Mom said too," Yu Yang sat down on the bed and the next instant caught his sister\'s glare, shrinking back awkwardly to sit on the carpet by the window instead.

"Mom told them the house and car were bought with loans and we had to borrow a lot from friends just to scrape together the down payment. And after New Year\'s Dad needs to get surgery again so there\'s expenses everywhere, she asked Second and Third Uncles that if they could lend us some money instead, since it\'s convenient for them."

Mrs. Ye was dependably slick today, neatly turning the tables on them. But man proposes, God disposes - this was too small of a county town and everyone they met outside was familiar. There were no secrets here.

"Second Uncle immediately poked holes in Mom\'s lies. He has a friend who works at the property sales office in this housing development. He knew you paid in full for this house and said Mom was ungrateful to hide things from her own brothers."

"Damn his grandmother!" Yu Shu shot up from the bed, "When they have money we\'re close kin but when they\'re broke we\'re no better than dirt on the doorsteps to them!"

The two years after Yu Feng\'s car accident when the family struggled the most, eating watery rice porridge with pickled vegetables every meal when they couldn\'t even scrape together the school fees for the kids. Ye Ping went asking them to lend some money or help out in any way but they made polite noises without actually doing anything. Saying their family had no money either but they would ask some friends to lend a small amount.

And that was that. They went off traveling and living it up, leaving Yao Jinhua alone in that small county town until they finally came back when school was starting again.

Ever since then, whenever they ran into Yu Shu or Yu Yang on the streets they would actively avoid them.

Yu Yang used to be naive and couldn\'t tell they disliked him. Once he ran into Third Uncle on the street and even chased after him calling out eagerly. But Third Uncle got into his friend\'s car and directly told the friend he didn\'t know Yu Yang.

It was the dead of winter during the coldest part of year. Yu Yang got splashed all over by the dirty water stirred up by the car tires and even heard their derisive laughter drifting out through the cracks of the car windows.

After that he finally wisened up. Now whenever he sees them, he pretends not to.

Yu Yang waited until Yu Shu finished cursing before hesitantly bringing up, "Sis...can I...can I not..."

"No!"

"..."

Yu Yang hung his head dejectedly. The six-foot-tall man hugged his knees, curling into a ball, the very picture of pitifulness.

Yu Shu patted his fuzzy head, "Go on, say it."

"I just wanted to ask...if, if next year my college entrance exam scores aren\'t ideal...would our family have money for me to repeat a grade and study for another year?"

"We do! Absolutely must have it!" Yu Shu answered decisively. "You can keep studying for as many years as you want, our family has money."

Wenwen mumbled under her breath, "But you just said there was no money..."

Yu Shu silenced her with a glare and she mimed zipping her lips, "I\'m blind, I\'m deaf, didn\'t hear a thing, don\'t know anything about anything!"