The Country Maiden: Fields and Leisure
Chapter 164 Whining

Chapter 164: Chapter 164 Whining

Jinguan thought for a moment and shook his head, "I don’t know, I didn’t see anyone enter our house! What’s wrong, Mother, did something really get stolen from our house?"

As he spoke, he felt somewhat guilty.

He remembered searching in the cabinet the day he came back and finding a handful of peanuts.

Could it be that Mother knew all about it?

The more Jinguan thought about it, the less he dared to look at Lady Lin.

As the saying goes, a mother knows her child best. Seeing Jinguan’s guilty appearance, a nasty thought came to Lady Lin’s mind, "Was it you who took it?"

Jinguan really wanted to deny it, but he couldn’t hide such thing, even if he were to stubbornly deny it now. Wouldn’t everything be clear once Mother asked Eldest Brother and Second Brother?

Because he couldn’t keep denying it, he honestly nodded, "It was me! I took it!"

Lady Lin was so angry she couldn’t contain it and picked up a broom to thrash Jinguan, "I’ll beat you to death, you worthless wretch! You’ve even learned to steal? Who taught you? To pick up this dirty habit? You worthless thing, I should just beat you to death!"

She beat him furiously. Jinguan howled in pain and tried to run away, but Lady Lin blocked the side door as well, so he had no choice but to jump around the house, begging, "Mother, I was wrong! I was wrong! Please stop beating me, I won’t dare do it again!"

Lady Lin, still full of resentment, thrashed him a couple more times, but her heart ultimately ached for him. She threw down the broom and, with a cold face, asked, "Where did you take the things?"

Jinguan was baffled. It was just a handful of peanuts, wasn’t it? Where would they go? They had already been shared and eaten by Third Brother and himself, right?

He answered honestly, "I ate them!"

"You ate them?" Lady Lin screamed and picked up the broom to start thrashing him again.

As she beat him, she scolded, "All that money, you ate it all? Were you starved for eight generations? Or do you have a gluttonous mouth? All that money, was the hard-earned savings of your mother, painstakingly saved over so many years. Was it easy for me? And you just ate it all? Even if you had the stomach of an elephant, you couldn’t eat that much, right? Come clean, where did the money go?"

By the end of her rant, Lady Lin was almost in tears.

Only then did Jinguan understand. His mother thought he had spent the money?

But that was a wrongful accusation! He had thought he was caught for stealing peanuts, which is why he let Lady Lin beat him a few times, but discovering this was a misunderstanding—that he was wrongly accused and hadn’t even seen any money—made him realize the injustice.

If he had money, would he have been eating vegetable porridge at home these past few days? He would have already gone to town to buy cakes.

Jinguan immediately flopped to the ground, rolling and wailing, "Mother, you’re wronging me, I didn’t take any money! I was just so hungry, I found a handful of peanuts in the cabinet, and even shared them with Eldest Brother and Second Brother! Mother, why is your heart so cruel? For a handful of peanuts, you want to beat your own son to death!"

Lady Lin hesitated, her broom-wielding hand pausing. Jinguan didn’t take the money? He took peanuts?

First, she was relieved – at least her son hadn’t picked up a dirty habit. But then she became anxious again. If her son didn’t take it, who did?

Lady Lin didn’t need to think twice; her first suspect was her mother-in-law, Old Granny Zhang.

Who else would have the guts?

If someone else took the silver, she had ways to handle it. Whether it was by crying, making a scene, or threatening to hang herself, she would be able to get the silver back, maybe with some extra compensation.

But if Granny Zhang had taken it, even Lady Lin knew she couldn’t just go and demand the money back; she would be at fault in that case!

What to do? Lady Lin’s mind was in turmoil.

Jinguan was still rolling on the ground, "—Oh my, that hurts, I’m almost beaten to death by my own mother! Father, my dear father, please come back and see, your son Jinguan is about to be beaten to death—"

Lady Lin looked darkly at her son rolling in the dirt. If he wasn’t her own flesh and blood, she probably would have strangled him to death by now.

Not to mention Old Granny Zhang and Wang Yongzhu outside.

Where did Jinguan learn all these tantrums, crying and making a scene?

In this large room, some were crying, some shouting; such a commotion would wake even the dead.

Wang Laozhu had awoken when Lady Lin first screamed about thieves, but he had some complaints about her lately, so he didn’t get out of bed even though he heard the noise.

After all, the old lady of the house was here, and with her around, there was no need for him to worry about household matters.

And sure enough, just a few words from the old lady had silenced Lady Lin.

But how come in no time at all, Jinguan was crying his eyes out?

It seemed the older people got, the more childlike they became.

And Jinguan, a grown man, making such a fuss like an old woman, what was this all about?

Having no choice, Wang Laozhu got up and left the room.

He coincidentally saw Wang Yongping, who had also been woken by the noise, stepping outside; father and son exchanged a look and stayed where they were, just watching from their own doorstep.

Wang Yongping used to think the nephews and nieces at home, Jindou and Jinhoo, being older, were more composed.

The child from the Third Brother’s family was nice enough but a bit too timid.

Only Jinguan, not so old yet sweet-talking and persuasive, was treated like a treasure by the Eldest Brother’s family. He too had felt that among all the nephews, he liked Jinguan the most for his cleverness and friendliness.

But ever since the Eldest Brother’s incident, Jinguan, who used to be the cleverest, began to reveal some irritating traits.

Being talkative was one thing – kids didn’t understand the gravity of their words.

But yesterday, when he was afraid, he clung onto his own legs. Seeing that he was about to push Jinguan away to rescue his sister-in-law and Jinshao, Jinguan was afraid to be left behind and even thought of grabbing onto his waistband to hold on.

This cleverness was being used in all the wrong ways.

Now, hearing Jinguan inside imitating the village women throwing tantrums, Wang Yongping just frowned, wishing he could drag the little brat out and give him a good thrashing.

If a child in the family doesn’t behave, how do you deal with it? A few good spankings naturally set them right.

If it had been before, Wang Yongping wouldn’t have hesitated—he would have gone in and pulled the child out for a beating.

But now, ever since he heard Elder Sister-in-Law Lin insinuating that he was to blame for the Eldest Brother’s troubles, he felt he no longer had the right to discipline the Eldest Brother’s children.

He feared that what was intended as a lesson would be misunderstood by the Elder Sister-in-Law.

Otherwise, when Jinguan clung to his legs yesterday, if he had really put effort into it, couldn’t he have shaken the kid off?

He just felt inexplicably guilty, apologetic towards the big room family, which made him hesitate involuntarily when it came to Jinguan.

Later, he was scared out of his wits, thinking that if it hadn’t been for his younger sister, if anything had happened to his sister-in-law and Jinshao, he would be too ashamed to face the Third Brother.

Wang Yongping had a bellyful of frustration he couldn’t vent, and he stood there sullenly.

It was Old Granny Zhang who finally got fed up with listening, she blurted out angrily, "Crying as if in mourning in broad daylight? You wishing death upon us both, the elderly? And you from the Eldest Brother’s family, weren’t you supposed to be serving the Eldest Brother in town? Yet you insisted on coming home for what, a bath and a change of clothes? Now you either scream about thieves or start hitting the children, who are you putting on this show for? Huh? Got a problem with us old ones, do you? Or you’re exhausted from nursing the Eldest Brother and trying to sneak back here to slack off? Pah! Shameless woman, neglecting your own husband and yet you send the kids to town to serve him – whose family rules are those? The Lin Family rules?"