Chapter 3 — Breakfast Changes Destiny

From the east room came Vuong Que Lan's mumbling voice: "Kien Thanh, I'm afraid your wife is possessed by an evil spirit. Before, she could massage her however she wanted." Chu Kien Thanh said: "Mom, please stop saying a few words. Recently she has an erratic temper, wait for me to comfort her a bit." I stood outside the door, holding a thermos of hot water. Appease? In my previous life, every time he finished coaxing me, he would force me to continue working, continue to bow my head, continue to swallow the bitterness in my stomach. In this life, his sweet words are like rancid soup in a bucket of rice water. At night, Vuong Que Lan started calling again. "Xuan Duong, my foot hurts, massage my foot." I sat mending clothes in the main house, without raising my head: "Kien Thanh, mommy's foot hurts." Chu Kien Thanh was reading the newspaper, pretending not to hear. Vuong Que Lan called out louder: "Xuan Duong, are you deaf?" I stabbed the needle into the fabric: "Kien Thanh, your mother said you are deaf." Chu Kien Thanh slammed the newspaper on the table: “Lin Xuan Duong!” I looked at him: "It's useless for you to call me. Your mother's leg hurts, go and squeeze it." Chu Tieu Tue held a jar of candy and poked her head out from the edge of the cupboard: "Mom, grandmother said it's an obvious logic for women to serve the elderly." I reached out and took back the jar of candy: "Did grandma say that girls who steal candy will get cavities?" Chu Tieu Tue was impatient: "That's what my grandmother gave me!" Vuong Que Lan shouted in the room: "What if I let my niece eat candy?" "No problem." I locked the jar of candy in the cupboard: "This morning Minh Nguyet also wanted to eat it, mom said she's grown up and doesn't deserve it. If this candy is picky, then everyone shouldn't eat it anymore." Chu Tieu Tue's tears immediately fell: "Mom, you're so cruel!" Chu Vien followed suit: "Mom is getting more and more hateful." I put the key in my pocket: "If you hate me, stop eating the food I cook." Chu Kien Thanh finally stood up and went into the east room to massage Vuong Guilan's feet. Before squeezing a few times, Vuong Que Lan scolded: "Be gentle, clumsy and clumsy." Chu Kien Thanh endured: "Mom, I don't know how to do it." "You don't know, your wife knows. If you don't get married to do this, why do you do this?" I said from the door: "If you really think so, tomorrow I will marry Kien Thanh a wife who knows how to squeeze her feet?" The room was silent. Minh Nguyet sat on a small stool, holding back her laughter until she lowered her head. The next day, Vuong Que Lan stopped complaining of leg pain and instead complained of dizziness. She took advantage of the time I was at work and called Minh Nguyet home, telling her she had fallen. When I rushed back, Minh Nguyet was squatting next to the well washing a basin of clothes covered in mud, her hands were cold and white. Vuong Que Lan sat on the porch, biting melon seeds: "He volunteered to be filial to me, I couldn't stop him." I walked over and pulled Minh Nguyet up: "Who forced me to do the washing?" Minh Nguyet whispered: "Grandma said dad agreed. She told me if I don't wash, she will tell dad not to let me go to middle school anymore." I looked at Vuong Que Lan: "Did you say that?" Vuong Que Lan spat out the melon seed shell: "What's the point of a girl learning so many words? Sooner or later she'll get married. Staying at home and doing a little more work will help you avoid worrying." I picked up each piece of clothing in the basin, the muddy water flowed to the ground. Including Vuong Que Lan's pants, Chu Kien Thanh's shirt, Zhou Yuan's dirty football jacket, and Zhou Tieu Tue's skirt. I picked up the pot and knocked the pile of clothes onto the muddy ground in the yard. Vuong Que Lan shouted: "You're crazy!" "Whoever gets dirty will do the washing." I placed the wooden pot against the wall: "Minh Nguyet, go inside and do your homework." Vuong Que Lan rushed up to grab Minh Nguyet: "She is the granddaughter of the Chu family, how about doing some work?" I grabbed her wrist: "He's a child, not an animal for his mother to command." "Don't you dare touch her."

touch me?" Vuong Que Lan immediately sat down on the ground: "She's beaten someone, her daughter-in-law has beaten her mother-in-law!" Neighbors poked their heads in to take a look. I squatted down, facing her and said: "Mom, sit firmly. It's cold on the ground and if you sit for a long time, you complain of leg pain. At that time, Kien Thanh asked for leave to serve his mother. I don't care whether the factory deducts his salary or not." Vuong Que Lan's cry was stuck in her throat. Aunt Truong stood at the door and said: "Mrs. Que Lan and Xuan Duong, don't touch you, we can all see that." Vuong Que Lan glared at her aunt: "What are you doing talking so much!" Aunt Truong also refused to give in: "I have a big mouth, which is better than the kind that opens my mouth and slanders others." When Chu Kien Thanh returned, the muddy puddle in the yard had not yet dried. When he saw that pile of clothes, his face immediately turned black: "Lin Xuan Duong, what have you turned this house into?" I was checking Minh Nguyet's homework: "Ask your mother, call Minh Nguyet home from school to wash clothes, and what kind of shape this house has turned into." Chu Kien Thanh looked at Minh Nguyet: "Grandma called me, are you coming home?" Don't you know that you have to go to school? Minh Nguyet's face was pale. I closed the exercise book: “Chu Kien Thanh, she's only thirteen years old. Your mother used the matter of not letting her go to school to threaten her. How dare she not come home?"