Chapter 81: Jia and Long Join Forces for the First Time

"Granny, Elder Uncle, Elder Aunt." Wish fulfilled, successfully moving that burden Long Laotaitai onto Yi Zhonghai's family's Shazhu, having achieved fame and success, preparing to leave, "You eat, I'm going back."

Shazhu, want to eat something together? Dumplings!

No wonder Yi Zhonghai's face looked grim.

Long Laotaitai was somewhat overbearing.

Before Yi Zhonghai and his wife could speak, Long Laotaitai acted as if she were managing Yi Zhonghai's household.

This is trying to take over the magpie's nest!

Long Laotaitai deliberately skipped the carp and chicken, pointing directly at the dumplings and asking Shazhu if he would eat them.

I don't need your dumplings.

These aren't even Long Laotaitai's dumplings.

"Today is New Year, I'm accompanying Yushui."

Shazhu, having made up an excuse, pushed open Yi Zhonghai's front door.

He saw Jia Dongxu holding a plate of peanuts, covering his nose and crouching outside Yi Zhonghai's door; the force from Shazhu's earlier door push seemed to have given Jia Dongxu a nosebleed.

This bastard.

Eavesdropping.

Fondness toward Jia Dongxu.

It instantly dropped to freezing point.

That makes sense.

Bangeng has the habit of stealing chickens and dogs, Jia Zhangshi's family tradition of being gluttonous and lazy and causing trouble, how could Jia Dongxu stay clean from the mire? He's merely a bit better-looking than Shazhu.

He ignored Jia Zhangshi.

He stepped toward his own home.

Jia Dongxu's voice came from behind him.

"Elder Uncle, Elder Aunt, Granny, I'm Dong Xu. Isn't it New Year today? Thinking Elder Uncle lacks a side dish for drinks, I had my mom fry some peanuts and brought them over. The gift isn't valuable, Elder Uncle, Elder Aunt, Granny, don't look down on it—drinking calls for peanuts."

Shazhu could only sigh.

Endless sighing.

In his previous life.

Whenever Qin Huairu lacked food or money, she would bring a plate of a handful of old peanuts that had been sitting who-knows-how-long in the Jia family's house into Shazhu's home.

She called it bringing Shazhu a side dish for drinks.

Actually she was just coming to bleed Shazhu dry.

The crucial peanuts were still stolen from Shazhu's room by Bangeng.

I originally thought it was Qin Huairu's innovation.

Turns out it's the Jia family's tradition.

After returning home and eating a few dumplings, Shazhu fell alone into contemplation—a habit he gradually developed after his rebirth.

He found that using his brain was better than using his hands.

He pondered the hidden meaning behind Jia Dongxu's act of bringing peanuts to Yi Zhonghai.

The Jia family.

But the Jia family never acts without profit.

For things with no benefit, the Jia family is never interested and too lazy to act, just like when the street office investigated Long Laotaitai, the Jia family chose to be a bystander, fearing trouble.

It's the New Year.

Jia Madam had Jia Dongxu bring peanuts to Yi Zhonghai for him to have with drinks.

Strange.

Shazhu remembers it clearly.

Recently.

Jia Zhangshi and Yi Zhonghai are still mortal enemies.

The cause was Jia Zhangshi's great dissatisfaction with Yi Zhonghai introducing Qin Huairu to Jia Dongxu.

Courtesy shown to others always seeks something in return.

Jia Madam's uncharacteristic letting Jia Dongxu come to get closer to Yi Zhonghai surely has another meaning.

It's not that Shazhu is worrying needlessly.

He's worried that the Jia matriarch is scheming against him.

Getting married requires a wedding banquet.

Shazhu is actually a cook by trade.

Moreover, he's renowned outside.

The Jia family, both emotionally and logically, wants to scheme against Shazhu.

Day!

Shazhu suddenly realized the most crucial point.

Profit.

The Jia mother and son have always been the type who won't act without profit; if there were none, they wouldn't rush to curry favor with Yi Zhonghai.

This mother and son.

From start to finish they've been plotting to eat Yi Zhonghai's extinction dividend.

That sewing machine earlier let the Jia family know what abundant harvest Yi Zhonghai, as an extinct line, would bring them!

Although the sewing machine became Shazhu's, the Jia family also knew that Yi Zhonghai, having no children, would regard Jia Dongxu as a target for his old-age support.

If Yi Zhonghai adopted a child, would the hypocritical couple still continue to give things to the Jia family when someone is providing for their elderly care and funeral?

They wouldn't be wholeheartedly devoted to Jia Dongxu either, and the two families might even become ordinary neighbors who just greet each other when they meet.

The Jia family would no longer reap the benefits of Yi Zhonghai's line being cut off.

Such a result.

That is not the result the Jia mother and son want to see.

Shazhu suddenly realized that, regarding the issue of Yi Zhonghai's line being cut off, the deaf old lady in the backyard and the Jia family actually share the same interests.

The deaf old lady worries that if Yi Zhonghai has his own child, he'll be distracted and not take good care of her; the Jia family worries that if Yi Zhonghai has his own child, they won't be able to suck blood from him.

On the matter of not letting Yi Zhonghai adopt a child, the deaf old lady and the Jia family have the same point!

I always thought Jia Zhangshi or Jia Dongxu was that kind of hotheaded fool.

No brains.

But through tonight's peanuts‑sending act, Shazhu discovered that Jia Zhangshi and Jia Dongxu are not stupid at all.

Especially Jia Zhangshi, who is even more skilled; in her previous life she had Qin Huairu firmly under her control, indirectly sucking blood from Shazhu through Qin Huairu.

The enlightened Shazhu.

He felt relieved.

Jia Dongxu wasn't going after Yi Zhonghai; he was after the deaf old lady.

Shazhu's reverse‑tactic of ordering around.

Jia Dongxu can likewise be ordered around.

It was roughly nine o'clock in the evening.

Shazhu heard a crackling sound from behind, then someone shouted that the deaf old lady had smashed the glass of Xu Daming's house.

The factual truth.

In broad daylight.

The Jia family successfully used the deaf old lady.

It's also possible that the deaf old lady willingly acted as the Jia family's enforcer.

The only thing that could make the deaf old lady smash Xu Daming's glass, besides the daytime incident of Xu Daming helping Yi Zhonghai adopt a child, has no other explanation.

Xu Daming provoked the deaf old lady's displeasure, so she rushed to the backyard and smashed his glass!

The Jia mother and son are also the type who remember meals but not beatings.

The deaf old lady smashed Xu Daming's glass.

Xu Daming can't afford to offend the deaf old lady, but he can offend the Jia mother and son; the fifth day of the first lunar month is a good day for Jia Dongxu to marry Qin Huairu, and if Xu Daming bears a grudge and causes trouble, the Jia family will lose face.

The weather is cold.

Nobody went out to watch the spectacle of the deaf old lady smashing Xu Daming's glass; everyone stayed home, dazed.

Pure dazedness.

You can't just go to someone else's house to chat; during the New Year, when you visit, you wonder whether to put out some melon seeds or not—if you don't, you feel embarrassed; if you do, you're anxious but really have nothing, and sometimes to save face you're served five white flour steamed buns.

Don't eat.

Props.

The buns are real buns.

When guests come, you bring out the table and set it up; when they leave, you take it away, waiting for the next wave of guests to arrive—still those five buns.

Poor.

Bored Shazhu felt the days dragging like years, thinking about getting a radio next year to listen to, recalling that in his previous life domestic radios first appeared in 1952, with newspapers even running special reports on it.

He suddenly understood why, in this era, families have several children, some even seven or eight.

One always needs to find something to do.