Chapter 32: Taking the Upper Hand
"Dream on! Expecting my family to slave away for yours? I've kept accounts of all the money you've squeezed out of us over the years!"
"Oh, Wu Yanhua, you're really something, keeping a ledger on me, you shameless woman!"
The two were about to fight, ready to grab each other's hair, but were held back by others.
"Dajun! Speak up! Your wife and your daughter-in-law are rebelling completely—are you going to do something about it or not?" Chen Shufen threw the problem back at Fu Dajun, counting on his lingering gratitude toward her late husband to side with her as usual.
But this time—
"Eldest Aunt, I have to say, I really can't control Su He. She's moved out and doesn't even share meals with us anymore." Fu Dajun's face was worn out, more exhausted than he'd ever been at the job site.
Over the years, he'd known full well how his Eldest Aunt had taken advantage of his guilt and gratitude toward his elder brother, always acting like the mistress of the house and bossing his family around.
But what could he do? Without his elder brother, he wouldn't even be alive. So he'd always tolerated her behavior.
But now that Su He had moved out, his Eldest Aunt was even butting into her family matters—that was truly going too far.
"What does moving out have to do with anything? Does that mean she's no longer your daughter-in-law? Your family has more sons, so now you think you can bully us widow and orphan, is that it? You're abandoning us now, aren't you? What about the promises you made when your brother died? You ungrateful—"
Before Chen Shufen could finish her tirade, Su He arrived and cut her off.
"Oh, Eldest Aunt, what's all this about? I already told you I ran out of malt candy—why are you here giving trouble to my in-laws? Do you think they can magically produce candy for you?" Su He said coldly.
"You heartless woman! Selling candy and not even saving any for your own family—how petty! And you dare ask me for money? How dare you!" Chen Shufen spat through gritted teeth.
Hearing her shameless words, Fu Dajun felt his face burned with humiliation.
Years of indulging his Eldest Aunt's freeloading had brought things to a point of no return.
"Eldest Aunt, Su He is running a business. Running out means she's doing well—who would remember to reserve candy for others?" Fu Dajun said sternly.
And with so many bystanders watching, Chen Shufen's relentless berating of Su He was beyond disrespectful.
"That's right. For someone as shameless and entitled as you, I deliberately didn't save any for you. So what? It's my candy—I'll give it to whoever I want.
Even my mother-in-law paid me when she asked for some. Who do you think you are, expecting freebies? You've been mooching food and money off my in-laws for years, but I've moved out now. And I refuse to give you anything—what are you going to do about it?"
Chen Shufen was dumbfounded by Su He's words.
She pointed at Su He, stammering wordlessly before finally turning back to Fu Dajun.
"Dajun, look at your daughter-in-law! Are you going to discipline her or not?"
To her shock, Fu Dajun replied, "Eldest Aunt, I truly can't control her."
Furious, Chen Shufen stomped her feet.
With the crowd watching gleefully, she had no choice but to slink away in humiliation.
Over the years, she'd taken advantage of the Fu family's goodwill and even pushed other villagers around—everyone was sick of her.
"Mom, Dad, I'm sorry. Eldest Aunt came to my place demanding candy, and when I said I hadn't thought to save any, she came here to give you trouble. I really didn't mean for this to happen."
The bystanders, seeing Su He's upset, quickly spoke up in support of her.
"If you're running a business, you can't just give freebies to relatives left and right. Otherwise, you'll lose money instead of making any."
"Seriously, it's the first time I've seen someone acting so entitled about getting free food."
"Your family has been way too soft on Chen Shufen."
"But Chen Shufen is also quite pitiful—her husband died early, and she only has one kid."
"Would you even want a relative like that if they were offered to you?"
The person who had just spoken up for Chen Shufen immediately fell silent. Honestly, if it were her own relative, she would've thrown hands by now.
Constantly showing up with her hand out—no matter how much you owe someone, it's bound to get annoying.
Chen Shufen stormed back home, where her son Fu Wu asked, "Mom, did you go cause trouble at the Second Uncle's place again?"
"What trouble? The Second Uncle's family is getting more and more outrageous—they don't even want to care for us, a widow and her kid anymore!" Chen Shufen ranted.
"Mom, the Second Uncle has helped our family enough over the years. Our life is slowly improving—why do you still insist on mooching off them?"
Fu Wu felt completely worn out. His mother's behavior was always like this. The villagers didn't look down on their family because they lacked male heirs, but because of his mother's attitude.
Because of how his mother treated the Second Uncle's family, Fu Wu was too embarrassed to even look them in the eye now. He just couldn't face them.
No matter how many times he tried to reason with his mother, she just wouldn't listen.
"Fine! I risked my life to give birth to you, and now you're siding with others instead of me!" Chen Shufen, scolded by her son, immediately burst into tears and started throwing a fit.
Her tantrums left even Fu Wu helpless.
Thankfully, Fu Wu had been raised strictly by his father from a young age, so he hadn't been ruined.
The matter ended there. Fu Dajun had initially wanted to tell Su He to give in to her aunt Chen Shufen, but Wu Yanhua immediately reprimanded him, leaving him too afraid to say another word.
Perhaps feeling ashamed in front of his daughter-in-law, he never brought it up again.
Wu Yanhua had now confronted Chen Shufen twice and come out ahead both times. She felt pretty damn pleased.
Before, she'd always let Chen Shufen take advantage of them—not just freeloading but also finding fault and making everyone uncomfortable.
Wu Yanhua realized it was all thanks to Su He. She just had a way of handling Chen Shufen.
As they say, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Now, Wu Yanhua found herself liking Su He more and more.
The mushroom Su He had listed on the forum was bought for fifty credits apiece, earning her over two thousand credits in one go. Su He felt she could ride this out for a while longer.
The second time, Su He exchanged another sixty credits' worth of maltose candy with the system. As soon as she rolled her cart out, people immediately gathered to buy.
Just as Su He had predicted, since it was the weekend and the kids weren't in school, the crowd buying maltose candy was more than double the last time.
In just over an hour, Su He sold out all the maltose candy.
Of course, she didn't forget to put aside some for her nieces and nephews—though none for Chen Shufen's family. Surprisingly, Chen Shufen didn't show up to start trouble this time.
Chen Shufen had wanted to, but her son and daughter-in-law stopped her.
Fu Wu personally came to buy maltose candy for his three children. Su He didn't recognize him and simply took the money without thinking twice.
Chen Shufen didn't know her son had paid for the candy—but even if she did, so what? Su He wasn't about to be pushed around.