Chapter 2065: Chapter 2066: Old Mrs. Zhang Reborn in the ’70s Reforms Her Ungrateful Children

Amidst a lively clatter of firecrackers, the first New Year’s Eve dinner of the 1980s was laid out before everyone.

Seeing the New Year’s Eve dinner with more vegetables and less meat in front of them, both the Wei Jiang and Wei He families gasped.

Li Juan glanced up at the elderly couple. After Wei Dazhi retired, he originally didn’t want to leave, but now that township enterprises were starting to sprout up over there, they really lacked people. They came to find Wei Dazhi, hoping he could come over to help out a bit, offering a pretty good salary.

This meant both the retirement pension and the salary from working at the township enterprise, which together were higher than their own combined income.

Li Juan wanted to make a sarcastic remark, but she held back, thinking that they came back for the New Year’s Eve dinner also with a favor to ask of the old couple.

"What are you looking at? The old rules: we, the old couple, will provide two dishes, and each family will provide three dishes."

"We’re making one meat and one vegetable." Zhang Yu pointed to a dish of fish and a cabbage meat vermicelli dish she had prepared, "I’m offering both fish and meat; where is it lacking? Just look at what you’ve prepared."

She glanced at the clothes on Li Juan, seeing that the money they earned was all spent on their attire, then glanced at Wei He. They had almost come to blows over it before, nearly resulting in divorce.

Originally, she thought Li Juan’s return might lead to some changes, but in the end, everything remained the same. Anyway, as long as those involved had no objections, she had none either.

As for whether Wei He would try to change his fate because there’s not enough money and he’s still renting outside, Zhang Yu was indifferent. She was really busy now.

A couple of years ago, seizing the chance when a bunch of people were returning to the city, the old lady used her gold bars to buy two two-courtyard houses and one three-courtyard house.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to buy more, but though the house prices weren’t high, they required renovation, and the tenants didn’t take care of them at all. These three properties had almost used up all the gold bars the old couple had.

Looking at the empty box, Wei Dazhi felt pained for a while. Thankfully, due to the liberalization, quite a few foreigners came to the country and were fascinated by the courtyard houses. Zhang Yu was able to rent them out successfully through foreign agencies.

The rent wasn’t expensive, ranging from one thousand to fifteen hundred a month, depending mainly on the size of the house and its location.

When Wei Dazhi saw that the money spent could be recouped in a few years, he felt much better.

Based on Zhang Yu’s thinking, they didn’t lack money now, so there was no need to work, but she couldn’t convince Wei Dazhi who thought staying at home would be boring. He could take the opportunity to mentor a few apprentices, so Zhang Yu could only agree reluctantly.

However, she settled with Wei Dazhi that if ever he felt tired, he could stop working, since they now had houses and rental income, living quite comfortably.

"Time to eat." With money in hand now, Zhang Yu often dragged Wei Dazhi out to dine at restaurants.

Don’t just look at them as an old couple, they had tried all the restaurants opened around the Capital City.

Eating the New Year’s Eve dinner, Li Juan kept giving hints to Wei He, signaling him to speak.

Wei He got Li Juan’s signals but truly didn’t know what to say. When the children were young, Zhang Yu would help pick them up. After the child entered the third grade, Zhang Yu completely let go.

During winter and summer vacations, the old lady would take care of lunch, but in other aspects, they truly didn’t help out.

During this period, Zhang Yu and Wei Dazhi also stayed in the hospital and underwent surgery. No matter if it was Wei Jiang or Wei He, they thought that since the elderly were hospitalized and awaiting surgery, shouldn’t they have come forward?

But who would have thought that Zhang Yu would rather pay the neighbors to help out than ask the children for help. If they wanted to visit the hospital, fine, if not, they wouldn’t mention it.

Originally, they thought that if they didn’t visit the hospital, the old couple would surely complain to the neighbors after discharge.

But who would have thought, neither Zhang Yu nor Wei Dazhi complained, didn’t care at all. There was no lack of people trying to stir things up, but Zhang Yu simply ignored it, instead constantly saying the children were busy with work and it’s not necessary to trouble them.

Because of this, quite a few colleagues were envious, saying why couldn’t their parents be as understanding.

Truth be told, every time Wei Chi heard them say this, he felt a myriad of emotions.

He wanted to say, if parents nag and point fingers, it shows they see you as a child and worry you’re not doing well enough.

Wei He thought back to when Zhang Yu said they wouldn’t be helping them out in the future, nor expected them to care for them. At that time, he wondered, the old lady was just talking tough; how could she not want the care of her children or grandchildren. But after the old couple’s hospital stay, he finally understood, Zhang Yu truly had no expectations from them.

The old couple had proved their point through their actions. Wei He knew that if he asked for money, he would surely face ridicule.

Li Juan signaled Wei He several times, but received no response, which infuriated her. Truly useless. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

If not for buying a house, she wouldn’t have said a word, wouldn’t have come to see the old lady’s attitude, "Mom, a retired worker from our unit has a house in the residential area. Their only child has settled down outside, and they plan to sell their house."

Li Juan kept signaling Wei He, but Zhang Yu ignored it, acting as if she hadn’t seen anything.

Now that Li Juan spoke up, Zhang Yu immediately knew her intentions, "Buying a house is a good thing."

"I had planned to say this after dinner, but since Li Juan brought up the house, I have something to announce too," Zhang Yu calmly stated, "Your father and I are getting old, and although in winter we have the heated kang, the house is still cold. A few days ago, I heard there’s a house for sale on the ground floor of the neighboring residential area, with a private bathroom and kitchen, a large yard, and centralized heating, your dad and I really like it."

Hearing this, everyone’s hearts sank, especially Li Juan, whose face twisted in frustration.

Dammit, she cursed Zhang Yu bitterly inside, the old hag had houses under her name and still wanted to buy more. Meanwhile, their children were so grown yet still renting outside. As elders, they had the money, but wouldn’t help out at all.

It’s outrageous, beyond outrageous. Li Juan glared viciously at Zhang Yu.

Wei He was stunned. They also wanted to buy a house, not even as big as what Zhang Yu bought, yet they were horribly short on funds and needed parental support. Meanwhile, his parents could simply buy a house outright. Wei He felt a deep bitterness inside.

"What’s the matter, third daughter-in-law, have a big objection to me buying a house?"

"Don’t worry, we’ve already taken care of the house purchase, no need for your financial help."

Zhang Yu clearly understood why Li Juan glared at her, "When we divided the family assets, I told you, however you want to spend your money, it’s your business."

"How I spend my money, that’s also my business, doesn’t require your approval," Zhang Yu snorted coldly, "Don’t give me stories of how your life isn’t easy."

"How you live your life, that’s your business."

"If you dislike me, no problem, don’t come to visit us anymore either."

"We don’t want to deal with pretentiousness," Zhang Yu said coldly. "Eldest, do you want to rent this house?"

Huh? Wei Jiang was initially thinking that once Zhang Yu and her husband moved out, the large house would belong to them, but didn’t expect them to ask if they’d like to rent it.

"I’d rent it." Wei He knew Zhang Yu wouldn’t provide support, buying a house was impossible, so renting this place was the next best option.