The wicked mother-in-law doesn't try to whitewash herself; she only abuses her awful children.

Chapter 19 Cooking Mung Bean Paste
Gu Dashu carried a bundle of thorns to the Nie family to apologize to his elder sister, Gu Baishuang.

Unfortunately, Gu Baishuang didn't want to see him at all. He wasn't even allowed to enter the Nie family's house before being doused with a large basin of water.

His attempt to apologize with a bundle of thorns on his back has completely failed!
Even a humble apology requires the other party's cooperation. Since Gu Baishuang was unwilling to cooperate, Gu Dashu was nothing more than a laughingstock, like a monkey with thorns stuck in its head.

Enraged by the ridicule and mockery from the crowd, Gu Dashu, the big monkey, broke off a bramble branch and went dejectedly to the private school in town to consult his third brother, Gu Jingzhe, for a solution.

Gu Jingzhe went to the private school early in the morning to borrow money from his classmates.

Having been turned down by Gu Baishuang, Gu Dashu is now pinning all his hopes on Gu Jingzhe being able to raise the money among his classmates.

When they arrived at the private school in town, they couldn't find Gu Jingzhe. They asked his classmates, but none of them had seen him. Gu Dashu waited for a while but still couldn't see him, so he had no choice but to turn back to Qinghewan.

By the time we arrived at Qinghe Bay, it was completely dark.

The terror brought by the darkness intensified the despair.

After all, another day has passed, and the five-day deadline is getting closer and closer.

And where the silver is is still unknown.

Under the sycamore tree in front of the Gu family's house, Gu Dashu met Liu Yue'e, who had just returned from borrowing money from the Liu family.

Liu Tiechui's insults to Gu Dashu were still echoing in Liu Yue'e's mind, and Liu Yue'e couldn't help but rush up to fight Gu Dashu.

If her husband hadn't been lazy and had been more capable, they could have saved up some money over the years, and with the money borrowed from her family, they wouldn't be in such a passive position.

The reason why Liu's eldest sister and father were reluctant to lend money to Liu Yue'e was because Gu Dashu had always been perceived as a person who didn't manage his finances well, and they were afraid that the money they lent out would be like throwing good money after bad.

After all, nobody's money grows on trees!

"Stop scratching, I'm going to borrow money from my older sister in town," Gu Dashu said.

Liu Yue'e felt the mountain path turn, stopped scratching the valley, and asked, "Did you borrow it?"

Gu Dashu shook his head sheepishly: "Gu Baishuang is so heartless, she didn't even let me in the door."

"And you still have the nerve to show off? You're really shameless. Your son is about to be killed, and you still have the nerve to pretend to be a ghost and fool me. What sins did I commit to marry into the Gu family?"

“Gu Dashu, what do you have besides your face? Listen to advice and you'll eat your fill. I should have listened to my parents and married into the town.”

"Why did I get greedy and eat the pine nut candy you gave me? If I hadn't been hooked by your pine nut candy, would I have opened my legs to you? One wrong step led to another."

Liu Yue'e became angrier and angrier, and the angrier she got, the more she cursed.

They even went so far as to reveal their own secrets.

Tong Huaqiong was cooking mung bean soup with Chen Sufen and Gu Taohua when she heard Liu Yue'e's increasingly heated cursing. She temporarily put aside her gossip and went to the door to stop Liu Yue'e.

"Liu Yue'e, what nonsense are you spouting? Do you think you're the heroine of a scandalous affair? You're only happy when the whole village comes to listen to your gossip, aren't you?"

Seeing the couple's expressions, Tong Huaqiong understood that Gu Dashu had been turned away by Gu Baishuang and had not been able to borrow money.

"Mother, you don't know yet, do you? I ran into Matchmaker Wang this evening. She said... she said that the Shengjing Palace is holding a large-scale selection of palace maids and eunuchs, and she wants the castrator from the county to castrate Yaozu and send him to become a eunuch... Mother, what should we do?"

"Our Gu family line is about to end."

Liu Yue'e burst into tears.

"Second son's wife, what did you say? You said there are castration masters in the county?" Tong Huaqiong's eyes lit up.

Liu Yue'e nodded, thinking to herself that her mother-in-law didn't seem worried at all, but rather looked happy.

That perverted old widow, does she really want the Gu family to die out?

"Do you know where the eunuch is?" Tong Huaqiong asked with burning eyes.

Very good!
She and Man'er were feeding the pigs today and even considered castrating them. She originally wanted to ask the village chief if there were any pig castration enthusiasts, but she casually mentioned it while making mung bean paste.

The eldest daughter-in-law, Chen Sufeng, said she had never heard of pigs being castrated, and she was afraid she wouldn't be able to find anyone willing to castrate a pig.

The news that Liu Yue'e brought was exactly what she wanted.

There shouldn't be much difference between giving eggs to humans and giving eggs to pigs.
If that castration technique can be used on humans, then it can be used on the Gu family's pigs too. Tong Huaqiong decided to invite a castrator to perform the castration on the pig another day.

"It was Wang the matchmaker who said it; I don't know."

Liu Yue'e cursed Tong Huaqiong to death in her heart, but she always felt that she and her mother-in-law got along quite well in the family.

Since she married into the family, she and her mother-in-law have gotten along very well. They are lazy and love to eat, gossip about this and that, and bully Chen Sufeng together. Now her mother-in-law has reformed and says she'll just abandon her.

What a ruthless widow! She's more ruthless than anyone else when it comes to dealing with her former allies.

She's just hoping the second wife's lineage will end, isn't she?

"Mother, did you hear what Yue'e said? That Steward He wants Yaozu to become a eunuch."

The series of explosive news over the past few days has left Gu Dashu completely stunned.

He even considered just closing his eyes!
But Mother didn't take it seriously and even inquired about where the eunuch was.

What, does she still want to use that same old trick of pretending to marry the eunuch to save Yaozu's life?
“If the Gu family cannot protect its ancestral roots, I will have no face to face my ancestors.” Gu Dashu said with a pained expression.

“You’ve never had any shame,” Tong Huaqiong said. “Don’t think of yourself as someone important. The ancestors of the Gu family probably don’t want to see you anymore.”

Tong Huaqiong gave Gu Dashu a beating, and seeing Liu Yue'e crying in utter despair, she said harshly, "Isn't there still three days left? A living person can't be killed by holding their pee. Keep your spirits up and go make some money. Make as much as you can."

“If Yaozu really gets screwed over, it’s your fault as his parents, not mine as his grandmother.”

At first glance, Tong Huaqiong noticed that Liu Yue'e was carrying red dates given to her by Sister Liu. She then took the dates into her own hands and returned to the stove.

It's great to have red dates!

Tomorrow, I'll have Chen Sufeng wash and cut open the red dates to make date paste.

She can make delicious jujube cake.

In her past life, there was a jujube cake shop near her school that had long queues every day, making it a must-visit spot when traveling to Beijing.

She ate it for four years during her undergraduate studies and two years during her graduate studies. When she went home for winter and summer vacations and wanted to eat it, she would try to recreate the taste based on her memory and eventually figured out a recipe that tasted exactly the same as the one in the shop near her school.

I gave it to my roommates when school started, and they couldn't tell whether it was from a restaurant or that I baked it myself.

In the kitchen, Chen Sufeng and Gu Taohua were busy.

One was standing in front of the stove, and the other was stuffing fire into the firebox. Both of them were so engrossed in the aroma of mung bean paste that they didn't hear the commotion at the door at all.

Man'er sat beside Gu Taohua, watching the fire. Her aunt was spoiled and didn't know how to tend a fire. If she burned the pot of mung bean paste, Grandma would beat her again. So Man'er taught her aunt how to control the heat.

Tong Huaqiong washed her hands and rubbed the mung bean paste that was cooling to the side.

The mung bean paste was cooked until it was smooth and sweet, but Tong Huaqiong was still not quite satisfied. If butter or lard without the gamey smell were added, it would taste even better.

But there was no butter in this era, so she could only hurry up and have the eunuch castrate the pig in her house.

Even if Tong Huaqiong wasn't particularly satisfied with the taste of the mung bean paste, it was still more fragrant than the mung bean cakes from the shops in town.

"Mom, the mung bean paste you made is so fragrant. The mung bean cakes must be even more fragrant!" Chen Sufeng carefully sifted the mung bean paste with a sieve, full of admiration.

"It'll definitely taste better than the ones in the shops in town." Gu Taohua's mouth was watering.

"Once it's made, I'll give each of you a piece to try first," Tong Huaqiong said in a great mood.

"Sister-in-law has worked the hardest, so I'll eat half a piece and give the other half to her," Gu Taohua said to Chen Sufeng with a smile.

Chen Sufen's hands were trembling. Her sister-in-law had finally become a decent person and knew how to care for her, her older sister-in-law.

Chen Sufen's enthusiasm has increased even more.

Tong Huaqiong took the mung bean paste that Chen Sufeng had sifted to the cutting board next to her; she was about to start making mung bean cakes.

In contrast to the sorrowful atmosphere in Gu Dashu's and Liu Yue'e's rooms, the entire kitchen presented a bustling and lively scene.

(End of this chapter)