Unexpected Motherhood: Marked by the Elite Alpha - Chapter 6

Great-Aunt Li Zhi was Li Shuang’s elder sister. She was two years older than Li Shuang, making her seventy-seven this year. She had retired from her government unit over a decade ago and had lived in the county seat with her daughter, Li Ninghuai, ever since. They rarely returned to the village and maintained almost no contact with the villagers. Li Zhi claimed that her old age prevented her from traveling frequently, making it inevitable that relatives would drift apart. In reality, she simply looked down on the villagers for being poor and feared they would ask her for favors.

Grandma Yang Hehua was visiting a neighbor’s house, so after Li Ningjun let the Great-Aunt’s family inside, she went next door to find her.

Li Ningjun had always been cold toward the Great-Aunt’s family, and Li Zhi knew it. In the past, Li Zhi would often try to sow discord in front of the two elders. She would claim that a grown woman like Li Ningjun lacked the manners of a child and did not even know how to greet people properly.

Her mother, Li Shuang, had a gentle temper and would usually just smile and refuse to engage. However, her other mother, Yang Hehua, was more hot-tempered. She had no patience for such comments and had argued with Li Zhi several times. When Li Zhi insulted Yang Hehua for lacking discipline, Li Ningjun could not stand to see her mother suffer such grievances and nearly came to blows with the Great-Aunt.

Because of that incident, the Great-Aunt feared her. She no longer dared to criticize Li Ningjun to her face, but the relationship between the two families grew significantly colder.

Over the years, Li Shuang and Yang Hehua had asked Li Sangyue to deliver gifts to the Great-Aunt. Li Sangyue never told the truth about those visits, so the two elders remained unaware of the reality. Li Ningjun, however, could guess what happened. Those people still looked down on them and would not even let Li Sangyue through the front door.

“It is not even a holiday. Why has your Great-Aunt’s family come back? Did they say what they wanted?” Yang Hehua hurried home, following closely behind.

“They would not tell me even if they had a reason,” Li Ningjun replied. That entire family walked with their noses in the air, and she had no interest in dealing with them.

Taiyang, who had been unable to go out and play, was held close by the old lady. She had brought Bajiao the cat over to sit with her, but Bajiao hated the heat. After a short while, he slipped away and disappeared under the sofa. Left with nothing else to do, Taiyang sat on the sofa and stared down at her fingers.

The elderly lady sitting opposite them was Li Zhi. She wore copper-rimmed glasses and was dressed very respectably. Her hair was permed and dyed, and she carried a plaid bag. She looked even younger than her sister, Li Shuang, and did not appear like someone in her late seventies at all.

She picked up her cup and took a sip of tea, her face wearing a friendliness that was uncharacteristic of her. “Taiyang’s school is not far from the Party and Government Compound. In the future, let her Auntie Li Ninghuai pick her up on the way and bring her to our house for lunch. Home-cooked meals are always more nutritious than school food. Taiyang can take a nap at our place, and her Auntie can drop her back at school afterward.”

Beside her, Li Ninghuai nodded with a smile. “Yes, I pass by Taiyang’s school on my way to and from work. It would be very convenient.”

On the surface, this sounded wonderful, but Li Shuang was still reluctant to trouble them. “It is not easy to make that trip back and forth. Let us forget it. Xiaoyue says the meals at Taiyang’s school are quite good. They have meat, eggs, and milk. The nutrition is very balanced. The dormitory has special beds for naps, and teachers watch over them. Taiyang has been there for nearly two semesters and is used to it.”

Li Shuang was kind-hearted, honest, and lacked any ulterior motives. She never imagined that others might have hidden agendas. She simply assumed Li Zhi was acting out of genuine care for Taiyang.

Standing at the doorway, Yang Hehua and Li Ningjun listened for a moment. Yang Hehua said nothing and simply pulled aside the bead curtain to enter.

Li Ningjun did not follow them inside. Instead, she turned and went out to the courtyard to call Li Sangyue. That family never visited without a reason, and she wanted to see what kind of scheme they were up to this time.

“Eldest Sister is here,” Yang Hehua greeted them warmly.

Li Zhi nodded with a smile. “It has been a while since we returned. We took advantage of the weekend to visit. Is Xiaoyue not home?”

She noticed Li Sangyue was missing.

“She went to the city to sell cherries. She likely will not be back until the afternoon. It is almost noon, so I will go prepare lunch.”

Yang Hehua hurried to the kitchen to get busy. Despite her age, she worked with the efficiency of a young person. Only Li Ningjun and Li Sangyue thought she was too old or that her limbs were failing, and they often tried to stop her from working.

“Second Aunt, let me help you,” Li Ninghuai offered, following her.

Yang Hehua did not dare let this niece, who was an official in the county seat, act as her assistant. She quickly stopped her. “No, no. You go sit in the living room. Have some tea and fruit. There is watermelon in the fridge; it is very sweet. I asked Xiaoyue to bring some to you yesterday. Did you all eat it? These are melons we grew ourselves this year. The flesh is crisp and incredibly sweet.”

“It was very sweet. My mother even gave one to the neighbor, and they all said it was delicious. The multigrain pancakes you made this year were also wonderful. My mother said homemade pancakes are the most fragrant. The ones bought outside do not have that same flavor.” Li Ninghuai’s smile carried a hint of flattering sycophancy.

Yang Hehua was only slightly more discerning than Li Shuang. She was fine when arguing with villagers, but she was no match for Li Zhi and her daughter. As soon as they praised her, she forgot everything else and focused only on her happiness.

Li Ningjun, who had returned from her phone call, stood in the courtyard and watched for a long time. One of her mothers was naive, and the other was not particularly shrewd either.

She had already asked Xiaoyue about the delivery. Xiaoyue confirmed that she had not even been able to get the items inside the house yesterday. She had seen Li Ninghuai’s car at the entrance, but the woman had acted as if she did not see her.

The security guard at the gate also mentioned that the family never picked up the items Xiaoyue brought. The gifts were left in the security office until they spoiled, at which point the guard would throw them away.

Xiaoyue would not lie. Li Ningjun wondered what Li Ninghuai was trying to achieve with her current behavior.

Although Li Ninghuai said she wanted to help, she simply stood at the kitchen door without actually entering. “Second Aunt, Xiaoyue must be quite busy lately, right?”

She was intentionally inquiring about Li Sangyue’s situation, even though she had never shown the slightest interest in the girl before.

As Yang Hehua busied herself around the stove, Li Ninghuai was perfectly content to watch a seventy-year-old woman work alone. She had no intention of actually lending a hand. She had the nerve to call her “Second Aunt,” yet she acted worse than a stranger.

“Yes, she is busy from dawn until dusk. She has lost quite a bit of weight,” Yang Hehua said, feeling sorry for her granddaughter.

“A career is important, but one must also look after their health,” Li Ninghuai remarked, caring just enough to lead into her next question. “Xiaoyue must have made many friends by now, right? I heard she started a live-streaming account to sell goods and has helped the village quite a bit. I saw her chatting with some friends at the entrance yesterday.”

“Friends?” Xiaoyue had many friends, but Yang Hehua did not know which ones Li Ninghuai meant.

“A few young people on motorcycles.”

“Oh! Them,” Yang Hehua remembered the group from the previous day. “They came inside for some tea and fruit and then left.”

They had not stayed for a meal. Had Xiaoyue met them again in the county seat? That had to be it; otherwise, Li Ninghuai would not have mentioned it.

Yang Hehua’s words led Li Ninghuai to misunderstand. She now assumed that Qin Nian was indeed Li Sangyue’s friend.

Her expression grew somewhat excited. Yesterday, after she drove in, she had seen Secretary Zhou seeing someone off downstairs. Secretary Zhou was the top official of the County Committee and had a very influential background. Anyone he personally escorted downstairs had to be someone of great importance. She truly had not expected her niece, who only had a high school education, to be able to befriend someone with such a powerful background.

Li Ninghuai had been in her current position for many years and had always wanted to move up, but it was incredibly difficult. If she could use this connection to get close to Secretary Zhou, things would become much simpler.

She had gone home and reported this discovery to her mother. She even took the gifts Li Sangyue had brought back into the house. However, she did not eat the food herself; she gave it all to the family nanny. Her claims about the food being delicious were merely to please Yang Hehua.

Since it was a rare visit, Li Shuang and Yang Hehua wanted to play the good hosts. They took out the large marrow bones from the freezer to stew. Bones stewed in a large pot over a wood-burning stove were exceptionally fragrant, especially when potatoes and green beans were added.

The potatoes were grown in their own field and were so soft they would break at the light touch of a chopstick. Green beans were also abundant.

Yang Hehua also soaked a large handful of starch sheets to stew with chicken. These wide, chewy starch sheets were rare elsewhere. When added to a chicken or pork belly stew, they soaked up the savory broth and became incredibly flavorful. This was one of Li Sangyue’s favorite dishes, and only Grandma could capture that specific taste. She had loved it since she was a child.

Fearing there would not be enough food, Yang Hehua also stewed some Spanish mackerel that Li Sangyue had bought a few days ago. Frying the fish before stewing it made it even more fragrant.

The spread was rounded out with a cold cucumber salad and stir-fried dried tofu with green peppers. Li Ningjun was also sent to the town to buy two pounds of braised beef and various cold appetizers. The variety and quantity were more than enough for several extra people.

There were leftovers of the large steamed buns from that morning. Li Ningjun had intended to just reheat them, but Yang Hehua was already picking chives from the courtyard planters to make pancakes. She could not be stopped. Soon, a stack of plump, crispy-yet-soft chive pancakes was piled high on a plate.

Taiyang did not really know her Great-Aunt. During the meal, Li Zhi tried to be affectionate with her, but the child was unwilling. Li Ningjun eventually pulled the girl to her own side.

At the dining table, Li Zhi and her daughter asked many questions but received very few responses. In the past, the two of them would have taken on an air of superiority and started lecturing. Today, they surprisingly did not lash out. Once Li Ningjun pieced together the reasons behind their behavior, she looked down on them even more.

After lunch, Li Ningjun took Taiyang to the river in the village to watch the fishing.

The riverbank was covered in green grass and wildflowers, creating a beautiful scene. When the breeze blew, the surface of the river sparkled. Previously, people had brought tents to camp there, but those visitors would grill food and swim in the river, leaving trash everywhere. Because they never cleaned up after themselves, the villagers became upset. They eventually banned camping by the river and required fishers to take their trash with them.

Once they were outside, Taiyang ran around happily.

Seeing the child in high spirits allowed Li Ningjun to breathe a sigh of relief. Earlier, Taiyang had asked her why the Great-Aunt had come over. The girl said she did not like going to the Great-Aunt’s house, nor did she want the Auntie to pick her up from school. She asked if she could refuse to go and if her grandmothers would be angry if she did. For such a young child, she certainly had a lot on her mind.

“If you do not want to go, you do not have to. Grandma will back you up and will not let anyone bully you.”

An official as minor as a sesame seed only had enough power to act grand in front of the Li family, but Li Ningjun did not care for it. If Li Ninghuai wanted to use her daughter to climb the social ladder, she had no chance. If it were not for the sake of the two old ladies at home, she would not have even let Li Zhi and her daughter through the door today. Those two were nothing special, yet they truly thought they were important.

As long as she did not have to go to the Great-Aunt’s house for dinner, Taiyang was happy. She did not want to go to anyone’s house. She disliked her Great-Aunt Li Zhi just as much as she disliked her other Great-Aunt, Li Mei.

The other Great-Aunt lived in the village, not far from their house, and she was always arguing with Yang Hehua.

Taiyang had seen her Great-Great-Grandmother driven to tears by that woman several times. Taiyang would run to tell her mother and her grandma. In response, Li Ningjun would go to the other Great-Aunt’s house in the middle of the night and bang on the door, scaring the woman so much she dared not leave her room.

Grandma is truly amazing. This was the most honest and simple realization of a seven-year-old child.