Chapter 77: Better You Than Me

Chapter 77: Chapter 77: Better You Than Me

"Dad, you’re going to spoil her rotten," Dong Xuezhan said, rendered speechless by his parents’ behavior.

"By that logic, does not hitting you when you were little mean I spoiled *you* rotten?" Grandpa Dong’s glare was still quite intimidating. Dong Xuezhan rolled his eyes, deciding it wasn’t worth poking the bear, and fell silent.

"What did you do to make your dad so angry he wanted to hit you?" Grandma Dong asked, relieved to hear her granddaughter hadn’t been hurt.

Dong Xinran had no choice but to briefly explain the whole story again.

Grandpa and Grandma Dong were quite shocked after hearing the story. After a long moment, Grandma Dong clicked her tongue. "To think those fraternal twins the Lin family was always showing off aren’t even their biological children? Is this for real? Xinxin, you can’t just say things like that."

"Of course it’s true! Why would Gu Nuan Nuan joke about something like that?" Dong Xinran said, her little face set in a very serious expression. She even sighed like a little adult. "Sigh, Gu Nuan Nuan has it so rough. Her grandma and dad despise her just because she’s a girl. After her parents divorce, other students might look down on her... But that’s okay. I think she’s a really good person, and she’ll still have me. I’ll definitely never look down on her."

"I knew our Xinxin was a kind-hearted girl." Grandma Dong patted Dong Xinran’s little head, gratified. Then she turned to Dong Xuezhan and Li Yan. "The child was just frightened by this messy business from another family. It’s understandable that she acted a little out of line. Let’s just drop it, okay? Don’t you two blame her for it anymore."

Dong Xuezhan and Li Yan nodded in unison. ’They felt helpless. Grandpa was protective, and Grandma was no different. They were lucky their kids had turned out alright and hadn’t been completely spoiled from a young age.’

Grandma Dong was genuinely curious. The Dong family didn’t have a rule about not talking during meals, so she couldn’t help but ask for all the details about the Lin and Gu families. Dong Xinxin was also a chatterbox, chirping away and holding nothing back. It wasn’t just the two of them having a lively conversation; everyone else chimed in with a word or two now and then.

After dinner, Dong Xinran was sent off to do her homework. Li Yan was in charge of clearing the dishes, and Dong Xuezhan wasn’t idle either—he had to put all the recently disarranged decorations back in their proper places. Grandma Dong hurried Grandpa Dong along, and the two of them eagerly headed out the door.

"Well, with Mom going out to spread the news, our neighborhood will have another hot topic. How can Tao Jianren be so shameless? The Lin family is so well-off, and Lin Dong treated her well enough, right? But what does she do? She cheats, and on top of that, has bastard children. If this wasn’t discovered early, wouldn’t the Lin family line have ended with him?" With her daughter out of earshot, Li Yan sighed to Dong Xuezhan in private. "Lin Dong must have had eighteen lifetimes of bad luck to marry someone like her. But he was too impulsive. I wonder how many years he’ll get for throwing that stuff on the two kids’ biological father. When he gets out, will he ever be able to find a good woman again?"

"Goes to show you shouldn’t marry a wife who’s too beautiful. ’An ugly wife is a treasure at home.’ Someone like my wife is perfect—you can tell at a glance she’s a decent person who just wants to live a quiet life."

Dong Xuezhan had intended to flatter his wife to make up for his recent "mistake," but Li Yan’s expression changed instantly. Her hand shot out and twisted his ear as she gritted her teeth. "Who are you calling ugly?"

Dong Xuezhan belatedly realized his slip of the tongue and put on a miserable face. "Honey, honey, that’s not the point! The point is, I was complimenting you."

"Calling me ugly is a compliment now? You’re itching for a beating, aren’t you? It’s true what they say: ’Go three days without a beating and you’ll be tearing the roof off the house!’" Li Yan rolled up her sleeves. "First you trick me, you and your daughter putting on a show for me, and now you have the nerve to call me ugly..."

"Honey, ’an ugly wife is a treasure at home!’" Dong Xuezhan said. Seeing Li Yan’s face darken even further, he immediately regretted it and started lightly slapping his own face. ’That’s what you get for not knowing how to talk! The more flustered you get, the more honest you become.’ The moment the words left his mouth, he froze. Then, clutching his head, he bolted, wailing, "I didn’t mean it, honey! It was a slip of the tongue, really, a slip of the tongue..."

"The truth, huh? I’ll give you the truth... And you still dare to argue?" At first, Li Yan was just putting on an act to scare Dong Xuezhan, but now she actually laughed. In an instant, she transformed into a raging she-dinosaur, raining down blows on him. "Since you had a slip of the tongue," she said while hitting him, "my hand is slipping too."

"SOB... Honey, no, my lady, my heroine! I was wrong, I was really wrong! Please, spare me..." Dong Xuezhan whimpered, scrambling around to escape. Soon, the recently tidied room was a mess again. Dong Xuezhan was breaking down inside. As he "fled for his life," he silently lit a candle for the future him who would have to clean up the room all over again.

"Hmph. Sparing you isn’t hard. From now on, you’re on dish duty for the next month." Li Yan stopped, looking smug. Seeing Dong Xuezhan’s even more pitiful expression, she finally couldn’t help but burst out laughing. ’Great, I found another excuse to get out of washing dishes. Originally, the two of them had divided the chores: she was responsible for cooking and washing the dishes, while Dong Xuezhan handled mopping and laundry. But her mother-in-law was so capable, she’d come over every few days and do most of his chores for him. Her mother-in-law’s helpfulness sometimes made her feel a bit uneasy, so she often looked for excuses to make Dong Xuezhan take over the dishwashing.’

...

In her room, Dong Xinran covered her ears. She found two scraps of paper, tore off two small pieces, rolled them into little balls, and stuffed them into her ears. Pretending not to hear the commotion outside, she silently said to her dear father in her heart: ’Sorry, Dad. Better you than me.’ After all, he was the one who taught her that saying.

She lowered her head, cleared her mind of all distractions, and began to tackle her homework with unprecedented seriousness.

The next day, Dong Xinran’s diligent attitude paid off. When her homeroom teacher, Teacher He, was handing back the homework after class, she made a point to praise her. "Dong Xinran’s handwriting was especially good yesterday. You can see the change in her attitude toward her studies right there in her workbook. Excellent. Remember to keep it up."

Beaming at the praise, Dong Xinran’s eyes crinkled into a smile. When she got her workbook back, she saw it was filled with neat red check marks, and Teacher He had even written "A+" at the top of the page. She couldn’t bear to close the book for the longest time, a wave of pride and accomplishment swelling in her heart.

"Hm, it really is quite good." Gu Nuan Nuan turned to glance at her open workbook, then took it and flipped back to a previous page. The difference was immediately obvious. She nodded gravely and added her own praise. "The contrast really is stark. No wonder Teacher He singled you out as an example. It’s clear our Teacher He has a sharp eye."

"Of course! Teacher He might be a little strict and scary sometimes, but she’s actually a really nice person." Dong Xinran’s comment drew an exaggerated "BLECH!" from her deskmate, the chubby Yue Bin. "Dong Xinran, can you not switch sides so quickly? She praises you once and you get totally carried away, forgetting that just two days ago we were comrades-in-arms, united against a common enemy?"

"Go away, go away! Who wants to be united against a common enemy with you? So what if I’m getting carried away? I’m going to show this off to my parents and my grandpa and grandma when I get home." Dong Xinran hugged her workbook, practically drooling as she imagined it. "I wonder what they’ll give me as a reward?"

"Tch..."

Yue Bin banged his desk, a look of contempt on his face. "How can you have the nerve to say something like that just to make us jealous? Dong Xinran, you’re going to lose all your friends if you keep this up!"