Reborn in the 1970s — Married a Proud Rough Man

Chapter 182: Chapter 74: Your Fourth Brother Won’t Agree

”You give me too much credit. To be honest, I hold no sway over your fourth brother. I wouldn’t dare test his limits. If I anger him, he’ll hit me.” Qin Mei looked at Jie Jingjue with a troubled expression. ’Isn’t my refusal obvious enough? Does he really want me to reject him outright?’

”Fourth Brother hits you?” Jie Jingjue stared at Qin Mei in horror. He couldn’t believe it. His fourth brother would beat *him* up at the slightest disagreement, but hitting his wife? That seemed unlikely.

”Don’t believe me?” Qin Mei put down her bowl and chopsticks. She lowered her head toward Jie Jingjue and parted her hair with both hands. ”See this?”

”I see it. Your hair is very nice.” Jie Jingjue looked bewildered, unsure of what Qin Mei wanted him to see.

Qin Mei grew annoyed. ”Who asked you to look at my hair? I told you to look at my head. Is there a bump?”

Jie Jingjue looked closely and, sure enough, there was a bump. He couldn’t resist poking it with his finger. ”Fourth Sister-in-law, when did you bump your head?”

Once she was sure Jie Jingjue had seen it, Qin Mei pulled her head back. She looked up and straightened her messy hair. ”Bump my head? Your fourth brother hit me.”

”For real?” Jie Jingjue felt his entire world turning upside down. Fourth Brother hit his wife? He still couldn’t believe it, but the bump on his sister-in-law’s head wasn’t fake.

Qin Mei picked up her bowl and chopsticks and continued eating. After she finished, she said with a straight face, ”Your fourth brother really did hit me. He even tacitly admitted it.”

Jie Jingshan couldn’t help but glance at Qin Mei. ’Didn’t Fourth Brother deny it? How did it become a tacit admission in Fourth Sister-in-law’s version of the story?’

”Why did Fourth Brother hit you?” Jie Jingjue still found it hard to believe. His brother didn’t seem like the type to hit his own wife, and Qin Mei didn’t have the personality of a meek woman who would just take a beating.

”I don’t know.” Qin Mei was curious too. She had asked Jie Jingchen several times, but his lips were sealed.

”Fourth Sister-in-law, did you do something to wrong my fourth brother?” Jie Jingjue chewed on his chopsticks, his expression a mixture of curiosity and mischief.

”Like what, for example?” Qin Mei gave Jie Jingjue a smirk that didn’t reach her eyes. ’This guy... a leopard never changes its spots. So suspicious! Any woman who marries him must have been cursed with eight lifetimes of bad luck.’

”You know... that thing...” Jie Jingjue was too embarrassed to say it out loud. The last time he’d misunderstood his fourth sister-in-law, he had eagerly tried to catch her cheating, only to mistake his own mother for the adulterer. That disastrous farce had taught him a profound lesson, and he no longer dared to speak so righteously. ”It’s nothing.”

Qin Mei couldn’t be bothered with Jie Jingjue. She got up and went to the kitchen, where she saw the pot of herbal water boiling.

Qin Mei stirred the herbs in the pot and said to Jie Jingchen, who was tending the fire, ”Jie Jingchen, go ask Third Brother and his wife if they want to take an herbal bath.”

”Okay.” Jie Jingchen got up and walked out of the kitchen. Qin Mei sat down where he had just been. Burning coal briquettes didn’t require constantly adding wood or watching the flames.

Tending the fire was warm in the winter but scorching in the summer.

Jie Jinghun came into the kitchen carrying two buckets. He gratefully thanked Qin Mei, ladled out the water from the pot, and then refilled it with cold water.

”Third Brother, don’t mix it with cold water,” Qin Mei reminded him.

”I know.” Jie Jinghun nodded with a smile, thanked Qin Mei again, and carried the two buckets to the washroom.

To save time and avoid a queue, Jie Jinghun didn’t bathe separately from Shen Qing. The two of them took a bath together—a so-called ”mandarin duck bath.”

Mrs. Xie wasn’t back yet, and Mr. Xie was in his room. Jie Jingchen went to ask him to take an herbal bath, but because of the household division, Mr. Xie was furious with them and completely ignored him.

”Is Dad not bathing?” Qin Mei asked.

”Forget him,” Jie Jingchen said emotionlessly.

”Is Dad still angry?” Qin Mei asked tentatively.

Jie Jingchen stared at the boiling water in the pot, his eyes flickering. A trace of helplessness colored his deep voice. ”Dad is the director of the machinery factory, in charge of the whole plant. Over time, he’s come to believe his family should obey him just like his workers. I was the one who proposed splitting the household, and Dad opposed it. But Mom wasn’t on his side. This courtyard was a gift to her from her father, which makes her the true owner. Since she agreed to the split, there was nothing Dad could do.”

Qin Mei fell silent. In this day and age, the words of one’s parents-in-law were absolute law. In Mr. Xie’s eyes, Jie Jingchen’s proposal to split the household was an act of gross insubordination. His son was being rebellious, and his daughter-in-law was fully supporting him. This was undoubtedly a direct challenge to Mr. Xie’s authority.

Qin Mei looked up at the ceiling. ’I’ve handled my relationship with my mother-in-law well, but as for my father-in-law... because Jie Jingchen wants to split the household, he has shifted his anger onto me.’ Qin Mei could already imagine how, from now on, he would glare at her, finding fault in everything she did.

Jie Jingjue came into the kitchen with his bucket. He didn’t start ladling water right away. Instead, he looked at Jie Jingchen, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. ”Fourth Brother, why don’t you and Fourth Sister-in-law go first?”

Qin Mei was stunned and shot a glare at Jie Jingjue. ’Is this guy asking for a beating?’

Jie Jingchen’s cold gaze swept over him. His deep voice was filled with a frigid chill. ”If you’re going to bathe, then bathe. If not, get out.”

”Bathing, bathing, of course I’m bathing! I helped with these herbs too.” Jie Jingjue swiftly picked up the ladle and filled his bucket to the brim. The moment he put the ladle down, he felt a dangerous gaze on him. Jie Jingjue reacted instantly, grabbing the ladle again and adding cold water to the pot.

”When are you moving out of the room?” Jie Jingchen asked coldly.

Jie Jingjue’s hand tightened on the ladle. He turned his head and looked at Jie Jingchen pitifully. ”Fourth Brother, can I not move?”

”No.” Jie Jingchen refused flatly.

”Fourth Brother, I’ve lived in this room since I was born. For twenty-two years! I’m attached to it. You know me, I have to sleep in my own room, my own bed. If I move, I definitely won’t be able to sleep. Fourth Brother, you and Fourth Sister-in-law aren’t planning on having kids yet. Can I just not move for now?” Jie Jingjue wasn’t saying he would never move, just not for now.

”No,” Jie Jingchen’s tone was harsh. ”If you don’t move tonight, you must move tomorrow. If you won’t do it, I’ll have Mom help you.”

Jie Jingjue’s mouth twitched. If he had Mom ”help” him move, she’d beat him until he was spitting teeth.

”Hmph!” Jie Jingjue snorted, glared at Jie Jingchen, and angrily threw the ladle into the water crock. ”So heartless. You get a wife and suddenly forget all about your brother.”

Jie Jingjue carried his bucket to the washroom. Qin Mei couldn’t help but ask Jie Jingchen, ”Jie Jingchen, why are you in such a hurry to make Jing Wu move?”

”Once the kitchen and washroom are built, I’m worried he’ll go back on his word and refuse to move,” Jie Jingchen said, voicing his concern.

Qin Mei thought about her design plans. Jie Jingchen’s worry wasn’t unfounded. The kitchen was one thing, but once the new washroom was built, a door could be added from Jie Jingjue’s room, giving him a private, en-suite bathroom. It would be absolutely perfect for him.

After Jie Jingjue finished bathing, Jie Jingchen took his turn. Jie Jingshan didn’t bathe, as she had a medicinal soak scheduled for tomorrow and didn’t need the herbal bath. After Qin Mei was done, another pot of water was left boiling on the stove for Mrs. Xie to use when she got home from work.

”She didn’t ask us to take an herbal bath,” Xu Chunyan complained, her eyes full of resentment.

Jie Jingwei’s eyes flickered, but he didn’t respond to Xu Chunyan. He just gently patted Jie You’s shoulder, coaxing him to sleep.

”Jing Er,” Xu Chunyan called out.

”We have a deep grudge with her. If she invited us for an herbal bath, would you dare take it? Wouldn’t you be worried she’d tamper with it?” Jie Jingwei looked at her, then paused before adding, ”Don’t forget, she knows Chinese medicine.”

Xu Chunyan fell silent. She and Aunt Zhang had both tampered with Qin Mei’s chicken soup. The grudge between them was deep, and they were as incompatible as fire and water. If Qin Mei offered them an herbal bath, she really wouldn’t dare to use it.

”They invited Third Brother and his wife. What do they mean by that? Are they trying to win them over?” Xu Chunyan couldn’t understand it, and she felt indignant.

”Because Xiao You bullied Xiao Duo, Third Brother and his wife already have a bone to pick with us. It won’t be so easy for Fourth Brother and his wife to win them over to oppose us. Third Brother and I are full-blooded brothers.” Jie Jingwei snorted contemptuously.

Xu Chunyan rolled her eyes at Jie Jingwei and snorted, bluntly retorting, ”How many stories are there about blood brothers turning on each other for personal gain?”

Jie Jingwei’s sharp eyes darkened as he stared coldly at Xu Chunyan. ”I’m at the machinery factory, and Third Brother is in state security. There’s no conflict of interest between us.”