A spoon clattered noisily on the ground when Jiang Tao got up, almost foaming in the mouth as he yelled angrily.
"How could you be any less shameless Jiang Meiying? Why take money from your own family?!"
Jiang Meiying ignored him, soothing Zhang Hien as she handed him a cup of water. They all stared at the two in envy. Zhang Hien was so flushed, he almost turned red as she helped him drink some water under the dagger shooting gaze of others.
She finally looked up at Jiang Tao who had a vein twitching at the side of his forehead while mother and daughter glared at her.
"Family?" She scoffed and chuckled coldly. It was so horrifically cold, that Jiang Tao's legs went numb and he had to sit down. "You sent me upstairs without dinner, and I had to resort to cooking for my husband because I couldn't let him starve. You've never seen me as your daughter, so why should I see you any less of a stranger to me?"
Jiang Chu got up, infuriated and ready to play her part of a good mother.
"Ying Ying, don't talk to your father like that. He has sacrificed so much for you!"
"Heh." Jiang Meiying chuckled coldly, and still stood her ground. "Do we have a deal or do I return the food?"
Jiang Meiying stared longingly at the food for a while before saying arrogantly.
"You're letting this get into your head a lot. I'm sure the food's not even as delicious as it looks. Your useless husband would eat anything. He looks like a starving fly!"
A table knife suddenly went flying past her head, and landed straight into a wall. Jiang Ming, out of shock, dropped to the floor with a bleeding nose while Jiang Chu berated Jiang Meiying with questions and yells.
"How dare you? You just tried to kill your sister! Are you tired of living? Because you're courting death, Jiang Meiying!!!"
She just chuckled coldly.
"I dare her to call my husband names to my face again."
"Jiang Meiying you've gone mad!!!" Jiang Chu yelled as she advanced towards her. "If anything happens to Ming Ming, you're gone for!"
Jiang Meiying added more salt to their wounds by turning to Zhang Hien.
"Do you want some more?"
He reluctantly nodded meekly, and they stared in horror as she placed more food onto his plate. Jiang Chu sprang into action, planning on spilling the entire food to the ground and trampling on it. It was better to waste the food since they wouldn't be eating it.
But as she made to come even an inch close to the dinner pot, Jiang Meiying swiftly shot out her long but gigantic leg, and she went flying to fall on the ground, just beside her unconscious daughter. A loud yelp resounded in the dinning room.
When her father pointed at her and began stuttering with his face, livid red with anger, She sighed and held the bridge of her nose.
Zhang Hien however, sat up in shock when he pointed at him instead. He could count how many times Mr. Zhang had talked to him directly, and this had to be the third time.
The first time was when he had newly arrived in the Jiang's household, and he had told him 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 to refer to him as his father-in-law.
The second time was when he had compared him with his elder brother.
"Zhang Wei is the talk of the city if I'm not mistaken, the country. You had so much money, and I respected previously. I was willing to let you marry my Ming Ming, but then you began gambling, and now you've lost all your money to strangers. You're not only extravagant. It seems, you're also stupid."
He panicked and swallowed his food like it was a stale bread. What did he want to tell him now? No good ever rolled off his tongue when it came to him.
"You're disabled in the legs doesn't mean you're completely useless even if you act like it sometimes. Control your wife or I'll send you two packing!"
Zhang Hien was speechless. He could only awkwardly hold his cultlery over his plate and look down at his food.
Jiang Meiying snorted with a nonchalant look on her face.
"Aiyoo!!! My back. My head. I feel so numb all over." Jiang Chu mumbled in pain as she sat up.
Jiang Tao held Jiang Ming in his arms and glared at the couple.
"I won't tolerate such violence in my household anymore!" He didn't know where Jiang Meiying had gotten her strength and courage to fight back from, but he wasn't going to stand still and watch her manipulate this family with her rebellion.
Jiang Meiying almost doubled with laughter at the pathetic sight of the man running upstairs with his unconscious daughter in his arms while his wife limped after him.
"Stay here, okay? I'll put these in the fridge and take you upstairs."
"Thank you for the dinner." He meekly said, wishing he'd do something as thoughtful as she did for her.
Jiang Meiying simply nodded. She didn't see it as a task or anything. She simply loved to cook and that was it.
She knew many cuisines from all over the world, and could whip up any recipe she wanted in quick timing.
The food left was put in a big bowl, sealed and kept in the fridge. She cleaned up, and helped Zhang Hien upstairs and into the room.
As Zhang Hien dimmed the lights and started on his second book for the evening, Jiang Meiying stepped out of the bathroom, freshened up, and in a faded colored gown that touched her ankles.
Her hair was cut short years ago by Jiang Ming when she was asleep, because it was the one thing Jiang Ming felt insecure about in the house.
Jiang Meiying had these thick locks of silvery brown hair that she inherited from her mother. It was very long; waist length long. Jiang Ming was so envious that she had actually cut it short when she was asleep, and when Jiang Meiying had reported this to her 𝐟𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫, he only said.
"Don't accuse Ming Ming of such things next time." he warned her sternly. "You look better with your hair like this by the way. I should even pay her! You think I have the money to cover up for your school fees and hair products?"
He even made it mandatory for her to cut her hair anytime it went past her neck, letting Jiang Ming leave her black hair long and wavy; down her back.
Truthfully, Jiang Meiying's hair did take up alot of money to maintain it. Almost 1665 dollars every month.
"Aren't you sleeping?" She calmly asked Zhang Hien whose gaze was intently fixed on the pages of his book.
He looked up, a bit flushed when he saw that she was already under the blankets, fluffing her pillow to sleep.
"I will in a few minutes. I just have to finish this."
She supported her chins with her fat palm.
"You must like reading a lot. That's all I've seen you do."
He flushed again and paused in the act of turning, not used to holding conversations with people.
"I loved reading from childhood." He admitted in a small voice.
She thought of something before finally saying out loud.
"I really want to get pregnant before five months. What do you think?"
For a while, she paused and watched him lean back into his seat as he choked on his own saliva.
After reddening for a while and catching his breath, he simply cleared his throat and failed to meet her eyes.
"I know you won't think about that unless I get into shape, but that's not a problem since... "
He suddenly glanced up in shock.
Was that what she thought his reaction was about?
"No... I don't mind... I'm just speechless, that's all. It's a lot to take in."
"Well, we're husband and wife, aren't we? We can comfortably talk about things like this. Haven't you thought about having children with me?"
This topic wasn't something he was willing to discuss, but since they were actually talking like a normal couple would, he didn't mind, and chose to listen to her and only say little.
"My legs... "
"Hm?"
"I'm... not capable enough Jiang Meiying." He sadly pointed out.
"Who says?" Jiang Meiying suddenly asked in a confident voice.