Li Yun kept his head down and didn't dare say a word. He had already learned how ruthless Jing Shu could be during their previous encounters, and he was terrified that she might cancel his spot at the gathering too. He knew damn well that the only reason he even got to join the New Year gathering was because of his mother. If not for their direct blood relation, she wouldn't have been allowed in either. He had warned her multiple times that this plan wouldn't work, but no one in the family had listened to his protests.
Jing Shu smiled sweetly at the gathered crowd. "Go on, shout all you want. Even if you scream your lungs out, no one is coming to open this door."
Her grandmother was currently deep in the kitchen, busy preparing the various New Year's foods. Between the loud, rhythmic hum of the exhaust fan and all the clattering noise of pots and pans from the kitchen, there was no way the old woman could hear anything happening outside the villa walls.
"Mother-in-law, it's me, Da Zhuang!" Li Zhuang shouted more than ten times, his voice echoing off the neighboring houses, but sure enough, there wasn't a single response from inside. Instead, his loud yelling only served to attract another crowd of onlookers.
Crack, crack.
The smell of fresh popcorn filled the cold air, buttery and sweet, with a faint hint of rich chocolate lingering in the breeze. A baby started crying even louder at the scent. Soon after, the security guards brought in another group of people through the gates.
This group was moving even slower than the first, their hands full of large, bulging bags and parcels. At the front, Paternal Eldest Uncle Wei Chang was leaning into the weight as he pushed a wooden cart piled high with goods.
Jing Shu hurriedly stood up from her chair when she spotted them. Among the crowd, Paternal Eldest Aunt Jing Pan was carrying a heavy shoulder pole, the wooden beam clearly weighed down with something substantial on both ends. Instinctively, she stepped forward to help.
"Move, move! Don't get your new clothes dirty. It's fine, isn't heavy, and we're already here anyway," Jing Pan said with a puff of white breath that clouded in the freezing air. She paused to wipe the sweat from her brow despite the cold. She firmly refused to let her niece take the weight.
Jing Shu didn't insist further. She frowned and scolded softly, "You came all this way? Auntie, you really walked here with the whole family? When did you even leave? I said I would pick you up; it wouldn't have been any trouble at all. If Grandma finds out you walked, she will be heartbroken."
Wei Chang finally stopped pushing the cart, panting hard from the exertion. He unscrewed the cap of his thermos and gulped down a few mouthfuls of lukewarm water. Beside him, Wei Zheng was carrying a bunch of heavy bags, while his wife, Qiao Lian, had their one-year-old daughter, Wei Shuen, strapped securely to her back. The baby was bawling from hunger and exhaustion, so Jing Shu stuffed all the remaining popcorn into the baby's little hands, drawing envious looks from everyone standing around them.
In the crowd, she spotted her Second Aunt, who looked darker and stockier than before, also carrying a shoulder pole. The change from her once plump and well-fed figure was almost unbelievable.
When the two groups finally met in front of the villa, Second Aunt's family looked uneasy, actively avoiding any eye contact.
"What is going on, Second Aunt? Tell me the truth. Second Uncle said you invited his whole family to spend the New Year here. We're already out of space as it was! I was about to go pick you up myself, but before I even left, you were already here?"
Jing Zhao slammed her shoulder pole onto the frozen ground with a loud thud. The contents inside the baskets jostled and nearly spilled out onto the snow. She stood with her hands on her hips, fuming at the situation. Jing Pan quickly stepped in to smooth things over and explained the reality of the situation.
"Your uncle found out gasoline has become almost impossible to get. Even a few small liters can't be traded for several kilos of grain now. If we had used the car for a round trip, we would have wasted hundreds of kilos of food value. Grain's already rare enough, not to mention the fuel. So we decided to walk. It's not that far anyway. Back when we were kids, we used to walk to school every day, remember? There is no need to waste precious gasoline.
Originally, your Second Uncle, Li Yun, and the rest were supposed to meet up with us the day before yesterday. But instead, his entire family came along. They said they brought food to celebrate New Year with your Second Uncle and that they even found stable jobs here in Wu City. I didn't believe it for a second. It looks like I was right. You had better watch out, Shu'er; times are hard, and you can't just give away food like that."
Jing Shu nodded, finally understanding the timeline. So that was what had happened. They had walked all this way through the snow just to save gas—it must have taken them at least two days of travel. Still, in this apocalypse, people would do anything to save food.
So, it turned out Li Zhuang's family had simply tagged along uninvited.
Before long, Jing Zhao and her husband started arguing in the middle of the street. Of course, it was mostly her shouting at him while he stood there bowing his head, begging her to show some mercy. "Please, we have already come all this way. We can't go back now, can we? We will freeze to death in this weather!"
She snorted at him. "Don't pin this on me! Two years ago, I was starving to death and your mother wouldn't even spare me a single meal. It was my eldest sister who gave me something to eat. And now your whole damn family wants to come freeload again? What do you take me for, an idiot? If not for your mother, I would have dumped you ages ago!"
"This isn't your call," Li Zhuang shot back, his voice rising. "Let's get the in-laws out here. Your sister's family isn't here eating for free, so why can't we stay?"
That was when Wei Chang couldn't hold his silence any longer.
"Juh! I would never stoop that low! Even when we spend New Year's at someone else's place, we bring our own food to the table!" He yanked open one of the bags hanging from his shoulder pole, showing the old, slightly yellowed rice packed inside.
There was half a pig and all sorts of New Year's supplies stacked on the cart too.
"We brought food too," Li Zhuang's mother protested weakly from the back.
Wei Chang sneered and lifted the cover off their basket. "You call this food? Mixing worms and expanding clay into patties and trying to pass it off as something to eat? And you want to come here and feast off others?"
"We're relatives, real family!" she argued, her voice trembling.
"Barely related," he snapped back.
The two security guards standing by the door were watching the entire scene like it was a soap opera. They had seen plenty of people trying to fake family ties before, but rarely anyone with such unearned confidence.
Seeing that the truth had finally come out, Jing Shu sighed. She was tired already and still had a batch of cookies waiting to be baked in the oven. She waved her hand dismissively. "Alright, that's enough. Since it's all clear now, let's just drop it. Eldest Aunt, Second Aunt, you have both traveled far. Go get settled first."
Li Zhuang quickly jumped in, laughing awkwardly. "Exactly, let's just settle in and get something to eat."
She smiled back at him, though the expression didn't reach her eyes. "Sure, except I only prepared space for Eldest Aunt's family and for you, Second Aunt, and your two kids. Since you have brought your own food and found work here, you can take care of them yourselves. Unless you really don't want to live with my aunt anymore? Actually, that works out fine. Grandparents were thinking the same thing. It's almost New Year, which is the perfect time to get that divorce done. It's really easy to do these days."
The man's jaw tightened in anger at her words.
His mother started wailing loudly. "Oh heavens, in-law! Look at your granddaughter! She dares to act on your behalf! Just a stray brat living under your roof, and she is ordering us around!"
Jing Pan snorted at the woman. "Wrong again. This house belongs to my niece. Everything you're eating and drinking comes from her efforts. If anything, it's our mother living under her roof. She is the one in charge here, the Patriarch, so crying won't help you."
The old woman was completely dumbstruck by the revelation.
"Go on in first," Li Zhuang said quickly, trying to defuse the growing tension. He herded his family away before things could explode further. He couldn't afford to fall out with her yet.
Jing Shu looked at the whole bunch with a flash of disgust, her gaze briefly landing on Li Yun. Deep down, she made a new decision. She had always cared too much about sparing the kids' feelings, but had anyone ever cared about hers?
"Let's go," she said flatly. "Move their stuff to grandparent's place. There's no room left in the villa."
She led them across the street to the first floor of Building No. 25, which she had already cleaned up in advance for the guests.
Ah, she thought, "I will deal with the rest tomorrow."