Chapter 151 - She thought he wouldn't be back till next month. How was he here? (3)
Mother Tong walked over to the bus stop and waited for over an hour before a bus arrived. Then it took her over an hour to get to Yanqing County.
Afterward, it took her another half an hour to arrive at the compound of the fabric factory.
She was peeking her head in by the door when Aunty Cai happened to return from grocery shopping. When she saw Mother Tong there, she said loudly, “Who are you looking for, big sister?”
Aunty Cai’s loud voice came with amplifying ability. Startled, Mother Tong took a step back and tripped.
BAM!
She fell backward onto the ground.
Aunty Cai, too, was startled by her. She quickly helped Mother Tong up. “Aiyo, are you alright, big sister?”
Mother Tong had just stood back up and felt pain in her ankle.
She turned pale instantly. “I think I had sprained my ankle.”
Aunty Cai felt bad because she was responsible for Mother Tong’s fall. “Why don’t you come over to my place. I’ll put some medication on your foot, and it will heal in no time.”
Mother Tong shook her head. “No, it’s fine. My daughter lives here. Just help me over to her place.”
Aunty Cai helped her pick her stuff up from the ground, and after hearing what Mother Tong had said, she asked, “Who is your daughter? How come I have never seen you before?”
“Tong Xuelu is my daughter. Well, technically, I am her adoptive mother.”
Tong Xuelu’s adoptive mother?
“Oh, so you are Xuelu’s adoptive mother.” Then she let out a cry. “No, wait. If you are Xuelu’s adoptive mother, how come you don’t know that she had moved?”
Mother Tong was taken aback a little. “Moved? When did that happen?”
Aunty Cai looked at her dubiously. “Are you really Xuelu’s adoptive mother?”
Being looked at by her that way, Mother Tong wasn’t too happy. “Of course I am. I’ve raised her for 15 years. What’s there to lie about?”
Aunty Cai saw all the bags of stuff that Mother Tong had brought with her. She didn’t dress like an ordinary person plus the information that she had provided matched the truth. She chose to believe in Mother Tong.
“Well, that’s odd. Xuelu moved away a few days ago. She had switched to work at the government-operated restaurant. Did she not tell you? Even if she didn’t mention it, your son would have said something to you. He was the one who drove a car over to help her move!”
Mother Tong’s eyes widened, and she looked shocked. “What are you talking about? She switched jobs?”
Aunty Cai nodded. “Yeah. Everyone here thought she switched jobs with your help. I guess she switched it on her own. She’s such a capable girl!”
Mother Tong couldn’t have been more shocked. She didn’t think that Tong Xuelu would have switched to a job that was as good as working at the government-operated restaurant.
Then again, remembering that she didn’t even mention it to her, Mother Tong was bothered by that.
“Okay, so she switched to work at the government-operated restaurant. Do you know where she is staying now?”
Aunty Cai said, “I think it’s a government-operated restaurant in the City Nan area. I don’t know exactly where though.”
Mother Tong looked more and more unhappy.
She couldn’t even go looking for Tong Xuelu the way she was right now. She rested over at Aunty Cai’s place for a little while until the pain in her foot subsided some before she brought her stuff all the way back to the city.
The minute that she returned home, she shouted at her two sons. “Which one of you went to help Xuelu move? And if you knew that she had moved, why didn’t you tell me?”
It took her 6~7 hours to travel back and forth, injuring herself along the way. More importantly, however, she had made a fool out of herself!
The woman kept saying how odd it was that Mother Tong didn’t know about Tong Xuelu’s new job. She made her sound like a con artist.
Being blamed out of the blue for something that they had not done, both Big Brother Tong and Second Brother Tong were stunned.
“Mom, what are you talking about? We didn’t help Xuelu move.”
“Yeah. And we have no idea that she had moved.”
Mother Tong frowned and looked at them. “You really have no idea? Those at the compound said Tong Xuelu referred to the man as Big Brother and that he is from her adoptive family. Who else could it be if not one of you?”
Big Brother Tong, “……”
Second Brother Tong, “……”
They didn’t have the slightest clue what was going on, and that was the god honest truth!