Chapter 169: Sarcastic Battle

Hearing this, Daniel immediately became restless, "My family bought a wedding house! This guy just moved into your place with his luggage."

Hearing this, Nancy immediately cut her off, instead smiling cheerfully at Hela and saying, "Mother-in-law, that house is only in your son’s name, it has absolutely nothing to do with me, right?"

Asked this, Hela was first stunned, then her delicate brows furrowed. She had come to demand answers, but instead found the other party taking the offensive first.

"Well, it’s your marital home after all, how can you draw such clear lines?"

Hela said this as a mere formality.

But the current Nancy, free from psychological pressure, having inherited her mother’s shrewishness and the materialism of their social circle, wouldn’t swallow such toxic positivity.

"Mother-in-law is right. Did you hear that, Daniel?"

Nancy said lightly, "Transfer the property to me tomorrow."

Daniel could no longer sit still, his face turning ugly, "My parents paid for it, why should I transfer it to you?"

Nancy said with a smile, "Your mother said, family shouldn’t keep strict accounts. What’s the difference between what’s mine and what’s yours?"

"Look, Mother-in-law, your son treats what you say as bullshit."

Not only did she confront him directly, she then turned to look at her own mother-in-law and added in a sarcastic tone.

This soft, subtle jab was incredibly potent. Not only was Ruth’s face full of approval, even Luis nearly applauded her.

But starting off with such intense confrontation, how should the next part of the play continue?

Luis quickly stepped into the role of the peacemaker, saying, "Lily, Elder Sister, please help bring out the dishes. Let’s eat quickly."

He bought a few ready-made dishes, preparing a total of eight dishes and one soup. The soup black chicken soup, which was considered quite a lavish spread for a regular home-cooked meal.

Yet, Daniel arrived, and without even picking up his chopsticks, he stifled his anger and said, "Luis, you didn’t prepare any alcohol."

"Yes, I did!"

What Luis brought out was naturally his Mother-In-Law Ruth’s red wine.

Daniel immediately seized the opportunity to criticize, saying with disdain, "More of this fake stuff. Since you arranged the dinner tonight, couldn’t you make it a bit more upscale? Who are you looking down on?"

Luis didn’t even need to speak. His Mother-In-Law Ruth was the first to flare up.

In the past, when she was in her shrewish mode, she would have started cursing loudly. But under Luis’s strong psychological guidance, they had decided to fight fire with fire.

Ruth smiled cheerfully as she poured wine for Hela, saying, "Dear Mother-In-Law, we are just ordinary folks. We know your family is wealthy and we can’t compare."

"It’s normal for your son to always look down on my wine. But then again, I’ve never seen him bring a single bottle of real wine. Look how many years they’ve been married. Couldn’t he occasionally remember this and let us poor commoners get a glimpse of the good stuff?"

This was top-tier sarcasm, almost directly pointing at his nose and saying his son had no upbringing or manners.

Hela’s face instantly turned extremely ugly. Ruth’s combat ability was truly formidable. "Everyone says my daughter married well. I’d like to share in some of that glory too. Don’t mind my petty, commoner thinking."

"Wasn’t the wine Daniel brought for the New Year any good either?"

Hela’s expression immediately darkened a bit.

But Daniel’s face turned even uglier in an instant. Ruth, being quite shrewd, immediately feigned surprise and said, "For the New Year? For the New Year he just bought some fruit. There wasn’t any wine or tea or anything like that."

"What?"

Hela turned to look at her son, her voice sharp with anger. "Didn’t your father get a bottle of aged cognac and a carton of premium cigarettes for the New Year?"

Daniel immediately lowered his head guiltily. Ruth also looked shocked. "Mother-In-Law, no, there wasn’t."

Lily immediately added fuel to the fire, saying, "Yeah, for the New Year, brother-in-law just bought two bags of loose fruit without any packaging. Even the gifts people bring when visiting patients in the hospital aren’t that shabby."

Hearing this, Hela’s face instantly couldn’t hold up. She said sternly, "Daniel, what is the meaning of this?"

If it were about being stingy, Hela and her family valued face too much to be stingy. This didn’t seem like a coordinated act. The only possibility was that Daniel had kept the gifts for himself.

"Mom, I went out drinking that night, got really drunk, lost the stuff, so I didn’t bring it..."

Daniel explained guiltily.

By taking the blame, he at least gave Hela a way to save face.

Of course, not kicking someone when they’re down would make her an unqualified shrew. Ruth was in full combat mode today. She immediately put on an expression of sudden understanding and said,

"I see! I thought Mother-In-Llaw didn’t seem like someone without proper upbringing. How could she not teach him such basic manners?"

"Ah, you have no idea how upset I was. We’re poor, living in a relocation housing complex where all the neighbors know each other. Everyone was gossiping about it."

"Even when poor relatives from the countryside come for New Year, they at least bring a few live chickens. For the eldest son-in-law to show up with such pitiful gifts... I was too embarrassed to even leave the house for a while then."

"Daniel, you should have told me earlier. Look, Mother-In-Law has misunderstood you for so long."

Listening to this relentless stream of sarcasm, Luis felt particularly vindicated, silently admiring his Mother-In-Law’s formidable combat skills.

Even Nancy didn’t know about this matter, so it was almost certain that he had pocketed the gifts himself. Hela knew her son’s character all too well.

She was a little angry that her son hadn’t mentioned this, putting her at a disadvantage from the start.

So she could only put on a smile, raise her glass, and say, "Mother-In-Law, this is all a misunderstanding. We were afraid the young people wouldn’t know what to buy for New Year visits, so we prepared the gifts for them. Who knew he’d be so careless?"

"That’s right, young people are impulsive, it’s understandable."

Ruth, this top-tier fighter, wearing an expression of understanding, immediately added, "He hasn’t brought anything for the past two or three years. I’ve told him he’s this careless every year. This bad habit really needs to be corrected."

Hearing this, Hela’s hand, holding the wine glass, froze mid-air. Her face turned even uglier.

She paused for a moment, then turned to Nancy and said, "Nancy, why didn’t you tell me about this?"

Nancy said with a wronged expression, "I felt ashamed too. I mentioned it to Daniel, and he said that your family has high standards, and just him coming to pay New Year respects was giving enough face."

Hearing this, Hela’s face turned deathly pale.

Because no matter how much you look down on someone deep down, unless you’re openly breaking ties, you should at least maintain appearances. Otherwise, people aren’t looking down on Ruth, they’re looking down on the Zhang family for having no manners.

"I’ll ask for details when I get back!"

Hela felt intensely uncomfortable in that moment. Any expert would know how painful it is to come with accusations only to be preemptively shut down.

Daniel, seeing the situation turning sour, immediately said, "Let’s not talk about this for now."

"Better not to talk about it, it’s embarrassing to mention!"

Nancy took the wine glass in front of him and set it aside, saying nonchalantly, "Don’t drink this fake foreign wine. Next time, bring some genuine stuff for us to see."

Her attitude wasn’t exactly soft, but it wasn’t hard either. Yet, this was clearly more uncomfortable than an outright confrontation or flipping the table.

Daniel’s face was dark, but he didn’t dare to lose his temper. Gnashing his teeth, he said gloomily, "You should talk about yourself first. How did you end up with so much debt from your reckless spending?"

"I told you, those were scam calls."

Nancy looked at him calmly.

Daniel sneered, pulled out a piece of paper, and said, "I’ve written down all the debt collection calls during this time, which credit card, which platform, even the amounts owed."

Hearing this, Hela remembered the main issue and regained her composure. She immediately said to Ruth,

"Mother-In-Law, I think we should discuss this matter first. After all, the young couple’s life together is most important. But when problems arise, we as elders must still step in and discipline them if needed."

Ruth was initially startled, but seeing Luis calmly peeling shrimp for his wife Lily nearby, she instantly felt fully confident.

Ruth smiled gently and said, "Indeed, they are all our own children."

Hela immediately said with a sigh, "After they got married, Daniel’s business ventures kept failing. You know this too."

This was almost saying outright that her daughter was a jinx.

Ruth retorted without warmth or enthusiasm, "He hasn’t done business since getting married, right? He lost even more before marriage. Didn’t I hear you say he lost money in everything he did and almost jumped off a building?"

"Back then, Daniel even said he needed to check if the ancestral grave was affecting his wealth."

This was a veiled insult, yet it didn’t sound like one. The key was that Daniel had indeed said those things.

Hela was momentarily speechless. It was only then that she realized the shrew she viewed as uneducated and uncultured was, at least when it came to arguing, undeniably gifted.