Chapter 52: 52 Rooms’ Thoughts
Yet, in the Ye Family’s woodshed, Mrs. Li and Ye Erya were eating cornbread with Chinese cabbage, listening to the sounds of Mrs. He dividing things and the children’s cheers coming from the main house, their eyes filled with suppressed hatred.
“Mother, I don’t want to live this life anymore, can we leave the Ye Family?” Ye Erya’s eyes brimmed with tears, and if one could ignore the hatred in those eyes, combined with her frail body, she indeed looked rather pitiable and delicate.
Mrs. Li patted Ye Erya’s back, a flicker of restraint in her eyes, “We have not a single copper coin between us, mother and daughter. Leaving the Ye Family means having no means to live. Erya, endure a little longer. In another year or two, you’ll be of age to discuss marriage, and once you are married, things will be better!”
Ye Erya’s face was filled with misery, but she still had to endure and continue eating, not knowing if there would even be a next meal. Mrs. He probably couldn’t wait to grind her and her mother to death sooner.
Sometimes Ye Erya also hated; she hated that although she was also a daughter of the Ye Family, why she had to be Mrs. Li’s daughter and not Mrs. He’s. She hated that Mrs. Li had so eagerly married her father, old man Ye, and hated that since she had married into the Ye Family, why couldn’t she bear a son to secure their place successfully in the Ye Family!
A legitimate wife turned into a concubine. It would have been bearable if their family were rich, but they were in such poverty they couldn’t even afford meals; truly a loss through and through.
The Ye Family’s main branch:
After dinner, upon returning to her room, Mrs. Zhang asked her eldest son, “Wenqing, did your aunt really earn a hundred taels of silver today? Why didn’t I hear you mention it when you came home in the afternoon?”
Ye Jiu had specifically cautioned not to mention the nearly life-threatening incident in town, and Ye Wenqing remembered it well, so he just lightly touched on the excuses that Mrs. He had already mentioned.
After casually dealing with it, Ye Wenqing took the tael of silver from his robe and handed it to Mrs. Zhang, saying, “Mother, this is what my aunt gave, it’s better you keep it.”
“This…” Mrs. Zhang hesitated, then her face filled with panic, “You child, how can you take your aunt’s silver? If your granny finds out, could we still be okay?”
“Mother, my aunt gave it to me, she said granny doesn’t know about this tael of silver,” Ye Wenqing placed the silver into Mrs. Zhang’s hands, remembering Ye Jiu’s words today about his not being young anymore, Ye Wenqing added, “All these years, granny managed the household, and our family hasn’t saved anything, this tael of silver might just come in handy someday!”
Mrs. Zhang, holding the money in her hand, felt both bitter and sour.
Mrs. Zhao wanted to divide the family assets, and how could she not want the same? Who wouldn’t want to be in charge of their own household, who wouldn’t want to have money to bring gifts when visiting their maternal home!
Yet, given the situation at home, she knew they couldn’t divide the property, and she didn’t want to earn her mother-in-law’s dislike like Mrs. Zhao.
Back in her room, Mrs. Zhao’s mind still echoed with Mrs. He’s words, a hundred taels of silver, an amount that selling the whole Ye Family might not even cover.
Pity that the silver wasn’t in her hands, Mrs. Zhao felt an itching dissatisfaction.
Looking at her two sons who were already preparing to sleep on the kang, Mrs. Zhao schemed, “Wenyu, Wenxuan, did you hear what your grandmother said today, our family has money now, a whole hundred taels of silver!”
“Granny said, all the money was earned by our aunt.” The eight-year-old Ye Wenxuan already knew the value of money, but also knew that in this family, anything under Ye Jiu’s name was untouchable by others.