Actually, she had asked her man, but he said he had no idea.
Thinking about Laosan’s family not returning for New Year’s, no matter what, they should at least send something back by mail, right?
For the Mid-Automn Festival, they even sent them mooncakes by mail.
Thinking about Laosan’s wife being a city person, and now that she was back in the city, she probably lived like a fish in water.
It was just uncertain whether she would miss the years spent in the collective.
"Da Shu’s mother, you have no idea?"
The smile on Da Shu’s mother’s face was barely maintainable.
"For the Mid-Autumn Festival, didn’t they send you mooncakes by mail? If they don’t come back, they will surely send something back to them."
Da Shu’s mother didn’t go around showing off, but her two sons did the showing off.
So the whole collective knew that Zhao Tianlei and his wife had sent mooncakes back to their brothers and parents.
"They should be coming back, right?"
Laosan’s Wife couldn’t be sure, either.
"Laosan’s Wife, Shitou’s family is coming back, why didn’t you help clean up? I saw your mother-in-law doing it several times."
"Isn’t my mother-in-law there? Besides, my brother-in-law gave the keys to my mother-in-law."
Da Shu’s mother surely couldn’t admit to not having thought of that, could she?
Thinking about Laosan and his wife returning, they would definitely not come back empty-handed.
Da Shu’s mother didn’t want to discuss Laosan’s family anymore.
"Pah, Shitou and Educated Youth Yun care about their big brother and sister-in-law, but these two families, not a single one helped clean up. If it were me, next time there’s something to send, they wouldn’t get anything."
"Yeah, not getting on good terms with Shitou and Educated Youth Yun, but giving them the cold shoulder, is simply foolish."
"If it were me, I’d have hurried over to cozy up already. After Shitou and Educated Youth Yun graduate from college, they’ll get assigned jobs. Just getting a few scraps from them can make your life rank among the top in the collective."
Da Shu’s mother didn’t know someone was calling her foolish.
"Mom, should we go help clean the little uncle’s house?" Daya asked Sister-in-law Zhao, as some people said the little uncle’s family wouldn’t be coming back for the New Year.
The New Year was fast approaching, and the little uncle’s family hadn’t returned yet.
Sister-in-law Zhao suddenly looked at her eldest daughter.
"Could it be viewed as us being too eager to please?" Sister-in-law Zhao pondered for a long time before bringing out this point, worried that the village people might see them that way.
"But we’re just helping."
"Mom, I’ll go too," Sanya joined in.
Little Aunt had given her quite a bit of food, she remembered, and once Little Aunt came back, she would surely give her more food.
When Sister-in-law Zhao arrived at the old house with her daughters.
"What, you’re going to help clean?" Has the sky fallen from the west?
"I went to clean again yesterday, and I asked my eldest to gather some firewood for Laosan and them."
Upon hearing this, Sister-in-law Zhao was startled. No wonder her man had left after breakfast, it turned out he had gone to collect firewood to help.
"Grandma, the little uncle’s house has been uninhabited for so long; it needs to be fumigated with mugwort. We can fumigate the little uncle’s house for them..." Daya suddenly thought of this.
This suggestion moved Mrs. Zhao; indeed, it needed fumigating.
Although she stayed there once a month, it still lacked the warmth of occupants, fearing insects might crawl around the yard.
"All right, let’s go."
Mrs. Zhao led her daughter-in-law and granddaughters to cut mugwort and then began to fumigate, doing it inside the house as well as outside in the yard.
They fumigated every nook and cranny.
They had lunch available, and none of them were short on money, but they ordered just one meal.