Ye Shuzhi and Ye Shuzhen walked out of the room when they heard the noise.
"Mother, you haven't come to help me with the kids for several days, and now it's time for the harvest at my place. You must come help me with the children. Father and brother and two younger sisters need to help me harvest the rice."
Ye Shuying was ordering her family around unceremoniously, just as she had done before, though in the past it had been her brother and sister-in-law who had helped, while her mother took care of the children.
"This..., there's still so much to do at home, and your sister-in-law isn't home... We need to harvest our own rice."
Mrs. Lai didn't agree immediately as she had before. These days she had to do all the housework at home and was somewhat reluctant to go work at her eldest daughter's place.
"Mother, how have you become ? You weren't before, you could help me finish harvesting then do your own work." Ye Shuying couldn't believe she was being refused by her own mother.
"Elder Sister, when have you ever seen me work in the fields? I'm about to get married, how could I help you with farm work? What a joke..."
Ye Shuzhi was irritated by her elder sister who lived so close by yet always expected help just because she had a son. She too was going to get married soon and would eventually have a son.
"Second Sister is right, I'm not going to do farm work. Stop counting on me," Ye Shuzhen mockingly glanced at her elder sister.
"Great, all of you won't help, right? Are we not relatives anymore?" Ye Shuying pointed at her mother and sisters, furious enough to burst into angry words.
"What are you talking about? You're married now, of course you need to manage your own household. You've seen our family is not having an easy time either."
Hongji hadn't yet spoken when his father, furiously glaring, reminded everyone that they had talked just that afternoon about the need to do farm work at home, and now the eldest daughter was demanding their help again, which was quite irritating.
"Father, am I still your daughter or not? If you don't help, then consider that you don't have this daughter," Ye Shuying, always proud, looked down on Hongji, who simply obeyed and was always dutiful. Since marrying into her husband's family, her brother and sister-in-law had helped her quite a bit.
She had thought that once she spoke up today, they would help, but she hadn't expected her family to be so unyielding.
Over the years, it was only with her family's help that she was able to live well in her husband's family, with her mother-in-law not helping with the children and sternly insisting her mother come over to help.
During the busy farming season, she had been fortunate to have her family's help and had always felt that it was only right for her family to assist her as they had before.
"Oh come on, your sister-in-law and I have helped you quite a bit over the years, haven't we? Yet you never helped back. Not even once did you visit when your sister-in-law gave birth, and now suddenly you remember you have a brother!"
Hongji was mocking his younger sister. In fact, he had long held a grudge against his parents for favoring his sisters. Over the past years, despite being busy and tired, he and his wife had still helped, but how had this sister treated him and his wife?
Ye Shiqi heard the loud arguments from the room. She had never seen such a confrontation with her aunt, and then watched as Siwa carried her to sit at the doorway to watch.
She saw her father and grandfather stopping their carpentry work under the thatched shelter and glaring at her aunt who was standing in the courtyard.
The Second Aunt, Third Aunt, and grandmother were also standing in the courtyard, not getting along well with the elder aunt, who seemed to be threatening to cut off relations.
Ye Shiqi sized up this aunt, who looked just like her grandmother and her Second and Third Aunts, with a round face and a stout body, short and pale.
The three-month-old baby was seeing these important family members for the first time, together with that uncle she had never met, whom her Second Aunt always mentioned was her fiancé who never appeared.
Ye Shiqi was a bit puzzled. How far was the town from here? Why hadn't she met the man her aunt was betrothed to?
Have the engaged couple of several months been having affairs?
When Ye Shiqi was reading that book, she only looked at a few pages and thought that the author wrote with too much melodrama. Where in reality would there be such a family?
In her era, girls were considered highly valuable, weren't they?
In a society with gender equality, girls are treasured, especially since many are only children. How could anyone treat their daughters so cruelly?
She had a stepmother, and she wasn't close to her stepmother or her elder sister, but she never really suffered. Her father always gave her money, otherwise how could she live so comfortably?
With space, she wouldn't get rich or prosperous, considering her space became useless. She always felt that space was unsafe and untrustworthy.
Now, out of curiosity, she opened such a book and entered a melodramatic story, facing days of cold and hunger. When would it end?
She had just heard in the room that a child as big as her was supposed to go work in the fields. Having always stayed in her room since birth, she felt she was practically molding.
Seeing the outside world seemed like a good idea—perhaps she could find some seeds to plant something useful in her small space and avoid starving.
Ye Shiqi felt that she, an unspeakable baby, needed to change her tactics and think about how to make a living in this world.
Seeing how her elder sisters were treated by the family made her worry about her own future.
Since she had grown a bit, her space had grown as well: what was once a two-square-meter space at birth, became as big as a bathroom after a couple of months, and now it might be as big as their small house room—a considerable small space.
Ye Shiqi decided to look for some seeds that could fill the stomach, plant a bit first, and not starve anymore.
Ye Shuying's harsh words were ignored, leaving her to walk away sulky and defeated.
That night, Mrs. Lai tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep.
She felt uneasy about having turned down her elder daughter today, fearing that her daughter might really sever ties with them.
"Hongji's mother, why aren't you sleeping?"
"Old man, is our treatment of the elder daughter okay? If she ignores us from now on, won't I be unable to see my chubby grandchild?" Mrs. Lai was typically more concerned about her grandson, not the elder daughter.
"Hongji's mother, you should be nicer to your own child! No matter what, he's your son. We hope they will give us a grandson to continue the family line. The grandchildren from a daughter are still just grandchildren after all."
Hongji's father's words made Mrs. Lai silent, but improving her relationship with those who cost money was out of the question.
If they could buy some meat to nourish their son and help him have grandsons sooner, that would be more practical.
In the room, Ye Shuzhi and Ye Shuzhen, these two sisters shared a room but not a bed. They talked about the elder sister, both feeling that she was too impractical.
Daya, Er Ya, and Sanya didn't know that the elder aunt had visited. Siwa had seen the elder aunt only once or twice, and being such a small child, couldn't clearly express it, only mentioning that an aunt had come and was helping the family with work.
Daya and the three younger sisters looked at their silent father as they massaged their sore hands, not daring to say much.
The next day, Mrs. Lai went to the market, riding the village cart. It had been a while since she had appeared in that cart, and other women who were also going to the market started gossiping about her.