Mrs. Lai was usually aggressive but very shrewd, and she was afraid that saying too much might adversely affect her daughter. She felt that the lady boss was too cunning and sensed she was no match for her.
This person was a businesswoman, who could spin death as life, leaving Mrs. Lai defenseless.
"Relative, how did you find out? The land is the foundation of us farmers, how can we not till the soil? Our family is buying so many things now because we need to harvest the rice soon, and we want to provide some nourishment to the family so they have the strength to work."
"That's right, so, relative, all this stuff for just 200 coins is such a bargain, why hesitate to spend?" the lady boss spoke in a calculating tone, designed to irritate yet prevent anger, as she was smiling while she spoke—a facade of a smile, a façade of excellent customer service.
Mrs. Lai's face flushed with embarrassment at the future relative's words. Hadn't she come here to shop precisely because she wanted a discount?
She wanted to buy inexpensive goods from her future relative but didn't anticipate how shrewd the other party would be, and she dared not offend them.
Mrs. Lai reluctantly took out strings of copper coins from her bosom, her heart aching with each one removed.
Zhong Xianggui was serving other customers, not dealing directly with Mrs. Lai, knowing that as a future son-in-law, it was unwise to argue with a future mother-in-law, and shrewdly left the matter to his mother.
Mrs. Lai saw her relative unhesitatingly take the money.
She took the already packaged goods and left in anger without looking back, not wanting to say even a goodbye.
Zhong Xianggui and his mother were unconcerned and continued to attend to other customers.
Mrs. Lai also bought the fatty cuts with a sense of pain, the cuts used for oil extraction.
Then, she arrived where the ox-cart waited; the village women, seeing how much she had bought, asked her enviously about her purchases.
Amidst their envious looks, Mrs. Lai's mood improved, and she bragged proudly.
"I bought this rice and these items from my relative's place. My future son-in-law gave me the cheapest price. These things I've bought weren't expensive at all."
Curious, those sitting in the ox-cart wondered how much money she had spent on her purchases.
When they learned she had spent 200 coins, they couldn't help but cover their mouths and laugh, though they didn't openly mock Mrs. Lai.
These were the prices one would expect at her relative's shop—even wholesale prices were the same elsewhere. It seemed only Mrs. Lai naively thought she had gotten a deal.
Returning home with all her purchases, Mrs. Lai's daughters rushed out when they saw how much she had bought.
"Mother, did you buy us anything?" Ye Shuzhi rummaged through the goods her mother had bought.
"Mother, did you buy sweets?" Ye Shuzhen thought of the candy from the day before; it was gone, and she wanted more.
"I've spent over 200 coins on all these goods, where would I have money to buy candy? Didn't you already have sweets yesterday?" Mrs. Lai rolled her eyes at her younger daughter, unamused.
"Mother, you just received two taels of silver yesterday from your daughter-in-law for her work. Why are you so stingy, only buying this little bit of meat? You know I don't eat the fatty cuts. Why didn't you buy the lean ones for me?" Ye Shuzhen stomped her foot angrily.
"Why waste money on that? Lean meat isn't tasty at all. After you press the oil out of these fatty cuts, they're delicious," Mrs. Lai rolled her eyes again at her daughter. This is not knowing the cost of maintaining a household.
"Mother, hmph..." Ye Shuzhen, after picking up her thread, stomped off back to her room.
Ye Shuzhi also took her stuff and left without asking a word about her husband, who had come from town.
"You two, come out and help your old mother with cooking after you've put your things away."
Mrs. Lai ordered her daughters who had returned to their rooms.
"Mother, Daya and Er Ya are coming back; let them cook!"
Ye Shuzhen's voice came from inside the room.
However, Ye Shuzhi remained silent.
Hongji and his father, who had not spoken until now, heard them discussing having the children who went out to work in the fields come back to cook.
Hongji stopped his woodworking, staring intently at his mother and sister's room, feeling even more irritated.
Mrs. Lai caught her son's gaze and remembered what she had thought about that morning.
"Hongji, after the busy farming season, you and your father should go to the hills to chop more wood, build an additional room in the yard, and also make your sister's dowry. You'll need to work overtime in the evenings; don't just focus on those loss-making goods."
"Mother, you expect me to work faster, but you don't help with the housework. How old are my children? You all are so heartless, with so many adults at home, yet waiting for the children who work outside to come back and cook."
Hongji glared angrily at his mother.
Hongji's father looked up at his son and his wife, stopped his work, washed his hands, then picked up a bamboo tube, put some tobacco inside, lit it, took a drag from the tube, and exhaled a puff of smoke before saying to Mrs. Lai:
"Speak! Why build an extra room?"
"Old man, someone's wife in the village is pregnant. Our family can't always have just girls. We need someone to carry on the family lineage." Mrs. Lai's voice wasn't soft at all, as it carried into the room.
Ye Shuzhi and Ye Shuzhen were eavesdropping and pouting, but they said nothing.
Ye Shiqi, in the other room, was now able to sit up. Thanks to the water from the space, her body was exceptionally nimble. While others were still unable to sit up, she could already crawl.
But she didn't want to crawl on the dirty ground anymore and asked her fourth sister to carry her to the doorway to secretly listen to the conversation outside in the yard.
Hearing her grandmother's words, she knew that her ruthless grandmother wanted to take advantage of her mother being in the county, using the money her mother earned from working outside, to secretly arrange for a concubine for her father.
Her mother could endure this, but she, as a daughter, could not. The thought of having a stepmother, who would be cruel to them when their own mother was not around, pained her.
She had to find a way to stop all this and let her mother know about it. But with her mother's timid nature, would she ever resist?
Ye Shiqi was worried, worried for her mother, and fretted over her potentially miserable future life.
She leaned her ear, eager to hear what her father would say.
"Mother, don't mention that. Building a room costs money. Your son and his wife are still young; it'd be better to let my wife stop working as a housekeeper, so she can stay home with the children, sparing me so much hard work."
Hongji was slightly tempted by his mother's suggestion of continuing the family lineage but also feared being labeled as faithless.
His wife worked outside while he took a concubine; this was something the honest man couldn't do, even though he longed for a woman's company after months without one.
"Son, taking a concubine is so cheap. All the money your wife earns from working outside is nothing compared to having a concubine who can bear you children," Mrs. Lai tried to convince her son.
"Mother, you haven't considered the cost of building an extra room and the money for taking a concubine. That's the hard-earned money of my wife from working outside. You might as well let Father take a concubine to give me a brother."
These words from Hongji made his father blush a little, momentarily tempted.
"You wicked son, you want to ruin your old mother's reputation in her old age." How could Mrs. Lai let her husband take a concubine? It would mean sharing him with another woman.