Mrs. Li knew that her husband had invested all their income in the construction and planting of the estate.
The investment in the estate was not yet complete. Apart from the wages for the workers, there was also a small hill that hadn’t been planted with fruit trees, which also required a significant investment.
Any investment is made step by step. Aside from the timber factory, their family had another estate’s income. All their revenue over the past two years had been invested in these two properties.
Their daughter acted on every idea she had. Amid their unceasing investments, if it were just the couple, they wouldn’t dare to be so ambitious.
Yet the journey of investment was fraught with difficulties, which they resolved step by step. If there had been no investment, there would have been no hardships. Without investment, they wouldn’t have known that making money could be done .
No wonder those wealthy people continued to invest without fear of risk. They had such good lives and still kept investing each year. Perhaps doing business was also a pleasure; seeing the fruits of their labor turn a profit brought happiness too.
Shuying was annoyed by her son’s crying, so she slapped his buttocks a few times, "smack smack smack."
The little boy was always treated like a treasure at home and was rarely hit by his parents, so it was surprising that today he was being beaten just for wanting a toy. His cries of injustice grew louder.
"Cry, what are you crying for? All you know is how to spend money, not how to make it."
Shuying said this to her son, who was only four or five years old and didn’t understand how he could make money at such a young age.
Shuying’s action of hitting her child was actually just a way to get Mrs. Li’s attention and vent her frustrations. Why didn’t her son understand anything at the age of five or six, while Mrs. Li’s daughter could make money even when she was very little?
Her son’s dislike for studying also left her feeling helpless. Girls loved studying; a boy should be even more inclined to study, she believed.
The little boy, crying all the while, turned his gaze to Mrs. Li on the other side and flung himself towards her.
Mrs. Li was suddenly rushed by the little boy and almost lost her balance falling off the ox cart.
"Auntie, Auntie, you’re the best. Mom hit me, sob, sob, sob!"
The little boy’s plaintive cries didn’t provoke a scolding from Mrs. Li; instead, she gently patted his back twice as a comfort.
With a stern expression, she looked at Shuying and spoke, "What’s this about hitting the child? Normally in your mouths, he’s so precious, and today you hit him just for a toy?"
"Sister-in-law, it’s easy for you to talk when you aren’t hurting for money. I don’t even have money on me. The child wanted a toy; how else was I supposed to handle it!"
The moment Shuying’s words came out, the uncle driving the ox cart, who had been silent thus far, couldn’t help but snort.
Shuying, noticing the cart driver’s laughter, glared at him.
Mrs. Li’s elder sister-in-law was out visiting relatives without money on her and had the gifts sent on her behalf. Mrs. Li found her sister-in-law utterly unbelievable.
With the capacity for earning that their couple had, buying a toy for their precious son wasn’t an issue. This stingy behavior, Mrs. Li knew very well, was certainly aimed at getting her to pay!
Stuck with such relatives, Mrs. Li knew she couldn’t escape them for a lifetime. Who asked her to be the aunt?
"Alright, now, a boy is supposed to be a man, men are supposed to bleed not cry. Don’t cry over a toy. If mom won’t buy you a toy, Auntie will."
"Yes, yes, yes!" The little boy wiped his nose with his sleeve, the previous crying forgotten like the skies clearing after a rain.
Shuying, having received Mrs. Li’s promise to buy the toy, seemed reluctantly aggrieved as she said:
"Sister-in-law, are you really going to buy my son a toy? Indulging a child isn’t good, is it?"
Mrs. Li, faced with her sister-in-law’s begrudging yet cloying manner, chose to ignore her words.
The ox cart arrived at Ye Shuzhi’s in-laws’ shop, the shop that the couple operated, which was barely adequate for living as they always stayed in the original shop.
The arrival of the ox cart stopped in front of the general store, and the shop owners inside spotted it immediately, watching from within.
Normally, it would be the couple that was her in-laws taking care of the shop, but today was a bit special; only the male in-law was there.
Seeing his daughter-in-law and her family members arrive, and at a time when no customers were visiting, he hurried out to help receive them.
"In-law, sister-in-law, big sister-in-law has arrived. My daughter-in-law and her mother are inside!"
As the father-in-law, whether he understood or not, Mrs. Li as the sister-in-law took precedence. Actually, their family felt that the daughter-in-law’s mother was less reliable than this sister-in-law."