Chapter 39: Chapter 39 Receiving Gifts
Hongji ultimately chose to believe that this child was his own, and he had to protect her, to guard her secret.
“Siwa, don’t tell anyone about the honey, okay? Not your elder sisters, not your aunts or grandfathers, no one.”
Siwa didn’t understand why her father had instructed her so, but she nodded obediently and said,
“Daddy, Siya knows, Siya won’t tell anyone.”
“Hmm, you are all good children. Daddy has to go to work. You must close the doors and windows, and don’t go outside at all.”
At Hongji’s reminder, Siwa nodded.
Ye Shiqi lowered the hand covering her face, choosing to trust this father, and nodded along with Siwa.
Only then did Hongji open the door and go out, then he closed the door to the room again.
“Big brother, why do you lock the doors and windows of your room? Your two children are inside, aren’t you afraid of suffocating them?” Ye Shuzhen wasn’t concerned about her nieces; she was just asking out of curiosity.
“The weather is getting colder, and there’s a lot of dust outside. What could possibly happen to the children inside the room?”
Hongji made up an excuse, then picked up the empty basket and left with his father to go to the fields.
“So secretive, I wonder if there’s something in big brother’s room?”
Ye Shuzhi was puzzled and her eyes stayed fixed on that room.
“What could be in his room? Not even a fart.” Mrs. Lai often went in to search for things, and she would have found anything there.
“Hehe, Mother, you know best.” Ye Shuzhen laughed, how could she not know what her mother was up to?
Ye Shuzhi rolled her eyes and kept quiet; she was about to get married soon, and didn’t support her mother-in-law’s behavior towards the daughter-in-law. If her own mother-in-law was as overbearing, that would really be unlucky.
Mrs. Li was sad that she couldn’t return home to visit her family, but she had no choice but to accept the fact.
Knowing that the farm would be busy, without her at home, she wondered how things were going?
All she could do was guess; she could not send a message home, and no one from her family told her how things were.
The housekeeper sent someone with her monthly salary to her family, and she secretly inquired about who went to her home.
Upon learning that it was a guard, she secretly found the guard and asked about the situation at home.
The guard told her that everything was fine at home. She asked how the children were faring.
The guard, who was in a hurry, had not seen the older children, but only a toddler of about two or three years old and an infant of a few months, both of whom were lively.
Mrs. Li didn’t get more information, but learning that work was ongoing meant that the rice harvest wasn’t finished yet.
The three children not being at home meant they must be out working again.
Thinking of her children’s hardships, Mrs. Li could only silently shed tears, filled with sorrow and worry, yet powerless to help.
On this day, a birthday banquet was being held at the Tang Mansion. Both the wealthy and relatives and friends came, and Mrs. Li, as the wet nurse, couldn’t afford to be distracted and had to stop thinking about her family for the time being.
During the Old Master’s birthday feast, Mrs. Li was always to stay with the Young Master. While meeting guests, she had to prevent him from getting distracted and wandering off or getting into conflicts while playing with other children, whether he was the one bullying or the one being bullied.
When the Young Master met guests, he would receive some gifts; in the past, the Young Master didn’t know who to give these gifts to for safekeeping.
This time, the Young Master did not let the maids in the courtyard help manage his gifts, including the gold particles given by guests.
“Wet nurse, today you help me keep the gifts safe. They cannot be given to my mother, nor can anyone else manage them.”
Tang Shunyan, the Young Master, was very assertive. Previously received gifts, whether during festivals or family banquets, were always managed by his mother or the maids and nannies in the courtyard, with a housekeeper helping to look after them.
Since a few days ago, when he found out about the wet nurse’s distressed inability to go back home to visit relatives, he realized that aside from the jade pendant, he could not manage anything else himself.
Even less could he give anything away, as that would surely provoke his mother’s reprimand.
Thinking of how poor the wet nurse’s family was, and how her sisters must be suffering, he overheard the wet nurse incidentally talk about her family.
Tang Shunyan was smart and clever. Even at a young age, he knew that if his wet nurse’s elder sisters didn’t eat well, their living conditions couldn’t be good either.
He resolved that from now on, he must save some pocket money. After listening for so long to the wet nurse talk about her sisters, he felt that one day he would visit them and would need to bring gifts.
“Yes, Young Master.” Mrs. Li thought the Young Master was just playing around, as if the children of their household wouldn’t eventually have their possessions managed by adults.
Due to the many guests, Tang Shunyan received a lot of loose change and gifts, all from relatives of the elders in the house or friends from business circles.
Tang Shunyan was the eldest legitimate son of the Eldest Young Master and grandson of Mr. Tang; both legitimate and illegitimate sons had married and had children, and some of his daughters who had married were also present.
Mr. Tang also had brothers and sisters, and it was the older generation who brought the young ones to celebrate the birthday.
There was also a boy one year younger than Tang Shunyan. He was the legitimate son of the illegitimate son of the Eldest Young Master’s father, and naturally, he was not as valued as Tang Shunyan.
Among the guests at the mansion, there were also many children, both boys and girls.
Besides Tang Shunyan, other children from different courtyards also came to play. The Tang Family, a large clan, celebrated the Old Master’s birthday banquet grandly.
While welcoming guests, the household could not hold the banquet at home, so they booked two restaurants. The food from the restaurants had to be delivered for the elderly and pregnant ladies who couldn’t attend.
“Thank you,” Tang Shunyan kept calling the relatives and friends by their titles, someone had specifically taught him in this regard.
He was there to wish his grandfather a long life and also received a red envelope from him.
Mrs. Li, collecting the Young Master’s gifts, soon found that the small bundle she was carrying could not fit any more.
The young madam, seeing her son receive so many gifts, feared that Mrs. Li might embezzle them and sent a maid to take the bundle from Mrs. Li’s hands, intending to have the maid help collect the gifts afterward.
The entire process involved the younger generation receiving gifts, while the elders had to return the gesture.
The young madam felt that she had given return gifts, and the Madam would also give return gifts, as these were all prepared by her; not to mention the Mother-in-law, who handled the household’s finances.
“Move aside, I’ve asked the wet nurse to keep my gifts. Tell my mother that from now on, I want to manage all the gifts I receive myself.”
“Young Master, how can you manage them when you’re so young? Listen to the young madam, she will take good care of them for you,” earnestly persuaded the maid, her eyes glancing at Mrs. Li a few times.
“Young Master, the young madam is your mother, it’s only right for her to take care of them,” Mrs. Li had long thought that the Young Master was just talking, what child so young didn’t have their things managed by adults?
“Wet nurse, I’ve already told you not to give them to my mother, I will manage the items myself,” insisted Tang Shunyan, not giving up at all on his insistence to manage his own belongings.
The maid felt helpless and could only go back to report to the young madam. Upon hearing the maid’s account, the young madam didn’t think her son was being willful. Instead, she suspected her son must have been instigated by someone and glared fiercely at Mrs. Li.
She resolved to deal with her after the banquet, thinking that just punishing her once by not allowing her to visit her family was light enough, but she had the audacity to corrupt her own son and definitely couldn’t be let off easily.
Mrs. Li sensed the resentful gaze, the young madam’s gaze, and timidly lowered her head. Her heart was in turmoil, a mix of discomfort and fear.