Ye Shuzhi thought to this point and smiled knowingly, "That’s great, I like the liveliness of the holidays!"
As she said this, she suddenly remembered that her stingy mother would definitely nag, but as people age and lose influence, nagging becomes futile.
Her father might not say anything and disregard her mother’s nagging; in fact, he was quite vain too.
"Shuzhi, I’ve heard that your older brother has bought another estate. Your maternal family must be making a fortune now! And along the way, they’d better make us some hard-earned money too!" Mother-in-law said.
Ye Shuzhi had heard about this matter as well. Nevertheless, the estate her brother had invested in wasn’t just his purchase; it also involved his wife’s brothers.
Ye Shuzhi only smiled in response to what her mother-in-law said at this time, and spoke no further, for she had already begun to see through the myriad facets of life.
If she were not yet married, she might have made some unkind remarks, and perhaps even after marriage, before having children, she might have said some things out of anger.
But when her maternal family came to visit, it was her sister-in-law who provided her with warmth, and she vaguely knew that it was her sister-in-law who was taking care of her.
This reminded her of when her sister-in-law was giving birth and had a life-threatening hemorrhage. Daya’s crying face wasn’t faked, their family was indifferent, Hongji had no money and was helpless.
Granny Li from next door came over to help clean up the bloody mess for her sister-in-law.
This job should have been Mother-in-law’s, but her mother didn’t do it, and at that time, she also felt that Daya, having given birth to a girl, could just die; if not, she should not act so sensitive.
It was only when she gave birth to her daughter did she taste the bitterness and understood the suffering her sister-in-law had endured over those years.
Ye Shuzhi kept these thoughts to herself and didn’t share them with her mother-in-law. She took the child back to the room, poured some hot water to wash her face, cleaned her feet, and put the child to bed first. Just as she lay down, her husband came back.
Zhong Xianggui came home against the cold wind, settled into the warmth of the room, and seeing that his wife was still awake, he was all smiles and with an even happier demeanor.
"Shuzhi, ha ha, our family made a good sum selling fireworks during the New Year! Father has already told me that tomorrow before dawn, we are heading out to the county to stock up on goods, and in the afternoon, I will take you to your maternal family!" he said.
Ye Shuzhi shook her head with a smile, "There’s no rush; you go take care of the work first."
"Why? Aren’t we supposed to visit your maternal family on the second day of the New Year?" he asked.
"We’ll go in the afternoon. Surely, we’d have to close the shop again, and since we’ve just got the new stock, we should stay and sell it. My maternal family is close by, and I can go by myself. Besides, tomorrow is the day my older brother and his wife visit our maternal family. If they don’t go in the morning, we can’t show up in the afternoon even more so," she explained.
Zhong Xianggui nodded in understanding, knowing that Uncle and his wife would visit the maternal family; they might even join Young Uncle and father-in-law for a couple of drinks.
Perhaps their main reason for visiting was just to see the father-in-law and mother-in-law, and he thought of his stingy mother-in-law; with his sister-in-law not home to entertain, they might not even receive a red envelope after bringing a gift.
Visiting the father-in-law’s house wasn’t just about a red envelope after all; maybe it was also to meet with the other brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law.
Zhong Xianggui was very clear that if Uncle and his wife weren’t there, then the nieces would not be there either, and it wouldn’t be as lively.
"Then let’s wait a couple of days!" he said.
Ye Shuzhi nodded; even though the official day for visiting the maternal family was the second day of the New Year, not everyone could make it on that day.
For instance, those who ran their own businesses, with no time during the New Year period, like her mother-in-law, who only went to her maternal family after the fifth day.
In Bushen Village, the five rich families competed in setting off fireworks, including Hongji’s house. The village, not very small, became lit up in the night sky.
Houses that hadn’t finished the lion dance found themselves with visitors for the lion dance.
The night of the first day of the New Year passed in merriment, and Ye Shiqi, after she and her sisters had almost finished setting off fireworks, decided to save the rest for the next day.
The following day, Ye Shiqi woke up to the bright morning.
The maid saw her awake and brought her water to wash her face.
Ye Shiqi had improvised a toothbrush, simply sketching a design and giving it to her father, little did she expect that he was quite shrewd; she ended up making toothbrushes for the family. As for the bristles, what kind of hair to use?
Her father had a brainstorm and tried out wool and rabbit fur, which turned out to be very successful; he used the kind of wood suitable for carpentry for their production.
This successful endeavor also brought profits to the lumber mill, making use of ordinary little pieces of wood that had no other purpose; a small block of wood could produce many toothbrushes.
Later, in order to manufacture these toothbrushes, the factory began to purchase wool and rabbit fur and dedicated ordinary wood exclusively for the production.