Ye Shiqi and her elder sisters did not stay long at the estate. After sending off Tang Shunyan and his horse-drawn carriage convoy, they returned home by ox cart, arriving in the evening.
When the sisters returned home, they found the front door of their new house closed, and their grandmother was sitting in the courtyard scolding people just as she had been doing the previous days.
The sisters got off the ox cart and Mrs. Lai gave them a disdainful glance, holding back from scolding them.
Mrs. Lai had dressed more elegantly today, likely wearing all her jewelry on her head and body.
In the evening twilight, the gold jewelry glowed a golden light, feeling very dazzling.
Ye Shiqi and her sisters did not pay attention to their grandmother. The relatives who had come in the morning had already gone home. Aside from the red paper from firecrackers, everything else in the house had returned to normal.
Ye Shiqi and her sisters ran into the living room to first embrace their brother, who was in their mother’s arms.
The sisters took turns holding their brother and placed the little baby back in the cradle, but the baby, now able to sit and crawl, did not want to lie in the cradle.
He reached out to his sisters asking to be held, continuously babbling baby talk.
Ye Shiqi could not carry her significantly chubby brother; she could only hold him while sitting.
The elder sisters, fearing she might drop him, did not let her hold him for long. With two little maids at home to help, it helped their mother not to be so busy.
Mrs. Li had had a busy day and was very tired. She barely managed her fatigue as there was still milk to feed the baby. After sending off the guests and taking a breath, she was anxious about the tasks that might still need to be done that evening.
Ye Shiqi looked at the brother in her sister’s arms. He was a bit chubbier than her sisters had been in their infancy. As a boy, he shouldn’t be held all the time; they needed to think of a way to let him have toys to keep him seated.
Ye Shiqi thought back to the modern era in her previous life where babies had cars to ride in, toddler push cars, and baby walkers.
She then thought about how, in ancient times, there were ox carts and horse carriages; the principle was similar, just that they were made of heavier wood.
A baby walker could be made too, by building a wooden frame and adding wheels to the bottom, and even adding some toys on it for him to play with.
Upon thinking this, Ye Shiqi wanted to sketch her ideas. She returned to her room alone and rapidly drew out her plans.
First, she drew the entire design, then some tools needed for construction, and different diagrams for each step to help the craftsman assemble it correctly.
Hongji was also busy today—it was the eighth day of the first lunar month, the day his woodworking factory began operations. As boss and part-time craftsman, how could he not be present on the first day?
It was crucial for him, as the junior boss and in the absence of the senior boss, and together with Housekeeper Tang, they were responsible for everything that happened on this first day.
Early in the morning, it was necessary to set off firecrackers and perform the Lion dance ceremony, followed by the boss giving red envelopes to the workers as a welfare perk.
The workers started their shift happily with their red envelopes, and he was not idle; he prepared to have the workers manufacture this year’s first batch of orders.
After such a busy morning, he returned home early; although he did not need to help, he still had to attend today’s celebration of his father taking a new concubine.
After eating, Hongji saw his father return to that room. This concubine did not care it was broad daylight or how his mother felt, who spent all day scolding others at home, which he also found annoying.
Even as a son, he did not know how to comfort his mother and could only escape back to the factory to work.
By the time he returned home, it was almost dark. He saw workers delivering a meal to the neighboring house and assumed his father had ordered it for the concubine.
He had not even had time to wash his hands upon entering the courtyard when he was drawn by the crying from the house.
Agitated, he washed his hands quickly and returned to the living room only to find his mother crying loudly, cursing:
"Temptress, shameless temptress."
"Mother, what’s wrong now?"
Hongji used his gaze to inquire of his daughter-in-law and his four daughters sitting in the living room holding his son.
"What’s wrong? What’s wrong? Isn’t it because your father now has that temptress and doesn’t eat with us anymore but has meals sent to them to eat together?"
Mrs. Lai let out sobs mixed with tears, feeling so embittered.
"Mother, you must learn to get used to the fact that Father now has more than one woman!"
Hongji and his wife had thought about building a separate house for the concubine to live in alone, precisely to avoid having her eat with the family and to prevent this woman from distasting them.