Chapter 53: Chapter 53: All Want to Possess
“Brother, you still haven’t finished the ornament for my room, I don’t care… I want you to give me a toy to display in my room.”
Ye Shuzhen added, still unmarried, she thought about having something pretty in her room, something to make her friends envy when they came to visit.
“Son, you’re not thinking about stashing away private funds, are you? Even if you sell toys, you have to put the money into the common fund for your mother to keep safe,” Mrs. Lai said with a domineering look.
“Mom, I’m already over 30, I don’t have any private funds. There’s no one in the village poorer than me. You want me to have children but won’t let me save any private money. I don’t want to be like last time, when we didn’t even have money to pay for the midwife when my wife was giving birth.”
Hongji’s gaze was firm. Mrs. Li had given him child after child, and each birth was a narrow escape from death, without proper nutrition afterward. The family’s refusal to hire a midwife was his greatest source of guilt.
“Hmph, marrying a wife and forgetting your mother, sob… How did I bear such a son? Oh, Heaven… Punish Mrs. Li for leading my son astray.”
Mrs. Lai remembered to put down her bowl, didn’t care about the dirty floor, sat on the ground and threw a tantrum, wailing without shedding a tear.
The children looked out from the room window, with Shiqi in her elder sister’s arms, watching this outrageous grandmother, hoping their parents could earn a little money from selling the toys, but first, they had to deal with this troublemaker.
Shiqi was at a loss for a good solution, seeing her sisters’ worried glances towards their father.
She knew her father, an honest man, was starting to change but might be unable to act on his ideas because of Mrs. Lai’s tantrums.
“Mom, you can’t talk about my wife like that. In what way did my wife wrong you? To curse her …” Hongji frowned, his heart heavy.
“Sob… It’s just that you used to be so filial. Ever since Mrs. Li came into this family, you’ve become less obedient. Now, when I ask you to carve things for your mother to sell, you talk about saving private money. How can there be thoughts of splitting the household when parents are still alive? If not for Mrs. Li’s influence, who else would have corrupted you?”
“Mom, I didn’t say anything about splitting up the family. I only wanted to keep a bit of money for myself after making a sale. With all my children, I surely can’t have no assets at all.”
“Isn’t what belongs to the mother also yours? If the mother saves a bit more money, when we grow old, you won’t need to spend any money on us. Besides, you’re my only son, the money will eventually be yours anyway.”
Mrs. Lai felt her son was changing. She knew his personality well and had to speak softly to him. Her son had a kind and soft heart, and she needed to firmly grasp that point to keep hold of her son’s heart. Hmph, Mrs. Li is still too green to fight with her.
“Well… alright then!” Upon hearing his mother say this, Hongji thought it made sense. His family had no other brothers, and his sisters would only get a dowry, so his parents’ money would be his in the end.
“Son, you’ve agreed to my terms. Go get to work! Make a bit more today, and tomorrow we’ll find a shop to sell the immortal wood statue,” Mrs. Lai said, dusting herself off. Just moments ago, she had worn a crying face, but now she was all smiles, her mood shifting rapidly.
Hongji’s father watched the entire exchange in silence, not uttering a word. His stance was one of support for his spouse. If the son had money saved, he might become less obedient to them in their old age. Keeping the money firmly in hand ensured security for their retirement.
He silently went off to work in the thatched workshop first.
Seeing his father gone to work, Hongji did not want to linger there and hurried to carve the wooden figures.
“Mom, you don’t need to find another shop to sell the toys big brother makes. Doesn’t my fiancé have a shop? If we sell our family’s toys there, it would bring in money for your daughter and increase your income,” Ye Shuzhi said, her eyes glinting with another idea, ensuring that once she married into the Zhong Family, she wouldn’t be wasted away by her mother-in-law as Mrs. Li had been.
“We’ll talk about that later! Let’s see if other shops might offer a higher price.” For the sake of earning more, Mrs. Lai was not concerned with family ties.
“Mom, you must place one in my room. I need the gods’ blessing, to find a good husband.”
Ye Shuzhen felt that their efforts had worn out their lips, with her big brother disagreeing, but it was their mother who managed to make him comply with just a few words. Truly, ginger is the spiciest.
“Why display any? Selling them to make money is what makes sense. But it wouldn’t hurt to have one for worship in our living room.”
Mrs. Lai thought of the Fertility Guanyin, believing that daily worship might bring descendants.
“Mom, our family doesn’t even have a living room, where would we worship?” Ye Shuzhen rolled her eyes, feeling that her mom was too stingy, unwilling to spend the money they earned to build more rooms.
Ye Shiqi hung her head and sighed, feeling helpless with such an ineffectual father. Was all her hard work on the portraits in vain?
She didn’t want to make money for a grandmother with such an insatiable appetite. If the demands were endless, her efforts would be wasted.
For now, there was no other choice but to wait and see. If her father made many wooden dolls to sell and Grandma earned some money, would she treat her nieces better?
Ye Shiqi felt so young and powerless to resist, her only option was to wait and see.
After breakfast, Ye Shuzhi and Ye Shuzhen went together to the river to wash clothes.
As the sisters went to the river to wash clothes, they encountered girls from the village doing the same.
“You two just got up? No wonder the neighbors say your niece is already by the river washing clothes early in the morning. The whole village says you two are lazy.”
This girl envied the sisters for such treatment. Despite being of similar age, she didn’t have to work in the fields daily, though she helped out during the busy farming seasons.
Besides this girl, there were several younger children at the river, listening curiously to their conversation.
Daya and her younger sisters worked in the fields all day. They felt lucky that their parents, though favoring boys over girls, treated them better than Daya and her three sisters.
“Who said that? We got up very early, and only after breakfast did we come out to wash clothes. Who dares call us lazy? I’ll knock their teeth out.” Ye Shuzhen glared fiercely at the girl her age.
“Such busybodies. What business is our family’s affair of theirs? Humph, they’ve really crossed the line,” Ye Shuzhi glared at the girl as well.
“It’s not just me saying it. Everyone sees. We feel for Da Y and her sisters—such little children working so hard. Tsk, they sure have two kind elder sisters!” The girl didn’t care about the sisters glaring at her.
“Such a nosy-parker, hmpf… Take care of your meddling…” Ye Shuzhen, infuriated, gave the village girl a shove.
“Ah…” Caught off guard by Ye Shuzhen’s push, the girl lost her balance, fell into the water, and got completely soaked.
The river was shallow, only knee-deep. The girl climbed out from the muddy bottom, feeling a chill over her body. The October weather made the water very cold, and she trembled involuntarily.
Filled with rage, she splashed water at Ye Shuzhen with both hands, swearing as she did so, “Ye Shuzhen, you proved my point. Still a grown woman, yet so lazy.”
“What’s it to you? You want to fight, is that it? I’m up for it all the way!”
Ye Shuzhen splashed back, and the two started fighting by the river.
Ye Shuzhi, engaged to be married, couldn’t afford to fight and ruin her reputation. Trouble would follow if her fiancé’s family called off the marriage, and she sighed at the thought of having to wash the morning clothes by herself, with no help from Ye Shuzhen.
The other children, not wanting to get wet, quickly moved away with their wooden dishes.
“Ah-choo,” Ye Shuzhen sneezed as a cold wind blew past, causing her to tremble.
“Ah-choo,” the girl sneezed too, thoroughly drenched and freezing, worried about catching a cold. She glared at Ye Shuzhen and warned,
“If I catch a cold because of you today and have to spend money on a doctor, we won’t let you off easily. Humph.”
“Dream on, I’m also soaking wet. If I catch a cold, you’re paying for the medicine,” Ye Shuzhen retorted, not willing to admit defeat.