"..." Chen Xiufang looked constipated as she ’accused’ Yan Jinsu with her eyes!
"Pfft, I’m just learning from you, to let you act weird!" Yan Jinsu laughed in response.
"By the way, did the child have a check-up? Did you go check it?"
"I had a check-up, but I didn’t go to see the gender. I already have Xiao Ze, it doesn’t matter whether this child is a boy or a girl, my in-laws will like it either way."
"That’s true, you have a successor now. I don’t even understand where these thoughts come from... Oh, right, I have another favor to ask you, see if you have someone trustworthy, I want to hire a nanny, not just for anything else, but to help me look after the two children, or maybe to cook some meals, too."
"Huh?" Chen Xiufang thought she had heard wrong and looked at the little girl in surprise.
"Is that too outrageous?" Yan Jinsu also asked because she wasn’t sure if it was appropriate, so she specially came to ask her good friend.
"Of course... it’s very outrageous! Little girl, that isn’t like the previous Rongshu County you stayed in, it’s the countryside! Why, are Xiaojiu and Xiao Shi very naughty?"
"Not really, it’s just that I suddenly have one less person to help around me, and I’m not used to it." If you were to use Zhou Xiuhua’s words, it would be ’wild’ habit, staying home too long makes her restless, always wanting to go out to find something to do.
Although she truly loves her children deeply, in Yan Jinsu’s eyes, she doesn’t need to forsake her own nature for the sake of her children.
Her habits formed in the apocalypse of staying indoors all day truly make her uncomfortable.
Fortunately, whether in the military area or back in her hometown, there are deep mountains for her to go hunting in. She could also add some meat and vegetables to her family’s supply, why not!
As for staying in the office dealing with miscellaneous documents all day like Chen Xiufang, she doesn’t like that. She likes to be free and unrestrained.
"Why don’t you just say outright, you just want to go out and stretch out, show off your great skills!" Chen Xiufang thought of the little girl’s strength that rivals strong men and felt a toothache.
"Exactly!" Yan Jinsu looked at her with an expression of ’you truly understand me’, "Expecting me to lay in bed all day watching the kids, that would be the death of me!"
"Ptooey ptooey ptooey, what nonsense are you talking! Isn’t your mother-in-law at home? There’s no business to take care of here, why can’t she watch them?"
"No way. There’s already Xiao Si and Xiaoqi at home, that’s enough for my mother-in-law to handle. Dad is often taken away by those old men from the clan, and there’s no one at home to help, I can’t rest easy going to the mountains." Yan Jinsu shook her head and continued,
"In the village, there are a lot of idle old mothers, but their awareness isn’t great, I can’t trust them!
Not to put it bluntly, I’m paying someone to take care of my children and family, it can’t turn out that something happens and then complain to outsiders saying, ’She only went to check if the children were asleep, then briefly went back to her house, just left for a few minutes... Didn’t expect something to happen!’
If I encounter such a messed-up situation, I would feel like killing someone!" Although Yan Jinsu is not from this era, she has heard of enough incidents happening in the countryside.
"Ouch, you’re talking about such common occurrences! Living in the countryside has this disadvantage, wanting to hire a nanny is tough! Even if you aren’t afraid of others’ gossip, can your in-laws withstand it?"
Yan Jinsu frowned, feeling annoyed.
"Sister Fang, look, can we find an external reason, like saying a distant relative is coming over looking for work, and staying temporarily at my place?"
Yan Jinsu thought for a moment and strategized: "Of course, this nanny should be a woman, experienced not a novice, capable of taking care of children, cooking, and must be willing to move to the countryside with me. Regarding the salary, that’s negotiable, as long as the person has good moral character and is thoroughly vetted!"
Speaking of which, in this era, in rural areas, women helping with childcare, as Yan Jinsu mentioned, often do not have a clear grasp of their ’job’, which due to this mindset, leads to situations where despite the employer paying, they still have to endure discomfort and dissatisfaction.
Thus, Yan Jinsu’s thoughts were quite comprehensive.
However, while her ideas were good, the times had not evolved to that stage yet. Y County Town was still a small and remote town, where could she find such talents!
"Alas! Little girl, if there were such people, I would have already employed them!"
Chen Xiufang helplessly glared at her and continued: "Sometimes I’m too busy with work, and my mother-in-law can’t be looking after the children all day long. It’s because I can’t find a trustworthy nanny that I’m still stuck at home now."
"..." Yan Jinsu had good thoughts, nowadays there isn’t much of anything, labor is definitely plentiful, but among her many requirements, the hardest to fulfill is having good moral character and to be thoroughly vetted.
Y County Town really is too secluded; roads have started improving only recently, and information is blocked. In X County Town, because of the presence of military bases and its status as an economic hub, there is an abundance of highly skilled individuals and consequently, more people work as nannies.
Thinking back to Y County Town, they probably don’t even know what ’nanny’ or ’maternity nurse’ mean!
Yet these types of domestic workers were not just newly formed in future generations, as far back as the Republic era, these occupations were common in major cities, especially international cities like Shanghai and Beijing.
"Goodness, little girl, you’ve just returned from X Town, unaware of the local situation. Although it’s said every field has its master, there must be someone to hire! The entire Y County Town isn’t even half the size of your X Town, how could there possibly be such professional talent!"
"Right now, I just feel like packing up and going back to Rongshu County, sob!" Yan Jinsu, with a sorrowful delicate face, and Chen Xiufang looked at each other in silence.
Neither of them was suited to staying at home for long, despite having good mothers-in-law and fathers-in-law, instincts are hard to overcome!
One naturally enjoys doing business, with the Chen family having a commercial talent in their bones; the other is accustomed to being free in nature, cherishing uninhibited freedom the most.
Though both are now married with families and children, not everything can go as they wish. However, everyone occasionally needs to leave and return to their instincts.
Fortunately, because Chen Xiufang is again pregnant and her mother-in-law has been stepping back from work, she spends more and more time at home helping care for the children.
This allows Chen Xiufang to focus more on managing her company and doesn’t have Yan Jinsu’s feeling of being ’locked’ in a dilemma.
Yan Jinsu feels that with her resources and capabilities, anything solvable with money should not exhaust or overly burden her overly concerned mother-in-law.
As for her father-in-law, the old man’s work is definitely not as meticulous and attentive as a woman’s.
Moreover, her parents-in-law have grandchildren from other daughters-in-law as well. Continually relying on her in-laws to care for her child would probably stir discontent among the sisters-in-law.
Yan Jinsu expressed her immense displeasure at not being able to find a satisfactory nanny. During a visit at the Chen family house at noon, she ended up eating an extra bowl of rice, to the delight of Li Baojia and Zhou Daxiang, and almost shocked Li Jianfeng blind.
Especially when his wife gave him a ’disappointed’ look, he felt particularly choked.
The bowl used was large! A woman being able to eat two bowls was already plenty, yet Yan Jinsu managed to eat a third bowl!
Li Jianfeng looked at the more than half of his second bowl left, saddened, because he couldn’t stuff down another bite!
Watching this made Chen Xiufang burst into laughter, teasingly adding more food to her husband’s bowl.