CTF 0016

Xu Yin pursed her lips and sniffled her chuckle. 

“You’re laughing? You’re just like your father. You two sure are cut from the same cloth!”

Mother Xu’s face turned sour when she saw Xu Yin smiling. 

“Alright, Mom. I’ve already bought these things, anyway, and the supply and marketing cooperative doesn’t accept returns, right?”

Xu Yin eagerly pulled her mother towards the table. 

“Look, Mom. These are all new fabrics that we couldn’t have bought before. We don’t need tickets to buy these fabrics, and if we wait until the New Year to buy them, the people from the city would’ve already taken all the good stuff! I’ll ask Sister-in-law to make new clothes for you and Dad. Everyone will think that it’s my show of filial piety to you two. Isn’t that something you can boast about?”

Father Xu happily agreed. “Right. The other day, I gave the village party secretary one of my filter cigarettes and he asked if a special guest had given it to me, but I told him that my daughter actually bought it for me. He envied me and even said that he wanted to trade daughters with me!” 

“You, go away! I knew you’d talk about your filter cigarettes!”

Mother Xu angrily drove Father Xu to the side. As she held the fabrics that her daughter had both, she felt both happy and distressed.

“Why would you waste so much money on this? It’s not as if your father and I don’t have any clothes to wear!” 

“Oh, Mom, this is my way of showing filial piety to you both. One day, when I earn more money, I won’t just buy fabric for you to make new clothes with. I’ll also build a big house for you to live in!” 

Xu Yin’s pretty words coaxed Mother Xu and made her smile again. 

Meanwhile, Xu Yin’s sister-in-law was hugging her son, who was still sucking a candy, and smiling as she watched the scene in front of her.

For some reason, she truly believed that what Xu Yin said would truly come true one day.

She truly believed Xu Yin was capable of making it come true. 

After Mother Xu had been placated, she went into the house with the fabrics and some long-lasting snacks into the house to tidy up.

Xu Yin handed a package of milk candies, a pound of red bean paste-filled pastries, and three pieces of fabric to her sister-in-law.

“Sister-in-law, keep these for yourself. Take some time to make new clothes for yourself and Doudou. There’s no rush to finish the orders; we’re already delivering faster than any other tailor in town.” 

Xu Yin’s sister-in-law wanted to give Xu Yin some money, but Xu Yin refused. 

“Sister-in-law, you don’t need to. Isn’t it normal that I, as an aunt, buy something for my nephew to eat and wear? In a few days, when I go to pick up my report card, I also want to get some lightweight and breathable fabric so my older brother can get something new to wear as well.”

“Everyone has to get something!” Little Douding suddenly chimed in.

“That’s right!” Xu Yin laughed. “Everyone in our family is going to wear new clothes!”

Little Douding blinked. “But Auntie, you haven’t made something new for yourself.”

“What do you mean? Haven’t I just made new pants last month?”

“I meant clothes.”

“I does have a lot of old clothes, though! I can alter them and they’ll be just like brand new.”

Xu Yin was quite confident in her expertise.

Little Douding believed her, too. He jumped around and clapped his hands. “Everyone is getting new clothes!”

“That’s absolutely right, Doudou!”

Teacher Qu didn’t ask her when she could finish the task. However, Xu Yin guessed that he probably wanted the dress done as soon as possible. As such, she decided to prioritise his order and process it before the others.

After she distributed her gifts, Xu Yin handed the list of orders from her school and the fabric to her sister-in-law.

She mentioned that, in the next few days, she wanted to prioritise completing Teacher Qu’s daughter’s princess dress. She aimed to finish it before picking up her report card.

Her sister-in-law was delighted when she saw the princess dress design that Xu Yin sketched. “It’s gorgeous. The little girl will definitely look beautiful in this!”

Xu Yin’s sister-in-law thought about the baby in her stomach. She wondered if the baby was a girl or a boy. If the baby was a girl, she’d buy the same fabric and make a beautiful skirt for her when she grew up.

Xu Yin had no idea that her sister-in-law was thinking about this. If Xu Yin knew, Xu Yin would certainly laugh. She shouldn’t even think about that with this baby! This one would definitely be a son. If she wanted a daughter, she should just look forward to her next child.

Having said that, there seemed to be signs of the family planning enforcement in the city around this time. However, there was a shortage of labour in the countryside, and the policies probably wouldn’t be strictly enforced in the countryside just yet. However, Xu Yin wouldn’t be as certain about next year…

 

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The Xu family had been eating well recently. At every meal, they had plenty of meat and eggs—scrambled, steamed, braised… 

Following the suggestion of Xu Yin, the secret foodie, they managed to go for several days without eating the same dishes again.

Occasionally, they would add some stir-fried dishes with salted meat and sausage to their meal. The family’s complexion had, thus, improved significantly compared to before.

The one who underwent the most significant change was Xu Yin’s sister-in-law.

In addition to being busy with taking orders and making clothes for the past month, she rarely went out. When she suddenly appeared outside again, even their next door neighbours nearly failed to recognise her. 

“Cui… Cuihua!? I haven’t seen you out for a while. What have you been doing inside your home?”

Li Qiaohong had married into the village in the same year as Xu Yin’s sister-in-law. Right now, she was carrying a wooden basin full of clothes and going to the riverbanks to wash them. She passed by the Xu family’s house and happened to run into Xu Yin’s sister-in-law, who was just opening the door and coming out.

Xu Yin’s sister-in-law smiled at her. 

Xu Yin’s sister-in-law’s face was rosy and radiant. Under the morning glow, there was a bit of charm on her that Li Qiaohong hadn’t noticed before. Li Qiaohong hadn’t seen her in the fields lately, and her skin had become noticeably fairer.

In Li Qiaohong’s heart, there was a strange feeling she couldn’t quite put into words.

Both Li Qiaohong and Li Cuihua, Xu Yin’s sister-in-law, both live in the Li family’s village. Their ancestors were related to a certain degree, and they even married into the same village. Their two families didn’t live far from each other. Considering all that, the two of them should have a good relationship.

On the surface, their relationship indeed appeared to be good. However, Li Qiaohong knew very well that, in her heart, she didn’t want Li Cuihua to have a good life. On the contrary, she wanted her to be tortured by her in-laws and be in a silent misery forever.

The reason for her ill feelings stemmed from the fact that her mother’s family had sent a person to matchmake between her and Xu Yin’s brother. However, the Xu family was concerned with the fact that she had younger siblings, and would have to continue supporting her natal family after marriage. As such, they turned down the matchmaker, and chose Li Cuihua instead.

They indirectly said that she wasn’t as good as Li Cuihua.

This resentment had been building up since before she got married. 

After Li Qiaohong got married and saw Li Cuihua’s life in her marital family—where she had to endure the daily grind with her mother-in-law and younger sister-in-law—Li Qiaohong felt a lot better.

She thought, ‘So what if Li Cuihua married a soldier? So what if he has a fixed monthly salary? Li Cuihua still has to work like a slave for her in-laws.’

That was why, every time she passed by the Xu family’s house, she couldn’t help but sneak a few glances inside

Seeing Li Cuihua dragging her tired body around, being hurried here and there by her mother-in-law and her sister-in-law, put Li Qiaohong in a very good mood every time.

However, after the farming season this year, the Xu family suddenly changed, to everybody’s surprise. For more than a month, no one heard the Xu family cursing their daughter-in-law, and no one saw Li Cuihua dragging herself, though she must already be exhausted, to the village to pick up manure or chop wood in her backyard. 

They’d only occasionally meet her at the riverbank. Even then, when they’d glance at the clothes she brought, they would notice that she had significantly less clothes to wash than them.

Even more strangely, in the past half month, Li Cuihua no longer went down to the riverbank to wash clothes. Instead, her mother-in-law would go. 

Was it because Li Cuihua no longer needed to even wash the clothes at her home? When did her life become so good?

Li Qiaohong, with great effort, restrained the jealousy inside her heart and squeezed out a smile. She asked, “Cuihua, you look really good lately. Is it because you’re pregnant?”

Xu Yin’s sister-in-law nodded with a smile on her face. “Yes, so I haven’t been out much recently.”

“…”

Li Qiaohong stared at her in disbelief. She asked, “Are you really pregnant?”

Was that why her mother-in-law was treating her so well? Was that why her mother-in-law stopped hounding her to work and even helped her to wash clothes?

However, after a second thought, Li Qiaohong realised that this mustn’t be the case. When Li Cuihua was pregnant with her first child, she didn’t seem to have received this treatment.

At any rate, Doudou was still the eldest grandson of the Xu family. It didn’t make sense for them to treat her this way because she was having a second child. 

It was so weird!