Wang Caiwei was thinking about Han Ze, afraid that he would wake up and need to get up without anyone to take care of him. She quickly washed the clothes, said goodbye to her sister-in-law, and hurried home with a wooden basin of clothes.
Han Daya stood up, turned her head and looked at her back thoughtfully as she walked away. After a while, she slowly squatted down, her eyes were dim and unclear, and her hands could not help but move faster. After washing the clothes, she had to go back to her mother’s house to see her good brother. How could she let go of the worry she was carrying for him? She was a good sister who was always worried about her brothers.
Han Jinxiu led her brothers and sisters to pick wild vegetables and came back. Wang Caiwei hung the clothes and told her eldest daughter to wash the wild vegetables. After hanging the clothes, she came to make lunch.
As the mother and daughter were talking, Han Erlang’s wife, Zheng Shi came out of her room, carrying two pieces of the children’s dirty clothes. Wang Caiwei smiled softly and called her second sister-in-law. Zheng Shi responded in a light tone, glancing at the clothes hanging on the rope. She asked, “Sister-in-law, have you washed the clothes?”
“I have saved the clothes for two days. I washed them. Today is sunny and they can be dried in one day.”
Wang Caiwei said as she hung the last piece of clothes. She spoke softly and unhurriedly. Among the daughters-in-law of the Han family, she was the gentlest. Han Youtian and his wife were also the most satisfied with this daughter-in-law. She was not picky and strong, but worked quickly and diligently. She never cheated or played tricks. Even if she was squeezed by her sisters-in-law, she never complained. In their hearts, this was the performance of a good daughter-in-law.
The more satisfied the parents-in-law are with the eldest daughter-in-law, the more dissatisfied the two brothers’ wives are with her. They are all daughters-in-law, why do they only like the eldest daughter-in-law, but always dislike them? It’s not fair.
Others praised Wang Shi for her good temper. Zheng Shi also felt that having a gentle sister-in-law made life easier and she would not be squeezed by her sisters-in-law.
But as time went on, the mother-in-law often praised Wang Shi for her good temper, and never said a good word about the two younger daughters-in-law. She would have a gloomy face when mentioning the two younger daughters-in-law. Such partiality is something that everyone would have in their hearts. Only Wang Shi is a good daughter-in-law, and the other daughters-in-law are not good. It doesn’t make sense.
As a result, Zheng Shi is now very annoyed with Wang Caiwei’s temper. She speaks slowly. What’s good about her? Why is she worthy of her mother-in-law’s praise?
She raised the dirty clothes in her hand and asked, “Sister-in-law, we eat from the same pot. I don’t want to ask you to wash the clothes of the adults, but it’s not tiring to wash the clothes of the two children. Why don’t you help to wash them?”
Wang Caiwei didn’t expect her to say that and fell silent.
Han Jinxiu looked at her mother silently, her lips tightly pursed. Her mother did all the housework, but her second and third aunts were still dissatisfied with their family and often bullied her mother, just because she thought she was honest and easy to bully.
Old Lady Han came back from outside, her wrinkled face immediately stiffened when she heard her words. She said hatefully, “How could I have such a lazy daughter-in-law? As your sister-in-law, should she go to your brother-in-law’s room to find dirty clothes to wash? If you want your sister-in-law to help wash the clothes, why didn’t you come out and give them to her? Besides, they are your son’s dirty clothes. You didn’t go to the fields to work, so why can’t you wash them yourself? Is it your sister-in-law’s turn to serve you?”
Zheng Shi’s questioning of her eldest sister-in-law was heard by her mother-in-law. She lowered her head and dared not say anything, but she could not help but murmur in her heart. All the money earned by the family was spent on the eldest brother. What’s wrong with Wang Shi helping to wash clothes? It was not her duty.
Old lady Han looked at her with a stern face. She knew that she was submissive on the surface, but she was not sure what she was complaining about in her heart. She was too lazy to say anything to her. No matter how much she said, it would be useless. She would never change. She said in a deep voice: “Eldest wife, let the second wife cook at noon today. You take a rest. You spoil her.”
Zheng Shi raised her head suddenly. She said unwillingly: “Mom, I have to take care of Xiaobao. Xiaobao can’t leave me.”
Wang Caiwei hurriedly said: “Mom, let me cook.”
Cooking is just cooking, which is not tiring. It is inappropriate for the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law to quarrel over cooking, which makes people laugh.
Old lady Han looked at Zheng Shi with a stern look: “No need, today the second daughter-in-law will cook, tomorrow the third daughter-in-law will cook, you take turns to cook. Humph, which child is over one year old and still stays with his mother? I’ll help you look after the child, you go to make lunch.”
Zheng Shi, as a daughter-in-law, was still very scared of the mother-in-law’s anger. She lowered her head and trotted to the kitchen like a quail.
Old lady Han stared at her back and cursed: “You are a troublemaker.”
Wang Caiwei didn’t know how to respond, so she simply said nothing. Without her cooking, she felt lost and was very uncomfortable. She asked her eldest daughter to take care of her younger brothers and sisters, went back to the house, took out the needlework basket and embroidered a handkerchief.
Han Jinxiu sat around her mother with her younger brothers and sisters, and whispered: “Mom, when Dad is well, let’s separate the family.”
Wang Caiwei’s face sank and she scolded: “Who taught you to say that?”
She never thought that her daughter would say such unfilial words, and she was really angry and anxious.
Han Jinxiu’s face was tense, and she lowered her eyes and said slowly, “I thought of it myself.”
“You, you want to piss me off to death.”
Wang Caiwei had a good temper and rarely lost her temper. But a good temper doesn’t mean she doesn’t have a temper. Even if she never lost her temper with her children, she was really angry with her daughter at this moment. Even so, she didn’t know how to teach her children.
Han Jinxiu saw her mother’s face turning blue with anger, and she said, “Mother does all the housework. Second and third aunts still gossips about you. I don’t want mother to be angry.”
Wang Caiwei stopped embroidering. She didn’t expect her daughter to have so many thoughts, nor did she expect that everything her two younger siblings did on weekdays was seen and remembered by her.
She felt sad and bitter in her heart. Her daughter, who was so young, also felt sorry for her mother. She sighed and said slowly, “Your father, second uncle and third uncle are brothers. We are a family. There is no such thing as one getting mad at the other. It’s okay to do more housework. As a sister-in-law, can you still argue with your brothers’ wives? If I take everything seriously with them, how sad will your grandparents be? Even if we don’t think about others, we should always think about your grandparents. They are getting older day by day, and your father’s health is not good. It’s enough for them to worry. Just bear with other things if you can.”
Han Jinxiu was still unwilling: “But, but Second Aunt and Third Aunt always bully you.”
Wang Caiwei touched her, and said with a smile: “Silly girl, do you think your grandma will let them bully me all the time? Didn’t your second aunt cook the meal for lunch today?”
Han Jinxiu tilted her head, “That’s right. Grandma is here, one is worth two. No matter how powerful the second and third aunts are, they have to be afraid of my grandma.”
Wang Caiwei smiled: “With your grandpa and grandma in this family, no one can bully mother. Your second and third aunts just said a few small words, which are not harmful. Mother doesn’t care, so don’t take it to heart.”
Han Jinxiu pursed her lips. She knew that her mother didn’t want her to resent the second and third aunts. She understood her mother, but she would be unhappy if the second and third aunts bullied her mother in the future. She still thought that it would be best to separate the family after her father recovered.
Wang Caiwei shook her head. She didn’t know how this child grew up and why she had so many thoughts.
After lunch, Han Ze finally stopped dozing off and sat on the bed with a book in his arms. Wang Caiwei was worried that he would waste his time reading, so she only let him read for half an hour and asked Jinxiu to bring her three younger siblings to the room to talk to him.
Han Ze had not been here for long and had spent the whole time sleeping. Except for his eldest daughter Jinxiu, he had not had a good talk with the other three children. He was 25 years old this year. He had an eldest daughter at the age of 18 and an eldest son at the age of 20. Two years later, he had a pair of twins, a boy and a girl, making them four.
Han Ze found that the children were very sensible. It should be said that the three little ones all followed their eldest sister’s lead. Whatever the eldest sister said was what they said. In their childish words, they talked most about how the eldest sister treated them.
Han Ze thought for a while and understood that although the eldest daughter was more than seven years old and young, he was weak and often sick. Wang Shi’s energy was mostly on him, neglecting the children. The task of taking care of the younger siblings fell on Jinxiu. In this way, it was not surprising that the three little ones were close to their eldest sister.
Wang Caiwei was sitting at the door of the house. When she heard their words, she smiled.
Han Daya came over at this time. She said as soon as she entered the door: “Old wife, where is mother?”
Wang Caiwei put down the needlework in her hand, stood up and took a stool for her, and said with a smile: “Mother is taking care of the vegetable garden behind the house. You sit down, I’ll go call mother.”
Han Daya held her and said: “No. You sit down.”
Seeing her say so, Wang Caiwei didn’t say anything and sat down to continue embroidering the handkerchief. Han Daya saw that the handkerchief in her hand was very delicate and beautiful. She turned her eyes and asked, “Jinxiu is more than seven years old. Has she learned needlework? I plan to let Chunxue learn needlework from Grandma Lu.”
The villagers said that Grandma Lu had great embroidery skills. Grandma Lu was strict in accepting apprentices and only planned to accept one apprentice in the village. In her previous life, she didn’t believe it. If she had great embroidery skills, why did she still stay in their small village? She thought she didn’t have any great skills, so she didn’t let Chunxue learn embroidery from her. In the end, she chose Han Jinxiu as her apprentice.
Han Jinxiu learned all her skills from her and made a fortune with her embroidery skills.
Wang Caiwei was stunned. When Grandma Lu was young, she was an embroiderer in the embroidery shop in the prefecture. She had great embroidery skills.
She had originally planned to let Jinxiu learn embroidery from Grandma Lu. If her elder sister-in-law asked Chunxue to learn needlework from her, she would not let Jinxiu go. “Grandma Lu has good embroidery skills. Chunxue will definitely learn skills from her.” Wang Caiwei said sincerely.
Not to mention that her elder sister-in-law had helped their family so much, even if Chunxue was her elder sister-in-law’s daughter, Jinxiu would not compete with her for the apprenticeship.
Han Daya smiled with satisfaction and said modestly: “Chunxue is a playful child. I don’t want her to learn any skills. As long as she is not despised by her husband’s family, it will be fine.”
Wang Caiwei smiled and said, “That’s right, elder sister.”
But she was a little worried. Her daughter liked embroidery, but the master she liked could not be her apprentice. Where could she find an embroidery master for her daughter? Her embroidery skills could only embroider handkerchiefs and purses, and she couldn’t teach her daughter anything.
Han Daya saw her frowning face and curled her lips. Then she heard the laughter of Han Ze and others in the room. Her heart tightened and she asked: “Han Ze’s voice sounds very energetic today? Is he really well?”
Speaking of her husband’s health, Wang Caiwei smiled and said, “My husband’s health is better. He got up and ate at noon.”
Han Daya’s heart sank. She thought over and over again, how could Han Ze’s health be good? She added so many contradictory medicines to the medicine prescribed by her father-in-law. Han Ze’s health had already deteriorated and it was impossible for him to be well. Did they find out something and secretly change Han Ze’s medicine?
Then she thought, even if they found out something and secretly changed the medicine, he couldn’t get better so quickly? Besides, judging from Wang Shi’s reaction, they obviously didn’t find anything. So why did Han Ze’s body get better? Was it really because he stopped taking the medicine? What a joke.
Suddenly her eyes widened. Could it be that fate cannot be changed? Han Ze is not destined to die? If that’s the case, will Han Ze still pass the imperial examination? Will she be as miserable as in her previous life?
Thinking of this, she clenched her fists. She must change the fate of her and her family and never compromise.
Sam Williams On TYMIMA Chapter 152