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Chapter 193: Chapter 186 Just Treat It Like Raising Two More Pigs
During the course of a meal, Shen Yunfang had pleaded countless times for Qiu Shuping and Li Xianghe to hurry home. She didn’t need their help.
But Qiu Shuping had set her heart on staying, no matter what Shen Yunfang said, she was determined to stay and help her second son take care of his wife and child.
In the end, Shen Yunfang had no choice. Her mother-in-law insisted on sticking around, and she couldn’t very well chase her out with a broom, could she? Fine, let them stay if they wanted to. With their personalities, it probably wouldn’t be long before they revealed their true intentions.
Indeed, Shen Yunfang had never believed her mother-in-law’s claim that she came to Gaijiatun to help with the autumn harvest. Shen Yunfang knew herself too well; neither she nor Li Hongjun had the charm to make an old lady who hadn’t worked in the fields for years volunteer to do labor for them. As for their actual reasons for coming, it must be either the grain or the money. But they were wasting their time pining for it—Yunfang wasn’t foolish. The family had already divided up their assets, and she wouldn’t short them anything they were due, nor would they get anything that wasn’t theirs.
After the meal, Shen Yunfang tidied up the kitchen, picked up her sickle, threw a basket on her back, and got ready to head up the mountain.
No matter who came, the livestock on the mountain still needed to be fed, so she could only leave the mother and daughter at home while she went to work in the mountains.
Seeing her daughter-in-law gearing up, Qiu Shuping hurriedly stopped her. It wasn’t that she was worried about her daughter-in-law overexerting herself, but rather, as a mother-in-law herself, she felt that the daughter-in-law didn’t need to go to work and should stay home to attend to her. Not doing so would seem like a lack of respect for her.
"Why aren’t you going to work? What are you going out for?" Qiu Shuping looked her second daughter-in-law up and down with her eyes. Her second son wasn’t around, and as a married woman, it wasn’t good to be out and about aimlessly instead of staying at home properly.
Shen Yunfang replied irritably, "I’m heading up the mountain to cut some grass for the pigs and sheep, what else could I be doing? Just perfect, since I’m pregnant and it’s not good for me to bend over, Xianghe can come with me to help gather the grass." She had calculated that her mother-in-law and sister-in-law were both the type to prefer leisure to work. They were fine with sitting around waiting to be fed and clothed but getting them to work would be a challenge. Especially if she was the one giving the orders, it was even less likely to happen.
Just as Shen Yunfang had thought, Li Xianghe wasn’t happy being asked to help with the work the moment she heard her sister-in-law’s request. She sulked and said, "Second sister-in-law, didn’t you just say you could do anything yourself? Why have you suddenly become incapable now? We country folks don’t have the luxury to be so frail and delicate."
Qiu Shuping chimed in, "Your sister hasn’t ever worked on the mountain either. She wouldn’t be of any help, so just let her be." Between her daughter and daughter-in-law, she naturally sided with her own daughter.
Shen Yunfang hadn’t really expected them to help her with the work. But their hypocritical actions were certainly displeasing. "Mother, didn’t you just say you came to help me with the work? And now you’re saying I’m delicate, and that Xianghe can’t help because she hasn’t been up the mountain before. So what did she come for?" She didn’t feel it was polite to ask her mother-in-law what she was feeding on, so she could only ask about her younger sister-in-law.
"Alright, you’ve traveled a long way to get here today, so just rest at home. I’m heading up to the mountain." Shen Yunfang didn’t want to engage in a war of words with them—it was pointless. Arguing with people who were shameless and unreasonable wouldn’t lead anywhere, so she might as well ignore them. As long as they kept quiet and didn’t trouble her, she’d treat them as if she were raising two more pigs.
After saying this, Shen Yunfang left the house and went up the mountain.
Qiu Shuping and Li Xianghe looked at each other, at a loss. They certainly hadn’t planned on coming to actually help.
"You’re going up the mountain with your second sister-in-law tomorrow," Qiu Shuping said to her daughter. After all, they had come under the guise of helping out, and it wouldn’t look good for both of them to be loafing around the house. Besides, she wasn’t quite ready to burn bridges with the second daughter-in-law just yet.
"I won’t go," Li Xianghe pouted defiantly. The very reason she had fought tooth and nail to come with her mother to the second sister-in-law’s was to avoid work. If she had to go out and labor every day even here, when would she ever manage to lighten her skin? At twenty years old, she couldn’t afford any more delays.
Mainly because when you look at those young wives who married into the city, which one of them rolls around in the fields every day, all grimy and dark?
"You child, don’t you know what we came for? Don’t you still want your second sister-in-law to give you some money for fancy cloth? If you don’t cozy up to her now, how do you expect her to treat you?" Qiu Shuping had a look of frustrated disappointment.
"Hmph, if I follow her, I’ll just end up sunburnt and dark again," Li Xianghe grumbled to her mother. "Even if I get money later and put on new clothes, I won’t look nice. Mother, I’m already twenty."
"Oh come on, enough already, I can’t argue with you. But you better watch your temper, we need to butter up your second sister-in-law during this time," Qiu Shuping said as she glanced at her daughter’s face, which was just like her father’s—broad and flat, her figure sturdy. Such looks were appreciated in the countryside but not so much in the city. And having worked in the fields all summer, she had already tanned quite a bit. Getting any darker would indeed make it hard to find a good match.
"Hehe, you’re the best, mother. Don’t worry, I’ll act as if she doesn’t exist and won’t argue with her anymore," Li Xianghe said, laughing happily now that her mother agreed. "But what if tomorrow she still wants us to go, what then?"
"Hmph, she wouldn’t dare. Even if we did divide the family assets, I’m still her mother-in-law. How dare she order me around to do work?" Qiu Shuping was quite self-assured on this point.
Li Xianghe was genuinely delighted. As long as her own mother didn’t force her, she could conveniently ignore whatever her second sister-in-law said.
So, for an entire afternoon, the mother-daughter duo turned Shen Yunfang’s home upside down, except for the cupboard in the east room and the west room, since Shen Yunfang had locked them up.
Aside from the livestock in the backyard, they didn’t find anything of much value. However, Li Xianghe had rummaged through the cellar and had a clear inventory of how much food the second sister-in-law’s family had left.
Luckily, Shen Yunfang usually kept finer grains like rice and flour in another space, because these were not acquired through legal means but were consumed quietly at home. This time, it turned out to be just right. Li Xianghe found a bag of corn, half a bag of cornflour, a small bag of millet, a small bag of soybeans, and a basket of eggs in the cellar. The cellar was mostly filled with large squash and sweet potatoes. There were easily over thirty squashes taking up half the space, and the rest was filled with sweet potatoes.
Qiu Shuping wasn’t particularly concerned with her second daughter-in-law’s cellar. After inspecting the entire house, she sat on the kang bed in the east room and started cursing at the lock on the cupboard.
In her opinion, all the valuable things should be here. She had already looked through it at noon, finding only a few items of clothing and some quilts. But surely she hadn’t delved deeper, and besides, the second daughter-in-law had hastily locked the cupboard as soon as she saw them come in. What did that indicate? It indicated that there must be something valuable inside. She estimated that the second eldest’s family money must be hidden here.
Li Xianghe joined in the cursing. Though her thoughts weren’t as complex, she had her eye on a towel quilt that Shen Yunfang had locked in the cupboard. Naturally, she was not pleased about it.
