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Chapter 434: Chapter 424: The Contradiction in Aunt Wang’s Home (Extra for Anitaqing)
Shen Yunfang finished lunch at the Wang Family’s and left her child there to play with Xiaojuan while she took her keys and went back to her own house to tidy up.
After opening the courtyard gate, seeing everything inside gave Shen Yunfang a sense of returning after a long absence. It had been two years since she last came back, which was way too long.
Shen Yunfang sighed briefly and then began to clean.
First, she entered the house to take out the bedding from the wardrobe and aired it in the courtyard. It was the height of summer, and the bedding would lose its dampness after just an hour or two in the sun.
After arranging the bedding, she went to check the backyard.
The backyard was full of fruits and vegetables, a sight that uplifted her mood.
Without a doubt, this garden of vegetables must have been planted by Dashuan and his wife. Looking at the persimmons and cucumbers hanging on the branches, so fresh and succulent, Shen Yunfang couldn’t help but walk in, pick a cucumber, and without even washing it, she rubbed it with her hands to remove the prickles and then started crunching on it raw.
After wandering around the backyard, she noticed there were still two pigs in the pigsty. After tossing the remains of the cucumber to the pigs, Shen Yunfang rolled up her sleeves, took a basin, and drew water from the backyard, then began to wipe and scrub around the house.
"Yunfang, Yunfang, have you come back?"
That was unmistakably Dashuan’s wife’s voice, and a smile spread across Shen Yunfang’s face.
"I’m here."
Then she immediately saw Dashuan’s wife standing in front of her.
Dashuan’s wife took Shen Yunfang around for a look and then clicked her tongue twice, "You’ve become prettier, hmmm, and there’s something different about you, though I can’t quite put my finger on it. Anyway, you look much better than before; the city really does nourish people."
It was a different quality she had acquired, but Dashuan’s wife couldn’t quite articulate it.
Shen Yunfang was delighted, being praised for her beauty was something she could never tire of, even if she heard it eight hundred times.
"It’s not the city that nourishes me; I have natural beauty," Shen Yunfang said proudly.
"Go on with your vanity," Dashuan’s wife shot her a look. "You weren’t like this before. You went to the city, and instead of learning something good, you picked up a bunch of bad habits." She rolled her eyes. "Quickly, tell me what the city is like. You wrote in your letter that you got into university, now you’re studying in the Capital, right? Is the Capital bigger than our county? Does it have more people than here? And..."
"Hey, hey, sister-in-law, can you ask one question at a time? You’re asking so many all at once, where do you want me to start?" Shen Yunfang said with a hint of annoyance.
"Oh, just talk about whatever you know, anything will do," Dashuan’s wife said with a face full of longing for the big city and the Capital.
Seeing her like that, Shen Yunfang just carried on with her work while telling her about some customs and traditions of the Capital.
"I heard from your aunt that you bought a house in the Capital, is that right?" Dashuan’s wife asked somewhat hesitantly.
Shen Yunfang was also taken aback, not expecting that her aunt would tell others about this. However, since Dashuan’s wife had asked, she didn’t intend to hide it.
"Yeah, I bought a house. I can’t take my two kids to live in the school dormitory, so I had no choice but to buy a house," she said, as if she were utterly helpless.
Since ancient times, our countrymen have had an obsession with home. Even now, when many can’t get enough to eat or clothes to wear, the desire for one’s own home, a comfortable home, a secure home, is the wish of everyone who wants to lead a decent life.
However, at that time there really weren’t many people buying or selling houses; unless they were desperate, very few would sell their homes (since most of the houses in the city were state-owned, there were no selling rights, only residential rights). Even if someone was selling, there weren’t many who could afford to buy. So, at that time, the real estate market was nothing like the hot market of later days.
"I guess so," Dashuan’s wife nodded after thinking it over for a moment.
Yunfang remembered the attitude of Mrs. Wang from earlier that day and wanted to ask what was going on. When she turned and looked closely, she suddenly noticed that Dashuan’s wife’s complexion wasn’t very good, and there was a trace of fatigue in her expression.
"Hey, let me ask you, what’s going on with you and your mother-in-law?" The words reached her lips, but she took a turn, feeling that the issue between Dashuan’s wife and Mrs. Wang was more important.
"Nothing’s going on," Dashuan’s wife’s eyes flickered slightly.
Yunfang didn’t press any further when she heard this; she understood that everyone has secrets they don’t wish to share, as she had her own.
After a long while, Dashuan’s wife finally spoke slowly, "Yunfang, why is it so hard to be a person, and even harder to be a good daughter-in-law?"
Seeing that she had the desire to confide, Yunfang asked again, "What exactly is the matter? Tell me, and I’ll help you analyze it."
As someone who had lived many years and become quite savvy, she might be confused about her own issues, but she was quite adept at advising others.
"It’s actually not a big deal, just something about my family," Dashuan’s wife sighed, then began to explain.
Last year, Dashuan’s wife’s mother fell seriously ill, and the medical bills were substantial. Her brothers weren’t wealthy and couldn’t shoulder the hefty medical costs, so they hoped the sisters who had married into other families would lend a hand.
Having always felt grateful to her family for the help they had given over the years, Dashuan’s wife naturally wanted to contribute when confronted with such a situation. After discussing it with Dashuan and her mother-in-law, she gave a considerable amount of money to her mother.
She wasn’t sure what her mother-in-law thought about it deep down, but since she didn’t show any displeasure, either on her face or in words, Dashuan’s wife felt relieved.
After her mother recovered, another issue arose in her eldest brother’s family. That year, her brother had a chance to get a job in the Capital, a rare opportunity indeed. Of course, such a good opportunity wasn’t free, and there was a facilitation fee to be paid. But the family had already been scoured for funds the previous year due to the mother’s illness and simply couldn’t afford this new expense.
Not wanting to waste such a great opportunity, her family thickened their skins and asked the sisters for a loan. They agreed it was a loan, promising to sign IOUs and definitely repay the money in the future.
Believing it to be a good cause, Dashuan’s wife thought that if her brother managed to secure the job in the Capital, it wouldn’t just give him a chance in life; it could improve the whole family’s circumstances under his influence. So she felt she had to lend the money. Without overthinking it, she told Dashuan and then lent the money to her brother to secure the job. She hadn’t thought it to be a big deal, but when she casually mentioned it to Mrs. Wang, Mrs. Wang blew up.
Mrs. Wang didn’t scold her daughter-in-law but gave Dashuan an earful instead. The meaning behind it was crystal clear to Dashuan’s wife, and she felt wronged, which showed on her face.
Thus began the covert war between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law.
"Yunfang, tell me, did I do something wrong? I wasn’t lending my brother money for for frivolous things; he was using it for a legitimate job opportunity. Why can’t she understand? Not to mention, if my brother settles down in the Capital, Xiaojuan and Xiaohu might benefit from it in the future. Besides, it’s not like I was just giving money away; my brother signed an IOU," said Dashuan’s wife, who was also a mother and loved her children deeply, so how could she not think of her own two kids? In her view, lending the money to her brother was right from every angle.
