The Country Maiden: Fields and Leisure-Chapter 82: Only a fool wouldn’t take advantage of a good deal

Chapter 82: Chapter 82: Only a fool wouldn’t take advantage of a good deal

After Lady Jiang married into the family, just as Old Granny Zhang had predicted, she was meek and easy to manipulate. With no one from her natal family to support her, and not favored by the men, she quickly became clay in Old Granny Zhang’s hands, to be molded as she pleased.

There was just one thing that dissatisfied Old Granny Zhang. Laosan was never home and out of tune with the family. She had thought that Lady Jiang would embroider to earn money on her own, which would give her an excuse to demand that Lady Jiang hand over the money, increasing the household’s income.

However, Lady Jiang seemed to have forgotten all about this. No matter how hard her life was, she might silently cry or beg Old Granny Zhang, but aside from mending clothes, she never touched needle and thread.

Old Granny Zhang saw that Lady Jiang was guarding against her as well as the other Wang family members. How could her heart not burn with rage? She began to treat Lady Jiang even worse, deducting from her food portion, hoping to force her into compliance.

Lady Jiang appeared fragile but was incredibly stubborn. Almost starving to death, she never once took up needle and thread in front of Old Granny Zhang.

She never taught Jinhua needlework either.

Old Granny Zhang thought Lady Jiang would stubbornly keep her embroidery skills to herself, preferring to starve than reveal them.

Unexpectedly, Lady Jiang was now willing to teach her own daughter. Wasn’t this a blessing from heaven?

Although Old Granny Zhang didn’t understand why Lady Jiang was willing to teach her daughter, not taking advantage of such an opportunity would be foolish.

Because of this, Old Granny Zhang felt that she had won the battle against Lady Jiang. No matter what, Lady Jiang had capitulated, which greatly satisfied her psychologically as a mother-in-law.

For several days, she showed Lady Jiang some smiles, no longer deducted from her food portion, and even spoke to her in a much friendlier tone.

Lady Lin watched all this with anger and anxiety.

Originally, among the three sisters-in-law in this household, Laosan’s wife was no threat, as they saw her no more than once a year. The house was divided between herself and Laosan’s House.

As the wife of the Eldest Brother, she maintained that the Wang family should belong to the Eldest Brother’s branch after the in-laws passed away. Taking care of the elderly was their duty too. Although the mother-in-law was currently in control, is not she going to depend on the Eldest Brother’s branch once she got older and their son became an adult?

Who wouldn’t value the Eldest Brother in a family? Therefore, she always felt superior. Aside from listening to their mother and doting on his younger sister, her husband had no other faults—he was hardworking, honest, and kind. She had nothing to complain about.

Even if her mother-in-law was tricky and biased, constantly nitpicking, she felt satisfied compared to Laosan’s House.

Who would have thought that Laosan’s House, seemingly quiet and unassuming, harboured cunning plans—slyly coaxing the younger sister-in-law, teaching her needlework and embroidery without anyone noticing.

Pah! Who doesn’t know how to use needle and thread? Is it necessary to learn from Laosan’s House? They must have been up to no good behind the scenes.

Now, looking at it, Laosan’s family’s status was rising. That couldn’t be allowed to happen! This family was built on the hard work of her, her husband, and their son. If Laosan’s family prospered and took more than their share, wouldn’t that mean less for the Eldest Brother’s branch? freewebnσvel.cøm

Worried, Lady Lin spent several sleepless nights tossing and turning, to the point that Wang Yongfu had no choice but to ask, "Mother, why are you not sleeping in the middle of the night, causing such a fuss?"

Lady Lin simply sat up, her eyes shining terribly bright in the moonlight filtering through the window, "Husband, haven’t you noticed that mother has been treating your sister a lot better recently? Laosan’s wife doesn’t work the fields, doesn’t earn money, and yet now she can get half a bun during each meal—"

Wang Yongfu, not quite catching on, replied without thinking, "Isn’t that good? Before, sister could only scrape the bottom of the pot, starving and looking all gaunt. Now that mother lets sister eat buns, she won’t starve to the point of getting sick. Otherwise, when Laosan comes back, how am I, as the Eldest Brother, supposed to explain to him?"

Lady Lin was so frustrated she pounded the bed frame, "Being the Eldest Brother, why should you care whether she’s hungry or not? I’m saying, what does mother mean by this? Why is she suddenly so good to Laosan’s House? I used to think Laosan’s House was made up of honest folk, but there’s truth to the saying, ’The dog that bites doesn’t bark.’ Without making a sound, they’ve sweet-talked the younger sister-in-law into learning embroidery from them. Now every day they’re all lovey-dovey, as if she’s the one favored in front of our parents. Let me tell you, we have to be vigilant. Could it be that Laosan’s House has an eye on the ten taels of silver from Laosi’s broken engagement? Maybe they’re trying to cozy up to the parents, so when the time comes to divide the family’s property, they’ll get a bigger share?"

"No, that wouldn’t be right. We’re the Eldest Brother’s family; we’re the ones who will take care of our parents in the future. If they take all the family’s property, what about our Jindou, Jinhoo, and Jinguan? Are you listening? Husband—"

"Hoo-hoo," by my side, Wang Yongfu, who had to work in the fields during the day, was already exhausted. Tormented by Lady Lin’s nagging like a continuous chant, sleepiness overwhelmed him, and he fell into a dead sleep.

Frustrated, Lady Lin gritted her teeth, wanting to kick Wang Yongfu awake. She even stretched out her foot but couldn’t bring herself to do it—her own man, dear to her heart. After toiling in the fields all day, if he didn’t get a good night’s sleep, even an iron body couldn’t bear it.

Snorting with irritation, Lady Lin turned over and lay down.

※※※

Meanwhile, Wang Yongzhu really wanted to earn the five Points for making shoes for her family, but she also knew that biting off more than she could chew wouldn’t work; she understood that without a solid foundation, nothing would come of her efforts.

She brought out the same studious spirit she had when she used to be the top student and firmly committed to memory all the various techniques and stitches that Lady Jiang had taught her.

Her sole daily task was to practice non-stop.

Especially when she recalled a stitching method for mending clothes she had once seen on Weibo, which left no visible stitches on the fabric surface; after several trials, she indeed achieved the effect she had seen.

Lady Jiang was astounded, very glad to have discovered a genius.

It seemed that the day Lady Seo’s stitching techniques would be glorified was not far off.

Consequently, she became even more careful in her teaching.

Old Granny Zhang, with her mediocre needlework, didn’t quite grasp the significance, but seeing the rare look of joy on Lady Jiang’s face, she knew her daughter must have made her proud.

Without mentioning anything else, watching her eldest daughter’s zeal for learning, and seeing her slim down day by day, with her face slowly revealing a bit more contour, and her previously uniformly thick body now starting to show some curves—

Even without the motherly rose-colored glasses, Old Granny Zhang had to admit that her daughter, slimmed down, looked much more pleasant than before.

Wang Yongzhu, on the other hand, hadn’t noticed the changes in her body. She knew it was a long-term process, and besides, with her mind preoccupied with learning needlework, taking breaks to exercise, and taking care of the Yellow Pine Mushrooms every day, those were her hopes for accomplishing her private savings goal.

The Yellow Pine Mushrooms didn’t seem to be letting her down, growing well; at least on the crude cultivation bed, dozens of small mounds had now risen.

If all goes well, could she expect to harvest a catty or two?

Selling them to Boss Wu before the time he mentioned, she should at least have ten taels of silver coming in, right?

Thinking of the imminent silver and the Points, Wang Yongzhu’s enthusiasm surged to unprecedented levels.

In the past few days, besides turning out all the clothes of Wang Laozhu and Old Granny Zhang and mending whatever was mendable,

the clothes of Wang Yongping didn’t escape either.

In the end, these were still not enough to satisfy Wang Yongzhu’s practice needs, so she extended her devilish claws toward her nephews and nieces.

From Jindou down to Jinshao, under Old Granny Zhang’s orders, their clothes were obediently piled in front of Wang Yongzhu.

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