Second update, asking for pinks.

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Hearing Lian Yeye say that Lady Zhou made Lady He follow Lady Gu to grind, Lian Manman couldn’t help but blink.

"Your grandma made your second aunt grind again, for what reason?" Lady Zhang heard and asked.

Since coming back from Taicang, Lady Zhou had been preoccupied with troubling Lady Gu, and only Lady Gu was grinding. Although Lady He was not allowed to leave the house, her life wasn’t too hard otherwise, relatively speaking, of course.

Letting Lady He grind together, doesn’t that lighten Lady Gu’s burden? Why would Lady Zhou do this?

"Do we even need a reason? With someone like my second aunt, my grandma can easily pick out a bunch of mistakes with her." Lian Yeye said, "These past few days, my grandma has started scolding her again. Yesterday it was my second aunt’s turn to cook, and she didn’t dump the water used for washing the pot, just went ahead and made cabbage soup. My grandma took one sip and said it tasted like pot-wash water. She gave my second aunt a good scolding and then made her grind flour together with my first aunt."

"She’s done things like this more than once or twice." Lady Zhang said, "Back when we all lived together, every time it was her turn to cook, I had to keep an eye on her. If I didn’t look, she’d always make some kind of mistake. Just lazy, cutting corners wherever she can... Her grandma knows her temperament well; didn’t she keep an eye on her in the past? Why not this time?"

"The Wife of He Laoliu was helping your second aunt cook." Lady Zhao said, "After all, she’s an outsider, so your grandma couldn’t just stare at her all the time, right?" Lady Zhao said.

Lian Manman couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

"Our grandma doesn’t think much of those few from the Old He Family." Lian Yeye said.

"This is her grandma struggling with those few." Lady Zhang thought for a moment and said.

The Wife of He Laoliu brought her daughter to eat at the same table as Lady Zhou, while the He Family’s two sons ate with Old Master Lian.

In the Lian Family Old Mansion, meals are still allocated as before. Just like before, the food is prepared sparingly. The Wife of He Laoliu is in her prime, and her kids are good eaters. The grain in the upper room is not in surplus. Lady Zhou has always been tight with food, and even her own daughters-in-law and granddaughters can’t eat more than necessary. Lady Zhou wishes they could be full with just a bite.

Now, there are a few more outsiders with similar habits to Lady He, how could Lady Zhou be happy with them?

However, Old Master Lian decided to keep these people, and Lady Zhou can’t send them away, so she can only take out her anger on Lady He.

"Grandma’s temper is getting worse by the day, scolding people at the drop of a hat. She slams chopsticks on the table and scolds." Lian Yeye added.

"How about those few from the Old He Family? Do they ever skip meals?" Lian Manman asked.

"They eat as they please. They’re genuinely like family with second aunt." Lian Yeye said.

Lady Zhou’s methods work well on timid people like Lady Zhao and thin-skinned ones like Lady Zhang, but they are less effective on thick-skinned, hardened types. These people don’t care what you scold them for; they eat and drink as they please, without a care. In the end, Lady Zhou is the only one getting upset.

Fortunately, Lady Zhou can still command her daughters-in-law and granddaughters to work, enact some punishment. Otherwise, if she kept all her anger inside, who knows what would happen.

"Just wait, in a few days, Grandma will start arguing with Grandpa." Lian Manman thought for a moment and said.

Punishing Lady He won’t make those from the He Family leave the Lian Family.

"What’s the point? All this fuss, and yet the household is in chaos because of those few people." Lady Zhang said.

"Who knows." Lian Manman sighed.

This might not bring the good reputation Old Master Lian hoped for the Lian Family. After much thought, Lian Manman felt that maybe, in the end, Lady Gu might actually benefit from all this.

As Lady Zhou’s focus shifts increasingly to the few from the He Family and Lady He, doesn’t Lady Gu find her peace? Given Lady Gu’s shrewdness, she will not only seize the opportunity but also create more for herself. If Lady Gu does manage to climb above Lady He, from the very bottom of the family to the second-to-last, Lian Manman wouldn’t find it surprising.

...

Mid-Winter, Manman’s Family picked the coldest day to start making buns again. With several more people to feed, the number of buns to be made this time was more than three times what it had been in previous years. Fortunately, there were more hands to help make the buns. Besides Lady Zhang, Lian Zhizhi, and Lian Manman, Han Zhong’s Wife and Xiao Xi, Lady Wu Wang came along with Wu Jiayu to help, and there were Lady Zhao, Lian Yeye, and Lady Zhang also invited Chunzhu’s Wife, Chun Ni, Chun Yan, and the Wife of Wu Yuchang along with Er Ya to assist.