Zhulan’s gaze wasn’t just fixed on Zhao Shi and Dong Shi but also on Li Shi, her daughter, and her two granddaughters. Her words weren’t just for Zhao Shi and Dong Shi but for everyone.

Inside the room, Zhao Shi and Dong Shi were already trembling like quails, and Li Shi was also startled, quickly standing up and kneeling down. Xue Han pulled her two zhí nǚ down to kneel as well, and they all said in unison, “We wouldn’t dare”.

Zhulan hummed in agreement. “I hope you remember what I said today. Alright, it’s getting late; go home now.”

After everyone left, only Zhulan remained in the quiet room. Zhulan felt much better; once you’re used to peace and quiet, you really don’t like the hustle and bustle of crowds.

Outside the gate, Zhao Shi and the others hurriedly caught up with their eldest sǎozi after leaving the main courtyard. “Eldest sǎozi, I just spoke offhand.”

Li Shi wasn’t stupid. She had seen many daughters-in-law of officials in Lizhou City, and with the guidance of her maid Juanhua, she was even better at judging people. Besides, her intuition was very accurate. She knew perfectly well whether Zhao Shi had spoken offhand. “Second dìmèi, your words are not sincere. I know you are jealous of me, but what good does it do to belittle me?”

Even she, a simpleton, knew why her mother-in-law liked her, but her two clever dimèi didn’t understand. She realized that being too clever wasn’t a good thing.

After speaking, Li Shi took her daughter Yulu’s hand and walked towards her own courtyard. As Li Shi walked, she thought of her parents. She felt quite sad. It would be even more difficult to return to her parents’ home in the future. However, her mother-in-law would definitely send someone to deliver the New Year’s gifts back. She not only had to prepare New Year’s gifts but also send silver notes back, hoping that her parents would have more money and live a more comfortable life.

Zhao Shi stood still, staring blankly as her sǎozi entered the courtyard. Her sǎozi understood everything; she had changed so much in the past year, the only thing unchanged being her straightforward nature. Dong Shi used to have the confidence of an official’s daughter, but she knew her father’s position as a seventh-rank county official was unlikely to rise further. She couldn’t even compare to her second sǎozi now; at least her second sǎozi had children, while she hadn’t even consummated her marriage!

Dong Shi no longer dared to underestimate her sǎozi; she had become much more insightful in the past year. “Second sǎozi, I still have some luggage to pack; I’ll head back first.”

Zhao Shi snapped out of her reverie. “Oh, okay.”

Only after Dong Shi left did Zhao Shi take her daughter’s hand. With a maidservant by her side, there were some things she couldn’t say. Zhao Shi thought that with the maidservant, at least her mother-in-law wasn’t particularly biased.

Zhulan rested for a while, then wrote down a list of New Year’s gifts and called over Steward Ding. “Go and buy six fat sheep, 120 jin of dried yak meat, eight pairs of bright red lanterns, 120 jin of pork, 24 fish, 120 jin of vermicelli, eight sheepskins, eight jars of 20-jin wine, and finally eight bolts of cloth. I’ve written everything down here.”

Since her in-laws were ordinary people, they could only afford cotton and linen fabrics. Although eight bolts seemed like a lot, they weren’t actually expensive.

Steward Ding took the list. “I’ll go and do it right away.”

Zhulan had another list in her hand. She had nine items bought, which, including her own apples, made a total of ten New Year’s gifts. This list was for each family: the Li family, the Zhou clan chief’s family, her daughter’s family, the Dong family, the Qian family, and the Jiang family—a total of six families.

The Jiang and Qian families only had six items, missing lanterns, sheepskins, wine, and cloth.

The other four families each had ten items in even numbers.

These were just New Year’s gifts. Zhulan also prepared clothes separately for her daughter’s family: a set of clothes and a cloak for her daughter and son-in-law, two sets of clothes and shoes for the four children, and small pieces of jewelry for her daughter and wàisūnnǚ, and finally, lucky money. This year’s lucky money was generous; her own sūnzi and sūnnǚ were going to receive a tael, while her wàisūn and wàisūnnǚ, whom she rarely saw, were given five taels each, and ten taels each for her daughter and son-in-law—essentially a form of financial assistance.

Her daughter had already bought land for two years and was now preparing to buy a house. Once she buys a house, the old house in their hometown will need to be rebuilt.

Zhulan not only prepared gifts for her daughter but also for the children in the clan’s school. She had plenty of writing materials at home and planned to select some to send back to the clan. The better materials would be given to the shushengs and xueshengs preparing for the imperial examinations, while the rest would go to the students studying at the clan school. Oh, and there were also some handwritten books. Second Zhou had brought quite a few books this time, and Zhulan planned to select some to copy and send back. As for who would copy the books, Second Zhou and Chang Lian were both suitable; they still needed to settle down and focus after arriving in Lizhou City.

Time passed quickly, and seven days went by in the blink of an eye. In those seven days, Zhulan had prepared all the New Year’s gifts. The only important thing that was to be added was the books. Zhulan had Er Yue escort the gifts back to her hometown so Er Yue could also visit her parents.

Li Shi had also prepared a lot. Li Shi sent grain and meat and bought a considerable amount of cloth, plus a set of Li Shi’s jewelry and fifty taels of silver. Zhulan calculated that Li Shi had sent about eighty taels of silver back to her parents’ home.

All of this had been reported to Li Shi and Zhulan, so Zhulan didn’t take it to heart. The money belonged to Li Shi herself, and she was quite happy that Li Shi was willing to give it to her family. At least it showed that Li Shi was truly filial, not just blindly devoted to her mother-in-law.

After leaving in February, Zhulan took her children and grandchildren to the Yang family. Zhulan’s father had always been in good health and rarely got sick, but this time his illness had lasted quite a while. When the old man was sick, Zhulan wanted to stay and take care of him, but her eldest and second-oldest brothers sent her away.

This was because her two brothers felt really bad. After arriving in Lizhou City, Wu Chun rarely came home from the camp, and the Yang family relied entirely on Zhulan for care. Zhulan not only managed the Zhou family but also took care of the Yang family, which made her two brothers feel very embarrassed.

Now that the Yang family had recovered their money and even made a profit, the family’s finances were more comfortable, and the Yang family had integrated into Lizhou City. They really felt bad about troubling Zhulan any further.

Of course, this was also Yang Dayong’s idea. Yang Dayong and Sun Shi felt sorry for their daughter; they had already enjoyed a lot of her filial piety, and their daughter had done enough.

Seeing that her father was better, Zhulan said, “Father, now that you’re better, Shu Ren and I are relieved.”

Yang Dayong smiled broadly. “Thank you for worrying about me. I’m all better now! Oh, come and let me see my wai zēngsūnnǚ¹ and wai zēngsūn².”

Zhulan gestured for Ming Yun to bring Yu Shuang and Ming Rui over.

Yang Dayong looked at the three children. “Good, good, now your family is all together. A family should be complete.”

Zhulan smiled; this was the old woman’s way of thinking, hoping everyone in the family would be around. “Yes, now that everyone’s here, we can have a reunion this year.”

Sun Shi smiled, touching each of her wai zengsun and wai zengsun nü one by one, thinking to herself that she had earned a lot of money this year thanks to her daughter and that she would have to increase the amount of red envelopes she gave the children this year.

The old lady did the math and exclaimed, “Oh dear, thank goodness my daughter helps the family! Otherwise, my eldest sunzi’s salary wouldn’t be enough to cover the Yang family’s expenses. The servants are mostly living a life of luxury, costing a lot of money. And my eldest sunzi is a military officer; he’ll be hosting many guests during the New Year, which is another huge expense.”

Madam Sun gripped her daughter’s hand tightly. The Yang family’s respectable lifestyle and lack of disgrace to their eldest sunzi were all thanks to her daughter. Madam Sun felt so sorry for her daughter. “Lan, you still want to go to Jiangnan? Can’t you wait until next spring? Traveling in winter is too painful!”

The Zhou family’s sons were dumbfounded; their mother hadn’t mentioned it!

Zhulan had indeed told her mother, during a casual chat, “Mother, Father’s illness is cured now, and I’m preparing to leave in a few days. Don’t worry, I’ll be back quickly.”

(End of Chapter)

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Footnote

1. great-granddaughter from the daughter’s side
2. great-grandson from the daughter’s side