Chapter Thirty-Three: Tea Stall

  "Girl, look at what I and your sister have picked out. Your little money is still not enough for that." said Lian Man Er.

  "Ah, Man Er..." Mrs. Zhang was at a loss for words for a moment. Just now when Man Er asked everyone what they wanted, she naturally assumed that Man Er would pay for the things she chose herself. Now that Man Er said this, as her mother, she thought about it and felt that she had been unfair to her child.

  "Otherwise, I'll exchange two pieces of cheaper cloth for your mother, and use the remaining money to buy things for you." said Zhang.

  "No way," Lian Man'er's small face was tense, "Mom, you can't spend this money, if you have to spend it, it should be on us. Ask anyone, is there such a reason? The granddaughter is sick and needs medicine, but she doesn't give the money, the daughter-in-law has to pawn her own hairpin to buy it, and she still wants to take a large sum, what's the point of buying nourishing pills?"

  "Keep your voice down, keep your voice down." Zhang Shi hurriedly asked Lian Man'er to lower her voice.

  "What's there to be afraid of, we haven't done anything wrong." Lian Man'er said. "Mother, you also know that Nai is not doing the right thing, but you only care about being filial to her and want others to know how she handles things, what will they think of her?"

  Lian Man'er clutched her money tightly in her hand, no matter what Zhang Shi said, she wouldn't take it out.

  "Man Er, I promised your grandma before I left." Zhang said helplessly.

  "Agreed, so what? At that time, it was hard for Mother to come to the town, and she temporarily agreed, which doesn't count as anything. She's unreasonable, we don't need to be credible either." Lian Man'er said, "It's originally an unreasonable thing. This matter, take it wherever you want to say, I'm not afraid."

  "Man Er, what you said is right. But I still have this money left in my hand, and your grandma knows about it. If I don't spend it on her, there will be no end to it." Zhang Shi finally told the truth.

  Lian's family didn't separate, and she and Lian Shouxin would hand over every penny they earned to Zhou Shi. However, her dowry was something that Zhou Shi couldn't touch. This was a customary rule in the countryside, and anyone who broke it would be criticized behind their back.

  Zhou Shi would not directly ask for the dowry of his daughters-in-law, but after each daughter-in-law entered the house, there were some daily expenses. Zhou Shi never gave them money or allowed them to buy things themselves. The daughters-in-law had no choice but to use the money they brought from their own homes. Then, if a daughter-in-law urgently needed money in her room, Zhou Shi would say that he didn't have any money, or would hint that the daughters-in-law should be filial and give him money. In this way, he would find ways to squeeze money out of his daughters-in-law's hands.

  Over the years, Zhang's family had pawned all the jewelry she brought from her natal home, and in other rooms, Gu's family was better off because they were good at flattering Zhou's family, who thought of them as a scholar's wife and treated them slightly better. As for He's side, Zhou's family didn't get any benefits, while Zhao's side had been searched clean even earlier than Zhang's.

  Now Zhou knew that she still had some money left from the hairpin, and she wouldn't give up until she had squeezed out every last bit. Of course, Zhou wouldn't directly say anything about this matter, after all, there was no reason to, but she definitely didn't have a good expression on her face, and would find fault in other things.

  "Wealth gone, people are at peace." Zhang said with a self-mocking tone. Those two hairpins, if not for her little daughter, she really couldn't bear to pawn them off.

  "Girl, if you continue like this, there will be no end to it." Lian Man'er said. In her previous life, she had also heard about some things between mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law, such as mothers-in-law using every trick in the book to extort money from their sons' wives, which was not uncommon.

  "It's not for anything else, just to have two peaceful days. Otherwise, your mother will be gloomy all day, and our family's life won't be good either." said Zhang Shi.

  "Even if you buy these things for her, she'll only be happy for two days." Lian Man'er said, this compromise and concession was like drinking poison to quench thirst, not only could it not solve the problem, but would instead make Zhou Shi even more overbearing.

  "Man Er, mother has a hard time, our family has always been like this." said Zhang Shi.

  In a family, once something becomes a habit, people will unconsciously follow it and forget to consider whether this habit is reasonable. In many cases, the parties involved may not feel anything, but in the eyes of outsiders, it may be unthinkable and unbearable things.

  Zhang was in the office, if no one woke her up, she would have continued like this.

  Home is not a place where everything can be reasoned. For Zhang, the overly strong approach may not be able to completely pull her over. Even with Lian's identity, she was able to use another kind of weapon.

  Lian Man'er made a great effort to recall all the grievances of her past and present lives, and began to shed tears pitter-patter.

  "Man Er, why are you crying? Don't cry. If there's something on your mind, discuss it with your mother." Zhang Shi suddenly became flustered.

  "Second sister, don't cry." Little Qi saw Lian Mian'er crying and hurried over.

  Lian Mian'er pulled Xiao Qi, "Xiao Qi, we're so pitiful, waaahhh..."

  Xiao Qi was still young and her emotions were quickly affected by Lian Man Er, she also started to sob.

  Zhang's heart was softened by crying. Maner said it was right, because she was too weak and wanted to please Zhou Shi too much, always compromising her own children. This mother is not competent.

  "Second sister, don't cry anymore, or you'll cry yourself sick." Little Seven said with a sob.

  Good little seven. Lian Man'er pinched Little Seven's small hand and sobbed, "Let's take out the money we've earned and buy things for Grandma and Auntie, Mother's life will be better...Little Seven, my head hurts..."

  "Lianmeng, Lianmeng, how did you get a headache again?" Zhang Shi anxiously grabbed hold of Lianmeng to take a look at the wound on her head.

  Lian Man'er dodged and hid, hugging Xiao Qi and crying together in a heap.

  Zhang finally stamped her foot.

  "I won't buy those pieces of cloth. The money will be spent on my daughter and Xiaogui anyway." Zhang Shi let it go, she would just get scolded when she got home.

  Lian Man'er finally stopped crying slowly. Her tears and the wound on her head were indeed the ultimate weapon, which would continue to be used in the future.

  Zhang's family returned several pieces of cloth, and Lian Wan'er took the cloth she and Lian Zhier had picked out and asked the shopkeeper how much it cost.

  "...altogether it's 213 wen, I'll just take 210 from you." said the shopkeeper.

  "We've bought too much," Lian Zhier thought of returning the large piece of red gauze she had picked out, but was stopped by Lian Man'er. "Too what? I'm afraid it's not enough." Later, she asked for a few more feet of white gauze, planning to make an extra set of small clothes for changing.

  "Shopkeeper, we're buying so much, shouldn't you give us a bigger discount?" Lian Man'er wiped away her tears and energetically haggled with the shopkeeper, finally bringing the price down to 200 copper coins.

  Lian Man'er paid the money with relish, originally she didn't plan to use Zhang Shi's silver, but after thinking about it, she let Zhang Shi go and be at peace, also saving her from having any more ideas, and wanting to curry favor with Zhou Shi.

  Zhou's silver was weighed and it was one yuan two cents. Lian Manger added another eighty cents, and then they settled the account with the shopkeeper.

  Zhang saw Lian Muer like this, and couldn't help but laugh and cry, saying: "In the future, our family will have to rely on Muer."

  "Second sister is a good housekeeper." Lianzhi and Wu Lang hadn't said anything yet, but Xiao Qi hastily spoke up.

  Lian Man'er didn't say a word, but in her heart she thought this was a great idea.

  After leaving the silk store, the family went to a nearby grocery store and bought a set of needles and many colored silk threads, spending a total of 30 cents. Then, they all went together to Chen's Baozi Store, where each of them had two meat-filled buns, a bowl of noodle soup, and Zhang asked for three meat-filled buns, also with a bowl of noodle soup, and an additional bowl of braised meat and a plate of pickled vegetables. After they finished eating, they ordered four more meat-filled buns, a piece of braised meat, and had the store's clerk wrap them in oil paper to take back for Lian Shouzheng to eat.

  Lian Man'er handed sixty cents to the shopkeeper and the whole family left Chen's store, heading towards the blacksmith's workshop.

  The blacksmith's shop was at the west end of Qingyang Town. When Lian Man'er and her companions arrived, Lian Shouxin was squatting in the shop watching Feng the blacksmith work. The sickles had already been repaired, and there were two iron hoes left to be fixed.

  "Dad, are you hungry? Have a bun first." Lian Man'er handed a bun to Lian Shouxin.

  "Dad, there's still meat." Little Seven held up the oiled paper package of meat in front of Lian Shouxin.

  Lian Shouxin was in the blacksmith's shop, sweating profusely, but when he saw his son and daughter being so sensible and filial, he felt as if a cool breeze had blown by, and from inside to outside, he felt completely comfortable.

  "Big brother, you go eat first, I'm sure you don't trust my craftsmanship, I'll definitely fix it properly for you." Feng the blacksmith said.

  Opposite the blacksmith's shop, there happened to be a tea stall, with a big pot of high-foam tea for one cent, and refills were available. The family walked over to the tea stall, ordered a pot of tea, picked up a table and sat down.

  "...No matter how rich they are, they can't escape the King of Hell's call. The young master of the house died two days ago, and the new daughter-in-law who had just entered the household also hanged herself, so it was convenient to put her in a coffin too. After completing all the funeral rites, she would be buried in the ancestral tomb. You didn't see how grandly they handled the funeral, with a flowing banquet..."

  At the next table, two traveling merchants were chatting loudly.

  "Isn't it already spread far and wide that Young Master Sun won't live past a month, yet there's actually someone willing to marry off their daughter to him?"

  "How could she refuse? She was only ten miles away, the third daughter of Liu Lai Fu's family in Liu Jia Zhuang. The Sun family had given a full 300 taels of silver."

  "It's all right, but it's a pity for that young girl. She's so young and already has to live as a widow."

  "You're stunned, aren't you? The Sun family wants her to go over, but it's not for this reason. Who wants her to be a widow?"

  "What... what does this mean?"

  "You don't know, this matter is actually Yang Chengfeng acting as a matchmaker in the middle of this town. The Sun family knows that their youngest son won't live long, so they want to find him a wife, who will be buried with him after his death, so he'll have someone to accompany him underground. Spending a few more taels of silver is better than forming a marriage alliance after death."

  "Then, didn't that young woman die by herself? Does the Liu family know about this too?"

  "How could I not know? After all, it's a matter of life and death. It had to be agreed upon by her family members, or else there would have been trouble later on. I heard that Liu Laifu's wife even personally helped with the arrangements... The Sun family paid a high price for this... Yang Chengfeng specially rushed back from his sister's husband's home to take care of this matter, and at that time, it wasn't hidden from the Liu family. I also heard that there was another family that was initially willing, but something happened later and it didn't work out, so this good thing fell into the hands of the Liu family..."

  Those two traveling merchants moved to a secluded spot and lowered their voices slightly, but Lian'er at this table still overheard them.

  Lian Shouxin bit his bun, his face turned purple with rage, and Zhang's hand on the table also started to shake.

  Lian Man'er clenched her fists and turned away.

  "Is it the Sun family of Qingfeng County you're talking about?"