“You can’t just skip cooking!” Li Jianye was a bit angry. “Our whole family needs to eat! Why do you keep running off to town for no reason?”
Yesterday you said you were sick and didn’t cook—fine.
But today you dressed up all nice and left the house, clearly not sick anymore. And you still won’t cook! What exactly do you want? What woman doesn’t cook?
“I’m not cooking? Who’s not cooking?” Shi Meilan turned around to look at Li Jianye and said, “You’re the one who won’t get up to eat. Have you even checked what time it is? Why would I go to town? To have fun? Tomorrow is your mother’s birthday. I’m going to town now to hire a chef. If I don’t go, will you?”
Li Jianye slapped his forehead, suddenly remembering this.
His mother was about to turn fifty-six.
Normally that’s not a big birthday and shouldn’t be a huge celebration, but Mrs. Li loved to make a fuss every year, throwing a big banquet and collecting gifts.
When it came to banquets, the men never got involved.
It was always the women’s job, so it had always been Shi Meilan, the second daughter-in-law of the Li family, and Zhao Erjie, the first daughter-in-law, who arranged everything together.
Mentioning Zhao Erjie, Li Jianye immediately knew Shi Meilan must be in a bad mood today.
When Shi Meilan first married into the family, before the Li family split, they all lived together.
Zhao Erjie, acting like the big sister-in-law, often bullied Shi Meilan behind the scenes.
Shi Meilan, new to the family, suffered a lot of passive-aggressive mistreatment—Li Jianye couldn’t do anything; men couldn’t interfere in women’s affairs.
Back then, Zhao Erjie had already had a little son named Li Tianbao.
He was the first grandson of the old Li family, and the whole family doted on him. Li Tianbao was always getting into trouble.
One year, he burned down a neighbor’s woodpile and a whole building.
When the neighbors came asking for compensation, not only did they want money for the damage, but Shi Meilan’s entire year’s crops were burned too.
Shi Meilan was furious and demanded Zhao Erjie pay up. But Zhao Erjie said, “We’re family. Why would we pay each other?” She refused outright.
The two daughters-in-law fought fiercely.
Though living under one roof, they acted like enemies whenever they met.
Their quarrels made things awkward for the two sons too.
Every word they spoke had to be careful, so the family situation became unbearable. In the end, the elderly couple had to split the family.
When they split, the daughters-in-law fought even harder.
Beyond the division of land and property, it involved who would take care of the elderly parents.
After the split, the parents had to choose which household to live with.
Most of their inheritance would go to that household.
Whoever cared for the parents would get the money.
These elders were no ordinary old folks. As the saying goes, having an elder at home is like having a treasure. But this treasure wasn’t Mrs. Li—it was Mr. Li.
He was the village chief.
Don’t underestimate the position of village chief. In a remote mountain village far from town, where law enforcement was weak, the village chief made all the big and small decisions.
All the good stuff belonged to the chief’s family. Mr. Li was very influential and brought in a lot of money for his family. By comparison, the two sons were useless.
Because the father was the big boss, when it came to dividing the family, it wasn’t about which son wanted to care for him, but which son the father chose.
Mr. Li chose the elder son’s household.
At that time, Shi Meilan hadn’t had children yet, but the elder son’s family already had a grandson.
Mr. Li doted on that grandson and couldn’t bear to leave him. So he went to live with the elder son, much to Zhao Erjie’s delight.
From then on, the father-in-law’s money was her son’s money. Of course she was happy.
Later, the two families lived in separate courtyards. Shi Meilan built a tall wall. What was once one household became two.
When Shi Meilan was building the house, she borrowed a lot of money from Mr. Li. Zhao Erjie insisted Shi Meilan would never pay it back, thinking in her own way.
She thought since Shi Meilan hadn’t gotten compensation for her son’s fire damage, Shi Meilan wouldn’t pay.
But Shi Meilan was firm. She wrote an IOU right then and there, paying it back every year.
So their family never saved much. Li Jianye’s small income only barely kept life going and helped repay that debt.
The rest of the expenses for raising children and subsidies came from Shi Meilan’s own farming.
On the surface, Shi Meilan looked like she had a good life, but in reality, she had worked hard step by step.
That was all over a decade ago.
About five or six years ago, Mr. Li injured his leg in a fight between two villages and retired as village chief.
Because of his injury, he couldn’t do farm work anymore and became a burden. Zhao Erjie was unhappy.
Afterwards, the eldest son often left for work and didn’t return for weeks.
Zhao Erjie looked after the elders, and her son had grown but couldn’t find a wife.
She was annoyed every day, constantly irritated by the elders and wanting to get money from Shi Meilan to support them.
Hence, Shi Meilan and Zhao Erjie had a bad relationship and fought whenever they met.
But now, with the elders’ banquet to organize, the two women still had to work together.
This broken village was like this: everyone guarded a patch of land, working day and night, nurturing the great family tree.
Once someone was born or married in, they became part of this tree and absorbed its nourishment.
So even if they were disgusted with each other, they had to pinch their noses and keep working together.
So Shi Meilan was definitely in a bad mood.
When she was upset, she’d snap and curse.
Her sharp tongue was like a hoe, digging up ancestors’ graves with just a few words.
Sure enough, Shi Meilan struck a nerve.
“Why did you sleep so late? What were you doing last night?” Her round face showed unmistakable disdain and criticism. “You can’t get up yourself and now you blame me? Should I bring a bowl to your bedside and beg you to eat?”
Li Jianye felt guilty and couldn’t raise his head under her scolding.
He fell silent. When he finally looked up again, Shi Meilan was already pushing the Li family bicycle out the door.
The bicycle wheels creaked as she rode off.
Outside, the people had already walked away.
After Shi Meilan left, Li Jianye finally kicked a brick on the ground and muttered, “She’s a tigress.”
He really hated Shi Meilan! A woman who yelled all day long, always looking for trouble.
As the old saying goes, “The husband leads, the wife follows.” She should quietly serve him!
She wasn’t like his Yulian.
Yulian was good—just last night she was gentle and obedient like a little lamb.
Yulian would never talk to him like that! How did he ever get tricked into marrying Shi Meilan?
Li Jianye didn’t know what he was thinking but glanced instinctively at the neighbor, Widow Wang’s yard.
When a man starts having “needs,” worms seem to crawl from his crotch up to his brain, releasing a virus that makes him think only about that.
The wall was too high. Without climbing over, he couldn’t see anything. It was early morning and everyone was busy. Li Jianye didn’t dare jump the wall.
He swallowed hard, grabbed his satchel, and turned to leave—he’d try again tonight.
Outside the Li family gate, Hu Honghua was already waiting.
She wore a wide skirt, white on top and blue below, with small leather boots. It looked expensive, but didn’t suit her, making her skin look even darker.
She’d applied some snow cream on her face, making it look slightly fairer, but she was too dark and too thin, looking like a little mouse sneaking oil from a lamp.
After a night of mischief, Hu Honghua looked exhausted, her head drooping even more, resembling a little mouse.
“Auntie.” When she saw Shi Meilan come out, Hu Honghua yawned.
She still remembered that Auntie was taking her to town.
Shi Meilan gave her a quick once-over, thinking she’d take her to buy a few decent outfits later. Then she hopped onto her bicycle. “Get on. I’ll take you.”
As they talked, Zhao Erjie from the Big Li Family came out of her courtyard.
Zhao Erjie needed to borrow a ride to town.
She’d heard that the barefoot doctor in the village, Qian Erniu, was taking a cart of medicinal herbs to the herbal shop in town and planned to hitch a ride.
When she came out, she saw Shi Meilan and Hu Honghua sitting together on one bike and immediately curled her lip.
Shi Meilan didn’t want to go with her, and she didn’t want to go with Shi Meilan. The two disliked each other, so Zhao Erjie greeted her with biting sarcasm.