"Mrs. Lai, off to the market? Your daughter-in-law has gone to the county, and you still have so much free time?" a matchmaker in her forties or fifties gossiped to Mrs. Lai.
"Mrs. Lai, your daughter-in-law is truly virtuous, taking on so much work by herself. Now she's even earning money for your family by working outside. You've got yourself a good daughter-in-law," another Mother-in-law gossiped, with envy.
"She... It's a pity she hasn't managed to give birth to a boy, something our family has been longing for! Ah..."
Mrs. Lai felt proud of the village women's envious gaze as they gossiped about her, and why wouldn't she be?
It was indeed a matter of pride that her son had married a hardworking daughter-in-law, except for the earlier mentioned flaw—she had not yet given birth to a plump grandson.
Today, she dolled herself up especially, wearing the silver ring she normally didn't dare to, a silver bracelet stolen from her daughter-in-law's dowry, and even a silver hairpin in her hair, along with silver earrings, all dressed up without fear of being robbed on her way to town.
"Mrs. Lai, you have your daughter-in-law working as a wet nurse, when will she be able to bear you a big, chubby boy?"
One of the village women who was heading to the market said boldly to the young wife without shame.
"Yo, you're a young wife. I see your belly is a bit protruding, don't tell me you're pregnant?"
Other women laughed at what the young wife had said.
The oxcart wasn't very common; those who were willing to spend that little bit of money also thought it more comfortable to not have to walk to town.
Men who had good leg strength found it inconvenient to squeeze into an oxcart with the women, so today all the passengers in the oxcart were women, with only a man driving the cart, who was not at liberty to chat.
The young wife nodded shyly and said, "I was just about to go to town to buy some things to prepare clothes and shoes for the child, it's just been over three months, so I can talk to others about it."
The other women nodded, agreeing that what the young wife said made sense.
Mrs. Lai's triangular eyes observed the young wife's belly contemplatively; her daughter-in-law had already had five births and couldn't always be bearing daughters. Many people had seen that some always have daughters, seven or eight girls, and yet no son is born.
Mrs. Lai, concerned that Mrs. Li might also have such a constitution, considered that, given their family circumstances, they could take a concubine for their son.
If Mrs. Li could not produce a son, they could let the concubine bear a plump boy for their family, thus allowing their family to flourish with descendants.
Then she thought about how her house only had a few rooms: one for her son, one for the two old folks, one for the daughters, and one for sundry items, plus a kitchen and a thatched room for making furniture.
If they wanted to take a concubine for their son, they would need to build another room at home.
Mrs. Lai touched the coin purse in her bosom. If they were to build another room in the house, her pile of coins would get significantly thinner. And in a month or two, when her second daughter was to be married off, they would need to prepare a dowry.
Although they could cut wood from the mountains for free, labor was still needed. Saving on the carpentry labor, as the girl's family, they would still have to buy many things.
Today, Mrs. Lai suddenly had this idea of getting a concubine for her son. Indecisive, she decided to discuss it with her husband after returning from the market and find a girl to be his concubine through a matchmaker.
When the oxcart arrived in town, everyone got off.
Mrs. Lai busied herself buying rice, soy sauce, meat, and other things her daughter had asked for.
When she went shopping, she deliberately went to her future son-in-law's place to buy some items, fully intent on receiving a discount from his family.
Zhong Xianggui was selling goods in the shop with his mother while his father had gone to restock.
Clients continually came into the shop to buy items. Their family's shop was like a general store, having everything, and he was busy introducing products and their prices to the customers.
Seeing another person enter the shop, he lifted his professional smile and greeted the newcomer with a smiling face, only to see that the person entering was the future Mother-in-law.
His smile paused for a moment as he lowered his head, pretending to sell things, and didn't greet the future Mother-in-law.
His mother, however, was a bit smoother and, upon seeing Mrs. Lai without changing her own smiling expression, said to her:
"My dear relative, what brings you here today? We've been so busy that we haven't had the time to visit your household."
The owner of the grocery store had been running the shop in this town for many years, with relatives from various villages coming to buy things every day, and there was always gossip circulating.
Previously, the reason she had the matchmaker propose this family as in-laws was that she felt they were stingy but treated their own daughter quite well, and maybe they would give a more generous dowry in the future.
Her son had also taken a liking to the girl from this family, and so the marriage arrangement was settled, but they hadn't expected to later find out that this family was not treating their daughter-in-law and granddaughter well.
They turned a blind eye to it all, pretending to be deaf and dumb when the other party didn't even hold a full month celebration for the birth of the granddaughter, saving themselves a sum of money that would have gone to a gift.
Mrs. Lai's visit today, if not to purchase, might be to demand something.
The owner of the grocery store looked down upon Mrs. Lai's ill treatment of her daughter-in-law, yet she did not express it openly, unable to imagine what the interaction with her own future daughter-in-law would be like.
"Relative, I'm here to shop today. We're family after all, and I'm here to support your business. I hope you can give me a bit more discount, and don't mention anything about giving it away for free; I know you need to cover your costs in selling goods."
Mrs. Lai's words sounded pleasant, hinting that she believed it was too soon for her to push her luck before her daughter was married into their family; in reality, she was hoping they would generously offer to let her shop without paying.
Sadly, her wooden son-in-law-to-be did not respond. He seemed so shrewd, so why did he appear so cluelessly foolish in her presence?
"Relative, sure! Since we're family, I'll give you a wholesale price when you shop here."
The proprietor's words were honeyed; only she knew the actual cost price of the goods. Saying she was giving Mrs. Lai a wholesale price meant that it was the same price given to anyone buying in bulk and not the cost price.
Mrs. Lai, completely missing the implication of this remark, nodded happily and inquired how much rice to buy, along with mung beans, sugar, oil, and soy sauce.
If Mrs. Lai wanted to buy pork, she would definitely have to go to the other side of the market.
After hearing Mrs. Lai's list, the owner arranged for her son to weigh out the goods while she tallied up the total cost of so many items on her abacus.
"Relative, the total comes to 200 cents."
"That much..." Mrs. Lai, not being very numerate, felt the price was quite steep and clutched her coin purse tightly.
"Relative, I'm already giving you a bargain. If you don't believe me, go ask at other stores; you definitely won't find this price anywhere else." The shopkeeper had anticipated that Mrs. Lai wouldn't easily part with her money and prepared herself for a needless haggling ordeal.
"This..." hesitated Mrs. Lai.
"Relative, by all rights, with your daughter-in-law making so much money working in the county, and your family's two carpenters earning well, you've probably stopped farming altogether, right? It's necessary to spend a little when buying rice since you've earned it; of course, you should eat better."
The shop owner was trying to pry some information, quite curious as to what her future daughter-in-law was actually doing at home.
Earlier talk suggested the girl was constantly at home—such a lazy person would certainly need some proper training once she became part of the family.
Mrs. Lai had trained her daughter-in-law to be so diligent—how could she not outdo Mrs. Lai? Eventually, a daughter-in-law becomes a Mother-in-law, too, and she would let the daughter-in-law taste what it was like to be in that role - it certainly couldn't be as comfortable as being a daughter.