Transmigrated Farmgirl's Scheme to Get Rich - Chapter 200
Unlucky Auspicious Day
If this matter spread to the entire village, it wouldn’t be good for either of them.
Even Mrs. Li’s words became less harsh, and she took the initiative to suggest that the bride price could be reduced.
Ms. Liang was still furious but had no place to vent her anger, and she retorted, “You still want a bride price? The fact we’re even willing to consider accepting her into the family is a blessing from the heavens for you. Forget about receiving a single dollar of dowry, and forgot about getting a single engagement gift. We’re only giving the four traditional betrothal gifts on the wedding day itself; if you agree the marriage will take place, and if you don’t I don’t care.”
Without waiting for Mrs. Li to say anything, Xiuying replied, “I agree, Auntie, please go back to select an auspicious day!”
“After this kind of thing has happened, even an auspicious day has turned unlucky, how unfortunate! No matter what, we can talk again after the house has been built.”
Mrs. Liang dragged Mo Feng away, and he was in store for another round of criticism and shouting after they returned home. Mo Feng knew that she liked money, so put the money they had earned from selling medicinal herbs onto the table, “Mum, look, we’ve earned this much money from selling that cartful of medicinal herbs! After selling the rest of them, we’ll have enough to build a house. Now we won’t even need to pay for me to marry a wife, shouldn’t you be happy?”
After hearing this, Ms. Liang also thought that it was a steal, but it was too big of a stain on their reputation!
Mo Feng continued, “The people everyone will be laughing at is their family, and the fallout won’t land on our heads. After Xiuying marries into the family in the future, as long as we live our days well and be filial to you, who cares what others think?”
Ms. Liang sighed, “At this point, we can only hope that this is the case. Later, we’ll sell all of the medicinal herbs, and ask Yan’er for some extra money to build the best house in the entire village!”
These medicinal herbs had sold for over forty silver taels altogether, which was enough to build an ordinary azure brick house, but how would Ms. Liang miss out on an opportunity to ask Mo Yan for money? She asked Dagan to deliver a message to Mo Yan to let her go back home, but Mo Yan naturally knew that it wasn’t to let her have a good meal.
When Mo Yan returned home, she only brought ten-odd silver taels with her, and said that all of her money had been invested back into the company. She could only know how much she had earned at the end of the year, when the company tallied up its profits, and she had borrowed this money from the accounts.
It wasn’t a small sum of money, so Ms. Liang pocketed it before saying, “After your brother gets engaged in the future, you need to save some more money. This is a major event for our family, so we can’t lose face.”
Mo Yan turned to leave without even a sound of affirmation, and Ms. Liang didn’t stop her either.
They had to start building the house now, or the cement wouldn’t have dried by the time the weather had turned chilly again, and the house wouldn’t be stable.
Mo Zenian had also taken out a few silver taels and helped out with the construction of the house. After a month, the house had been built. It had five azure brick-tiled rooms, and both the roof beams and purlins were made of high-quality pine. Even the rafters were built neatly and weren’t patchwork.
This house wasn’t worse in quality than the Cao family’s, and was newer than their house as well, so could be considered the best house in the village. Ms. Liang even thought that the people who saw her were filled with envy when she walked on the streets.
Due to Mo Ling’s pregnancy, she hadn’t returned to her natal family for a long time. During the construction of the house, Zhong Cheng had come over to help out, but Ms. Liang had never asked how Mo Ling was doing.
After the new house had dried over the winter, it could be renovated during the spring, and Ms. Liang planned for them to be married after fall.
Now business in the storefronts was both booming and steady, Mo Yan had some free time on her hands, and found a day with nice weather to go check up on Mo Ling. She brought over a lot of food, clothing and miscellaneous items.
The carriage stopped in front of Mo Ling’s family, and Mo Yan got off to knock on the door. After a while, Mo Ling’s voice came from inside the courtyard, “Who is it?”
“Sis, it’s me.”
Mo Ling opened the door, and when the first thing Mo Yan saw was her swollen belly, tears immediately filled her eyes. Mo Ling said, “Silly girl, why are you crying? You’re about to become an aunt.”
“When are you due?”
“It should be by the end of January.”
Welcoming a new person into a family should be a good thing, but the person who suffers is the mother.
“Where’s brother-in-law?”
“He’s gone out for work! He said that he’s going to do a few more trips while I’m still not due, and stay at home to take care of me after the New Year.”
“But your belly is so swollen, how could you stay here on your own?!”
“Why not? Which woman doesn’t live like this?”
“How about I hire someone for you! At least until the new year, do you know anyone in this village who would be suitable?”
Mo Ling said, “We’re not a wealthy family, if we hire someone from outside the family, we’ll get talked about behind our backs. How about we hire eldest sister-in-law? After all, fertile water shouldn’t flow to others’ fields.”
Zhong Cheng’s eldest sister-in-law Mrs. Jiang was a kind person, and had experience due to her two pregnancies. As she was also part of the family, Mo Yan thought she was easily the best choice.
“Then I’ll go to eldest sister-in-law’s now and talk to her about this.”
Mo Yan took some of the snacks she had brought over. In the winter, people of agricultural families are all idle, so Mr. and Mrs. Zhong were playing with their two grandchildren in the courtyard while Mrs. Jiang was feeding the chickens and ducks at the south of the courtyard.
Seeing Mo Yan come in, the two elderlies said politely, “Our in-laws have arrived? Come, take a seat.”
Mo Yan handed over the snacks in her hand, “Just a little something for the children.”
Mrs. Zhong repeatedly said, “You’re too polite, we’re all of the same family, so it really isn’t necessary.”
“I’ve come here today because I want to hire someone to take care of my sister. With her being in her later stages of her pregnancy and brother-in-law often being out and about for work, her staying at home alone is very worrying.”
After eldest sister-in-law finished feeding the chickens, she came over and said, “I go over to check on her every now and then. We live near each other, so if there’s anyone, I’ll be able to hear her just by hollering. Why would you need to spend money on hiring someone?”
Mo Yan greeted Mrs. Jiang, “I have to thank eldest sister-in-law, because you’re the person I would like to hire. I’ll pay you two silver taels every month. Please take care of my sister, and stay over at her house if my brother-in-law is unavailable. If she has any cravings, please try your best to take care of them, but if you aren’t able to, ask someone to go to Qianshui Town to send me a message, and I’ll handle it.”
Mrs. Jiang’s face bore a smile, and she tugged on her clothes abashedly, her eyes flickering towards her parents-in-law from time to time, “We’re all part of the same family, how could I accept money?”
Who knew when second sister-in-law Mrs. Lin had entered, but she said, “Since we’ve already split families, we’re no longer part of the same family, why should eldest sister-in-law act as a good Samaritan for no pay? If you don’t accept this job, I will, after all, who made it so that my natal family is so poor! I can only act as someone’s servant.”
Mo Yan didn’t even want to look at her, and continued to talk to Mrs. Jiang, “Eldest sister-in-law, then we’ve agreed. The salary will be paid from now on, thank you for taking care of my sister.” After saying that, she handed two silver taels over.
Mrs. Jiang looked at her parents-in-law again, and Mrs. Zhong said, “Since she’s given you the money, take it and keep her heart at ease. In the future, when your nephew has been born, just give the child a red packet.”
Mrs. Jiang took the money, and was so happy she couldn’t close her mouth, “Don’t worry, I’ll definitely take good care of your sister.”
Mo Yan bade farewell to the two elderlies, and departed with Mrs. Jiang without even acknowledging Mrs. Lin in the slightest. She was so angry she spat at them behind their backs, “Pei! You insolent whelp, running over to others’ courtyards to flaunt!”
The two elderlies couldn’t do anything about their second daughter-in-law. She wasn’t competent enough to do anything, but was a deft hand at causing chaos.
Mr. Zhong asked, “Second daughter-in-law, what do you want?”
Second sister-in-law immediately adopted a fake smile, “My conception medicine has almost run out. Can I borrow a few dollars from you two to buy some medicine tomorrow?”
“Both of you are young and strong, while the two of us are old and weak, and your eldest brother-in-law is a cripple. What money do we have to spare?”
Mrs. Lin rolled her eyes and said, “But you have a lot of land! Not only do you eat little, eldest sister-in-law raises chickens and ducks, isn’t that all money you can spare? Besides, didn’t eldest sister-in-law just receive two silver taels? Lend me one of them, I’ll definitely return it by the end of the year.”
P.S. And here we see the predatory nature of Ms. Liang and Zhong Cheng’s second sister-in-law. Thanks for reading!