Transmigrated Farmgirl's Scheme to Get Rich - Chapter 243
Familial Conflict
When she returned home, Xiuying happily talked about how she had successfully rented a courtyard in town. But before she finished, Mrs. Liang’s face had already darkened. “What’s the point of randomly renting a courtyard, you’re wasting money. It’s not like you don’t have a house of your own. Do you just want to leave your new house empty? There are still chickens here! There’s still land that needs to be tended to!”
Mrs. Liang’s words had ruined Xiuying’s good mood. She lowered her head to eat, and only thought of something after a while. “But I’ve already handed the deposit over.”
“How much did you hand over?” Mrs. Liang asked in dissatisfaction.
“How can I let you manage the household finances like this! You’re spending so recklessly with such a few coins in your pockets. If you carry on spending money so recklessly, we won’t be able to earn any money in our lifetimes.”
Xiuying said hurtfully, “I was just thinking that we wouldn’t need to go back and forth such a long way if we rented a courtyard. If you relocate there with Jing’er, then we’ll be able to handle everything that might come up. I only had this notion because I saw Mo Ling had done the same.”
“Why are you learning from her? She doesn’t have anyone to help take care of her child, so she has no choice but to cough the money up. You have me to take care of your son. He’s the apple of my eye, and I care more about my grandson than anything else in the world, so what harm can befall him? Take the deposit back tomorrow, we aren’t renting the courtyard anymore and wasting money for nothing.”
At night, Xiuying complained that Mo Feng hadn’t helped speak up for her, but he said, “I already said that you shouldn’t rent a courtyard in town, but you refused to listen, and now you got scolded! If my mother’s unwilling, what can I do?”
At this moment, Xiuying was really envious of Mo Ling. Although she didn’t have anyone of the older generation to help her out, so her days were more tiring, she was more free. She could do whatever she wanted and no one would stop her.
The next day, Xiuying went back to Duan Manor to retrieve her deposit. Through the moon-shaped door of the east courtyard, she saw Mo Ling playing with Zao’er.
Why could they live in such a nice courtyard, while she had to run back and forth every day, not having a chance to see her son. The money was earned by her, but she had no right to spend it, and had to hand it all to Mrs. Liang. Wasn’t she just the ‘servant girl’ Mrs. Li called her?
After thinking about how Mrs. Liang wasn’t even forty yet, who knew how many years it’d be before her time as a servant girl would end.
It was lucky that the owner of Duan Manor was congenial and returned the deposit to her. Xiuying took the money and returned to her shop.
Mo Feng was as lazy as always. Aside from walking around and browsing the various shops in the alleyway, he was staring into space inside the storefront. Xiuying had a belly full of rage but nowhere to vent it towards, so yelled at him, “Mo Feng, why can you only stare into space? Can’t you be a little more energetic?”
Mo Feng replied nonchalantly, “There’s only so much activity inside the storefront, and everything else is women’s work.”
Xiuying slammed her cleaver down on the chopping board, and said angrily, “If that’s all women’s work, what about the earned money? Why isn’t it spent by women?”
Mo Feng still didn’t understand why she was so angry. “Isn’t most of the money spent on you and Jing’er? I don’t spend much money, and my mother’s even more frugal.”
“Then in the future, don’t give the money you earned to your mother. We’ll keep it to ourselves.”
“We can’t do that. Otherwise, your natal family will try and take it from us again.”
This sentence infuriated Xiuyin beyond belief. With such a useless natal family, she couldn’t even stand up for herself in her husband’s family.
Xiuying grabbed her cleaver again, and angrily went back to work.
Looking at Mo Ling and Xiuying beside them, the two were currently placing a tray of tofu inside the racks of the storefront. Mo Ling was short, so had to stand on her tiptoes to place the tray on the racks. When Zhong Cheng used too much strength while placing the tray of tofu, Mo Ling staggered and only avoided tripping by holding onto the racks.
Mo Ling raised her hand to slap Zhong Cheng. “You almost made me fall over!”
Zhong Cheng dodged her palm and said with a smile, “I just wanted to use a little more strength so you didn’t have to work so hard, but who knew I didn’t have a good handle on it.”
Mo Ling continued to hit him, but he grabbed both of her hands and whispered into her ear, “Alright, don’t make such a ruckus, we still need to work.”
Mo Ling pushed him away with a rapidly reddening face. “Go and get the tofu skins, I need to make snacks.”
Zhong Cheng handed over a tray of tofu skins, and then Mo Ling told him to go chop onions. Zhong Cheng did everything she said with an affirmation and without complaint.
That was a true couple’s store. The husband and wife helped each other out, and no matter how tired they were, they were still happy.
Xiuying took a look at Mo Feng, who was focused on the passersby, and couldn’t help but sigh, “Husband, go back home to plant the Chinese foxglove seeds! It’s not like there’s anything for you to do here.”
“My mother knows how to do that, there’s no need.”
“Then go back to watch over our son. She has to raise him and work all on her own, how can she handle it?”
Mo Feng was irritated by her complaints, and disgruntledly went back home. Without him milling about, she felt better about working, and Xiuying greeted the customers who came by with a smile.
Today’s business wasn’t bad, and they’d earned more than usual. Xiuying did a quick tally, and they’d earned a hundred dollars more than yesterday. If she gave every single dollar to Mrs. Liang, she wouldn’t give her a compliment, so why not take out the excess money and save it for herself?
Xiuying took out a hundred dollars, wrapping it with a handkerchief and placing it inside her purse.
When she got back home that night, Mrs. Liang was making dinner in the kitchen. She didn’t have Mo Jing with her, so Mo Feng was probably looking after him inside the house.
Xiuying greeted Mrs. Liang and placed the earnings on the table before going to her house. She saw her son sleeping on the bed, Mo Feng watching over her from the side.
“How is he asleep at this time? After he gets enough sleep now, he’ll wake up and cause a ruckus at night again.”
Mo Feng turned to say, “He got exhausted after crying, let him sleep for a while longer!”
Xiuying went closer to take a look, and saw a white cloth wrapped around the child’s head. “What happened to him?”
Mo Feng took her to the side, “Don’t make too much noise. He just fell from the bed, it’s no big deal.”
“No big deal?! How old is he, he hit his head and you’re saying that it’s no big deal! What would need to happen to him, then?”
“Mother saw that he had fallen asleep, so rushed to plant the Chinese foxgloves. Who knew that he had crawled off the bed as soon as he woke up. We don’t know how he crawled off either, don’t children only learn when they’re eight months old?”
“Then how about you? What did I call you back home for? If you are neither taking care of our son nor working, are you just a decoration?”
They spoke too loudly, and woke Mo Jing up. The child started crying again, and Xiuying rushed over to hold him and calm him down. “Good boy, don’t cry, does your head hurt?” After saying that, tears started flowing from her eyes uncontrollably.
Outside, Mrs. Liang called them out to eat, and Xiuying replied ill-temperedly, “I’m not eating. My son’s currently in such a state, who has any appetite to eat!”
Mrs. Liang also felt pain when her grandson fell, but she couldn’t condone her daughter-in-law being so impolite to her.
Mrs. Liang slapped the table and said, “If you aren’t eating, forget it. I wasted my time working inside and outside the house all day! I’m more cut up about your grandson being hurt than you, but there’s no point in feeling bad for him when you can’t take away his pain.”
Xiuying said while sobbing, “I’ll raise my son myself from now on. If you want to run the storefront, run it yourselves, otherwise, close it. The money isn’t going into my hands anyways, I don’t need to appease you and lose time with my child.”
Mrs. Liang was unwilling to back down. “If you want to close the shop, do it. The money’s all spent on you anyways, I’m just a worker here!”
P.S. Ten quid says that Xiuying runs away somehow. Thanks for reading!