Jiang Wanwan felt a little uncomfortable and moved slightly away, taking the handkerchief from Grandma Jiang's hand. "Grandma, I bought a lot of things. Please help me carry them in so that others don't see them."

"Okay, Grandma will listen to her eldest granddaughter. Grandma will go and move the things now."

As she spoke, Grandma Jiang scurried out of the courtyard gate.

The Jiang family members also went out to help move things, leaving only Madam Lu and Jiang Wanwan in the courtyard.

Mrs. Lu walked up to Jiang Wanwan and looked at her daughter with heartache.

"Wanwan, you've been traveling back and forth all this time, you must be exhausted." She gently tucked a stray strand of hair that had fallen onto Jiang Wanwan's face behind her ear.

The daughter's fair complexion had darkened considerably from all the running around. But she also looked more energetic. Her bright, sparkling eyes, as black as obsidian, were strikingly beautiful.

Jiang Wanwan smiled faintly, "Mother, I'm not tired, not at all. It's you who's been busy making mosquito coils all day, you've worked so hard."

“Mom isn’t tired at all. Compared to the days when we had to work even when we weren’t full, life is much better now. We can eat our fill every meal, and the work isn’t tiring. I don’t have to worry about you.”

As the mother and daughter were talking, Grandma Jiang entered the yard carrying two plump, bearded chickens. She smiled like a chrysanthemum, "Granddaughter, you bought two more hens. Perfect, they'll start laying eggs after we raise them for a while."

"Grandma, this chicken isn't for laying eggs; it's for tonight's meal," Jiang Wanwan said slowly.

Just as Jiang Wanwan thought that killing a bearded hen would require a lot of persuasion, to her surprise, Grandma Jiang threw the two chickens into the yard without saying a word, and then nimbly darted into the kitchen. "Alright, Grandma will boil water and kill the chickens right away!"

No one can take her job away from her!

This time, she wants to win back the favor her eldest granddaughter has earned.

Jiang Wanwan couldn't help but sigh once again, realizing that economic status truly determines one's position within the family.

In the past, Grandpa Jiang and Grandma Jiang had the final say in the family, but now everyone naturally takes her word for it.

Jiang Wanwan gestured to Erkang, wanting to ask Grandma Jiang to wait a moment, but the old lady was already busy working in the kitchen.

The things I bought in the county town were piled up in the yard.

This time, Jiang Wanwan bought a lot of fabric.

There were brightly colored fabrics that women loved, as well as light-colored fabrics that men often wore.

In addition to coarse cotton cloth, there were also several bolts of light-colored fine cotton cloth.

Old Jiang's family used to be extremely poor. They couldn't afford new clothes even if they didn't wear them for three or four years in a row, let alone a whole year. Apart from her own clothes, which were relatively better, everyone else's clothes were worn out and tattered. The original color of the clothes was no longer visible, and the whole garment was faded, frayed, and patched in several places.

Jiang Wanwan had been so focused on her business the past few days that she completely forgot to buy some fabric to make clothes for her family. Today, after selling her mosquito coils early, she remembered the idea when she passed by a clothing store while shopping.

She pointed to several bolts of cloth on the ground and said, “I bought a lot of cloth to make two sets of clothes for everyone, one set of fine cotton and one set of coarse cotton. The undergarments should be close-fitting and comfortable to wear, so both sets should be made of fine cotton.”

"We can wear fine cotton clothes when we go out, and people will look at us with more respect. But we also need coarse cotton clothes, since we do a lot of farm work."

"Oh, great! I have new clothes to wear too!" The boys were even more excited than during the New Year, clapping their hands and jumping around a few times.