Chapter 74 Preemptive Strike
They were the younger generation and it was inappropriate for them to criticize the couple. However, when Xiao Yang came back to wish them a Happy New Year, one of them kept a bitter face and didn't say a word, as if Xiao Yang owed them eight hundred coins. The other started cursing without any regard for the fact that it was still the first day of the Lunar New Year.
Xiao Yang asked them to redeem him, but they remained silent, as if their mouths had been sewn shut.
How dare you say Xiao Yang has no conscience?
Xiao Yang's older siblings also felt sorry for their younger sister, but they were all struggling to make a living in this family and didn't dare to give their parents disapproving looks like their cousins did.
Daya held the little snack her sister had given her, feeling very sad, but she didn't dare to shed a single tear.
Er Ya held her sister's hand tightly, wishing for the first time that she could get married soon and leave this family.
She thought that once she got married, she would be able to save up some money and secretly help her younger sister out. However, she forgot that it wasn't only her own parents who would leave her penniless. If she were to be married to unreasonable in-laws, her married life would only be more difficult than before.
In arranged marriages where the bride's parents choose her husband based on the dowry, whether she ends up with a decent husband's family is entirely a matter of luck.
Not long after Xiaoyang left, her clansmen also left one after another.
Unbeknownst to them, the moment Xiaoyang's mother stepped out of the courtyard, she reached out and took the package that Xiaoyang had given to Daya.
Upon opening the package, they found only a small packet of hemp leaves, which filled the couple with both disappointment and anger.
Since going to Xie Wanniang's place, Xiao Yang has gotten fatter every day, and he wears new clothes without any patches.
The couple knew she was doing well, so they wanted her to find ways to help support their family. However, Xiao Yang seemed to be glued to Xie Wan Niang, making it difficult for them to find opportunities to spend time alone with her.
On a few occasions, Xie Wanniang managed to ruin everything, albeit by sheer coincidence.
On important occasions like the Mid-Autumn Festival, Laba Festival, and Chinese New Year, Xiao Yang could rightfully return home, but he always spent them with Xie Wan Niang.
They have many children, and Xiaoyang is a girl who is not favored. The two of them don't mind whether Xiaoyang spends the holidays with them or not. What they mind is that Xiaoyang never thinks about going home during special times like the Lunar New Year, and she has never thought about supporting her parents and her two older brothers.
This is clearly a sign she's gotten too big for her britches and isn't even close to them, her own blood relatives. They can forget about benefiting from her anymore. How can this be allowed?
If they weren't afraid that Xie Wanniang would ask them for money, forcing them to either pay to ransom Xiao Yang or shut up and lose face, they would have gone directly to Xie Wanniang's door and asked her to let Xiao Yang go home for the New Year.
Now that Xiao Yang has finally returned, before they could even take advantage of her, she made them lose face in front of their clansmen.
If that were all, it would be fine, but all she brought them was a small packet of hemp leaves!
Who could possibly eat such a small amount? Not to mention that they were originally hoping that Xiao Yang could bring back some valuable things like meat, vegetables, candy, and pastries.
Jiang Yuan and Hao Yu bought so many New Year's goods, and that brat Xie made delicious food every day, making their mouths water. Now it's winter, and anything left outside will freeze solid and won't spoil. Why didn't Xiao Yang hide some for them to eat?
She's such a tiny little girl, yet she eats so well and so much that she's gained weight, and she doesn't even know to save a little to take home. It's absolutely outrageous!
The couple looked extremely pale, and Xiaoyang's older siblings didn't dare to breathe. On the contrary, her relatives told their families what Xiaoyang's parents had done after they got home.
The news spread like wildfire, and soon everyone in the village knew about it.
There were all sorts of opinions, but overall, more villagers sympathized with Xiaoyang. In particular, Chen Lizheng and Liu Jiawu Taiye both gave Xiaoyang's father another dressing down after hearing about the incident.
Having temporarily subdued the restless couple, Xie Wanniang was satisfied. She had already decided that once her new house was built, she would begin teaching Xiaoyang to read and do arithmetic.
This child is so sensible and well-behaved that it breaks your heart. There are too many uncertainties in the future, and Xie Wanniang is not sure she can protect her for a lifetime. So she wants to teach her as much knowledge and skills as possible so that even if she leaves her one day, she can continue to live a good life.
Villagers usually visit each other in the morning to exchange New Year's greetings. After noon, most people stay at home to catch up on sleep.
Hao Yu and Jiang Yuan did the same. After lunch, they washed the pots and pans and went back to their respective rooms to rest.
Xie Wanniang, who had gone to sleep after eating dumplings, wasn't sleepy, but she didn't continue embroidering. Instead, she sat with Xiaoyang in the warm room playing cat's cradle.
She taught Xiaoyang many tricks. The little girl usually did chores and learned how to do chores. Xie Wanniang felt that such a childhood would inevitably bring regrets in the future, so she took advantage of this rare free time to teach Xiaoyang how to make cat's cradle.
She also plans to make a beanbag for the little girl in the future, so that she can have another form of entertainment.
The two of them took turns teaching and learning, and soon Xiaoyang forgot the slight unpleasantness that had come from visiting relatives for the New Year that morning.
She comforted herself, knowing that her parents didn't care about her situation anyway, and that she already knew it when she got sick and was abandoned, so there was no need to be sad about their attitude every time.
The second day of the Lunar New Year is the day when married daughters return to their parents' home. Although Wang Xiaozhi has an older sister-in-law who also returns to her parents' home, her parents-in-law are not the type to keep their daughter-in-law at home to serve their daughter.
Every year, the daughters-in-law of their family would go back to their parents' home early, accompanied by their husbands, to pay New Year's greetings to their parents.
At first, Wang Xiaozhi was just like them, staying at her parents' house until the afternoon or even evening before returning home. But since her father passed away and Jiang Yuan moved to Hao Yu's house, Wang Xiaozhi has stopped doing that.
Although Hao Yu was very warm towards her and Chen Zhao and liked her two children very much, she still couldn't truly treat this place as her own family home.
Even though Hao Yu and Jiang Yuan tried to persuade her to stay, she would still go home after lunch.
This year was no different. After having a sumptuous lunch with Hao Yu, Jiang Yuan, Xie Wanniang, and Xiao Yang, Wang Xiaozhi left behind the things she had brought for everyone and went home with her husband and children.
Their family divided the property on the sixth day of the Lunar New Year. So when Wang Xiaozhi and her sisters-in-law went back to their parents' home, Mr. and Mrs. Chen gave them a task—to invite their respective family members to come to the Chen family home on the sixth day of the Lunar New Year to witness the old couple dividing the property among their sons.
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