Chapter 730 A Dream of Youth 262
"Sister-in-law, what's this?"
Only then did Li notice Wu, who was walking out of the courtyard gate with an oil-paper umbrella. She immediately looked a little embarrassed. "Well, it's evening now, time to cook."
"Bullshit," Wu thought to herself, speechless for a moment. She had only just finished lunch, not to mention she had eaten some snacks earlier. Who would cook so early?
We've been eating together for the past few days. Since we bought a lot of ingredients for the funeral, we were too lazy to divide them up, so we just cooked dishes and the three families ate together.
Li knew her reason was lame and was secretly annoyed.
However, she was too lazy to argue, and dragged her old man towards the third house.
After a moment's thought, Wu guessed what Li was thinking. She put the incense sticks into the bamboo tube by the door frame, turned around and went back to the courtyard to tell her second uncle about it.
"That can't be," the second uncle said incredulously, his voice low. "Didn't my sister-in-law say that a married daughter is like water spilled from a bowl? Daughters belong to other families..."
"You believe what I just said offhand? Although my sister-in-law values her son and grandson more, she treats Qi Ya and the others just as well." We've been sisters-in-law for so many years, we all know each other well.
"I think my sister-in-law came up with this idea in order to put her in a superior position."
Anyone with eyes can see that the second and third wives are more successful than the first wife. The eldest son of the first wife is a lazy and complacent man, but Li is not.
"What's the point of talking about suppression?"
The second uncle shook his head. "The eldest son is the head of the family, and we must respect him no matter what. Besides, my sister-in-law is always thinking of the eldest son's best interests..."
Wu nodded, feeling that Li must be feeling very aggrieved. She had always been strong-willed, but both her husband and son were easygoing and only wanted to get by.
They don't have that much ambition.
If this weren't the eldest son's wife, it would be fine, but being the eldest son's wife puts you in a very awkward position. Generally, the eldest son's wife in a family is in charge of the household and his younger brothers and sisters, so he can't be weaker than any other son's wife, otherwise he won't have any authority.
However, the Xie family's situation is a little different, because they have already separated.
Otherwise, they would definitely quarrel over interests, and their relationship might actually be better after they separate.
Speaking of this, the second uncle looked at his small family with a worried expression. In his family, the second son was more successful than the eldest son, but the eldest son was more ambitious than his elder brother.
Although Dalang is not good at studying and has no skills or accounting abilities, he is diligent in farming and has recently come up with the idea of planting fruit trees, saying that he can use the fruit to make sweet jam to sell.
He didn't understand, but he didn't object either. He had to take a chance. Even if he lost money, the land at home could still provide food for his children.
The rain outside the window gradually subsided, and the birds that had been sheltering from the rain flapped their wings and leaped into the floating clouds.
Xie Ning, who was discussing matters in the courtyard where the third branch of the family lived, saw that Li Shi had brought people over. He stood up, bowed, and then smiled apologetically at the clan elders. Together with Xie Wangzhi, he saw them off at the door, saying, "We juniors don't understand. We will trouble the clan chief and elders with the matter of ancestor worship."
As she watched the several elders, all over fifty years old and leaning on canes, leave, she was honestly surprised when she learned the purpose of their visit.
Xie Ning never expected that they wanted to include her in the family genealogy, to have a separate biography for her in the section on Xie Wangzhi's biography.
Although it has not yet escaped the shadow of patriarchy, this can be considered progress.
Xie Ning wouldn't refuse such a thing. Right now, it's just adding a short biography to Xie Wangzhi's page. Who knows if she'll get her a separate page in the family tree in the future?
She may not need this kind of special treatment and honor, but she does need the influence this page of the family tree brings, and the influence on certain ideas.
Undeniably, even the modern society she experienced had not completely escaped the shadow of the patriarchal system, let alone the feudal ancient society.
Sometimes, sweeping reforms cannot directly change the entire society; the black ink in history books reveals bloody lessons.
The society here is relatively peaceful and has its own set of rules. What she needs to do is to use these rules to subtly change things.
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