Just as Yue Jiuyue was hesitating about whether to hold an artificial rainmaking event while there were still a few villagers around, Liu's family came to her door.
“We’re going to the south. I heard there’s a lot of rain there, so there’s definitely no shortage of water. We’ll have a way to survive there.”
"I came here this time to ask my in-laws for some travel expenses. I heard that the emperor rewarded my mother-in-law with five hundred taels of gold. We don't need to borrow too much, three or five hundred taels of silver will do. After all, we still need to buy a carriage. We're not going to escape famine. We can't just walk, can we?"
The one speaking was Liu Houshi, Liu's biological mother.
"Mother! Where did you hear all this? The emperor only gave you five hundred taels of silver, not five hundred taels of gold! We spent that money building houses, buying land, building walls, and buying water for irrigation. It's all gone by now!"
Since taking over the household, Madam Liu has become much more assertive, and she even dares to talk back to her own mother.
"Well, didn't your family sell sweet potatoes last year? Besides, how much money does it cost to build two houses? How much money does it cost to buy land, build walls, and buy water? You are my own daughter, how can I side with outsiders? Even if the emperor rewarded your mother-in-law with five hundred taels of silver, I won't borrow more. Just lend me one hundred taels of silver, okay?"
Lady Liu was taken aback by the news that five hundred taels of gold had turned into five hundred taels of silver, but she had only come to "borrow money." Since her in-laws didn't have as much money as she had thought, she would be generous and borrow less.
"One hundred taels! Mother, my dear mother! I think you'd be better off robbing someone to make the money faster!"
Liu rolled her eyes, quite dissatisfied with her mother's exorbitant demands, and immediately launched into a sarcastic remark.
"Hey! You silly girl! How can you not tell the difference between your family and your mother? Even though I haven't been able to help you much in the years since you got married, you still have to be filial to your mother, even if it's just because I helped you get two new clothes from your sister-in-law when you got married, so you could have a decent wedding!"
The fact that Liu was able to marry in a "glorious" manner made Liu Houshi believe that she had Liu Houshi under her control. After all, Liu was so miserable at home that she didn't even have a decent set of clothes to wear when she got married. If it weren't for her, Liu would have had to get married in tattered clothes.
“Mother! I call you Mother because you gave birth to me, so that’s the only way I can call you that. As for the dress I wore on my wedding night, don’t even mention it. Do you think I don’t know? The reason my sister-in-law reluctantly gave me a dress with frayed cuffs is because you gave all the betrothal gifts from my husband’s family to my sister-in-law. Don’t bring it up again and make people laugh.”
Thinking about the dowry her in-laws had given her, which ended up in her sister-in-law's hands, Liu was so angry that she gritted her teeth and wished she could bite off a piece of her sister-in-law's flesh!
She had never seen the betrothal gifts, but at the time she thought they were all in her parents' hands. She thought that since Lady Liu was her own mother, she hadn't made a fool of herself on her wedding day, so she would consider the betrothal gifts as a way for her to show her filial piety to her parents.
It's only natural for children to be filial to their parents, but where is there a sister-in-law who's filial to her sister-in-law?!
"Well, that's all in the past, let's not talk about it anymore. Let's continue talking about the travel expenses. I've come all this way, you can't expect me to go back empty-handed, can you?"
Lady Liu was surprised that Lady Liu knew about it, so she could only awkwardly change the subject.
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