"Zhou Lao Er's wife is in charge of making dried fruit, fruit preserves, and fruit wine. There aren't any fruits yet; we'll have to wait until autumn. You should join Zhou Lao San's wife and San Ya to help Liu Shi with cooking and housework. Now that there are more people in the family, she can't manage it all by herself."
Fourth Sister, Fifth Sister, Sixth Sister, and Wednesday and Thursday, you five sisters can follow Little Man. You don't usually have to do anything, so you can go wherever you want or help out. But you can't hold back during the busy farming season.
The division of labor is like this, but I made it clear when I was at the brokerage: you're not just supposed to do the little bit of work I assigned you. You need to go to the fields when you're supposed to. In the countryside, don't expect to be idle, unless it's raining or it's winter.
Yue Jiuyue knew nothing about this family except that they were surnamed Zhou, so she called them just like the other villagers, as long as they knew she was calling them.
Just like she said, she bought them to help her with chores, and as long as they weren't involved in any wrongdoing, it didn't matter.
She is curious, but not overly so; she still cherishes her life.
Granny Zhou had no reason to hesitate. Taking care of a child meant being with the child for every single hour. She was now bound to Dazhuang. As long as she took good care of Dazhuang, she wouldn't have to worry about being expelled in the next few years.
Of course, she had signed a contract of servitude, so her only worry was being sent back to the brokerage firm, but even the brokerage firm didn't want her anymore.
Everyone else went about their own business: some were looking for cats, some were feeding cows, and some were learning how to plant fruit trees. Zhou Lao Er and Zhou Lao San's wives, along with San Ya, followed behind Liu Shi, doing whatever Liu Shi did.
The five children ranged in age from twelve to six, a perfect age gap that provided someone to play with and someone to watch over them. They were all following behind Xiaoman, waiting for her. Xiaoman was overjoyed to suddenly have five playmates, completely forgetting about her younger brother. She ran off with them, squealing and shouting.
This left Daya, who was supposed to teach Xiaoman sew, standing there somewhat at a loss. Should she go and keep Xiaoman company, or stay here and do housework with her mother, aunt, and third sister?
Yue Jiuyue looked at Daya and thought that although the family had a lot of fabric and needles and thread, she was not a professional and did not know if the ones she had chosen would be usable. So she asked Daya to come into the house with her and took out all the things so that Daya could see if she needed to buy anything else.
"Da Ya, can we use these fabrics? What about needles and thread? These were recommended by the cloth shop owner. No one in my family knows how to do this, so we just buy whatever the owner recommends. See if we need anything else. We'll go to the cloth shop in town to buy them in a little while. If they don't have them in town, we can go to the county town. We have a horse-drawn carriage at home, so we'll be back this afternoon."
Daya looked at it carefully, but didn't reach out and rummage around. Her hands weren't as smooth as they used to be, and she was afraid of accidentally snagging the fabric or messing up the threads.
"Yes, Madam, these are enough. The young lady is a beginner now, so these are fine for practicing. Once she has learned how to use them, we can use better fabrics."
Daya rubbed her hands together a few times, hiding them in her sleeves, wondering if she would ever have another chance to hold the embroidery needle.
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