Chapter 637 New Year's Gift
The fact that Li's mother, Li's sister-in-law, and Li's third sister-in-law gave gifts to Wu Qiaolan and Baoya was kept low-key because the three of them approached Wu Qiaolan privately and she wasn't the type to flaunt her gains. This prevented any trouble from happening in the Li family.
The next day, Wu Qiaolan still had the same expression as usual. She didn't mention that she had received a thank-you gift from Li's mother and the others, nor did she take out the hairpin that Li San Niang had bought for her to wear.
Therefore, Li Ersao was unaware of the key to this and continued to treat Wu Qiaolan as usual.
Although it's true that when giving a thank-you gift, if it's for a major event, the gift should be given in front of others. After all, the point of a thank-you gift is gratitude, not just the gift itself, but to give the person face in a tangible way.
But who could blame them when the Li family had a jealous second sister-in-law?
If Li's mother and the other two weren't worried that if they gave these gifts to Wu Qiaolan in front of everyone, especially Li's second sister-in-law, they might say or do something inappropriate, then they would be lying.
In fact, Li's mother and the others deliberately chose to send gifts to Wu Qiaolan in private because they were afraid that Li's second sister-in-law would think "why should Wu Qiaolan receive these thank-you gifts" and say something sarcastic or do something underhanded in the future.
It's all just a matter of human nature and the human heart.
After all, if Li Ersao really treated Wu Qiaolan differently, what should Li's mother say and do?
Li Ersao is Li Erxiong's wife. Not only are they husband and wife, but Li Ersao also has three sons with Li Erxiong. If they don't care about Li Erxiong's feelings, then they have to consider the feelings of Li Sanlang, Xiao Silang, and Xiao Wulang.
Therefore, it is quite understandable that Li's mother and the others chose to give Wu Qiaolan gifts privately.
As the year draws to a close, Chang'an City is becoming increasingly lively, with caravans and pedestrians bringing a festive atmosphere to this city of one million people.
In the past few days, Li's mother has been carefully considering the list of New Year's gifts to send to various families. For close relatives by marriage, such as Li's uncle's family, Dr. Gao's family, the Jiang family, and the Wu family, they are all old relatives, so she can just follow the old custom.
If there are any differences, such as a new addition to the family or a passing of someone, then a slight increase or decrease is acceptable.
In addition, the families that Mr. and Mrs. Li had known for many years also followed the old customs.
Li's mother was mainly considering families who had only recently started associating with the Li family and had only exchanged New Year's gifts once last year. These families needed careful consideration.
Actually, they are mainly Li Da Xiong's colleagues, and this year we also have to add Li Er Lang's colleagues who have already entered officialdom. These are the social interactions of the Li family's eldest branch.
Normally, all of this should be handled by Li's eldest sister-in-law, but isn't this year a special case?
Sister-in-law Li gave birth to Xiao Liulang, and she hasn't even finished her postpartum confinement yet. How could she possibly take care of these things?
Furthermore, since Li Dalang was stationed at the border and had not yet married, only Li's mother could keep an eye on these matters.
As for the second branch of the Li family, it was mostly due to Li Erxiong's connections in the herbal medicine business, plus at most a few ulcer doctors whom Li Erxiong later met at the Imperial Medical Academy with whom he had a good relationship.
And this was mostly handled by Brother Li himself.
The most difficult situation for Li's mother was actually with Li San Niang. Ever since Li San Niang became the first female doctor in Chang'an, especially since she had saved many women and young ladies from wealthy families and taught at the Imperial Medical Academy, she had accumulated quite a few connections.
Li San Niang herself was busy with her daily duties at the medical clinic, and when she had free time, she was too busy to handle these social obligations.
In addition, since the divorce, Li San Niang has been living in the Li family, and apart from Qiu Xiang, her female bodyguard, she has no one else by her side.
So in the end, it was Li's mother who faced the most difficulties and was also the one who was the busiest.
When Li San Niang returned home from work that day, she saw her mother facing a large stack of New Year's gift lists from various families, and only then did she gain a profound understanding of the interpersonal relationships within her family.
Li San Niang picked up Lu Zhu'er and let her sit on her left arm. She used her right hand to look through the items on the floor, table, and small table in the main hall. Li San Niang looked at her mother, who was checking several gift lists, with great surprise: "Mother, why are you so old?"
Didn't we already send quite a few over the past few days?
Li's mother didn't even raise her head, her eyes still fixed on the gift list. As she looked at it, she opened the wooden box on the table to check the list while replying to Li San Niang: "Two days ago, those were gifts from your eldest brother's colleagues. Today, most of the gifts are because of you."
Seeing that her mother was too busy to talk to her properly, Li San Niang quickly put down the dewdrop in her arms and let her play by herself. Then, Li San Niang took two gift lists from her mother and checked them together.
Before Li San Niang even opened the gift list, she said to her mother, "It's my fault. I knew that with the end of the year approaching, everyone would be busy with their New Year's gifts, but I didn't expect it to be this busy."
"Or, Mother, let's go to the street and hire an accountant to come and help out at home for a few days."
Upon hearing Li San Niang's words, Li's mother raised her head, put down the gift list in her hand, shook her head at Li San Niang, and explained, "That's inappropriate."
If that's the case, then we'll inevitably have to explain our family's social interactions to outsiders in detail.
If our family were an official family that had been in government for many years, we could simply hire a steward to help us.
But in our family, your eldest brother and eldest son are both military officers, and although your second son is a civil official, he is only a junior official who has just entered the officialdom. How can we use such a grand display?
If we actually invite someone to come over, I'm afraid the neighbors will start gossiping about us.
And you've forgotten, most of the relationships you've established are with the women of various families. The gifts they give us are because of your medical treatment for them. Therefore, it's even more important to keep our family's relationship with them confidential, especially when it involves the health of these women.
After saying all that, Li's mother put down the list of gifts she had just finished counting, picked up another list of gifts beside her, and continued to say to Li San Niang while looking at it: "It's alright now, I can manage, it's just that I'm the only one busy this year, so it looks a bit busy."
"Next year, with your sister-in-law helping me, I won't need to do this anymore."
Li San Niang quickly looked at her mother in a flattering manner: "Thank you, Mother. It is I who have troubled you."
"My mother was tired, but she kept saying, 'Qiuxiang and I will definitely be able to finish this in a few days.'"
Mother Li smiled and gave Li San Niang a reproachful look, "You, you always know how to sweet-talk your mother."
Alright, today you and Qiu Xiang just need to finish ordering the stack of food you have on hand.
Li San Niang didn't presume to be presumptuous. She called Qiu Xiang to help her. Li San Niang read out the items on the gift list, and Qiu Xiang went to count them.
The two working together were definitely faster than Li's mother doing things alone.
Through this process, Li San Niang gradually realized that most of the New Year's gifts sent to the Li family that were related to her came from families who had previously sought her medical treatment.
The Qian and Gao families were among the first to know Li San Niang, followed by the families of physicians who were acquainted with her, such as the Tang family (Tang Mingyue and Chen Yanfu), then there were the old physicians, Dr. Li and Dr. Cui, who worked at the clinic where Li San Niang was on duty, and Dr. Sun, whom she met through the Imperial Medical Bureau.
In addition to these, there were also physicians such as Wang Ye and Bi Yuanjia who were connected through the exchange hall and physician exchange meetings founded by Li San Niang.
Although not entirely unexpected, it was still somewhat surprising that the gift lists of several of Master Liang's disciples, as well as the New Year's gifts sent by the young boy from Shaoyang to Master Liang, were all in Li San Niang's hands at this moment.
"Mother, what's this?" Li San Niang held up several gift lists in her hand, looking at her mother with great confusion. "How did they end up here?"
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