Chen Hong was both amused and annoyed by her question: "You little rascal, how come you have such a strong gossipy nature?"
"You've only been in Yujia Village for a few days, and you've already learned to join in the fun like the village aunties and grandmas?"
After teasing Fang Xiaoying a couple of times, Chen Hong briefly explained the whole story to the gossipy family.
After hearing Chen Hong's story, even Guan Tao couldn't help but gasp in astonishment, "My goodness, it costs so much money to get engaged in the countryside?"
There are so many trivial matters, including grand meetings, small meetings, engagement gifts, and exchanging betrothal gifts; money is spent everywhere.
The cost of seasonal gifts alone averages six thousand yuan a year. However, if you calculate it carefully, one or two thousand yuan for each gift doesn't really buy much good stuff at the current prices.
At first glance, 24,000 yuan over four years doesn't seem like much when you do the math.
Xiaoyun also said, "We shouldn't underestimate the importance of festival gifts in our rural areas. Families who are particular about these gifts usually give six kinds of gifts: chicken, fish, meat, cigarettes, wine, and tea."
Not only are there many kinds of gifts, but because they are newly married, the gifts for the festival must be in double quantities.
The chickens are locally raised free-range roosters, and both must weigh over five or six pounds. They're currently priced at fifteen or sixteen yuan per pound, so the chickens alone are worth nearly two hundred yuan.
Two fish are required, and both must be large fish weighing over three to five pounds. The type depends entirely on the man's sincerity. In the past, yellow croaker was even given as a gift!
Even the most common variety of mackerel costs over a hundred yuan.
The meat has to be from the hind leg of a pig; a whole one weighing over 20 jin (10 kg) would cost around 300 yuan.
Two packs of cigarettes, each costing at least fifty yuan, would cost over a hundred yuan.
These days, people don't sell wine by the bottle anymore; they just give you a case of six bottles, which will cost at least a hundred.
We also need to buy two catties of tea. Tea costing less than fifty yuan is not presentable, and two catties will cost more than one hundred yuan.
"Calculate how much these six gifts will cost in total?"
Before Guan Tao could do the calculations, Fang Xiaoying blurted out, "I've done the math. Nine hundred yuan, even if you send it four times a year, it won't be six thousand yuan, right?"
Xiaoyun was also puzzled. "That's not right, sis. When our brother was getting engaged to our sister-in-law, I remember our mom nagging about it every day."
Every time I visit my in-laws for a holiday, it costs me almost two thousand yuan! Why can't I even figure that out now?
Chen Hong burst out laughing, "You've only calculated the six gifts the son-in-law sends to his father-in-law's door. There are other expenses, but you haven't calculated them yet!"
After giving the gifts, shouldn't you invite your wife back to your family home? Wouldn't that require treating her to good food and drinks, costing you money?
After finishing your business, you should send your wife back to her parents' home. Shouldn't you give her a few hundred yuan as a holiday red envelope?
I remember I had never been to Weihai at that time, so I never received this money.
You went to your in-laws' house for the holidays, so you must have received holiday red envelopes twice, right?
Xiaoyun suddenly realized: "Oh, you mean that money? My mother-in-law gave me two hundred yuan. We were engaged for a year, and I went to their house twice. I received a red envelope containing four hundred yuan."
When I got married, I bought my mother-in-law a pair of gold earrings, which cost over 1,800 yuan. I even lost over 1,000 yuan of that money!
Chen Hong asked in bewilderment, "Why would you pay for your mother-in-law's earrings when you got married?"
"How come I've never heard you mention this before?"
Xiaoyun said sheepishly, "I bought it for her of my own volition, and I regretted it afterward."
It's all my fault for being so easily swayed. I was chatting with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law when they talked about the earrings my mother was wearing.
My mother-in-law said that she also had three children, but she wasn't as lucky as our mother; she died without ever wearing earrings.
I felt bad when I heard that, so I bought her a pair as soon as I got my salary.
Later, I realized something was wrong. We bought Mom those earrings as a way of showing our filial piety.
My mother-in-law should have asked her daughter to buy her some too! How did I end up buying her earrings on a whim after being pressured by her and her daughter?
It was then that I realized that my mother-in-law and sister-in-law were not simple people; they were both sweet-talking but bitter-hearted.
I never fell for their tricks again. I'm not good at playing mind games, and I can manage to stay away from their family affairs and keep my distance.
Director Jin and Mrs. Guan exchanged a glance and laughed. "Xiao Yun, I'm not trying to be mean, but you're just too honest."
Don't think that married life is only about tolerance and sacrifice. A family is also a small society.
Especially in families with many siblings, it is even more important to maintain a balance between alliances and flexibility.
Let alone the husband's family, even the wife's extended family requires strategic thinking in managing relationships among family members.
Everyone has different character and personality. If the relationships between family members are not handled well, daily life will be full of trivial matters and constant conflicts.
In the future, when encountering problems, think more, observe more, and listen more, and speak less!
"Living is a constant learning experience! You are all still young, and you have a lot to learn in the future!"
Chen Hong, Xiao Yun, and Fang Xiaoying all fell into deep thought after hearing what Director Jin said.
Principal Jin's words make a lot of sense. In one's life, setbacks and harms do not only come from the outside world. In fact, if family relationships are not handled well, they can be even more harmful.
Otherwise, where would we get phrases like fathers and sons turning against each other, brothers fighting, and couples separating?
The more the harm comes from one's own people, the greater it is, and the more difficult it is to handle, making it easy for people to make decisions.
Family ties are intertwined; too little or too much can be problematic, making it difficult to strike the right balance.
Those who have been through it all see things clearly. The golden words of wisdom from Director Jin and Mrs. Guan are something that Chen Hong and Xiao Yun have never been taught.
How fortunate it is for a woman to have a wise female elder in her family to guide her.
Although Director Jin only gave them a piece of advice during a chat, she did not expect that this sentence would benefit the Chen sisters immensely in their later lives.
Chen Hong didn't care how much back and forth Wang Qing's family went, nor did she care how they negotiated with the neighboring village's downstream buyers.
Chen Hong put the matter aside and went back to sea to dry fish.
Listening to gossip is fine for entertainment, but we should still focus on living our own lives properly.
She resumed her routine of going out to sea every two or three days, taking advantage of the good weather and suitable temperature to frequently go diving.
At her several secret fishing spots, she would catch sea cucumbers, collect sea urchins, and dig for geoduck clams.
After a year of raising them, it's time to harvest the geoducks!
She not only supplied goods to Longgong Hotel, Mingzhu Restaurant and Liu Quantian's seafood shop every two or three days.
Every now and then, he would bring home some pearl shells, scallops, and oysters for the women and children in his family.
With nothing to do at home, they all like to open clams, dig out pearls, and dry the clams into dried meat.
These are all demanding tasks. With so many of them, they helped Chen Hong resolve a significant amount of the inventory in the space.
That day, Chen Hong had just returned home from selling her catch at the dock when she saw the village chief already waiting for her at home.
Chen Hong parked the car, closed the gate, and while unloading the truck, spoke to the village chief: "Uncle, what brings you here? How long have you been waiting?"
"Just call me if you need anything, why did you have to come all the way to my house?"
Since Director Jin and her family brought their children to Yujia Village, the village chief has rarely visited Chen Hong's house since the guests are all women.
When Chen Hong first saw the village chief come to her door, she thought something serious had happened.
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