Glancing at the blazing sun overhead, with things on his mind, he walked home in no time.
I could hear my mother arguing before I even entered the door.
Li Jin had a headache.
Her mother came from a wealthy merchant family in the next county. She was the only daughter in her family and had lived the life of a pampered young lady since childhood. When she married her father, Old Man Li, her dowry consisted of ten large chests.
Going back eight generations from his father, his family was poor peasants, but their social class was exceptionally privileged.
Otherwise, his mother wouldn't have married his father because of his family background.
Even though his wife was after his family background, his father, Li Qingshan, never stood up for himself because of his status as a poor peasant.
He used to serve landlords and rich men, and now he's using his wife to continue serving them.
His father was afraid of his mother his whole life, and the sentence he said most often was, "Your mother has never eaten our family's rice or flour in her entire life."
That means his mother's food, drink, and daily needs were all covered by her dowry money.
His mother...
Why!
His mother had many faults, yet she still gave birth to him, raised him, and even sent him to school.
"Of all thirteen provinces in the country, none are as wasteful as you! Look at this! You call this a pancake? It's thicker than your skin! It's covered in handprints; even a dog wouldn't want to feed it to you!"
Li Jin's mother, Li Wanshi, was scolding Zhao Sufang, who was bending over and sticking pancakes, with a look of disgust on her face.
Zhao Sufang was a kind-hearted woman. She had no mother to take care of her since she was a child, and she married Li Jin when she was just fifteen years old.
Zhao Sufang was often beaten and scolded by Li Wanshi. At that time, the most important thing was the daughter-in-law's ability to "knead dough" (a metaphor for being good at making things). Zhao Sufang followed Li Wanshi's instructions, making the bed for her parents-in-law in the morning and emptying the chamber pot, and making the bed and emptying the chamber pot at night. After everything was done, she would have to say, "Father and Mother, get up," and "Father and Mother, go to sleep early." Only after Li Wanshi had given her no more instructions would she go back to her own room like a maid.
When he was young, Li Jin often beat his wife at his mother's instigation. After beating her, his mother would make him greasy pork fat pancakes.
As Li Jin grew older, he came to understand his wife's difficulties. She had no mother at home and had no one to confide in. Her second sister, who had also married into Lijiapo, was heartless. If he didn't care for her, who would?
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