"Old woman, why is the second son's wife so troublesome? I thought she was just busy doing nothing and trying to flatter him for nothing."
"Hey, haven't you noticed? The second son is completely under her thumb now. What hope do we have for the future? He listens to his wife, not us."
"Not necessarily. If we're serious about it, he'll definitely listen to us."
Is that so? Mrs. Li didn't think so.
“Old man, Erzhuzi is going to the county town tomorrow. What are we going to do about spring plowing at home? Dazhuzi is still lying on the kang and can’t get up.”
Zhao Dayong picked up his pipe and took a couple of puffs, the smoke obscuring the wrinkles on his face. "Isn't the second son's wife still here? And the third son too, we can't let him go out and run wild this year. He has to help out at home for a few days."
Li Shi became even angrier at this. "Didn't you hear what Erzhuzi said just now? He told me not to torment his wife before he even left. You think Guo Shi can do any work? What can she do?"
“She has to do it whether she likes it or not; no one in the family can eat for free. It’s inconvenient for her to take care of the child, so she can just stay home, cook, do laundry, feed the pigs, and raise the chickens.”
Mrs. Li was shocked. "She's not getting out of bed?"
"How do you get out of bed with a baby? How do you breastfeed?"
Li moved her lips but ultimately closed them in reluctance.
"Alright, I know she doesn't really want to. The work at home is no less than that in the fields. Think about how much work she would have to do if she took on everything. She wouldn't have a moment of rest all day."
Spring planting is only busy for a short time, but there's always chores to do at home, it's never-ending. In the end, we're the ones who really benefit, she'll be busy.
Li turned to look at Zhao Dayong, "You mean you'll hand over everything to her after spring planting? Do you think she'll agree to that?"
Zhao Dayong took two more puffs of his pipe. "We make the decisions at home. She has to do whatever we tell her to do. Nobody lets her do whatever she wants."
The second child isn't home. She'd be happy if she wanted to, but she has no choice; otherwise, don't blame me for being ruthless!
Li pursed her lips, feeling disheartened; neither of her two daughters-in-law were obedient.
"What should we do if she complains to Erzhuzi? He just told us not to bully his wife."
“If your sons are unfilial, beat them until they are. Let me tell you, old woman, we've already spoiled two, we can't afford to spoil a third.”
Erzhuzi must be kept under control. I didn't want to manage him before because I didn't expect him to amount to anything. But I let him do whatever he wanted when he did chores around the house.
Things are different now. He's gone to work in the county town, and he has to bring all the money he earns back home. If he doesn't want to, he shouldn't go to the county town.
He was just worried about not having any money, and this came at the perfect time. Erzhuzi's job was very timely.
Li thought he was right. "Alright, while he's away and Guo has no one to help her, let's give her a good beating. As long as she's obedient, the second son will naturally follow suit."
Originally, I was worried about Sanzhuzi's marriage. That carefree brat would definitely cost a lot of money to get married in the future. But now we actually have money; my second son can make money.
"Sigh, God won't force anyone to their death. After the second son works for two or three years, he'll have saved enough money for Sanzhuzi to get married."
"That's what I'm planning too. The older ones should help the younger ones."
Li gave him a push, saying, "Who said before that we wouldn't care about them anymore and that we could do whatever we wanted with them?"
Zhao Dayong chuckled, "Times have changed. Didn't we see no hope before? To be honest, I was thinking of letting the second son do the work in the county town for a while and then handing it over to the eldest son. I wonder if the third son has any issues with that."
The eldest son doesn't like working in the fields, and he's not as energetic as Erzhuzi when it comes to work, so I thought it would be better for him to go to the county town, while the second son stays home to farm.
"Forget it, Dazhu is very selfish. He went to the county town to make money, and believe me, we won't get a single penny. Of our three sons, we can only hold onto Erzhu, and he's the only one we can do the work."
Zhao Dayong thought about it and realized that his eldest son was very selfish. He might just move to the county town and never come home again once he got a job.
"Ugh, they're all such troublemakers!"
"Who can argue with that!"
Unbeknownst to them, two people were standing outside: Guo Shi and Er Zhu Zi. Er Zhu Zi's face was as black as the bottom of a pot as he pulled his wife into his room.
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