"If I had gotten a difficult mother-in-law, I would have accepted my fate. How many mothers-in-law are good these days?"
As the saying goes, a bitter daughter-in-law finally becomes a mother-in-law. Who doesn't act like a tyrant then?
Since she was married.
Madam Xi had somewhat anticipated this.
"But my sisters-in-law, they are the kind who eat people without spitting out bones! One moment they're making you work, the next they're currying favor with the elders while you're resting. We can't argue with them, it's impossible to defend ourselves."
After hearing this, Madam Cai also frowned. She slowed down her pace of chopping wild vegetables and asked, "But you have to say something. How will the elders know if you don't?"
She asked Madam Xi, did she have to suffer in silence forever?
Madam Xi just sighed, pouring the dough drops into the boiling pot, and said, "It's not that I haven't tried to explain, but the elders are biased. They only hear what they say and don't take my words to heart at all..."
She said she had tried to avoid the traps set by her sisters-in-law, but two people against one, and the least favored second branch of the family at that.
It was naturally easy for them.
The elders turned a blind eye, letting the two of them bully her.
Madam Cai felt chilled just hearing about it. They were truly two venomous women, even framing Madam Xi and causing her to go hungry several times. Her current suffering was also due to her husband's lack of favor.
Cheng Kaichun's days were also not easy, for example, being scolded every day, lectured by his parents and elder brother and sister-in-law, called stupid and useless.
Good-for-nothing.
Even his youngest sister-in-law looked down on him, never meeting his gaze directly.
But in reality, the other two branches were also struggling to make a living from farming, and they weren't much better than Cheng Kaichun, some even doing less farm work than him.
But based on the elders' favoritism, they claimed to be better than Cheng Kaichun in every way.
"With such in-laws, let alone my husband not wanting to go back, if I were their own daughter, I wouldn't want to step foot in that house again."
Madam Xi's voice choked up as she said this. It wasn't that she was wronged or upset by her in-laws; she only hated them. What she missed was her maternal family.
Her parents loved her. If they had known that Cheng Kaichun's parents' amiable demeanor in the village was a pretense, her maternal family would never have married her off to them.
Unfortunately, after getting married, even when she knew their true colors, she couldn't leave her family. A married daughter was like spilled water. No matter how much her parents doted on her, they could only secretly slip her some copper coins, and they had to consider her several brothers and their wives. If they found out, the sisters-in-law would surely make a fuss.
Madam Xi said that if she went back to stay for a few days, her brothers and sisters-in-law would still welcome her. After all, she was efficient at work and would clean her parents' house spotlessly, and she would help with chores. They were naturally happy. But if she stayed any longer, their expressions would change.
She had lived there from childhood until she got married. It was just a marriage, and returning felt like being an outsider. Thinking of this, Madam Xi couldn't help but shed tears.
Madam Cai silently swept the washed and chopped wild vegetables into the copper basin. With her head bowed, her eyes were also red, but she strongly agreed with this sentiment.
A married girl was worse than grass, and she could never go back to the past.
However, there was a point she disagreed with. "It depends on how you think about 'home.' Now that you've escaped with your husband, don't dwell on the past. Just think about the good things. You have your husband and your three children now; this is your home. You must never think of being homeless."
Because Madam Cai had lost both her and Cheng Kaitai's families, she had always been accustomed to this small family unit and had a different perspective.
"Look, you're living out the saying you mentioned earlier, you've made it through. Although you're not a mother-in-law yet, no one can suppress you, look down on you, or bully you anymore. You can take good care of your husband and children, and your future will only get better."
Madam Xi was encouraged by Madam Cai's words. She couldn't help but look at her with hopeful eyes and asked, "Will we really get better and better?"
But with the war starting again, and after the city fell, they would occupy the city, and then the flames of war would ignite again. By then, people in distant places would surely have received the news, and everything would be in chaos. Could their group safely escape?
Previously, they had faced war from within and without and had survived with great difficulty.
Looking at the current situation, it seemed even more fierce than the last time.
Madam Cai was very confident about this. She comforted her and said, "We absolutely will! The younger generation is extraordinary now. Look at the demeanor of our young master Cheng. Although he is young, he is so calm, kind, and generous. With him leading the way, our lives will not be too bad. We just need to do our work well. As for other things, they are not for us to ponder."
After hearing this, Madam Xi felt much more stable. From their short time together, she knew that Madam Cai was an open-minded, insightful, and optimistic person.
She admired her and nodded, indicating that she would listen to her.
Since Madam Cai had no close relatives left, and Madam Xi was to her liking, she saw similarities in her that mirrored her own. Thus, she sympathized with her and, after hearing her story, felt that she was truly unfortunate.
She then treated her like a sister, otherwise, she wouldn't have been so forthcoming.
The two quickly became familiar with each other.
Working together, they made rapid progress.
After the two had been busy for half a day, the children finally came to find them.
They all joined in.
Some helped with the fire, and some helped move the bowls and chopsticks to the kitchen door.
Finally, after cooking the dough drop soup, even the plant ash and some charcoal were collected. The plant ash could be used for washing dishes later, and some could be kept for other purposes. The plant ash from burning clean firewood and the charcoal were good things and couldn't be thrown away.
Madam Cai and Madam Xi had also saved some. After asking Uncle Ji, they learned that plant ash did not need to be included in the supplies, so they kept it in their own carriage and let others ask them if they needed it.
As for the charcoal, it needed to be recorded in the supplies logbook and stored in the supply carriage for unified management. It would be distributed uniformly when the weather got colder.
The two women prepared the meal.
Everyone began to line up to get food. The Cheng family elders naturally got the best first, and after sending it to them, it was then others' turn.
Cheng Hao and Su Miaomiao originally planned to get their food after everyone else, but Lai Fu and Jia Wang brought them two large bowls as quickly as possible, telling them to eat while it was hot, and then ran off to grab more food.
The large pot, mixed with wild vegetables and white flour, was actually enough for everyone to eat. It was just that everyone wanted to be first, always thinking that the first servings were better.
When Su Miaomiao and Cheng Hao received the heavy, subpar dough drop soup, they were actually resistant. Looking at the bowl of greenish gruel, they had no appetite. If it were adorned with some chili oil or minced meat, or even a fried egg, it would feel much better.
But there was clearly none of that.