It was Shen Xiaojun’s turn to be speechless.
One could only say that it was her and Su Nan who were destined to be together.
Su Nan thought she was funny and was deeply impressed by that lay of hers, so when War Yin introduced her to him, Su Nan was quick to match her.
“Hai Tong is much better than me, her in-laws are really open-minded, and War Young is the one who says everything in the family, with him and Grandma War protecting her, her life doesn’t change too much because of her pregnancy.”
“She can do whatever she wants, unlike me, if I want to go back to the bookstore to look after the shop, I still have to have Sunan to stand up to my mother-in-law’s dissatisfaction, and if I want to follow Tongtong and Xiaofei to go on a trip to look at the vegetable farm that we’ve contracted to do, I’m told that it’s a long way to go, and that I’m not allowed to go.”
In fact, the drive was just over an hour.
Without traffic jams on the road, one hour would be enough to get there.
“Don’t complain, you’re fine the way you are now, of your son-in-law’s generation, he’s the only one taking a wife right now, and this child in your belly is the first of the next generation of their Su family, and everyone values you as a child.”
“It’s normal that there will be more attention, being valued by them is better than being ignored by them.”
Shen mother persuaded her daughter, “You also married, no longer in your mother’s family as a girl, you can no longer do whatever you want like before, your parents will tolerate you in everything, but after you married, you are someone’s daughter-in-law, you have to consider for your husband, for your in-laws.”
“So yeah, it’s still the most relaxing and comfortable when I was a girl in my mother’s family, but mum thinks I’m eating idle food at home and always urges me to marry.”
Shen Xiaojun washed the dishes and said, “I’m just talking to mum, I know I’m happy.”
“It’s good to know, eat salted fish and endure thirst, the day you decide to marry Su Nan, you have to endure the rules of the mansion, in fact, the rules of your in-laws’ family aren’t that much, it’s much better than your aunt back then.”
“When your aunt first married into the Zhang family, she had to get up early every day to personally prepare breakfast for her in-laws, she was not allowed to move the chopsticks when her in-laws hadn’t moved them yet, and during the meal period, whatever her in-laws needed, she was also the one who waited on them, she was simply a maid, and maids still have a salary to take, but your aunt didn’t have a salary.”
“When her mother-in-law was still alive, your aunt couldn’t even go back to her mother’s home more often, and if she went back to her mother’s home more often, her mother-in-law would scold her for marrying someone who didn’t have a mother-in-law’s home in her heart, but only her mother’s home, and if she liked going back to her mother’s home so much, she could go back to her mother’s home for a long time and not go back.”
“Your aunt was so aggrieved at the time, but she still had to force a cheerful face and continue to serve her mother-in-law. Go back to her mother’s home, what gifts to bring, are prepared according to the rules, can not be prepared by her preferences, how much money to give your grandparents, also in accordance with the rules of the Zhang family to give, give more than a cent can not be given, less can be given.”
“Your father and I went to visit your aunt, also can’t stay overnight, eat all the food, too many rules. You are now more than a hundred times better than your aunt.”
Shen’s mother was witnessing her little aunt’s step-by-step journey in the Zhang family.
“You can still go back to the bookstore to look after the shop now, and still run your business and make your money, your aunt back then, ah, she wasn’t even allowed to eat outside wontons, and had to go back to her mother’s house when she was there, let us prepare them for her in advance, and had to eat them secretly for fear that the servants who followed her would know about it and go home to tell on her.”
“Not to mention opening a shop outside to do business, that’s something you can’t even think about, she can only teach her children at home, and after giving birth to Nian Sheng, her mother-in-law still won’t let her get too close to her own son, saying something about worrying that she’s a doting mother, and that doting mothers are more likely to fail their children.”
Shen Xiaojun: “…… I knew that my aunt had a hard time when she first married into a wealthy family, but I didn’t even know it was that hard.”
Deep in my memory, my aunt was the one who often went back to her mother’s house to cry about how hard it was for her in her in-laws.
When she was a little older, her aunt would be all smiles every time she came back.