"Xu Wenwan, I’m warning you. You’re never to go to Leng Yuan’s house again."
With that, Village Chief Xu left.
Xu Wenwan clutched her face, feeling terribly wronged.
’It’s true I went to Leng Yuan’s house, but I didn’t do anything!’
’On top of that, I even lost two Obedience Pills! It’s so unfair! Waaah!’
Gu Jiaojiao was unaware of what had happened at Yun Hao’s house. She was busy preparing for the New Year.
With the New Year just around the corner, it was time to start preparing all the festive foods.
First up were the sausages. Gu Jiaojiao minced all the leftover wild boar meat, stuffed it into casings, and then hung the links on a rack in the courtyard to be smoked.
Sweet Girl was in charge of tending the fire, while Xiao Yang was responsible for carrying the firewood.
They were busy for the better part of the day, so for lunch, they just had something simple. By evening, however, Gu Jiaojiao wasn’t going to let them make do again. She made everyone braised fish, along with the cured meat Lu Yuanbin had sent as a wedding gift.
Besides Leng Yuan’s household, many other families in the village had also begun preparing food for the New Year.
Some were making rice cakes, some were steaming buns, and others were frying dough snacks.
These tasks might not seem like much, but they actually required several days of hard work.
After a year of hard work, it all came down to making the New Year’s Eve dinner a little more bountiful.
Over at Village Chief Xu’s house, because of what Xu Wenwan had done, no one in the family could even muster a smile, despite the festive season.
By now, Yu Fangfang’s belly was huge, and she was due to give birth any day. Xu Chongshan stayed by her side every day and helped with the heavy lifting around the house. Meanwhile, Chen Xiaoli took care of all the other chores.
Any other sister-in-law might have complained long ago, but Chen Xiaoli didn’t.
When she had her first child, Yu Fangfang had only just married into the family. At that time, Yu Fangfang had done all the housework without a single word of complaint.
Now that it was Yu Fangfang’s turn to have a baby, Chen Xiaoli naturally didn’t fuss over these things.
The relationship between the two Xu Family sisters-in-law had always been a model for all the others in the village.
The village elders always praised the two of them as an example.
However, praise wasn’t the whole story.
The real reason they got along so well was that Village Chief Xu’s family was relatively fair in how they treated their two sons. Whatever the older son received, the younger son was sure to get as well. Even if one happened to get a slight advantage, the parents would make it up to the other in a different way. That was the true secret to the sisters-in-law’s harmony.
Of course, it also helped that both daughters-in-law were good-natured.
If one of them had been a troublemaker, it wouldn’t have mattered how wonderful the other was.
Chen Xiaoli cut off a piece of the freshly made rice cake and placed it in a basin.
When Chen Xiumin saw this, Chen Xiaoli explained, "I’m planning to take some food over for Jiaojiao and her husband."
Chen Xiumin nodded. "Yes, we should send them something."
’Leng Yuan had taken Xu Chongfeng and Xu Chongshan into the mountains several times this winter. They had earned money and gotten meat from it. Sending some food over now was a good way to maintain good relations.’
’This should have been a perfectly good gesture. But her good-for-nothing daughter had to go and do something so shameless, leaving her too embarrassed to even show her face.’
"I just don’t get your sister... How could she do something like that!"
Chen Xiumin had no one to vent her frustrations to, so she couldn’t help but complain a little to her daughter-in-law.
’Chen Xiaoli was speechless herself. How was she supposed to know what went on in Xu Wenwan’s head? All she knew was that Xu Wenwan hadn’t been right ever since she came back.’
’She had thought things would be fine once Xu Wenwan was married off, but she was still stirring up trouble.’
’She’d never met anyone who could cause so much drama.’
But as the daughter-in-law, she couldn’t very well say any of this out loud. She could only offer some tactful comfort to Chen Xiumin. "Mother, don’t be upset. Father already scolded her. I’m sure she’ll change."
’Chen Xiaoli wanted nothing to do with an ungrateful person like Xu Wenwan.’