Chapter 76: Helping His Wife Be Filial to His Mother-In-Law
Chapter 76: Helping His Wife Be Filial to His Mother-In-Law
Early the next morning, Ji Jianyun and his mother pushed a cart into town. They were also joined by Ji Yunyun on their trip.
People were already on the streets. All of them were buying meat and vegetables, and it was busy.
“Yunyun, watch out for yourself. I am going to buy meat with your third brother,” Mother Ji said.
“Go ahead. I'm not a child anymore.” Ji Yunyun covered her nose and couldn't stand the smell of the market. She quickly waved her mother away.
Mother Ji left her alone and went to buy meat with Ji Jianyun.
“You don't have to buy so much right now, you can just eat what you freshly bought for the New Year,” Mother Ji told her son.
When Su Danhong went to town last year to buy things, she made Mother Ji really want to go back home due to feeling powerless. However, her daughter-in-law was trying to welcome her son back and let him celebrate a rich year with a good harvest, so she couldn't say anything about it.
But this year, it was different. She was with her son, and he had basically been eating good food for the whole year. This year’s New Year celebration should not be that different.
“Yeah, I know. I'll just buy some meat and eat different things with it,” Ji Jianyun said.
He really didn't plan on buying more meat.
He bought five jin of beef and five jin of lamb chops, and then he stopped. He didn't plan on buying more because there was still a lot of pork at home, even if he gave some of it to his parents.
He'll buy the other things after the New Year.
When Mother Ji saw that he only bought a few jin of meat, she nodded and said nothing else. She also bought some meat, and Ji Jianyun wanted to pay for her. Mother Ji shook her head and said, “No, just keep your money to live your life with Danhong. Mother still has money.”
She needed to buy this for the New Year. Lao Da’s family, Lao Er’s family, and Lao Si’s would all be visiting to celebrate. There was no reason for Lao San’s family to pay for everything.
Mother Ji was still very clear about this point.
Mother Ji bought a few jin of lamb chops, but did not buy beef. For pork, she had already bought enough yesterday when the pigs were killed.
Of course, all of this was certainly not as good as last year's celebration. Last year, a lot of the things were bought by Su Danhong. However, she didn’t receive even the slightest compliment for it.
So Mother Ji thought, it's all right if the food is not as good as last year’s. It’s not a must that it has to be that good.
Besides, shouldn’t the other three families bring stuff to eat? Let’s not think about last year anymore. They were going to eat whatever was brought!
Ji Jianyun was not going to get involved with these issues. After buying meat, he went to the vegetable market to buy the vegetables his wife had specifically asked for.
He bought three big pumpkins: two for his family and one for his mother. He also bought two big wax gourds: one for each family.
There were no other vegetables he needed to buy. There were some vegetables like radish and bok choi planted in the greenhouse at home that could be eaten from time to time.
On one hand, he bought a lot of other things since there was also the Lao Su family to consider aside from his own family.
Ji Jianyun had to send some things over there, too.
Food harvested from farmers was not rare, but meat was.
So when Ji Jianyun was planning to return later, he was also going to deliver some meat to the Lao Su family. When his wife gave birth to Xiao Renren, his mother-in-law brought second Su sister-in-law over with two baskets of eggs and three hens. It was very considerate.
Ji Jianyun and his mother were almost done buying things.
Ji Yunyun found a dress she really wanted in a shop in town, but she had no money and went to bother her mother. “Mother, please buy me this dress. I just tried it on, and I like it a lot!”
“It's not like you don't have any clothes, so why are you trying to buy it? How much money are you going to waste?” Mother Ji snapped and glared.
“Mother, it's almost the New Year! What's wrong with me buying some new clothes? And those clothes were all bought for me by fourth sister-in-law!” When Ji Yunyun said this, she looked at her third brother.
She thought her third brother would try to pay for it, but she never expected him to say nothing at all. Thus, she immediately stated, “Third brother, look at fourth sister-in-law, and then look at third sister-in-law!”
“What about your third sister-in-law?” Ji Jianyun asked lightly.
Mother Ji frowned and shouted, “Yunyun!”
Ji Yunyun snorted, “Do I have to say it? Fourth sister-in-law bought me clothes, but third sister-in-law has bought me nothing!”
“Doesn’t your third sister-in-law bring over the meat you eat at home? Or did you not eat it?” Ji Jianyun asked. Then he impatiently said to her, “All right, it's just some clothes. How much is it?”
“It’s not expensive, it's only 30 yuan!” Ji Yunyun immediately answered.
Mother Ji glared and exclaimed, “30 yuan? Is that dress sewn with gold?”
She also bitterly expressed, “So your fourth sister-in-law is willing to buy you clothes that cost 30 yuan?” How much did Lao Si and his wife’s salary add up to? One dress was almost equivalent to a month's salary for them!
“Mother, I'm not asking you to pay for it. Why do you care so much?” Ji Yunyun retorted in annoyance.
“I just spent a lot of money. I don't have much money left. Do you want ten yuan?” Ji Jianyun asked her.
Ji Yunyun held out her hand and Ji Jianyun gave her the ten yuan. Ji Yunyun mumbled, “Cheapskate!” With that, she turned around and left.
Mother Ji's face darkened.
Ji Jianyun ignored it and said, “Mother, let's go back.”
“Jianyun, you have to be sensible when dealing with this girl in the future. The older she gets, the wilder she becomes!” Mother Ji remarked.
Ji Jianyun chuckled and said, “Mother, it's not going to matter even if Yunyun is my sister. These bad habits really need to be changed, but she's already a grown up. If she did not go to school, then she probably would be married by now. We're used to her bad habit since we’re family. When she gets married, her husband’s family is not going to be like our family. She will be a daughter-in-law and not a blood relative.”
Mother Ji was worried. She sighed and complained, “Mother told her this, but she just won’t listen!”
“Doesn’t she get along with fourth sister-in-law? Just go and talk to fourth sister-in-law about it. In the end, she’s a sister-in-law and should say the right thing,” Ji Jianyun suggested.
Mother Ji nodded.
When they reached their homes, Ji Jianyun delivered his mother's things first, and then pushed the rest back.
Su Danhong came out holding Xiao Renren. She smiled when she saw how much food there was. “The New Year will be a rich year.”
Ji Jianyun felt better when he saw his wife and son. “I'll send some meat to our mother later,” he said with a smile.
As soon as she heard the words “our mother”, she knew that he was referring to Mother Su. He would usually just say “mother” when he was referring to Mother Ji.
“Okay, just go and bring some meat over,” Su Danhong said and felt happy.
The fact that her husband was so filial to her mother showed that he cared about her and was willing to help her be filial. How could she not be happy?
Ji Jianyun also felt his wife’s happiness and laughed. Then he put the things away, and went to chop up the meat.
He was also not stingy. His mother-in-law liked fatty meat, so he cut up seven or eight jin of fatty meat. He also chopped up about four or five jin of ribs. The last time his family bought brown sugar, they bought a lot. Therefore, he also took about three jin of it for his mother-in-law.
There were also other snacks, such as melon seeds and pine nut candy, that were also packed up.