The Country Maiden: Fields and Leisure
Chapter 519 - 517 Starving Fiercely

Chapter 519: Chapter 517 Starving Fiercely

Wang Yongzhu gave her a cold glance, "Since you’ve said it yourself, being the Wang Family’s daughter-in-law and carrying a child, how could we let you work? I’ve watched with a cold eye, you can’t even wash radishes cleanly, it seems you didn’t do any work at the Sun Family either. We can’t bear the responsibility if you come to work for our Wang Family and something happens, wouldn’t people say it’s our Wang Family’s fault? I think you’d better—"

"Auntie! Auntie, I’m fine! My pregnancy isn’t even showing yet! Besides, we peasant women are not so delicate, what’s a pregnancy? It won’t hinder my work, I’ll go wash them now, I’ll wash them now—" Sun Shitou’s wife hurried back to the well, drawing water and starting to wash again.

Wang Yongzhu also knew that what Sun Shitou’s wife said was the reality for the vast majority of peasant women.

Peasant women still worked while pregnant, some even gave birth in the fields, and others carried water to the fields with big bellies.

After giving birth, few were able to rest for a full month, basically, if a woman could stay on the Kang for seven days, her in-laws were considered generous.

Even if she disliked the people of the Sun Family, she couldn’t bring herself to make a pregnant woman squat down to wash radishes. However, if she showed even the slightest hint of this thinking, it’s likely that Sun Shitou’s wife would take advantage of it and cause trouble.

Therefore, she could only endure it reluctantly, paying extra attention so that if anything really happened, she could protect her immediately.

Sun Shitou’s wife, oblivious to this, just felt that Wang Yongzhu was so annoying, singling her out when there were so many others, making it impossible for her to slack off.

She had no choice but to wash while muttering under her breath, "Pah! What’s so great about her, just because she has some stinking silver, she thinks herself a fine lady? She’s just a daughter raised by a stepmother, trying to act superior in front of me. If it weren’t for the chance to eat some meat at your house and scrounge some silver, not even an eight-bearer palanquin could get me to come to your place..."

Wang Yongzhu’s face darkened, this wife of Sun Shitou, after all, was the Wang Family’s daughter-in-law, eyeing the Wang Family’s money while spouting such filthy words, did she truly take the Wang Family for easy marks?

Meanwhile, Granny Sun was clinging onto Old Granny Zhang without letting go, "Look, in-law mother, I’m well aware, you pay others for their help. Now our whole family is helping out at your place, for the sake of your eldest daughter, we should be taken care of too, right? We’re not asking for much, just the same as them will do!"

"Five members in our family, three meals a day, each of us three women should get five large coins per day, and my eldest son, second son, and Shitou, they are men, doing manual labor. The same as others, fifteen large coins a day for each? Don’t you agree, in-law mother?"

Old Granny Zhang shook off Old Lady Sun’s hand, "Dream on during broad daylight, why not? You want silver? I am telling you, not a single coin! Seeing it’s for my eldest daughter’s sake, we let you come and didn’t kick you out with a broom, and even gave you some gruel to eat, be content with that. Now you’re overstepping, asking for money? There’s no money, nothing at all! Our Wang Family won’t give you so much as a single straw!"

Seeing Old Granny Zhang’s attitude, Old Lady Sun also became irate, "What kind of attitude is that, in-law? Even when you beat a dog, you should look at the owner, no matter what, your Wang Family’s eldest daughter-in-law is still our blood! They say wealth shouldn’t flow into outsiders’ fields! But look at you, you’d rather give your money to strangers than to your own kin! It all boils down to you playing the cruel stepmother, not regarding the daughter left by the previous wife as human. When at home, you can suppress her, but once you leave the house, your heart gets even blacker and your guts rottener..."

※※※

As soon as Wang Laozhu entered the room, he rustled through the cupboard for the pastry box sent by Boss Zhang from the Capital City and fished out two pastries, handing them to Wang Yongzhen while lowering his voice, "Quick, eat something to fill your stomach, these are from a big boss in the Capital City..."

Wang Yongzhen, with tear-rimmed eyes, upon hearing her own father say this, immediately burst into tears, chokingly accepting the pastries—so fragrant and white, she didn’t even know the name, and hearing they were from a big boss in the Capital City, she was even more hesitant to take a bite.

The bitterness in her heart grew ever more intense. Now her parents’ home was getting better and better — they even had the Capital’s boss sending them pastries. Yet her days in her in-laws’ home were...

"Eat up, there’s more after you finish," Wang Laozhu urged Wang Yongzhen when he saw she wasn’t eating.

Wang Yongzhen was truly famished. She hesitated for a moment, couldn’t resist the pangs of hunger, and took a bite of the pastry. It was both sweet and sticky; before she knew it, she had finished two pieces, just barely quelling the gnawing hunger in her stomach.

Wang Laozhu saw that his eldest daughter was truly starved, so he picked out a few more pieces and poured her a bowl of water.

Wang Yongzhen wolfed down the food and gulped down a bowl of water in one breath; she poured herself another and drained it as well, only then did she feel revived.

"What exactly is going on? The Sun Family didn’t give you food to eat? Why did your mother-in-law come with your younger brother-in-law, Shitou, and his wife today?" Wang Laozhu also had a belly full of questions and waited until his daughter had eaten her fill before asking.

Wang Yongzhen burst into tears as soon as she brought up the subject. "The harvest wasn’t good this year. We have a lot of mouths to feed at home, and Mom says there’s no point in eating so much during the slack farming season — we only have two meals of thin porridge each day..."

"Just having two meals of thin porridge a day shouldn’t leave you this starved. How many days have you not eaten properly?" Wang Laozhu wasn’t foolish either.

"Mom says the men need to go out, they can’t hold up without food in their stomachs. The kids are still growing, my little sister is frail, Shitou’s wife has been trying to conceive for years without success. This year, she finally did and we can’t neglect her..." Wang Yongzhen mumbled for a while before revealing things bit by bit.

"So the entire family left just you to starve?" Wang Laozhu trembled with anger, leaning on the edge of the kang.

"Mom says I’m the eldest sister-in-law, so I should give way..." said Wang Yongzhen softly.

"What about Shitou and Mutou? They just stood by and watched you, their mother, starve?" Wang Laozhu was so furious he had nowhere to vent, lowering his voice as he asked.

But recalling how Shitou had earlier prepared two bowls of thin porridge and shared them with his wife, not caring for grandma or his own parents, Wang Laozhu knew there was no point in hoping for anything else.

"Shitou’s at home; what can he say as a kid? After Mutou’s marriage arrangement fell through because the girl’s family asked for too much dowry which we couldn’t provide, his father sent him away to the neighboring town to apprentice since earlier this year... to save some expenses," Wang Yongzhen honestly explained.

At this point, Wang Laozhu indeed remembered something: "Didn’t your sister give you Five Taels of Silver and a piece of cloth? If you added a little more, wouldn’t that have been enough for a dowry? Whose family was Mutou supposed to marry into?"

Wang Yongzhen said somewhat shamefacedly: "That girl has several older brothers above her, and they’re all counting on her marriage dowry to find wives for themselves. They wanted Fifteen Taels of Silver; where could our family get that?"