When Li Changming saw his mother resignedly clearing away the bowls and chopsticks, he felt a pang of pity. Out of long-standing habit, he stood up to smooth things over, saying, "I’ll feed the pigs..."
But before he could finish his sentence, izi looked up, giving him a look that told him to stop. "Changming," she said disapprovingly, "you’ve been working hard all morning. You should rest. Isn’t Mother here to feed the pigs? We won are supposed to do the housework, aren’t we? How could we let you work in the fields all day and then do chores at ho? Wouldn’t that make us lazy, good-for-nothing wives?"
Li Changming glanced at Li Laoda’s uncomfortable expression and stood frozen in place, swallowing hard. ’This wife of mine really doesn’t hold anything back!’
Li Laoda’s gaze was heavy as he stared at the listless Granny Hua. ’Perhaps,’ he thought, ’the wife I haven’t been able to manage for decades is about to be whipped into shape by this guileless daughter-in-law.’
The corners of Li Changliang’s mouth twitched with a faint smile. ’His mother was one of a kind, but this sister-in-law of his was even rarer.’ He would bet anything that izi wasn’t deliberately targeting his mother; this was simply how she operated.
In the afternoon, after Li Laoda and his two sons had gone to the fields, izi had Granny Hua sit and do needlework for a good while. Wanting to paste together a few more shoe soles, she rembered the tattered clothes she’d told Granny Hua to wash that morning. She ran outside to collect them so she could boil so starch paste for the soles.
But when she saw the clothes hanging out to dry, she cried out again. "Mother, how did you wash these? Good heavens! They’re not clean at all! If these mildew spots aren’t washed out, the soles will just rot away after we paste them."
By the end, her voice was tinged with anger.
Granny Hua, who had been forced to do needlework for hours, was already feeling dizzy and light-headed. The mont she heard izi shout "Mother," she shuddered. She shot to her feet so fast that a wave of dizziness washed over her, and she saw stars, nearly toppling over.
She finally managed to steady herself and shuffled slowly into the courtyard. izi was there, flipping through the clothes, her lips pouted and cheeks puffed out in an angry pout.
She was about to say that they were just old clothes for making shoe soles, not for wearing, so a quick wash was good enough. But before she could open her mouth, izi snatched all the garnts off the line, shoved them into her arms, and said, "Mother, go wash these again—they’re unusable. If we go through all the trouble of making the soles, only for them to mildew and rot before they’re even worn through, wouldn’t all that effort be a complete waste?"
Granny Hua had had enough for one day. She resolved to stand up for herself this ti. "Then you wash them," she began, "I’ll..."
izi’s eyes widened as she stared in disbelief. "? I’d love to wash them; it’d be a good chance to stretch my legs. But you’ve only managed to stitch a few rows this whole ti, and I’ve already finished half a sole. I knew you couldn’t sit still, so I told you to wash the clothes to give you a break. Otherwise, who knows how long it would take you to finish that one sole!"
Granny Hua was utterly shad by her words. It was true; she had been sitting for hours and had barely made any progress, while izi had already completed half a sole. She abandoned her attempt at resistance and resignedly went to rewash the clothes.
She had just stepped out of the courtyard gate when izi shouted from behind her, "Mother, make sure they’re properly clean this ti! And hurry up, it’ll be ti to cook dinner soon."
At these words, Granny Hua’s legs gave out, and she nearly stumbled to the ground.
Though she was miserable, she didn’t dare to dally. izi might just storm over to Changxing’s courtyard to yell for her, complaining about why she was taking so long to wash a few clothes. ’And if she follows that up with a long lecture about how I don’t know how to run a household,’ she worried, ’how could I ever show my face again?’
In the past, people only gossiped about her laziness behind her back. Her own family had long been worn down into submission, and besides, the three n of the house never knew how to assign her chores. As a result, she never felt there was anything wrong or improper about her behavior, much less feared any loss of face.
But who would have thought that after izi’s arrival, every chore she assigned felt completely matter-of-fact. If Granny Hua tried to act as she usually did, izi would imdiately stare at her as if she’d seen a ghost, making Granny Hua feel like so kind of freak and utterly worthless.
What’s more, the mont izi was surprised, she’d start shouting. The way she carried on, it was as if Granny Hua didn’t comply, izi would imdiately summon the entire village to pass judgnt. She might even start crying out of sheer frustration—’This is obviously the way it’s supposed to be done!’
And so, she rewashed all the clothes. When she returned, izi had her feed the pigs and chickens and sweep the courtyard. Once that was done, she had to tend the stove for izi, who was cooking. izi told her to keep the fire hot so they could eat sooner; she still had more needlework to do by lamplight after dinner.
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