Sister Zhang came early the next morning. Her hair was neatly pinned at the back of her head, and her clothes were clean and tidy. She looked completely different than she did yesterday in spirit and appearance.
As soon as she came in, she started tidying up the house and didn't stop at all. Even the rooms that had been unoccupied for a long time were all cleaned up by her.
ZhiXia let her use her previous room as a rest area. After all, the days were long and it was necessary to take a break when free.
In the past, the money and ration tickets for grocery shopping were all from Old Pei. Now that he was gone, ZhiXia could only go out herself. But she would regularly bring back staples like rice, flour, oil and so on. After all, the storage had better quality than what was sold outside.
After a whole day, the house was given a completely new look. It wasn't dirty before, but it was hard to keep tidy with five or six children.
With Sister Zhang here, ZhiXia was completely at ease.
After reviewing for a while in the afternoon and having lunch, the triplets and little six were forced to take a nap. Only then did Sister Zhang say to ZhiXia, "ZhiXia, there's nothing else to do in the house now. I'm going next door for a bit. Coming back to this family, I still have to go over and say hello to the old master and madam."
"Okay, go ahead. Don't rush back. Stay and chat with grandpa and grandma for a while.”
ZhiXia guessed that she must have a lot to talk to Mrs. Zhou about. After all, if not for Mrs. Zhou telling her, she wouldn't have known about Sister Zhang's situation, let alone asked her to come back.
Zheng Suchun, who was still all smiles at their house yesterday, ran over today with red eyes.
"Sister-in-law, what's wrong with you?" ZhiXia was startled to see her like this, thinking she had been bullied.
In fact, she had indeed been bullied by none other than her second brother-in-law.
Zheng Suchun had quarrelled with An Zhiren. The husband and wife had been very close since their marriage. But today, because of some things, they bickered a few words and she suddenly realised that with her family being far away, she didn't even have a place of her own to go.
She angrily shoved both children into his arms and wandered around by herself for a long time. The winter wind made her body stiff so she came to ZhiXia's place.
She tragically found that the only person she could chat with was this little sister-in-law.
Zheng Suchun let her bangs down a little, thinking it would hide her red eyes. "It's nothing. The wind outside was too strong and made my eyes sore."
"Come in quickly then. I'll make you a hot cup of tea to warm up your body," ZhiXia ushered her in without exposing her.
Zheng Suchun held the cup and slowly sipped the hot water before she felt some warmth in her body and mind.
"Did you have an argument with my second brother?" Since she looked better, ZhiXia tried asking tentatively.
Zheng Suchun was three years younger than her. Although a sister-in-law, ZhiXia had taken more care of her.
"It wasn't really an argument. I was just in a bad mood," Zheng Suchun said.
The source of the conflict was the reinstatement of the college entrance examination.
Zheng Suchun had put her heart into studying and inevitably neglected the two children. She discussed with An Zhiren to ask Zhou Nan for help looking after them.
But Zhou Nan was in poor health and couldn't handle the noise made by three children. Without a second thought, An Zhiren flatly refused.
And this was why Zheng Suchun was unhappy.
She didn't think Zhou Nan must help look after the children. She just felt that as both of them were daughters-in-law, Liu Ling's two children had been solely raised by him. So how could he not help them too?
Since her marriage, aside from her postpartum month nursing period where Zhou Nan had attended to her, she had never made such demands or picked faults before. But she felt it was too unfair this time.
It turned out ZhiXia's worries were not excessive. The underlying discord in the An family finally erupted.
Everyone knew well that the reason An Zhiren was able to marry Zheng Suchun was because she could take good care of the family. But Zheng Suchun's grievances were not unfounded. A trivial issue that could disrupt harmony was bound to cause trouble sooner or later.
Regarding this matter, ZhiXia could not comment or give her any help.
She and Zhou Nan were not originally close as a normal mother and daughter to begin with. Just maintaining the current harmony was no easy feat.
She could provide some help when they needed it, based on Zhou Nan taking care of her these months after childbirth. But she did not want to get involved in the An family affairs, that was her true inner thoughts.
Fortunately An Zhiren came very quickly to take Zheng Suchun away, sparing her the awkwardness.
ZhiXia did not ask about the subsequent matters. She only knew when she went to the An residence one day and saw both of his children there, An Zhiren must have compromised in the end. Or perhaps Zhou Nan also felt it was unfair to Zheng Suchun, so she could only exhaust herself by keeping the children around.
At that time, Zhou Nan looked haggard, as if she had just remembered and asked ZhiXia, "I heard from your second brother that you're also taking the college entrance exam. What about the kids?"
She seemed concerned at this time. ZhiXia thought that if she made this request, Zhou Nan might even take her several children in.
But after all, she did not crack this joke. "I found Sister Zhang back so with her keeping an eye on them, I can rest assured."
"That's good that Sister Zhang is back," Zhou Nan breathed a sigh of relief.
She didn't know what was the matter with them. What was so great about university that ZhiXia and her sisters-in-law who didn't work wanted to try it too? She really couldn't understand those who worked like her second brother also joining in the fun.
What was most annoying was that An JingZhi actually said since they were willing to give it a try, just let them. Even if they couldn't get in, there was no harm and it would be even better if they did. The country was currently in need of talents, so as the first batch of university students admitted after the reinstatement of the college entrance exam, they would have unlimited prospects after graduation.
She didn't understand but only knew there were benefits.
When An JingZhi heard mother and daughter mention this topic, he calmly put down the newspaper in his hand and asked ZhiXia a question. "University is not easy to get into. You've never studied before, are you confident?"
After all, ZhiXia was different from them. She was of a more prestigious status and had never attended school. Just by saying she wanted to take the college entrance exam was enough to arouse gossip already.
"Even my second brother doesn't dare to say he's confident, right?" ZhiXia answered evasively.
Whether she was confident or not, it was too early to say now. Only the exam results would tell.
An JingZhi did not ask further and lowered his head to continue reading his newspaper.
Zhou Nan was distressed from childcare and had been irritable. Holding the child, she stuffed him into An JingZhi's arms, "Reading that all day long, spending your whole life with that newspaper is still not as precious. Can't you read less and spend more time with the children?"
An JingZhi impatiently held on properly, "I've said that children naturally have their own fortune. You insist on taking everything upon yourself. They're only preparing for the exam now. If they all get admitted, it'll be years of schooling. You can keep bringing them around then. It's not going to kill you anyway!"
Zhou Nan sighed, "You think I don't want to do that? What else can I do?"
"Everyone should bring their own children. If you can't handle it, send them to the nursery. Other families can send their children there, why are yours so precious that they can't?" What An JingZhi said was reasonable too. For the convenience of dual-income families going to work, every unit had set up nurseries for specialised personnel to look after the children.
Of course, it was limited to childcare and there were no educational resources.
Zhou Nan was left speechless from the rebuttal and still had to be busy with her own matters.
Some things were easy to say but not so easy to do.
If the nurseries could really take good care of them meticulously, did they think they wouldn't have sent them there?
From ancient times there were only conflicts between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. It was rare to hear of conflicts between father-in-law and daughter-in-law. Liu Ling and Zheng Suchun would only discuss childcare matters with her. They would not look for An JingZhi. If she refused, she would offend everyone.
Seeing Zhou Nan like this, ZhiXia felt distressed for her too. "Third brother and fourth brother are not married yet. If you think like this, you are doomed to be worked to death for them."
"So it still depends on one's capability. You have to go out and work. No matter how much you do at home if you don't work, no one will see it. ZhiXia, you have to study hard for the exams. Don't be like me in future, spending your whole life being their cattle and horse without having your grandma's wealthy family background like the madam to fall back on. I don't have a job or your ability to speak up and decline even when my sisters-in-law ask me to help look after the kids when they have things to do that I don't want to help with."
Zhou Nan did not dare to look up for fear that ZhiXia would see her reddened eyes.
This was being brainwashed to excess, a typical giving personality, always feeling like the only one in the whole family with nothing to do. Now even Zheng Suchun had proper work, so she couldn't justify not helping look after the children, which was why she didn't dare refuse outright.
Some people always make you feel pity and hatred in equal measure, and Zhou Nan was like this.
"What you're thinking is all just what you reckon yourself, your contributions to this family are no less than anyone else's, and you have no obligation to help prop up your son who's nearing middle age. Do you think your daughters-in-law don't see your dilemma, it's just that people always start by standing in their own position when considering issues. It's precisely because of your attitude that they can make the request for you to look after the children as a matter of course, they've grasped that you won't refuse."
What Know Summer said hit the nail on the head. It wasn't as if Liu Ling and Zheng Suchun were especially unkind, of course leaving the children at home for granny to take care of was definitely better, which was why they'd turned a blind eye to Zhou Nan's difficulties.
Zhou Nan's personality wasn't one that couldn't change at all, it was just that understanding was one thing, but being able to do it was another matter altogether.
If she was a bit more hardhearted and didn't care about anything, maybe she would have become the mother-in-law that outsiders saw as a shrew long ago. Now she had the reputation of being a good mother-in-law, but tiring herself out like this really wasn't worth it.
It wasn't as if the two families couldn't get by without her help, to the point where she had to help out or they couldn't afford to eat.
In the living room, An Jingzhi had no choice but to hold his little grandson and play with him, but the child peed all over him. He immediately yelled for Zhou Nan.
Know Summer came in frowning, "She's washing clothes outside, can't you take a fresh nappy yourself and pad it on top?"
An Jingzhi frowned, "My legs are wet too."
Know Summer took a dry nappy and put it over his legs, saying: "Pad this on top and wipe the pee away, that'll sort it. Who looks after kids without getting peed on a few times? It was over the nappy, it didn't soak through much. Just bear with it, the weather's good today, it'll be dry again in a bit."
An Jingzhi realised that mother and daughter were deliberately trying not to make things easy for him today.
He'd bear with it then, she didn't often come over anyway, at least it wasn't every day. Otherwise he really would have no peace, An Jingzhi thought.
Seeing his stifled look, Know Summer felt very satisfied. "If you don't want to look after the children, couldn't you have talked to your son and daughters-in-law yourself? Can you expect my mum to be very articulate?"
Also, if An Jingzhi was willing to speak up, he would carry more weight than Zhou Nan and be more likely to make people listen.
After all he was the man of the house, his position in the family was clear. Right now Liu Ling and Zheng Suchun might fawn on Zhou Nan, but they definitely wouldn't defy An Jingzhi.
Even his second and third brothers said the only person in this family who dared talk back to him was her, and that was because he felt guilty over the Gao Meiyun business back then, plus she didn't often come back.
An Jingzhi understood now. It turned out they were feeling sorry for Zhou Nan, so they wanted him to step up and play the bad guy.
Yet he didn't know Know Summer's actions were purely because Zhou Nan had put in effort taking care of the mother who had just given birth. He hadn't put any effort in, so any idea that she had softened towards him didn't exist.
