“A-Xiu! Is the meat sliced?”
Bai Qianqian had already fried the aromatics in the kitchen, her clothes carrying the sharp, spicy scent.
As A-Xiu added the sliced cured pork to the wok, Bai Qianqian began to stir-fry it.
“Sister-in-law! What are you doing?” Madam Lin’s mouth watered as she caught the savory aroma wafting from the kitchen.
She stood on tiptoe to peer into the wok. Pork! Cured pork! “Why go to all this trouble? You and Anyao can just bring that over to eat with the rest of the New Year’s Eve dinner later.”
“We’re eating this ourselves. We won’t be going over,” Bai Qianqian replied, scooping the fried pork into a plate. A-Xiu took it and carried it back to their room.
“This is New Year’s Eve dinner! You and Anyao should at least make an appearance. We haven’t officially split the family yet—doing this will make the villagers laugh at us!” Madam Lin’s eyes followed the plate of pork as it disappeared. She tried to shift her focus back to her sister-in-law. “It’s fine if you’ve already cooked. Just bring the dish over so your parents can taste your cooking!”
“I can take Anyao over for a visit tomorrow. Other than that, forget it,” Bai Qianqian said, ignoring her as she began prepping the other dishes.
Completely brushed off, Madam Lin could do nothing but leave, no matter how dissatisfied she was.
“Where’s Madam Bai? Why isn’t she here?” Old Madam Zhao asked when she saw Madam Lin return alone. “She’s a Zhao family daughter-in-law. She’s supposed to prepare the New Year’s Eve dinner. Is she trying to slack off?”
“She doesn’t even plan to eat with us,” Madam Lin said, her worry mounting. “Why would she come to work?”
If Madam Bai didn’t show, the burden of the entire feast would fall on her. With the third branch’s daughter-in-law being far too precious to step foot in a kitchen, Madam Lin would be stuck cooking from dawn till dusk.
Sure enough, Old Madam Zhao spat out a few curses at Bai Qianqian before ordering Madam Lin to get started. She and Zhao Chengshuang had no intention of helping.
“Mother, why did Second Sister-in-law suddenly fall out with the family?” asked Madam Shen, the third branch’s daughter-in-law. Pregnant and resting, she had spent her time since returning to the village either in bed or sitting with Old Madam Zhao and the others.
Old Madam Zhao cherished this third daughter-in-law almost as much as her own son, Zhao Chengwen.
Madam Shen was the only daughter of Zhao Chengwen’s teacher. Her upbringing and beauty far surpassed any girl in the village.
No one in the entire community wasn’t envious of Chengwen for marrying such a woman, and the Zhao family naturally treated her with the utmost care.
“Don’t even mention her name!” Old Madam Zhao snarled. “The brazen woman is demanding we live separately, all so she can keep the money from the pastry recipe she brought from her natal family. She won’t let any of us see a single coin! If my second son were home, I’d have made him divorce her long ago.”
Madam Shen’s eyes widened. “How could she?”
Raised as a proper lady of a scholarly household, she had no tolerance for filial disobedience. Her disdain for Bai Qianqian deepened. “As her elders, it is only right that we should guide and correct her. How dare she act so insolently toward the Zhao family? To refuse to come for New Year’s Eve dinner when she lives only a few steps away… it’s simply unacceptable.”
Zhao Chengwen was stunned. He had been away for a while, yet his return revealed a household in turmoil. He felt only contempt for Bai Qianqian, the troublemaker who showed his sister-in-law no respect and brought nothing but coarseness and chaos.
“If it weren’t for Chengwu taking your brother’s place in the army, I wouldn’t have tolerated her behavior for so long,” Old Master Zhao said, his tone matter-of-fact. “But since she married into this family, any recipe she brought is the Zhao family’s property to manage. She has no right to cause such a fuss.”
Zhao Chengwen found no fault in his father’s reasoning.
***
Bai Qianqian had no idea the Zhao family was still coveting her recipes.
She and A-Xiu had spent two hours in the kitchen preparing a feast: four dishes and a soup. The meal consisted of three meat dishes and one vegetable, with the centerpiece being a rich chicken soup with yam and chestnuts—a rare delicacy.
“You two are too frail,” Bai Qianqian said, seeing how thin they were. She ladled them each a generous bowl of soup, ensuring each one had a large drumstick.
A-Xiu tried to put her drumstick into Bai Qianqian’s bowl, but Qianqian quickly pulled her own bowl away. She scooped some chicken for herself and urged A-Xiu to eat the drumstick.
The chicken, raised by Auntie Liu for a whole year, had firm, flavorful meat. The chestnuts were soft and starchy, and the soup was incredibly savory. Before they even touched the other dishes, the three of them had already finished their soup.
“If you like this, we’ll make more soup in the future,” Bai Qianqian said, already planning where they could raise their own poultry. “Once spring arrives, we’ll buy some chickens and ducks. That way, we won’t have to buy meat from others.”
A-Xiu nodded, volunteering to take over the feeding.
On the first day of the New Year, Bai Qianqian took Zhao Anyao to the Zhao family home for dinner, carrying two pieces of brown sugar jujube cake as a gift.
“So you finally showed up. It’s never easy getting a glimpse of you!” Old Madam Zhao immediately put on airs the moment Bai Qianqian entered.
“Isn’t that the truth?” Bai Qianqian replied. “Anyao and I live right next door, yet I’ve never seen you come by to visit your grandson.”
Pulling the child along, she spotted a chair and took a seat. She had no intention of standing while others talked.
Old Master Zhao fumed at her blatant disregard for the rest of the room, but he kept his mouth shut, still hoping she would divulge her recipes.
“Second Sister-in-law, why didn’t you join us for New Year’s Eve dinner yesterday?”
Bai Qianqian turned to see a woman with a fair complexion and delicate features. Madam Shen, she remembered. The third branch’s daughter-in-law.
“The Zhao family already agreed we would live our separate lives,” Bai Qianqian replied coolly. “Why should I come here and offend everyone with my presence?”
She barely knew Madam Shen, who only visited the village a few times a year.
“Now that is simply wrong,” Madam Shen said, her tone dripping with condescension. “As a daughter-in-law, one’s duty is to care for her husband, raise her children, and serve her parents-in-law. How can you use a trivial matter as an excuse to force your elders to let you live separately?”
“You’re the last person who should be saying that,” Bai Qianqian shot back. “How many times a year do you even visit? You don’t serve your parents-in-law, and you’ve shown me, your sister-in-law, zero respect. What right do you have to judge anyone?”
Bai Qianqian loathed moral grandstanding. She and Madam Shen weren’t even close, yet the woman had walked in and started preaching from a position of superiority. If we’re talking about filial piety, Madam Shen was just as guilty.
“I can’t believe you’d think so poorly of me,” Madam Shen said, her voice trembling. “If it weren’t for my husband, why wouldn’t I want to serve my parents-in-law?”
She had never been accused of being unfilial in her entire life. Only now did she realize that Bai Qianqian was no ordinary village woman—she wasn’t someone who could be easily bullied.
“Madam Bai!” Old Madam Zhao snapped, stepping in before Bai Qianqian could further provoke Madam Shen. “If you’re the unfilial one, fine, but how dare you attack my third daughter-in-law? She stays by our third son’s side to care for him. When does she have time to visit? You’re just bullying her!”
She was worried Bai Qianqian would truly upset Madam Shen. After all, the woman was carrying the family’s third son’s child; she couldn’t be subjected to such stress.
“Fine,” Bai Qianqian said, standing up. “I see clearly now. My son and I aren’t welcome here, and I’m certainly not desperate to eat with you. Yao’er, let’s go.”
Bai Qianqian grabbed Zhao Anyao’s hand, making sure to snatch up the brown sugar jujube cake they’d brought. She wasn’t about to let the Zhao family keep a single bite.
“That woman infuriates me!” Old Madam Zhao seethed, her chest aching with rage as she watched Bai Qianqian reach the doorway. “Look at her! A complete hooligan! You can’t even reason with her. How could a girl from a decent family be raised so poorly? I want to ask the Bai family what on earth they were doing!”
Zhao Chengwen and Madam Shen were stunned. They had expected to lecture Bai Qianqian, then soothe her with a sweet date if she got upset.
They thought manipulating a village woman like her would be easy. Instead, she’d thrown a fit and stormed out after just a few words. This was not the outcome they had anticipated.
“See?” Bai Qianqian said, her mood instantly lifting as they left the Zhao residence. “Next time we face a ‘Hongmen Banquet’ like this, we’ll avoid it if we can. It was obvious they had bad intentions. Tomorrow, I’ll take you to your maternal grandmother’s house for a few days to lay low.”
She then broke the brown sugar jujube cake into pieces, sharing it with A-Xiu and Zhao Anyao.