“The two of them went out to work for a year, and forget about bringing any money home—they actually brought back a little girl. At their age, they aren’t even ashamed; the moment they got home, they made such a massive scene. Anyone who didn’t know better would think they had laid a golden egg.”
Yu Jingui, the second daughter-in-law of the Bai family, sat at the head of the bed in her maiden home, leisurely cracking melon seeds and eating fruit. Her lips moved rapidly as she spat out seed husks while grumbling to her mother.
“There’s so much farm work at home, yet they ran off to Huai City without a word. They claimed it was for work, but if you ask me, they just went to enjoy themselves. What’s so special about an ‘old clam bearing a pearl’? It’s not like she hasn’t given birth before, yet the older she gets, the more delicate she acts.”
The more Yu Jingui spoke, the angrier she became.
Why?
Back when she gave birth to Sanlang, forget about being pampered like this—she even had to calculate every egg she ate and every bowl of brown sugar water she drank. No one had ever gone out to borrow white flour to make her millet porridge.
Was her mother-in-law somehow more precious? During this past year in Huai City, who knew what kind of luxuries she had enjoyed while leaving all the farm work at home unfinished.
To make matters worse, Grandmother Bai actually had the nerve to ask her to borrow eggs and brown sugar from her maiden family. How thick-skinned could they be? Treating an old woman who gave birth late in life like she was heaven-sent, and then trying to pluck resources from the grandson’s maternal family?
She wasn’t stupid enough to take things from her own parents to fill the bottomless pit of her husband’s poor family. Moreover, those good things wouldn’t even end up in her own stomach, and she was currently pregnant herself.
Yu Jingui’s mother, Madam Qian, sat opposite her daughter, stitching a shoe sole while listening to the complaints.
“The Bai family has only had one girl in three generations, so it’s not surprising they pamper her a bit. But no matter how much they spoil her, can she ever surpass the sons and grandsons? Those who claim to dote on daughters are just treating them like cats or dogs—little toys to play with. In the end, the family’s wealth still goes to the sons. What are you worrying about?”
Madam Qian glanced up at Yu Jingui, feeling that her daughter was being too impatient. She had lived half her life and had never seen a family that truly valued a daughter over a son. In her own village, there was a large family full of sons who finally had a daughter; they spoiled her as if they’d give her the moon if she asked for the stars. Yet, in the end, to pay for the sons’ marriages, they still sold that daughter off to be a second wife to some wealthy old man.
“Mother, you haven’t seen the material of that baby’s swaddle. It’s so smooth and glossy; you can tell at a glance it’s deathly expensive. Forget about our Shenshu Village—even the wealthy families in the county don’t use such fabric for their clothes. The girl was just born, and that couple has already spent all their money on the little brat. What will happen in the future?” Yu Jingui felt her mother didn’t understand the Bai family as well as she did.
Thinking about it made her even more furious. When Sanlang was born, his swaddle was cut from an old, tattered jacket belonging to her husband, Bai Er Zhuang.
Was that little girl really so precious?
Sure, everyone in the Bai family had been praying for a girl, but they couldn’t just treat a newborn like a golden phoenix. When it came to bringing honor to the ancestors, they still had to rely on the sons and grandsons. Yu Jingui felt her in-laws were losing their minds, and Grandmother Bai was just following the crowd.
The family was so poor they couldn’t afford to burn firewood in the winter, making the house feel like an ice cellar. When Yu Jingui was pregnant and wanted a bowl of egg tea with a drop of sesame oil, Grandmother Bai would look at her with total disdain. Yet, her parents-in-law had no problem buying such expensive fabric for a girl, showing no regard for the family’s survival.
“Also, Mother, I thought I could be the first to give them a daughter. Instead, my mother-in-law quietly beat me to it. Will the daughter I have in the future be able to outshine her own aunt?”
Yu Jingui rubbed her belly. Strangely, although her pregnancy had been confirmed for two months, her stomach was still flat. Moreover, she could eat and sleep perfectly well, without any nausea or discomfort. It wasn’t like this when she was pregnant with Sanlang.
Could it be that carrying a girl was different from carrying a boy?
She had originally expected that by giving birth to the first girl of the Bai family, everyone would revolve around her and treat her like a great hero. But now, that “hero” position had been snatched away by her mother-in-law.
Regardless, she didn’t care. Once she gave birth to her daughter, she would demand the same treatment her mother-in-law received. If anyone was dissatisfied, she, Yu Jingui, was not one to be trifled with.
Madam Qian stopped her work and looked at her daughter’s belly. After a moment of thought, she said, “Since ancient times, sons have been precious while daughters are cheap. I’d actually prefer you to keep having sons. Why do you think I schemed to marry you into the Bai family? Besides your husband appearing to have a bright future back then, the main reason was that the Bais are good at producing sons. I gave birth to seven daughters, and because I had no son, your grandmother called me a ‘hen that couldn’t lay eggs’ for years. I figured once you had a few grandsons, we could bring one over to the Yu family to carry on our family name.”
Madam Qian had mentioned this to Yu Jingui many times before.
In stark contrast to the Bai family, the Yu family was famous for producing only girls. Madam Qian had seven daughters and not a single son. Consequently, the Yu family couldn’t hold their heads up in the village and were bullied by their kin. Yu Jingui’s paternal uncles and cousins were like bloodthirsty wolves, constantly looking for a chance to “prey on the heirless household” and seize their property.
Yu Jingui’s older sisters had all given birth to girls after marrying, suffering just as much as Madam Qian had in their respective marital homes. Years ago, Madam Qian had set her sights on the Bai family’s ability to produce sons, which is why she schemed to marry her third daughter to the second Bai son.
The third daughter didn’t marry in, but the fourth daughter, Yu Jingui, had stepped in first.
The fourth daughter had not disappointed her expectations; her first child after joining the Bai family was a son. This allowed Madam Qian to hold her head high in the village. Furthermore, because her son-in-law was a Xiucai Scholar, those “wolves” in the Yu clan didn’t dare to prey on the family’s estate so easily. If Yu Jingui could have a few more sons and give one to the Yu family, it would be even better.
Yu Jingui felt her mother’s idea was too bizarre. She believed that no matter how many sons the Bai family had, they would never allow one to be adopted by someone else and take another surname. It was unthinkable.
“Mother, you’re like a toad dreaming of eating swan meat,” Yu Jingui said, using the blunt metaphor without concern for its accuracy. “The Bai family’s sons aren’t like radishes or cabbages that you can just pluck and take away. If you even dare to suggest that, forget about my parents-in-law—there’s still that old woman in charge. She’s no pushover; she’d set the Yu family on fire. Even my mother-in-law can have a child at her age; Mother, why don’t you try harder and give birth to a son yourself?”
This daughter was truly specialized in stabbing her mother in the heart.
Madam Qian felt a tightness in her chest. Not having a son was the greatest pain of her life. She snapped back angrily, “Do you think ‘bearing a pearl in old age’ is that easy? I’m ten years older than your mother-in-law. Even if I could do it, you’d have to see if your father has the stamina for it.”
Yu Jingui actually agreed. “True, my father does look much less energetic than my father-in-law.”
Madam Qian was so angry she wanted to use her needle to poke some sense into her daughter’s head.
“You’re also a useless one. You used to be the sharpest among your sisters at home, so why can’t you take control of your husband’s house? Your man is a scholar; you should have demanded to split the household and live separately. If you had, you could give your sons to whomever you wanted. Who would dare to say a word?”
“Mother, don’t even mention Erzhuang! If you do, I’ll get even angrier. Back then, everyone said he was a brilliant young scholar and would surely become an official. It’s been all these years, and he hasn’t earned a single bit of fame or title. Being a ‘scholar’s wife’ gives me less prestige than the village chief’s daughter-in-law. I have nothing to eat or drink; I haven’t enjoyed a single bit of luck.” Yu Jingui shifted her target from her in-laws to her husband.
“He works as a teacher in the town’s private school and earns two taels of silver a month, but not a single cent reaches my hands. More than half goes to pay for the fourth brother’s schooling, and the rest goes to support the whole family and pay for the doctors and medicine for the eldest brother’s paralyzed son. If you ask me, the Bais are just ‘slapping their faces to look fat’—they’re so poor they can barely afford food, yet they still insist on sending the fourth brother to school.”
Yu Jingui was extremely dissatisfied with her husband and even more so with the family’s decision to keep the fourth son in school.
“Didn’t I tell you to split the household early on? What did I say when you first got married? Since you were pregnant, you should have used that as an excuse to take Sanlang to town. Once you’re in town, just lock the door and live your own life. Over time, the family would naturally split,” Madam Qian advised.
Yu Jingui glanced at her mother. It wasn’t that she hadn’t tried that method. It was useless. Her husband always took the opposing side. Don’t be fooled by the scholar’s refined and scholarly appearance; if she insisted on splitting the household, her husband would divorce her before her in-laws even had a chance to speak.
“It’s all your fault. If it weren’t for your foolish ideas, I would have married into a wealthy family like my third sister.”
Yu Jingui thought of her third sister, who had married a wealthy man in the county as a second wife. She ate well, drank well, and was draped in silk. Even though her husband was as old as her father and she had to follow strict rules every day, it was still better than the “clear soup and watery rice” life in the Bai family.
What was the point of being a scholar’s wife? No one pampered her in her husband’s home, her maiden family didn’t respect her, and the villagers gossiped behind her back. Back then, her head must have been filled with water; she had disliked the wealthy suitor for being old and had used underhanded tactics to marry the scholar instead. After all these years, she hadn’t gained a single practical benefit.
Having her shortcomings exposed by her own daughter, Madam Qian felt she had lost face. She couldn’t help but curse, “You wretched girl, now you blame me? Don’t forget, I originally planned for your third sister to marry the Bai family scholar. It was you who refused to be a second wife and used tricks to take your sister’s place and marry into the Bai family…”
Madam Qian was equally ruthless in exposing her daughter’s secrets. Mentioning this, Madam Qian suddenly felt a wave of regret. Because of this incident, every time she clashed with the Bai family, she was on the losing side, with Grandmother Bai constantly pointing at her nose and insulting her.
“If I had known, I would have just recruited a son-in-law to live with us back then.”