Seeing that Wen Xiangnan was able to get two flatbreads, Tian Chunhua immediately felt unbalanced inside.
She pursed her lips, about to make a fuss, but Ye Wen spoke first.
“Second son’s wife, I specifically told you today to calm the child down and then come help out. What did you do instead? Do you really think I’m blind and don’t know anything?”
The old woman snorted coldly.
“I raised four children myself. I can tell perfectly well whether a child is crying for real or just wailing on purpose. If you don’t accept it, why don’t you undo the child’s clothes right now and let everyone take a look?”
A child’s skin is delicate—apply just a bit of force and marks will be left.
With her trick exposed, Tian Chunhua’s face immediately burned with embarrassment. When her mother-in-law told her to cook that afternoon, she really had been lazy and pinched her son’s thigh. Afterward, when she saw the bruise, she herself felt distressed for a long while.
Now she didn’t dare stir up any more trouble, afraid she wouldn’t even get half a flatbread. She could only lower her head, hold the child, and gnaw on her bread.
Still, she felt resentful inside. Under the table, she kept nudging her husband with her toes, hoping he’d share a bite with her.
Unfortunately, the second son hadn’t been given much to begin with. He barely had enough for himself—how could he bear to give any away?
Seeing her husband pretend to be deaf and focus only on eating, Tian Chunhua was so angry her teeth itched.
The dinner table fell silent, with only the sound of chewing filling the room.
Usually, dinner was just thin porridge cooked by the eldest daughter-in-law, and they’d be hungry again in less than two hours.
Today, it was rare to have solid food. The oily, fragrant flatbreads left the whole family thoroughly satisfied.
Ye Wen lowered her head and ate, but her eyes occasionally swept over the renovation progress bars above everyone’s heads.
The second couple’s numbers hadn’t budged at all—still 10 and 15.
The eldest son, however, had risen from 80 to 82, and the fourth had gone from 48 to 50.
Ye Wen was secretly surprised. Just distributing food had actually changed the renovation progress.
It seemed that reforming these children wasn’t as difficult as she’d imagined. At this rate, maybe she’d soon complete the mission and return to her original world.
Just as she was thinking this, a cold system notification suddenly rang out in her mind:
“Congratulations, Host. Today you increased renovation progress by a total of 4 points, which has automatically been converted into 40 exchange coins. Funds have been credited.”
Ye Wen almost choked on her flatbread. She’d earned 400 yuan just like that? If this trend continued, getting rich was only a matter of time!
She chewed happily on her bread, and even the gloom from suddenly aging ten years and becoming a mother for no reason faded quite a bit.
After the meal, Ye Wen cleared her throat and announced,
“The autumn harvest is important. Starting tomorrow, everyone in the family will pitch in. Second daughter-in-law and Xiaonan will handle the cooking. I’ll go to the fields with the eldest and second sons. Eldest daughter-in-law just gave birth, so she should stay home and recover.”
As soon as she finished speaking, the room fell dead silent. Everyone stared at her in disbelief.
The eldest daughter-in-law had only given birth to a girl—yet Mother was allowing her to rest and recover? Last time she gave birth to Xiaocao, she’d only rested one day before being driven back to work in the fields. Had the sun risen in the west today?
And Mother was actually saying she’d go work in the fields herself?!
Ever since Father passed away, Mother hadn’t touched farm work. What was going on today?
The eldest son, Wen Xiangdong, panicked as soon as he heard this and hurried to persuade her.
“Mother, at your age, how can you go work in the fields? What if you wear yourself out? In my opinion, Lian-niang only gave birth to a girl—why does she need to rest and recover? She’s probably just trying to be lazy and avoid work! I’ll go call her out right now and see if she still dares to pretend to be sick!”
After saying this, he slammed his bowl down and got up, about to head for the east wing to drag Jiang Lian out.
Ye Wen felt that today’s troubles just kept piling up. Her chest felt tight with anger.
“Eldest son! Stop right there!”
How could there be such a rotten person in this world? She wished she could grab a broom and give Wen Xiangdong a good beating.
Seeing his mother’s face turn ashen, the second son, Wen Xiangxi, secretly laughed, knowing his elder brother had hit the muzzle of the gun again. On the surface, he tried to smooth things over, but in reality he was adding fuel to the fire.
“That’s right, Mother. At your age, if you still go work in the fields and word gets out, people will say Eldest Brother is unfilial.”
Hearing this, Wen Xiangdong’s heart clenched. He nervously rubbed the corner of his clothes.
It’s over, it’s over—Mother is definitely going to scold me again!
As the eldest son, he had always regarded raising his younger siblings and being filial to his mother as his duty. If his mother were worn out, that would be a grave act of unfilial behavior—how could he possibly bear that accusation?
And at this moment, Lian-niang wasn’t even around. There wasn’t anyone to take the scolding for him. Mother would surely latch onto him and berate him endlessly.
The second son looked on with satisfaction at his elder brother’s flustered state. In the past, as long as he said something like this, Mother would definitely praise him as “the thoughtful second son.” The two of them would chat happily, then she’d turn around and scold the eldest until he couldn’t lift his head.
Hmph. Who told his elder brother to eat the flatbread earlier without leaving him even half a piece? He’d done this on purpose—he just had to let his brother suffer a bit.
It wasn’t that he truly cared about whether Mother worked hard or not. He was afraid that if Mother followed them to the fields every day, his secret would be exposed sooner or later.
If Mother watched him all the time, how could he sneak out to run his own business?
Outsiders only knew Wen Xiangxi as a lazy, slippery fellow—either he disappeared before dawn, or once he reached the fields, he’d sneak into the woods to sleep.
But who knew that every day, before dawn, he’d head out in the dark to the docks to buy fresh fish, then go sell them in front of wealthy households in the city.
Although the servants of those households had procurement duties, who wouldn’t prefer convenience? Since someone brought the goods right to their door, why bother going far themselves? Besides, their masters were picky—dead fish and rotten shrimp would never make it to the table. Live fish had to be carried in wooden basins, and buying just one fish could leave someone drenched in sweat.
Now that someone delivered straight to their door, even if the price was one or two coins higher than the market rate, it was still the master’s money. The servants were happy to do him a favor.
Relying on these one- or two-coin profits, the second son had actually saved quite a bit of private money.
When he was in a good mood, he’d even spend a little on snacks to show filial piety to the old woman. Although the original owner of this body didn’t know where the money came from, seeing her son bring things home naturally made her feel proud, and she became especially lenient toward this second son.
This secret was known only to Wen Xiangxi himself. Whenever the old woman asked where the goods came from, he’d stammer and brush it off.
He knew that if the family found out he had private savings, those copper coins would sooner or later be poured into the bottomless pit of the third son’s schooling. He wasn’t going to be as foolish as his elder brother.
Mother always said the third son was the reincarnation of the Star of Literature, but he’d run into that kid in the county town several times—he was clearly just wandering the streets with a bunch of good-for-nothing friends. He didn’t look like a scholar at all.
Even if the third son really did make something of himself, Wen Xiangxi would never pin all his hopes on someone else.
Over the years, he’d come to understand this clearly: rely on mountains and the mountains collapse; rely on people and they run away—only oneself is truly reliable.
Every day, he had to deal with the family’s chores while secretly tending to his own business.
He always napped in the woods during the day, but that was because he hadn’t slept at all in the latter half of the night. He spent those hours hustling secondhand deals in the city, then had to rush back before dawn. Once home, he still had to work in the fields. Even a man of iron couldn’t take that. That’s why, after doing a bit of work, he’d slip into the woods to sleep.
The villagers didn’t know the truth, so rumors spread that he was lazy. In reality, Wen Xiangxi wasn’t lazy at all—he was even more hardworking than many others. The truth, however, was known only to him and his wife.
Otherwise, how could the strong-willed Tian Chunhua follow him so wholeheartedly?
Bit by bit, Wen Xiangxi saved up—and ended up accumulating quite a lot of money.