“In short, we’re a family,” Ye Wen said as she slapped her thigh. “As long as we’re of one mind and work together, this household will definitely grow more and more prosperous. When I fainted earlier, your father taught me quite a few skills. In a few days, Mother will show you what I can do, and then you’ll know I’m not just talking big.”
Ye Wen took the opportunity to lay some groundwork with the children. If she later displayed abilities the original owner never had without preparing them in advance, it would be hard to explain.
Everyone looked at one another, full of doubts—was what Mother said true or not?
Although they all had some reverence for ghosts and spirits, the idea that a ghost could actually teach someone skills still sounded far too bizarre.
Seeing their half-believing, half-doubting expressions, Ye Wen’s eyes flickered, and she deliberately added fuel to the fire.
“Your father said in my dream that as long as we follow the methods he taught, our family is guaranteed to live a good life. But if we keep going on like we are now…”
She deliberately paused and lowered her voice.
“He said that if this family keeps being so unambitious, he’s going to lose his temper down there. When that happens, forget about him blessing us—he might even… sigh. Eldest, you might end up without any descendants in this life; Second, you’ll have a hard time getting rich; and as for Xiaonan wanting to marry into a wealthy family…”
“Mother!”
All three children cried out at the same time, their faces turning pale.
The second son was the most anxious, sweat breaking out on his forehead. “Mother, just tell us what Father said to do. Your son will definitely follow it!” The thing he feared most in life was being a nobody.
The eldest son couldn’t sit still either. Rubbing his hands, he said, “Mother, you must speak properly to Father. Our branch of the family can’t let the incense die out!” Having a son had always been his biggest worry.
Xiaonan stamped her feet in panic. “Mother! I’ll listen to everything you say. You must have Father bless me so I can marry into a good family!” Her mind was full of dreams of rising high and becoming a phoenix.
Looking at the family in front of her, Ye Wen felt her temples throb, her head aching.
With this bunch of hopeless people, how much effort would it take to drag them along?
That said, this was also a double-edged sword. As long as she targeted their weak points, she didn’t have to worry about them not obeying. After all, the most troublesome people were those with no desires at all.
To win people over, the key was to prescribe the right medicine. To make these children sincerely submit, she first had to show real ability—let them see with their own eyes that following her would truly lead to a good life.
People were realistic and only respected the strong. As long as she could lead this big family to increasingly prosperous days, was she really afraid these children, each with their own schemes, wouldn’t listen?
In fact, the management methods used in the workplace worked just as well at home. Empty promises alone wouldn’t do; tangible benefits had to be given from time to time for people to be willing to follow.
But for now, the most urgent task was still the autumn harvest. While the weather was good, they needed to reap the rice, thresh it, and dry it—this was work that had to race against time.
Once the grain was safely stored, they could slowly plan the road ahead.
“All right, that’s enough for today,” Ye Wen said. “Second daughter-in-law, give the child to your husband and go wash the bowls. Everyone clean up early and rest early.”
With that, Ye Wen turned and left the kitchen.
After washing up and returning to her room, Ye Wen stared at the 70 exchange coins displayed on the system screen. Her finger kept sliding across the product list as she calculated what she could buy.
A bag of flour cost 5 coins, a jin of pork cost 10 coins. With this amount, buying food was more than enough, but for anything else, it fell far short.
Ye Wen couldn’t help but sigh. The road ahead was long.
Feeling a bit thirsty, she got up to go to the kitchen for some water. Just as she reached the doorway, she saw Jiang Lian squatting by the fire pit, carefully scooping the burned-out wood ash into a long, narrow cloth bag.
“What are you doing?” Ye Wen asked curiously.
“Ah!”
Jiang Lian jumped in fright, and the ash in her hands puffed into the air, making both of them cough repeatedly.
“Cough, cough… I’m sorry, Mother, I didn’t know it was you,” Jiang Lian apologized in a panic as she coughed. Afraid her mother-in-law would scold her for being choked by the ash—and even more afraid her husband would be called out to beat her—she shrank into herself, apologizing to Ye Wen over and over.
Ye Wen looked up at the sky helplessly. She had just asked a casual question—was it really necessary to be this frightened?
“I’m asking what you were doing just now,” she said, deliberately softening her tone.
“You mean this?” Jiang Lian lifted the cloth bag, her expression awkward. After hesitating for a moment, she lowered her voice and said, “This is a menstrual cloth, Mother. Don’t you have one too?”
Jiang Lian kept her head lowered, not daring to look at her mother-in-law, and continued explaining softly. “Mother, I thought everyone had gone to sleep, so I came to fill it with ash. I’m sorry. Next time I’ll come even later, so that… so that this filthy thing won’t offend you.”
A menstrual cloth?!
Ye Wen quickly searched through the original owner’s memories and indeed recalled the existence of such an item.
The original owner also used a similar cloth bag during her period, but it was filled with scraps of fabric and old cotton. When it got dirty, she would dump out the stuffing and only wash the outer cloth. Jiang Lian’s family, however, was so poor that they didn’t even have fabric scraps—she could only use wood ash instead.
Looking at the trembling Jiang Lian before her, Ye Wen almost wanted to curse out loud.
Could life in ancient times get any harder than this?
It went without saying that Jiang Lian had just given birth and was currently discharging lochia. With no sanitary pads in this era, she could only use this thing to absorb it.
How unhygienic was that?!
A woman’s body was already prone to infection during menstruation, let alone Jiang Lian, who had just given birth. If she got infected under these conditions, with ancient medical standards, wouldn’t that be fatal?
Thinking of the video where Jiang Lian eventually died from complications due to physical depletion and difficult childbirth, that ash-filled menstrual cloth was likely one of the main culprits.
Ye Wen’s expression instantly darkened, so gloomy it seemed like water could drip from it.
This scene, falling into Jiang Lian’s eyes, immediately sent her into a panic. She thought she had angered her mother-in-law again. Remembering how in the past, upsetting her mother-in-law meant being beaten and scolded—and even having her husband incited to punish her—Jiang Lian began trembling uncontrollably.
She was filled with regret. If only she had endured it and gotten up in the middle of the night to deal with it secretly. Now she had offended her mother-in-law—what was she supposed to do?
“Stay right here!” Ye Wen ground out through clenched teeth, then turned and hurried back to her room.
She quickly opened the exchange shop and found sanitary pads, just about to redeem them when she suddenly realized how out of place such items would be in this era. After thinking for a moment, she typed “menstrual belt” into the search bar.
Sure enough, the shop displayed cloth-strip-like items similar to what Jiang Lian was holding. But a single menstrual belt cost a full 10 exchange coins!
Gritting her teeth, Ye Wen directly redeemed five of them. These things had to be washed after use and dried afterward—five might not even be enough.
She had the belts, but no stuffing. Checking the price of cotton, the cheapest was 30 coins per jin. Ye Wen stomped her foot in frustration. She only had 20 coins left—nowhere near enough to buy cotton.
Closing the screen, she rummaged through boxes and chests and found one of the original owner’s new cotton jackets. She grabbed a pair of scissors and with a few snips cut it open, pulling out the cotton inside and stuffing it into the menstrual belts. Once everything was prepared, she carried the items back to the kitchen.
Jiang Lian was still there, holding the same posture by the fire pit, completely motionless—like a statue.