What could Jiang Xiaoyu possibly have forgotten? Naturally, it was the bride price. There was no way she intended to hand it over, but Old Lady Wu would definitely demand the money. Fortunately, her parents had already split from the family household, so they no longer needed to care about however much Old Lady Wu wanted to make a fuss.
“Oh right, I forgot about the bride price. Mom, back then you promised my grandmother eighty eight yuan in bride price. But now my parents have split from Grandma and Eldest Uncle’s household, so this bride price should go to my parents instead. You really are a good stepmother, even paying the bride price for your son. I’ll thank you on Mu Chengfeng’s behalf.”
Yu Jinfeng nearly fainted from anger at this twisted logic.
“Why should I be the one paying the bride price? Mu Chengfeng should pay for it himself and give it to your grandmother.”
Jiang Xiaoyu widened her eyes in mock surprise.
“Oh, so stepmothers don’t have to pay bride prices for their stepsons? Then forget it. My family doesn’t want a bride price anymore. Let’s just waive it.”
“You think you can just waive it because you say so? What family marries off a bride without receiving a bride price? Mu Chengfeng can’t save money this way.”
Jiang Xiaoyu looked toward her cousin.
“But my cousin didn’t ask for a bride price…”
Yu Jinfeng nearly blacked out again. Her biological son had been a handsome city boy with a stable job, yet he had insisted on marrying a pretty country girl. She had even used connections to get Jiang Xiuzhen into the military hospital where her stepson worked. That kind of prestigious workplace was already a blessing. And she still wanted a bride price on top of it?
“Then go talk to your grandmother yourself.”
Jiang Xiaoyu spread her hands.
“I’m already married now. Why should I care about a grandmother who never loved me anyway? You were the one who promised the bride price, not Mu Chengfeng. He’s busy with work, so Mom shouldn’t disturb him. If there’s anything to discuss, discuss it with me.”
Yu Jinfeng pressed a hand to her forehead. Her biological daughter in law had been easy to manipulate, but this stepson’s wife was impossible to handle.
Jiang Xiuzhen also felt dizzy. This younger cousin was far sharper than she had been as a child. Jiang Xiuzhen had never seen her mother in law suffer such a huge loss before. She already knew the old woman’s anger would soon be directed at her.
Still, if it meant Jiang Xiaoyu could take the three children away, then getting scolded was worth it. If such a shrewd cousin became her sister in law and continued living under the same roof, life would become even more unbearable.
Qian Chunmei had been completely won over by Jiang Xiaoyu’s sharp tongue. Every sentence sounded pointed, yet every sentence also made perfect sense. Mu Chengfeng had finally married such an excellent wife. His household worries were finally settled, and he could focus fully on his work now.
“Xiaoyu, take a look. Are these three rooms alright? Mu Chengfeng was wholeheartedly searching for a live-in wife to help manage the home, so he prepared the house carefully enough for people to live in first. He really put thought into it. If anything’s missing, just go buy it.”
Jiang Xiaoyu had always loved stocking up on things. The home Mu Chengfeng had prepared looked so simple. Everything inside was purely practical. Later on, she would slowly add more things herself, including clothes for every season, a proper wardrobe space, and all kinds of kitchenware for making delicious food.
Jiang Xiaoyu swallowed slightly and asked, “Sister in law, where can I buy ingredients for dinner?”
If she wanted the children to like her, then naturally she had to start by winning over their stomachs.
Besides being a kindergarten teacher, Jiang Xiaoyu had also been a serious foodie in her previous life and even managed a food blog. This was an island by the sea, where people lived off seafood. The seafood that cost outrageous prices in later generations was absurdly cheap here in this era. This was practically her dream retirement paradise. Right now, all she wanted was to bring home a giant pot of seafood to cook.
Qian Chunmei said, “You won’t find many vegetables at the supply cooperative anymore. Go to the docks instead and see what the fishermen brought back. Try to buy fish, especially fish. Don’t bother with things like lobster, abalone, or sea urchin. They’re all shells and barely any meat, not tasty at all.”
Jiang Xiaoyu nearly drooled. Just hearing those words made her feel blissful already. Lobster porridge, steamed eggs with sea urchin, abalone braised together with pork belly, those were the truly delicious ways to eat them. But in this era pork was scarce. A worker only received one jin of meat coupons each month. Fine then, she would skip the abalone for now and wait until Mu Chengfeng got paid and they had meat coupons again.
“Thank you, Sister in law. You should get back to work. I’ll head over soon.”
Jiang Xiaoyu could not wait to visit the seaside and see whether the ocean of the 1950s looked the same as the one she remembered from the future. Since industrial fishing had not yet developed, she guessed the seafood harvests should be even richer, though it was only speculation.
People living by the sea probably found it ordinary already. Transportation was underdeveloped, and there was no cold chain shipping. Without processing, fresh seafood simply could not be transported far away, so locally it was not worth much. But for a foodie like Jiang Xiaoyu, this place was paradise itself.
She asked the three children whether they wanted to go to the docks with her. The eldest wanted to go, and the youngest had already wrapped himself around her leg and refused to let go. The second child bravely shook her head, indicating she did not want to go out.
If she carried the youngest child the entire way while also hauling purchases back, her thin arms and legs would never survive it. So she could only bring the eldest child along while asking a neighbor to watch the younger two for a while. It was perfect timing anyway. She could get to know the neighbors too. Distant relatives were never as useful as nearby neighbors. Going over to greet them early would make her appear more polite as well.
To the left of Jiang Xiaoyu’s house was an open empty space. The neighbors on the right consisted of a mother in law and daughter in law pair, and the younger woman was heavily pregnant.
“Hello, Auntie. Hello, Sister in law. I’m Jiang Xiaoyu, Mu Chengfeng’s family member from next door. I’m heading to the docks to see what I can buy, so I wanted to leave these two children here for a little while.”
“Oh heavens, Chengfeng quietly got married without telling anyone. Come in and sit for a while. Tell us about yourself. Where are you from?”
Jiang Xiaoyu quickly began chatting warmly with the neighbors, explaining her own background while learning about theirs in return. She almost blurted out “Oh my god” several times during the conversation.
Why? Because this family had been mentioned in the novel.
The older woman was named Hua Lianfang. After becoming widowed, she worked tirelessly to support her son through medical school. During a lonely period in her life, she rescued a refugee girl named Ke Xiu, who later became her daughter in law.
At the time, Ke Xiu had been thin and malnourished, but after half a year recovering in Aunt Hua’s home, she regained her healthy complexion and became fair and beautiful. She regarded Aunt Hua as her benefactor and handled all the household chores willingly. When Wei Mancang returned home during summer vacation, he immediately blushed upon seeing her. After spending the summer together, they gradually fell in love, and by the time he graduated, Aunt Hua arranged their marriage herself.
Wei Mancang had been recommended by his teacher to work at the island military hospital after graduation. After several years of hard work, he was finally assigned family housing and brought both his mother and wife to live with him. Only one month after arriving, his wife became pregnant, and the entire family was overjoyed.
But in the novel, this child was never born successfully. It was terribly tragic. Jiang Xiaoyu had never expected to become neighbors with this family.
She gently touched the pregnant woman’s stomach.
“The baby is so well behaved.”
With Auntie here, you’ll definitely get to see this world. A child growing up in such a loving family would surely become a gentle and kind person. A child born in 1958 would even live long enough to witness the era Jiang Xiaoyu came from.
As though responding to her words, the baby kicked once inside Ke Xiu’s belly. Ke Xiu immediately placed a hand over it in surprise.
“Mom, the baby kicked me. So strong too.”
Hua Lianfang’s face lit up with joy.
“Oh my, the baby already likes the new auntie next door.”
…
After leaving the younger sister and younger brother at Aunt Hua’s house, Jiang Xiaoyu brought the eldest daughter to the docks. The little girl held tightly onto Jiang Xiaoyu’s hand, looking nervous and restrained. She had lived on the island for quite a while already, yet she still seemed like a child who had rarely gone outside.
“Big Sister, have you ever been to the docks before?” Jiang Xiaoyu bought two bus tickets so the girl could have a seat of her own.
Mu Jinzhi hurriedly shook her head.
“Mom, I’ve never been to the docks before. Dad never had time, and Grandma said children shouldn’t go near the sea because it’s dangerous.”
Jiang Xiaoyu felt oddly embarrassed being called “Mom.” In this body, she was only eight years older than the eldest daughter. The child was probably afraid of upsetting her, which was why she used the title. It also meant Mu Jinzhi truly wanted to stay with her father and stepmother rather than continue living as a dependent in someone else’s home.
Jiang Xiaoyu did not expect the three children to support her in old age. Whether they grew up grateful or ungrateful, filial or not, did not matter much to her. After all, once a person retired from work, could they really expect bosses and coworkers to remember them forever? Most relationships faded once people moved on.
She had already received her wages, so none of that truly mattered. If the children treated her well in the future, then wonderful. If not, their father had already compensated her for her labor.
So Jiang Xiaoyu simply said, “Big Sister, if calling me Mom feels uncomfortable, you can call me Auntie first.”
Mu Jinzhi hurriedly shook her head again.
“Mom, I truly mean it. As long as you don’t dislike the three of us siblings, then you’re our mother.”
Children who lacked love often became like this, cautious and painfully obedient. Jiang Xiaoyu had taught several years of kindergarten already. After graduating, she had been lucky enough to begin with older classes before later teaching younger children. Among all the children she had cared for, the ones she pitied most were these overly careful children who craved affection.
“Alright. Call me whatever makes you happy.”
Mu Jinzhi tightened her grip on Jiang Xiaoyu’s hand, her eyes reddening slightly. She had heard countless terrible things about stepmothers. Her original mother had always been busy with work, leaving her either with her maternal grandmother or grandfather. Every time she met her biological mother, she acted cautiously too. Later, she overheard conversations at her grandmother’s home and learned she had only been picked up by her mother as cover for her revolutionary identity.
Her father had also been busy, but she could still feel his kindness toward her. Now that a stepmother had arrived, perhaps if she sincerely treated her as a real mother, then the stepmother would sincerely care for her too. Hadn’t books always said that sincerity could be exchanged for sincerity?
Standing at the docks, they could already see the endless ocean stretching into the distance. Waves rolled continuously against the shore. Jiang Xiaoyu desperately wanted to kick off her shoes and run wildly across the beach barefoot. But the tide would rise soon, and the fishermen gathering shellfish were already returning to shore one after another.
The catch was incredibly abundant. There were clams, fish stranded along rocky reefs, and as expected, lobsters and abalone too. Once she asked about prices, everyone practically begged her to buy entire buckets from them, selling things at nearly giveaway prices. This was an unbelievable bargain.
As someone from the twenty-first century, Jiang Xiaoyu honestly felt embarrassed bargaining over seafood this cheap and plentiful. In fact, the fishermen themselves rounded the prices down voluntarily, acting as though they had found some foolish rich customer. Once the deal was complete, they hurried away immediately, apparently afraid she might suddenly realize she had spent too much money on piles of shells and fish. But to Jiang Xiaoyu, this was an insanely good deal.
Just imagining all the delicious food she could eat tonight already made her swallow with anticipation.
There was still plenty of time left. Near the place where they had gotten off the bus earlier was a small marketplace selling handmade bamboo products woven by farmers. There were winnowing baskets, small baskets, carrying baskets, and all sorts of beautiful handcrafted items. They were so cheap they practically felt free. The smaller ones cost only a few cents, while even the larger ones cost only a few mao and already came fitted with straw ropes for carrying.
Jiang Xiaoyu bought a large one so she could place the smaller items inside. She also bought a gourd ladle and an old dried loofah sponge, which was excellent for washing pots and dishes. Since dish soap did not exist yet, most people simply tied rice straw together into scrubbers, but loofah sponges worked much better.
There were also rough pottery bowls and plates, every single one unique and charming. Mu Chengfeng, being a typical straight laced man, had only bought enough bowls and chopsticks for the exact number of people in the household, though there were extra plates. But how could that possibly be enough? Jiang Xiaoyu happily bought pottery jars, bowls, and dishes of all sizes and styles.
The farmer who sold them had just completed a two yuan sale and was overjoyed. He carefully wrapped everything in straw padding before packing it neatly into the bamboo basket.
The basket gradually became heavier. The eldest daughter carried the seafood while Jiang Xiaoyu carried the basket full of miscellaneous household items on her back. They could not buy anything more now and were preparing to take the bus home.
“Hm? Isn’t that Doctor Mu’s eldest girl? The young woman beside her looks unfamiliar. Let’s go over and ask.”