Chapter 786 - 405: Ominous News

Chapter 786: Chapter 405: Ominous News

While they were laughing and talking, Huai Zi suddenly took Juhua’s hand. He saw her hands were stained with sap, which had mixed with dust and turned a grimy black. He opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but then he saw his parents were also busy. ’I can’t very well say I don’t want my wife getting her hands dirty, can I?’ The sap from the sweet potato vines was particularly difficult to wash off; it was so sticky you couldn’t even scrape it away.

So he said to Juhua, "You do the cutting. I’ll straighten and tie the bundles."

When you did the cutting, you wouldn’t get any sap on you as long as you didn’t touch the cut ends. But bundling them required you to straighten the vines by hand, which made it easy to touch the fresh cuts and get sticky sap all over your fingers.

Because of her pregnancy and the month of postpartum confinement, Juhua’s hands had become fair and delicate. Stained with sap and dust, they were now a jarring sight. The saying, "There are no ugly women, only lazy ones," couldn’t be more true. Juhua had meant to wear gloves for this task, but she had forgotten. She only remembered after sitting down and then couldn’t be bothered to get up and fetch them. As a result, her hands were covered in sap. Seeing Huai Zi’s concern, she quickly agreed to his suggestion, as the sap was indeed a pain to wash off.

Hearing Huai Zi, He glanced at Juhua and said, "I was just telling her the other day. She doesn’t know how to look after her hands. It’s different for us older folk; it doesn’t matter if we’re not so careful. Look what you’ve done. Your hands will get all rough at your age. How could you forget to wear gloves again?"

Juhua was both amused and touched. ’He sounds just like my own mother,’ she thought. ’Before I was married, it made sense to be pampered—all so I could find a good husband. But now I’m a daughter-in-law, yet my mother-in-law is treating me like her own daughter.’

’That’s just how people are,’ she mused. ’If they like you, everything you do is wonderful. If they can’t stand you, they’d probably call you pretentious and fussy. ’Wearing gloves to do chores? Are you trying to keep your skin smooth and fair to seduce other men?’’

She replied, "I was just being lazy. I only remembered after I sat down and didn’t feel like getting up to grab them. Now that I’m cutting and Huai Zi’s tying, it’ll be harder to get them dirty anyway." As she spoke, she remembered the favor her maternal grandmother had asked of her a few days prior and turned to He. "Mother, my grandmother wants to help find a wife for Laicai. Do you know of any suitable families on your side? If so, could I trouble you to help make an introduction?"

He thought for a moment. "I can’t really think of anyone suitable. Although, the wife of Huai Zi’s third maternal uncle has a niece from her maiden family who’s fourteen this year. I’ll ask about her later and see if she’s a match."

Zhang Dashuan laughed. "Dear, how could you forget? Huai Zi’s maternal grandmother said that girl is no good. She said, ’She’ll stand in place long enough to wear a hole in the ground and sit long enough to make a pit.’ Said she’s very dull. His third aunt is worried sick that she won’t be able to find a husband for her, which is why she asked his grandmother for help. But his grandmother said she wouldn’t dare vouch for that match."

Huai Zi was surprised. "That sounds like a huge exaggeration. A village girl might be timid and quiet, but she’ll still work just the same. How dull can a person be? Unless she’s just lethargic and lazy, but that’s a different thing entirely."

He frowned, deep in thought, before her eyes lit up with realization. "Oh, I remember now! That’s right. I nearly confused her with the niece from your fourth aunt’s maiden family. That girl isn’t lazy, she’s just inert. She’s like a millstone—she won’t turn unless you push her. If you tell her to do something, she’ll do it well enough. She just has no initiative and will never look for work on her own."

Juhua wasn’t convinced. ’That sounds exactly like laziness to me,’ she thought. ’In a farming family, you don’t have to look for work; it’s right under your nose. Take me, for instance. I could go take a nap right now, or I could sit here and work. It all just comes down to a person’s nature, doesn’t it?’

When she voiced her thoughts, He smiled and pressed her lips together. "You’re a hardworking person, so you can’t imagine what it’s like for people like that. You’ve never met the girl, but just think about Granny Hua—isn’t she the same, just like a millstone? When she was living with Meizi, everything seemed fine, and people even said she’d changed her ways. But now she’s moved in with her younger son, Changling, and that Liu’er is nothing like Meizi. So, Liu’er is getting the short end of the stick, isn’t she? The poor girl is heavily pregnant, and on top of that, she has to cook meals and wash clothes for two extra people. It’s not that Changling hasn’t talked to his mother, but Granny Hua is the type of person you have to watch like a hawk. She’d never find work to do on her own. That’s why their house has been in an uproar lately."

Juhua asked, confused, "Even if she does nothing, Liu’er wouldn’t order her around the way Meizi did. I’m sure she’s silently fuming, but how did it escalate to a full-blown fight?"

Zhang Dashuan chuckled. "You’re forgetting about her mother. Liu’er might keep quiet, and Changling can’t stay home all day to supervise his mother, but is Liu’er’s mother the type to stay out of it? She must have seen how much work Granny Hua did over at Changming’s house and schemed to get her to move in with Changling to help Liu’er. That way, Li Laoda could also help Changling in the fields. It was a clever plan, but she didn’t stop to consider Granny Hua’s true nature. Other than Meizi, there’s really no one who can handle her."