A fierce wife enters the house: She helps up a house full of spineless people.

As soon as it was dawn, Old Mrs. Chen got up.

Chen Yang had a huge outburst last night, and none of the three women dared to argue back. Old Mrs. Chen thought about it all night and decided that she should set an example first—after all, she was an elder, and she couldn't let her son bear it all alone.

She stuffed some dry grass into the stove to start a fire, added a few pieces of firewood, put brown rice into the pot, and chopped two pieces of pickled vegetables. The porridge was bubbling away, and she stirred it with a spoon; it was a bit thicker than yesterday.

"Second son! Get up! The porridge is ready!"

Chen Xiufen rolled over, groggily got up, put on her clothes, and went into the kitchen. Her eyelids were still swollen.

"Mom, where's Yiyi? Let her serve the rice."

Grandma Chen gestured towards Liu Yiyi's room with her lip: "Go and call her."

Chen Xiufen dragged her feet over, knocked on the door twice, but received no answer. She pushed it open and saw—

The quilt was folded neatly, a handkerchief was placed on the pillow, and Liu Yiyi's change of coarse cloth dress was still there, but she was not there.

Chen Xiufen froze for a moment, then turned and rushed into the kitchen: "Mom! Yiyi ran away!"

"It ran away?" Old Mrs. Chen nearly dropped the spoon into the pot. "What do you mean, 'ran away'?"

"The person is gone! The bedding was neatly folded, and the hairpin was taken too!"

Old Mrs. Chen wiped her hands and rushed over to take a look, her face turning ashen.

Chen Yang was returning from fetching water outside the courtyard when he heard the commotion before he even put down his carrying pole: "What's wrong?"

"Liu Yiyi ran away!" Chen Xiufen shrieked. "She went back to her parents' house! Yesterday you said we both had to go to the fields today, and she ran away! Leaving me to do the work alone!"

Chen Yang slammed the carrying pole to the ground with a thud, spilling half the water bucket, but he didn't care.

"Why is she running away? Even though the family has separated, she's still a member of the Chen family! She doesn't do any work in the fields, she doesn't cook, did she marry into this family just to freeload?"

Old Mrs. Chen plopped down on the threshold, her chest heaving violently.

Before the family split up, no matter how chaotic things were at home, the eldest son's family would hold things together. There would be someone to chop firewood, fetch water, and cultivate the land. She only needed to give orders and utter a few curses, and the days would pass.

What now?

The son can't manage all four mu of land by himself. His granddaughter-in-law has run away, and there's no one to help with the cooking. The grandson is studying at the academy and sends back half a tael of silver a month.

Chen Xiufen sat by the stove, growing angrier with each passing thought: "She's so good to me, just running away and leaving me and my mother to work ourselves to the bone at home! What gives her the right? Just because she's a scholar's wife?"

"Alright!" Chen Yang roared, "Eat! After you finish eating, you're coming with me to the fields. If we don't plow those two acres of sub-grade land soon, it'll be too late!"

Chen Xiufen's face fell.

She? Getting out of bed?

The last time she went to work in the fields was before the eldest son's family had separated, when she was just going through the motions and couldn't even hold a hoe properly.

But seeing Chen Yang's dark face, she didn't dare to say a word, silently drank a bowl of porridge, and then went out the door.

Old Mrs. Chen sat alone in the kitchen, with three bowls of porridge in front of her—Liu Yiyi's bowl, which no one drank.

From the other side of the courtyard wall came Chen Tianwei's clear voice: "Sister-in-law, should we put radishes in today's bone broth?"

Wang Jinzhu's voice was languid: "Put it in, cut it into big chunks, stew it until it's tender, and serve your grandfather a bowl."

Grandma Chen clenched her fist, picked up the extra bowl of porridge, and gulped it down herself.

Wang Jinzhu had already arranged the fifty bars of soap early in the morning.

Three colors, three scents, each wrapped separately in coarse cloth and neatly stuffed into two baskets.

The shop assistant sent by Manager Sun arrived just after 7 a.m., inspected the goods, counted them, and took out a string of copper coins and a small piece of silver.

"Manager Sun said that fifty pieces will be charged as twenty coins, totaling one tael of silver. Here is the payment; please check it."

Wang Jinzhu counted them once and put them away.

After the shop assistant left, she weighed the silver in her hand, stuffed it into her purse, and called out into the house, "Tianfang, change into some clean clothes, we're going to the county town."

Chen Tianfang came out of the house, wearing a rare unpatched blue cloth short coat. Although it was old, it was starched and clean.

Wang Jinzhu looked him up and down and nodded—her man was good-looking, tall and sturdy, and his mere presence made people feel at ease.

The two took an oxcart to the county seat from the town, and after a bumpy ride of more than an hour, they arrived in Yongning County.

The county town was much larger than the town. The streets were wide and lined with shops, including four or five general stores and shops that specialized in cosmetics and perfumes.

Wang Jinzhu pulled Chen Tianfang along as they strolled around.

The cheapest scented soap in the cosmetics shop cost twenty-five coins, while the better ones cost forty. She picked it up and squeezed it; it was hard as a rock. She smelled it, and the strong fragrance made her wrinkle her nose.

"That's it? Forty coins?" Wang Jinzhu put down the soap, feeling more confident.

She sold her soap to Manager Sun for 25 coins, who then supplied it to the county town, adding 5 coins in the middle. The county town shops added another 20 coins, and the final price was 60 coins – better than the soap already available in those shops, and the price was the same.

It would be strange if they didn't sell.

After browsing the general store, the two went to the pastry shop.

Wang Jinzhu picked out two packs of osmanthus cakes and one pack of mung bean cakes, specifically choosing those that the elderly could chew.

"This pack is for Grandpa, and this pack is for Mom and Dad." After dividing them, she thought for a moment and added a pack of sesame brittle, "This pack is for Tianrun and Tianwei."

Watching her efficient way of shopping, Chen Tianfang stood aside, unsure what to say, finally managing to stammer, "I'll carry it."

On the way back, Wang Jinzhu stopped in front of her father's stall in the town.

Wang Dali was chopping ribs behind the cutting board when he saw his daughter and son-in-law arrive. Without stopping, he asked, "You're here?"

"Dad, cut two pounds of pork belly and one pound of spare ribs."

"What do you want?" Wang Dali put the meat on the scale, then added two more pork bones. "Here, take this, it'll be used to make soup for your father-in-law."

Wang Jinzhu didn't refuse and paid the money, but Wang Dali wouldn't accept it. She simply placed it on the corner of the cutting board and turned to leave.

Wang Dali looked at the few copper coins, cursed "stubborn fool," and accepted them with a smile.

Evening, in the courtyard of the main house.

Old Chen sat in a chair, holding a piece of osmanthus cake in his hands, taking small bites.

The cake was soft and sweet, with the fragrance of osmanthus blossoms melting in his mouth. He squinted and ate slowly and deliberately.

As they were eating, footsteps came from the other side of the mud wall.

Old Mrs. Chen moved a small stool to sit on the other side of the wall and began sewing a tattered piece of Chen Yang's clothes. She didn't speak, but her ears were perked up.

Old Chen took another bite and deliberately smacked his lips.

"Yes, this osmanthus cake was bought in the county town; it's very crisp."

The sound of needle and thread stopped for a moment on the other side of the wall.

Old Chen continued talking to himself, "I'm stewing meat again tonight, pork belly with radish. My eldest granddaughter-in-law is a good cook. Yesterday I stewed ribs, and the day before yesterday I braised pheasant. I've been eating meat every day for the past few days, and I'm getting tired of it."

When he said "I'm tired of it," he deliberately raised his voice.

There was silence on the other side of the wall for a long time.

"You old hag, what are you showing off for?" Old Mrs. Chen's muffled voice came from the other side of the wall.

Old Chen's lips twitched, and he broke off a small piece of osmanthus cake and put it in his mouth.

Old Mrs. Chen pricked her finger with the needle, hissed, got up, snapped the stool together, and left without looking back.

Sensing that the person on the other side of the wall had left, Old Man Chen, still chewing on cake, slowly composed himself.

He sighed, placed the last piece of cake on his lap, and didn't eat any more.

Wang Jinzhu peeked out from the kitchen and saw that the old man still cared a lot about his wife. Old Mrs. Chen was getting old anyway, and didn't have many years left to live. She was willing to come and live a peaceful life, and she could accept that. But if she wanted to be taken as a concubine, she wouldn't get a single penny.