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

It took Wang Jinzhu two whole days to finalize the formula for the high-end soap.

The honey was harvested by Chen Tianfang from a wild beehive in the mountains; two large bowls of it, golden and thick, cloyingly sweet. The goat milk was bought by Wang Xiaobao from a dairy farmer in town; it cost one coin a bowl, and he bought ten bowls.

The honey soap uses top-quality pork fat, which is rendered three times to remove all impurities. Before pouring it into the mold, honey and goat milk are added, and the soap is stirred for 15 minutes longer than regular soap, resulting in a translucent soap with a delicate honey-colored sheen.

Wang Jinzhu held the finished product in her palm and examined it for a long time before nodding in satisfaction.

But good soap alone is not enough.

In the county town's cosmetic shops, soap was simply wrapped in oiled paper and sold, like wrapping pickled vegetables. She wanted to differentiate it.

"Tianfang, go up the mountain and cut down two pieces of paulownia wood. They need to have fine grain and no blemishes."

Chen Tianfang left without saying a word. In the afternoon, he carried back three pieces of paulownia wood, each as thick as a forearm. Wang Jinzhu gestured to show him the dimensions and asked him to saw them into thin boards the size of a palm.

Wang Xiaobao squatted down and watched for a long time: "Little sister, what are you going to do?"

"Box."

Wang Jinzhu drew lines on the wooden board with a charcoal pencil and asked Chen Tianfang to carve them. Chen Tianfang was skillful; his background as a hunter and his expertise in skinning and deboning had honed his knife skills, so carving a wooden box was no problem for him.

Half an hour later, the first box was finished. It was square and fit perfectly. When the lid was pushed open, it clicked shut with a "click".

Wang Jinzhu then drew a design in the center of the box lid—a round camellia flower with two characters below it.

"Zhu Ji."

Chen Tianfang carefully carved the design stroke by stroke with a carving knife, then filled in the colors with soot from the bottom of a pot. The result was a simple and elegant design with white flowers on a black background.

Chen Tianwei held the box, turning it over and over to examine it. "Sister-in-law, this is so beautiful! Nothing in the shops in town is this exquisite."

Wang Jinzhu placed the honey soap into the box, sealing it tightly. She then placed a layer of dried osmanthus petals at the bottom, closed the lid, and placed the "Zhuji" characters facing upwards.

She held it in her hand and weighed it in her hand—it was heavy, had a good texture, and was easily recognizable.

"This kind of soap sells for one hundred coins."

Wang Xiaobao nearly dropped the wooden board he was holding: "One hundred coins? Little sister, are you crazy? Who would buy that?"

"The person who bought forty coins worth of inferior soap," Wang Jinzhu said, placing the box on the table. "For the same price, one is wrapped in oiled paper and smells like a pickling jar. The other is in a paulownia wood box, and smells of osmanthus when you open it. Which one would you choose?"

Wang Xiaobao opened his mouth, but swallowed the words that were about to come out.

What my younger sister said seems to make a lot of sense.

Wang Jinzhu made a total of ten honey soaps and ten goat milk soaps, and provided twenty paulownia wood boxes. Chen Tianfang continued carving the remaining paulownia wood boards for future use.

Meanwhile, the second wife's life was in complete chaos.

Chen Xiufen had been squatting in the field all morning, and her back was aching. She used to live a life of ease under the protection of the eldest son's family, at most picking a couple of ears of corn to pretend to work. Now, she couldn't finish weeding her two acres of second-grade fields, her hands were covered in blisters, and her knees were covered in mud.

When I got home, the stove was cold, the pot was empty, and there wasn't even a drop of hot water.

Grandma Chen's legs hurt, so she only cooked one pot of porridge this morning before resting.

Chen Xiufen became angrier the more she thought about it, and her anger flared up instantly.

Liu Yiyi has been gone for five days! Five days! She has to help with everything—the cooking, the farming. Why should she? Liu Yiyi is a daughter-in-law who married into the family, not a spoiled princess who has left!

She threw the hoe at the door and turned to leave.

"Where are you going?" Chen Yang came back from the field and stopped her.

"Go to the Liu family! Drag that little hussy back! She can hide forever, but she can't hide forever. Do you think I'll be the only one working myself to death if this family is missing her?"

Chen Yang frowned: "Don't go. When you go to town, don't embarrass Shuyan."

"I don't care! We're both wives, why should I be the only one doing all the work!" Chen Xiufen shoved Chen Yang away. "If you won't go, I will!"

Chen Yang couldn't stop him, and he was too lazy to stop him anymore. He did need help to cultivate four acres of land by himself.

Chen Xiufen rushed to the town in a huff.

It wasn't until she saw the Liu family's second courtyard that Chen Xiufen realized in an instant that Liu Yiyi was different from her. Liu Yiyi's mother was picking vegetables in the yard, and her expression didn't look good when she saw Chen Xiufen arrive.

"My dear in-law, Yiyi isn't feeling well and is resting inside."

Seeing the disdainful look on Liu Yiyi's mother's face, Chen Xiufen's anger flared up again. "Uncomfortable? She's uncomfortable every day. I think she's so comfortable she doesn't want to come back. There's a mountain of work to be done in the fields, but she's just living a life of luxury at her parents' house."

Hearing the noise, Liu Yiyi came out of the house, looking somewhat flustered.

"Mother, what brings you here?"

"Why are you here? If I hadn't come, how long were you planning to stay at your parents' house?" Chen Xiufen took two steps forward and grabbed Liu Yiyi's sleeve. "Come on, come back with me."

Liu Yiyi shrank back: "Mom, I really don't feel well, I—"

"Who's comfortable? Am I comfortable? Is your mother-in-law comfortable? Are you the only one who's precious?"

Chen Xiufen held onto the sleeve tightly, refusing to let go. Liu Yiyi struggled desperately to pull back, and Liu Yiyi's mother rushed forward to pry Chen Xiufen's hand off. The three of them tugged at each other, creating a chaotic mess.

"Let go! Let go—"

With a "snap".

Liu Yiyi's sleeve was torn in half, and she stumbled backward, landing hard on her bottom on the threshold.

"ah--"

Liu Yiyi clutched her stomach, her face deathly pale.

A small patch of dark color seeped through the hem of the skirt.

blood.

Liu Yiyi's mother screamed and rushed over to hug her daughter. Chen Xiufen was also startled and stood frozen in place, her hand still in the position of grabbing her daughter.

"Yiyi! Yiyi, what's wrong?"

Liu Yiyi curled up in pain, her forehead covered in cold sweat.

Hearing the commotion, the neighbors rushed over to help, and together they carried the person into the house. They then quickly went to fetch a doctor.

The two hurriedly helped the person to bed and rushed to fetch a doctor.

The doctor arrived quickly, took her pulse, examined her eyes, asked a few questions, and then looked up at the tense faces around the room.

"You're pregnant. It's early in the pregnancy, less than two months. You were startled and had some spotting, but the baby is still there. Rest in bed and don't move around too much."

The room fell silent for a moment.

Liu Yiyi's mother burst into tears, hugged her daughter tightly, and glared at Chen Xiufen with a look that could have devoured a person alive.

Chen Xiufen was stunned for a moment, then became happy. She was pregnant; her husband Shuyan was going to have a son.

She opened her mouth as if to say something, but was shut down by a single sentence from Liu Yiyi's mother.

"Get out of here! If you hadn't come and caused trouble, would my daughter have fallen? If anything happens to this child, I'll never forgive your Chen family!"

Chen Xiufen slunk out of the Liu family's courtyard and stood at the alley entrance, her legs still weak.

It wasn't that she felt sorry for Liu Yiyi. She was afraid.

If anything happens to Liu Yiyi, not only the Liu family, but Shuyan will also dislike her.

The message was delivered to the academy by someone from the Liu family.

When Chen Shuyan received the message, he was writing. After listening, he didn't move his brush for a long time, leaving a large black stain on the rice paper.

By the time he arrived at the Liu family's house, it was already dark.

He was about to speak when he was interrupted by Liu Yiyi's father.

"Shuyan, I married my daughter into your family hoping you would achieve academic success and have a bright future. But look at your home! What kind of place is this?"

Chen Shuyan kept his head down and didn't say a word.

Shopkeeper Liu's voice wasn't loud, but every word carried weight: "Your mother came to my house to pull my daughter away. She was pregnant, and she fell on the threshold and bled. If word gets out, where will you, a scholar, put your face?"

"Father-in-law, it was my mother who was wrong—"

"Your mother is wrong, but you're right?" Manager Liu pushed his teacup aside. "After dividing the family property, you can't even control your wife, let alone your mother."

Chen Shuyan's face turned bright red, and his lips were pressed into a thin line.

He took out a tael of silver from his pocket and placed it on the table.

"Father-in-law, please take this money first. Use it to buy some nourishing things for Yiyi. Let her rest at home for a few days, and I'll come back to pick her up once she's feeling better."

Manager Liu glanced at the silver piece, neither accepting nor refusing it.

"You should really do something about your mother."

Chen Shuyan responded and left the main room, glancing at Liu Yiyi in the inner room. Liu Yiyi was lying on the bed, her back to the door, and didn't move.

He stood there for a couple of breaths, then turned and went out, taking Chen Xiufen, who was huddled up in the courtyard waiting, with her neck hunched over.

Neither the mother nor the son spoke a word the entire way.

Reaching the fork in the road at the village entrance, Chen Xiufen spoke first: "It's all your fault for insisting on separating the family. If we hadn't, with the main house supporting us, things wouldn't have come to this—"

"My fault?" Chen Shuyan stopped abruptly, turning to stare at her. "When you went to the Liu family to cause trouble, did you think about me? When you dragged Yiyi away, did you think about my reputation?"

"If I don't go and call her, who will do the work in the fields? Your father is all alone—"

"That's no excuse for you to pull someone aside!" Chen Shuyan lowered his voice, his teeth grinding together. "She's carrying your grandson! You almost caused him to die!"

Chen Xiufen was speechless, and her eyes reddened.

The moon hung on the top of the old locust tree at the entrance of the village, casting long, crooked shadows of the mother and son, one in front of the other.

In the courtyard of the main house, Wang Jinzhu was sanding the last paulownia wood box with fine sandpaper.

On the lid of the box, the two characters "Zhu Ji" gleamed faintly under the oil lamp.

Tomorrow she's taking her precious baby to the county town.