Just waiting for her to come back and do it?

She wouldn’t lift a finger.

When she mentioned she was pregnant, Song Dayan’s eyes nearly popped out of her head. “You’ve been married for three days—what kind of pregnancy is that?”

“What nonsense are you spouting?”

“Do you want to lose that mouth of yours?”

Chi Yue wasn’t afraid of her. She raised her chin defiantly. “How is it nonsense?”

“I got married, slept with my husband, and of course I’ll get pregnant. It’s just not showing yet—how does that mean I’m not pregnant? Huh?”

“…Shameless!” Song Dayan spat out the insult.  

Chi Yue ignored her.  

Lin Jingshen was inside the main hall of the Chi family, where Chi Yue’s father, Chi Wenhai, had invited his brothers to keep his son-in-law company. So, Lin Jingshen had no idea what was happening outside.  

Chi Yue refused to wash the clothes, and with so many guests in the house, Song Dayan didn’t dare make a scene. But after calling Chi Yue shameless, Chi Yue shot back with a muttered “Like mother, like daughter!”

Song Dayan glared at her fiercely before storming out of the house.  

Later, Chi Yue spotted Chi Xing, the original host’s younger sister, returning from outside.  

“Chi Xing, Mom told you to wash the clothes,” she said.  

Chi Xing immediately snapped, “There’s so much laundry—why should I wash it?” Then she turned and went inside, making no move to do any washing.  

Yeah, why should she?

The Chi family had four children—the original host was the eldest, followed by a younger sister and two younger brothers. But somehow, all the household chores seemed to exist solely for Chi Yue, who had always taken care of everything in the past.  

Meanwhile, the best food and treats always went to the younger siblings.  

The reasoning was: “You’re the oldest—you should yield to your younger siblings. Don’t be unreasonable.”

Chi Yue thought: Pfft. What a load of crap.

Why was the older one always expected to be reasonable, while the younger ones never had to learn Kong Rong giving up the pears?  

Thanks to Chi Yue’s “unreasonableness,” the Chi family’s lunch wasn’t particularly impressive.  

Luckily, Lin Jingshen was clueless and couldn’t tell the difference. He just smiled, chatted, and drank with the others.  

….

In contrast to the Chi family, Wen Tang was doing quite well at home. Aside from He Suihua’s natural maternal authority, everything else was fine.  

Perhaps because Wen Tang was the youngest daughter, with two older brothers, the Wen family doted on her. Whether it was cooking, preparing meals, or other household chores, He Suihua never asked her daughter to lift a finger—she called on her two daughters-in-law instead.  

The two sisters-in-law might have been reluctant, but He Suihua shut them down immediately: “Look how much Tangtang dotes on her nephews and nieces! She even brought canned fruit for them as a gift and opened it right away for the three of them. Such expensive stuff—tch, she really loves them to bits.”

Thanks to those cans, the two sisters-in-law didn’t dare complain while helping with the cooking.  

After the meal, He Suihua took the remaining canned fruit—the one she had snatched back—along with two packs of brown sugar, and packed them into the basket Wen Tang had brought. She covered it with a red cloth and handed it to her. “I won’t give you the liquor, but take the brown sugar and canned fruit back. We’ve had our share—let your mother-in-law taste them too.”  

Wen Tang: “…There’s such a custom?”

He Suihua glared at her, and Wen Tang immediately shut up, nodding obediently.  

…

Meanwhile, over at the Chi family, Song Dayan stuffed two steamed buns into the bottom of the basket.  

Chi Yue wasn’t aware of this tradition—the original host was a young girl who had never been through a marriage and had no memory of such customs. So when Song Dayan handed her the basket, she didn’t think much of it. She took it and left on the bicycle.  

Chi Yue had been uncomfortable at her family’s house, so they left early. Her home was farther away, and since Lin Jingshen had been drinking, they ended up running into Wen Tang and Gu Yanli at the doorstep—the latter two having returned later.

After getting off the bicycle at the courtyard gate, Wen Tang bounced over to Chi Yue, lifting the red cloth covering her basket to show her. “Ta-da! Sweet canned fruit—I’ll open it for you later!”

Chi Yue glanced at the canned goods and the two brown sugar packets wrapped in red paper inside Wen Tang’s basket and asked, “Why did you bring stuff back?”

Wen Tang shook her head. “Not my idea. Mother insisted—said it’s tradition. When you bring gifts, you’re supposed to bring some back for your mother-in-law to try.”

Then, with a wink, she added, “But I’ll let you taste it first!”

Chi Yue felt the lightness of her own basket. The weight in her hands was nothing—no canned goods (of course, she hadn’t bought any), not even two packs of brown sugar.  

Sure enough, when she lifted the red cloth, all she found were two steamed buns with red dots on them.  

At the sight of the buns, Chi Yue was hit with such regret that she almost wanted to rush back to the Chi house and snatch back the two extra bottles of liquor she’d bought.  

Not that she’d even planned to buy them in the first place.  

That morning, she’d deliberately mentioned the gifts Wen Tang was bringing—not out of consideration for others, but to secure benefits for herself.  

So when Gu Jinfeng gave her twenty yuan, she’d fully intended to pocket the entire sum.  

But then there was Lin Jingshen—the hopelessly earnest Lin Jingshen—who dragged her to the nearby supply and marketing cooperative, insisting they buy more things so she wouldn’t “lose face compared to others.”

After much back-and-forth, they ended up adding two bottles of liquor (though no canned goods).  

But now, it was clear—even those two bottles of liquor had been a complete waste.  

Wen Tang took one look at the buns and Chi Yue’s expression and immediately understood.  

The original host’s family was undoubtedly one of those son-obsessed, daughter-exploiting types.  

The kind that saw daughters as nothing more than tools to serve the family.  

The kind that sucked their daughters dry without a care for their well-being.  

Wen Tang glanced at Gu Yanli and Lin Jingshen, who had already entered the courtyard, then quickly pulled a pack of brown sugar from her own basket and slipped it into Chi Yue’s.  

As for the canned fruit, she whispered, “What if we hide it by the wall and sneak out to eat it after dark?”

Chi Yue was touched by her best friend’s unwavering support but shook her head. “No need. I didn’t even buy canned goods in the first place.”

“You keep yours.”

She looked down at the two buns in her basket. “It’s fine. Now that I know how things stand, I’ll just cut ties with them.”

Wen Tang nodded firmly. “Absolutely. Stay far away from bloodsuckers like that.”

“Let’s go.”

…

As soon as Wen Tang and Chi Yue stepped into the courtyard, Zhong Meixian and Gu Jinfeng rushed over. “You’re back!”

Their eyes, however, were fixed on the baskets in the two women’s hands—clearly waiting to take them.  

Wen Tang handed hers to Zhong Meixian first. “Mom, my mother asked me to bring these back for you. Please enjoy them—don’t mind the simplicity.”

Chi Yue followed suit, passing her basket to Gu Jinfeng. “Mom, this is from my family. It’s not much. The money you gave me… I thought about it and couldn’t bring myself to spend it all.”

“I figured, since Jingshen and I are in this for the long haul—we’ll have kids someday, and there’ll be endless expenses—we should save where we can.” 

“So even though it was your money, I couldn’t bear to waste it. I held onto it.”  

(In a spot only Chi Yue could see, Wen Tang gave her a thumbs-up.)  

With that speech, even if Gu Jinfeng noticed the two measly buns in the basket, her first thought wouldn’t be “the Chi family doesn’t value Chi Yue.”

No—she’d think, “My daughter-in-law put her in-laws first, even if it upset her own family.”

Wen Tang’s eyes gleamed with admiration: Damn, you really are the ceiling of emotional intelligence!