Chapter 28: The Package

“◎ Do you know Wei Jianshe? ◎

Jiang Che didn’t think as much as she did. He casually walked into the room, his gaze scanning the area before landing on his father and mother. Seeing that his parents seemed to be upset, he walked over to them as if nothing was wrong and said, “Mom, Dad, what’s going on? Why are you so upset? Don’t you want me and my wife to come back? We even thought of bringing you some delicious food as a token of our respect!”

When Jiang’s mother saw her youngest son return, her anger had already softened a bit. Hearing him intentionally joke to cheer her up, her mood completely lifted. However, she still shot him a disapproving look before saying, “You ungrateful child, it’s already great that you remember to come back to visit your father and me once a month, and now you’re playing the victim first?”

Seeing that his mother’s expression had improved, Jiang Che walked up to her, put his arm around her shoulder, and acted spoiled. “It’s not like that, we’ve been busy! Work is tiring every day, and today I specially brought some delicious food to sweeten your mood.” As he said that, he gestured to Wei Xuan. “Wife, quickly bring out the cake we brought and let my parents taste it right now.”

Wei Xuan, quick with her hands, handed him the nine-layer cake along with the basket.

The nine-layer cake was placed in a small basin inside the basket. Jiang Che took the basin out and placed it on the table. He picked up a piece of the cake and held it up to his mother’s mouth. “Mom, try it, and taste your son’s and daughter-in-law’s filial piety.”

The nine-layer cake was placed in a small basin inside the basket. Jiang Che immediately brought the whole basin out and set it on the table. He picked up a piece and held it up to his mother’s mouth. “Mom, quickly try it, taste your son and daughter-in-law’s filial piety.”

Jiang’s mother, unable to escape his persistence, noticed that it was about the time they usually had dinner, and she was also feeling hungry. With the faint scent wafting towards her, she couldn’t resist and took a bite.

Seeing that Jiang Che was staring at her, she smiled helplessly and said, “Alright, it’s good, happy now?”

“Hehe, how could my wife’s cooking be bad?” he responded, then called out to his father and older brother, who were sitting nearby. “Dad, Big Brother, you should try it too.”

Jiang’s father wasn’t shy and took a piece. However, Jiang’s older brother still sat there frowning, seemingly lost in thought.

Jiang’s mother sighed inwardly upon seeing her eldest son’s reaction. She knew that whatever his daughter-in-law had done today had truly hurt his feelings. After scolding her in her mind once again, she said to her eldest son, “Oldest, now that things have already happened, don’t overthink it. Let’s eat first. After dinner, you two can go to your room and talk things through.” Anyway, she didn’t want to get involved anymore.

Jiang’s mother was indeed angry, but what could she do? There were already two children. She couldn’t really force her eldest son and his wife to divorce, could she?

Seeing that her mother-in-law had relented, Jiang’s sister-in-law quickly wiped her tears and stood up. “I’ll go cook now, it’ll be quick, we’ll eat soon.”

In the end, the meal was consumed in a very gloomy atmosphere.

After finishing their meal and putting down the bowls and chopsticks, Jiang Che quickly took Wei Xuan and left. He was afraid that staying any longer would give him indigestion.

The two of them didn’t ask about what Jiang’s sister-in-law had done. They simply went back and started getting busy with their own things.

They had originally planned to visit Jiang’s family a few more times before the Dragon Boat Festival, but given the current situation, both of them tacitly decided to put that idea aside.

It wasn’t until the day before the Dragon Boat Festival that Wei Xuan said to Jiang Che, “How about we don’t go to the village tomorrow?”

“What’s wrong? Didn’t we already agree on this?” Jiang Che thought for a moment. “Is it because you’re worried about my mom getting upset? Don’t worry, I’ll go back home later and explain it to them.”

Wei Xuan shook her head. “It’s not that. It’s just that going back is too much trouble. Plus, we don’t have a holiday tomorrow. We’d need to find someone to take our shifts. We’d go back just to have lunch and then rush back. We’d spend all the time on the road, so it’s better to just send some things back instead.”

Jiang Che looked at her carefully, making sure she was sincere before saying, “Alright, then I won’t go home later. You pack up the things for my parents, and I’ll pass by the post office on my way to work tomorrow and mail them for you.”

“Mm.”

There wasn’t much to send, mostly some food and candy bought from the supply and marketing cooperative. The most expensive item was a box of Malted Milk Essence, which cost forty-two yuan. Wei Xuan bought it to help her parents improve their health.

Her parents had endured hardship in their early years, and their health wasn’t very good. Wei Xuan was afraid they would be reluctant to drink it, so in the letter she wrote to them, she specifically told them to make sure to drink a cup every night, and the next time they visited, she would check if they were following the instructions.

Then there was also a piece of defective cloth.

It was called defective cloth, but in reality, it just had a section where the color wasn’t very even, which wasn’t a major issue. Since there was no need for a receipt, Wei Xuan bought quite a lot of it. In addition to making a set of clothes for herself and Jiang Che, there was still some left. It should be enough to make two small outfits for her third brother’s newborn son.

In March, when the child was just born, her family had sent a letter to Wei Xuan, and this piece of cloth would serve as a hundred-day gift for the child.

Afraid that her sister-in-laws might overthink things, Wei Xuan also bought some pencils, notebooks, and similar items for a few of her nephews and nieces. Fortunately, these weren’t too expensive; it was just a gesture from her.

The heaviest item was the collection of study materials she gathered for Wei Xiaolong. These were hard to find now, so she had taken some free time to go to the school and paid the teachers to give her some papers. Whether they were good or not, Wei Xuan didn’t really understand, but she hoped they would be helpful to him.

The next morning, Jiang Che took the things Wei Xuan had packed to the post office. After filling out the forms and handing over the package, Jiang Che casually walked towards the factory.

In the evening, Wei Xuan spent a few yuan at the supply and marketing cooperative to buy a bottle of white liquor and a bag of Big White Rabbit milk candies, then headed to Jiang’s house.

At the door, she ran into Jiang’s sister-in-law, who was also returning home from work.

Wei Xuan instantly remembered the last time’s incident. However, seeing Jiang’s sister-in-law smiling and greeting her as if nothing had happened, Wei Xuan hesitated for a moment, but then her steps returned to normal.

“The person involved isn’t embarrassed, so why should she be?

So, she stepped forward and gave Jiang’s eldest sister-in-law a warm response: ‘Eldest sister-in-law, you just got off work too!’

‘Yes, I haven’t wrapped the zongzi I made this morning yet. Younger sister-in-law, you’re good at this, come help me out!’

Then, when Jiang Che came home from work, what he saw was the two sisters-in-law happily chatting while standing at the table, wrapping zongzi.

‘Oh, Che, you’re back. Didn’t you run into your older brother on the way?’

‘Yeah, I think he’s probably behind me.’ Jiang Che casually brushed it off, but in his heart, he found it strange. Why were these two getting along so well today? Wrapping a simple zongzi, and they had to compliment each other, saying things like ‘yours look great’ and ‘the filling you made is really tasty.’ Wasn’t it just regular zongzi?

What exactly happened that he didn’t know about?

Wei Xuan noticed his blunt gaze and subtly glared at him, hinting that he should tone it down.

Jiang Che, sensing his wife’s warning, scratched his nose and decided not to linger on this scene of false pleasantries. He turned and headed toward the door.

At dinner that night, besides Jiang Che and Wei Xuan, Jiang’s eldest sister and third sister also brought their children and husbands back, but the second sister still hadn’t returned.

Jiang’s father turned to Jiang’s mother and asked, ‘Has the second one called home today?'”

“No.” Jiang’s mother also looked puzzled.

Jiang’s father pondered for a moment before turning to Jiang’s eldest brother and saying, “Tomorrow, find some time to visit your second sister’s house and see if something has happened.”

“Alright, I’ll go after work tomorrow.”

After dinner, the family sat in the living room and chatted for a while before everyone returned to their own homes. Aside from the second sister’s family not coming back, the atmosphere was unexpectedly good—at least it appeared that way on the surface.

As soon as they left the Jiang family home, Wei Xuan let out a long sigh. Jiang Che glanced at her and asked, “What’s wrong? I saw you talking pretty happily with eldest sister-in-law just now.”

Wei Xuan knew he was deliberately teasing her, so she pursed her lips and ignored him.

To be honest, she preferred the way Jiang’s eldest sister-in-law was before. At least she didn’t seem awkward back then.

Now, she clearly didn’t like her, but still had to put on a welcoming, enthusiastic act. What made it worse was that Wei Xuan had to make small talk with her to get through it—it was really exhausting!

Wei Xuan couldn’t help but wonder if it was a lingering effect from that incident last time. She was still curious about what had happened to cause such a drastic change in Jiang’s eldest sister-in-law’s temperament. Moreover, tonight, she noticed that several times when Jiang’s eldest sister-in-law spoke to Jiang’s eldest brother, he barely paid attention to her.

Thinking about this, Wei Xuan asked him directly.

But Jiang Che didn’t know either.

“Though I don’t know exactly what caused it, I can guess about three things. It’s probably something related to the issues on eldest sister-in-law’s side of the family.”

Jiang Che clearly remembered that when eldest sister-in-law first got married, there had been several arguments with eldest brother because of things related to her family. The worst time almost led to a divorce.

In the end, it was their parents who intervened and helped resolve the situation, but Jiang Che had been young at the time and didn’t pay much attention to those matters. So, he didn’t know the full details but vaguely remembered that something like that had happened. After Jiang Yuancheng was born, the relationship between eldest brother and eldest sister-in-law had improved, and they rarely argued anymore.

Wei Xuan fell into thought. It seemed that the incident last time was no small matter. Although she hadn’t been married into the Jiang family for long, she knew that Jiang’s eldest brother was a gentle person. For him to be so upset that he was still ignoring her now was no small feat.

If the Jiang family’s Dragon Boat Festival was one of outward cheerfulness with undercurrents of tension, then Wei family’s Dragon Boat Festival was filled with nothing but joy.

The Dalianhua Production Team was not far from Jing City, and the package Jiang Che sent to the post office in the morning was brought to the village by the mailman that afternoon.

At that time, Wei’s father and mother were sitting at the doorstep chatting with the villagers.

There wasn’t much to do during the festival in the countryside, and it coincided with the busy farming season. At most, the wealthier families might have a couple of pounds of meat to eat, and that was a big deal.

After a day’s work, the villagers, tired from their labor, sat in pairs or small groups on their doorsteps, enjoying the cool air. Wei’s parents were among them.

When the mailman arrived, Wei’s children were playing at the village entrance, happily munching on the zongzi their mother and aunts had made. When they saw someone riding a bicycle toward the village from a distance, they stopped and curiously watched.

The mailman stopped in front of them and said, “Hey kids, I’m from the post office delivering something. Do you know where Wei Jianshe’s house is?”

The group of children wasn’t shy, but they didn’t seem to know who Wei Jianshe was.

Only Wei Xuan’s eldest nephew, Wei Ming, looked thoughtful, as if he remembered hearing that name once when his grandmother was angry.

He cleverly asked, “Is it something sent from Jing City?”

The mailman, who had been about to ask an adult, was pleasantly surprised to hear this and said, “Yes, do you know Wei Jianshe?”

“Mm,” Wei Ming replied uncertainly, “It could be something my aunt sent to my grandfather. How about I take you to my house to ask?”

“Sure!” The mailman eagerly agreed, figuring that even if he had the wrong person, he could use the opportunity to find out the real recipient of the package.

At that moment, Wei’s father and mother were sitting with their backs to the main door, chatting with the neighbors about this year’s harvest, not noticing that a large group of people was heading toward their house.

However, the neighbor across from them, facing their direction, saw the group of kids coming over. The ones at the front were obviously all children from the Wei family.

He lifted his chin slightly and pointed toward them, saying to Wei’s father and mother, “Do you see that group of kids coming this way? Looks like they’re bringing someone along.”