Chapter 30

Zhu Yanshu entered her home after playing cards in the afternoon and saw that Yang Yuyan was not writing, but was holding a scarf under the lamp.

Zhu Yanshu walked over to look closer, “What are you spoiling?”

Yang Yuyan had been working hard for the whole afternoon, but she couldn’t get the cursive character of Su out of the embroidery, the wool was all messed up by her, she was very frustrated and refused to answer.

Zhu Yanshu watched for a while to understand, heartbroken: “My good boy, you even cultivated into a good wife and mother! If my mom could see that my daughter has this ability, she would be very happy!”

Has passed away Zhu old lady is a serious Jiangnan girl, the family is a good big manor, from childhood to grow to most have not stepped out of the house, Mr. Zhu married Zhu old lady also wrote to his parents to praise his wife, “Sven handsome”.

Zhu old lady can not read a word, is a traditional old-fashioned woman, but with Mr. Zhu is a lifetime of love. Half a year after Mrs. Zhu left, Mr. Zhu died without illness.

Zhu Yanshu learned to cook before the stove was high, and was taught by Mrs. Zhu. Zhu Yanshu’s childhood homework was all taught by Mrs. Zhu, who aspired to teach her to be a lady of the world, proficient in all aspects of knitting.

However, after Zhu Yanshu married, Mrs. Zhu also invited back Zhang Ma. When Zhu Yanshu was unmarried, she was still washing her hands at home, but after she married, she didn’t even wash the bowls, she didn’t take the horizontal needles, and she didn’t twist the vertical threads. Zhang Ma is in charge of everything in the house, and she goes out to find a tailor to make all the clothes. She doesn’t serve her husband or raise her children, and spends all her time on the card table.

Zhu Yanshu thought that if Mrs. Zhu was still alive, she would be very angry.

Now that she has seen Yang Yuyan sewing with her own hands, she can’t help but be proud of herself, and wants to make Mrs. Zhu open her eyes to see the dexterity of the child she has given birth to.

Zhang Ma came out and said: “Ma’am, if you let the second miss spoil it, that scarf will only be used as a rag.”

Yang Yuyan muttered, “Who would use a woolen rag.”

Zhu Yanshu laughed a little, and afterward also said, “Good boy, don’t spoil things! If you want to learn how to do this, let Zhang Ma buy a pashmina and come back for you to slowly embroider. This scarf will be spared.”

Yang Yuyan, who had a hard time riding the tiger in the afternoon, immediately put the scarf aside and liberated her body, “Alright, then let’s not get this first!”

Saying that, she ran away.

Zhu Yan Shu picked up the scarf, only then did she recognize it as Yang Xu He’s stuff, then recognized the brand, frowned at the first glance: “Good guy! Why is it such an expensive brand?”

Zhang Ma didn’t recognize the brand, but she remembered the price of the scarf clearly, “This little thing is over eighty dollars! You were like a man possessed, you didn’t even look at the price of anything, and you threw away one or two thousand dollars every month!”

Zhu Yan Shu touched this soft as skin scarf, shaking his head tsk: “When it is really evil, alas! This is a men’s style, Yan Yan and big sister are not able to use it, fortunately it can still earn me a good son-in-law, otherwise it’s really a pity.”

She put the scarf down and asked Zhang Ma, “How many things were packed out?”

Zhang Ma said, “A lot! A big box full of them!”

Zhu Yan Shu frowned, “So much? Then hire a laundress from outside, so you don’t have to do it.”

Zhang Ma was instantly happy, “Really? That would save me a lot of work!”

Zhu Yanshu nodded: “And don’t give it all to him in one breath, even though it’s all old, it’s still good stuff!”

Zhang Ma said, “Didn’t Mr. Su say he wanted to buy a coat? It just so happens that there are two coats, one plaid and one plain.” Saying so, she went to bring it over to her.

Both were foreign goods. The plaid one has two rows of buttons, with a belt that only reaches below the hips, but Yang Xuhe wore it almost to his knees. The plain one is dark blue, deep like black blue, with a beautiful fur collar, also has a belt, long to the calf, Yang Xuhu wear when they are almost dragging the ground, or Zhu Yanshu insisted on buying it back then.

Luckily, he did not take away, this dress is when also can be a two or three hundred.

Zhang Ma is going to step on Yang Xuhe again, “Mr. Su’s head is tall, his shoulders are broad, and he looks handsome, these two pieces of clothing he wears must be better than that Yang’s good-looking!”

Zhu Yanshu did not feel ashamed to hear it again, but her daughter’s son-in-law had fallen into the hands of her own family.

She carried the corner of the two coats and looked around: “The plaid shows youth, but he works in the Finance Bureau, or plain color is suitable. Which one do you think he should have?”

Mrs. Zhang said, “If you ask me, why don’t you give him both of them and make us look generous?”

Zhu Yanshu nodded: “Let’s do as you say.”

Zhang Ma added: “I don’t think we need to find another laundry worker, isn’t Wu Xiaoping’s mother working in the laundry room? If we ask her to do the laundry, she won’t be able to charge us!”

Zhu Yanshu: “It’s fine if you want to ask her to come, but I’m afraid she won’t agree to it for fear of her feelings, otherwise I’d be afraid to ask a stranger to come to my home to do the work. We can’t not pay her, we have to pay her a little bit, she’s already having a hard time. You find out what you need to wash at home, if she is willing to do it, just ask her to wash it all, and you can relax for the New Year.”

After all, Mrs. Wu used to live here and was neighbors with many people. Back then, when they moved away and fled, they still had to worry about losing face by saying that Mr. Wu had been promoted, but now they came back to work as helpers, not only did they blow their cover, but their face had to fall to the ground as well.

Often people are afraid of face, willing to accept the help of strangers, but refused to accept the gifts of old friends, this is exactly the reason. Zhu Yanshu thinks that Mrs. Wu is afraid to decline.

Zhang Ma, however, knows more about the lives of people outside than her wife, who plays cards all day long, said: “Mrs. Wu doesn’t have to open her mouth, I’ll ask her. She may not say yes in front of Mrs. Wu, but not in front of me. I’ll ask her to come in the daytime, and if Mrs. Wu isn’t at home, she’ll feel better about herself, so there’s nothing she won’t say yes to.”

When Mrs. Wu came to pick up Wu Xiaoping in the evening, Zhang Ma took her aside and talked about inviting her to come to the house to wash clothes.

Mrs. Zhang said, “Mrs. Wu always says that you are a poor person, and that you have to raise a daughter, and that the men in your family are useless. It’s just that we need to wash some things and put them away for the New Year. I remember that you worked in the laundry for 80 cents a day, and I’m getting old, so I can’t bear to do this kind of laborious work, such as washing clothes, with my back and legs. If you are willing to help me, come and work for two days, and you don’t have to do anything else, just wash what needs to be washed and wipe what needs to be wiped. You won’t be shortchanged on money. I’ll pay you as much as you get at the laundry, and the work will be small enough that you can go home when you’re done. If you want to, you can come over tomorrow, I’m just afraid you’ll be embarrassed.”

The trials and tribulations of life had long ago rubbed clean all of Mrs. Wu’s reserve when she was a young lady, and with the word money at the forefront of her mind, how could she have time to be concerned about that meager bit of face?

She immediately agreed, “I’ll come over early tomorrow morning, I don’t know what time is appropriate? I don’t need to pay me eighty cents, just fifty cents!”

Zhang Ma said, “Mrs. Zhang went to play cards after breakfast, so you can come back after she leaves. There are only two people in the house, Second Miss and I. Second Miss loves to study, she reads and writes in the living room and won’t bother you in the laundry room. As for the money, if you work only half a day you will be given fifty cents, so that you will not be delayed in going home to cook.”

Mrs. Wu agreed at once, and made an appointment for her to come up tomorrow when Zhu Yanshu went out.

The next day, Zhu Yanshu went out early to avoid the embarrassment of meeting each other. Mrs. Wu waited downstairs, and when she saw Zhang Ma sticking her head out of the kitchen window and calling for her, she hurried up.

Yang Yuyan was in the living room when she heard familiar voices talking outside the door, and wanted to get up to see, but was blasted back by Zhang Ma. Even so, she saw Mrs. Wu.

Mrs. Wu said a few words to Zhang Ma and the two of them went downstairs to the laundry room.

Zhang Ma was afraid that Yang Yuyan would follow her there, so she specially instructed her, “Mrs. Wu is thin-skinned, so she’ll be embarrassed to see you, so don’t go over there, just stay in the house and write properly.”

Yang Yuyan could only write, read books, flip through pictorials and eat cookies in the house, and stayed there until noon, when Mrs. Wu excused herself and went home to cook, and only then did Zhang Ma came back. As soon as she pushed the door in, she saw Yang Yuyan sitting on the sofa with her head stretched out, Zhang Ma: “What are you looking at? Mrs. Wu left, I asked her to help wash those clothes for Mr. Su.”

Only then did Yang Yuyan realize that Mrs. Wu was here to do some work. Recently, Yang Yucan had been keeping accounts every day, and along with that, she also gained a new understanding of the prices of various goods and work, so she couldn’t help but ask, “How much does it cost to invite her here once?”

Mrs. Zhang shook her head, “She earned 50 cents for washing three or five pieces of clothes for me!” The implication was that she earned quite a lot.

Yang Yuyan: “Only 50 cents for a morning’s laundry?”

Zhang Ma glared, “I helped her! Do you still think she gets less? Second Miss, if I came to wash these clothes, I wouldn’t earn a penny more!”

Yang Yuyan immediately shut up and didn’t dare to say another word, but Zhang Ma kept complaining, “You go and feel sorry for her? I serve you every day, but I don’t see you caring for me? There are three women in the family, and all of them don’t work, so I have to do it all by myself! I only get fifteen dollars a month, and I’ve been getting it for twenty years, and I haven’t even said a word!”

Yang Yuyan was silent, not daring to say a word back. But she knows, although Zhang Ma 15 dollars a month, but every year at Ching Ming, noon, Dragon Boat Festival, New Year’s Eve, before the Emperor’s birthday, the Queen Mother’s Birthday, and later added a National Day, these days Zhu Yan Shu all want to give Zhang Ma another “holiday fee”. All year round, two dresses per season, two pairs of shoes, which are also counted separately.

From Mrs. Zhang, she clearly understood that getting paid to do housework is still quite profitable. That’s why it’s such a big loss for a wife to work for free! She should have hired a nanny to clearly show the man of the house how much doing housework was worth!

By the time Yang Xuhe’s old clothes were all rewashed and ironed, it was already the twenty-fifth day of the lunar month.

Su Chunjun was paid his salary and got a holiday allowance, but he had long since learned from Yang Yuyan that among the clothes given to him were two coats, both of which were very nice! He insisted on not buying a new coat, but when the weather got a little too cold in the past few days, he rented one to pay for it.

Carrying a rib and a ham as a knocker for breakfast, he walked into the Zhu family’s home.

When Zhang Ma heard the door slam, she didn’t move, but Yang Yuyan ran over and opened the door, welcoming Su Chunjun in with a smile, and saw the paper bag in his hand, “What did you buy?”

Su Chunjun did not let her take it, “It’s a kilogram of pork ribs and a piece of ham. Don’t touch it. It’s very heavy.”

Yang Yuyan heard that it was this and didn’t touch it, following him to the kitchen, watching him solemnly hand over the ribs and ham to Zhang Ma, adding, “I watched him chop them up with my own eyes, they’re the freshest!”

Zhang Ma took it and said with a smile, “Mr. Su is really polite! Yan Yan, take your folded clothes to Mr. Su!”

Su Chunjun was surprised: “You folded it!”

Yang Yuyan: “It was me!”

She went to the living room and brought him the coat neatly wrapped in a paper bag.

Su Chunjun then held the heavy coat and thanked him left and right, not forgetting Zhang Ma in the kitchen.

Zhu Yanshu smiled and said, “Mr. Su, take it out and try it on, because it’s an old coat, and I don’t know if you’re used to wearing it, so I hope it’s not outdated.”

Su Chunjun laughed, “It’s only a few years old, where would it be outdated? You have always been at the forefront of fashion, this shawl that you often use, I can’t even see it on the street!”

Zhu Yanshu smiled and touched her favorite shawl: “This is French.”

Su Chunjun tsked and sighed, very cuddly: “No wonder!”

He took out two coats, just as Second Miss Yang said, a short one and a long one. He put down the plaid short one and tried this black and blue long one first, because Second Miss said, “My mom said it’s good for you to wear that blue one where you work.”

Since he got the clothes by the goodwill of others, he naturally had to make them more satisfied in order to live up to this goodwill.

As soon as he put on this dress, he instantly appeared to have straight shoulders and outstanding temperament, and the original five points of cleanliness turned into seven points of noble and unspeakable, and in this room, he was even a little unlined, rather like in some grand place more appropriate.

Zhu Yanshu looked up and down, couldn’t help but stand up and lead him to a place with better light, exclaiming, “It’s true that people rely on their clothes and horses rely on their saddles, Mr. Su’s dressing up this way is as handsome as a noble gentleman from somewhere!”

Su Chunjun then smiled and waved his hand, “You are too kind to me!”

Seeing that Yang Yuyan was sitting there without saying anything, he walked over to show her, “Does it look good?”

Yang Yuyan looked like she had been frozen since a while ago, as if she had been stabbed, her cheeks suddenly burned like fire, her eyes dodged, she stood up and said carelessly, “It’s not pretty!” Then squeezed away from him and walked away quickly.

Su Chunjun also like a fool, froze for a moment before returning to focus, back to focus on the second miss has already drilled back to the house, he can only look and sigh – lend him ten thousand guts, he would not dare to knock on the door of the second miss under the eyes of Zhang Ma and Zhu Yanshu.

Zhu Yanshu smiled and dodged away, and stood with Zhang Ma: “Look at these two people, one is good-looking, and the other one even looked shy!”

Mrs. Zhang said, “That’s right. Anyone who looks good likes to look good, and it’s even better when you dress up. You used to spend as much money as you wanted, but didn’t you do it just to look good? Moreover, Mr. Su can dress up more elegantly than the one surnamed Yang, and look at this body! Yang’s body looks like he’s missing half of his leg.”