Stepmother

Fourth Sister-in-law

As Sun Baohai was thinking of giving up the mission for today he saw three people walk into his store, and from their faces, it looked like they had the intention to buy.  Sun Baohai wasted no time and started serving them.

"Can I get anything for you madam?" Sun Baohai asked politely. He wanted to flatter them the same way he did to his first customer but this batch of customers had a ger in them and he couldn't really call him sister.

"Madam Li had recommended us here. She said you sold jam?" Madam Hu asked Sun Baohai.

"Yes, I do. Would you like to taste it?" Sun Baohai offered.

"Yes, please," Madam Hu answered.

"Here," Sun Baohai gave them each a spoon of jam. 

"I want a jar," Madam Hu immediately came to the conclusion after tasting it, it was really good.

"Me too," Madam Luo followed suit.

"What about you madam?" Sun Baohai asked concubine Liang seeing her not saying anything.

"I don't like it, but is it safe for sickly children to eat this?" Concubine Liang asked.

"It's not dangerous unless he has an allergy from what I know, but if you are worried I suggest you balance it out when giving it to the child. For example put it on bread, tea, milk, and pastries instead of just outright eating it." Sun Baohai advised.

"Okay, then I will take it," Concubine Liang said.

"Okay then please come to the front will me so you pay." Sun Baohai instructed. His shop was decorated like a modern supermarket but just a smaller and broker version. The shop consisted of shelves that had the products he was selling on them. Currently, he had only one shelf as they were very expensive to make. On the shelf, a section was used for the jam. There is a paper in the section that wrote 'jam' and the price of the jam. When they got to the front it was just a desk. On the desk was a box that had multiple sections where the money would go. After selling the jam he needed to record it in the account book. After he was finished recording he closed his shop and made his way to the market.

Today he made one hundred and forty wen which would convert into one silver and forty wen. In this era, a hundred wen was a silver and ten silver was a silver tael. Seeing that he made a bit of money he decided to go shopping for their necessities. He needed rice, flour, salt, soy sauce, candles, and many more things.

He first went to buy the rice. He bought three jin of rice for fifteen wen and three jin of flour for nine wen. The salt was expensive as only three jin of it cost six wen. A bottle of soy sauce was for four wen and two candles were for five wen. He went to buy cloth to make clothes which cost around twenty wen. As he was going home he saw a vendor selling osmanthus cakes and bought twelve for six wen. By the end of his shopping shop his one hundred and forty wen turned into seventy-five wen and he couldn't help but feel distressed. 

But he knew that he couldn't keep on sulking as this would happen more in the future. As the weaved basket was full and a little heavy he made his way to a cattle cart. As the weaved basket had nothing to close it, people could see what was inside. Normally people would bring a towel to cover what they buy, as to not cause trouble for themselves, but Sun Baohai didn't know all this yet and had to bare the heated stares that were directed at his basket. While he was trying to cover his basket with his hands he suddenly heard a voice call out to him.

"Jinhai's wife, it seems like you went to do some shopping?" When Sun Baohai turned to see who called out to him, he saw a thin woman who had coarse clothes on. After pondering for a moment he realized that this was the fourth daughter-in-law of the Zhang family, Lin Meimei, the wife of the fourth son Zhang Hai. From what she gathered from her memory the fourth family was the most disadvantaged in the family.

Since the fourth brother wasn't that smart all he could do at home was farm. Most of the workload typically fell onto the fourth family. Even though Lin Meimei gave birth to two sons for the Zhang family, she was still the least favored at home. The first son Zhang Jinhai was in the military and could not do chores, and even if he was here he still wouldn't do it. Plus now that his family was separated it was even more out of the question. The second son Zhang Enlai was the smartest son and was the breadwinner of the family so he was put on a pedestal. Li Ya was an educated lady and was pampered by Zhang Enlai so she only did light housework chores. The third son Zhang Kai was a little sickly and his tigress of a wife Wan Meirong barely let him work. The fifth child and sixth child, Zhang Dai and Zhang Ai were the apples of Old Lady Zhang's eyes. These were kids who she gave birth to in her late thirties and treasured very much. So with no one available, the fourth family has to carry the burden.

"Yes, I just did. How are you, Fourth sister-in-law?" Sun Baohai greeted back. She wasn't evil like the Zhang family so he didn't see a reason for him to be rude to her.

"I am fine, how are the kids?" Lin Meimei asked.

"They are fine, how are yours?" Sun Baohai responded.

"You know, just naughty as usual," Lin Meimei responded but this time with her tone gentler and with a smile on her face. Sun Baohai didn't have to look closely to see just how beautiful she was. Lin Meimei was a very beautiful woman, and it was clear that she knew since wore very coarse clothes and hid her face with dirt. From her action, it can be seen that she wasn't as dumb as the Zhang family made her out to be. The two exchanged some more pleasantries before the cart arrived at the village. 

"I will be going now sister-in-law, here are some cakes for the children," Sun Baohai said before giving her two pieces of osmanthus cakes. 

"How I can I take this precious stuff from you sister-in-law," Lin Meimei politely refused.

"Just take it, it's a gift from their auntie so it's fine," Sun Baohai insisted.

"Then I will thank sister-in-law," Lin Meimei thanked before accepting the cakes. She wasn't really in a position to refuse these right now. She was very poor, so the children barely got to taste things like this.

"Okay, then I will go now sister-in-law.

Question of the day.

Someone you look up to?