Joyful Motherhood in a Rural Family

In YingEr’s hand was the lantern that Liu Sisi bought for her on August 15th, which she was playing with.

“Da Mao, look, this is the lantern my mom bought for me, isn’t it beautiful? My mom is really nice to me! When New Year comes, I will ask my mom to buy one for you too, okay?”

With the lantern aloft, Di Ying danced excitedly, bursting into a string of silvery laughter.

As Liu Sisi pulled open the door curtain, she casually asked her: “YingEr, how did you find the lantern?”

“Mom! I didn’t find it! I saw it on the table as soon as I came in!” YingEr’s crisp reply came.

The reply from Di Xuan, who was originally in the house, was: “Mom, dad found it when he was tidying up the house today.”

As soon as Liu Sisi walked into the kitchen, she felt the whole kitchen brighten up considerably.

When she looked up, she instantly noticed that the makeshift bed that had previously been placed in a corner of the kitchen had disappeared, replaced by a bright and spacious kitchen. Where the bed had been, now stood table and chairs, laden with fragrant dishes.

And her father, leaning on his crutch, was setting out the bamboo chopsticks.

Seeing a table full of fragrant meals, Liu Sisi was genuinely startled!

“Father! How…you must sit down and rest. Sisi can do these things! It won’t take too much time.”

In the meantime, she hurriedly set down what she was holding and rushed over to help.

Elderly Mr. Di smiled broadly, his face full of wrinkles: “No…I’m just idle…nothing to do…eat, have dinner.”

“Mom, the food grandfather made is also really delicious. The lunch was made by grandfather, it’s spicy, and delicious!” Di Xuan came over with the bowls of rice and started to set them out.

“Is that so…I guess the meal made by grandfather suits your little greedy kitten’s taste, right? You can go quickly and call your Second Aunt for dinner!” After receiving the plates from Di Xuan, Liu Sisi swiftly laid out the rest of the dishes.

By all accounts, the meals cooked by her father-in-law were actually delicious!

Not only was the heat sufficient, the most important thing was the meals had enough flavor. It was spicy!

On cold winter days, the moment you eat these spicy warm dishes, you immediately break into a light sweat, the entire person warming up instantly!

Everyone cleared the table of dishes, and at the end, they were all belching contentedly.

“Father, do you like eating spicy food? I didn’t know about it all the time…” Liu Sisi looked a little embarrassed: “But I won’t make the mistake again, I will prepare some spicy dishes from now on.”

In her previous life, her grandfather also loved eating spicy food, but as he got older, his stomach didn’t agree with him, so Liu Sisi didn’t make much of it.

“No need. I only eat it occasionally…”

Her father-in-law made a strenuous gesture with his hand.

This means he will want to eat it again in the future!

Liu Sisi laughed!

After cleaning up the kitchen and looking at the now sparkling room, she looked up at the small attic on the roof where the beast meat was stored. It was also cleaned up. Rows of bacon were hanging down, almost filling the entire roof. It was truly a joyous sight.

After thinking a little, she took down two pieces of meat from the roof, carried them down, called XuanEr and handed him the pieces.

“You take these two pieces of meat to the old house on the other side. The large piece is for your grandmother, and the smaller one is for your Second Uncle, got it?”

“This… Mom, why do we have to send the meat to that old house? Isn’t grandfather already living with us?”

Di Xuan refused to reach out his hand, clearly unwilling to give the gift.

“Silly child, no matter what, she is your grandmother. Since she is your grandmother, you should show her respect.” Liu Sisi gently patted his head.

“But… she treated YingEr and me so badly before…”

Di Xuan retorted, lowering his head in difficulty.

“Ah…”

Liu Sisi sighed softly and held him in her arms: “Silly Xuan’er, although she wasn’t kind to you, her status as an elder is always there. Think about it. If you behave in a non-courteous way because she was unkind to you, not greeting her when you meet her, not sharing delicious food with her, not sending gifts during festivals… When such behavior falls into the eyes of outsiders, wouldn’t they think that you, as a junior, are not respectful enough, rather than the elders did something wrong?”

Di Xuan thought for a moment and lowered his head again without speaking.

“You don’t have to worry about how she treats you, you just need to fulfill all your responsibilities as a descendant. As long as you are true to your conscience and do not give others a chance to find fault, isn’t that enough?” Liu Sisi guided patiently.

“Alright, Mother! Xuan’er will remember.”

Di Xuan nodded earnestly, took the meat, and quickly left the room.

Her words also fell into the ears of Liu Zhi’er, who was sitting aside cutting paper window decorations. She couldn’t help but look up at Liu Sisi and then lowered her head again to continue her task.

Liu Sisi didn’t notice, but she grinded the writing brush, laid out the red and colored papers, and began to write spring couplets.

She had many spring couplets in mind and casually selected one to write.

Here, there was no one to disturb her. With uninterrupted thinking, she wrote the spring couplets much more quickly than she did in the shop.

As she got busy, she lost track of time.

It was not until she realized that the papers she had brought back were all used up that she found out that it was already late at night.

Liu Sisi looked around and saw Liu Zhi’er was still cutting paper window decorations without break.

The fire in the stove and the bonfire were burning brightly. Mr. Di was sitting at the kitchen door, nodding off constantly. The surroundings were silent.

She quickly rose to tidy up the written spring couplets, restoring the brush, ink, paper, and inkstone, while softly calling Mr. Di.

“Father, father! It’s late, you should go back to the room and rest.”

Only then did Elderly Mr. Di raise his head and look at Liu Sisi, who was tidying up, and agreed before slowly heading back to his room.

“Second Sister, stop cutting too. Look at your hands, they’ve been chafed until the blisters broke. You can’t keep doing this.” In the meantime, Liu Sisi also went forward to help Liu Zhi’er tidy up the cut window decorations.

“It’s okay, it’s just a few broken blisters. Compared to the hardships we’d been through before, this is nothing.”

As she spoke, Liu Zhi’er raised her head, rubbed her eyes, and said with a slight smile: “I remember you used to be very proud back then, and you always looked down on me for cutting paper. But when you needed patterns for your embroidery, you had no choice but to ask me. I used to enjoy watching you swallow your pride to ask me for the patterns. That’s why I practiced so hard at cutting paper. Looking back, the fact that I have the skills I do today is all thanks to you.”

It seemed that Liu Zhi’er was lost in memories, with a smile on her lips.

Liu Sisi rubbed her forehead, “Was I really that…ghastly then? Oh, I can’t even remember.”

“Actually, you weren’t ghastly.”

Liu Zhi’er shook her head: “Back then, you seemed proud on the outside but you were very soft on the inside. You often hid in the dark and cried secretly. The you now, however, might seem weak at first, but as I spent more time with you, I found you very strong. You always manage to earn people’s trust in ways they never see coming, much like how running water erodes the strongest rock, you are strong just like that water.”