Chapter 80: Chapter 79: Longing for Mother’s Love

“Qing, you want to go back and eat candy, don’t you? Siwa wants some too.” Thinking of the gift box in the room, Siwa immediately understood and walked steadily back to their bedroom while holding Ye Shiqi.

“Siya, be careful not to let your sister fall.”

Mrs. Li was worried that Siwa could not carry Wuwa, but looking at her actions, she felt her worries were unnecessary. She had missed the details of the children’s growth during the days she was not at home; Siwa had already done so well, becoming a good elder sister.

Mrs. Li’s eyes were filled with complex emotions, guilt from missing out on her children’s growth, and shame for having made the children suffer.

“Wait for me, I want to play in your room too.” Tang Shunyan said, trotting alongside Siwa and entered their bedroom with her.

The maids and old women of the Tang Mansion wanted to prevent Tang Shunyan from entering that poor and shabby room.

“Young Master, please don’t go in!”

“All of you go outside and keep guard, do not follow inside, I have a lot of things to say to the little sisters,” Tang Shunyan glared at the maids and old women.

“Didn’t you hear the Young Master’s words? Guard their room.”

The housekeeper thought the two girls inside could not harm Tang Shunyan and liked the idea of the Young Master mingling with smart kids. It was his personal view, but he would of course discuss this with the owners when he returned.

Seeing this, Mrs. Li asked her husband, and learned that the three daughters had gone to the field.

She glanced at the adults in the house with great distress; they were all at home, yet they made the children go outside to work.

Her blame was not solely directed at her husband; she blamed herself even more for her weakness, which had allowed her children to suffer so much.

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Just as she was about to fetch her three daughters, she saw them each carrying a basket of wild vegetables into the courtyard. They entered and timidly looked at the many people in the courtyard, placing their baskets on the ground.

“Daya, Er Ya, Sanya, my good children, come and let Mother have a look at you.”

“Mother, have you come back?”

“Mother, I’ve missed you so much.”

“Mother, it’s so good you’re back.”

Daya and her two sisters ran towards Mrs. Li, their eyes brimming with a longing for maternal love.

“Ugh, they’re so dirty…” Xiu Zhi disdainfully looked at the children by Mrs. Li’s side, noticing their hands and clothes were dirty.

“Look at them, could they have bugs in their hair?” Maid Mei Zhi also looked at the children by Mrs. Li’s side with disdain.

“Keep your voices down, the masters are all here.” Jufeng glanced at the adults of the household.

“What’s there to fear? They are dirty anyway…” Xiu Zhi harbored the most resentment towards Mrs. Li and seized the opportunity to be relentless with her words.

“Say less, these children are very sensible; they are so young yet they work, whereas the adults in the house don’t work,” an old woman named Mrs. Pan said to the two maids, knowing more about Mrs. Li’s family since it was her second visit.

“Serves her right; Mrs. Li, a useless mother, is the reason her children suffer so,” Xiu Zhi added another sentence.

The others didn’t respond to her, observing the household’s adults. The man of the house seemed to have heard their conversation, his face blushing as he wanted to speak but was too embarrassed.

The women of the household glared at them with their eyes, especially at the two unmarried daughters.

Ye Shuzhi and Ye Shuzhen’s ears pricked up as they watched their mother enter the room to put away the gifts, and they even overheard someone speaking ill of their family.

Glaring at the young women, they felt that despite their young age, their gossiping was no different from that of old busybodies.

Both sisters were dressed in coarse cotton clothes and envied the maid in front of them who was dressed better than they were.

Even their sister-in-law, who was a wet nurse, dressed better than they did.

Mrs. Lai was so busy examining the gifts and finding a place to lock them up that she had no time to greet the guests outside.

Hongji, busy with the housekeeper and the guard, could only offer them boiled water to drink.

Hongji’s father sat aside, occasionally puffing on a bamboo pipe.

The housekeeper, having seen toys so well carved that they seemed to have been made by someone skillful enough to transport months-old babies into crafts, became curious about the two men before him and sporadically asked about their everyday life.

“Brother, do you and your son usually make a living by woodworking?

When asked by the housekeeper, Hongji honestly replied,

“Yes, we take jobs from the village. Sometimes people from other villages or the town ask us to make furniture; some provide the materials, while others ask us to supply our own and pay us. We finish the old work before the busy farming season starts and afterwards, I want to make a dowry for my younger sister.

“Oh, how come I haven’t seen you make other furniture?”

“Yeah! We were supposed to make furniture. Did you see those wooden statues? I thought about carving wooden Bodhisattva statues and toys to sell for some money, outsourcing the dowry work for others to handle.”

“Oh, you carve wooden Bodhisattva statues? Do you have any designs? May I see them?” The housekeeper, having listened and become interested in the wooden Bodhisattva statues mentioned by Hongji, being long associated with the Old Master, had a bit of a business mind.

A hint of a business opportunity could be sensed in the air.

“These days, there are always people coming to place orders. The statues I carve are not enough to meet demand. Look, this is one I carved this morning; I haven’t even had the chance to polish and paint it yet.”

Hongji picked up a wooden Bodhisattva statue he had carved to show the housekeeper.

“This is the wooden Bodhisattva statue? How much do you sell these for?”

“We sell them cheaply to our fellow villagers, just charging for the handiwork – twenty cents for each statue.”

After hearing Hongji’s explanation, the housekeeper quickly calculated in his mind, thinking that if they were to sell these statues in their family’s jewellery shop, they would certainly fetch a high price. The craftsmanship was good, it was just a pity they were made of ordinary wood.

The housekeeper then had another idea, but he would have to discuss it with the Old Master before making any decisions. So he probed further,

“If we were to supply you with higher quality wood for you to carve these statues, and paid you for your work, would you be interested in taking on such a job?”

“You’ll provide the wood and I’ll carve as if I’m working for you?”

“Exactly, we’ll offer you a higher price than what you earn now from carving several pieces a day.”

“I could take the job, but if you provide such fine wood, I’m afraid of keeping it at home in case it gets stolen.”

Hongji honestly voiced his concerns; although the village rarely had thieves, there was no guarantee against mountain bandits descending from their haunts.

“Right now, it’s only a proposal. I’ll discuss it with the Old Master when I return and make a decision. We’ll then tell you what to do, but if we have you carve quality wood, it definitely won’t be at your home, it will be at a designated factory site of ours.”

The housekeeper didn’t want to let slip this excellent business opportunity, but he couldn’t make the decision on his own; everything still had to be approved by the Tang Family people.