Li Qinghe didn't bother to ask about the meaning implied in her words, but her attitude was much colder than before.
Seeing this, Mrs. Zhou was a little flustered. She smiled and said, "Seems like my Qinghe is angry with me."
Li Qinghe straightened up and patted her back, "No."
"That's good. You didn't let us inside the house, it looked like you were quite angry." She sighed, "We're all family, it's best to talk about things face to face. What happened yesterday was indeed your big brother-in-law's fault, but when someone is anxious and in a state of panic, they say things they clearly don't mean. You shouldn't take those words seriously, don't you think so?"
"Right." Li Qinghe didn't refute, "But I told you yesterday, you can come inside my house anytime and I won't kick you out even if you want to stay with us for a long time. But one thing is that we can't have a good relationship with the eldest brother-in-law's family. In the future, please don't speak well of him in front of us either. I'm not happy to hear about him. I'm a person who can talk with anyone freely but once I decide not to communicate with them anymore then I won't. It's useless for anyone to try to change my mind on that."
Seeing that her attitude was really cold, Mrs. Zhou became a little anxious, "No, we are all a family, sometimes someone may be wrong and someone may be right. Your eldest brother-in-law and sister-in-law know that they were in the wrong. They were going to leave yesterday night but to apologize to you they didn't return and decided to stay behind and spend an extra night."
"I'm not saying they're right, either. I'm not asking you to have a good relationship, but they are brothers, and they should look out for each other." She looked at Zhou Chengkang, "Chengkang, what do you think about this?"
Zhou Chengkang raised his eyes to look at her, "I also think what Qinghe said is right. Mother, I think you should stop talking about this matter. If I don't follow your words then you would feel that I'm the disobedient one. I don't think it will do us all any good if you keep carrying on to stretch this matter."
He paused for a moment and said, "If you don't speak anything about it, then I'll go and open the door of my house for you now. But if you continue doing it, then it would be more comfortable for you to go back and live with the third brother and his family."
Mrs. Zhou's complexion changed slightly. After hearing his words, the last trace of hope also disappeared from her heart. She sighed and said, "I'll tell your big brother and the rest to visit you all later, and you should consider..."
Li Qinghe could not hear it anymore and asked directly, "What do we need to think about?"
"You asked us to come to celebrate the New Year together. You are also very well aware of how the past few years have gone. Let's not talk about the previous issue, just take yesterday's issue. I don't think we did anything wrong. It's not us who should think more. Anyway, the fifth sister is already married, so there's no need to spend New Year together anymore. If you arrange to celebrate together next year, then we will not be coming. It should be a joyous occasion to celebrate New Year, but for the past few years it turned out to be very sour and annoying."
Mrs. Zhou didn't expect Li Qinghe could speak so mercilessly because of a casual remark. It was completely different from her usual gentle temperament. It was quite a shock, since Li Qinghe had never been this rude to her before.
It was also the time she realized that her youngest daughter-in-law could also make her choke on her own words, or that she could become unrecognizable when her bottom line was touched.
Looking at Mrs. Zhou back as she left, Li Qinghe asked in a low voice, "Will you think that I don't respect your mother enough?"
"No." Zhou Chengkang laughed lightly, "You're already very good. She will figure it out by herself now."
Mrs. Zhou had always been an open-minded mother-in-law. It was just that maybe she couldn't accept that her sons turned against each other, so she wanted to persuade them.
In the afternoon of that very day, eldest brother Zhou returned back to the town in his carriage. The villagers also started with their spring plowings.
Soon they got busy too. It was only until March that they were finished with their sowings in the fields. Then, Wu Li sent a batch of medicinal herbs, which were planted in various places, along with several kinds of vines that could be planted in the forest. So after the spring plowing, Li Qinghe also asked the workers to help in the forest plantations for a few days.
It was also at this time that the two suddenly felt that they should go around the old forest to take a look. It was because they had been studying pharmacology for some time and to learn about some herbs, they now needed to see them for themselves. To figure out which environment was best for the plant, they needed to examine the branches, leaves, and roots. They also needed to know if the plant will grow well in humid conditions or if it will grow by the side of the water or under the shade of trees.
So, after the spring plowing was over, the two packed up the dry food, asked Mr. Yu and his wife to look after the house, and took Xiyu into the forest. They went out early and returned late every day. Not to mention outsiders, even Mr. Yu and Mrs. Chen who lived with them, didn't get to meet the husband and wife every day. They don't have much time to spend together with them either.
Today, the couple returned home very late at night again. Before they reached the main door of their house, they saw a familiar person standing outside the door. It turned out to be Li Fu. Although Zhou Chengkang did not go to help him with work this year, they hired two people to work in Li Fu's field, which was also considered as a useful help.
"Father, why are you here this late?" Li Qinghe was quite surprised. It was mainly because it was quite late in the night at that time.
When Li Fu saw them approaching, he paid special attention to Xiyu. He was slightly relieved when he saw that Xiyu was in good spirits apart from being a little messy. When he heard his daughter's question, he replied in a bad mood, "If I didn’t wait until this time, then I wouldn't have been able to see you at all."
Hearing this, Li Qinghe felt a little guilty, "It's true that I came back a bit late today. But if you have something to tell, you can tell them, or leave a message with them and ask for us to wait for you at home."
While saying that, she invited him to enter the house, and looked at Mrs. Chen, who was also standing on the side, "Why didn't you invite my father into the house?"
Before Mrs. Chen could say anything, Li Fu already said, "It's none of her business. It was me who wanted to wait for you outside."
After entering the door, Zhou Chengkang took Xiyu to wash up. Before leaving in the morning, he had instructed Mrs. Chen to prepare the meals and hot water for everyone by the time they returned. Li Qinghe brought Li Fu to the living room and asked, "Father, what’s the matter?" What was something so important that he had to wait for them to return even after so long.
Li Fu looked at the bathroom and asked in a low voice, "Did you have a quarrel with your mother-in-law?"
"Why do you say that? Did you hear what others said?" Li Qinghe was curious. Although there was some unpleasantness in the family, except for the Zhou family and fifth sister and her husband, no one from the outside should know.
Mrs. Zhou herself was not much of a talkative person.
Li Fu sighed, "Do these things still need to be told? Last year your mother-in-law lived at your house for a long time. This year you two are busy but still, she didn't come. The main reason is that you two took your young child into the forest, which is not good."
Li Qinghe was dumbfounded. She suddenly remembered that most of the elders in the village think that children should not go into the woods. It was believed that there were some bad things in the forest that would easily scare the children, and when they returned from the forest, they would be sick.
But the couple didn't think any of that. Besides, they don't think that the child had to be taken care of by Mrs. Zhou. It would be good for Xiyu to take him into the woods for more walks. It was March now and the weather was neither hot nor cold. Taking a child for walks more often was beneficial.
He looked at the bathroom again, and asked in a low voice, "Tell me honestly, did you fight with your mother-in-law? Is Chengkang upset with this fight as well?"
"No." Li Qinghe sighed, "Don't concern yourself about this matter. You just live well on your own."
Li Fu nodded, “Then, I'll take Xiyu to my house. I'll help you watch him instead. Speaking of which, I only have one grandson, and I haven't seen or spent time with him for many days. I miss him. Why don't I take him back to stay with me today and send him back to you after two days?"
After so much discussion, wasn't this his ultimate goal?
Facing his daughter's suspicious eyes, Li Fu coughed, "I've been busy for several months and finally, I'm free now. Xiyu is my only grandson, why can I not take him with me to live for a few days?"
Okay, why not?
Zhou Chengkang finished washing and dressing up Xiyu. Then Li Fu took his grandson and made his way to his house. Both the grandfather and grandson looked very happy when they left.
Their routine didn't change even after they sent Xiyu to the Li house. In fact, they even left earlier and came back late because they didn't bring Xiyu along with them.
Two days later, when they returned home at night, they saw another person waiting at the door. This time it was Mrs. Zhou. This was the first time she had come to the door on her own since their disagreement the last time.
"You are back? You should come back a little earlier, or you won't be able to see clearly at night in the dark. It's hard to walk at night, what would happen if you were to fall somewhere?" Mrs. Zhou rambled on and on. Only after she had finished did she feel she was talking a bit too much and glanced at Li Qinghe several times. Seeing that she had no trace of anger, she felt slightly at ease.
This time it was Zhou Chengkang who talked with her, while Li Qinghe went in to wash up.
After she returned from washing up, she heard Mrs. Zhou said to her, "Qinghe, just now, I told the fourth child that it would be inconvenient for your father if Xiyu stayed with your father at this time of the year." Without waiting for her to answer, she continued, "In the end, he is still a maternal grandfather. And Mrs. Liu is also over there. If Xiyu stays there for a long time she would inevitably feel uncomfortable. Children become very naughty at times. If it's someone from their family then it would be okay, but it might not be the same for others… Why don't I take him with me to live for a few days?"
Li Qinghe looked at Zhou Chengkang. He said, "I think that if mother wants to spend time with Xiyu, then she should stay here. After all, she lives with third brother now, so it will not be good if he stays there for a long time."
Li Qinghe nodded in agreement, especially after considering the words of eldest brother Zhou, it can be seen that they have not forgotten those things. It was a matter of their child, so they needed to pay more attention.
Mrs. Zhou was a little sad, but she still nodded and said, "If your father doesn't want to take care of the child, then I will move here for a few days."
As for Li Fu's side, there was no way he did not want to take care of his grandchild. When she went to pick Xiyu up in the morning, he didn't want to come back to her at all. Also, Mrs. Liu was very happy and kept talking about how lively their house has been lately, since there was a child present there.
Now, since there was not much work to do in the fields, many villagers had nothing else to do. Seeing the husband and wife go to the forest to collect herbs every day, many people followed suit, because Li Qinghe asked them to come to help earlier, and a good number of people were aware of the herbs in the village, and not just a few. Not many people from their village had picked herbs from the forest. Even if a few didn’t know anything about the herbs, they could always go along with them and try to learn about them. Many people had dried some medicinal herbs in the sun, although there were not many.
The Yang family next door had started to hire people again. This time it was to dig a fish pond. They were now going to raise fish.
It was Yu Yan who came to tell her about this matter.
"You both sell quite a lot of fish in the town. But still, it's not often that they are completely sold out. If they also start to sell…"
It didn't matter to Li Qinghe. If it would be a big deal, then they would just take them to the county and sell as much as they want. Besides, most of their thoughts were about the woods. As for the fish pond, they only thought a lot about it in the beginning, but then they didn't pay much attention to it. They breed the fish twice a year and didn't put in much thought or energy. It had been smooth sailing all these years and they made a lot of money. But if they were to put more thought into it, they would earn even more.
However, it was rare for Yu Yan to show concern for them. Li Qinghe thanked her and explained the situation.
Yu Yan waved her hand, "I was just a little uncomfortable about it. I wouldn't have said anything if they had a pond and they raised fish or even paddy fields. But it seems to be quite a deliberate attempt that they want to dig one pond. It is clear that seeing you have earned silver, they deliberately followed you to learn. We are living in a village and are a farmer's family, so we can't do anything about it either."