Zhulan smiled and said, "In the future, we will have more interactions with our clan members, so we will naturally have to prepare more presentable gifts."
Xue Han was stunned, "Mom, when did Dad say that?"
Zhulan pointed at the things in the box and said, "These things tell mother that your father wants to make peace with the clan members, but one person cannot do it alone. There are too few people in our clan, and the clan cannot lose its roots."
Zhulan didn't expect to teach her daughter everything all at once. She had to figure out many things on her own.
When she first came, she didn't have a strong understanding of the ancient clan concept, and so did Zhou Shuren. They only wanted to rely on themselves for many things, but after the clan leader helped them with a ladder, they slowly came to understand and became more aware of the importance of the clan. Even if the clan did not have capable people, it could still be quite intimidating in the surrounding villages.
The original husband was inevitably arrogant as a scholar, and with the resentment of the previous generation, there was no way to ease it, so he gradually became estranged from the clan. Although she and Zhou Shuren had never talked, for Zhou Shuren and the children, she wanted to reconnect with the clan.
This time Zhou Shuren came back to take advantage of the New Year gift to visit.
It took half an hour to distribute the things. Zhulan kept some cloth for gifts and for her mother's family, and it was easier to divide the rest according to the number of people. She gave the food to her mother and kept the rest.
The four boxes were not made of good wood. Zhou Shuren didn't want to show off his wealth so he didn't dare to buy good ones. However, they were quite sturdy. Zhulan didn't keep any, Rongchuan had no boxes in his room so he moved one over, the old family had more people so they moved one over, and Zhao had no dowry boxes so she moved one over. The ones in the house were bought by the second son who got married. As for the bad smell in the boxes, they had to deal with it themselves.
Zhulan had been staying at home all winter and hadn't worked for a long time. She felt sore all over after tidying up for a while. Just as she was about to deliver the cloths to her second son's house, Li rushed in and said, "Mom, you are so diligent. You even came back specially to help you divide the cloths!"
Zhulan calculated the distance to her in-laws' house with a wooden face. Li went to her parents' house to get the money and then rushed back. She pointed to the largest pile speechlessly and said, "These are yours. Take them back when you come back. I've also divided up a box. You can move it back, eldest brother!"
Boss Zhou knew what kind of person his wife was. He had never disliked her. He thought Li was pretty good. He had no shame in front of his mother and said with a smile, "Mom, I have something to tell you. We want to go to town tomorrow."
Zhulan knew that she probably had some money, and she wanted to give a surprise to her elders. "Okay, I got it."
Li was not busy moving the portion for her family. Instead, she smiled and said, "Mom, I'll send it to my brother and sister-in-law first."
Zhulan: "...Go ahead."
This is because he was afraid that she would give Zhao too many things and wanted to take the opportunity to send them over to look at them!
Boss Zhou blushed, lowered his head, and walked away quickly with the box. He had no idea what to do with his wife. On one side was his mother, and on the other was his wife. Experience told him that it would be better to run away as soon as possible.
Zhulan looked at the eldest sister's capable appearance with an expressionless face. She really didn't realize that the eldest sister had her own way of surviving the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law.
Li happily went out with the cloth in her arms, and came back soon with a big smile on her face. She thought her mother-in-law was really not partial. She had originally felt very painful about buying a silver hairpin after discussing it with the head of the household, but now she felt relieved. She happily carried the silver back to the house. She had to hide the silver and money quickly, as she felt uneasy leaving it outside.
At noon, Zhou Shuren woke up hungry. Zhulan asked Li to make chicken soup with ginseng roots and rolled some hand-rolled noodles for Zhou Shuren.
After lunch, the two sons who were reading looked at their father eagerly. They had been thinking about pens, ink, paper and inkstone for the whole morning, but they didn't dare to go to the main room, so they didn't concentrate on reading at all.