Chapter 1: The Uncomfortable Married Life (Part 1)

  I'm serving the old and then I have to serve the young, do you all think I'm your family's nanny or something? Each of you is lazy like a pig, all you do is eat and sleep, why don't you just sleep to death...

  Qiu Ye had just opened her eyes when she heard a string of scolding from her mother-in-law, she took a deep breath and wondered if waking up to such scolding every morning would shorten her lifespan by a few years.

  She glanced at her husband who was still snoring loudly beside her, then looked at their son who was sleeping soundly on the small bed next to the big bed with his butt up and drooling. She felt extremely admiring of the father-son duo's ability to sleep so soundly.

  But she has made some progress in her own training, you know that her mother-in-law is at their door specially scolding them to hear, no, it's specially for her to hear. From the beginning of being furious and unbearable, every time her mother-in-law scolds her, she wants to jump up and fight with someone, to now being able to sleep until 6 am naturally in such a torrent of abuse, this progress is not small either.

  Lying in bed, Qiu Ye really didn't want to move, didn't want to face Zhang Fei's mother alone, and was tired of the 365 days of running errands all year round. So she closed her eyes again and slept for a while, thinking that she would just close her eyes for a little while longer until her husband woke up and they could get out of bed together. But as soon as she closed her eyes, she heard her mother-in-law scolding outside the door. The stifling marriage life of so many years was like a movie, flashing through her mind scene by scene.

  Qiu Ye graduated from a vocational school in 2001, and due to the lack of job opportunities at home, he was assigned to work as an ordinary worker in a marginal enterprise unit after graduation. Every day, regardless of wind or sun, he had to carry a paint bucket and paint equipment in the wild grasslands.

  In 2004, she met her current husband Wang Wei through introduction. He was a worker who had only graduated from a technical school and his educational background was not as good as hers. At that time, Qiu Ye was still relatively young and had a somewhat biased perspective on things. Although Wang Wei's personal conditions were not very good, the matchmaker said that his family was in good condition, so if she married him, it would be considered a good marriage, and her mother-in-law would look up to her after marriage, and she would be happy afterwards.

  Qiu Ye looked at his own family being so poor, and his brother's family was also divorced because of poverty, then his brother brought his nephew to live with their parents.

  Since she was a child, Qiu Ye's parents had always been biased towards boys over girls. So even when she got married, her parents couldn't give her any money for dowry. She basically didn't have any dowry at all, so she also didn't have many choices and ended up marrying Wang Wei.

  But after getting married, I found out that it's useless to just look for someone with good family conditions, he must be willing to spend money on you too.

  Qiu Ye's father-in-law and mother-in-law were migrant workers who had saved up some money, with over 200,000 yuan from just the two of them buying out their contracts. In 2004, that was already a considerable amount, and adding to what they had saved over the years, it was more than enough for their son to buy a house and get married.

  However, when Qiu Ye got married, her parents-in-law did not buy them a house, saying that they would be retiring in a year and everyone should live together for the time being. At the end of the year, their company would build new apartments with discounts for employees who had bought out their positions. By then, they would have started receiving their pensions and could save up to buy a bigger new house. At the time, Qiu Ye's mother-in-law told her firmly: "Our family only has Xiaowei as our child, so whatever we have in the future will all belong to him. You don't need to worry about housing at all, just mention it and we'll buy one for you."

  At that time, Qiu Ye's colleagues all advised Qiu Ye not to listen to his mother-in-law's promises before marriage, those were just nonsense. Once married, she would be someone else's person, and Qiu Ye would have no bargaining chips at all.

  Qiu Ye is a bit introverted, but she's not stupid. She knows why her mother-in-law wants to buy that batch of houses. It's because the neighborhood is very close to Wang Wei's workplace, and it takes less than 5 minutes to walk there from downstairs. Her mother-in-law decided to wait and buy this neighborhood so that her son wouldn't have to commute far and could sleep in a bit longer in the morning, enjoying more good fortune.

  She was very dissatisfied with her mother-in-law's selfish idea at that time. The old lady only considered her own son, she didn't think about what would happen if Qiu Ye moved there and had to take a one-hour bus ride every morning to get to work, which wasn't just a matter of one or two days, but a daily commute all year round without any holidays.

  But Qiu's mother's words made Qiu Ye feel at ease again. She said, "They are their own flesh and blood, raised for over 20 years as their own son. What's wrong with the old lady considering her own son? If you marry Wang Wei, then you'll be family in the future, and you can just make some compromises to get along. As long as you treat your mother-in-law well, she will also cherish you like a daughter.

  So Qiu Ye, although somewhat dissatisfied in her heart, still married Wang Wei with high hopes, thinking that even if she had to run errands all the time, as long as the family was harmonious and the couple loved each other, it would be worth it. She was also thrilled at the prospect of having her own house within a year.

  As a result, that batch of houses took three years from the beginning of planning to completion and sale. She and her husband lived with her parents-in-law for three whole years.

  In these three years, she has truly seen the ferocity of her mother-in-law. She and her mother-in-law are not on the same level, and she has also experienced that marriage is not as simple or beautiful as she thought.

  When she first got married, her husband was very good to her, and his parents were okay too. However, living with strangers suddenly, there were many different living habits. Her mother-in-law was a true Northeasterner, and many of her living habits were different from those of her husband's family, who were originally from Shandong. For example, when eating leftover dishes, they would always heat them up in a steamer, making the original hard vegetables soft and losing their flavor. This was not the case with Qiu Ye's family, where they would always stir-fry the leftovers to preserve the original flavor. As a result, Qiu Ye did not like eating leftover dishes at her mother-in-law's house, and she was even scolded by her mother-in-law behind her back, saying that she had a "missy" body and a "lazy" fate.

  There's also the time when his mother-in-law was serving dishes, and every time he picked up a dish with his chopsticks, he would always scan from head to toe, then use his chopsticks that had his own saliva on them to pick at the food in the plate back and forth. Every time Qiu Ye saw this, she would silently endure it, thinking to herself that they're all family, so sharing a bit of spit while eating isn't a big deal.

  There are many such things, but Qiu Ye endured them all. After all, it's a new family combination, and to be happy and harmonious, everyone must make sacrifices.

  Apart from differences in living habits, she thinks married life is still very happy.

  The only thing that didn't satisfy her was that her husband still handed over his salary card to his mother for safekeeping. However, her mother-in-law said with a very good tone, "Isn't this all for saving up to buy a house for you both in the future?" Although Qiu Ye felt somewhat displeased in her heart, she didn't express it and instead chose to default to this arrangement as a new daughter-in-law, not wanting to lose face in front of her mother-in-law.

  The next problem is that the public and private sectors still have a year to go before they start paying wages, Wang Wei's salary is also paid to his mother-in-law, and all the household expenses are dependent on Qiu Ye's meager salary.

  When they had just gotten married, Qiu Ye would buy all the rice, flour, oil and salt for the house to show that she wasn't freeloading off her mother-in-law. On her way home from work every day, she would also stop by the vegetable market to buy some vegetables for the next day's meals. As a result, her salary of over 1,000 yuan would be spent before the end of the month, which worried her so much that she told Wang Wei about it and asked him to take back his paycheck card temporarily in case of an emergency. However, after Wang Wei returned from his mother's place, he only said one sentence to Qiu Ye: "The salary is gone, don't you still have your dowry money?"

  Qiu Ye was stunned at the time. When they got married, Wang Wei's family gave Qiu Ye's family 20,000 yuan as a betrothal gift according to custom. Qiu Ye saw that her natal family was struggling financially, and her parents were frugal every day in order to save money for their grandson's future university education. They would only eat potatoes and cabbage in the winter, and wouldn't even buy fresh vegetables. They were always saving money from their own mouths, so she left all the money with her parents. Where did she get the money from now? Moreover, it doesn't make sense to let the daughter-in-law use the betrothal gift to support her husband's family after marriage.

  And she also tasted a bit of flavor, this sentence must not be thought of by Wang Wei, it must be said by her mother-in-law. She had just been married for less than a month and the old lady was already eyeing her money.

  Qiu Ye unhappily expressed her dissatisfaction to Wang Wei, who was now the person closest to her. She had to vent her grievances to him, but unexpectedly, Wang Wei blew his top, pointing at Qiu Ye's nose and scolding her, saying she was unfilial to her elders. Didn't they just want to save money for them? Wasn't that all for their own good? They were afraid that if they gave them too much money, they would squander it recklessly. This daughter-in-law of his was always complaining and couldn't understand the kindness and good intentions of her elders at all.

  Qiu Ye was so angry that she felt her lungs were going to burst, but she was also afraid that their quarrel would be heard by her mother-in-law and father-in-law, worrying them. So Qiu Ye just got angry with herself and didn't argue with Wang Wei, quietly explaining her own thoughts again. As a result, after scolding her, Wang Wei didn't listen to her either, and went to sleep like nothing was wrong, making Qiu Ye so angry that she couldn't do anything about it. For the first time, she felt that when two people are not on the same level of knowledge, they really don't have a common language. She cried sadly all night, this was their first quarrel as a couple.

  Later, a big sister in Qiu Ye's unit who knew her well came up with an idea. She told Qiu Ye to thicken her skin and stop buying things for the family. Her mother-in-law would naturally use her son's salary to support the family. She also said that nowadays, which young couple doesn't rely on their parents? A daughter-in-law like Qiu Ye who supports a whole family is really rare.

  At first, Qiu Ye couldn't bear the thought of living with her in-laws under the same roof, always running into them and feeling unhappy about it just for the sake of some money.

  However, when Qiu Ye returned home early one day and overheard the conversation between the old woman and Auntie Li, she stopped doing that thankless job.

  Nowadays young people are so self-centered, they don't know how to be filial to the elderly. Take my daughter-in-law for example, she's extremely lazy, every day she sleeps in until the last minute, gets herself ready, eats and then leaves after throwing down her chopsticks.

  Alas, you say I'm a heaven-sent gift, but I have to serve them every day. We've been married for several months now, and not even one egg has hatched from me. They eat my food, live in my house, and often slap me in the face. You say this old lady's fate isn't bad, huh? Alas...