Chapter 43: Adding a Touch of Sweetness to Life

Li Xiyue’s eyes widened. “Mother, are you joking or are you serious?”

From the moment she woke up this morning until now, her new sister-in-law had only just made a show of being diligent in front of their mother, and that was somehow enough to brand her as hardworking?

Yet, Mrs. Fang reprimanded her youngest daughter with a serious expression, “Isn’t it true? Whenever our family sits down to eat, you never help. You should learn from your eldest sister-in-law.”

Li Xiyue was furious, but she couldn’t refute it.

Every time the family was about to eat, she had indeed never helped. There were always her parents, and before, her elder sister.

The truth was, having grown up watching her mother and elder sister busy themselves around the house, Li Xiyue’s standards were far higher; she could not bring herself to value such a way of life. She had always believed that the confines of a small kitchen were no place for someone as talented as herself.

To show how different she was, she would rather go out to work in the fields than help with chores like cooking.

But Li Xiyue was unwilling to be scolded by her own mother, especially in front of the new sister-in-law.

She pouted. “It’s not like I’m eating for free—I earn work points every day, don’t I? But what about my sister-in-law? Has she earned any?”

Just then, Li Kai, who had always been at odds with his sister despite being less than a year younger, happened to walk in from outside. Hearing this, he scoffed:

“Can’t our elder brother earn them for her? He gives his entire salary to Mother. Our family’s living expenses—what doesn’t come from what he earns?”

The enemy of my enemy is my friend—Li Kai believed this wholeheartedly.

As long as he could make Li Xiyue unhappy, he didn’t mind siding with Tang Xin at all.

He turned and greeted Tang Xin with a smile, “Good morning, sister-in-law.”

Tang Xin returned his smile, gentle, poised, and gracious.

In comparison, Li Xiyue’s protest seemed all the more unreasonable.

Soon, Li Father and Li Sheng returned from working outside and fetching water, and the family gathered to eat breakfast together.

Mrs. Fang served porridge to everyone. The egg soup was meant for lunch, but she had specially boiled a plain egg for Tang Xin.

Li Xiyue eyed the beautiful egg with undisguised envy. “Mother, why does only Sister-in-law get to eat an egg?”

The younger ones were all thinking the same, though only Li Xiyue dared to ask outright.

Yet Tang Xin placed the egg into Li Father’s bowl and said, “Father, you are the head of this family. This egg is for you.”

Li Father wanted to protest that he didn’t like eggs, but Tang Xin, as if knowing what he was about to say, stopped him:

“Father, Mother just said she’s handing the keys of the household to me, so matters at home are for me to decide.”

Tang Xin spoke with tact, emphasizing household matters only; it was clear that she had no intention of challenging Li Father’s authority over affairs outside the home.

“So, shouldn’t I be the one to distribute whatever good things we have at home? Please eat the boiled egg, Father. At lunch, we’ll all have egg soup together.” Tang Xin smiled, her expression free of any awkwardness.

Seeing Li Father still hesitate, she added, “You truly are the head of our family. If even you won’t eat the egg, the rest of us would never dare to.”

She knew that while Li Father was a man of few words, he was actually the softest-hearted in the family, the type to do much and say little. He was used to sacrificing, always leaving good things for his wife and children, never complaining about his own hardships.

But this would not do—Tang Xin was determined to see the whole Li family live better days, and that had to start with the family’s patriarch.

Mrs. Fang simply watched all this unfold. She had only wanted to show a little favoritism and give her daughter-in-law an egg. Now, seeing her daughter-in-law’s actions, she found herself unable to say a word against it.

Especially since the egg had ended up with the old man, whom she knew better than anyone was the most self-sacrificing in the family.

She, too, found it hard to begrudge him.

Breakfast continued as usual—until another stir was caused. Tang Xin went back to her room and returned with a jar of sugar.

Inside was a full jar of white sugar, all she had accumulated from her space farm. Back at the youth settlement, she’d had to keep such things hidden, especially as she’d shared her room with Meng Jia.

Now that she was married into the Li family, she could finally use the supplies from her space to improve everyone’s life, making excuses to bring out everything from eggs to sugar.

Holding the sugar jar, Tang Xin asked casually, “When you eat your porridge, do you prefer it with pickles or with a little white sugar?”

The family was stunned. White sugar in porridge? Was that even possible?

What a luxury that would be, especially when sugar coupons were so hard to come by and most could barely afford sugar.

Never let a good thing go to waste—Li Kai and Li Xiyue practically spoke in unison: “Sister-in-law, I like mine with sugar.”

Tang Xin paid them no mind, first scooping a spoonful of sugar into Mrs. Fang’s bowl.

Mrs. Fang quickly covered her bowl. “Daughter-in-law, I don’t care for sweets. Keep it for yourself.”

Li Xiyue immediately chimed in, “Mother’s afraid of toothaches—she never eats sugar. Give her share to me.”

Who doesn’t like sugar? It was simply a gesture of kindness from a mother to her children.

But Tang Xin had no intention of indulging her sister-in-law’s selfishness. Instead, she asked, “If she’s never eaten it, how do you know sugar would give her a toothache?”

Fearing her daughter-in-law might be upset with her youngest, Mrs. Fang quickly intervened, “No, no, it’s true. I really don’t like sugar.”

She had eaten plenty of sweets as a girl, but after marrying... Even during her confinement, Li Zhirong had to swallow his pride and ask the eldest uncle’s family for a bit of brown sugar. Once the children came, life only got tighter. Though she held the keys to the pantry, she’d never tasted sweetness in all these years.

To comfort her children, Mrs. Fang would claim she disliked sugar because of her teeth. Only a self-centered, thoughtless girl like Li Xiyue truly believed her mother didn’t like sweets.

Li Kai, clever as he was, wasn’t fooled, but he preferred not to expose the truth if it meant getting a bigger share himself.

Tang Xin, too, had no intention of exposing her mother-in-law. She only smiled and said, “What a coincidence—my sugar is special. It’s sugar-free; it won’t hurt your teeth.”

She heaped a generous spoonful into Mrs. Fang’s porridge, then gave another big spoonful to Li Sheng. Li Father insisted on having none.

He was busy cracking the eggshell, peeling the egg with care.

In these times, a little sugar was a real treat. Life was bitter enough; a touch of sweetness could brighten the day.

After allocating the good things to her parents-in-law and husband, Tang Xin turned to the younger siblings.