In other families, the daughter-in-law gets pregnant and still has to work in the fields with a big belly. But Xiaoya doesn't even have a belly yet and Mother is already being so considerate of her.
"Thank you, Mother."
"Mmh, as a woman, you must first take good care of your own body."
"I understand," Xiaoya thought for a moment and said, "Mother, I've been married into this family for a while now, but I haven't gone back to visit my own family. I'd like to..."
"Go on."
It's only natural for a daughter-in-law to go back and visit her own family.
Li Yao had never met her father-in-law, including in her previous life.
From the memories of the original body, she knew that Xiaoya marrying Da Zhuang was just a coincidence.
Her family lived near Yizhou Prefecture, in the suburbs. They ran a small business buying herbs and groceries.
Once Xiaoya went with her family to Baichuan County to buy herbs. Da Zhuang was also there selling herbs. For some reason, Xiaoya took a liking to the honest Da Zhuang.
Of course, Da Zhuang also liked Xiaoya. It was a case of a good match.
Later, when Xiaoya brought it up with her family, they objected as expected. But the girl was determined to marry only Da Zhuang. Her father had no choice but to ask Li Yao to send a matchmaker and propose officially.
But on the wedding day, not a single person from Xiaoya's family came. Two women from the clan sent Xiaoya to Li Yao's doorstep, and that was considered completing the marriage formalities.
Li Yao didn't know if Xiaoya would regret this had she not transmigrated into this body.
But in any case, she was very supportive of free love.
Since it was the new daughter-in-law's first time visiting her maternal home, she definitely could not go alone. Da Zhuang had to go too.
Considering the long distance and Xiaoya's pregnancy, Li Yao decided to buy a carriage. It would be stable, safe and could carry gifts for the in-laws.
So she called Wang San'er and Xiao Si to go with her to the market.
The road to the market had been repaired. It was twice as wide now and relatively smooth.
"Mother," Xiao Si suddenly asked, "Are we going to buy a carriage?"
"Yes."
"Great! Our family will have a carriage too!"
In this era, owning a carriage was a luxury like owning a car in the previous life.
Wang San'er was not as excited as Xiao Si. He only nervously asked, "Mother, when you're not using the carriage, can I practice riding the horse?"
Li Yao looked at him.
He had grown at least 7-8 cm in the past few months, almost reaching her ear now.
And his little pig had grown from over 20 jin to over 100 jin now. With that, his strength was comparable to a grown man's already.
Plus the training tasks she assigned every day, Wang San'er was now stronger than the average soldier.
"I'll buy you a horse too," Li Yao said. "A good one. You can take it with you when you enlist next year."
"Really?"
She was buying a horse just for him! And a good one!
Just thinking about riding a big horse, galloping like a general, Wang San'er was so excited he trembled a little, even his voice cracked.
"Thank you, Mother! I'll train even harder from now on!"
When they reached the market, there weren't many people left. Li Yao went straight to the shop.
"Mistress is here!" Zou manager welcomed her enthusiastically, "What brings you to the market at this hour?"
"I want to buy a carriage. Do you know anyone reliable?"
"Yes, Zhang the carpenter in the market specializes in carriages and ox carts. I'll take you to him."
They went to Zhang's place. There were indeed some carriage and ox cart frames in his yard. The workmanship looked decent and the prices weren't too high either. Li Yao chose a nicer carriage.
Next was buying the horses.
But there were too few horses at the Baichuan market, and the quality was really not good.
"Mistress Li?" Just as she was hesitating whether to just buy whatever was available, Zhang County Captain came over with two yamen runners. "You're buying a horse?"
"Yes."
"The horses here are no good," Zhang County Captain said. "The county yamen buys all our horses from Yizhou Prefecture. Especially mine, it's a one in ten thousand warhorse that can even go into battle."
Li Yao's eyes lit up. She had seen Zhang County Captain's horse before and it was indeed not bad.
"How about this, County Captain Zhang. Sell me two of your horses and you can buy new ones to replace them."
Zou manager: ...Isn't that going too far?
Unexpectedly, Zhang County Captain not only did not get angry, but immediately agreed: "I'll go get them right now!"
Soon, two big horses were brought to Li Yao. One brown, one white.
The white one belonged to Zhang County Captain.
Li Yao knew horses. She could tell they were good, especially the white one. It already had the makings of a warhorse.
So she asked, "How much?"
"Just 5 taels for both will do."
Li Yao shook her head. "Such good horses are worth more than 5 taels. How about I give you 30 taels total?"
"That's too much..."
"Time is still needed to buy new ones in Yizhou, right? And horses like these are worth more than 30 taels."
"Then I'll thank Mistress Li for your generosity."
"Here's another 50 taels," Li Yao called Zhang County Captain aside and whispered. "When you go to Yizhou Prefecture, please help me buy a good young warhorse. Wang San'er will be enlisting next year. I want to prepare one for him early."
Zhang County Captain took the silver bills, extremely envious.
How lucky was this kid Wang San'er to have such a wealthy and generous mother?
When he enlisted, not to mention a warhorse, he didn't even have an ox. He had to carry everything on his shoulders.
"Don't worry, Mistress Li. I'll pick the very best one."
It had been a while since she last rode a horse. Li Yao decided to ride back.
"Be careful," Zhang County Captain said. "This horse has a fiery temper and doesn't take well to strangers."
"No problem."
Li Yao took the reins and stroked the horse's neck a few times before easily swinging up into the saddle.
But when she put her right foot into the stirrup, she hit only air and almost lost her balance. Luckily her reactions were quick. She squeezed the horse's back and quickly steadied herself.
Looking down, she realized there was only a stirrup on the left side of the saddle, nothing on the right.
A single stirrup?
"Mistress Li, are you alright?" Zou manager asked anxiously, "Or you can take the carriage and get used to the horse first before riding it?"
"No need."
Whether it was a single stirrup or no stirrups at all, Li Yao could easily control the horse.
After adjusting her seat, she lightly flicked the whip. The white horse reared up and galloped swiftly towards River Bend Village.