Liu Jia worked at the supply and marketing cooperative, listening to colleagues gossip about family matters, occasionally joining the conversation.
However, whenever the topic turned to mother-in-law and daughter-in-law conflicts, Liu Jia never spoke up — not because she had no opinions about her in-law family, but because her job was given to her by her mother-in-law.
The in-law family's connections were still influential at the supply and marketing cooperative. If she criticized her in-laws at work, news of her remarks would certainly reach them, and her days would become far from pleasant.
Life after marriage was more comfortable than when she lived with her own family — at least she could eat meat every month. Although she still had to do household chores after returning home, she'd been doing chores at her parent's home too.
Compared to her colleagues, who also had to do chores at home and had no share of good food, her situation was better.
