The Stepmother’s Counterattack: Raising a Child in a Bygone Era
Chapter 107: Shen Baolan Has a Miscarriage, Shen Mingzhu Fiercely Protects Her Husband (Minor Edit)

Chapter 107: Chapter 107: Shen Baolan Has a Miscarriage, Shen Mingzhu Fiercely Protects Her Husband (Minor Edit)

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The sudden turn of events had scared everyone silly.

After a burst of confusion, Ma Sufen and Shen Baolan were both rushed to the nearest maternal and child health care hospital, while the playing children were each taken home by their parents.

Pei Ziheng had slipped away unnoticed early on while everyone was fussing over Ma Sufen and Shen Baolan, his mother and mother-in-law.

A slingshot made of willow branches hung on the parallel bars, swaying gently in the wind.

After returning home, Pei Ziheng told Shen Mingzhu and Pei Yang about how Ma Sufen and her mother-in-law had fallen down the stairs.

Pei Yang immediately put on his clothes and went out, intent on visiting the hospital to check on the situation.

Not to mention that Zhou Shuhuan was his best friend, but the Zhou and Pei families were also good old friends. With such a serious incident occurring, it was only proper for him, as the younger generation, to visit.

Shen Mingzhu didn’t break her promise and made the sweet and sour pork that Pei Ziheng loved.

With Pei Yang away, the two of them sat at the coffee table to eat, watching "Journey to the West" while eating, completely unfazed by the Zhou family mother and daughter-in-law’s terrible incident.

After the meal, having tidied up the kitchen, Shen Mingzhu put the food she had saved for Pei Yang in the pot, planning to go back to her room to study, when the house phone rang.

It was Pei Yang, asking her to come to the hospital as well.

Shen Baolan’s child had been miscarried and she was making a terrible fuss, crying and screaming; he wanted Shen Mingzhu to come and comfort her.

Shen Mingzhu thought to herself, What am I supposed to comfort her with, a hammer? It was already kind enough of me not to set off firecrackers in celebration.

Nevertheless, Shen Mingzhu went, albeit with a mindset of watching the commotion.

She could hear the ear-splitting quarreling of the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law from a distance away from the ward.

Upon reaching the ward, wow, it was even more lively than she imagined.

Medical staff and members of the Zhou family, along with several enthusiastic locals from the family courtyard, had crowded the small ward to the brim, and outside the ward’s door a throng of onlookers, patients and their family members, had gathered.

Standing outside the door, Shen Mingzhu listened for a while and understood the situation.

Shen Baolan had almost reached six months of pregnancy, and the fetus had already taken shape. Because of severe blood loss, an induced abortion had been performed reluctantly.

The aborted fetus was a male, said to even have developed facial features.

Ma Sufen was furious, dragging her injured arms and legs to Shen Baolan’s ward and cursed her for being a jinx, blaming her for the death of the unborn Zhou grandson.

Shen Baolan was equally angry at Ma Sufen.

She had been walking ahead just fine when Ma Sufen forcefully pulled her, causing her to tumble down the stairs, killing her son in her womb.

The two women blamed and shirked responsibility on each other, each trying to pin the miscarriage on the other, creating an uproar.

Shen Mingzhu squeezed her way to Pei Yang’s side and called him out of the ward, handing him the container of food she carried.

"Eat."

Pei Yang held the food container, looking somewhat surprised and touched, "You brought this for me?"

Shen Mingzhu said, somewhat perplexed, "Who else?"

"Thank you, wife."

Seeing the silly smile on her husband’s face as he beamed, Shen Mingzhu couldn’t help but lift the corners of her mouth as well.

"Brother Yang, sister-in-law."

Zhou Shuhuan appeared from the ward at some point and stood a few steps away, looking at the couple with a somewhat somber expression, yet his face showed no sign of sadness.

But Zhou Shuhuan himself was a man of few words and reserved by nature; he might just have buried his sorrow deep inside.

Thinking this, Shen Mingzhu offered a few words of comfort to him.

Zhou Shuhuan gratefully acknowledged her with a thank you.

Seeing that Zhou Shuhuan showed no signs of leaving, Pei Yang didn’t want to eat alone, so he divided half of the food in the container for Zhou Shuhuan.

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Zhou Shuhuan took it and couldn’t help but say to Pei Yang, "Aunt Min used to love making sweet and sour pork for you."

Pei Yang smiled. "You’re one to talk. Back then, we could only have pork once every few months, and every time you’d linger and not leave, which really annoyed me."

Zhou Shuhuan also smiled briefly, then lowered his head and started eating quietly.

Pei Yang ate as well, and while eating, he proudly asked Zhou Shuhuan, "How is it? Mingzhu’s cooking isn’t worse than my mom’s, right?"

Zhou Shuhuan glanced at Shen Mingzhu and nodded firmly.

Pei Yang really was lucky. Before he got married, his mom used to make him his favorite dishes. Now that his mom was gone, his wife made them for him.

Life was too unfair. Why couldn’t he have a bit of that luck?

When they were almost done eating, suddenly, a piercing cry and shouting erupted from the hospital room, along with the sound of a glass hitting the floor. It seemed as if a fight had broken out.

Pei Yang stopped eating and spoke with a tone of helplessness, "Why are they at it again?"

After sighing, he saw that Zhou Shuhuan was still sitting there calmly, as if the quarreling women in the room had nothing to do with him, Pei Yang couldn’t help but say, "Shuhuan, aren’t you going to go in and stop them?"

Zhou Shuhuan continued to eat and replied, "There’s no stopping them. It’s the same at home, they’ll calm down once they’re tired."

As he spoke, the sounds of smashing and cursing came again from the hospital room.

Pei Yang could no longer eat and patted Zhou Shuhuan on the shoulder, "Let’s go take a look. It can’t go on like this."

Zhou Shuhuan finally put down the food container lid, which was almost finished, and got up and went with Pei Yang toward the hospital room, but he was not in a hurry, as if he was not at all worried about what would happen to the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law.

Shen Mingzhu watched Zhou Shuhuan’s unusual behavior but wasn’t surprised.

Between the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, it had been small quarrels every two days and big fights every three. Zhou Shuhuan, caught in the middle, was probably numb to it all by now.

Plus, the pain of losing a child. Grief greater than heart death, it could only be like this.

—

With everyone’s concerted efforts, they finally managed to persuade Ma Sufen to go back to her room to rest.

Shen Mingzhu also admired Shen Baolan’s strength and energy. Having just gone through a miscarriage and fought with her mother-in-law for three hundred rounds, she still had the energy to make a scene.

"Zhou Shuhuan, it’s all because of that damn old mother of yours. She can’t even walk straight and dragged me down the stairs as well. She killed my son. The Zhou family owes me a son, ah—"

No matter how frenziedly Shen Baolan cursed and cried, Zhou Shuhuan was like a block of wood without any reaction.

It wasn’t until the nurse gave her an injection that Shen Baolan finally calmed down and fell into a stupor.

As the excitement died down, the onlookers all dispersed.

Shen Mingzhu also packed up the lunchbox and prepared to let Pei Yang know, then head home.

Zhou Shuhuan also came out of the hospital room and walked with her towards Ma Sufen’s room.

"...Auntie, what’s done is done. Don’t take it too hard. Take good care of yourself. That’s what’s important. Shuhuan and the others are still young; they can have more children in the future..."

"Easy for you to say! It’s not your son that was lost, of course, you’re not in a hurry!"

Ma Sufen sneered sharply at Pei Yang, "I’d forgotten, you’re no good, you’ll never understand the pain of losing your own flesh and blood in this lifetime..."

Shen Mingzhu was so angry that she grabbed the lunchbox in her hand and threw it.

The aluminum lunchbox hit the wall, the lid popped open, and food splashed all over Ma Sufen’s face and head.

Everyone was stunned by the scene.

When Ma Sufen came back to her senses, she screamed, "Pei Yang, control your wife; she’s gone mad!"

Shen Mingzhu strode up to the bedside, staring coldly at Ma Sufen, "I am going mad, but it’s because of you, and your daughter-in-law — I’ve been driven mad by you two shrews!"

"All day long, you’ve nothing better to do after eating than to gossip and meddle. Did I desecrate your ancestors’ graves or kill your whole family, making you insist on disturbing me every day with lies and rumors about my man, saying he’s no good? What the hell business is it of yours whether he’s good or not?"

"You old hag, out of respect for Pei Yang and the elders, I’ve put up with you for a long time. If you dare spread rumors about my family again, I’ll come after you myself!"

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