The Stepmother’s Counterattack: Raising a Child in a Bygone Era
Chapter 132: False Pregnancy Exposed

Chapter 132: Chapter 132: False Pregnancy Exposed

"Such good egg cakes, and not a pound sold, what are we going to do?"

Qin Jinlian looked at the basket full of egg cakes, anxious as could be.

Shen Jianguo puffed on his cigarette, his brow equally furrowed.

Shen Xiangnan sighed, "I’ll take them and give them to my uncles to eat."

"No way!" Qin Jinlian looked as if she was in pain, "We used five pounds of eggs alone, plus so much sugar, oil, and flour, just this basket of egg cakes must cost over ten yuan, we can’t let it go to waste like this."

"It’s so hot, they’ll go bad if left out. Giving them to the uncles counts as doing a good deed."

As Shen Xiangnan got up, preparing to take the egg cakes out to give away, Qin Jinlian clung desperately to the basket, unwilling to let go. In the end, it was Shen Jianguo who had to pull her aside before Shen Xiangnan could make his way out.

No sooner had Shen Xiangnan stepped out the door than Qin Jinlian’s tears started to fall, crying and wondering what on earth was going on.

After crying for a while, an idea suddenly struck Qin Jinlian, "His father, could it be that Chaobei and his wife deliberately let out the secret recipe?"

"Bang!"

Shen Jianguo slammed his pipe onto the dining table, "Stop spouting nonsense! If anyone, it wouldn’t be Chaobei, he’s not that kind of person!"

Qin Jinlian was chastised back to reality.

Yes, she knew her own child best. Her eldest was incapable of harming others, let alone his own siblings.

If not the eldest, then who could it be?

"Has Xiangnan’s wife not returned yet?"

Looking at her husband’s grim expression, Qin Jinlian also suddenly realized what was going on.

"It must have come from the Yang Family!"

Qin Jinlian was so angry it hurt, ready to march over to Yang Lizhen’s parents’ house to demand an explanation.

She had barely stepped out of the house when she bumped right into Shen Xiangnan, who had just returned from delivering the egg cakes.

Qin Jinlian immediately shared her suspicions with Shen Xiangnan and asked him to go with her to the Yang Family to demand an explanation.

Shen Xiangnan pulled Qin Jinlian back into the house to talk.

"Mom guessed right, the recipe did indeed come from Lizhen’s side. Two of the egg cake vendors are from Lizhen’s village."

"It’s the Yang Family!" Qin Jinlian was so furious she was almost smoking, "We can’t just let this go!"

Though Shen Jianguo was also fuming, he managed to keep his composure better than Qin Jinlian. He asked Shen Xiangnan to bring Yang Lizhen back first to get the story straight before making any plans.

Shen Xiangnan left and returned in less than ten minutes, with Yang Lizhen, unseen for days, behind him.

The two had met at the entrance of the village.

Faced with her in-laws’ rage, Yang Lizhen openly admitted, "...Dad, Mom, this is all my cousin’s fault. She passed the skill on to her sister, who then turned around and taught others. From one person to two, and then to four, the recipe just spread out like that. I’m here to apologize on behalf of my cousin."

Yang Lizhen spoke breezily, while Qin Jinlian hit the table in her anger.

"Lizhen, our family spent a total of two hundred and fifty yuan to buy this recipe, emptying our savings. Do you think you can settle this with just an apology? No chance! They must give us an explanation!"

Yang Lizhen, with her eyelids down, picked at her nails, "Mom, wasn’t it our Yang Family that emptied the coffers? The gold chain was bought and I wore it for only two months before it ended up with Mingzhu. She’s Shen Family’s daughter, after all, the money’s still with the Shen Family, isn’t it?"

Qin Jinlian was left speechless, choking back her words.

Yang Lizhen continued, "Anyway, this business is done for, so Mom, why don’t you go and get the gold chain back from Mingzhu? We might be able to recover some of the loss that way."

Qin Jinlian was just about to be swayed when Shen Xiangnan suddenly stood up.

"Mom, think it through. If you really go and get the gold chain back from Mingzhu, she might not acknowledge you as her mother anymore."

"She wouldn’t dare, she’s my daughter. If she refuses to acknowledge me, I’ll take her to court!"

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Qin Jinlian said so, but she stopped mentioning going to find Shen Mingzhu.

Seeing this, Yang Lizhen sneered, "Fine, turns out I’m the outsider. The Shen Family really knows how to scheme! I can’t live like this anymore. Tomorrow, I’ll go and abort the child!"

Qin Jinlian, anxious, jumped off the kang barefooted and grabbed Yang Lizhen.

"Lizhen, don’t worry, I will definitely find a way to get that gold chain back for you."

"When?"

Yang Lizhen touched her belly, her tone quite aggressive.

Qin Jinlian hesitated, "Half a month?"

Yang Lizhen laughed coldly, "Mom, since you’re going to get it back anyway, why drag it out so long? Why don’t you make a trip to the city tomorrow? The weather’s not too hot right now, the earlier you go, the better."

Qin Jinlian had no choice but to agree.

——

After Du Juan and Shen Chaobei entered the city, with the help of Shen Mingzhu, they quickly settled down in a suburban village near the industrial area.

The couple, used to frugality, only rented a single room and used a cloth curtain to divide it into a living room and a bedroom.

Although this was on the outskirts of the city, there were many workshops and factories, big and small, amounting to hundreds. The couple planned to sell pancakes, fruit rolls, ice lollies, and soft drinks in the area, and when winter came, they would switch to selling roasted sweet potatoes and chestnuts.

Out of the five hundred yuan earned from selling cake-making skills, Shen Mingzhu gave two hundred and fifty in cash to the couple.

Initially, the couple refused to accept it, until Shen Mingzhu said it was their due share from the family division, and only then did they reluctantly take it.

The dowry money that Pei Yang had given was five hundred and fifty yuan, and when it came time to divide the family assets, this sum was supposed to be split evenly between the two brothers.

However, Qin Jinlian, favoring one over the other, spent the entire amount on Shen Xiangnan.

After making arrangements for Shen Chaobei and Du Juan, Shen Mingzhu made a phone call to her hometown town.

The next day.

Qin Jinlian hadn’t gone far from home when she ran into Liu Cuihua and a few other women from the same village chatting idly.

On any other day, she would surely have joined in the chatter, but she was preoccupied today, too disinterested to even greet them as she tried to walk by.

But Liu Cuihua called out to her from a distance, "Jinlian, come over and chat for a while."

"I don’t have time!"

Qin Jinlian retorted irritably and continued walking, but Liu Cuihua followed after her, giggling with a mischievous look on her face.

"Jinlian, your second son’s wife must be three months pregnant by now, right? So why don’t I see her belly bulging?"

This question stumped Qin Jinlian.

By her calculations, Yang Lizhen should indeed be three months along and should be showing by now. Yet Yang Lizhen’s stomach was still flat and her waist hadn’t thickened.

Inside, Qin Jinlian was uneasy, but she feigned confidence, "Some people show later, what’s so strange about that?"

Liu Cuihua giggled, "Showing late is one thing, but it would be terrible if she got muddled and is carrying a ’blanks’ pregnancy."

"What are you implying?!"

"What I’m implying, why don’t you go back and ask your son’s wife, then you’ll know," Liu Cuihua said, laughing heartily.

At this point, the other village women also gathered around, their conversation all suggesting one thing:

Yang Lizhen is not pregnant!

Yang Lizhen was chatting under the eaves of a neighbor’s house with a few young women of her age, seeing Qin Jinlian returning, she didn’t think much of it, assuming Qin Jinlian had forgotten something.

But Qin Jinlian made straight for her and dragged her back to the Shen Family home.

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