The Stepmother’s Counterattack: Raising a Child in a Bygone Era
Chapter 254 - 253: You Don’t Know How Painful It Is Until the Knife Is in Your Own Flesh

Chapter 254: Chapter 253: You Don’t Know How Painful It Is Until the Knife Is in Your Own Flesh

Shen Mingzhu was watching TV while popping the orange segment Pei Yang fed her into her mouth, and she responded without hesitation, "If you want to go back, go back, I’m not going."

Pei Yang saw her enjoying the fruit and couldn’t help but try a piece himself; it was so sour that it contorted his facial features.

"Hiss, it’s so sour, how can you eat it?"

Shen Mingzhu impatiently grabbed the peeled orange from him and ate it segment by segment with relish.

"If you think it’s too sour, don’t eat it."

Watching her eat, Pei Yang’s face showed nothing but indulgence, "I’ll do as you say. You say we won’t go back, so we won’t."

Shen Mingzhu glanced at him, and her mood improved a lot.

They chatted for a while, then the phone on the corner table rang.

Pei Yang answered it and, after exchanging some pleasantries, hung up. He then turned to Shen Mingzhu and said, "It was auntie from your mom’s side. She wants to buy some candy boxes and cookie boxes to give as gifts."

Shen Mingzhu was very pleased to hear this.

With this call, she had received five or six inquiries in the past two to three days, all about the candy boxes and cookie boxes.

When she came up with this idea, she indeed wanted to test the market response.

The results were better than she had expected.

...

The weather was nice, and after lunch, many people moved chairs out to the residential compound to sit in the sun and lazily pass the time.

As they chatted, the conversation somehow turned to Shen Mingzhu.

"Hey, it’s been a while since I’ve seen the Pei’s out and about, right? Cooped up at home every day; isn’t she afraid of stewing in her own juice?"

When it came to gossiping about Shen Mingzhu, Shen Baolan was as exhilarated as if she’d been injected with chicken blood—

"With the big mess she caused, making both her man and her older brother clean up after her, she’s got no face to go outside now."

"Well, you can’t say that. The food factory incident was caused by those heartless people; you can’t blame her for that."

"Exactly. Even though the big order with Hengxing fell through, she’s not sold any less candy. I heard she sold about two thousand catties of it, right?"

"Hiss, at two yuan fifty a catty, that’s got to be four or five thousand yuan? "

Shen Baolan curled her lip, "Listening to her bragging, you’d think her candy was some sort of panacea. Does she really believe everyone is scrambling to buy it?"

"Don’t believe it if you don’t want to, but you, you just can’t stand to see Shen Mingzhu doing well."

This remark hit a sore spot for Shen Baolan.

She jumped up like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, "Who can’t stand to see her doing well? If she really made that much money, do you think she would hide at home like a tortoise with its head pulled in, rather than parading around with drums and gongs?"

That did make sense.

It had been almost half a month since the factory incident, and Shen Mingzhu hadn’t shown her face, which was indeed strange.

Seeing that everyone seemed convinced by her argument, Shen Baolan felt smug and was about to seize the opportunity to badmouth Shen Mingzhu some more when another voice chimed in—

"Mrs. Zhou, not everyone is as carefree as you, gallivanting about with a belly. Some are being cautious and careful."

This confused not only Shen Baolan but also the rest of the onlookers who were clueless.

The person didn’t keep them guessing, "Pei’s wife is pregnant, that’s why she’s not going out. She’s resting to take care of the baby."

"What?!"

Shen Baolan’s hands shook, spilling melon seeds all over the ground.

"Shen Mingzhu pregnant? Impossible!"

Seeing her adamantly convinced, the person teased her, "Both of you are women. If you can get pregnant, why can’t she?"

Shen Baolan patted her belly, "I’m pregnant because my man is reliable. Her man isn’t, so how could she be? Unless she found some man on the side, maybe it’s a bastard!"

These words were not just ugly but venomous.

Even though everyone loved to gossip about trivial things, calling someone’s child a bastard out of the blue was beyond the pale!

Immediately, everyone started to scold Shen Baolan one after another.

"You might overeat, but you shouldn’t talk nonsense."

"On what basis are you saying her child is a bastard? Do you have evidence? You’re pregnant yourself—better to accumulate some good karma."

"That couple lives together day and night, knowing each other inside and out. But you, there was a time when you went back to your parents’ house and stayed for a month or two. What exactly did you do there in the countryside, who knows?"

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone looked at her and her belly with a weird expression.

Shen Baolan became so flustered that her face turned red and her neck bulged, "You’re talking nonsense! I got pregnant only after I returned!"

"I never said you were carrying a bastard, so what are you getting all frantic about?"

Of course, Shen Baolan was anxious. Society was already harsh on women, and once tarred with the stain of carrying a bastard child, her life would be ruined.

It proved the saying that unless the knife was stabbing into one’s own flesh, one wouldn’t know the pain.

Having shot herself in the foot, Shen Baolan had no face to stay any longer and left with her tail between her legs.

"She’s just jealous that Shen Mingzhu has a husband who dotes on her, and even the stepson is filial."

"She’s forgotten all about how she used to drool over Pei Yang, what a shameless woman."

After Shen Baolan returned home, she went straight into her room, closed the door, and sulked alone.

She was upset that Shen Mingzhu had once again managed to earn money, and quite a bit of it too—four or five thousand. She’d lived for over twenty years and had never seen so much money.

Last month, Zhou Shuhuan got a promotion and a raise; he could make seventy yuan a month now, but compared to four or five thousand, that was nothing.

Not only had Shen Mingzhu earned money, but she had also gotten pregnant.

Pei Yang was clearly nothing but a pretty face, good for looks but useless otherwise. How did Shen Mingzhu manage to get pregnant?

No, she had to get to the bottom of this. If Shen Mingzhu was really carrying a bastard, she’d like to see what those people would have to say then!

...

"Manager Huang, come on, let’s have a drink, let’s let bygones be bygones."

In the private room, Shi Guangsheng was persuading Huang Yuan with a glass of alcohol in hand.

Huang Yuan, annoyed, pushed Shi Guangsheng’s hand away spilling the alcohol all over Shi Guangsheng, who didn’t get angry and just flicked it off casually.

"Manager Huang, I understand how you feel. I’m in the same boat as you; if you catch bad luck, I suffer heavy losses too."

Shi Guangsheng had some brains as well.

The poppy pod had inexplicably turned into cardamom, Hu Guifen had been caught, and after mulling it over at home, he guessed that his scheme had probably been anticipated by Pei Yang, who had decided to feed the plan back to him, aiming to catch him by his weakness.

Thus, he had a score to settle with the food factory.

He knew full well that to kill weeds, one must pull out the roots, so right after the new year, he found Huang Yuan, hoping to conspire with him.

Although Huang Yuan had been dismissed by Hengxing, he had sat in the procurement department for so many years and still had some connections.

The two of them together were confident they could take down that small, broken factory.

However, Huang Yuan didn’t see things the same way as Shi Guangsheng.

He still wanted to get by in Fengcheng. The food factory was closely related to Ning, and only someone out of their mind would go looking for trouble with the food factory.

But that didn’t mean he didn’t hold a grudge against Pei Yang.

Therefore, while he verbally declined Shi Guangsheng’s proposal, deep down he was hoping Shi Guangsheng would take action, giving him a chance to vent his anger.

Watching Huang Yuan’s retreating figure as he rode away on his bike, Shi Guangsheng, with a face showing no surprise, spat out a glob of phlegm and turned towards the parking lot to get his car.

Halfway there, someone suddenly appeared out of nowhere and bumped into him hard, causing the leather bag under his arm to fall to the ground.

"Are you blind, walking without looking?"

"I’m sorry."

Recognizing the man picking up his bag as Shi Yizheng, a look of surprise crossed Shi Guangsheng’s face.

"Brother, it’s you? What brings you here...?"

Shi Yizheng looked quite uneasy, "I came to deliver coal."

Watching him from head to toe, Shi Guangsheng chuckled, "Have you eaten?"

"Not yet, I just finished delivering coal."

Wiping his face, Shi Yizheng appeared rather embarrassed.

"Come on, I’ll treat you to a meal."

"Alright."

The place was chosen by Shi Yizheng, a ramshackle noodle shop with a strange odor wafting through.

Shi Guangsheng looked around with disdain. After ordering a bowl of braised pork noodles for Shi Yizheng, he went outside to smoke and get some fresh air.

Outside the noodle shop, Shi Guangsheng opened his leather bag to get a cigarette, when he suddenly noticed a package inside.