The Stepmother’s Counterattack: Raising a Child in a Bygone Era
Chapter 336 - 335: In This Family, Shen Mingzhu Has the Final Say

Chapter 336: Chapter 335: In This Family, Shen Mingzhu Has the Final Say

Du Juan packed up her family’s belongings and then, taking Daya with her, went downstairs, intending to give Jia Yuemei a hand.

The tube-shaped building was U-shaped, with ten rooms on each of the east and west sides and eight in the middle.

Jia Yuemei lived in the seventh room from the east in the middle section. Du Juan, leading Daya by the hand, walked over and could hear Jia Yuemei humming a tune before they even reached her door, clearly in high spirits.

"Yuemei."

Jia Yuemei turned around and upon seeing Du Juan and her daughter entering through the cotton quilt curtain, hurried to welcome them with a smile and gestured for them to sit down.

"No need to sit. I came down to see how your packing is going. Do you need a hand?"

Jia Yuemei, without any pretense, pointed at the bed in the inner room and said, "That would be great, big sister. Help me fold up the bedding. My back has been aching these past few days."

Du Juan was somewhat puzzled. "If you take down the bed, where will Xiangnan sleep?"

He would certainly move into the apartment building.

However, Jia Yuemei didn’t want to share this with Du Juan—there was only one set of rooms. What if she spoke up now and Du Juan and her husband fought her for it?

"The lease is almost up here, and we don’t plan to renew it. It’s too expensive."

Hearing this, Du Juan didn’t ask further and, with Daya, began to work on the bedding in the inner room.

Jia Yuemei, holding her back, leaned against the door frame watching mother and daughter pack.

After the new year, Daya would be five and was already able to help Du Juan with quite a few things.

"Big sister, how much longer does big brother need to learn driving? What’s he going to do after that? Did little sister tell you anything?"

"She didn’t."

Du Juan didn’t turn around, busily continuing her tasks while responding to Jia Yuemei.

"Why don’t you ask? Surely there must be some plan for what to do after learning to drive."

"We’ll talk about it once Chaobei is done learning. Learning more skills is never a bad thing after all."

Jia Yuemei went on to ask about Du Juan attending the night school training classes with Shen Mingzhu, "What use is the stuff you’re learning from the books? Will it help you make money in the future?"

After a moment’s thought, Du Juan answered, "It’s not all that useful, just expands one’s knowledge and teaches a few more principles."

Jia Yuemei didn’t believe her, thinking Du Juan didn’t want to tell her the truth.

She only appeared kind and magnanimous on the surface, but who knows how many schemes she was concocting in her heart.

...

When they had almost finished packing, Qin Jinlian arrived.

"Is everything packed? Good, we’ll take it all back to the countryside tomorrow."

Du Juan saw nothing amiss with Qin Jinlian’s words and nodded in agreement.

However, Jia Yuemei’s complexion changed. She wasn’t packing to move back to the countryside but to move into an apartment building.

But she didn’t want to mention this in front of Du Juan, so she made the excuse of being hungry to send Du Juan back upstairs.

"Mom, what did little sister say?"

Unwilling to spend money on a bus ride, Qin Jinlian had walked all the way back, her throat dry as a bone.

She poured herself a glass of water and gulped it down before speaking, "Yuemei, we won’t be living in the city next year."

"Why not?"

Qin Jinlian pulled her to sit down, her eyes twinkling as she spoke, "Mingzhu has found you a good job..."

When she heard "good job," Jia Yuemei was quite pleased, thinking it would be something light like what Du Juan was doing in the food factory.

But they wanted her to raise chickens and rabbits in the countryside next year?

That wouldn’t do at all. The reason she agreed to marry Shen Xiangnan, an older man on his second marriage, was to move to the city and live a good life with him.

"Mom, I’m not going back to the countryside. I’ll be wherever Xiangnan is."

"I can’t be at ease letting Xiangnan stay in the city alone. I won’t have peace of mind, and neither will your son."

Jia Yuemei spoke as she caressed her now visibly pregnant belly.

This technique had never failed her in the past.

She expressed a desire to move into the residential complex, claiming that the environment was better there, with feng shui that nourished the people and could produce a grandson as smart as Pei Ziheng.

Qin Jinlian actually went to find Shen Mingzhu.

However, she was unaware that Qin Jinlian had already been brainwashed by Shen Mingzhu.

"Yuemei, Mingzhu said that our Shen Family doesn’t support idlers, nor do we have the conditions for it. What you’re carrying isn’t just the Shen Family’s grandson but also you and Xiangnan’s child. How your future unfolds still depends on you and Xiangnan," she said.

"Think about it carefully, I’m going upstairs to help your sister-in-law cook."

After saying that, Qin Jinlian lifted the curtain and went out.

Jia Yuemei seemed unable to accept Qin Jinlian’s change of attitude, staring blankly at the swaying curtain for a long while, unable to snap back to reality.

Seeing that the food was about to be ready and Jia Yuemei hadn’t come up, Du Juan ordered Daya, "Go call your second aunt up to eat."

"Oh!"

Daya ran downstairs, her braid bouncing up and down on her head.

Soon after, Daya came back and said to Du Juan with her little red face upturned, "Mom, Second Aunt said she’s not eating."

Before Du Juan could ask, Qin Jinlian came out of the room.

"If she doesn’t want to eat, let it be. We’ll eat first; she’ll come up if she gets hungry later."

Du Juan glanced at Qin Jinlian strangely several times, wondering to herself if the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law had argued.

"Then I’ll bring some food down to Yuemei."

Unexpectedly, Qin Jinlian flatly rejected her offer. "Why send it down? She’s got legs; just leave some in the pot for her."

This truly surprised Du Juan.

She was also curious about what Jia Yuemei had done to anger Qin Jinlian to the point of neglecting her grandson.

...

Jia Yuemei had intended to resist Qin Jinlian by refusing to eat, hoping to force her to compromise, especially since Qin Jinlian treasured the grandson in her belly the most.

But to her surprise, Qin Jinlian really ignored her, letting her, a pregnant woman, starve downstairs.

Jia Yuemei was so angry she was in tears. Fortunately, there were snacks like peanut candy in the room to tide her over.

When Shen Xiangnan came home from work in the evening, Jia Yuemei began sobbing, "When we got married, what did your mother say? She said she’d arrange a job for me in the city, and we agreed to receive two hundred less in bride price. I agreed."

"It hasn’t been that long, and now, with me being pregnant, your family ganged up to bully me, a pregnant woman. Shen Xiangnan, are you going to take care of this or not?"

Shen Xiangnan was completely dumbfounded.

If it was said that Shen Mingzhu bullied Jia Yuemei, he would believe it, as his little sister indeed had a somewhat domineering temperament.

But his mother had been looking forward to a grandson so much that she was nearly worshipping her daughter-in-law. How could she possibly bully her?

"Yuemei, stop crying and tell me what actually happened," he said.

"Your sister instigated your mother, telling me to go back to the countryside to raise chickens and rabbits. Your sister-in-law is in the city; why should I be the one to go back to the countryside? Isn’t this blatant bullying?" she said.

Although Shen Xiangnan was not very capable and revered his highly competent sister Shen Mingzhu, he still worshipped her.

Moreover, Shen Mingzhu had promised to help him open a restaurant.

His sister must have a good reason for wanting his wife to go back to the countryside to raise chickens and rabbits.

"Yuemei, listen to my sister. If she gets upset with you and doesn’t want to open the restaurant for me, what will we do?" he said.

Jia Yuemei stared blankly at her husband, who usually acquiesced to her every request, and suddenly came to a realization.

In this family, neither her husband nor her mother-in-law really had a say.

The only one who did was her sister-in-law Shen Mingzhu.