The Stepmother’s Counterattack: Raising a Child in a Bygone Era
Chapter 349 - 348: Dispute

Chapter 349: Chapter 348: Dispute

Shen Mingzhu tenderly touched her son’s reddened cheeks. "It’s all red. Guoguo may be little, but he sure has some strength."

As she spoke, Shen Mingzhu gently pinched her daughter’s soft, tender cheeks. "You ungrateful little thing, your brother is so good to you, giving up playing on his birthday, just to stay here with you, and yet you hit him."

"Mom, it really doesn’t hurt."

Pei Ziheng pulled Shen Mingzhu’s hand away and rubbed the slightly reddened cheeks of Little Guoguo.

Little Guoguo didn’t understand anything and thought her mother and brother were just playing with her, grinning with drool flowing from her mouth.

"Mom, go make lunch. I’ll stay here with Guoguo."

There, you’re the real siblings, and I’m the stepmother.

Shen Mingzhu got up, ready to return under the sun shade, when Zhao Yun and the twins happily ran back from afar.

"Aunt Mingzhu, we found so many mushrooms, we can have an extra dish for lunch!"

"Auntie, I also found mushrooms. Look!"

Shen Mingzhu examined the mushrooms in the children’s hands. Other than the chicken fir mushroom, she hadn’t seen the rest of them.

"We can eat this kind, but throw the others away."

"Why? Can’t these be eaten?"

"I don’t know, just to be safe, when playing in the wild, don’t put anything you don’t recognize into your mouth."

"Oh."

Shen Mingzhu took the children to the lakeside, cleaned the mud off the chicken fir mushrooms, and made sure the children washed their hands thoroughly, not even sparing the spaces under their fingernails.

After all, she wasn’t sure if the discarded mushrooms were poisonous, to prevent accidental ingestion when eating snacks or fruits later.

While washing, Shen Mingzhu taught the children to sing "Red Umbrella, White Handle".

Everyone learned happily.

By the time they returned to the shade giggling and laughing, they discovered that Zhou Hui and her daughter had also come back.

Zhou Hui had gathered quite a few wild vegetables and was busily cleaning them with Pei Wenping.

Zhao Yun and the twins were sitting on the moisture-proof mat, playing with Pei Ziheng and Little Guoguo.

After looking around, Shen Mingzhu’s face changed slightly. "Where’s Daya?"

Everyone went quiet and started looking around.

Zhou Hui pointed toward a small hill to the east. "She seems to be picking wild berries over there."

Shen Mingzhu immediately went to look in the direction Zhou Hui had pointed, calling out as she searched.

"I’m here, auntie."

At the sound of the response, Shen Mingzhu let out a sigh of relief.

When she found her, Daya was standing in front of a large bush, picking a kind of small red berries.

"Daya, what are you doing here?"

"Auntie, these are wild pears. I’m picking them to take back for Guoguo to eat."

Daya presented the handful of shiny red berry-like gems to Shen Mingzhu with her bright, sparkling eyes. "Auntie, these are really tasty."

Shen Mingzhu popped one into her mouth and found it sweet with a touch of sour, bursting with juice, and quite delicious.

Unable to resist, she had two more before joining Daya in the picking.

After returning, Shen Mingzhu washed the wild pears with clean water, put them in a bowl, and had the children sit on the foam mat to eat them.

She then discussed the earlier situation with Zhou Hui. "Zhou Qing, we had an arrangement beforehand for you to supervise the children. Why didn’t you bring Daya back with you when you and Xiaowen returned?"

Upon being questioned, Zhou Hui got a bit upset and flung the wild vegetables to the ground. "Isn’t Daya just fine? Is it necessary for you to harp on this endlessly?"

The sounds of argument drew the attention of the children on the foam mat toward us.

Shen Mingzhu suppressed her anger, "Sister Zhou, I want to ask you, if it were Xiaowen today, would you still feel at ease leaving her alone on the mountain?"

Zhou Hui kept a cold face and did not respond.

Pei Wenping intervened, trying to smooth things over, "Alright, alright, let’s each say less, we are all mothers, and we all hope that our children are safe and sound."

Perhaps understanding the adults’ argument, Zhao Yun came trotting over.

"Auntie Mingzhu, I’m sorry, I was so busy picking mushrooms that I didn’t take good care of Daya. I’ll definitely watch over her when we’re out playing in the future, please don’t be angry."

Pei Wenping smiled, "See, Sister Zhou? You really know how to teach children. Xiaoyun is so sensible. Let’s not argue anymore as adults, we wouldn’t want the children to laugh at us."

And with that, the argument came to an end.

After lunch, Shen Mingzhu went to the lake to fetch some water and had the children learn to wash the dishes and clean the pots.

Zhao Yun, the twins, and Daya were all excited to follow instructions, but Liang Xiaowen alone was unwilling, finding dishwashing too dirty.

Shen Mingzhu didn’t press the issue.

After the pots and dishes were cleaned, Shen Mingzhu took out a borrowed camera to take photos of the children as keepsakes.

They played until evening before happily singing songs on the drive home.

Aside from the altercation with Zhou Hui, the day’s outing was quite successful.

Perhaps tired from playing, Little Guoguo started to sleep on the way home and didn’t wake up even when they arrived.

After settling her daughter, Shen Mingzhu put on an apron, preparing to make dinner.

Since they weren’t home today, she had also given the helper, Madam Yu, a day off, so she had to cook dinner herself.

Tired from a whole day’s activities, Shen Mingzhu truly wasn’t in the mood to cook, but since it was her son’s birthday, she felt obliged to prepare a decent meal.

Pondering over the menu while looking at the ingredients in the fridge, she heard her son’s voice from behind.

"Mom."

Shen Mingzhu turned around and smilingly waved at him, "Son, come here, see what you’d like to have for dinner tonight."

Pei Ziheng approached, looking up at her with his fair and delicate little face, "Mom, let’s go out to eat tonight."

"You want to eat out?"

Pei Ziheng held her hand and shook it, "Mom, you’ve been tired all day, I don’t want you to overwork yourself, I’ll treat you to dinner with my New Year’s money."

Which mother wouldn’t love a son who was so understanding and considerate?

Shen Mingzhu cheerfully took off her apron, lifted her daughter, who was sleeping like a little pig, from the crib, didn’t bother putting on a jacket, and instead wrapped her in a blanket. Then she grabbed the milk bottle and formula, and drove to Baina Restaurant in the panel van they hadn’t yet returned.

The main reason for choosing Baina Restaurant for dinner was to let Daya experience Western food for the first time, hoping to broaden her horizons.

A girl raised in wealth wouldn’t be easily lured away by small favors from boys when she grew up.

...

Rarely, Dafa Zhao had no social engagements tonight.

At the dinner table, Zhou Hui deliberately brought up the incident from the day’s picnic, where Shen Mingzhu had lost her temper with her.

Zhou Hui had ulterior motives for mentioning the incident.

Earlier in the day, Shen Mingzhu had brought up in her presence that she was short of the money needed to buy a house, leading Zhou Hui to think that Shen Mingzhu wanted to borrow money from Dafa Zhao.

She didn’t want Dafa Zhao to lend money to Shen Mingzhu.

The reason was simple: she herself hadn’t managed to buy a house yet, so why should she have to lend money to Shen Mingzhu for a house?

After applying eye medicine, Zhou Hui gave her daughter a meaningful look.

Although Liang Xiaowen was young, she was very clever.

"Dad, you don’t know, today Auntie Mingzhu made mom lose face in front of everyone," Xiaowen said.

Before Dafa Zhao could respond, Zhao Yun scoffed from across the table, "That was all because Auntie Hui brought it upon herself."

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