The Stepmother’s Counterattack: Raising a Child in a Bygone Era
Chapter 583 - 582: Starve It to Death

Chapter 583: Chapter 582: Starve It to Death

"Aren’t you done yet? The water is boiling."

"Almost there."

Without raising her head, Shen Mingzhu answered, still focusing on cleaning her son’s ear piercings.

Watching his son cozily curled up on Shen Mingzhu’s lap, Pei Yang couldn’t help feeling a bit resentful.

When she cleaned his ears, she did it perfunctorily, but with their son, she was so careful and attentive.

"Guoguo is hungry and waiting for you to cook noodles, why don’t you continue tomorrow?"

"I’ll be done soon."

Shen Mingzhu glanced at him, "You could cook just as well."

"It’s not the same, yours taste better. I’ll clean Ziheng’s ears, and you go cook the noodles."

Pei Ziheng opened his eyes and looked at him, conveying his refusal with both his gaze and expression.

I don’t want you cleaning them.

Brat, now you’re being picky too.

Shen Mingzhu was oblivious to the subtle tussle between father and son and continued to clean her son’s ears, also using a cotton swab and alcohol to clean the ear pits and outer ear.

"Done."

When she got out of bed to put on her shoes and remembered that her son’s slippers were taken by her daughter, Shen Mingzhu asked Pei Yang to fetch her daughter’s slippers from upstairs.

Pei Yang went upstairs to get the slippers, grumbling.

Not wanting to eat anything too greasy late at night, Shen Mingzhu cooked clear soup noodles.

Atop the noodles was a golden fried egg, several slices of lunch meat, and finely shredded cabbage, seasoned simply with just a touch of sesame oil, salt, and chopped green onions.

After the late-night snack, Pei Yang took care of the dishes, while Shen Mingzhu got out the tape measure to check the children’s height, as a way to aid digestion.

After measuring, they walked around the living room a few times before Shen Mingzhu took the kids upstairs to go to bed.

When Shen Mingzhu finished washing up and returned to the room, Pei Yang put down the book he was reading and said, "It’s late, hurry up and go to sleep."

Then he received a glare from Shen Mingzhu.

"Who upset you? Was it Ziheng? I’ll discipline him tomorrow."

Pei Ziheng: No, are you sick or something?

Shen Mingzhu gave him a glance and, feeling somewhat gloomy, sat in front of the dressing table and began applying pearl cream to her face, speaking as she did so, "I was measuring Guoguo’s height just now. She hasn’t grown at all in the past six months."

With that, she glared at him again through the mirror, "It’s all a waste of your tall height if you don’t pass any of it to Guoguo."

Discovering that she was worried about this, Pei Yang tried to reassure her, "Guoguo is still young. Some kids just develop later. Shuhuan was only 1.4 meters when he was fifteen years old, and everyone teased him for being a dwarf. Then he started growing, shooting up thirty centimeters in three years."

Shen Mingzhu was not comforted.

Girls aren’t the same as boys; boys can still grow at seventeen or eighteen, but once a girl gets her period, height growth typically slows down significantly, or even stops. If you want to grow taller, you have to act fast.

"I’ll take Guoguo to the hospital for a checkup tomorrow."

"I’ll come with you."

"No need. If you get a chance, go rent a safety deposit box."

Pei Yang nodded, seeing that she couldn’t sleep, and began to talk to her about Pei Wenping going to Shanghai City.

"Sis and Chen Yi have over a decade of feelings and two children. I think it would be best if they could reconcile. What do you think?"

Shen Mingzhu gave him a sideways glance, "Is this what all you men think? Assuming that having children as a bond means you can test and even trample on the bottom line of marriage while the woman must endure in silence to forgive the betrayal of you men?"

"I don’t think that way!"

"You better not."

Shen Mingzhu pulled back the covers to lie down, pushing away Pei Yang’s hand that sought to embrace her.

"If it were me, I could never forgive something like that!"

Pei Yang protested with grievance, "I haven’t done anything to let you down."

Shen Mingzhu calmed her heart and thought it over, realizing that her outburst was somewhat unreasonable. She then softened her tone and said, "Although I hope my sister can come to help me, I will respect her decision. Besides, her going to Shanghai City doesn’t necessarily mean she can’t work for me anymore."

Pei Yang tilted his head to look at her, "You want to open a branch company in Shanghai City?"

"Is that not okay?"

"It is."

Pei Yang turned to embrace her. Seeing that she did not resist, a big smile bloomed on his face like a sunflower.

His tone was filled with affection and fawning, "My wife is the most capable, a modern-day strong woman."

"Stop buttering me up, turn off the lights and let’s sleep."

Pei Yang immediately got up to turn off the light, then dove into bed with lightning speed, hugging her like a doll in his arms.

"Wifey, I’m hungry."

"Didn’t we just have a late-night snack?"

"It’s ’it’ that’s hungry..."

"Let it starve."

"..."

Such a ruthless heart.

...

The next day, after breakfast, Shen Mingzhu called Shen Hongmei to postpone the morning meeting until the afternoon, and then took her daughter to the hospital.

After reviewing the examination reports and asking about Guoguo’s daily diet and sleep routine, the doctor made a diagnosis —

"There are mainly three reasons: first, the child’s development is somewhat slower than other children, which is normal, and parents should not be too anxious."

"Furthermore, there is genetics..."

Shen Mingzhu interjected hurriedly, "Her father is quite tall, at one meter eighty-eight."

The doctor smiled mysteriously, "But you’re not tall."

Shen Mingzhu choked up.

The doctor then lectured her on the mysteries of genetics, suggesting between the lines that it was very possible for Guoguo to have inherited her genes concerning height.

A girl being one meter sixty is also pretty good, not too short.

Shen Mingzhu looked down at her daughter, who appeared confused, consoling herself.

Sensing her low spirits, the doctor tried to reassure her, "You should not be too anxious. I’m just saying there is a possibility. Generally speaking, if the father is tall, the child won’t end up too short when growing up."

"Moreover, according to the report, your daughter’s calcium and trace elements are on the low side, which might be related to her picky eating habits. Take some calcium supplements and nutritional liquids back with you, have your daughter take them for a while, pay attention to a balanced diet, don’t indulge her tastes too much, and see how it improves after some time."

Shen Mingzhu hurriedly thanked the doctor.

"Yan Yi, is there something interesting happening downstairs? You’ve been standing by the window for quite some time. Come have some tea, it’s this year’s Jinjunmei."

Yan Yi shifted his gaze away from Shen Mingzhu and her daughter downstairs, returned to the sofa with a smile, picked up the golden-colored tea, first inhaling its fragrance, then sipping it thoughtfully.

"Fine tea."

The elder laughed, "I knew you’d like it. I had someone send over an extra two boxes just for you. Take them with you when you leave."

"I would be rude to refuse."

After leaving the director’s office, Yan Yi headed straight to the head of the pediatric department’s office.

The head of the pediatric department, Mo Xueheng, was his classmate from Oxford Medical College.

"Ah, Young Master Yan, what brings you here on this fine day?"

Yan Yi cut to the chase, picked up a pen, and wrote Guoguo’s name on the blank medical record book in front of Mo Xueheng.

"I’d like to take a look at her case. The diagnosis was made this morning, between 9:45 and 10 o’clock."

"Now, Young Master Yan, you’re putting me in a difficult position. You know hospital regulations..."

Yan Yi interrupted him, "I don’t take on students, but I can recommend your sister to Professor Zou Yunhong. Whether Professor Zou accepts her or not will depend on her performance."

"Deal!"

Mo Xueheng quickly brought over Pei Tang’s medical record.

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