The Stepmother’s Counterattack: Raising a Child in a Bygone Era
Chapter 695 - 694: Seek Benevolence and Obtain Benevolence

Chapter 695: Chapter 694: Seek Benevolence and Obtain Benevolence

"A day pillar that commands and opposes destiny, signifies parting in life and death..."

Ma Sufen squinted her murky, ash-colored eyes as she intoned to Shen Baolan and Gao Hualiang:

"Your birth charts are incompatible, the celestial stems conflict, and the terrestrial branches clash. It’s best not to marry. At best, your love will face obstacles; at worst, a calamity of bloodshed awaits."

No sooner had Ma Sufen finished speaking than Shen Baolan immediately put on an anxious look, "Diviner, is there a way to resolve this? Xiaogao and I are deeply in love; we must be together."

Ma Sufen lifted her left hand and calculated for a while, then spoke languidly, "It isn’t impossible to solve this. I can pray for two amulets for you. As long as you always carry these amulets with you, you can ensure peace and safety. However, you cannot register your marriage. Once you do, the marriage tie is secured, and nothing but death or injury can break it."

Shen Baolan turned to look at Gao Hualiang, and he looked back at her.

She tentatively said, "Xiaogao, how about we follow the diviner’s advice and hold off on registering our marriage?"

"Mhm, I’ll listen to you."

Seeing Gao Hualiang agree, Shen Baolan couldn’t help but feel secretly delighted, but soon after, she grew somewhat displeased.

"You agreed so readily, could it be that you never wanted to marry me at all?"

Stupid woman, isn’t this all orchestrated by you?

Gao Hualiang cursed internally, but his face beamed with a smile, "How could that be? Baolan, whether we register our marriage or not, I’ve chosen you as the only woman for me in this lifetime. Nothing can stop us. It’s just that if we don’t register, it might be unfair to you. Are you willing to accept this hardship for my sake?"

Shen Baolan was coaxed into joyful laughter, "Fool, of course, I’m willing."

"That’s good to hear."

Gao Hualiang, feeling an immense sense of relief, tightly grabbed her hand, looking fearful she might back out, "I was just worried that you would leave me because of our incompatible horoscopes."

"Don’t worry, that won’t happen."

After all, the compatibility of the birth charts wasn’t real.

Gao Hualiang smiled tenderly, "As long as you don’t leave me, I’ll comply with everything else you want."

Shen Baolan had Ma Sufen pray for a pair of amulets for them.

Ma Sufen got her tools ready, put on a light grey robe, and danced around clanging cymbals. Then, she handed Shen Baolan two copper coins tied with red strings.

"Five thousand."

"That expensive?"

Shen Baolan’s eyes nearly popped out of her head.

Ma Sufen looked smugly at Gao Hualiang and said cheerfully, "It may be expensive for others, but not for you."

Understanding Ma Sufen’s implication, Shen Baolan reluctantly went to the bank to withdraw five thousand yuan.

She thought she should have agreed on a price beforehand. That despicable old hag, such a black heart, extorting such a price from her, and Shen Baolan couldn’t dare refuse.

Leaving Ma Sufen’s residence, Shen Baolan couldn’t help but feel aggrieved, but the thought of not worrying about her assets being divided by outsiders soon lifted her spirits. She immediately took Gao Hualiang to a car dealership to purchase a car.

Even though she didn’t possess a driver’s license yet, the car would be driven by Gao Hualiang for now.

She wanted to return to Shenjiagou in the new car, extravagantly celebrate the wedding feast, and let the entire village know that Shen Baolan’s life was thriving even after the divorce, not the least bit inferior to Shen Mingzhu!

They picked out a car and paid the deposit. Shen Baolan then took Gao Hualiang to collect the keys to Ruifeng Garden.

After she had filed for divorce, Ma Sufen kicked her out of the villa, and she had been living in the staff quarters ever since.

Having collected the money, Ma Sufen took off the ceremonial robe. As she was halfway through, a piece of paper fell from it.

She picked it up and saw it was a false birth chart she had written the day before.

Rushing to check the birth chart she had used for the divination just now, she realized she had made a mistake and had used Shen Baolan’s true birth chart for the reading.

"It doesn’t matter; after all, the outcome was what she sought. She has only gotten what she asked for."

...

When Shen Baolan arrived at Ruifeng Garden, movers were energetically hauling a genuine leather sofa onto a truck, while Ma Sufen and her husband were giving orders on the side. Zhou Shuhuan was nowhere to be seen.

"Wait a second!"

Shen Baolan stepped forward to stop the workers lifting the sofa. "The house belongs to me now, so everything inside is mine too. Who told you to move these out? Put them all back."

Hearing her say this, the workers immediately looked at the old couple for guidance.

Zhou Quanxiong’s face turned a cold shade of green. "Baolan, Shuhuan has given you the house and all the money. We don’t even have a place to stay now. Don’t go too far!"

Shen Baolan smirked. "Blame your son for not keeping his lower half in check, for cheating and supporting a mistress. I’m already showing maximum kindness by not suing him for bigamy! What’s mine is mine, and nobody’s going to take a single thing, not even a needle or a thread!"

Ma Sufen already despised her deeply, and hearing these words made her so angry that she simply wanted to tear Shen Baolan apart.

"You shameless, bad luck charm, a disaster that ruins people. My son was unlucky to have run into you for eight lifetimes."

"How has my Zhou family ever treated you poorly? Yet, you conspired with outsiders to take my son’s money. Evil woman, you will not die a good death. You will get your comeuppance. When the heavens strike with lightning, you’ll be the first one to be hit!"

Ma Sufen cursed vilely and bitterly, and Shen Baolan was not about to show any weakness.

"You’re right, I was born specifically to be your son’s nemesis. If there’s any bad luck, blame your son. Instead of wasting your time cursing at me, it would be better to properly teach your son how to keep his belt tight and not pretend to be something he’s not, ugly yet playing around..."

Being young, Shen Baolan had a loud voice, and she barraged Ma Sufen so relentlessly that Ma Sufen fainted on the spot.

Upon hearing the commotion, Zhou Shuhuan ran out of the villa, and with a combination of applying menthol balm and pressing acupoints, finally managed to revive Ma Sufen.

Once she came to, Zhou Shuhuan wanted to take the old man back to their rented place to prevent another argument with Shen Baolan, but Ma Sufen refused to leave under any circumstance.

There was nothing Zhou Shuhuan could do, so he turned to Shen Baolan to discuss the matter.

"The agreement clearly stated that the villa and everything in it belongs to me. If you move everything out, how am I supposed to live here?"

"I only moved the sofa and the bed. My parents are old and used to their things. You’re newlywed, you should be renewing your household furnishings anyway, right?"

"Whether I renew or not is my business. What’s mine is mine, and nobody is allowed to touch it."

"Baolan, must it really be this way? After all the years we’ve lived together, don’t you have any sentiment toward my parents?"

Shen Baolan glanced at Ma Sufen’s weakened state with gloating enjoyment. "Nonsense, your mother never once treated me nicely all these years!"

Seeing this, Zhou Shuhuan didn’t want to continue the pointless argument and become a laughingstock for the neighbors.

He signaled the workers to put the sofa and bed back into the villa from the truck and only move items like clothes and bedding.

Before long, the nanny brought Zhou Fu back from school.

"Grandma, are we moving to a new house?"

Zhou Fu still didn’t know about his parents’ divorce; seeing the movers, he was gleefully excited.

Ma Sufen tightly grasped her grandson’s hand, crying her eyes out.

Except for his first two years, she had cared for Zhou Fu for the subsequent years, and their grandparent-grandchild bond was no less strong than with his elder brother.

Particularly after his elder brother moved to the Capital with his former daughter-in-law for school last year, she had cherished Zhou Fu as the apple of her eye.

More than the loss of a million in family wealth to Shen Baolan, Ma Sufen was more reluctant to part with her little grandson Zhou Fu.

She absolutely refused to leave, determined to wait for Zhou Fu to come home.

"Yuanbao, grandma is leaving. What will you do..."

Zhou Fu, unable to grasp the depth of the adults’ feelings, was instead brimming with curiosity. "Grandma, where are you going? I want to go too!"

Hearing her grandson say this made Ma Sufen cry even harder.

"Yuanbao, come here!"

Hearing Shen Baolan’s call, Zhou Fu instinctively turned his head back.

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