The Stepmother’s Counterattack: Raising a Child in a Bygone Era
Chapter 696 - 695: Inviting the Wolf into the House

Chapter 696: Chapter 695: Inviting the Wolf into the House

"Yuanbao, come here!"

Hearing Shen Baolan call out, Zhou Fu glanced back, then naturally turned his head back toward Ma Sufen’s direction.

"Grandma, where are you going? Take me with you."

Seeing her little grandson so attached to her, Ma Sufen was moved to tears, "Yuanbao is good, Grandma hasn’t loved you for nothing..."

Shen Baolan, however, was quite furious and took several steps forward to drag her son in front of her.

"Your dad and I are divorced now, he doesn’t want you anymore, he wants to marry a new wife and have new children. From now on, you’ll be with me, just the two of us!"

Zhou Fu looked back and forth between the two, finally realizing something was wrong, and his mouth began to quiver as he started to cry.

Ma Sufen reached out, heartbroken, wanting to hold him, but was aggressively pushed away by Shen Baolan.

"Yuanbao is my son, I have custody, and from now on, he has nothing to do with your Zhou family. If you want a grandson, go have one yourself!"

Ma Sufen glared at her with reddened eyes, "Even if you have custody of Yuanbao, he is still my grandson, the one I raised with my own hands, he is the seed of our old Zhou family!"

Shen Baolan sneered, "Don’t worry, that will soon change. Tomorrow, I’ll have Yuanbao’s surname changed to Shen, then he’ll be a member of the Shen family."

"You! You witch! How can you be so cruel..."

Ma Sufen was so angry she sat down hard on the ground, kicking her legs wildly, wailing and crying with deep sorrow.

"What sins have my Zhou family committed, oh heavens, please open your eyes and see, take this witch away..."

In the past two years, Ma Sufen had aged significantly, her hair had whitened, her skin wrinkled, and her body bent considerably. Sitting on the ground, crying like a child with snot and tears, she inevitably aroused pity and compassion.

But not from Shen Baolan.

She had a long-standing grudge with Ma Sufen, and seeing her cry so miserably only made her feel a sense of satisfaction, elated inside.

"Grandma, don’t cry, don’t cry, I want to go with you."

Taking advantage of Shen Baolan’s distraction, Zhou Fu broke away and ran to Ma Sufen’s side.

"Yuanbao, my Yuanbao, how can I live without you..."

The sight of the grandmother and grandchild embracing was touching to outsiders, but to Shen Baolan, it felt particularly heart-wrenching.

"Yuanbao, come back with me!"

She tried to forcibly separate the two, but Zhou Fu bit her on the back of her hand, almost driving her to fury.

"I want Grandma, I want Grandma, wuu wuu wuu..."

"Yuanbao, Yuanbao, Grandma can’t bear to let you go..."

The grandchild and grandmother, one crying and the other causing a scene, ended up forcibly separated and taken away.

Watching the taxi driving Ma Sufen away, Zhou Fu ran after it like mad, crying his heart out, "Grandma! Don’t leave, don’t leave me behind, Grandma! Grandma!"

The scene made the onlookers sigh and shed tears.

The divorce of parents, but the one who gets hurt is the child.

...

"I really raised this child in vain, he doesn’t even recognize his own mother now, I don’t know what kind of love potion that old hag fed him!"

Seeing her son still throwing a tantrum in the room, Shen Baolan was so angry she felt liver pain.

Gao Hualiang tried to comfort her with kind words, "The child is still young, forgetful, he’ll stop making a fuss in a couple of days."

Shen Baolan thought so too and stopped paying attention to her son, turning to go downstairs.

Although the furniture and appliances were left behind, they were in disarray and needed to be reorganized.

But this was no challenge for Shen Baolan; she rolled up her sleeves ready to get to work, but Gao Hualiang stopped her, "Baolan, you are the mistress of this house now, anything you need, just give the order."

Indeed, she was now a wealthy woman worth millions, no longer needing to do the work herself.

She turned to the maid at the side, intending to give an order, but the maid spoke first, "Madam, Mr. Zhou has paid my salary up until today, after today I won’t be coming anymore."

"You continue to come tomorrow, I will pay your salary."

"Sorry, but I’ve already found another family, and they’re offering me two hundred a month."

The implication was clear: unless Shen Baolan raised the salary to two hundred as well, there would be no deal.

Shen Baolan’s face turned gloomy.

Just last month the salary had been a hundred and fifty, and now it was supposed to increase to two hundred? Did they think she was foolish and loaded with cash?

"Forget it, let her go."

Gao Hualiang spoke soothingly, "My cousin is actually looking for a job. She only asks for a hundred and twenty, but insists on room and board. She just arrived here and still hasn’t found a place to stay, so she’s temporarily staying at my cousin’s house."

Hearing that the other party was asking for such low wages, Shen Baolan immediately asked Gao Hualiang to bring her over to check her out.

After all, there were plenty of rooms in the house; any one could be tidied up for her to stay in.

An hour later.

Huang Chunyu, dressed in plain clothes and carrying a huge woven bag, appeared before Shen Baolan.

"What’s with her face?"

Upon hearing Shen Baolan’s question, Huang Chunyu hurriedly explained in her poor Mandarin, flattering her, "It’s a birthmark I’ve had since I was in my mother’s womb. Because of it, I can’t even get married. I’ve heard it can be treated in the hospital, so I wanted to earn some money to get it removed and find a husband."

"Madam, please keep me. I’m a hard worker, I promise I can do a good job."

Huang Chunyu was naturally delicate and pretty, with almond-shaped eyes and rosy cheeks. In order to lower Shen Baolan’s guard, she had deliberately made a palm-sized birthmark on her face to cover her beauty.

Gao Hualiang also put in a good word for her, "Xiaoyu is a great cook and she’s reliable and earnest. When hiring domestic help, competence is secondary; loyalty and dependability are what matter most."

And so, Huang Chunyu was kept on and became the new nanny in the house.

Huang Chunyu did have some skills, and quickly whipped up a table of delicious and appealing home-cooked dishes, to Shen Baolan’s satisfaction.

She and Gao Hualiang ate in the dining room downstairs, while Huang Chunyu carried the food upstairs to coax Zhou Fu.

"Xiaogao, the house is mine now. When are you planning to move in?"

"How about tonight?"

Happiness came so quickly, Shen Baolan almost dropped her chopsticks in surprise, "Really? You’re not deceiving me?"

"Baolan, don’t you miss me?"

Gao Hualiang’s lips tilted up in a gentle smile, almost bewitching Shen Baolan.

"I do!"

She had been missing him so desperately!

Without finishing her meal, she put down her chopsticks and hurried upstairs to take a shower.

On the stairs, she met Huang Chunyu coming down with the food.

"The young master is asleep. I’ve kept the food in the hot pot for him to eat when he wakes up."

Shen Baolan was too preoccupied to care about her son, her mind was set on securing her relationship with Gao Hualiang. She nodded and continued upstairs.

After watching her enter the second-floor room, Huang Chunyu continued downstairs to the dining room.

No sooner had she put down the tray than Gao Hualiang picked her up onto the dining table for an intense French kiss.

After the kiss, their foreheads touched. They were both panting and looked at each other with smiles.

"I really like this house. It would be great to live here forever."

"I’ll give you something even better, a house that’s bigger and more lavish than this one."

Huang Chunyu held him tightly, purposely moving the side of her face with the birthmark closer, "If I really looked like this, would you still want me?"

Gao Hualiang’s slender fingers curled around the back of her head, his eyes teasing, "Want to try it out?"

"Try what?"

"Right now, on this dining table."