The Stepmother’s Counterattack: Raising a Child in a Bygone Era
Chapter 711 - 710: Broke a Leg and Became a Cripple

Chapter 711: Chapter 710: Broke a Leg and Became a Cripple

The rugged mountain path was not easy to traverse, full of pits and hollows, as well as scattered with broken rocks and fallen leaves, Shen Baolan struggled mightily as she stumbled and staggered along.

By contrast, the villagers of the mountain village, accustomed to the terrain, moved much quicker, rapidly closing the distance from 50 meters down to just over 10 meters from Shen Baolan.

"Stop! Dare to run?"

"You little whore, wait till I catch you and break your legs!"

Hearing the insults right by her ear, Shen Baolan panicked instinctively and, not paying attention, stepped into a void, tumbling down the slope with a series of rolls.

Seeing this, the pursuing villagers all stopped in their tracks, panting and craning their necks to peer down the slope.

"She’s not dead, is she?"

"Ah, what a pity. Spent so much money, at least should’ve left a seed behind."

...

Shen Baolan opened her eyes, saw that she was back at the Yang Family’s place, and felt a surge of despair.

Then, a sharp pain from her leg made her scream out in agony.

Hearing her wretched cries, the village doctor withdrew his examining hands, wiping the blood off onto a cloth while speaking to the Yang Family about her injuries: "Her left calf bone is broken, she needs to go to the hospital for bone setting."

Mother Yang hurriedly said, "Doctor Xu, please just treat her here, it’s so inconvenient to go into town, and it costs money, we don’t have any more money."

Doctor Xu waved his hand, "I can’t do it, her bones are displaced from the fracture, she needs surgery to insert metal pins to join the bones, otherwise she’ll end up crippled."

The Yang Family looked at each other.

"Crippled then crippled, at least she won’t be running away anymore. Now that her leg’s broken, let’s see how she runs!"

Father Yang’s word was final, and without even a second’s consideration, he decided Shen Baolan’s fate.

Shen Baolan had been thinking that once she got to the hospital, she’d ask the doctors and nurses for help and to call the police to rescue her, but who knew the Yang Family could be so cruel, refusing her treatment and wanting to leave her crippled.

Terrified, her eyes swelled with tears, "Please save me, I won’t run away anymore, I won’t ever run again, whatever you ask me to do from now on, I’ll do it, I promise to listen to you."

Father Yang, Mother Yang, Grandma Yang, several Yang Family children of varying ages, and her "husband" Yang Fei, including Doctor Xu, all remained silent.

Seeing that the Yang Family was unmoved, Shen Baolan pleaded again, "I have money, as long as you’re willing to save me, I’m willing to give you a hundred thousand, no, five hundred thousand, I’ll give you five hundred thousand!"

No one took her seriously.

The mountain village lived up to its name, situated deep within the mountains, a poor hamlet where generations had survived by farming, with an average annual income less than five hundred yuan.

The five hundred thousand yuan mentioned by Shen Baolan was nothing but a fairy tale to them.

Seeing that the Yang Family was still unmoved, Shen Baolan dragged her broken leg and crawled under the bed, kowtowing desperately to Father Yang.

"I was wrong, I won’t dare to run away again, please save me, I beg you to save me..."

Even though she knocked her head bloody, the Yang Family remained unsoftened.

After giving her basic first aid and leaving behind some anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving medicine, the village doctor departed.

The Yang Family also went about their business, leaving Shen Baolan alone, lying on the decrepit bed, clinging to a meager existence.

Looking at the wide-open door of the house, Shen Baolan wept in despair and sorrow.

Freedom was right in front of her eyes, yet she couldn’t take a single step.

She had been trafficked to this mountain village a month ago.

The night she arrived in the mountain village, she was forced to consummate a marriage with Yang Fei, becoming the bride of the Yang Family.

In the month that followed, the Yang Family had kept her locked in a room, feeding her only once a day.

When evening came, Yang Fei would enter the room to "sleep with" her.

Initially, she rebelled and, after being roughly beaten by Yang Fei several times, she learned to act compliant on the surface while secretly seeking opportunities to escape.

Today, she had finally seized such an opportunity.

```

But she never expected that not only did she fail to escape, but she also broke her leg in the attempt.

Every time she thought about dying in this remote and impoverished place, being a poor daughter-in-law for life, forced to bear a brood of impoverished children, Shen Baolan felt an overwhelming sense of grief and anger, her tears flowing endlessly.

When night fell, Yang Fei entered the room as usual, disregarding her leg injury and forcefully dragging her into that act.

Even though she was in unbearable pain, Shen Baolan dared not resist.

Yang Fei’s temper was even more explosive than her older brother Shen Hao’s, and he would beat her with fists and kicks at the slightest displeasure.

After venting, Yang Fei fell asleep, and Shen Baolan lay in silence, tears streaming down as she reminisced about the past.

In the past, she always felt that everything was unsatisfactory in the Zhou family, but compared to her current situation, those days as a daughter-in-law in the Zhou family seemed like heaven.

If Heaven gave her a chance to choose again, she would definitely be a virtuous wife and a good mother, no longer competing with Shen Mingzhu.

She was filled with regret, with hatred.

But unfortunately, there is no medicine for regret in this world.

...

"Baolan! Baolan!"

The whole family was awakened by Liu Cuihua’s loud cries, turning on the lights and coming to Liu Cuihua’s room.

"Mom, what’s wrong?"

Liu Cuihua, holding her son, wept bitterly: "Haozi, I dreamed of Baolan. She was locked in a cage, living a life worse than pigs and dogs, she called to me for help, and also asked why I hadn’t brought Yuanbao back."

"Baolan, where exactly have you gone, woo woo woo..."

Seeing Liu Cuihua crying so sadly, Shen Hao was also moved to tears.

"Mom, don’t be sad, I will go find Zhou Shuhuan tomorrow and make him return Yuanbao!"

Hearing her son say this, tears streaming down her face, Liu Cuihua pleaded, "You must bring Yuanbao back, he is Baolan’s own flesh and blood, we can’t let Baolan lose her roots..."

"Mom, rest assured."

Tian Wenfang, standing aside, felt her pent-up anger rising:

"Baolan, Baolan, all you ever do is worry about Baolan. Don’t you see the state of our household? We’re hardly getting by as it is, yet you still want to take in another child. Can we even live our future days?"

She had agreed to help take care of Zhou Fu because of the prospects of the shop and the villa, but since she ended up with nothing, she naturally didn’t want another burden in the family.

Liu Cuihua was so angered by her words that tears kept falling, "Don’t you have a conscience? Baolan led you to the city to set up a stall to make money, bought you food and clothes when she had money, and now that she’s in trouble, isn’t it right for you to help raise Yuanbao?"

Tian Wenfang sneered, "Why should I help raise Yuanbao? It was her who didn’t keep her word. She promised to borrow a hundred thousand, then ran off early the next morning! She even sold the shop and the house, who knows if she ran off with Gao Hualiang, abandoning her family and child! She doesn’t even care about her own son, why should I be the fool to care?"

"Nonsense!"

Seeing Liu Cuihua was about to collapse from anger, Shen Hao turned to Tian Wenfang and barked angrily, "Shut up! This is settled!"

Tian Wenfang retorted defiantly, "Fine, Shen Hao, I’m laying it out right here. If you insist on bringing that child back, we’ll get a divorce. You like to raise other people’s children, you do it yourself; I won’t serve!"

Shen Hao was so angry that he was at a loss for words.

"Enough, stop fighting, we’ll talk about this later," Shen Dashan intervened, trying to calm things down.

If his daughter-in-law also ran away out of anger, in addition to his daughter who had already gone missing, then this family would truly fall apart.

The next day.

The Liu family was just sitting down to breakfast when there was a sudden knock on the door.

Shen Hao went to open it.

Upon seeing the person standing outside, he was both shocked and overjoyed.

```

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