The Stepmother’s Counterattack: Raising a Child in a Bygone Era
Chapter 738 - 737 Shen Baolan is Pregnant Again

Chapter 738: Chapter 737 Shen Baolan is Pregnant Again

At the beginning of April, Shen Mingzhu’s TOEFL scores were released.

The scores were excellent, enough for her to apply for an MBA at Cambridge University.

In the following period, all she needed to do was wait for the offer from Cambridge and the visa procedures.

As winter gave way to spring, Shen Baolan’s leg injury finally healed, but she was left with a permanent disability, becoming a lame person, and the villagers all called her "Lame Granny."

Compared to when she had just been sold, Shen Baolan had lost much weight, her cheeks sharpened, wearing her blue homespun clothes, she swayed in the breeze like a kite, with only her belly slightly bulging.

She was pregnant.

The Yang family was particularly pleased and treated her much better, switching from one meal a day to two, and even giving her eggs or game to eat every now and then to supplement her nutrition.

But what the Yang family didn’t know was that the child in Shen Baolan’s belly wasn’t actually Yang Fei’s.

Shen Baolan had come to the Yang family in November of last year, and according to the timeline, the child in her belly was five and a half months along.

In reality, the child was six months old.

The village doctor asked her about her menstrual cycle, and she intentionally postponed it by half a month.

After all, she hadn’t had her period since coming to Mountain Village, and nobody knew whether she was telling the truth or not.

She wasn’t going to tell the Yang family the truth either.

For one thing, it was self-protection. Knowing Yang Fei’s cruelty and barbarism, if he found out the child she was carrying was illegitimate, he would probably beat her to death.

On the other hand, it was for revenge against the Yang family, who had abused her, confined her, and even caused her to become lame, she would gift Yang Fei a big green hat, letting the Yang family raise someone else’s child!

Crisp laughter approached from a distance, a group of village children running past the Yang family’s wicker gate like a little train, and the moment they saw her, they pulled at their throats and shouted:

"Lame Granny!"

Shen Baolan acted as if she heard nothing, her head bowed as she worked on what was in her hands.

She was making small clothes and diapers for the baby in her belly from old clothes.

Compared to starving and freezing, being beaten daily, being called "Lame Granny" a few times really didn’t hurt at all.

Her eyes blurred from doing needlework for too long, Shen Baolan lifted her head, staring blankly at the distant Dashan.

This season, it was the time when Fengcheng blossomed in the warmth of spring, and the women on the streets probably all wore skirts.

Out of all the women she had seen, Shen Mingzhu was the best at wearing skirts.

Shen Mingzhu always came up with various new ideas, here a split, there a gather, or embroidered with a small flower, paired with a chain, and so on.

During her days in Mountain Village, what she most often recalled was Shen Mingzhu.

She thought, if she hadn’t snatched Shen Mingzhu’s marriage arrangement, if she hadn’t married Zhou Shuhuan, even if she had become a widow, her life would still be much better than it was now.

She also wondered, if Shen Mingzhu had married Zhou Shuhuan, would she have ended up in the same situation as her.

She thought of Liu Cuihua, wondering if she would search all over the world for her, calling her foolish.

She also thought of her son Zhou Fu; after the new year, he should have grown taller.

She didn’t know if she would ever be able to see her son again in this lifetime.

As she pondered, tears flowed down like a waterfall.

She regretted everything bitterly. If she could do it all over again, she definitely wouldn’t compete or fight, opting instead to live the life that should have been hers.

Unfortunately, there is no medicine for regret in the world.

...

With the warmth of the weather, Liu Cuihua’s health also improved day by day, and she was now able to get out of bed.

Shen Hao, skilled in woodworking, had made her a wooden wheelchair.

Whenever the weather was good, they would push her out in the wheelchair to see people or let her sit in the yard and soak up the sun.

Though her speech wasn’t as fluent as before, her fondness for chatting hadn’t changed, especially when babbling to Tian Wenfang.

There was no helping it; her son and grandson were up at dawn to dusk busy working, and her grandson was too young, so Tian Wenfang, her daughter-in-law, was the only one she could talk to.

She would always reminisce about the glorious past, talk about her daughter Shen Baolan, and as she talked, she would start to wipe away her tears.

Tian Wenfang grew impatient listening and would always find an excuse to go out and visit neighbors, complaining about Liu Cuihua.

"I’m sick and tired of hearing about the same old stories over and over again!"

"Can your sister-in-law even be brought back?"

"Who knows!"

Someone suggested to Tian Wenfang, "Niudan’s mother, there’s a fortune teller in Qiao Family Village who can determine life and death, you should invite him to have a look. Perhaps he could help find your sister-in-law."

"I’ll talk to them when the men return tonight."

Tian Wenfang said this, but she had no intention of seeking out the fortune teller.

Liu Cuihua’s illness had nearly emptied their family savings, and Tian was not willing to spend any more money on such things.

In her heart, she had written off her sister-in-law Shen Baolan as dead.

If they were to find Shen Baolan, poor and destitute, and then her nephew Zhou Fu returned as well, the family certainly couldn’t support three more dependents.

---

On the weekend, Pei Qiuxia had agreed to meet with Qian Rong in the park.

"Qiuxia, you’re the only one who can help me, you won’t refuse me, will you?"

With a pitiful plea, Qian Rong held Pei Qiuxia’s hand, "The doctor said that a fallopian tube patency test is just a minor surgery, and I’ll be fine after resting for a few days post-operation."

"I’ve thought it through. I’ll tell my family I’m going out of town to study, then I can come to your place to recover after the surgery. Oh, and could you lend me some money? I don’t have enough saved up to cover the surgical fees."

"Rong, staying at my place or borrowing money is not a problem."

Listening to Pei Qiuxia agree to help, Qian Rong’s face lit up with a smile, but Qiuxia’s following words made Rong’s smile freeze:

"However, you must tell your family about the surgery. All surgeries carry risks, and if something happens to you, I can’t explain it to your family."

Qian Rong said, "Nothing will go wrong. If you don’t trust me, come with me to see the doctor tomorrow. You should believe what the doctor says."

Pleadingly, she continued, "You know my situation. My mother-in-law never liked me. If she finds out I have a problem, who knows how much more difficult my life will become."

Thinking of Qian Rong’s bad relationship with her mother-in-law, Pei Qiuxia relented slightly, "At least you’ve got to tell your parents, right?"

"I don’t want my brother and sister-in-law to laugh at me!"

Qian Rong had fallen out with her brother and sister-in-law over her dowry when she got married.

Pei Qiuxia felt conflicted.

On an emotional level, she couldn’t ignore her friend’s trouble.

But logically, she was acutely aware of the risks, a necessary sense of caution for someone in finance.

From the surgery to post-operative recovery, if anything went wrong, she couldn’t bear the consequences.

Seeing Qiuxia’s reluctance, Qian Rong lost her temper, "Forget it, I won’t trouble you. I’ll figure something out myself!"

"And to think I regarded you as my best friend. You were the first person I thought of when I got my test results. I truly believed you would help me, but now I see clearly. When trouble strikes, not even a friendship of more than a decade can be relied upon!"

Hearing Qian Rong dismiss their friendship so, Pei Qiuxia naturally felt upset.

Yet seeing Qian Rong storm off, Qiuxia still couldn’t help but worry and hastened to follow.

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