The members of the Li family all awkwardly rubbed their noses, while Wang Pingping hid behind them, not daring to show her face.
She… she hadn’t wanted things to turn out this way either.
But she couldn’t have children, she was weak in temperament, and naturally had no say in the household. Besides… the white flour really did taste good. She didn’t want to be the only one gnawing on coarse cornbread while the rest of the family ate refined grains.
So, little by little, that white flour just kept getting eaten—more and more. Li Ying even sent some to her boyfriend.
The Li family was large, with more than a dozen people in total. Every day, just making noodles would use up seven or eight jin of flour. Ever since Wang Lingling had come back from collecting grain, the entire family hadn’t touched coarse grains again. Every day, it was flour dumplings in the morning and evening, and broad noodles at noon. Add to that the braised meat and vegetables Li Ying brought from her boyfriend, and everyone ate to the point where oil glistened from their mouths.
Normally, summer was the season of bitter appetite—people would slim down because of the heat and the higher intake of vegetables.
But this summer, the Li family had all gained weight. Every single person had put on a layer of fat.
Even Wang Pingping had grown noticeably plumper, no longer the dry, skinny figure she used to be.
Wang Pingping knew she had wronged her younger sister and shrank her neck as she hid at the very back, listening to Wang Lingling explode in anger.
Wang Lingling’s mind went blank. Although they had technically divided the household, in reality, they still lived next door to her in-laws. There wasn’t even a proper wall between them—just a bamboo fence. Her own house had two children, and if the grain had been stored there, it wouldn’t have taken her mother-in-law, her sisters-in-law, or even her children saying a word or two outside for things to go south fast.
That’s why she had decided to store the grain at the Li household, at least until a month after the autumn harvest. By then, food supplies in the city would definitely be tight. Even if they weren’t, the news of poor harvests in the countryside would have spread.
In a panic, everyone would rush to the grain stations with their ration coupons to exchange for grain. Even those families that normally waited until the middle or end of the month would likely go early to stock up. The price at the grain stations wouldn’t go up, but the supply would definitely be hard to get. At that point, long queues would form, and it would become a frenzy.
The more people rushed, the more severe the shortage would become. And the scarcer the grain got, the more people would panic. Some would definitely turn to the black market for alternatives.
Wang Lingling had set her sights on exactly that moment.
She planned to sell all the grain at the peak of the market.
Just like trading stocks—if she sold at even a slightly lower point, Wang Lingling would feel like she’d lost out.
As for that white flour, Wang Lingling had intended to sell it at an even higher price. No matter how tough life got, there were always families who lived well. Not to mention, some households had special circumstances where refined flour was a must. Wang Lingling planned to sell that flour at the hospital—it was sure to fetch a great price there.
But now!
In just over a month, more than half of the 200 jin of fine grain she had collected was already gone!
Wang Lingling was furious, practically radiating hatred as if she wanted to tear the Li family apart.
The men and women of the Li family all looked ashamed—they knew perfectly well the grain was meant to be sold.
But… they just couldn’t help themselves.
Several of the Li sons recalled the meals from the past few weeks. That feeling of eating refined grain to their heart’s content was a first in their entire lives.
They had a big family—though the brothers now stood together and looked imposing, their childhood had been full of hardship. There was never a time when everyone had their fill. That gnawing hunger had only just begun to fade away in recent years.
With a storeroom full of coarse and fine grains at home—even though it technically didn’t all belong to them—every time they scooped flour from the side room and saw it piled high, a sense of pride and abundance would surge in their hearts.
So the whole Li family avoided the topic. During meals, they would all stuff themselves without restraint. At their peak, they once consumed nearly ten jin of flour in a single midday meal, their bellies bulging with food.
Everyone knew these good days wouldn’t last, so they were desperately stuffing their stomachs while they could.
Now that Wang Lingling was confronting them directly, the Li men coughed a few times, feeling thoroughly embarrassed. None of the daughters-in-law stepped forward either. Instead, they pushed Wang Pingping out.
After all, the only real link between the Li and Wang families was Wang Pingping.
So if she didn’t step up now, who would?
Wang Pingping was shoved to the front by her sisters-in-law. She kept trying to retreat, but couldn’t withstand the force of several people pushing her forward.
Wang Lingling was livid. With several grown men from the Li family present, it wasn’t appropriate for her to lash out at them, so she rushed over and slapped Wang Pingping three times—front and back—leaving her ears ringing.
“And you still call yourself my sister? You’ve got the nerve to eat my grain? Have you no shame?!”
Wang Lingling shouted, raising her hand to strike again.
Wang Pingping was stunned by the slaps. When she finally came to her senses, she raised her hands to block. Her heart was full of grievance. This household had more than a dozen people—was she the one in charge?
Her position in the family was practically negligible. She was just a laborer.
Why should Wang Lingling come and hit her alone? She hadn’t even blamed Wang Lingling for insisting on marrying into another family and becoming a stepmother, which had caused her to suffer all kinds of bullying from her sisters-in-law. Why couldn’t her younger sister understand her struggles with her in-laws?
Both sisters were full of resentment and grievance. One struck and the other blocked—soon enough, they were fighting each other.
Wang Pingping saw her chance and slapped Wang Lingling twice in return. The two of them fought until their noses were bloodied.
Wang Lingling yelled, “And you call yourself my older sister? You’re nothing but a beast! Do you have any idea how hard it was for me to get that grain? And you dare to eat it? You wretched woman!”
Wang Pingping shot back, “You blaming me? Is that grain yours alone? Why can’t our family eat it?”
She grew more and more righteous as she spoke: “You only put in a bit of money—why shouldn’t we eat our own grain?”
Wang Lingling grabbed her by the hair and landed two more punches. “Have you no shame?”
Wang Pingping’s sisters-in-law exchanged looks and signaled the men to leave. None of them were worried that Wang Lingling would cause real trouble.
What a joke. What could Wang Lingling do—sue them? Report them? Even if it came to dividing the profits, Wang Lingling wouldn’t have the upper hand.
This was a business that couldn’t see the light of day.
The Li men actually just left like that, leaving Wang Lingling and Wang Pingping to fight it out. Even Wang Pingping’s husband, Li Qing, walked away without any intention of standing up for her.
Wang Lingling caught sight of them leaving from the corner of her eye. She felt furious—not only ignored, but deceived as well.
“You wretched lot! I’m done with you! You’re all nothing but a swarm of greedy locusts! I’m not partnering with you anymore! Give me what’s mine, and I’m taking it with me!”
Wang Lingling had never been one to swallow her anger.
Ever since her rebirth, the only ones she had tolerated were her two children—and that was because she saw great potential in their future. She was enduring hardship now in hopes of enjoying sweetness later.
But this—this wasn’t something she’d tolerate. Being bullied and not fighting back?
No way.
Wang Lingling caused a scene, demanding that the Li family immediately give her share of the grain back. She no longer wanted to store it with them—she wanted to take it all home.
She had finally seen things clearly. When trouble came knocking, even one’s own sister couldn’t be relied on. Wang Pingping had actually helped her in-laws steal and eat her grain—what kind of sister was that?
Now that she thought about it, when Wang Yongshun and Li Chunjuan got into trouble, Wang Pingping hadn’t even shown her face. If her own parents could be treated like that, what more could she expect as a younger sister?
Funny thing was—Wang Pingping felt the same way. After their fight, she was also full of grievance, thinking her younger sister was heartless and couldn’t understand how hard it was for her in her marital home.
She was pitiful—no sons, a husband in poor health. If she didn’t work hard and curry favor with her sisters-in-law’s sons, what would happen when her husband died or she grew old? Would she be kicked out?
What would she do then?
Her younger sister had married into the military. Even if she was a stepmother, her days were comfortable. She had even separated from her in-laws and had control over her monthly allowance. She didn’t have to worry about making ends meet, but she showed no sympathy for her older sister’s hardships.
Come to think of it, when their parents had their accident a while ago, Wang Pingping had been in town, far away. But surely her sister had heard about it? And yet she hadn’t even come home for the funeral.
Heh. What a cold-blooded, ungrateful wolf.
Both sisters were thinking this way—but to outsiders, they were six of one and half a dozen of the other.
Wang Pingping’s sisters-in-law watched with cold eyes. They were greedy too, but not as foolish as these two sisters. Foolishness aside, they were both naturally cold-hearted.
Then again, the whole Wang family was like this.
What happened with Wang Yongshun was well-known—Wang Pingping’s sisters-in-law had all heard about it.
Their father, trying to avoid angry villagers demanding accountability, ran off into the mountains and fell to his death. Their mother, upon seeing her husband and son taken away, didn’t even wait for confirmation of what happened—she ran straight back to her own family and immediately sought remarriage.
As for the son, it was even worse. When the family didn’t feed him, he went out stealing. Then he got involved in illegal grave-robbing and ended up in jail.
Wang Pingping and Wang Lingling—these two sisters didn’t support each other in times of crisis. Instead, the moment something happened, they turned on each other. When their family fell apart, not one of them came back to check in…
It was as if something was rotten in the root of this family.
That said, none of the sisters-in-law dared make a decision about breaking the partnership.
The whole collaboration had been orchestrated by Old Lady Li—they had no say in the matter.
And, as luck would have it, Old Lady Li wasn’t home at the moment. She had gone to the state-owned restaurant with Li Ying.
Wang Lingling stormed into the side room and started dragging the grain out herself. She was seething with rage and had no desire to stay tangled up with the Li family.
Just the fact that this family had managed to eat 200 jin of fine grain down to a few dozen jin told her everything she needed to know—when the time came to sell the grain, the more than 1,000 jin she had originally stockpiled might not even total 1,000 jin anymore!
Greedy beyond measure!
Wang Lingling threatened the few Li family men blocking the door: “This is my grain! Why shouldn’t I be allowed to take it? If you stop me today, I’ll risk everything. We’ll go down together! I’ll report you all for hoarding grain!”
She wasn’t just making threats—Wang Lingling was truly capable of going through with it. She always had a “burn-it-all-down” streak when handling things.
The Li family members trembled, their legs weak from fear.
The eldest Li daughter-in-law managed to say, “You wouldn’t dare. This grain was all collected by you—if you say anything, it won’t end well for you either. You might even get divorced.”
Wang Lingling sneered, “Ha! I get divorced, and you lose your jobs. Who’s afraid of whom?”
What Wang Lingling didn’t say was that if the Li family refused to give her the grain and she reported them, even if they turned the tables on her, it wouldn’t stick. After all, the grain was all stored at the Li house—there wasn’t any at her own home. Let’s see who could explain that away.
The Li family clearly understood this as well—their faces immediately soured.
Wang Pingping, seeing her little sister had caused such a huge disaster again, panicked and blurted out, “Wang Lingling! If you do this, I’ll never acknowledge you as my sister again! Are you trying to get our whole family killed? Your brother-in-law worked so hard to get his job, and he’s not in good health… you can’t do this!”
Right now, the person Wang Lingling hated most was Wang Pingping. She had no relation to the Li family, and if it hadn’t been for Wang Pingping, she never would’ve gotten involved with them in the first place. It was her sister who told the Li family about this profitable grain business.
And now look—her own sister had helped the Li family steal from her.
“Pah! What are you even worth? Still pretending to be the big sister? Remember this, Wang Pingping—from now on, don’t you dare call me your little sister again! I don’t acknowledge you as my sister!”
Wang Pingping was furious and wanted to rush up and tear at her again—when a voice came from outside. It was Old Lady Li. Earlier, seeing how things were going south, Li Qing—who always obeyed his mother—had rushed off to the state-run restaurant to fetch her.
