Old Lady Li had been discussing a marriage matter with Xie Yuejin at the time. Upon hearing trouble at home, she had no choice but to come back, cursing all the way.
Thick-skinned as ever, she tried to brush it off the moment she entered: “Ling girl, you’re here? It was wrong of me not to say anything in advance about the grain, but we’re in this business together. Once we sell the grain, we’ll just deduct your share. Why get so mad?”
Wang Lingling didn’t buy it. She sneered coldly, “Old lady, drop the act. I came here for a proper explanation, and none of you were willing to give one. Now you want me to wait until the money comes in? Like hell you’ll give me my fair share then.”
Her reason, clouded by anger earlier, briefly returned.
The way the Li family had treated her—acting like she didn’t matter—had cut deep. They assumed she couldn’t make a fuss.
Wang Lingling regretted it deeply. Had she known earlier, she would’ve rather run a smaller stall on her own than ever partner with the Li family.
With so many men in the Li family, when it came time to sell the grain and split the profits, they could easily use force. They’d say the agreement was a 70-30 split, and she’d be lucky to get 30%. Once the grain was gone, no one could prove a thing. Old Lady Li was a heartless schemer and would definitely cheat her.
The more Wang Lingling thought about it, the more resolute she became—she had to break ties with the Li family right now!
Old Lady Li had indeed planned to do just that. Her squinted eyes gleamed with calculation: “Didn’t we already agree? We’d sell the grain together, and then divide it up. You want out now? That’s impossible.”
She had no intention of giving Wang Lingling any cut of the profits at all. Her plan was to give her a measly ten or twenty yuan for her effort.
Funny enough, Wang Lingling had thought the same at the start—planning to blackmail Old Lady Li with the fact that Li Qing was impotent and force a 50-50 split.
Turns out Old Lady Li was even more shameless. She never planned on sharing a single coin.
Wang Lingling wasn’t having it—she wanted her share now.
“If you won’t split, I’ll go report you right now!”
Old Lady Li was about to argue again, but Wang Lingling played her trump card: “Should I tell everyone about Li Qing’s condition?”
Old Lady Li turned pale with shock.
Li Qing’s condition!
Her gaze cut across Wang Lingling like a poisoned knife.
After a long moment, she exhaled a heavy breath. “Fine. Let’s split it.”
Out of all her sons, Li Qing wasn’t the most important, but she couldn’t let the truth about his impotence spread. Not because she cared about Wang Pingping, but because she had many sons—if one was rumored to be impotent, the others would suffer from gossip too.
Wang Pingping, still not giving up, cried out, “Mom! We can’t just let her take the grain like this! Li Qing and I aren’t afraid of what she says—if she wants to talk, let her!”
Wang Lingling gave her sister a cold, mocking look. She had originally intended to privately let Wang Pingping know about Li Qing’s issue after breaking off with the Li family.
But now? Totally unnecessary.
Wang Pingping deserved everything coming to her!
Wang Lingling thought spitefully—once Li Qing died, her sister would probably repeat the same tragic fate from the previous life.
Serves her right!
Some sister she turned out to be—utterly useless!
Under pressure, Old Lady Li divided the grain. Wang Lingling got over 200 jin (roughly 100 kg) of coarse grain and the remaining fine grain.
Ignoring the Li family completely, Wang Lingling ran outside, grabbed a wooden board, loaded the grain on top, and dragged it away herself.
As soon as she was gone, the Li family shut the front door, and the sons all began to panic.
“Mom, how could you just let her go?”
Now that they’d split things, how were they supposed to sell the rest of the grain?
Surely, they couldn’t go into town themselves, could they?
Old Lady Li slammed the table so hard it shook. “You’re blaming me? You think this is my fault? The grain was eaten by all of us! If we hadn’t given her a share, that little tramp would’ve reported us. You can all say goodbye to your jobs!”
Old Lady Li turned to her eldest daughter-in-law: “You tell me—why did she come today anyway? Isn’t it still too early to start selling the grain?”
Eldest Daughter-in-law: “She said her in-laws’ brigade had a bad harvest. Wang Lingling came to get some grain to tide things over.”
Indeed, the brigade Wang Lingling belonged to also experienced a poor harvest.
Wang Lingling hadn’t seen it coming. In her past life, she never paid much attention to such matters—she only knew the Seventh Brigade didn’t lack grain. She hadn’t realized that the Fifth Brigade of the Hongqi Commune was facing a shortage, and a severe one at that.
She didn’t come just to take grain today—her plan was to grab twenty jin of grain to get by for now.
But instead, she ended up in this whole mess.
Old Lady Li chuckled coldly. “Wang Lingling, what a fool.”
If she had just taken a few dozen jin of grain today, things would’ve gone smoothly for her back home.
But now she hauled back nearly three hundred jin. And she lived right next to her husband’s extended family…
Old Lady Li’s frustration eased considerably—so long as Wang Lingling ended up worse off than her, she was satisfied.
Old Lady Li made arrangements: “This is all the grain we’ve got. If we sell it in the city, it’ll be gone in a few days. You all should ask for leave from the factory—at worst, they’ll dock your pay. Once we sell off all the grain, we’ll have money.”
But none of her sons responded to this plan.
Second Son of the Li family braved up and said, “Ma, it’s not that we don’t want to go, it’s just… the risk is too high.”
If Wang Lingling were the one selling the grain, they’d happily collect the profit. But if they had to do it themselves, they weren’t keen.
The eldest son chimed in: “Exactly, Ma. We’ve got proper jobs. What if a coworker sees us? How are we supposed to live that down?”
None of the sons were willing.
Old Lady Li turned to the daughters-in-law—but aside from Wang Pingping, none of them were fools.
The other daughters-in-law were all from town. None wanted to get involved in shady business.
Old Lady Li considered sending Wang Pingping alone, but she was just a woman—she couldn’t carry heavy bags, and she wouldn’t be able to handle trouble if something came up.
Old Lady Li was stuck.
Suddenly, the eldest daughter-in-law offered, “Do we have to go into the city? What about that guy—Little Sis’s fiancé? Doesn’t he work at a state-run restaurant? He probably knows people. Maybe he can hook us up and get someone to come pick up the grain. One hand for the goods, one hand for the cash—clean and easy.”
Old Lady Li thought that made sense. Her youngest daughter and Xie Yuejin had already set the date for the wedding—it was right before the Mid-Autumn Festival. Perfect timing. Since she wasn’t asking for a dowry from Xie Yuejin, she could just ask him for this favor. Ideal.
“Eldest daughter-in-law has a point. Yuejin works at the restaurant—how could a cook not have connections? He must know people.”
Second son chimed in, “Then let Little Sis talk to her fiancé. Best if he can negotiate a higher price. Makes our lives easier.”
Just then, Li Ying’s voice came from outside: “Negotiate a higher price? What are you talking about? What should I say to Yuejin?”
She hadn’t come straight home earlier. She’d stopped by to eat another bowl of noodles with Xie Yuejin. Now she was just arriving.
Old Lady Li’s face lit up as if she’d seen a pile of gold—full of affection.
“Come, Ma’s got something to discuss with you. If you handle this well, not only will we skip the dowry, I’ll even give you a comforter as a wedding gift.”
…
Let’s leave Li family’s schemes for now—on Wang Lingling’s end, she struggled to drag the grain. Not far from Li’s house, she ran out of steam, panting hard. She found a passerby to help and borrowed a handcart. Bit by bit—dragging, lifting, carrying—she finally got all the grain back home.
She was spotted the moment she entered her brigade. No one approached her directly, but their stares made it clear.
People didn’t have a good impression of Wang Lingling.
First, she insisted on marrying Zhao Jun even though he was considered a poor match. Second, her maternal family had a bad reputation. Third, her mother-in-law and sisters-in-law had badmouthed her quite a bit.
Though honestly, their gossip wasn’t all false. After just six months of marriage, she was already demanding to split from the family unit.
That kind of behavior gave the old gossiping aunties enough material to talk about her all year.
But Wang Lingling didn’t care. All she could think about now were her two children. She didn’t give a damn what anyone said.
In fact, the fact that she didn’t get along with the villagers was perfect—when Zhao Jun made it big someday, all those distant relatives and fellow villagers had better stay away!
Her arms ached, her legs felt like jelly. She gulped down water like a cow the moment she entered the house.
Zhao Dong and Zhao Xi weren’t home—probably out playing.
She didn’t mind. She started hiding the grain—stuffing it into the kang bed’s storage, into cabinets, into the cellar. She hid all 300 jin of grain, determined to wait for prices to rise in the city before selling.
Zhao Dong burst in like a cannonball. He’d been playing all day and was starving. He shouted, “Stepmom! Make dinner already! What are you doing drinking water! You’re like a lazy donkey, always needing a pee break!”
He had no idea how inappropriate those words were—he was just parroting what he heard adults say.
He gave Wang Lingling a scornful look. Her hair was messy from hauling grain, her clothes torn in several places, face streaked with dried sweat and dust, and a wound on her head from fighting with Wang Pingping. She looked utterly disheveled.
Zhao Dong often heard his grandma badmouth Wang Lingling and figured she had married into the family as a desperate move.
The small child said viciously, “You’re not dead yet, are you? Hurry up and make food—I’m starving! If I go hungry, I’ll tell my dad and have him whip you!”
Wang Lingling didn’t react to the first part—kids often babbled nonsense from what they picked up.
But that last part—she couldn’t ignore it.
She stared blankly at Zhao Dong.
Seeing her stunned, Zhao Dong grew bolder: “My dad said you’re here to take care of me and my sister. If we get bullied, I should secretly call him. Look, he even wrote down the phone number! If you don’t feed me, I’ll have him come back and beat you!”
Wang Lingling felt as if she had been struck by lightning.
After getting married, she had treated Zhao Dong and Zhao Xi—if not with total indulgence, then certainly with wholehearted effort.
She thought that even if others didn’t understand what she had done, Zhao Jun at least would.
After all, she had married him without asking for anything, severed ties with her own family for him, and even told Zhao Jun she was willing to delay having her own children—for the sake of his two kids.
And the result?
He had secretly instructed the children to be wary of her, afraid she might mistreat them.
Zhao Dong was still loudly calling her “stepmom” and complaining he was hungry. Wang Lingling saw stars before her eyes.
Suddenly, she roared, “Shut up!”
Zhao Dong was so frightened he didn’t dare make another sound. He wasn’t oblivious to people’s moods—he only treated Wang Lingling poorly because he thought she was easy to bully. But now that she was acting differently, he immediately clammed up.
He was just a small child—if Wang Lingling got angry, she could hit him.
The village kids always said that stepmothers were the type to hit children. Even if they didn’t at first, they would eventually. Not only would they hit you, they’d also starve you.
Zhao Dong was scared. While Wang Lingling wasn’t paying attention, he quickly ran off. Just before leaving, he couldn’t resist yelling “stepmom” one more time.
Hmph, showing her true colors now, huh? Stepmothers are all the same. He was going to tell Grandma. And in a few days, he’d tell Dad too—he’d have Dad come back and hit the stepmom!
Zhao Dong ran off, while Wang Lingling sat there like someone who had lost her soul, staring blankly at the table for a long time without saying a single word.
