Jiang Ning was still sleepy and drowsy, looking up with a blank expression.

An elderly woman, about 1.5 meters tall, stood in front of the bed, wearing a gray cotton-padded jacket and black pants, her dark yellow face contorted in a grimace.

Lin Chen rushed over, pulled up the blanket, and covered Jiang Ning's fair, smooth shoulders.

Then, his arm, like a pair of large pincers, pushed Lin Zhoushi out.

Jiang Ning then came to her senses and heard Lin Chen's angry voice outside the door: "Grandma, what are you doing? Ningning is still sleeping, how could you come in without knocking?"

She smiled knowingly, and slowly got up to put on her clothes.

"What new bride doesn't have to get up early to cook the next day? How can she be so lazy!"

I told you, these educated youths in the city are too delicate to marry! They can't even handle one night of this. Think back to when I was pregnant with your father, I still had to work in the fields, and during my postpartum confinement in the dead of winter, I had to wash my own diapers..."

Lin Zhoushi then launched into another long-winded explanation of her own past practices.

Before she could finish speaking, Lin Chen glared at her angrily and shouted to stop her:

"Grandma, I know you suffered a lot back then, but does everyone else have to suffer the same pain? If you suffer, it's because I don't know how to care for others."

I love my wife dearly. From now on, she can do the housework if she wants, and she doesn't have to if she doesn't want to.

Jiang Ning paused in braiding her hair, and a sweet smile returned to her face.

In his previous life, even if the two of them didn't do anything intimate, he didn't make her do any work, especially since he had already developed a taste for it.

Lin Zhou's deeply lined face grew even more gloomy, and she simply sat down on the ground and began to wail.

"What sins have I committed! I thought I'd be enjoying the blessings of having a grandson, but who knew he'd be completely bewitched by that vixen..."

Crying, making a scene, and threatening suicide are common tactics used by shrewish women in rural areas. She was trying to morally blackmail Lin Chen in this way.

Lin Chen remained unmoved and firmly told her that he would never let anyone who dared to do anything to Jiang Ning get away with it!

At this moment, his mother, Wang Xiufen, came out of another room while putting on her shoes, and said with an apologetic smile:

"Mom, get up quickly, I'll go cook dinner right away."

Wang Xiufen is only 48 years old, but because her husband died early, she has to raise two children and is also tormented by her mother-in-law, so she looks like an old lady, with her short hair that reaches her ears turning a little gray.

Lin Chen went to join the army at the age of fifteen. When she left, she was considered the most beautiful girl in the village. I never expected that she would return six years later looking so old.

"Mom, isn't it Uncle's turn to cook today?"

Lin Chen has been back for half a month, and he can feel that his uncle's family and grandmother are very welcoming to him. They also agreed to work in shifts every day.

When questioned, Wang Xiufen rubbed the hem of her clothes with both hands, looking flustered, and kept her head down without saying a word.

Lin Qiao, the younger sister who came out with her, couldn't bear to watch any longer. Her face flushed red, she mustered her courage and said to her older brother:

“Brother, you don’t know, in the years you’ve been gone, Mom has been fetching water, cooking, and washing clothes. Besides all that, she also has to work. Every day before dawn, she has to go to the pond a mile away to fetch water. She has to fetch six buckets of water a day. One winter, she fell in the snow while fetching water and was bedridden for a month.”

I was assigned to my uncle's family to do the work for a month, and my grandmother scolded me for it.

I want to help my mom with chores, but she won't let me; she tells me to focus on my studies. I've already been accepted into high school, but Grandma just won't let me go!

Lin Qiao became increasingly aggrieved as she spoke, and tears streamed down her face.

She was only fifteen years old and had never been protected by a man since childhood, so she was timid and fearful by nature.

Lin Chen held her shoulders and shook her, his eyes bloodshot.

"Why didn't you tell me any of this! You didn't tell me when you wrote to me before, and you still won't tell me now that I'm back!"

"Because Grandma forbade us to talk about it. She said if we dared to complain, she would go to the commune to ruin your reputation and make it impossible for you to become the militia company commander."

Lin Qiao sniffled, already sobbing uncontrollably.

Lin Zhoushi, who had just been wailing, suddenly looked around with her triangular eyes and exclaimed in a panic:

“You brat, when did I ever say such a thing! Xiao Chen, don’t listen to your sister’s nonsense. There’s so much work to do at home, how could we let your mother do it all by herself? You’ve seen it yourself these past few days, your aunt’s family is also taking turns doing the work.”

Lin Chen clenched his fists, the veins on the back of his hands bulging.

"If I don't believe her, should I believe you! You've always favored your uncle's family since we were little. If my dad hadn't worked so hard in the fields and at home, he wouldn't have died from exhaustion! I thought that sending money back every month would make you stop! I was blind to your act!"

His voice choked as he spoke, supporting his swaying mother.

Wang Xiufen forced back her tears and shook her head at him: "Xiao Chen, we're all family. I did all this voluntarily."

It's just that the men died young, leaving the widowed mother and her children to rely on the Lin family for survival.

"Yes! We're all family, why be so petty!" A sharp voice came from the neighbor's house, followed by a large, fat body.

Despite being fifty years old, her face was oily and her cheeks were full, unlike Wang Xiufen's thin and aged appearance.

This person was none other than Yu Xiaofeng, the eldest son's wife.

Lin Zhoushi's husband died early, leaving behind two sons, the eldest Lin Baojia and the second Lin Weiguo.

Lin Baojia married Yu Xiaofeng, and they had a son and a daughter. The eldest daughter is already married, and the second son is Lin Tao, who is twenty-two years old this year.

Lin Weiguo married Wang Xiufen, and they also had a son and a daughter.

However, because Lin Weiguo passed away six years ago, Lin Chen went out to join the army in order to shoulder the burden of his family.

He was in the army. At first, he received a monthly salary of 23 yuan, plus 2 yuan in allowances. He could send 20 yuan back home and only kept a few yuan for himself to buy books and such. Anyway, the army provided everything, so his expenses were very low.

When he was promoted to platoon leader, his salary increased to thirty-six yuan and his allowance was three yuan, so he sent thirty yuan home.

In those days of earning work points, a person could only receive a little over a hundred yuan a year at most. The money he sent home was two or three hundred yuan a year, enough for his mother and sister to live a relatively comfortable life.

Seeing his mother and aunt standing together, the contrast was so stark, that he realized that over the years, very little of the money he had sent back had actually been used for his mother!

Lin Chen trembled, his eyes filled with malice as he looked at Yu Xiaofeng.

"Aunt, you don't seem to mind at all, because you're the one who benefits!"

He was simply unaware of the situation before; he wasn't willing to be a victim of injustice.

Now that he's back, he certainly won't let them leech off him anymore.

"What? Is this human language? Why are you talking about taking advantage of others when you're family?" Madam Lin Zhou was furious.

She always doted on Lin Baojia, and by extension, she took extra care of the eldest son's family, constantly colluding with Yu Xiaofeng to torment Wang Xiufen.

The two of them stood on the same side, their eyes fixed intently on Lin Chen!

Jiang Ning scoffed, "Who are you trying to scare!"

She walked to Lin Chen's side, took his arm, and looked at them with sharp eyes:

“Ah Chen, let’s separate the family. I believe Grandma and Aunt won’t mind.”