"Lightning flashed and thunder roared, and torrential rain poured down."

The sobbing was barely audible amidst the raindrops.

Ah Mian felt as if her heart was being torn apart, listening to bursts of laughter coming from inside the house.

It turns out she was a complete fool. Meng Chijian had been pretending all along, and now that she was pregnant, he had finally revealed his true colors.

Meng Chijian said, "A-Mian, you're nothing but a substitute. I've had enough of you!"

Amian was furious, never expecting her beloved husband to say such a thing.

She is the one and only Lu Amian, and she will never be anyone's substitute.

However, one day when Meng Chijian returned from blacksmithing, he was accompanied by a woman with tears streaming down her face.

"Brother, you still dare to argue?!" The coldest time of the year has arrived, and the girls' academy is on holiday. Meng Jing has been studying in the study these days. One day, while getting some leisure reading materials, she came across a travelogue that A-Mian had carelessly left lying around. After the book fell down, she discovered that it contained many papers, including A-Mian's handwriting.

After reading a few lines, Meng Jing was furious. Was her third brother even human? How dare he do such a heinous thing!

The Meng family has always been an honest and law-abiding family. If their father were still alive, he would not only break the man's legs, but also probably kick him out of the house.

Meng Jing thought of poor A Mian. They had been married for more than two years and finally had a child. How dare her third brother cause trouble again?

She took the papers to the kitchen and confronted her third brother.

Meng Chijian was cooking millet porridge in the kitchen. A layer of porridge oil had already formed on the surface of the porridge in the earthenware pot, which was a nourishing substance.

The kitchen wasn't too cold, and he was wearing only a thin shirt, busily attaching four wooden wheels to the strange thing he had woven earlier. This created a portable cradle that could be easily pushed around the yard.

"I'm not denying it, this must be a storybook written by A-Mian." Meng Chijian's expression was uncertain.

Meng Jing braced herself and asked, "Brother, what does 'stand-in' mean?"

"Support her my foot! If there were two Lu Amian in this world, would I even be able to live? Keep reading."

"oh……

As the saying goes, you only hear the laughter of the new, but never see the tears of the old.

The heartless Meng Chijian grew colder and colder towards A Mian each day, and when A Mian gave birth, he actually stayed out all night.

Heartbroken, Ah Mian left home one stormy night with her money and baby...

Ten years later…

Meng Chijian gritted his teeth, "It's already ten years later? Why aren't you studying anymore?"

"She didn't write anything after that." Xiao Jing had already turned to the last page.

Amian was warming herself by the fire in her mother's room, making small shoes and shirts. As long as she didn't need to embroider any patterns, Amian's skills were passable. Meanwhile, her mother was picking vegetables, chatting idly about village gossip.

Meng Chijian carried the rice porridge into the house, made A Mian drink most of the bowl, and then shot out a sharp, almost predatory look at her from the side.

Now no one can touch or pinch her; Ah Mian is like porcelain, to be handled with utmost care.

Therefore, Amian felt emboldened and took a nap after finishing her porridge. Only then did she go to the study, where there was no fire. She took her book and pen back to her mother's room and continued writing the story.

Meng Chijian was originally worried about the fuel problem at home. Before winter, he bought a donkey cartload of coal, which was only two shi (about 200 jin) and cost more than four liang of silver.

After the snow fell, the price of charcoal went up, and a cartload would cost at least five or six taels of silver.

To be honest, if A-Mian hadn't previously run a tofu pudding stall (which temporarily closed after the snowfall due to slippery roads), she wouldn't be able to afford the expenses now.

This winter is colder than last year.

The villagers had already looted all the firewood at the foot of the mountain, and even the branches further in had been picked clean, leaving only bare tree trunks.

Distracted by A-Mian's rambling story, Meng Chijian finally felt less anxious.

He hasn't been sleeping well these days.

The nightmare, which hadn't recurred for a long time, returned, only this time the person bleeding was different.

In those dreams, Ah Mian always lay quietly in a pool of blood.

There were no more strange ideas, no more sweet or infuriating words.

In his dream, Meng Chijian initially thought that A Mian was just teasing him and even argued with her for a while. Gradually, he felt that his limbs were not under his control and he could not breathe. Finally, a great fear woke him up from his dream.

Then he would check Ah Mian's breathing, and if everything was normal, he would gradually calm down.

In Ah Mian's storybook, she left with her family fortune and baby, but that wasn't even the most unacceptable thing for him. At least they were still alive, and he could always find a way to see them.

Meng Chijian believes he cannot afford another blow.

Ah Mian, the person involved, was completely unaware of this and was pondering what would happen ten years from now.

Since Meng Chijian has treated her badly, then let him become a beggar, and when he passes by her tofu shop, let the baby spit on him.

But the story ends so abruptly, it seems rather pointless.

A-Mian stopped writing, a flash of inspiration striking her.

It turns out that the woman from ten years ago was a huge misunderstanding; she was just an illegitimate daughter of the Meng family who had been separated from her family for a long time.

Ten years later, she opened many tofu shops and became a wealthy businesswoman (she certainly portrayed herself as very impressive), which made Meng Chijian, who came looking for his wife, feel intimidated and dare not show his face...

"Lu Amian! We're having hot pot tonight. Do you still have the frozen tofu you made a couple of days ago?"

Ah Mian tucked the two pages back into her travelogue and replied, "Also, I made two big plates of them, and they're in the cabinet on the left."

Frozen tofu is easy to make. Just place the tofu outside the room. When it's coldest at night, the tofu will freeze inside and develop many small holes on the surface. It will be ready in one or two days.

Meng Chijian took out a plate of frozen tofu and saw Lu Amian sneakily taking the travelogue back into the study.

He made a mental note of it, deciding to hold his tongue for now and settle the score with this person later.

Ah Mian put the books away and stopped being suspicious about whether Meng Chijian had changed.

Since being diagnosed with pregnancy, she has been living a much more comfortable life than before:

It's okay to leave books lying around, it's okay not to make the bed, there's no more punishment like copying or standing in the corner, and you can eat whatever you want. Ah Mian is now playing with pebbles on the bed, using loose silver coins as pebbles!

"Hey, is Third Brother crazy? Where did he get this mutton?"

Meng Jing looked on in surprise as Meng Chijian took out a leg of lamb weighing about three pounds from the oil paper.

"The last time we ate mutton at home, your father was still alive..." Meng's mother said with a touch of nostalgia, "Xiao Jing, if a man in this world has a wife he truly loves and cherishes, then as long as she smiles, he can accomplish even the most earth-shattering things."

What's so difficult about getting a leg of lamb?