Lin Wanqiu had just coaxed Shen Nian'an to sleep, her hand still soft from touching her son's warm cheek as she tucked him in, when a loud cursing voice, comparable to a village loudspeaker, came from outside the courtyard gate, mixed with the sound of banging on the door, making the window frames tremble.
"Lin Wanqiu! You jinx! Get out here and open the door! Don't think that just because you're hiding in the house pretending to be dead, I can't do anything to you!" Old Mrs. Shen's voice was filled with anger, like dirty water being splashed, raining down on the yard.
Lin Wanqiu's eyes turned cold, and the anger she had just suppressed flared up again. She touched the jade pendant on her chest—it was the key to her spatial storage. When she was putting Niannian to sleep earlier, she had gone in and rummaged around. She not only found two bags of fine rice, but also a basket of frozen pork in the corner. She was just planning to make Niannian a bowl of meat porridge tonight to nourish her, when this old lady Shen really knew how to pick her time, coming to cause trouble right on cue.
She tiptoed out of the inner room, and as soon as she reached the main room, she heard Zhang Lan's voice outside the door, high-pitched and thin: "Wanqiu, please open the door! My mother is only doing this for your own good. You fell into the river yesterday and were frightened, so my mother specially cooked corn porridge to help you and Niannian recover. Don't be ungrateful!"
"Corn porridge?" Lin Wanqiu scoffed, walking to the door and deliberately slowing down the opening speed. She hadn't forgotten that yesterday the original owner of this body was pushed into the river by Old Lady Shen. Today, this mother-in-law and daughter-in-law were able to lie through their teeth, turning black into white. Their acting skills were so good that they could star in a melodrama if they were in modern times.
The door creaked open, and Old Mrs. Shen, carrying a chipped, rough porcelain bowl, strode in. Her triangular eyes darted around, first scanning the kang table, then glancing at the stove, all the while muttering, "You little whore, dawdling like that, are you hiding something good in here? Hurry up and take it out, or I'll tear this shabby house down today!"
Zhang Lan followed behind, her eyes greedily fixed on Lin Wanqiu's clothes—a faded blue cotton jacket, old but clean, much better than the three-patched clothes she was wearing. She swallowed hard and said insincerely, "Wanqiu, don't be angry with my mother. She's just worried about you. We were terrified when you fell into the river yesterday. Luckily, you're lucky, otherwise Niannian would be a motherless child."
Lin Wanqiu leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed, looking at them without a trace of fear on her face: "Worried about me? I didn't see that at all. What I did see was that you were quite worried about whether I had any food in my room." She paused, her gaze falling on the rough porcelain bowl in Old Mrs. Shen's hand, "Mother, is this corn porridge in your bowl? It smells like the bran left over from feeding the pigs yesterday?"
When Old Mrs. Shen's lie was exposed, her face instantly turned a deep purplish-red. She slammed the bowl down on the kang table, the bottom of the bowl hitting the table with a loud "clang," which startled Shen Nian'an in the inner room, who let out a soft groan.
Lin Wanqiu's eyes sharpened. She stepped forward and pointed at Old Madam Shen's nose: "Mother, if you want to argue, let's go outside. Don't scare my son! Niannian was frightened yesterday. If you frighten him again and something happens to him, can you take responsibility?"
Old Mrs. Shen was intimidated by her imposing manner and took a step back, then became domineering again: "Don't try to scare me with Niannian! Niannian is a member of the Shen family, and I can do whatever I want with her! As for you, you fell into the river yesterday but didn't die. Did you secretly hide some treasure? Otherwise, how do you have the strength to talk back to me?"
As she spoke, she reached for the quilt on the kang (a heated brick bed), trying to find any hidden grain. Lin Wanqiu reacted quickly, grabbing her wrist and tightening his grip. Old Mrs. Shen winced in pain and cursed, "You little slut! You dare to lay a hand on me? You've gone too far!"
"Me, lay a hand on him?" Lin Wanqiu sneered. "Mother, think back to who pushed me into the river yesterday! If I hadn't been lucky, I would have been fish food by now, and I wouldn't even have the chance to talk to you here."
Upon hearing this, Old Mrs. Shen's eyes widened in panic. She dared not look Lin Wanqiu in the eye, muttering, "You...you're talking nonsense! Who pushed you into the river? You clearly fell in by accident!"
Zhang Lan quickly stepped in to smooth things over: "Wanqiu, you must be mistaken. The wind was strong by the river yesterday, and you must have lost your footing and fallen in. My mother loves you so much, how could she push you? Don't wrong an innocent person."
"A good person?" Lin Wanqiu released Old Madam Shen's wrist and pointed to the inner room. "If they were good people, would they let Niannian starve to the point of being skin and bones? If they were good people, would they take all the coarse grains from their dowry and feed them to Dabao, leaving Niannian to gnaw on tree bark?"
Her voice wasn't loud, but every word was piercing. Old Mrs. Shen and Zhang Lan's faces turned pale and then red; they stood there, speechless for a long time.
Just then, as if suddenly remembering something, Old Mrs. Shen's eyes lit up, and she pointed at Lin Wanqiu's chest: "What are you wearing around your neck? Is it a jade pendant? I remember your mother had a jade pendant with her as part of her dowry, is this it?"
Lin Wanqiu's heart tightened, and she instinctively clutched her chest. This jade pendant was the key to her spatial dimension; she absolutely couldn't let Old Madam Shen take it. She forced herself to remain calm: "Mother, it's just an ordinary jade pendant, it's worthless, please don't worry about it."
"An ordinary jade pendant?" Old Madam Shen clearly didn't believe it. She stepped forward and reached out to snatch it. "I don't think so! Quickly take it off and let me see it. If it's valuable, consider it your tribute to the Shen family!"
Lin Wanqiu dodged to the side, her tone turning cold: "Mother, this is a keepsake left to me by my mother, I would rather die than give it to anyone else! If you continue to make trouble like this, I will have no choice but to go to the brigade headquarters and ask the secretary for justice!"
"Go find the Party Secretary?" Old Mrs. Shen was taken aback for a moment, then became arrogant again. "You think the Party Secretary will help you? The Party Secretary is related to me, he will definitely help me! If you dare to go, I will say that you are disrespectful to your elders and want to seize the Shen family's property, and I will make you unable to hold your head up in the brigade!"
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