The Stepmother's Counterattack: Raising a Child in a Bygone Era-Chapter 24 - Pei Ziheng Gets into a Fight
Chapter 24: Chapter 24 Pei Ziheng Gets into a Fight
Chapter 24 -24 Pei Ziheng Gets into a Fight
Upon learning the purpose of Shen Baolan bringing people to her door, Shen Mingzhu almost didn’t burst into laughter.
She unapologetically expressed her refusal, “Baolan, you didn’t even mention it beforehand, and now you’ve suddenly brought people over for me to make egg cakes.
I wasn’t prepared for this.
I’m afraid it won’t be possible today.
I’m really sorry for making everyone come here for nothing.”
Shen Baolan had not easily persuaded several mothers to come over hoping to see Shen Mingzhu make a fool of herself, so there was no easy way to dismiss them.
“Mingzhu, are you hiding your skills for fear that we’ll steal your craft?”
Shen Mingzhu sipped her tea nonchalantly, “To be honest, indeed, my skill in baking egg cakes is not to be taught to outsiders.
If someone wants to learn, it’s fifty yuan per person for the teaching fee.
However, one thing to note, once you learn my craft, you are not to pass it on without my permission.”
Shen Baolan’s eyes bulged wider than copper bells, “A fifty yuan teaching fee, are you trying to rob us?”
“If you find it expensive, you don’t have to learn.
I’m not forcing you.
Honestly, I’m counting on this skill to make a living.
I don’t want to teach a disciple only to starve myself to death.
Since we’re all from the same residential complex, I’ll give a discount.
Anyone who wants to learn can sign up now; I’ll only charge forty yuan per person, guaranteed teaching success.”
The mothers had come following the excitement, and upon hearing Shen Mingzhu’s words, their expressions turned awkward.
“Ziheng’s mom, you’ve misunderstood.
We just came to visit and chat, not to learn the craft.”
“We heard you can make egg cakes and even earn money from it.
Everyone was just curious and wanted to come have a look.”
Shen Mingzhu smiled, “There’s no spectacle to see here, but I welcome everyone to sit down and chat over tea.
Please take a seat, and I’ll go cut some fruit to serve.”
Shen Baolan spoke mockingly, “Enough, Mingzhu.
You might be able to deceive others but you can’t fool me.
Back in our hometown, you couldn’t even cook rice.
Now you suddenly know how to make egg cakes once you moved to the city?
Tell the truth, are those egg cakes you bought from outside just to fool people?”
Shen Mingzhu did not expect Shen Baolan’s imagination to be so vivid and felt both annoyed and amused for a moment.
However, she wouldn’t be so foolish as to bake egg cakes on the spot just because of Shen Baolan’s questioning to prove her innocence.
With that effort, she’d rather focus on more ways to make money.
“Baolan, think what you like, but I’ll repeat what I said, if you want to learn the craft, you have to pay the teaching fee first.”
“Shen Mingzhu, keep making up stories.
If you can really make egg cakes, I’ll read my name backwards!”
No matter how Shen Baolan provoked her, Shen Mingzhu refused to take the bait.
The mothers were initially skeptical about Shen Baolan’s words, but seeing that Shen Mingzhu adamantly refused to make egg cakes to prove her ability, they began to believe Shen Baolan’s claims by eighty percent.
The next day, rumors spread throughout the residential complex that Shen Mingzhu couldn’t bake egg cakes at all, and some even started calling her the “Bragging King.”
Shen Mingzhu didn’t know about any of this, and even if she did, she wouldn’t care.
True gold is not afraid of the refiner’s fire; whether she has the skill or not isn’t up to others to judge.
Although Pei Wenping’s house was a bit larger than the Pei Family’s, it couldn’t accommodate the larger number of people.
Aside from her in-laws, there was also a younger brother-in-law.
Pei Wenping herself had a pair of children, making it seven people living in a three-bedroom apartment.
To be honest, it was quite cramped, but the family atmosphere was quite harmonious.
The family, all cultured, never looked down upon Shen Mingzhu for her rural household registration, at least not outwardly.
Pei Wenping was in charge of cooking that afternoon and prepared a full table of dishes.
After lunch, Pei Wenping took the twins out shopping with Shen Mingzhu and Pei Ziheng for a mother-son outing, and when they got tired, they went to see a movie.
Pei Wenping’s husband, Chen Yi, was a literary writer and also a scriptwriter for a film studio.
The movie tickets Pei Wenping gave her last time were from Chen Yi’s workplace.
After watching the movie and returning home, Pei Wenping’s mother-in-law and husband had already prepared the dough for dumplings, just waiting for Shen Mingzhu to make the filling.
“Sister-in-law, that time I ate pork and cabbage dumplings at your place, they were so delicious I’ve been thinking about them ever since.
You really must teach me how to make them.”
Shen Mingzhu, being with her own family, was naturally not stingy and taught Pei Wenping several ways to season dumpling fillings without holding back.
After the dumplings were boiled, the Chen Family members enjoyed them immensely, jokingly saying that Shen Mingzhu could open a dumpling shop and surely do a roaring trade.
Speaking of business, Pei Wenping curiously asked Shen Mingzhu how much she had earned doing business with Wang Defa.
Shen Mingzhu did not hide it.
This certainly shocked both Pei Wenping and the Chen Family.
Ten yuan might not sound like much, but earning ten yuan a day, couldn’t one make three hundred in a month?
Pei Wenping, working as an accountant at the cotton mill, didn’t make a hundred yuan a month, even with allowances.
“Oh, sister-in-law, you really have made something of yourself.
When Pei Yang calls back, I must tell him, so he won’t look down on you.”
Shen Mingzhu smiled amusedly to herself, thinking that this was just the tip of the iceberg; what she knew was far more than this.
After finishing the dumplings, Pei Wenping brought out several heavy bundles of old books, textbooks from Chen Family’s younger brother’s elementary, middle, and high school years, for Shen Mingzhu to take back for studying.
The books were too many to carry, so Pei Wenping and her husband went out of their way to escort her and her son back to the family compound.
Shen Mingzhu and Pei Ziheng took the bus, while Pei Wenping and her husband followed behind on a motorcycle.
Outside the bus window, the street scene quickly receded.
Pei Ziheng appeared to be looking outside, but in reality, he was observing Shen Mingzhu through the reflection in the window glass.
He increasingly felt that the woman beside him was not the same evil stepmother from his previous life.
A person’s habits might be disguised, but speech, knowledge, and upbringing are engraved in one’s bones and cannot be changed.
Could she be a soul transference recipient?
If he could be reborn, then the fantastical idea of soul transference wouldn’t be so surprising.
But he was puzzled, where had the original Shen Mingzhu gone, and would she ever come back?
——
The next day was Sunday.
Early in the morning, children came running to call Pei Ziheng down to play.
Shen Mingzhu recognized a few of the kids from the family compound, one of them being Zhou Hao.
Pei Ziheng did not want to go and was forcibly sent out the door by Shen Mingzhu.
After spending some time together, she had noticed that her stepson was not only distant towards her as a stepmother, but also indifferent towards the people and things around him, even showing tendencies of being reclusive, often locking himself in his room without anyone knowing what he was doing.
If this continued, even if her stepson didn’t grow up to be a villain, he might develop psychological issues.
While he was still young, the best course was to get him out of the house more often, to play with peers, in the hope that he might slowly become more cheerful and extroverted.
After sending her stepson out, Shen Mingzhu put on gloves, tied on an apron, and began cleaning.
She had been busy with the oven and baking sponge cakes recently and hadn’t cleaned the house in almost a week.
“Madam Pei Yang, are you at home?”
With the tape recorder playing music, Shen Mingzhu listened to music while doing household chores, which was why she didn’t hear someone knocking on the door for quite some time.
After turning off the music and opening the door, she found it was Old Madam Yang from downstairs.
“Oh, Madam Pei Yang, you better hurry downstairs and see, your Xiaohuan is fighting with someone.”
Upon hearing that Pei Ziheng was fighting downstairs, Shen Mingzhu immediately dropped the mop, grabbed her keys, and ran downstairs.
