The Stepmother's Counterattack: Raising a Child in a Bygone Era-Chapter 37 - Shen Baolan Sets Up a Stall
Chapter 37: Chapter 37: Shen Baolan Sets Up a Stall
Chapter 37 -37: Shen Baolan Sets Up a Stall
Shen Mingzhu unwrapped the tightly packaged cloth bundle and was surprised to find the deep-fried tofu and crispy meat Qin Jinlian had made in the morning, still warm.
She had gotten up before dawn and busied herself with these, all so Shen Mingzhu could take them back to the city to eat?
For some reason, the tip of Shen Mingzhu’s nose felt a little sour.
In her previous life, her biological parents had divorced when she was just in the first grade of elementary school, and her custody was awarded to her father’s side.
Sadly, he was a deadbeat who spent his days working, drinking, and bar-hopping, changing girlfriends as if they were crops to be harvested.
After the divorce, her mother had swiftly remarried, starting a new family and having a little brother and sister, paying no attention to her.
Although she seemingly had both parents, she lived like an orphan.
Therefore, confronted with the heavy bag of fried tofu and crispy meat, she suddenly felt her defenses breaking down.
Looking at Qin Jinlian, who was still sulking on the edge of the kang, Shen Mingzhu took out twenty yuan from her bag and handed it over.
Qin Jinlian turned her face away, “I wouldn’t dare take your money.
Don’t go around saying I’m the evil stepmother leeching off your blood.”
“If you don’t want it, that’s fine, I’ll save some money,” Shen Mingzhu replied, about to take the money back, but Qin Jinlian snatched it away.
“You infuriating girl, just go ahead and anger me to death!”
Qin Jinlian tucked the money into her pocket and glanced outside the door, lowering her voice to ask about Pei Ziheng.
“How’s your relationship with the kid?”
“It’s pretty good,” Shen Mingzhu answered.
“Good my ass!
That kid’s been back for several days and hasn’t even once called out to anyone.
It’s clear he hasn’t been raised properly.
Has he called you?”
Upon reflection, Shen Mingzhu realized he hadn’t.
Pei Ziheng was usually a man of few words, rarely spoke, and Shen Mingzhu didn’t have much expectation on this front, being content with just getting through the day, so she didn’t mind too much.
However, Qin Jinlian saw it differently.
Even though she had persuaded her daughter to become a stepmother for the sake of money, she still hoped that her daughter could have a good life.
“What’s the use of having such a big head if you can’t even coax a child?
What else can I expect from you?”
Shen Mingzhu thought to herself that Pei Ziheng was not an ordinary child—this was a twisted and dark-hearted little villain.
Considering that, getting along with him as well as she did was already not easy, was it?
“Mom, since you’re good at coaxing children, why don’t you show me how?”
“Dream on, you should coax your own child, I’m too lazy to do it for you.”
Qin Jinlian said and then she left.
Shen Mingzhu pursed the corner of her mouth and continued tidying up.
After leaving the house and looking around, Qin Jinlian didn’t see Pei Ziheng’s figure, so she walked towards the front gate.
Stepping out of the courtyard door, she saw Pei Ziheng playing marbles with a few kids from the village aged around six or seven.
Qin Jinlian stood and watched for a while before calling out, “Xiaohuan, come here for a second.”
Pei Ziheng turned his head to look at Qin Jinlian, then slowly got up and walked over.
Qin Jinlian smiled and stuffed a red envelope into his hand, “Here, grandma’s gift for you.
Go buy some sweets with it.”
As soon as Pei Ziheng accepted the red envelope, Qin Jinlian immediately added, “Come visit your grandma and grandpa often, alright?”
Pei Ziheng nodded.
“Just nodding won’t do.
You need to say it out loud.
You have to say, ‘I understand, grandma.'”
Qin Jinlian deliberately emphasized the word “grandma,” hoping to coax Pei Ziheng into calling her that.
But Pei Ziheng was not fooled, his lips pursed as tight as a clamshell.
After quite some coaxing and talking herself dry, Pei Ziheng still refused to open his mouth to call her.
Qin Jinlian ran out of patience, waving her hand to let him go back to playing with the other children.
She turned around and went home in displeasure.
However, she failed to notice the sneer that flickered across Pei Ziheng’s eyes after she turned her back.
In his previous life, after his father’s incident, Qin Jinlian always turned up her nose at him during her visits and even frequently egged on the malicious Shen Mingzhu to discard him.
Once back in the city, Shen Mingzhu shared some of the deep-fried tofu, crispy meat, and fresh dates, along with other local specialties, with Pei Wenping.
Though it wasn’t worth much money nor was it a rare item, it still represented a piece of her heart.
As for Shen Baolan causing the original host to fall into a ditch, after much thought, Shen Mingzhu decided not to confront Shen Baolan about it for the time being.
So much time had passed since the incident, and any evidence had long since disappeared; Shen Baolan could easily deny it all or claim she accidentally spilled the oil on the road.
Yet, one thing was for certain—if Shen Baolan harbored ill intentions toward her, she would eventually slip up one day.
Shen Baolan was unaware that her past misdeeds had been exposed; she had been dedicated to mastering the art of pastry baking during this time.
“Come on, come on, fresh from the oven egg cakes, come and try…”
Before she could finish speaking, the Zhou family members who were sitting in the living room quickly got up and retreated to their respective rooms, as if what Shen Baolan brought over was not egg cakes but a bomb.
Only the youngest, Zhou Hao, was still sitting on the couch, cluelessly unaware of what had just happened.
“Xiaohao, come, try this.”
Seeing the egg cake brought to his mouth, Zhou Hao bit into it without hesitation.
Just as Shen Baolan was about to ask if it tasted good, she saw her stepson spit out the egg cake with a ‘ptui’ onto the ground.
“It doesn’t taste good at all, not as tasty as what Pei Ziheng’s stepmom makes!”
Zhou Hao spoke his mind innocently, but Shen Baolan was so angry it felt like a heart attack.
She tried a piece herself, unbelieving.
It was sweet and fluffy with a strong egg aroma, yet it still fell short compared to Shen Mingzhu’s egg cakes by a long shot.
“Shuhuan…”
As soon as Zhou Shuhuan saw Shen Baolan carrying the egg cakes into the room, he immediately turned his back, “Don’t bring them in here, I won’t eat.”
It wasn’t that Shen Baolan’s egg cakes were inedible, but he had had them every single day recently, to the point where he was utterly sick of them.
Shen Baolan couldn’t figure it out, “Shen Mingzhu also learned from books, and I followed the recipes exactly, why can’t I make them like she does?”
Zhou Shuhuan said to her, “I think you should stop trying so hard and just humbly pay the tuition to learn from her.”
Shen Baolan, with her strong and unyielding nature, had always been at odds with Shen Mingzhu since childhood.
To ask her to bow down and admit defeat to Shen Mingzhu would be like stabbing herself in the heart, wouldn’t it?
Even if she truly wanted to apprentice, she wouldn’t seek Shen Mingzhu!
—-
After sending Pei Ziheng to kindergarten and on her way back, Shen Mingzhu could see even from a distance that there was a crowd gathered at the entrance of the family housing complex.
As she drew closer and saw what was happening, she couldn’t help but laugh.
It turned out that Shen Baolan’s mother-in-law was setting up a stall selling egg cakes and Double Ninth cakes.
Seeing her, Ma Sufen immediately began to shout loudly, “Here’s your tasty and affordable egg cakes, only two for thirty cents a kilo, welcome to try.
We’re all neighbors here, just earning a bit of hardworking money.
Not like some, heartless and conscienceless, selling at high prices, that’s utterly disgraceful!”
Shen Mingzhu pretended not to notice that Ma Sufen was dissing her, glanced over, and went back home.
Ma Sufen spat in the direction of Shen Mingzhu’s retreating figure and then turned back to continue her shouting.
“Yo, Baolan, what’s the good occasion today?
I see you smiling ear to ear all day long.”
Feeling happy inside, Shen Baolan opened up when asked by a coworker, “Nothing much, just that my mother-in-law and I set up a small stall to do some business, just to make some extra change to spend.”
“That’s nice, isn’t it?
The whole family is earning money, no fear of not living a good life then.”
“Yes, it’s alright…”
Shen Baolan replied modestly, but in her heart, she thought this was just the beginning.
If one day her husband became a millionaire, only then would they really live the good life.
After work, Shen Baolan pedaled her bicycle feverishly, wishing she could grow wings and fly back home to see how her mother-in-law’s stall did for the day.
When she reached the family housing complex’s entrance and saw her mother-in-law’s stall gone, she was thrilled beyond expectation.
They must have sold out so quickly!
She always knew it; whatever Shen Mingzhu could do, she could do just as well!
