The Stepmother's Counterattack: Raising a Child in a Bygone Era-Chapter 67 - You Just Can’t Stand to See Shen Mingzhu Doing Well, Can You
Chapter 67: Chapter 67: You Just Can’t Stand to See Shen Mingzhu Doing Well, Can You?
Chapter 67 -67: You Just Can’t Stand to See Shen Mingzhu Doing Well, Can You?
“Pei Yang, don’t do this.”
Pei Yang hung his head, his handsome face somewhat dim, “I have never even washed my mother’s feet like this.”
Shen Mingzhu felt as if there was cotton stuck in her throat, and suddenly she became speechless.
In the living room, only the faint sound of water and the man’s low voice could be heard.
“My mother toiled for us her whole life, and her feet were definitely not as delicate and smooth as yours.
Sometimes I wonder if it’s because I was such an unfilial son, making her work too hard, that she passed away so early.
Her only wish before she died was for me to marry a wife.
No matter how badly I behaved, I couldn’t let her rest uneasy even after death, so I married you.”
“Mingzhu.”
The man suddenly looked up at her, “I know I’m not a good husband, and it’s right for you to blame me in your heart.”
Taking advantage of Pei Yang’s relaxed grip, Shen Mingzhu pulled her foot back and quickly grabbed the towel next to her to wipe the water off her feet.
She feared that if she continued washing, it would lead to trouble.
Pei Yang just squatted by the washbasin, watching her movements, his thoughts indiscernible.
“There’s still hot water in the pot.
Pour out the dirty water and get some fresh hot water.”
After she finished speaking, Shen Mingzhu put on her shoes and quickly returned to the bedroom.
When she closed the door, she glanced at the living room one last time; the man was still squatting there, motionless, like a stone sculpture.
Click.
As the door closed, her line of sight was cut off.
Her heart might be soft and she might be moved, but these emotions had nothing to do with affection.
She couldn’t accept him just because she felt pity or was touched.
Moreover, she didn’t have the courage to knowingly embrace a BE ending without any regrets.
Thinking this, she felt inexplicably uncomfortable in her heart.
To be fair, the man was a good man with excellent character, yet he was destined to have a short life.
Heaven was too unfair to him.
She turned off the lights and closed her eyes, but the image of the man squatting in front of the sofa with his back turned to her wouldn’t leave her mind.
After lying down for a while, Shen Mingzhu resigned herself to getting up, quietly opening the bedroom door a crack.
Through the gap, she saw the man sitting on the sofa alone, his head resting against the back of the chair, seemingly lost in thought or asleep.
She hesitated, then opened the door and walked over.
Hearing her footsteps, Pei Yang looked up at her.
“What are you doing sitting here?
Why not go to your room to sleep?”
“Ziheng has locked the door, I am now a homeless person.”
Listening to the man’s plaintive tone, Shen Mingzhu silently returned to her own room.
Seeing the door left ajar, Pei Yang’s somber heart suddenly stirred.
As he pondered whether this was a signal from his wife, and whether he should take the opportunity to go in, he saw her come out of the room holding a pillow and blanket.
After placing the pillow and blanket on the sofa, Shen Mingzhu said, “Go to sleep early,” then went back into her room and closed the door.
Pei Yang: “…”
Looking at the pillow and blanket beside him, he didn’t know whether to laugh or get angry.
His wife seemed to feel a bit sorry for him, but not much.
Pei Yang, a tall man of over 1.8 meters, lay on the cold, hard sofa, unable to stretch his legs straight, curling up on his side, wrapping himself tightly with the blanket.
It was his house, yet he, the male owner, was reduced to sleeping in the living room.
Why should he!?
Pei Yang threw off the blanket and sat up abruptly, determined to assert his manhood!
But standing at the door to the master bedroom, his raised hand couldn’t bring itself to knock, and in the end, he turned silently to the next room.
Thump, thump, thump.
Thump, thump, thump.
Pei Ziheng was annoyed by the persistent knocking on the door, he flung off the blanket and jumped out of bed.
Opening the door—
“Why did you take so long to open the door?”
“Why didn’t you knock on the next door instead?”
Father and son said in unison, staring at each other.
Useless!
Watching Pei Yang head towards the bed with his blanket, Pei Ziheng couldn’t help but inwardly criticize.
In the darkness, the room was occasionally filled with the rustling sounds of turning over.
“Click.”
The light in the room was turned on.
Pei Yang turned his head and looked at his son sitting on the bed, asking, “Why haven’t you slept yet?”
Pei Ziheng looked at him expressionlessly, “You keep tossing and turning, it’s so annoying, no wonder Aunt Mingzhu refuses to sleep with you.”
“…”
It was bad enough being kicked out of the room by his wife, but now even his own son couldn’t stand him.
He really didn’t have a place in this family anymore; he shouldn’t have come back!
——
After leaving the Pei Family, Zhou Shuhuan took a stroll in the streets by himself, ran into an acquaintance halfway, and went to play a few rounds of cards, not returning home until 11 o’clock.
As soon as he closed the front door, the door to his room was opened, and the plump Shen Baolan leaned on the door frame, looking at him.
“Coming back so late, how could there be so much to talk about, talking for several hours.”
Zhou Shuhuan asked her, “Why haven’t you slept yet?”
“I was waiting for you.”
“Waiting for me for what?”
Since Baolan got pregnant, she could eat and sleep well; every night, as soon as she lay down, she would fall asleep, and not even thunder could wake her.
So, not sleeping until 11 pm was quite unusual.
Zhou Shuhuan went into his room and began to take off his clothes; Baolan followed him in and casually closed the door behind her.
“What did you and Pei Yang talk about all evening?”
“Didn’t talk about much.”
Baolan wasn’t satisfied, “When is Pei Yang planning to leave this time?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why don’t you ask him?”
Zhou Shuhuan gave her a sideways glance, irritated, “You just can’t stand to see Shen Mingzhu do well, can you?
Pei Yang leaves for half a year, and barely has time to come home to spend with his wife and son, yet you can’t wait for him to leave tomorrow.
Whether Pei Yang leaves or not, what’s it to you?
Are you sick in the head or something?”
Baolan touched her belly, “I was just asking casually; what are you being so fierce for?
You’ll regret it if you scare your son!”
Zhou Shuhuan glanced at Baolan’s pregnant belly and felt an inexplicable sense of annoyance.
Son, son, son, she only knew how to talk about having a son all day long, as if he didn’t have a son already!
Suppressing his anger, Zhou Shuhuan suddenly asked Baolan, “Didn’t you say before that Shen Mingzhu’s cooking is terrible?”
“Yeah…”
It was as if a switch had been flipped, and Baolan began to spit venom as she made up faults about Shen Mingzhu.
She said that Mingzhu, back in her rural hometown, overfed the pigs to death and lost the sheep she was supposed to herd, mistook eels for snakes while harvesting rice and ran around screaming, couldn’t even dry corn properly as it got soaked and sprouted, and the steamed buns she made were harder than rocks, they could make a hole in the ground when thrown, and even dogs wouldn’t eat them.
Previously, every time Zhou Shuhuan heard these things, he would feel incredibly relieved that he did not marry lazy Mingzhu.
But now, he only felt like he was stupid, tricked around like a fool.
If Mingzhu really couldn’t do anything right, how could she have made egg cakes and mooncakes?
He was really too stupid.
“…Do you know why Mingzhu ended up being a stepmother?
Because she’s good for nothing and couldn’t get married!”
“What about you, then?
Why did you marry a twice-married man like me and become Xiaohao’s stepmother?”
Baolan was caught off guard by the counter-question and failed to notice the mockery in Zhou Shuhuan’s tone.
“I, I like being a stepmother!”
Baolan’s response was quick, but she didn’t realize that her husband found her pretentious and ridiculous.
How had he been so blind?
How wonderful it would have been if he had married Mingzhu.
Then he could enjoy delicious meals every day like Pei Yang, and he would work hard to earn money to spend on his wife and provide her with a good life, just as Pei Yang did.
Baolan had no idea about her husband’s regrets and melancholy; she thought that, as always, after listening to her slandering Mingzhu, he would grow to dislike her.
Initially, she slandered Mingzhu in front of her husband simply to prevent him from having any thoughts about Mingzhu.
After all, in her dreams, her husband had married Mingzhu, and she had snatched this marriage from Mingzhu’s hands by scheming.
Later, after she got pregnant, she felt her position as the Zhou family’s daughter-in-law was secure, but she had formed a habit.
Every now and then, she had to make up stories about Mingzhu in front of her husband, or else she felt uneasy.
For example, now, after slandering Mingzhu, she felt extremely comfortable, and it took her less than three seconds to close her eyes and drift into sweet slumber, unaware of her husband’s restlessness.
