Lin Jingwen returned to her rental apartment in an excellent mood, even humming a tune as she opened the door. After changing her shoes, she comfortably flopped onto the sofa. But she hadn’t even lain down for a minute before getting back up—she decided to make herself a late‑night snack as a reward!
After eating, she would knit for a while. Since she had the evening shift tomorrow, she could stay up late and sleep in.
First, she fried an egg. With the leftover oil at the bottom of the pan, she sautéed some scallions, then cooked a bowl of savory noodles.
When the noodles were done, she ladled them out and inhaled the aroma—it smelled wonderful.
She placed the fried egg on top, carried the bowl to the table, and was just about to dig in when she heard a knock at the door.
So late—who could it be?
Her heart skipped a beat. She walked to the door and asked who it was before opening, since her rental had both a regular door and a security gate. She didn’t dare open the inner door right away.
“Sorry to bother you—it’s me, Qiu Ze.”
Hearing his voice, Lin Jingwen immediately relaxed. She opened the door a crack to peek outside.
There stood Qiu Ze, hair messy, face pale, his pajama buttons fastened wrong.
“Mr. Qiu? Are you sick?” Lin Jingwen quickly opened the door wider, frowning in concern.
Qiu Ze sniffled, catching the aroma wafting from her apartment. His stomach growled painfully, the kind of hunger that gnawed at him unbearably.
“Sorry, I’m very hungry. Could I buy a portion of the late‑night snack you made?” Qiu Ze asked earnestly.
“Ah???” Lin Jingwen was a little flustered.
Five minutes later—
Lin Jingwen watched as this seemingly refined man devoured the bowl of noodles and fried egg like a storm, and couldn’t help asking: “Mr. Qiu, are you full? Do you want another bowl?”
“No, thank you.” Qiu Ze replied, pulling out a prepared ten‑yuan note from his pocket. His tone was calm but very serious: “It was delicious. Your cooking is excellent. This is the payment.”
That morning, after eating her scallion pancakes, he had spent the entire day writing without eating anything else. Just now, he had planned to make a simple bowl of instant oatmeal and go to bed. But the aroma drifting from her kitchen had made him abandon the oatmeal idea and instead knock on Lin Jingwen’s door.
And it turned out his choice was absolutely right!
“This bowl of noodles, if you ate it at our state‑run restaurant, would only cost thirty cents—and it would even come with two thin slices of beef. Ten yuan is way too much.”
Lin Jingwen looked at the large ten‑yuan note, speaking while holding up three fingers to emphasize her point. Her noodles only had a fried egg, no meat. Honestly, they weren’t even worth thirty cents!
Professor Qiu’s sense of money was completely different from hers. Was he really this unconcerned about spending?
“In my view, this bowl of noodles was delicious and very valuable. And since I disturbed you so late at night, I should compensate extra—give a tip.” Qiu Ze nodded apologetically once more, then stood to leave. “Thank you for the meal.”
Lin Jingwen…
Oh, she understood *tips*!
She had heard that foreigners always gave tips when dining. No wonder—he had studied abroad. This habit of tipping was actually quite nice.
Hearing that, Lin Jingwen nodded and didn’t argue further about the ten yuan. But she didn’t get up to see him out either. She just sat there, watching him leave, then gently closed her door, because tonight’s incident had left quite an impression on her.
She put away the ten yuan, cleaned up the dishes, and decided she no longer wanted her midnight snack.
As for the matter itself—and Qiu Ze as a person—well, Lin Jingwen couldn’t quite judge, nor find the right words to complain. But in the end, she had earned ten yuan!
If something like this happened seven times, wouldn’t that be more than her monthly salary?
Lin Jingwen quickly suppressed the giddy feeling of “slaughtering a fat sheep.” Even if Professor Qiu had money to spare, she couldn’t exploit him like that!
If word got out—if landlady Auntie Li or other tenants in the building heard she was deliberately fleecing Professor Qiu—her reputation as a swindler would be ruined.
It would be a loss outweighing the gain.
Meanwhile, Zhang Lanxiang returned home and collapsed onto her bed. The more she thought about it, the angrier she became, until she was so furious she couldn’t even get up.
She didn’t cook dinner that evening. The coal in the stove burned out and she didn’t bother to replace it, so the fire went out.
When Huang Juan and the others came home from work, they saw the cold stove and immediately complained: “Mom, look at the time! Why isn’t the soup ready? The fire’s out too! When are we supposed to eat dinner?”
“I’ve said it so many times—we should switch to gas. Just one spark and it lights, the flame is strong, and cooking only takes ten minutes. Look at this broken stove—dirty and slow.”
Gao Qin also grumbled: “All just to save a little money. It’s such a hassle!”
“Wait a minute—something’s off. Why hasn’t the third daughter‑in‑law come back yet?” Huang Juan suddenly realized.
If she had come home, dinner would surely be ready by now, with a couple of tasty dishes on the table.
“Exactly! Didn’t Mom go to find her today? Why didn’t you bring her back?” Gao Qin added quickly.
Lying in her room, Zhang Lanxiang listened to her daughters‑in‑law and grew even more furious, her breathing labored, the fire in her chest surging upward.
“Mom, what’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell, lying in bed like this?” Gao Qin and Huang Juan entered the room to check on her.
“Why didn’t the third daughter‑in‑law come back?”
“Don’t mention her to me! She makes me so angry! I…”
Zhang Lanxiang launched into another tirade, saying only that Lin Jingwen had gone mad and was talking about divorce—but she didn’t repeat the threats Lin Jingwen had made.
“Mom, this matter has to be handled by the third son. It looks like no one else can do it. Let him coax her back quickly.” Gao Qin urged. Without Lin Jingwen doing the housework, the household simply couldn’t function.
“That’s right. Let Anping take Dongle with him. A husband and son—she won’t be able to resist them. As long as they go, the third daughter‑in‑law will definitely come back.”
Huang Juan was fed up. She really didn’t want to take care of Li Dongle anymore.
Besides, these past two days, they had been eating food they cooked themselves—and it tasted awful, just something to fill their stomachs.
The children at home also complained at every meal, saying the food was bad and asking why their third aunt hadn’t come back yet.
Just then, the children returned from school, shouting that they were hungry and wanted dinner.
“What dinner? The stove’s out of fire. You’ll have to wait!” Huang Juan snapped.
“Mom, where’s my stepmother? Why hasn’t she come back yet?” Li Dongle cried.
“You silly child! That’s your real mother. From now on, don’t call her stepmother again!” Huang Juan scolded, glaring at him.
“But you’re the one who said she was my stepmother!” Li Dongle pouted in grievance. “You told me that if I wasn’t happy, I should call her stepmother to annoy her, and then she’d buy me good things to make me happy.”
“Eldest sister‑in‑law, the child has already been adopted into the third son’s household. You should watch your mouth. You don’t contribute anything, just wait to reap the benefits, letting someone else raise your son for free. If I were the third daughter‑in‑law, I wouldn’t want to come back either!” Gao Qin immediately retorted.
Huang Juan was directly called out, her face burning with embarrassment.
Zhang Lanxiang realized this was indeed the case, and it made her even more certain that Lin Jingwen’s refusal to return home must be partly because of this reason.
So Zhang Lanxiang scolded Huang Juan again and even berated Li Dongle, calling him ungrateful and saying he didn’t know who truly cared for him.
Yet in daily life, Zhang Lanxiang had always sided with Huang Juan, often encouraging Li Dongle to call Lin Jingwen “stepmother.”
But Zhang Lanxiang would never admit she was wrong—any mistakes were always the daughters‑in‑law’s fault.
Li Dongle, crying from the scolding, ran back to Lin Jingwen’s old room. He lay on the bed sobbing, but when she didn’t come to comfort him, he cried even harder. Where was his stepmother? Why hadn’t she come back yet? He hadn’t eaten anything tasty for days. At night, he had to sleep with his biological mother, but with his father snoring beside them, he couldn’t sleep well at all.
Li Anping had just returned home from school when Zhang Lanxiang dragged him into her room, unleashing a storm of curses and complaints, demanding that he personally go fetch Lin Jingwen back the next day.
Already humiliated at school because of the bruises on his face, Li Anping was furious. Coming home only to face this chaos made him feel even more suffocated. So annoying!
“Fine, fine, I’ll go myself tomorrow!” Li Anping snapped irritably.
“By the way, how did Lin Jingwen find out that Xinping’s son is actually your biological child? Did you tell her?” Zhang Lanxiang pressed.