“Mom, what on earth was that thing she carried into the room just now? Was it malted milk powder?” Xu Guihua stared at Zhang Ximei in sheer disbelief, desperately trying to reject the thought running through her mind.
That was malted milk powder! How could she possibly afford to buy something so extravagant?
Zhang Ximei spat in disgust. “You bet it was! Who knows if she’s plotting to sneak it all for herself, yet has the nerve to claim she bought it for Lu Tian!”
Listening to this, Xu Guihua felt a wave of bitter envy churn in her stomach. She just knew Lin Shirou had to be sitting on spare cash!
Lu Wen was a soldier in the military, sending home twenty yuan every single month. He must have been slipping extra money straight to Lin Shirou behind their backs!
Since the family hadn’t split up yet, all earnings belonged to the collective household. Aside from Zhang Ximei and Lu Zhuanghuang holding the purse strings, who else should have any spending money?
Even if she wanted to buy a single piece of candy, she had to beg Zhang Ximei for coins! By what right did Lin Shirou get to hoard an entire tin of malted milk all to herself?
“Mom, that malted milk belongs in your hands. How can you let Lin Shirou and that good-for-nothing money-loser consume it?”
Hearing what her eldest sister-in-law had to say, Li Hong immediately flared up as well.
“Mom! We all sweat together and earn our keep together—by what right does Lin Shirou get to drink malted milk?!”
Zhang Ximei dropped her back-basket to the ground. The more she thought about it, the more she felt her two daughters-in-law made complete sense.
There was no way in hell that malted milk should go to Lin Shirou. As for that useless little freeloader, why waste malted milk on her? Getting a regular bowl of rice to swallow was already a blessing!
“Second branch’s wife! Hand that tin of malted milk over right this instant! We’re all one family under this roof—do you honestly think you can hog all the good things for yourself?!”
The moment Xu Guihua pictured that rich, sweet beverage, she imagined brewing a cup for her son every single night. That boy would be over the moon with joy!
Li Hong shared the exact same sentiment. With the weather being so sweltering lately, her daughter Lu Xiao had lost her appetite; she was bound to crave a cup of malted milk to cool down and satisfy her sweet tooth!
Xu Guihua pressed further, “Second sister-in-law, our household hasn’t split up yet! Isn’t it a bit much for you and Lu Tian to be gobbling down treats behind our backs?”
Back inside her room, Lin Shirou had immediately locked the tin of malted milk, along with her newly purchased soap and a length of fabric, securely inside her wooden chest.
Listening to the frantic, aggressive pounding against her door from the three women outside, she stood up with a cold, mocking smirk.
Lu Tian trembled with fright. The three voices outside were loud and abrasive, carrying an aura so vicious it felt as though they wanted to devour them alive. She was terrified her mother would end up beaten.
With a sharp jerk, Lin Shirou threw the bedroom door wide open.
Xu Guihua, who was leaning heavily against the door hammering away with her fists, suddenly lost all resistance and nearly pitched face-first onto the floor.
Scowling furiously, she glared at Lin Shirou, her eyes darting greedily toward the interior of the room as she immediately tried to force her way inside.
“Second sister-in-law, you’re out of line here. Before our family divides the household property, whatever anyone buys is meant to be shared! How can you swallow everything all by yourself?”
Lin Shirou raised a hand, blocking her path into the room. Her gaze swept over the three women standing in a row. “What’s this? Are you trying to loot the room? Since when did you all turn into outright bandits?!”
Zhang Ximei frowned, her face contorted with profound displeasure. “Second branch’s wife, what kind of talk is that! I am your mother-in-law—what nonsense about bandits and looting? The moment you stepped foot across our threshold, you became a Lu family member.”
“As long as the family hasn’t split, we share everything together. Are you trying to act special and put on airs?!”
Li Hong curled her lips into a smug, triumphant smile. “Exactly! We’re all daughters-in-law here. When we come across anything good, shouldn’t our first instinct be showing filial piety to our elders? Second sister-in-law, you’re completely in the wrong!”
Lin Shirou retorted coolly, “I bought this with my own money. So what? Does it concern you? Why don’t you take the dowry cloth your own parents brought you and use it to buy meat for everyone else, then?!”
“And as for you, third sister-in-law—last time your mother dropped off a bolt of floral cotton cloth, I noticed it would look wonderful on Mom. Why don’t you pull that out to show some filial piety, too?”
Zhang Ximei glared at her furiously. “Your own money?! Where on earth would you get money?”
“My own parents gave it to me. Is there a problem with that?”
When Lin Shirou had first arrived in the countryside, her family had indeed given her twenty yuan, though she had long since burned through it. Naturally, the Lu family had no way of knowing whether she had a stash hidden away or not.
Xu Guihua refused to back down. “Lin Shirou! Who are you trying to fool? When you married my second brother-in-law, even the cotton quilts a new bride is supposed to prepare were paid for out of his pocket. Who do you think you’re lying to?!”
Zhang Ximei’s mind instantly latched onto the same thought. The realization that Lu Wen might have secretly slipped money to Lin Shirou behind her back made her blood boil with resentment.
“How much money did Lu Wen give you?! He’s out there risking his life on the front lines, and this is how you squander his hard-earned cash behind his back?!”
Lin Shirou was so exasperated by the accusation she almost laughed. She had bought malted milk for Lu Wen’s own biological daughter—what was wrong with spending his money on that?
Did Lu Wen’s earnings only exist to feed this entire pack of parasitic bloodsuckers?! Weren’t they even allowed to spend a single cent on his own flesh and blood?
“This malted milk was bought for my precious baby with my own hard-earned cash! If you lot want to drink it, go buy your own! Have you all lost every ounce of shame, trying to rob a little child of her food?”
Hearing Lin Shirou’s sharp defiance, Zhang Ximei flew into such a blind rage that she dropped straight to the ground, kicking her legs, weeping, and wailing at the top of her lungs:
“Everyone, come take a look at this! My son is out there defending the country, and the wife he married does nothing but blow money, disrespect her elders in-law, and talk back to her mother-in-law every single day!”
“There’s never been a daughter-in-law this ill-mannered under the sun! I’m going to make my son divorce you, you bringer of bad luck! A good-for-nothing money-loser who can’t even spit out a son!”
Zhang Ximei had plotted this out beforehand; today, she was determined to crush Lin Shirou’s sudden rebellious streak once and for all. Since they were causing a scene, she wanted to blow it up as loud as possible.
She knew precisely which buttons to press to twist the knife in Lin Shirou’s heart. In the past, whenever anyone brought up her inability to bear a son, Lin Shirou would immediately shrink back in defeat and lose all her fight.
Especially since she and Lu Wen had been married for four years, yet after giving birth to Tiannian, she had never conceived again—a failing that provided endless gossip for the villagers.
Only Lin Shirou knew the truth: ever since their wedding night, Lu Wen had never touched the original body even once, so of course she could never get pregnant.
Naturally, she couldn’t air that dirty laundry in public. If she admitted it, people would only mock her for being incompetent and failing to even keep her own husband’s attention.
For years, the immense psychological pressure surrounding this issue had driven Lin Shirou to vent her frustrations onto the little girl.
It was a vicious, toxic cycle!
The villagers loved nothing more than a good public spectacle, and within moments, a dense crowd had gathered around the Lu family’s courtyard entrance.
Seeing that the audience had arrived, Zhang Ximei pointed directly at Lin Shirou and shrieked, “You curse on this household! A wasteful hussy who only knows how to burn through cash! A tin of malted milk costs five whole yuan—heaven only knows how much suffering my son endures in the military, only for you to squander it like this!”
Standing quietly on the fringes of the crowd, Xu Xiaoying watched the farce unfold with undisguised glee.
Back then, she had firmly believed that if she ever showed the slightest willingness, Lu Wen would have married her without hesitation. Though nothing had ever been made officially binding, she was widely considered the prettiest girl in the village—how could Lu Wen possibly not fancy her?
Yet that vile bitch Lin Shirou had resorted to underhanded tricks to hijack the match, stealing away the most promising man in the entire village.
Whenever she pictured Lu Wen’s tall, athletic frame during his rare visits home, along with the powerful, commanding aura that set him miles apart from the local farm boys, her heart raced.
If she could manage to drive a wedge between Lin Shirou and him, ending in a divorce, wouldn’t her chance finally arrive?
Ever since her husband had died in an accidental drowning the year before, she had been operating in the shadows, waiting for the right opening while occasionally whispering poison into Zhang Ximei’s ear.
She even had an inside agent planted right in the household: her maternal cousin, Xu Guihua.
Based on everything she had gathered, Lu Wen held zero romantic attachment to his wife, and the two of them invariably fought every single time he came home. Her chances of success were still remarkably high!
As the torrent of abuse grew uglier and more vicious, Lin Shirou’s expression turned glacial.
Witnessing her grandmother rolling on the ground and screaming insults at her mother, tears welled up in Lu Tian’s eyes out of sheer terror.
“Waaaah… Grandma, please stop yelling at Mommy! Tiannian doesn’t want the malted milk anymore, you can have it, Mommy—please don’t let her yell!”