But when Liu Meiling reached the hospital gate, she calmed down.
Right now, she had no evidence—trying to trick Qin Xiangru would be pointless.
If Qin Xiangru refused to admit it, wouldn’t she just alert the snake too early?
Liu Meiling slapped her thigh. How could she forget the most important thing? Her money was still in the kang hole!
There wasn’t even a proper front door at home—what if someone found it while she was gone?
Passing by the state-run restaurant, she bought a lunch box on impulse: braised pork, two taels of noodles, and two mixed-grain steamed buns.
Back home, Liu Meiling opened the lunch box and started eating: a bite of meat, a bite of bun.
Before she realized it, tears were streaming down her face.
In her previous life, living in the old family compound, she had always been treated as inferior. Zhan Hongmei wasn’t easy to get along with either. When her grandson was still young, both of them at least treated her decently.
But when the grandson entered elementary school, Zhan Hongmei started locking the kitchen, calling her someone who just “ate plain rice.”
Old age had made her a nuisance. Liu Meiling had no choice but to swallow her bitterness. From eating less to eventually just consuming the leftover soup and rice, she had endured it for over a decade.
She dared not eat or drink freely. After a lifetime of hardship, the only fruit she had ever eaten was that half banana that had once almost killed her.
She wiped her face and took large, satisfying bites.
What was there to cry about? From now on, her fate was in her own hands. Whatever she wanted to eat, she would buy it—and she would never shortchange herself again!
The kang hole was still intact, so she didn’t rush to retrieve her money. She now had nearly four thousand yuan in hand. According to what she knew of the future, buying a house would be the best choice.
But she didn’t want to continue muddling through life with Old Li. After serving him her whole life, Liu Meiling wanted to rest in this life.
With the front door removed, she thought for a moment and took down the kitchen door, quickly fitting it in as the new front door.
Just as she entered the house, ready for a good sleep, she heard Li Baoqing’s piercing scream.
Liu Meiling flipped her bedding but didn’t respond. Honestly, she didn’t know how to face her eldest daughter. Thinking of what she had heard before dying in her last life, her heart turned cold again.
She couldn’t treat Baoqing the same as her eldest—she couldn’t.
She couldn’t be entirely without resentment either—she couldn’t.
But Liu Meiling never expected that she didn’t even need to think about it—Li Baoqing made the choice himself.
“Mom, you bought meat?
Why are you eating it all by yourself?
Mom, you’re so selfish!”
Liu Meiling couldn’t hold back any longer.
She climbed out of the kang: “Shut up! Always ‘Mom, Mom’! One day when I’m dead, you’ll be happy!”
Earlier, the Zhan family had caused a scene and paid compensation.
They knew Liu Meiling didn’t care about this son, and she didn’t want Li Baoguo freeloading either.
They were persuaded to leave. As Li Baoguo entered the house, the smell of meat immediately reached him.
At the same time, he overheard Li Baoqing complaining about Liu Meiling, hearing everything clearly.
Already full of resentment, and with his wife nearly gone, he kicked over a stool in frustration: “Mom, what are you trying to do?”
Li Baohai climbed out of the room, scratching his head in discontent: “Mom, how can you eat alone? Braised pork is so rare—you should at least let me try a bit!”
“Yeah, Mom, you’re too selfish! You always prioritized us before. Why are you like this now?”
In a daze, Liu Meiling felt like she was back before her death in her last life.
If there were kids, she couldn’t compete with them. If there weren’t, she still couldn’t eat!
Liu Meiling, full of anger, exploded. She threw off the quilt, jumped down from the kang, and rushed toward them barefoot.
“What? What?
I spent my own money on this meat—can’t I eat it myself?
Selfish? I’ve been raising you kids all these years!
Your dead father didn’t pay a single cent—isn’t he selfish?”
Li Baoqing frowned impatiently: “Mom, why bring Dad into this?
We’re talking about you eating alone. We’re all family—at least leave a bit for us to taste! I’ve never seen a mom eat alone!
You’re so selfish! I’m in the third year of high school, under huge pressure, and you didn’t even let me have some! You bought meat and ate it all yourself!
You’re so old, one extra bite won’t hurt!
I’m still growing! If I fail my exams, don’t blame me!”
Liu Meiling’s eyes turned red: “What? Just because I’m old I’m supposed to die?
I spend my own money to eat a few pieces of meat, and I need your approval?
I supported you through school all these years—if you fail university, is it my fault for not giving you meat?
Who said a mother must always give her children everything, never eating a bite herself?
At my age, must I turn my bones into oil to nourish you?
I just ate a few pieces of braised pork—is that an unpardonable sin?”
Li Baoqing’s face changed: “Mom, that sounds harsh! I didn’t say that—you’re imagining it!”
Li Baoguo chimed in: “Mom, Baoqing’s right. Why make such a fuss over braised pork? You know our situation. Shouldn’t you save some for later? Are you really not planning to let us brothers marry in the future? Besides… you’re so old…”
Before he could finish, he got a faceful of shoe soles.
Liu Meiling spat, jumped up, and swung her fists: “So what if I’m old? Does being old mean I must die?
Why don’t you die because you can’t marry and now blame me for eating a bowl of braised pork?
Useless! If you were capable, you would have made Zhan Hongmei willingly give up the bride price!”
After hitting Li Baoguo, Liu Meiling couldn’t hide her disappointment: “Li Baoqing, you usually get along best with your dad. When he’s in the hospital, did you even glance at him?”
It was the weekend. Li Baoqing should have been home in the morning.
In Dahe County, the town was small; many acquaintances attended the same school, including several from the steel mill compound.
Li Baoqing was a boarding student and should have known what chaos had been happening at home.
He froze, impatiently flipping the lunch box: “Mom, I’m a senior in high school, about to take the college entrance exam. My studies are intense! How do I have time to go to the hospital? Besides, Dad is there—why aren’t you taking care of him instead of being home?”
Liu Meiling could no longer hold back. She slapped his face. In both her past life and this one, she had treated Li Baoqing well.
She had never wronged him in any way!
Yet Li Baoqing had never seen her as a person: “Dad needs tending, but I’m not a person? Don’t I need sleep? You’re so worried about Dad, yet you’ve never gone to help him!”
For the first time, Li Baoqing’s eyes widened: “Mom, you hit me? That’s too much!”
Tears fell onto Liu Meiling’s hand, burning her. Almost instinctively, she wanted to apologize.
In her previous life, after Bao Mei died, she had poured all the love meant for Bao Mei into Li Baoqing.
Except for the marriage she couldn’t control, she had never refused him anything—money, goods, no matter how hard.
She didn’t understand. Why, after treating Baoqing so well, could he watch her suffer and even side with the culprit?
And so soon after her death, call Qin Xiangru “Mom”?