“Divorce is fine, but you take the child.”
The man before her had a resolute face, swordlike brows and starry eyes, a high bridge of nose, and thin lips that uttered words Shu Yao could not understand.
“Child? What child? Whose child?”
Wasn't she... stabbed?
Shu Yao was dazed.
After the event ended, Liu Sheng was soon dismissed. Gao Xiu somehow found out where she lived and brought a large group from The Liu Household over to make a scene. Liu Sheng was emotionally agitated, and amid the pushing and shoving, he casually grabbed the utility knife from the entrance and stabbed it into her lower abdomen.
Shu Yao's instinctive question made Shen Zhongyue frown. He gritted his teeth, his voice filled with cold qi:
“Your child. Your own biological child.”
“Can you really bear to let him go with us for forced relocation?”
Shen Zhongyue used all his strength to suppress the tremor in his throat, forcing his voice to turn cold and hard.
“Either take him with you, or go for rural relocation together!”
Shu Yao stared wide-eyed at the father and son before her. The elder was around twenty years old, while the younger one was a limp little bundle in his arms. She then swiftly lifted her clothes, revealing not the slightest wound on her abdomen.
This finally confirmed that this was definitely not reality!
“What the hell kind of crappy dream is this? Let me go back.”
“I just earned tens of millions. Of all the things I could dream about, you had to make me a mother painlessly.”
“Have I not seen enough handsome men on the edge of the law, or have I not visited enough clubs?”
“Who wants to raise a child? I just learned how to take care of myself.”
“Let me go back. I was only stabbed once, wasn't I? I can still be saved!”
Shu Yao muttered on and on until she found a pair of old-fashioned tailor's scissors beside the sewing machine. Her eyes lit up, and she immediately lunged at them.
Gripping the handles with both hands, a fierce light shone in her eyes as she prepared to plunge them into her chest.
Although Shu Yao was a law-abiding citizen in reality, this was a dream, wasn't it?
“Shu Yao!!”
Shen Zhongyue's pupils widened in fright at this turn of events. Carrying the child, he rushed forward and kicked the scissors out of Shu Yao's hand.
Shu Yao cried out in pain and curled into a ball.
Her hand hurt, and so did the chin cut by the scissors.
Damn it, it hurts this much—why haven't I woken up yet?
“Zhongyue, Yaoyao, what happened?”
The next second, the door was thrown open, and a crowd rushed in.
“Zhongyue, did you... did you hit Yaoyao?”
“Yaoyao is still young. Is there anything you can't discuss properly?”
Shen mother Qin Shu stood frozen in place, her face full of astonishment.
“Shen Zhongyue!”
Father Shen Shen Jianghai's face darkened as he let out a thunderous shout. The child in Shen Zhongyue's arms trembled in fright, then opened his mouth and began wailing.
“Oh dear, what are you doing? You frightened the child!”
Qin Shu wanted to help Shu Yao up while also wanting to soothe her grandson.
“Oh, Yaoyao's chin is bleeding. Zhongheng, hurry downstairs and bring up the hemostatic medicine and gauze from the living room.”
Eldest sister-in-law Su Zhiyun hurriedly told her husband to go downstairs for the medicine. Two children around eight or nine years old stood at the doorway, at a loss.
Shen Zhongyue let his mother take the son from him. He stood there rigidly, his face ashen and his shock not yet settled.
Shu Yao actually hated him and the child this much—she would rather die than take the child with her. But at the beginning, hadn't she been the one to provoke him first?
For a while, the small room descended into chaos.
Three minutes later, the small cut on Shu Yao's chin had been treated, but everyone in the room had taken turns trying to soothe the child in Qin Shu's arms, and he was still crying and flailing his arms.
Qin Shu was covered in sweat from heartache. She carefully moved to Shu Yao's side.
“Yaoyao, the child is attached to you. Soothe him a little. If he keeps crying, he may develop a fever tonight.”
Shu Yao looked at the child crying incessantly before her and knitted her brows.
Qin Shu sighed. She knew that this daughter-in-law had never liked the child. Since giving birth to him, she had not breastfed him, let alone held him.
Su Zhiyun pursed her lips. She did not understand how a mother could be so cruel to her own child.
“Mom, let me hold him.”
Just as Shen Zhongyue began to speak, he saw Shu Yao extend her arm.
Qin Shu immediately brightened and placed the child in her arms.
Shu Yao held both arms straight out, cradling the child without daring to move an inch.
But the child suddenly gave a powerful jerk, frightening Shu Yao into becoming even more rigid.
This thing can move!
Strangely enough, once the child was placed in Shu Yao's hands, his crying immediately softened.
“Yaoyao, hold him like this.”
Qin Shu helped adjust her posture, bringing the child close to Shu Yao's body.
“That's right, just like that.”
It was summer in the dream too. A warm bundle of flesh pressed against her arms and even automatically nuzzled toward her chest.
Shu Yao immediately sprang like a triggered mechanism, shooting her arms straight out again with a “whoosh.”
With a blank expression, she said:
“There, stop crying. Take him away.”
Shen Zhongyue took the child and gently patted him to sleep.
“Mom, you should all go out first. Shu Yao and I need to talk.”
Qin Shu was somewhat uneasy. She looked at Shu Yao and, seeing no objection, reminded Shen Zhongyue:
“Zhongyue, talk things out properly. Whatever you do, don't hit her.”
Shen Zhongheng patted his younger brother's shoulder and led his wife out.
Father Shen Shen Jianghai was the last to leave. Before going, he shot his younger son a fierce glare.
The door closed once again, creating a private space.
“Shu Yao, we...”
“Wait a moment. Let me sort this out.”
Shu Yao interrupted Shen Zhongyue. Her mind was still a tangled mess.
Shen Zhongyue and Shen Zhongheng—weren't those the names of the Old Madam's ex-husband's younger brother and former Eldest uncle?
Had she dreamed of the Old Madam when she was young?
Before the divorce?
Then what was the condition for waking up from this dream?
Pain didn't seem to work.
Normally, Shu Yao would not panic. It was only a dream, and she was certain she would wake up. But this time was different; she had to wake up and make sure she was all right.
“Shu Yao, evade cannot solve any problem. Huaiyu is only two months old. Taking him with us to the cowshed would be no different from sending him to his death.”
“Shu Yao, no matter how much you dislike him, he is still the child you went through tremendous hardship to give birth to. Can you really bear it?”
“All the money and ration tickets in the family will be left to you. Raise him properly until he is five. Once he turns five, if you no longer want him, you can send him back to the Shen Family.”
A five-year-old child could at least stand on his own by then. Whether the Shen Family was still in the countryside or had returned to the Capital City, they could always save a mouthful of grain from their own food to keep him alive.
If Shu Yao were pregnant now, he would agree to her having the child aborted. The Shen Family's misfortune could not be allowed to burden mother and son. But the child had already been born—a living human being!
Oh, right. The Shen Family was going to the cowshed.
Forget the original owner—even she would definitely choose divorce.
What kind of place was the cowshed? The conditions were crude, wind leaked in from all sides, and most importantly, those subjected to forced relocation had to undergo ideological education. If things went well, they would be given a dedicated room. If not, they would be dragged directly to the village grain-drying ground and displayed like monkeys.
Even a woman like Shu Yao, who had lived through the upheaval of the internet age, could not bear that.
What year was it now? The year “Shu Yao” divorced seemed to be 1968.