The moment Shen Laosi heard that, he exploded. He turned on Zhang Guihua and demanded angrily:
“Eldest Sister-in-law, what do you mean by that? Are you trying to say that Yumei is unlucky and brings misfortune—”
“Yumei married into our family to carry on the Shen bloodline. That already makes her a great contributor to this family. And today she’s suffered such a huge grievance—how can you talk about her like that?”
“You must apologize to her today, or I won’t let this go!”
Tang Yumei sat inside with a livid expression. She had known it—after what happened at the wedding banquet, people in this family would definitely start looking down on her. Sure enough, on just her very first day, someone was already saying she brought bad luck to the Shen family!
Zhang Guihua, however, shot Tang Yumei a disdainful glance.
“A great contributor? Who here hasn’t given birth to sons for the Shen family and earned that title? Whether she can even give birth is still uncertain. Don’t end up like your second sister-in-law—”
“An apology? Not a chance. I’m the eldest sister-in-law. Since when do I owe an apology to a younger sister-in-law?”
Relying on the fact that she had borne three sons—and Shen Baiwei, such a lucky star—Zhang Guihua held an extremely high status in the family. She even dared to talk back to Old Madam Shen. How could she possibly bow her head to a newly married daughter-in-law?
Old Madam Shen also felt that the eldest daughter-in-law had gone too far. She knew very well that Laosi’s wife was already pregnant—how could she curse her to be like the second daughter-in-law and fail to give birth to a son?
“Eldest daughter-in-law, you’ve gone too far. Hurry up and apologize to Yumei.”
Zhang Guihua widened her eyes and stared at Old Madam Shen in disbelief. Had this old woman taken the wrong medicine today or something?
“What are you glaring at me for? Didn’t you hear what I said? You cursed her to be like your second sister-in-law—aren’t you cursing Laosi to have no descendants? Shouldn’t you apologize?”
Shen Baizhi could clearly see the anger and embarrassment on her parents’ faces, but she felt not the slightest bit of sympathy. This was all their own doing—trapping themselves in the obsession with having sons and refusing to come out of it.
Before Zhang Guihua could speak again, the door on the other side of the main room suddenly opened. Shen Baiwei, her face deathly pale, slowly walked to the center of the room and said weakly:
“Grandpa, Grandma, please stop arguing. If there’s still some grain left at home, let’s make do with that for now. Once I recover, I’ll go into the mountains again. Even if I have to go deeper, I’ll definitely bring something back.”
The deep mountains were dangerous. Normally, Shen Baiwei only wandered around the nearby hills. If she didn’t propose going into the deep mountains herself, the family would never force her to.
Everyone else was moved by Shen Baiwei’s sense of righteousness, but Shen Baizhi abruptly lowered her head, her fingernails digging hard into her palms. She was afraid she wouldn’t be able to suppress her hatred toward Shen Baiwei.
Seeing Shen Baiwei so ill yet still willing to worry about the family, Old Madam Shen felt a twinge of guilt. She hurriedly pulled Shen Baiwei over to sit beside her.
“Weiwei, you’ve worked hard. The family really has no other choice.”
Shen Baiwei shook her head, her face full of sincere emotion.
“We’re all family. The family raised me to this point—so even after I get married in the future, I should still repay them.”
If this were Shen Baizhi in her previous life, she would never have understood the hidden jab in those words. She really didn’t know what Shen Baiwei grew up eating—how could she have so many schemes, and all of them aimed at her?
Thinking back, in her previous life, after Shen Baiwei rose to success, aside from utterly crushing the second branch of the family, she treated the other members of the Shen family fairly well. Even the children of the equally unloved third branch benefited from her success.
Sure enough, after hearing Shen Baiwei’s words, Old Madam Shen shot Shen Baizhi a glare and snorted coldly.
“At least Weiwei has a conscience—unlike certain people…”
As for that “certain people,” Shen Baizhi couldn’t care less about such half-hearted sarcasm. She acted as though she hadn’t heard a thing.
Her complete lack of reaction only made Old Madam Shen even angrier.
Seeing that the family’s grain problem had now been neatly resolved, Tang Yumei also stood up, smiling warmly.
“When I got married, my natal family gave me a dowry of fifty yuan. I’m willing to take out half of it and lend it to the family to help get through this difficult time first.”
Right now, quite a few people in this family probably thought she had brought misfortune upon them. She couldn’t afford to do nothing. The twenty-five yuan she handed over so painfully—she fully intended for Shen Laosi to squeeze it back out of those two old things, doubled.
To show off her contribution, she even went back to her room on the spot and brought out the twenty-five yuan to hand to Old Man Shen.
Unexpectedly gaining twenty-five yuan, Old Man Shen was quite satisfied. He nodded at Tang Yumei and praised her kindly:
“Fourth daughter-in-law, well done. The family won’t treat you unfairly in the future.”
Shen Baizhi watched as Old Man Shen tucked the twenty-five yuan into his pocket, her eyes flickering slightly.
The family meeting came to an end with Shen Baiwei and Tang Yumei stepping forward, and everyone prepared to disperse.
Taking advantage of the movement of the crowd, Shen Baizhi edged two steps closer to Old Man Shen, entering the two-meter range. With a thought, the twenty-five yuan he had just received—before it had even warmed in his pocket—vanished.
It was a pity she didn’t know where her grandparents kept the rest of their money. Still, gaining another twenty-five yuan was enough to satisfy her.
Just as she was about to head back to her own place to lie down again, Shen Baiwei called out to her:
“Baizhi, come here. Let’s sisters have a little chat.”
“You went back to your parents’ home today—why didn’t your husband come with you? Is he treating you badly?”
Shen Baizhi paused mid-step. In her previous life, Shen Baiwei had asked her a very similar question. Back then, because of what happened on her wedding night and the Lin family’s attitude, she had been feeling depressed and had shown her unhappiness.
She remembered that Shen Baiwei had acted like a considerate older sister, comforting her and telling her that once married, she should put her husband’s family first, be gentle and compliant, so that her in-laws would like her.
Yet in the end, what Shen Baiwei showed was a desire to see her suffer worse than death. How could she ever have wanted her to be well?
This time, Shen Baizhi decided to answer differently and see what expression appeared on Shen Baiwei’s face. Taking a deep breath and suppressing the emotions in her eyes, she turned around and deliberately said shyly:
“That’s not it at all. He… he treats me very well. Even though he’s injured, he still wanted to insist on coming back with me today. I was the one who felt sorry for him and didn’t let him come.”
“My parents-in-law treat me quite well too. It’s just that my sister-in-law doesn’t seem to like me very much. But with my parents-in-law and him keeping her in check, she doesn’t dare do anything to me.”
As she spoke, she carefully observed Shen Baiwei’s expression. Sure enough, she saw her face stiffen.
“Why do I feel like Cousin doesn’t look very happy? Could it be that I married well, and you’re not happy for me?”
Shen Baiwei snapped back to herself and hurriedly forced a strained smile.
“Of course not. We’re sisters—naturally I hope you’re doing well.”
Although her words said one thing, the hand hanging at her side was clenched tightly. Shen Baizhi, who had been watching her closely, noticed this small gesture immediately. A look of understanding flashed through her eyes.
So Shen Baiwei really didn’t want her to live well. But why?
“That’s for the best. Still, Cousin doesn’t need to worry about me. I’m living quite well—much better than life in the Shen family.”
With that, she didn’t wait for Shen Baiwei to say anything else and walked away directly.
In truth, she hadn’t yet figured out how to deal with Shen Baiwei. Regaining her golden finger and snatching away her opportunities—these were things Shen Baiwei knew nothing about and thus didn’t cause her any pain.
And Shen Baizhi didn’t want to simply kill her either. The pain she herself had endured in her previous life—Shen Baiwei needed to experience every bit of it.
After returning to the second branch’s house, Shen Baizhi greeted Susu briefly before going into the room and lying down on the bed. Susu thought she was going to sleep and closed the door as she left.
In reality, Shen Baizhi lay there with her consciousness sinking into the space, ready to take stock of her gains from the previous night.