Shen Baizhi struggled to hold back a laugh, though on her face she had to feign surprise. She blurted out:
“No wonder he didn’t stay with me on our wedding night… he went to be with his sister…”
Mid-sentence, she lowered her head to cover her mouth, as if annoyed at having spoken out of turn.
Aunt Zhao, however, was even more excited.
“See? I suspected as much! Otherwise, which man, after getting married, wouldn’t want to stick to his wife on the bed? How could he have the leisure to go see his sister!”
Shen Baizhi forced out a few dry laughs, not wanting to discuss bed matters with her, so she made an excuse about having something to do and returned home early.
Once home, Shen Baizhi went straight to her room and lay on the bed, thinking about how to deal with the Lin family.
In her previous life, a few years later, Lin Cheng’s father, Lin Youcai, was investigated for embezzling collective assets and skimming raw materials. He was imprisoned for several years, and Lin’s mother’s job was also affected. Eventually, unable to endure the gossip, she simply resigned and returned home.
At that time, Lin Cheng had only recently sent that foolish child back; the child was just over two years old. Suddenly, the household had no income. Lin Cheng claimed he was working, but never sent money home, leaving the burden of supporting the family entirely on her.
She had no particular skills, so she had to learn to sell food on the street, enduring many scornful looks just to raise the child.
According to the timeline of her previous life, Lin Youcai would have already started misappropriating the factory’s funds.
If she wanted to bring down the Lin family, she had to seize this opportunity—and quickly—before the Red Movement ended, to directly get the entire family sent for re-education in the countryside.
Otherwise, if discovered later, probably only Lin Youcai would go to prison.
Thinking this through, she suddenly sat up and strode toward the room of Lin’s parents.
Perhaps assuming she had returned to her parental home, the room door wasn’t locked.
Shen Baizhi carefully searched the room. Besides finding Lin’s parents’ hidden bankbooks and cash, she finally discovered a small notebook in a compartment of the large desk drawer.
It recorded multiple instances of Lin Youcai embezzling the factory’s funds, listing the amounts and participants.
Looking at the notebook, Shen Baizhi hesitated for a moment, then put it back.
According to the records, Lin Youcai had only just started embezzling—less than half a year in. The number of incidents wasn’t many, and the amounts were not large.
Each time, after dividing up all the shares, he received at most three to five thousand, at least only a few hundred yuan.
That was far too little; it wasn’t enough to implicate the entire Lin family and get them sent for re-education. And all the Lin family’s cash and savings together amounted to barely over ten thousand yuan.
She tried to recall information from her previous life about Lin Youcai’s embezzlement of collective assets and finally remembered something.
After Lin Youcai was caught, Lin’s mother had scolded her as a jinx, claiming that Lin Youcai had taken the risk to make mistakes in order to provide for his son’s marriage.
In fact, after she understood the case, she realized Lin’s mother had slandered her. Her marriage to Lin Cheng had cost only a few hundred yuan.
But around the same time as their marriage, Lin Youcai made his first “big deal,” from which he personally pocketed twenty thousand yuan!
Yes, yes—that’s it. The police report stated that this embezzlement amounted to nearly two hundred thousand yuan, and Lin Youcai had been whetted by that initial twenty thousand.
She couldn’t recall the exact timing, but it was definitely within a month after her wedding. So she might as well wait a little longer.
After all, Jiang Yanli still had to recover from his injury. By the time he returned and arranged work for her, it would still be some time.
She might as well continue her reign at the Lin household for a while. In her previous life, she served them—this time, it was their turn to serve her. If they resisted, she would crush them. With the “Power Pill” still effective, she had to dominate both the Lin and Shen families!
Having planned her strategy against the Lin family, Shen Baizhi lay back down to sleep.
It wasn’t until Lin’s mother and Lin Ranran returned home from the hospital that they noticed the bowls she had left carelessly in the sink after lunch, and angrily stormed to her room.
“Shen Baizhi! How dare you come back! You left Acheng injured and you still have the face to return?”
“Open the door! Let me teach you how to be a proper wife!”
Shen Baizhi, awakened by the shouting, lit up with excitement. She didn’t even need an excuse—she could start a fight immediately.
She opened the door and looked at them with displeasure.
“Raising hell? Is Lin Cheng dead?”
Hearing her dare to curse her son, Lin’s mother flew into a rage and raised her hand to hit Shen Baizhi.
Lin Ranran reached out to restrain her.
Shen Baizhi gently pushed her hand, sending Lin Ranran stumbling back and falling to the ground.
She caught Lin’s mother’s hand but paused, deciding to show restraint—no need to cause serious injury; after all, she still wanted Lin’s mother to serve her.
She pressed her to the ground, fists pounding “bam, bam, bam,” but carefully targeted only covered areas of clothing, avoiding sensitive spots.
Seeing Lin’s mother being beaten, Lin Ranran rushed over to help, and Shen Baizhi reversed her grip to pin her as well, leaving the mother-daughter pair lying side by side. Left punch, right punch—she relished every blow.
These two pampered women couldn’t endure; in no time, they were exhausted and lay motionless.
Shen Baizhi released them, stood up, clapped her hands, and arrogantly said:
“Are you convinced now? Who’s in charge of this house from now on?”
They glared at her, full of anger and defiance.
Shen Baizhi didn’t indulge them and landed two more punches on them.
“Convinced or not?”
…
After a few more rounds, their defiance finally turned to fear. Lin Weiwei, being younger, tremulously replied,
“We’re convinced, sister-in-law, we’re convinced. From now on, you decide everything in this house.”
Seeing the elegant matron of her previous life now acting like a beaten dog in front of her, Shen Baizhi felt an enormous sense of accomplishment—it was even more satisfying than seeing them off in her previous life.
No wonder in her past life, Lin Baiwei had wanted to imprison her and talk to her daily just to break her emotionally.
The feeling of having one’s enemies beneath her feet was truly gratifying.
“Since you’re convinced, then go make dinner. I haven’t eaten yet!”
Lin Ranran, enduring the soreness in her body, helped Lin’s mother up and, before she could speak, led her into the kitchen.
It was unclear how she calmed her mother, but soon Lin’s mother joined her in preparing dinner.
When the food was served, Shen Baizhi ate like a lord, ignoring them. Lin Ranran and Lin’s mother only dared to stand by silently.
After she was full, she looked at them lazily and asked:
“Where’s my husband?”
Lin Ranran clenched her fist tightly but forced a stiff smile.
“My brother was injured by you two days ago. He’s still in the hospital. Sister-in-law, did you forget?”
Shen Baizhi’s tone was mocking:
“Your brother? So fragile! I barely used any force! Why waste money staying in the hospital? Bring him back tomorrow—I’ll take care of him myself!”