Jiang Baozhen had always been the pillar holding up the sky for the Chen family.
The moment she collapsed, the household immediately descended into utter chaos.
Hiding in her shed, Lin Yingxue plotted how to sneak into her mother-in-law’s room and rummage for her secret stash of money.
Jiang Baozhen was not only fierce but also incredibly shrewd.
She kept all valuables securely locked in her room and slept with her silver tucked under her pillow.
Ordinarily, she would notice if even a layer of dust was missing, leaving Lin Yingxue with no chance to search the place.
Now that she had fainted, however, it was the perfect opportunity.
However, the Chen family was large, and all eyes were fixed on the unconscious Jiang Baozhen.
The most filial of them all, the second son, Chen Chunsheng, guarded her bed day and night.
This made it impossible for Lin Yingxue to get anywhere near her mother-in-law’s bedside.
“Dad, what are we having for lunch?” The sharp, piercing voice of the eldest daughter-in-law, Wu Qiaoqiao, rang out from the courtyard.
Ever since his wife passed out, Chen Huaiyuan had dumped the household chores onto his eldest son and daughter-in-law.
To his immense annoyance, however, this eldest daughter-in-law, who usually seemed so capable, was entirely indecisive when actually put in charge.
She even had to ask him what to cook for a meal.
Chen Huaiyuan suppressed his impatience.
“Figure it out yourself.
Do you really need to ask?”
A true gentleman stayed far away from the kitchen.
Since when did men meddle in cooking?
Wu Qiaoqiao wanted to make her own decisions, but one couldn’t make bricks without straw.
During the years the Chen family had hidden in the mountains, their food reserves had long since bottomed out.
Only half a sack of wheat flour remained, and she didn’t dare touch it without permission.
If her mother-in-law woke up and found out, she would flay her alive.
“Dad, it’s not that I don’t want to handle it, but the grain vat is almost empty,” Wu Qiaoqiao said with a bitter face.
Chen Huaiyuan didn’t even look up.
“Go to the old family estate and borrow a few pecks.”
Wu Qiaoqiao scoffed inwardly.
He made it sound so easy!
Everyone knew the relatives at the old estate were complete misers who only took and never gave!
Her mother-in-law had just gotten into a massive fight with them over land division.
Going to borrow grain right now was just asking to be humiliated.
“Don’t bother me with trivial matters like cooking anymore.” Tucking his book under his arm, Chen Huaiyuan moved into the courtyard to bask in the sun.
“Dad, Mom’s medicine isn’t working.
Should we fetch a doctor to take a look?” Chen Chunsheng cautiously stepped into the courtyard to ask for advice.
Interrupted right as he was getting absorbed in his reading, Chen Huaiyuan knitted his brows into a tight knot.
“Your mother just has a terrible temper.
She’ll be fine after a nap.
Why would we need a doctor?”
He was still seething with anger.
He suspected Jiang Baozhen was faking her faint just to spite him and force him to yield.
He was sick and tired of these old tricks of hers.
This time, he absolutely refused to humor her; he was determined to cure her of her habit of throwing a tantrum the moment things didn’t go her way.
That was why he hadn’t even stepped over the threshold of her room in the entire day since she had been carried back.
From the shed, Lin Yingxue’s gaze lightly swept across Chen Huaiyuan’s indifferent profile.
Since her mother-in-law had fainted, he hadn’t even glanced through the door of the main house.
In the book she had transmigrated into, her father-in-law’s coldness toward his wife was fully justified.
Years ago, the Jiang family had saved the Chen family’s lives.
Unable to repay the debt, they arranged a marriage between their children.
When Chen Huaiyuan grew up, he fell in love with someone else and wanted to break the engagement.
Upon learning of this, Jiang Baozhen threw a massive fit.
Mindful of the old debt of gratitude, the Chen family patriarch forced Chen Huaiyuan to marry her.
In the original novel, the male lead, Chen Tianhao, served as a mouthpiece for Chen Huaiyuan’s grievances, harshly condemning the Jiang family for using their life-saving grace to force the marriage.
After getting married, Chen Huaiyuan continued to pine for his first love.
Knowing that she had forced this marriage, Jiang Baozhen compromised at every turn and did everything in her power to please him.
Seeing his father’s attitude, Chen Chunsheng turned on his heel and headed straight for the Jiang family.
If his father wouldn’t care, his maternal uncle surely would.
Watching Chen Chunsheng walk away, Lin Yingxue realized her opportunity had finally arrived.
“Qiaoqiao, make me a bowl of egg noodles for lunch!”
Chen Tianhao walked out of the east wing room while stifling a yawn.
He wore a fairly new, fine cotton shirt.
Though his hair was a bit disheveled, his facial features had already matured nicely.
With his straight nose, red lips, and white teeth, he looked exceptionally handsome standing in the rustic courtyard.
Lin Yingxue was this male lead’s child bride.
Aside from his pretty face, she really couldn’t see anything extraordinary about him right now.
In the original storyline, he was the same age as the original owner of Lin Yingxue’s body.
He was spoiled by the entire family, especially his adoptive mother, Jiang Baozhen, who absolutely doted on him.
The original Lin Yingxue had also served him tirelessly without a word of complaint.
Following the typical tropes of a wish-fulfillment novel, the male lead’s background had to be convoluted.
Chen Tianhao was no exception.
He wasn’t Jiang Baozhen’s biological son, but the child of Chen Huaiyuan’s first love.
As for why that first love had sent her own son to be raised by Chen Huaiyuan, the book only glossed over it.
Finding the melodrama too cliché, Lin Yingxue hadn’t paid close attention to the details.
She only remembered that this male lead was eventually sent to the town academy by Chen Huaiyuan.
There, he met influential figures and his life became practically charmed.
He passed the imperial exams with flying colors, entered the royal court as an official, and thrived.
After achieving fame and success, he smoothly reunited with his biological mother, who had become a noblewoman, and received massive support from both his biological father’s and stepfather’s families.
Yet, toward the adoptive mother who had raised him for years, he held not a shred of gratitude.
Instead, he harbored a deep grudge against Jiang Baozhen for breaking up his biological mother and Chen Huaiyuan in the past.
Later, to vent his biological mother’s anger, he went so far as to orchestrate Chen Huaiyuan’s divorce from Jiang Baozhen.
Jiang Baozhen suffered endless humiliation and died full of resentment.
To compensate Chen Huaiyuan, Chen Tianhao even took it upon himself to acquire several young and beautiful concubines for him.
At this moment, the only people in the entire Chen family who knew Chen Tianhao’s true identity were Chen Huaiyuan himself and Lin Yingxue, the transmigrator who knew the plot.
With her mother-in-law unconscious, Wu Qiaoqiao was no longer willing to coddle Chen Tianhao.
She rolled her eyes at him.
“You make it sound so easy!
Where are the eggs?
Where is the wheat flour?”
She had long had enough of Tianhao, who never lifted a finger around the house.
The more she thought about it, the angrier she got.
The moment her mother-in-law collapsed, all the chores fell squarely on her shoulders.
The third daughter-in-law, who was heavily pregnant, had snuck off to laze around who knows where.
The second daughter-in-law was diligent enough, but she had gone to the river at the crack of dawn to wash clothes.
Wu Qiaoqiao wanted to dump the workload on someone else.
At that moment, she suddenly remembered Lin Yingxue.
That girl was an expert at shirking work.
Now that their mother-in-law was down, she had vanished completely.
From morning until now, she had been hiding in her little shed without showing her face once.
Why should she have to do all the work while that little tramp got to lie around?
The more Wu Qiaoqiao thought about it, the more furious she became.
She had to vent her frustration today!
She already loved picking on Lin Yingxue on normal days, and now she casually planted seeds of discord in Chen Tianhao’s mind.
“If you want to eat egg noodles, why don’t you ask that girl in your room to make them?
The moment Mom went down, she showed her true colors and hasn’t left her shed all day.
If you ask me, her heart is wandering, and she no longer wants to stay with the Chen family!”
She pursed her lips toward the shed and tugged at a torn seam on Chen Tianhao’s shirt.
“Look at this tear in your clothes.
She used to fall over herself to serve you, but now she won’t even sew a single stitch?
Now that things have settled down, her mind is starting to wander.”
These words hit Chen Tianhao right where it hurt.
Over the past few days, Lin Yingxue hadn’t shown him her usual attentiveness.
Last night, when he told her to fetch water for him to wash his feet, she ignored him for the first time ever.
She hadn’t brought the water even by the time he fell asleep.
How dare this usually submissive girl challenge him?
Chen Tianhao’s temper flared up instantly with a WHOOSH.
Without a second thought, he stormed over to the door of the shed.
“Yingxue, get out here right now!”
The corners of Wu Qiaoqiao’s mouth curled up as she leaned against the doorframe, waiting for a good show.
Basking in the sun in the corner of the courtyard, Chen Huaiyuan also shifted his gaze from his book to the shed.
No one in the family knew his dark, hidden thought—he was desperately hoping his fourth son would torment Lin Yingxue mercilessly.
The more miserable that girl was, the happier he felt.
He thought, “Beat her!
Beat her ruthlessly!”