“Are you crazy?!”
Chen Huaiyuan wanted to blow up, but the words caught in his throat under Jiang Baozhen’s murderous glare.
“Mother, have you lost your mind?
Why are you hitting Father?” Chen Tianhao, who had just finished eating the chicken in the kitchen and was strolling leisurely into the room, stared at Jiang Baozhen in disbelief.
Even if his father had yielded their land to his uncle’s family, his mother shouldn’t have resorted to violence.
If the land was gone, they could just buy more later.
Chen Tianhao felt the injustice on Chen Huaiyuan’s behalf.
Jiang Baozhen’s eyes widened fiercely as she snapped, “You little brat, you dare question me?
So what if I hit him?!
Let alone your father, even if all eighteen generations of your ancestors stood before me, I’d beat them too!”
Chen Tianhao was completely dumbfounded.
Why was his mother scolding him too?
A surge of grievance quickly welled up in his heart.
“Mother…” Chen Tianhao muttered, his voice full of hurt as he tried to defend himself.
“Is it because I didn’t step up to help you when they were dividing the land?
It wasn’t that I didn’t want to.
It was Uncle who forced Father to give it up.”
“Tianhao, stop talking!” Chen Chunsheng quickly nudged him, signaling him not to mention the land division lest he provoke Jiang Baozhen again.
Everyone secretly agreed.
In the eyes of the Chen family, the reason Jiang Baozhen beat Chen Huaiyuan and lashed out at her youngest son was definitely because she still harbored a grudge over Chen Huaiyuan yielding the land to the eldest branch.
Otherwise, there was simply no way to explain her abnormal behavior.
Seeing Chen Huaiyuan get beaten, Lin Yingxue inexplicably felt a sense of vindication.
In her excitement, she picked up the chicken soup from the bedside table and handed it to Jiang Baozhen.
She said obediently, “You haven’t eaten anything in the two days since you collapsed.
I specially brewed this chicken soup for you.”
She thought to herself, “Mother-in-law, you’d better not have noticed that I rummaged through your secret stash of money.”
Before the chicken soup could even reach Jiang Baozhen’s hands, Lin Yingxue was shoved aside by Wu Qiaoqiao and Huang Qiuju.
“Mother, you’re finally awake!
You don’t know this, but during the two days you were out, the family almost ran out of food.
That girl Yingxue actually slaughtered the egg-laying hen!
If you ask me, our Chen family can’t afford a daughter-in-law like her.”
Wu Qiaoqiao didn’t even bother to ask about Jiang Baozhen’s health before she rushed to tattle.
Huang Qiuju stuck her belly out and immediately added fuel to the fire.
“Not only did she slaughter the old hen, but she also ruined that half bag of white flour you saved all by herself.
When I came home just now, she was hiding in the kitchen, eating meat and flatbread.
She was having the time of her life.”
The two of them had actually known for a while that their mother-in-law was awake, but they didn’t come to attend to her right away.
The aroma of the stewed chicken in the pot was simply too enticing.
They both wanted to eat a few more bites and were unwilling to let Chen Tianhao have it all to himself.
It wasn’t until they had scraped the bottom of the pot completely clean, leaving not even a single chicken bone behind, that the two women hurriedly cleaned up the stove.
They aligned their stories with each other, linked arms, and walked into the room together, one after the other.
Just as they reached the door, they heard their mother-in-law scolding their father-in-law inside.
They took it for granted that she was still throwing a tantrum over the previous land division and didn’t suspect anything else.
The two women chimed in with each other, rushing to firmly pin the crime of slaughtering the chicken and squandering the family’s wealth on Lin Yingxue.
On the day the land was divided, they hadn’t dared to stand up for their mother-in-law for fear of offending their father-in-law.
Given their mother-in-law’s fiery and vindictive temper, the first thing she would probably do upon waking up was settle the score with them.
Pushing Lin Yingxue out to take the blame right now was the perfect way to divert her anger.
They knew perfectly well that slaughtering the chicken was Tianhao’s idea.
Given Lin Yingxue’s cowardice, how could she dare lay a finger on the old hen?
But bullies always go for the easiest target, and Lin Yingxue was the Chen family’s resident pushover.
The thought of how Wu Qiaoqiao and Huang Qiuju constantly bullied Lin Yingxue caused Jiang Baozhen’s anger to flare up again.
She reached out and delivered a resounding slap to Wu Qiaoqiao, who was standing closest to her.
This daughter-in-law was no good either.
In her past life, when she was sick and dying, it was Wu Qiaoqiao who colluded with Huang Qiuju, jumping up and down to help Chen Tianhao brainstorm ideas.
They eagerly arranged to choose a new wife and buy concubines for Chen Huaiyuan, wishing she would die sooner to make room.
Just wait.
She would settle these scores with the Chen family, one by one!
With this thought in mind, she gave Huang Qiuju a backhanded slap.
“All of you know how to do is sow discord and stir up trouble!
On the day the land was divided, when the eldest branch was walking all over me, neither of you dared to utter a single peep.
You only know how to throw your weight around at home and bully Yingxue!
If I catch you scheming against Yingxue again, I’ll write divorce papers and send you both packing back to your maiden families!
“Yingxue killing the chicken is her way of showing filial piety to me.
Unlike you two—honey on your lips and poison in your hearts—wishing I would die early.”
Jiang Baozhen unleashed her full fury, scolding Wu Qiaoqiao and Huang Qiuju until their faces turned ashen and they almost buried their heads in their chests.
After cursing out the two troublemaking women, Jiang Baozhen turned her face.
When she looked at Lin Yingxue, her expression instantly became incredibly gentle.
With tears welling in her eyes, she said, “In this whole family, Yingxue is the only one who truly cares for me.
On the day the land was divided, if Yingxue hadn’t held onto me so tightly, my head would have smashed against a rock and I would’ve died.
I was able to get my life back all thanks to Yingxue.”
Lin Yingxue thought to herself that such a thing had never happened.
It was obviously Jiang Shouren who had supported her.
Her mother-in-law must have been so dizzy and confused that she attributed the credit to her.
“It was nothing.
I’m just glad you’re alright,” Lin Yingxue said, deciding to accept the credit.
She was her biological daughter after all.
Even though Jiang Baozhen had treated her so harshly before, Yingxue still wished the best for her.
Jiang Baozhen’s tears fell like rain.
Jiang Baozhen continued, “I was just thinking that if Ruixue were still alive, she would definitely be as filial to me as Yingxue.
So in my confusion, I mistook Yingxue for Ruixue.
SOB, SOB, my poor daughter.”
When she had fainted just now, her mind had already been racing.
At this stage, she absolutely could not publicly reveal that Lin Yingxue was her daughter, Chen Ruixue.
Firstly, she was afraid of alerting the snake in the grass; that black-hearted Chen Huaiyuan might get desperate and strike at Yingxue again.
Secondly, she also feared that if her daughter suddenly learned the truth, she would find it hard to accept, and instead distance herself or even refuse to acknowledge her as her mother.
She wanted to keep her daughter by her side for now, compensate her with double the affection, and slowly warm her daughter’s heart bit by bit.
Once their mother-daughter bond grew deep, she would find a suitable time to gently tell her the truth.
“Chen Ergou, you still have the nerve to stand in front of me!
If you don’t get my land back, I’m not finished with you!” Jiang Baozhen wiped away her tears and pointed at Chen Huaiyuan’s nose, cursing non-stop.
As she scolded him, her tone grew hateful once again.
Lin Yingxue took a step forward and supported the passionately cursing Jiang Baozhen.
“Mother, stop being so angry.
Your health is more important.”
Then, in front of Chen Huaiyuan, she defended Jiang Baozhen: “Mother already fainted once from being so angry at you.
When she woke up, you should have apologized and coaxed her.
How could you cause her to faint again?”
According to the plot, Jiang Shouren was supposed to arrive right about now.
He had always been full of sympathy for Lin Yingxue’s plight and often urged Jiang Baozhen to treat her a little better.
Most importantly, he disliked Chen Huaiyuan.
Taking advantage of her mother-in-law’s current dissatisfaction with Chen Huaiyuan, she preemptively pointed out that her father-in-law had angered her mother-in-law into fainting again.
She would let Jiang Shouren deal with Chen Huaiyuan.
She scoffed inwardly at her manipulative father-in-law, wondering if he thought he was the only one who knew how to fan the flames.
“You have the nerve to blame me?
It’s all your fault!
You were the one playing tricks, pretending to be Ruixue and scaring your mother-in-law into fainting!” Chen Huaiyuan, with a breath of foul anger pent up in his chest, turned and glared fiercely at Lin Yingxue.
“…Didn’t you say she was awake?
How did you anger her into fainting again?”
Sure enough, Jiang Shouren entered the door with the doctor.
As soon as he walked in, he first severely reprimanded Chen Huaiyuan.
Chen Huaiyuan looked at his second son, Chen Chunsheng.
When did this boy go and fetch Jiang Shouren?
Seeing that his sister was alright, Jiang Shouren visibly breathed a sigh of relief.
The doctor checked her pulse and said she had been overcome by a fit of rage, but would recover after drinking two doses of herbal medicine.
Only then did everyone heave a slight sigh of relief.
“Mrs.
Chen has a quick temper, so don’t provoke her into getting angry again,” the doctor advised, shaking his head as he packed away his acupuncture needles.
He sighed inwardly.
This Chen Huaiyuan was truly foolish.
He had yielded his own perfectly good, cultivated land to the eldest branch just like that.
He gave it up easily enough, but with the family’s harvest reduced, wouldn’t Jiang Baozhen be the one left to manage and make ends meet in the future?
No wonder she was angered to the point of fainting.
Chen Gensheng and the others saw the doctor out.
Once the doctor left, Jiang Shouren called Chen Huaiyuan out into the courtyard.
Behind Jiang Baozhen’s back, his face darkened as he scolded him, “My sister must have been blind to marry you!
In just two short days, you’ve angered her into fainting twice.
If it weren’t for the sake of these children, I would absolutely give you a beating!”
Chen Huaiyuan spouted pedantic nonsense all day long, constantly preaching his grand principles, but whenever trouble arose, he always sided with outsiders.
He never knew how to protect his own family.
His sister’s illness was entirely caused by his infuriating behavior.
When he arrived at the Chen’s home, he had stood outside and listened for a while, realizing that his sister had gotten so furious that she beat her husband.
Now, seeing Chen Huaiyuan’s swollen face, he secretly cursed that the man deserved it.
Chen Huaiyuan’s face should have been battered black and blue long ago.
The man actually had the audacity to shift the blame onto Lin Yingxue.
He was truly shameless.
If it weren’t for his sister’s sake, he would have started throwing punches a long time ago.