Qian’s mother turned around and saw Li Yumei standing at the doorway. She rolled her sharp, upturned eyes and walked toward her with her thin frame, immediately launching into a tirade.
“Li Yumei, you shameless woman! What? Can’t say anything today? You finally know you’re in the wrong?”
She was still furious, and when she remembered that there was still no news about her younger son’s job, her anger surged again. She reached out and grabbed Li Yumei by the hair.
“Ever since we married you into the Qian family, we’ve had eight generations’ worth of bad luck! You haven’t even given our Qian family a son—you only gave us daughters! As for the job, your brother took our money and kept stringing us along until now. And now you still dare to send money back to your mother’s family! What kind of daughter-in-law gives more than a hundred yuan to her family just like that?”
Li Yumei cried out in pain as she twisted her head away, desperately trying to dodge her mother-in-law’s grip.
“Mom, please listen to me. There’s a reason for all of this.”
“I don’t care what your reason is! How much does Ziqiang earn in a month? Only thirty-eight yuan! Zhiyong is carrying sacks at the docks as a temporary laborer, and he only makes eighteen yuan a month!”
Qian’s mother calculated the amounts in her head. The more she calculated, the more shocked and furious she became. She practically wanted to tear apart this eldest daughter-in-law who never seemed to tell the truth.
“I gave my own salary to my mother. What does that have to do with you? You’re sticking your nose too far into my affairs! Do you think permanent jobs are as common as cabbages? If there isn’t a position available, he can only keep waiting. Who told him not to have an education or any skills?”
Li Yumei’s own anger finally erupted. As she spoke, she lunged at Qian’s mother, clawing at her.
“You dare fight back? You little slut! Let’s see if I don’t beat you to death today!”
Qian’s mother’s anger burned even hotter. Despite her small, thin body, she suddenly seemed to possess enormous strength. She knocked Li Yumei to the ground and sat on top of her, then began slapping her repeatedly across the face.
“Keep talking nonsense! What’s wrong with Zhiyong? You little bitch! Do you think I don’t know? Your mother’s family has already arranged jobs for several of your brothers! I even heard that the family of that newly married wife got her a nice office job! You took our money but didn’t do anything for us. You people just pick on our family because you think we’re easy to bully!”
“Ah! Ahhh!”
Li Yumei’s tears and snot streamed down her face as she screamed,
“Qian Ziqiang, are you dead? You’re just going to stand there and watch your mother beat your wife?”
“You little bitch! After bullying my younger son, you still dare to insult my eldest son!”
Qian’s mother became even angrier. Seeing the purple-blue fingermarks that still hadn’t faded from Li Yumei’s face, she dug her fingers into them even harder.
Qian Ziqiang stood there with a grim expression and said nothing.
There was no way he was going to save Li Yumei. The fact that he hadn’t personally hit her before was already more than enough restraint in his mind. Watching his mother pin Li Yumei down actually made him feel relieved.
All these years, whenever something happened in the Li family, they always called him to clean up their messes. Just as his mother had said, whenever there was anything good to be gained, he was never the one who benefited.
Eventually, Qian’s mother became tired from beating Li Yumei. She climbed off her and stood there, breathing heavily.
Then she turned to Qian Ziqiang.
“If necessary, just divorce her. You’ve been married for more than twenty years, and all you have are two daughters. Ziqiang, you’re still young. After divorcing her, I can find you a younger woman. You can still have a son.”
Qian’s mother had been thinking this way for a long time.
In the early years, the family had been poor. In recent years, she had tolerated Li Yumei because she believed her younger brother would eventually become successful.
Who could have imagined that after tolerating her for so long, Li Yumei would actually dare to fight back?
Qian Ziqiang remained silent, his face grim.
Li Yumei immediately panicked.
After what had happened today, she understood even more clearly that, in her mother’s eyes, only her younger brother mattered. She was already over forty. If she were forced into a divorce at her age, what good could possibly come from it?
Thinking of this, she no longer dared to fight back.
With her face swollen and bruised, she hurriedly pleaded,
“Mom, I was wrong. Once my brother is discharged from the hospital, I’ll have him arrange Zhiyong’s job. Ziqiang and I have been married for more than twenty years. Our eldest child is already married, and we’re already looking for a match for our second child. If we divorce now, it’ll be embarrassing for the children too.”
Qian’s mother looked at her daughter-in-law’s swollen face, covered in tears and snot, as she pleaded with her.
Only then did she finally feel satisfied.
She turned to look at her son and snorted.
“Then tell me. Did you take the money from your Li family or not?”
Wu Fenlan had come back and told her that Li Yumei and her sisters had gone back to their mother’s home and supposedly stolen money. In the end, each of them had paid their mother one hundred yuan as compensation.
Qian’s mother didn’t believe that Li Yumei had actually stolen money from her own family.
It would already be impressive if Li Yumei didn’t bring all the good things back to her mother’s home. How could she possibly steal from them?
But when she first heard the story, she had been so embarrassed that she didn’t know where to put her face.
The way Wu Fenlan had looked at her made her want to crawl into a mouse hole, as though she had personally instructed Li Yumei to steal the money.
That was why, when her emotions had flared up earlier, she had focused entirely on Li Yumei giving one hundred yuan to her mother’s family.
Li Yumei’s entire body stiffened.
After a long moment, she finally murmured,
“Mom, I didn’t take it.”
Useless woman!
Qian’s mother cursed inwardly.
They had taken the blame and earned themselves a bad reputation, yet they hadn’t gotten a single benefit out of it.
Thinking of this, she rolled her sharp eyes and cursed,
“Li Yumei, listen carefully. I don’t care whether you took it or not. You must get that one hundred yuan back for me. If you can’t get it back, then you’ll get divorced whether you want to or not! Our Qian family doesn’t want a woman who takes from one family and feeds another!”
Li Yumei’s face went pale.
She opened her mouth, but it took a long time before she finally answered,
“Mom, I understand.”
Night fell.
Qiao Nian had been waiting for a long time.
No one from the Li family had returned home today, which was perfect for her plans.
At eight o’clock that evening, the sky had become completely dark. Qiao Nian wheeled the bicycle out from beside the wall and hurried toward the Qiao family home.
After taking the Strength Pill, she felt as if she had endless energy.
Normally, the bicycle ride took forty-five minutes, but this time she arrived in less than thirty.
People weren’t wealthy in this era. There was practically no nightlife at night, and everyone was reluctant to waste electricity.
As soon as Qiao Nian entered the shoe factory’s workers’ compound, she found that nearly every household had already turned off its lights.
Under the faint moonlight, Qiao Nian made her way toward the familiar location.
The workers’ compound wasn’t a single enclosed courtyard. When the shoe factory was first established, business had been good and there had been many employees, so several nearby residential courtyards were combined into what became the workers’ compound.
The Qiao family lived in the innermost courtyard. It was relatively small and built somewhat like a traditional quadrangle courtyard, with four rooms on the north and south sides and two rooms on the east and west sides. Six families lived there.
Auntie Zhou and Uncle Li also lived in the same courtyard.
The compound was locked, but Qiao Nian wasn’t worried. After all, she now had seemingly endless strength. She easily climbed over the courtyard wall.
The Qiao family’s house had the best location in the compound, facing south with its back to the north. Qiao Nian quietly approached it.
Intermittent voices came from inside the house. Qiao Nian took out the sleeping powder from her space and gently blew some through the crack beneath the door. Within a few minutes, the voices inside gradually fell silent.
“Crack!”
With a gentle push, Qiao Nian snapped the wooden door bolt behind the door.
She couldn’t help but marvel at how useful the Strength Pill really was.
After taking the Mind-Clearing Pill, ordinary drugs had almost no effect on her, which was why she dared to blow the sleeping powder directly through the crack without any hesitation.