The two Qiao brothers finally left.
Li Dachuan tugged gently at Qiao Nian’s sleeve.
“Then, wife, shall we go home?”
Other than Qiao Nian, the happiest person there was probably Li Dachuan.
He had never expected that after paying 500 yuan as the bride price, he would actually get another 600 yuan back.
She really does have her husband’s family in her heart.
At that moment, Li Dachuan completely failed to notice that the Qiao Nian standing before him was nothing like the Qiao Nian Qiao Weiguo had described to him.
Qiao Nian smiled brightly.
“Sure. Let’s… go… home.”
When Li Dachuan had first married her, he was probably attracted to her youth and appearance.
At the beginning, he rarely laid a hand on her.
It was only later, after she became pregnant and suffered a miscarriage without properly recovering, that her health gradually deteriorated and she became thinner and thinner.
That’s when his beatings slowly became more severe.
Seeing her bright smile, Li Dachuan felt strangely uneasy.
But then he thought about it.
For the rest of her life, Qiao Nian would have to depend on him.
Could she possibly beat him?
With how little flesh she had on her bones, one slap from him could send her flying.
He chuckled and shook his head.
I must be overthinking things.
Li Dachuan hadn’t yet become the deputy factory director he would be in his previous life.
Today, he had come on a bicycle.
After about forty or fifty minutes, they arrived at the Li family’s courtyard.
Li Dachuan had taken Qiao Nian to register their marriage three days earlier.
But immediately afterward, the factory suddenly sent him away on a business trip.
The three children at home had been making a huge fuss after finding out, so Li Dachuan had simply left Qiao Nian at her parents’ home.
They had agreed that he would come pick her up today.
As they approached the entrance, several resentful voices suddenly came from inside.
“Big Brother, Second Brother, you have to think of something! That wicked woman is almost here. Little Hong’s mother from the front courtyard said that once you have a stepmother, you’ll have a stepfather too. Once she has a child of her own, she’ll torture us until we’re nothing but bones!”
“Exactly, Big Brother. I’ll follow whatever you say.”
“Listen to me. Dad’s money is our money. Grandma said she’s only coming here to serve us. We have to keep an eye on her and make sure she doesn’t waste Dad’s money. Everything in the Li family will belong to us eventually.”
“Why does she have to come and take care of us? Can’t Grandma take care of us? Why does some outsider have to come into our family?”
Li Xiaojun was furious.
He was the youngest in the family, and his grandparents doted on him.
Zhou Xiaohong’s mother was always telling him that his stepmother would devour him until not even his bones remained.
Li Dajun put a hand on his shoulder.
“Don’t worry. Everything will be fine after today.”
He didn’t want to listen to his grandmother either.
If only his father would never marry again.
He was the eldest grandson.
He refused to believe that he could lose to some woman who had only just entered their family.
Outside the door, Li Dachuan’s expression became somewhat awkward.
Qiao Nian spoke first.
“It’s okay. They’re still young. From now on, I’ll be their mother. I’ll raise and educate them just like they’re my own children.”
Silently, Qiao Nian added in her heart:
I’ll beat them just like they’re my own children, too.
Li Dajun’s words—”Everything will be fine after today”—might have gone over Li Dachuan’s head.
But Qiao Nian understood them perfectly.
In her previous life, this very day, the first day she stepped into the Li household, Li Dajun had already dared to put rat poison in her porridge.
Fortunately, the Qiao family had locked her in the woodshed for an entire day and night before sending her away.
She hadn’t eaten much.
And because her stomach was already weak, she vomited almost everything she did consume.
That’s how she narrowly survived.
Li Dachuan was thirty-six years old that year.
His previous wife had died of illness six months earlier.
There were even rumors that Li Dachuan had beaten her to death.
She had left behind three sons:
The eldest, Li Dajun, was eleven.
The second, Li Erjun, was ten.
The youngest, Li Xiaojun, was eight.
The eldest was the most vicious.
He would attack her directly.
The second wasn’t much better.
He was more devious.
He rarely laid a hand on her himself, but he constantly poisoned his grandmother Wang Xiuying’s mind against Qiao Nian, using her to torment Qiao Nian whenever he could.
The youngest took advantage of his age.
He would spit at her, urinate in her drinking water, and torment her in countless other ways.
Then, when Qiao Nian was three months pregnant, he shoved her to the ground.
Her stomach struck the corner of a table.
She lost the baby immediately.
There was no one else at home at the time.
After pushing her down, Li Xiaojun ran away.
By the time Wang Xiuying returned home close to noon and finally took Qiao Nian to the hospital, most of the day had already passed.
The baby couldn’t be saved.
And because she had been brought to the hospital too late, Qiao Nian permanently lost the ability to become a mother.
From that moment onward, she could never have children again.
Li Dachuan would have only those three sons.
Wang Xiuying cherished them like they were the pupils of her eyes.
Whenever they did something wrong and Qiao Nian said even a single word about it, Wang Xiuying would curse her until she was reduced to tears.
Neither Li Dajun, who had put rat poison in her porridge, nor Li Xiaojun, who had caused her miscarriage, had ever apologized.
Not once.
And no one in the Li family ever mentioned those incidents again.
Because they all knew—
Qiao Nian was timid and cowardly.
And the Qiao family would never stand up for her.
As for why she hadn’t been willing—or able—to leave through divorce…
Most likely, it was because Li Dachuan’s father, Li Guangfu, had become paralyzed.
It happened one month before Qiao Nian’s wedding.
Taking care of his bodily needs—cleaning him, feeding him, dealing with his urine and feces—
All of it became Qiao Nian’s responsibility.
Later, after she became infertile, Wang Xiuying stopped treating her like a human being altogether.
She tormented her relentlessly.
In the dead of winter, Qiao Nian was forced to wash clothes in freezing water.
After she finished, Wang Xiuying would claim they weren’t clean enough.
She would make Qiao Nian wash them again in the icy water for another hour.
By the time she finished, both of her hands would be swollen like steamed buns.
Every year, her hands became covered in thick, dark scabs.
When spring came, an unbearable itch would spread through them.
The slightest scratch would make blood pour across her hands.
Whenever Li Dachuan saw them, he found her even more disgusting.
His beatings became increasingly brutal.
The children followed his example.
They would simply kick her whenever they pleased.
She really had been such a coward.
This kind of life continued for more than ten years.
Creak.
Li Dachuan opened the door, and the three children inside immediately fell silent.
Li Dajun stammered, “Dad, you… you two came back so early.”
Li Xiaojun rushed toward Li Dachuan like a firecracker, his nose running and tears covering his face as he smeared them all over his father’s clothes.
“Dad! It’s all because of this wretched woman! I don’t want her to be my mother! Everyone is laughing at me! Hurry and send her back!”
Li Dachuan was about to speak when Li Dajun immediately covered Li Xiaojun’s mouth.
As he dragged the younger boy outside, he said,
“Dad, Xiaojun didn’t mean it. Wait for me. I’ll be right back.”
No one knew what Li Dajun said to Li Xiaojun, but before long, the crying and screaming outside stopped.
Not long afterward, Li Dajun returned carrying a bowl of porridge.
It looked perfectly cooked—not too thick, not too thin, soft and fragrant.
The brown sugar gave it a rich, appetizing color.
Li Dajun carefully placed the bowl on the table.
“Mom, Grandma cooked this porridge early this morning. She even added brown sugar. It’s really delicious. She made it especially for you.”
Qiao Nian thought to herself:
You’re certainly your grandma’s precious grandson.
And that “Mom” of yours is certainly going to cost me dearly.
Qiao Nian smiled.
“Thank you, Dajun. I’ll drink it later. Your dad and I have something to discuss, so why don’t you boys go outside for now?”
Li Dajun left happily, making sure to quietly close the door behind him.
“Dajun is such a filial child,” Qiao Nian said sweetly. “He’s going to be my son from now on. I’m really blessed. Since he’s such a filial son, we should share the blessing equally, shouldn’t we? Dachuan, you drink it first.”
Li Dachuan’s heart warmed.
His eldest son really was thoughtful.
All those years of favoring him hadn’t been in vain.
“Alright. I’ll drink it first.”
After all the commotion, he was hungry too.
He picked up the bowl and quickly gulped down half of the porridge.