After being taken to the hospital and staying there for more than ten days, the doctors eventually sent him home.
From then on, he was paralyzed. His mouth and eyes were crooked, he constantly drooled, and he could no longer speak.
Even in that condition, he never stopped making trouble for her.
Cleaning his feces and urine, feeding him, turning him over in bed—all of it became her responsibility.
Whenever she cleaned him, he would deliberately smear feces and urine all over her, purely to disgust and humiliate her.
Thinking about it now, Qiao Nian almost wanted to slap herself.
She had really endured far too much.
Instead of hitting herself, Qiao Nian looked at Old Master Li and kicked the leg of his bed hard twice.
Then she turned toward the three little troublemakers in front of her.
Picking up a feather duster from the side, she began smacking them repeatedly.
Li Xiaojun screamed,
“You wicked woman! How dare you hit me? When Dad comes back, I’ll make him beat you to death!”
Qiao Nian grabbed him and pulled him closer.
“Beat me to death? You three were already trying to poison your own father. Do you really think he’ll help you?”
“Anyone can have children. Once I give your father a child, I’ll beat you every day, and your father won’t even dare say a word!”
“Waaah! Ah! It hurts!”
Li Xiaojun cried and screamed.
“You admitted it, didn’t you? You really do want to torture us! Having a stepmother means having a stepfather who doesn’t care about us!”
Hmph!
Qiao Nian was furious inside.
I never tortured you in my previous life. But that didn’t stop you three from being rotten to the core, just like your father.
“So what if I admit it?” Qiao Nian said.
“I heard all of you loudly plotting in that room about how to deal with me!”
“You simply don’t want me to have children. But as long as your father can still have children, even without me, there will always be another woman who can give him children!”
“You won’t be able to guard against that forever!”
After saying this, Qiao Nian glanced at Li Erjun.
Sure enough, a dark glint flashed through his eyes.
Li Erjun rarely caused trouble openly.
But behind everyone’s backs, he was the most sinister of the three.
Li Dachuan, enjoy the filial devotion of your wonderful eldest son.
“You wicked woman! You’d better die! I hate you! When Grandma comes back, she’ll kill you!”
“Kill me? I’d like to see who kills whom first.”
Qiao Nian looked at him coldly.
“And judging by that mouth of yours, I think you don’t want it anymore.”
She slapped him directly across the mouth.
After several more slaps, his lips were swollen and burning.
“Wicked woman, huh? From now on, if I hear any of you insult me even once, I’ll smack you every single time!”
“Let go of my brother! I’ll fight you!”
Seeing Li Xiaojun getting beaten, Li Dajun charged toward Qiao Nian and tried to pull her away.
“Let him go? What exactly are you trying to accomplish?”
“Your brother is misbehaving, yet you keep protecting him. Are you trying to spoil him rotten?”
“What, are you planning to make the entire Li family yours someday?”
“First you poison your father, and now you’re deliberately spoiling your brother. Tell me, just how vicious are you?”
After hearing this, Li Xiaojun stopped crying.
He looked suspiciously at his eldest brother.
Once a seed of suspicion had been planted, it only needed time to take root.
Qiao Nian didn’t spare a single one of them.
She believed in fairness, after all.
The feather duster swung through the air like a blur.
Watching the children scream for mercy and crawl miserably across the floor, Qiao Nian felt incredibly satisfied.
The people she had feared so much in her previous life could actually be this cowardly.
Qiao Nian suddenly realized something:
Some people weren’t nearly as frightening once you stopped being afraid of them.
After venting all her anger, she became hungry.
Qiao Nian tossed the feather duster aside and walked straight into the kitchen.
She hadn’t eaten anything all day yesterday, and after all the commotion today, she was starving.
The Li family’s food was far better than the Qiao family’s.
There was plenty of cornmeal, sorghum, and other coarse grains, as well as rice and white flour.
Qiao Nian grabbed several handfuls of rice.
Moving quickly and efficiently, she soon had it steaming in a pot.
She then took several eggs and some green peppers and made green pepper scrambled eggs.
There were also several pieces of smoked cured pork in the kitchen.
Qiao Nian sliced them up and threw them into the rice to steam together.
Although Li Dachuan was the only one in the family who worked, his salary was relatively high and his benefits were good.
On top of that, since he worked at a food factory, he could often bring home imperfect or surplus food products.
Even with one man supporting the entire household, the Li family was still one of the best-off families in the neighborhood.
But in Qiao Nian’s previous life, she was never allowed to eat the same food as them.
They ate meat and white rice.
She was only allowed to drink watery wild-vegetable porridge.
It had been that way at the Qiao family home.
And it had remained that way after she married into the Li family.
Less than half an hour later, the rice was ready.
Qiao Nian took her first mouthful of fluffy white rice.
With the rich, oily smoked pork mixed in, she finally ate her first proper meal since being reborn.
It was almost as if she had only just truly come alive.
Damn, this meat is really good.
That miserable wild-vegetable porridge can go to hell.
Whoever likes drinking it can drink it.
As for Qiao Nian, she was never going to drink that stuff again in this lifetime.
The delicious smell from the kitchen soon attracted the three brothers.
They timidly shuffled over.
When they saw Qiao Nian already eating meat, they immediately became furious.
“Who said you could eat the meat? That’s my meat! Grandma promised she’d cook it for us tonight! And where’s our food?”
“Eat, eat, eat! That’s all you know how to do! Were you reincarnated as a starving ghost?”
“Try disrespecting me again and see what happens!”
When Qiao Nian reached for the feather duster again, the three boys instinctively covered their buttocks.
“What are you doing now? Are you going to hit us again?”
Li Dajun was genuinely aggrieved.
At home, no one had ever laid a finger on him.
Yet since this woman arrived, she had already beaten him twice.
She had also humiliated him in front of all the neighbors.
Now everyone was pointing at him and whispering whenever they saw him.
And besides, he had never gone hungry in his entire life.
At this moment, his stomach was already growling loudly.
“I’m not going to hit you. Your father is still in the hospital, and we don’t even know whether he’ll live or die, yet you’re already thinking about eating. You really are three ungrateful little wretches!”
“Besides, I doubt you’d dare eat my food, right? What if you get poisoned too, just like you poisoned your father?”
After saying that, Qiao Nian deliberately picked up another piece of meat and put it into her mouth.
They actually expected her to cook and serve them?
Dream on!
Li Dajun was speechless.
Terrified, he turned and walked away.
He was genuinely afraid that his father would punish him.
Although his father had never beaten him before, he had seen his father beat his mother.
Every time, his father beat her as if he intended to kill her.
The injuries covering her body had always been horrifying.
He was afraid his father would beat him the same way.
Looking at his two younger brothers behind him and his grandfather lying helplessly on the bed, Li Dajun suddenly felt deeply miserable.
They were like several pitiful little cabbages growing in the fields, completely helpless.
Qiao Nian ate three full bowls of rice before finally feeling about seventy percent full.
She hadn’t eaten properly in a long time, so she didn’t dare stuff herself too much.
This body was still young, after all.
Once she had eaten, she immediately felt much stronger.
She didn’t even spare the remaining old man and three children another glance.
After finishing her meal, she went back to the bedroom and lay down.
The Li family’s house was a complete mess, practically like a dog kennel.
The moment you entered Wang Xiuying’s bedroom or the boys’ room, there was a strong, unpleasant smell.
Perhaps because today was her wedding day, Li Dachuan’s room had been given a fresh set of clean bedding.
Qiao Nian lay down on it and couldn’t help sighing.
Li Dachuan really had it good in her previous life.
The moment he came home, someone was there to serve him.
He could simply reach out for his clothes and open his mouth for food.
And whenever he was in a bad mood, he could beat someone to vent his anger.
Beating people really did make you feel better!
Qiao Nian suddenly realized that she was starting to enjoy this kind of life too.
“I’m different from Li Dachuan, though. At least I don’t beat innocent people. I only beat those who have a grudge against me!”
With that thought, Qiao Nian gradually drifted off to sleep.