“Qiao Nian, you wicked woman! My brother isn’t home, and this is how you’re treating his three children?”
The moment Li Yumei arrived at the Li household, she saw her three nephews crying from hunger.
After asking what had happened, she learned that her brother had been poisoned and sent to the hospital by this poisonous woman, while her mother had gone to look after him. Meanwhile, her father was lying in bed, surrounded by his own urine and feces.
Furious, she stormed into the bedroom.
She couldn’t believe that this wicked woman had done all that and still had the nerve to lie there sleeping.
Her anger intensified.
As she spoke, she reached out and grabbed Qiao Nian.
“Being able to marry into our Li family is your good fortune! Instead of being grateful and serving us properly, you actually have the nerve to lie here sleeping?”
Good fortune?
Again with this “good fortune”?
Why don’t you take this so-called blessing for yourself?
Qiao Nian had been sleeping soundly, completely relaxed, when she was suddenly yanked awake by a powerful force.
She opened her eyes.
The moment she recognized the woman in front of her, she slapped her across the face.
Li Yumei was stunned.
She stared at Qiao Nian in disbelief.
“You… you actually dare to hit me?”
“So what if I hit you? It’s not like you’ve never been hit before. What, are you especially precious?”
Li Yumei was practically furious to tears.
No one had laid a hand on her in years.
And now, on the very day she returned to her parents’ home, she had been slapped by her new sister-in-law who had only just married into the family.
How was she supposed to show her face after this?
“You wicked woman! I’ll fight you!”
Grinding her teeth, Li Yumei lunged at Qiao Nian and grabbed her hair.
“Is being a wicked woman something your whole family inherited? Everyone’s a ‘wicked woman’ according to you!” Qiao Nian cursed.
“You’re the wicked one! Your mother is an old wicked hag, and those three downstairs are nothing but little bastards!”
Qiao Nian didn’t just use her mouth.
She fought back with all her strength.
After several exchanges, she had ripped out several handfuls of Li Yumei’s hair, while countless scratch marks appeared across the woman’s face.
Li Yumei’s scalp was throbbing with pain.
Qiao Nian seized the opportunity, jumped out of bed, grabbed the feather duster from the living room, and started beating her again.
“If I ever hear you say another filthy word to me, I’ll beat you every single time I see you!”
“Does it hurt? Tell me! Does it hurt?”
A wave of resentment surged through Qiao Nian.
People always said that one sister-in-law’s sister was equivalent to another mother-in-law.
But in her case, she had a whole five mother-in-laws.
Wang Xiuying had given birth to four daughters before finally having Li Dachuan, her only son.
She had always treasured him like her own eyes.
The same went for her three grandsons.
But no matter how troublesome those four daughters were, they were still Wang Xiuying’s own daughters.
In her previous life, it wasn’t just the members of the Li family who took their anger out on her.
Whenever any of those four sisters-in-law were unhappy, they could come home and beat her just to vent their frustrations.
Among the four sisters, Li Yumei was especially vicious.
Every time she finished beating Qiao Nian, she would ask:
“Does it hurt? Does it really hurt?”
If Qiao Nian remained silent, she would beat her even harder.
Only when Qiao Nian screamed, cried, and begged for mercy would Li Yumei finally feel satisfied.
Qiao Nian had never understood what terrible crime she had committed to deserve this.
She had never wronged anyone.
Yet countless people had wronged her.
Was it simply because she had been weak and too submissive?
If that was the case, then she would not be weak or submissive in this lifetime.
Everyone who had wronged her in her previous life—
She would make them pay, one by one.
With that thought, Qiao Nian swung the feather duster even harder.
“Cat got your tongue? Answer me! Does it hurt? Does it really hurt?”
“Aaaah! It hurts! It hurts so much!”
Li Yumei could no longer care about her dignity.
She screamed desperately.
“Sister-in-law! It was all a misunderstanding! It was my fault! I shouldn’t have said those things! I was just running my mouth!”
At that moment, Li Yumei genuinely felt that Qiao Nian intended to beat her to death.
The three Li brothers stood there completely stunned.
They had never imagined that their usually fierce and domineering aunt could be subdued so completely.
Their hearts immediately sank.
They didn’t even need to think about what would happen if their father returned.
Even without having children of their own, they felt that their future was already going to be miserable.
Qiao Nian finally grew tired.
She threw the feather duster aside and pointed toward the door.
“All of you, get out!”
Li Yumei’s clothes were already torn from the beating, and her entire body was burning with pain.
Staggering, she made her way toward Wang Xiuying’s bedroom, intending to find some clean clothes to change into.
She still had to go to the hospital to see her younger brother.
“Doctor! Doctor! Help! Please!”
Li Dachuan was carried into the hospital on a stretcher, with Wang Xiuying following closely behind and shouting desperately.
“No shouting in the hospital! What happened? What did he eat?”
Wang Xiuying’s voice trembled.
“My son accidentally swallowed rat poison. We already made him vomit once. Doctor, please, save him!”
The doctor moved closer.
The man lying on the bed had a bluish complexion, with tiny bubbles forming around his mouth.
While unbuttoning Li Dachuan’s collar, the doctor immediately ordered,
“Prepare for gastric lavage immediately!”
The nurses quickly pushed Li Dachuan into the emergency treatment room beside them.
Only then did Wang Xiuying feel the strength leave her body.
When they had first left home, Li Dachuan had still been able to walk with support.
But only a few minutes later, he suddenly began convulsing violently and foaming at the mouth.
It had truly terrified her.
“That damned little wretch!” Wang Xiuying cursed through gritted teeth.
“If it weren’t for that wicked Qiao Nian, how could my Dachuan have accidentally swallowed rat poison?”
At this point, Wang Xiuying had completely forgotten that the rat poison belonged to her own family, and that it was her precious eldest grandson who had brought the bowl of porridge.
Even if someone reminded her right then, she probably still wouldn’t have thought that Li Dajun was at fault.
Otherwise, how was it that the whole family had been perfectly fine when Qiao Nian wasn’t around, but the moment she arrived, her precious son, Dakang, ended up in the hospital?
The two young men who had carried Li Dakang in on the stretcher exchanged a glance. They could vaguely tell that something wasn’t right.
There was clearly more to this story!
Wang Xiuying continued cursing for nearly half an hour before the doors to the emergency room finally opened.
“Alright, the patient is out of danger. A family member needs to go and complete the hospitalization procedures. He’ll need to be observed for at least another three to five days. From now on, he must not eat anything for six hours. He may drink small amounts of warm water.”
After giving these instructions, the doctor left.
Wang Xiuying looked at Li Dakang lying behind her and felt a dull ache in her heart. Her poor son—who knew how much suffering he had endured?
Holding the hospitalization form given to her by the doctor, Wang Xiuying hurried downstairs to the cashier.
Fortunately, medical expenses were currently charged directly to the factory’s account, with the factory settling its bills with the hospital at the end of the year.
So even though she hadn’t brought any money with her, it wasn’t a problem.
The two young men waited until everything was settled. Once they saw that Li Dakang was out of danger, they left and went home.
When Li Yumei arrived at the hospital, she saw her mother sitting beside the bed. Her younger brother’s face was pale, and he was still unconscious.
“Why are you the one who came? Where’s Qiao Nian?”
When Wang Xiuying saw that Qiao Nian hadn’t come, she immediately became furious.
That wicked woman had caused her son to end up like this, and shouldn’t she have come to take care of him and make amends?
If she wasn’t going to come on her own, hadn’t Wang Xiuying already sent someone to tell her to come?
Did she expect everyone else to take care of him?
“Mom, Qiao Nian, she… you should, in the future…”
Li Yumei stammered, making Wang Xiuying even angrier.
“You…”
Before she could finish, she noticed the dense scratches covering the exposed part of Li Yumei’s face. Her brows immediately furrowed in disbelief.
“Did your husband hit you?”
Li Yumei felt like she had a lump of blood stuck in her throat.
She wanted to say that her husband would never hit her. The only people who would beat someone half to death were people like her father and her younger brother!