The most shocked of all was Zhang Qiulian. She twisted her fingers together, gritted her teeth, and glared resentfully at Hu Yan.
Then she began to cry pitifully.
“Sister-in-law, what have we, a widow and her children, done to offend you?
“Why are you insulting us like this? Sob… sob…”
Here we go again.
She had used that weak, pitiful appearance to make everyone give in to her for years.
Seeing Zhang Qiulian crying so hard that she looked as though she might faint at any moment, her father-in-law was the first to speak up.
“Enough, Fifth daughter-in-law. Why are you arguing with children?
“Your eldest brother is gone. As their aunt, is this how you should behave?”
Hu Yan let out a cold laugh and looked straight at Old Man Chen.
“Hmph. Whoever feels sorry for her can take care of her. Don’t come here taking advantage of me.
“My things didn’t just appear out of thin air. I mean what I say.
“Keep a close eye on them. If they steal my food again, I’ll make sure they pay for every bite they took.”
The triplets saw the fierce look in Hu Yan’s eyes and hurriedly hid behind Zhang Qiulian.
Bai Fengxia raised her eyes and glanced at Hu Yan.
But she turned to Zhang Qiulian and said,
“An idle hand starts with stealing a needle and ends with stealing gold.
“Teach your children properly. Don’t let them develop bad habits just because they want to take advantage of others.
“All right. Let’s eat.”
Zhang Qiulian clenched her fingers and swallowed her anger. She still needed to ask for their help tomorrow, so she couldn’t afford to completely fall out with anyone.
Her voice was soft and obedient.
“I understand, Mom.”
Hu Yan glanced mockingly at Zhang Qiulian.
She lightly pursed her red lips, looking as pure as a white camellia, yet with an almost imperceptible hint of allure.
Too bad none of the men in the family were around.
Who was she putting on that act for?
“Oh, right, Sister-in-law. You borrowed my watch and thermos. It’s time to return them, isn’t it?
“After all, they’re part of my dowry. You wouldn’t be planning to keep them for yourself, would you?”
She had never returned them in her previous life. When Zhang Qiulian remarried, they had become part of her dowry.
Zhang Qiulian’s face instantly turned deathly pale, and her eyes darted away.
“Sister-in-law, can I return them in a couple of days?”
Hu Yan planted her hands on her hips and said coldly,
“You’d better give them to me right now. Otherwise, I’ll go get them myself.
“If something in your room happens to get smashed in the process, I can’t guarantee anything.”
Zhang Qiulian looked at her in tears, hoping her in-laws would intervene.
Old Man Chen was just about to speak on her behalf when Bai Fengxia shot him a glare.
Old Man Chen immediately backed down and lowered his head to eat.
Hu Yan looked impatient.
“Can you stop crying all the time?
“It’s bad luck. Having a widow crying in front of me every day is enough to scare all my good fortune away.”
Seeing that no one was going to help her, Zhang Qiulian obediently returned the watch and thermos to Hu Yan.
Hu Yan had known she would give them back.
She remembered what had happened one after another in her previous life.
First, Zhang Qiulian remarried.
Then the elderly couple took charge of arranging for the triplets to be adopted by several of their sons.
After that came the great family split—the division of the property and the houses.
These events happened within a matter of days, and Zhang Qiulian was the biggest beneficiary of every single one.
Hu Yan suspected that she had planned everything long ago.
That was why she didn’t dare completely fall out with Hu Yan yet.
Seeing the heartbroken look on Zhang Qiulian’s face, Hu Yan felt that she had at least vented a little of her anger.
After everyone had put down their chopsticks, Mother Bai, the retired teacher, said,
“Tomorrow, Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth will all be coming home.”
She looked quietly at several of her daughters-in-law.
“Second son is in the neighboring village making furniture. Second daughter-in-law, go to the brigade and have Zhang Wei take the tractor to pick him up.”
The second son’s carpentry tools were too numerous for him to make the trip back on his own.
“Chen Qiu, Chen Dong, your parents are coming home tomorrow. Take the bedding outside and air it out.”
The third son worked at a brick factory, and he and his wife lived there.
“Fourth daughter-in-law, go tell Fourth son to pick up Fifth son at the train station tomorrow.”
Better to have Fourth son pick him up.
Fifth daughter-in-law was clearly in a bad mood today.
She was snapping at everyone she could find an excuse to snap at.
There was no point in sending her.
Sure enough, her mother-in-law was calling all her sons home because she wanted to make arrangements for the three grandsons in case Zhang Qiulian remarried.
There was no way the Chen family would let her take the children with her.
Given how selfish the elderly couple were, they certainly wouldn’t raise them themselves.
The eldest son had three boys, while Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth all had no sons.
Whether through adoption or taking them in as their own, they would probably all be willing.
When the elderly Chens were young, both of them had been busy working.
The younger children had all been raised by their eldest son, Chen Guangzong.
As a result, he didn’t marry until after Fourth son had gotten married.
Even Zhang Qiulian’s triplets were younger than their younger uncles’ children.
Because of this, after the eldest son became ill and passed away, his younger brothers had taken especially good care of Zhang Qiulian and her children.
Whenever they could help, they did. They never refused.
That was exactly what had encouraged Zhang Qiulian’s greedy nature.
She treated her sisters-in-law like fools she could exploit.
No matter how much she took advantage of them, it was never enough.
After dinner, none of the families wanted to stay inside. The rooms were simply too hot and stuffy.
Everyone sat outside their doorways to enjoy the evening breeze, which felt wonderfully cool.
Hu Yan also sat outside her own house, resting her chin in her hands as she watched.
Her eyes fell on the four girls bustling around the Chen family’s courtyard.
Chen Chun and Chen Xia from the second son’s family.
Chen Qiu and Chen Dong from the third son’s family.
Both families favored sons over daughters. All four girls had dropped out of school after graduating from junior high and returned home to work in the fields.
They also took care of all the household chores.
Both families had always desperately wanted a son to carry on the family line and support them in their old age.
As for Zhang Qiulian’s triplets, the two families would probably fight over them.
They were their own nephews, after all, and seemed like the perfect candidates to rely on in old age.
As long as you had nephews standing at your door, you couldn’t really be called a family without descendants.
It had been the same in her previous life.
The second and third sons had each adopted one of the triplets.
The remaining one, Chen Hao, had been given to Hu Yan and her husband.
Originally, they hadn’t wanted him either.
Chen Guangze was their family’s youngest son, born late in his parents’ lives.
They had only just gotten married. There was no reason for them to raise someone else’s child.
But after Zhang Qiulian and their in-laws repeatedly begged them, they could only agree to take him in.
Then, when Chen Hao was seven, he was diagnosed with heart disease.
At first, Chen Guangze was capable and good at making money.
Although Chen Hao had a heart condition, the financial burden wasn’t too great.
Later, Chen Guangze went bankrupt.
Then he repeatedly tried to start new businesses, only to fail again and again.
The couple worked overtime day and night to pay for Chen Hao’s medical treatment.
Yet he secretly took all the family’s savings.
He caused their daughter to die tragically.
And he literally angered Chen Guangze to death.
Now that Hu Yan had been reborn, every time she saw that face, she wanted to strangle him.
But right now, he was only a five-year-old child.
Children were surprisingly perceptive.
Seeing the way she glared at him, Chen Hao stopped coming anywhere near her.
Just then, Fourth daughter-in-law, Tang Lijuan, came over.
Tang Lijuan was the village Party secretary’s daughter and was heavily pregnant.
She should have been more than seven months along by now.
Fourth son and his wife had only one daughter, who was attending junior high in the city.
She lived at the school during the week, so she wasn’t home at the moment.
The couple adored their daughter and weren’t particularly concerned about having a son.
In the Chen family, Chun, Xia, Qiu, and Dong were treated like weeds.
But Fourth son’s daughter, Chen Tingting, was treated like a precious treasure.
Hu Yan carefully helped the heavily pregnant Tang Lijuan sit down on a small stool.
“Your belly is so big, and you’re carrying so much weight. What are you doing out here?”
Tang Lijuan was loud, straightforward, and somewhat childlike.
She was probably the person in the family Hu Yan had gotten along with best.
Later, however, Tang Lijuan and her husband went to Shenzhen to work, and they gradually lost touch.
They could only see each other during the holidays.
“You were amazing today! You beat her and cursed that little fox. That felt so good!”
Her eyes sparkled, and she puffed up her cheeks indignantly.
“I’ve wanted to do that for ages, but Guangyao always stopped me.”