Qin Zhoucheng was about to ask himself—who are you?
Hearing the commotion, Lin Su came out. The moment she saw the woman, her brows instinctively furrowed.
“Su’er, it’s me. Didn’t I send you a letter saying I’d come today for you to pick me up? I’ve been sitting at the brigade office for over an hour and no one came.”
Lin Su immediately remembered who she was. Her expression turned cold.
“Why are you here?”
This was the original owner’s adoptive mother, Feng Xiuhua—one of the key people in the story who had switched her with the “fake daughter.”
Thinking of the original owner’s tragic ending—a legitimate high-ranking official’s daughter and cultured intellectual’s child reduced to an uneducated, fat, ugly rural woman—Lin Su felt a surge of anger.
All because of Feng Xiuhua’s selfishness.
She wanted her own daughter to live a good life, so she switched the children. The original owner hadn’t done anything wrong—yet she became the fake daughter’s stepping stone and comparison target.
“What do you mean I can’t come? I’m your mother! As a mother, I can’t even visit my daughter? No manners at all. I come to your yard and you don’t even offer me a glass of water?”
She walked straight in without permission, scanning the room. Her eyes lingered on the finished clothes and sewing machine, and she immediately lit up.
“You didn’t come to see me all these years in Yu family, but now that you’re divorced, you suddenly show up? What are you planning?”
Behind Feng Xiuhua stood a young girl—only middle school age—two braids, looking shy and timid.
“How can you talk to your own mother like that? I only came because I heard you got divorced. Look at you—Xiao Yu was a university student, and you let such a good man slip away. You worked like a cow and horse in the Yu family for nothing, and in the end you were kicked out. Now you’re living in this broken house and you still don’t appreciate anything?”
Qin Zhoucheng noticed Lin Su’s discomfort, but upon hearing it was her mother, he still poured tea from the thermos.
Feng Xiuhua glanced at him, saw he was handsome but simply dressed, and snorted without even greeting him.
“What exactly are you here for? If there’s nothing important, go back. I don’t need you visiting me. My household registration is already out—I have nothing to do with your family anymore. Stop rambling here.”
“You’ve really gone rebellious. You don’t even recognize your mother anymore? Are you even human?”
“You dumped me into the Yu family at twelve to be a child bride. Were you human then?”
Qin Zhoucheng paused slightly and sat down beside Lin Su, silent, but his action made his stance clear—he didn’t trust leaving Lin Su alone with this woman.
Feng Xiuhua frowned. “That was because of the situation at home! Your younger siblings were still small—seven mouths to feed! Sending you to the Yu family was giving you a way out! But you were useless, couldn’t even keep your university-educated husband, and got kicked out. I came to see you and you’re so ungrateful. Is that how you talk to your mother?”
She wasn’t her mother.
In her past life, Lin Su had a loving mother. Even though she had crossed into a novel after her death, she still carried that warmth.
Feng Xiuhua wasn’t even her real mother—she was practically a trafficker who had swapped children for her own benefit.
Lin Su looked at her coldly, with no trace of warmth in her eyes.
“So now that I’ve been kicked out of the Yu family and have no value left, you finally show up. Leave.”
Feng Xiuhua refused to leave. She was shameless.
“Your younger brother is getting married. They want a dowry—three major items and one big appliance. You know our situation, we don’t have money. Your father already decided: each of you sisters must contribute thirty yuan for your brother’s bride price.”
She even climbed onto the kang, noticing the basket of wool yarn and casually touching it.
Lin Su’s anger flared. She snatched the basket away.
“Don’t touch anything! This isn’t mine—it belongs to someone else. If you damage it, you can’t afford it! I have no money for your dowry. I’ve been divorced and kicked out of the Yu family. Where would I get money for you?”
“You don’t have money, but you found a new man, didn’t you? Let him pay!” Feng Xiuhua said matter-of-factly. “Comrade, what’s your relationship with Su’er? If you want to marry her, no dowry under a hundred yuan—we won’t accept it.”
For Qin Zhoucheng, a hundred yuan wasn’t much. But he would not let himself be manipulated by a rural woman like this.
Lin Su stood up angrily.
“Stop causing trouble! What, you planning to kidnap me and sell me again? And now you’re asking him for dowry—do you even have shame?”
“I have every right!” Feng Xiuhua retorted. “Once a daughter is married off, she’s like water spilled. Don’t forget who raised you—I fed you mouthful by mouthful! You should repay me for my milk!”
What a joke.
If she hadn’t switched the children, the original owner would have been a young lady from Beijing. She wouldn’t have suffered all this hardship or humiliation.
“You’re grown now and don’t even support your parents? I’ll take you to court! Living with men like this—what kind of behavior is that?” Feng Xiuhua’s eyes darted around. “Jian Guo is your biological brother. You can’t ignore him. If you can’t afford the dowry, then give him that sewing machine! We can’t even get a machine coupon ourselves.”
She scanned the room again and spotted the malted milk powder, powdered milk, and Yashuang cream.
“You’re living well now and forgot your family. No milk for your mother to drink? I’ll just taste it and see what it is.”
She reached out her hand.
Bang!
Lin Su slammed the wooden ruler against the cabinet. The sound startled Feng Xiuhua into pulling her hand back.
“Don’t even think about touching anything in this house. Not a single thread. If Feng Jian Guo wants to get married, figure it out yourselves. We’re not even registered in the same household anymore—why are you asking me for money? I have none. And the sewing machine is mine. If anything goes missing, I’ll report it to the police. Theft is a crime—you can go to jail for that.”
Feng Xiuhua gritted her teeth, about to curse—
When suddenly, voices came from outside.
“Xiao Lin, is Comrade Qin here? Can we come in?”
Village courtyards usually weren’t locked. In rural areas, neighbors were close, and people would just call out before entering.
Lin Su answered, and soon Aunt Liu walked in with Xu Ermei and her son Liu Xinqiang, carrying several bags.
The moment they saw the woman inside, Aunt Liu was startled.
“Oh my heavens! You’ve got guests? Are they here to ask Comrade Qin for favors too?”
She looked closely at Feng Xiuhua.
“Why do you look so familiar… you kind of look like Xiao Lin’s mother?”