Chen Xiaofei wasn’t about to listen. The moment he got his hands on the twenty cents, he strutted off triumphantly.
Zhao Xiaomian was already fed up with having transmigrated to this godforsaken place. The original owner’s heatstroke had only made her more miserable. And now she had to deal with two little brats who seemed determined to give her a headache.
Her anger shot straight through the roof. Her heart stopped pounding, her dizziness vanished, and she sprang out of bed, grabbing Chen Xiaofei by his filthy gray undershirt!
Chen Xiaofei jumped in fright. He turned around and saw that the hand belonged to his older cousin’s stepmother, Zhao Xiaomian. His heart, which had practically leaped into his throat, settled back down.
He raised his skinny little arm and forcefully knocked her hand away.
Zhao Xiaomian’s body was still weak. Caught off guard, she staggered backward. Her head spun, and she was about to faint again.
Then inspiration struck.
How could she have forgotten? The original owner had passed out from heatstroke!
If she fainted one more time, wouldn’t she be able to go back?
Zhao Xiaomian stopped trying to find something to hold on to and simply let herself fall to the floor.
She was leaving anyway. What did she care whether the floor was dirty?
The little brother and sister froze in surprise. When they finally came to their senses, Chen Xiaofei lifted his foot and kicked Zhao Xiaomian in the calf.
“Are you pretending to be helpless again? I didn’t hit you, so don’t even think about playing that trick! My dad may be stupid enough to fall for your lies, but I’m not. Get up!”
Zhao Xiaomian remained motionless, cursing inwardly.
You little brat! Stop getting in the way of my return!
“Brother, look at Stepmom.”
Chen Xiaodan pointed at Zhao Xiaomian’s face and asked curiously, “Is Stepmom sick?”
Chen Xiaofei crouched down and tilted his head, studying her.
Zhao Xiaomian’s face was deathly pale, and her lips had lost all their color. She looked exactly like his mother had when she fell ill last year.
Chen Xiaofei refused to believe that a bad woman could get sick. He tentatively pushed her arm, but Zhao Xiaomian still didn’t move.
“Is she really sick?”
Chen Xiaodan grew frightened. “Brother, what do we do?”
Zhao Xiaomian wanted to tell them that they didn’t need to do anything.
But she had to faint!
Faint, faint, faint!
She couldn’t move!
“Brother, Stepmom… Is Stepmom going to die?”
Chen Xiaodan’s voice grew increasingly anxious, and tears crept into her words.
In his six years of life, Chen Xiaofei had never encountered anything like this. It was even more frightening than his mother going overseas to find those foreign devils.
He began to panic.
Then he suddenly remembered something and jumped to his feet.
“Let’s go find—”
As he turned, his eyes happened to land on the writing desk.
“I know!”
He pulled open the drawer and took out the bottle of Huoxiang Zhengqi Oral Liquid his father had forced him to drink a few days earlier.
“Stepmom wants this, right? She’s not sick. Just like Dad said, she’s suffering from heatstroke!”
The tears in Chen Xiaodan’s eyes seemed to freeze.
“She’s… not sick?”
“No! Definitely not! Bad women don’t get sick!”
Chen Xiaofei was actually feeling rather guilty. His grandparents had told him to behave, and if he ended up making someone die, his grandparents and father would definitely beat him.
All three of them would gang up on him!
He’d be done for!
To save his own skin, Chen Xiaofei crouched down and handed the bottle of Huoxiang Zhengqi Oral Liquid to Zhao Xiaomian.
But Zhao Xiaomian’s eyes were tightly shut, and she couldn’t take the medicine.
Chen Xiaofei’s little head spun as he tried to think of a solution. Finally, he placed the bottle on the floor.
“Little sister, help me!”
Zhao Xiaomian wondered what the little brat was up to now.
With a loud thud, Zhao Xiaomian went from lying on her side to sprawled flat on her back. Her head hit the floor, leaving her dazed all over again.
She was delighted.
Yes! That’s the feeling! My body is floating. My soul is leaving my body!
Then—
A pair of little hands pried her mouth open.
She instinctively moved, and the tip of her tongue caught a salty, fishy taste. It was like a mixture of dirt and sweat.
Zhao Xiaomian couldn’t help wrinkling her nose.
Chen Xiaodan’s eyes lit up.
“Brother! Stepmom moved!”
Chen Xiaofei seized the opportunity and shouted at the top of his lungs.
“Hey! Older Cousin! Stepmom! Xiao Zhao! Wake up!”
Wake up, my foot!
Stop getting in the way of my return!
Chen Xiaofei spotted the bottle of Huoxiang Zhengqi Oral Liquid.
“Little sister, harder!”
Chen Xiaodan pressed her lips together and used every bit of strength she had.
Zhao Xiaomian’s mouth hurt, and her clenched teeth parted just enough to leave a small gap.
Chen Xiaofei immediately took advantage of the opportunity and poured the medicine into her mouth.
“Pfft! Cough, cough—”
Zhao Xiaomian could no longer go and die in peace.
Her nose and mouth were filled with the awful taste of Huoxiang Zhengqi Oral Liquid.
Afraid of getting sprayed, Chen Xiaofei hurriedly jumped out of the way.
He saw Zhao Xiaomian’s brows knitted tightly, and she looked furious. It was just like the way she looked when she got angry at his father and threatened to beat him.
He quickly defended himself.
“It’s not my fault! Now that you’re awake, get up! Stop lying on the floor pretending to be dead!”
“Chen Xiaofei!”
Zhao Xiaomian had been on the verge of fainting, but after those two little brats finished interfering, she was more awake than ever!
Her students, her apartment, and even her damn grandma were all gone!
Once again, Zhao Xiaomian felt strength surge through her body.
She got up and glared down at the little brat.
This was the first time Chen Xiaofei had ever seen Zhao Xiaomian lose her temper. He also realized just how tall she was. She seemed even taller than his mother.
Her arms were long, too. Getting hit by them would definitely hurt.
“I-I was saving you! You were about to die!”
Chen Xiaofei instinctively took two steps backward.
Then he realized, with a start, that he was actually afraid of the bad woman.
He immediately stepped forward again, puffed out his chest, and stuck his chin up.
“You can’t be unreasonable!”
Zhao Xiaomian raised her hand.
“Bad women don’t have to be reasonable!”
“Th-Then you’re a good, good woman, all right?”
Chen Xiaofei hurriedly squeezed through the narrow gap between her and the door.
Zhao Xiaomian reached out, grabbed the back of his undershirt, and dragged him back.
Chen Xiaofei immediately started screaming.
“You can’t hit me!”
“Don’t hit my brother!”
Chen Xiaodan rushed forward and bit Zhao Xiaomian’s hand.
Zhao Xiaomian grabbed the little girl’s arm and lifted her off the ground.
Chen Xiaofei turned around and tried to pry her hand open.
“Let go of my little sister! Zhao Xiaomian! You promised Mom you’d take good care of us! I-I’ll tell Dad to divorce you if you dare hit us!”
Zhao Xiaomian thought to herself:
Do you think I’m afraid of getting divorced? I just don’t want one right now!
“Fine. I won’t hit either of you!”
Truthfully, Zhao Xiaomian was barely holding herself together. She didn’t have the energy to keep wrestling with the two children.
“Now, what are we going to do about you knocking me over just now?”
Chen Xiaofei stopped struggling.
“Then… why don’t you knock me over, too?”
Zhao Xiaomian shook her head.
Seeing how frightened his little sister was, Chen Xiaofei grew anxious.
“Then what do you want?”
“Put the money back where you found it. Move the bamboo sleeping mat under the fan. Neither of you is going anywhere. We’ll talk after I’ve had some sleep!”
Zhao Xiaomian let go of them.
Chen Xiaofei instinctively wanted to argue, but Zhao Xiaomian gave him a cold look.
His little body shrank back slightly.
Still, he didn’t want to surrender to the bad woman’s tyranny, so he tried reasoning with her.
“Aren’t you afraid I’ll tell Dad? Then Dad will divorce you!”
Zhao Xiaomian replied calmly, “Your father, grandfather, and aunt all have jobs to go to. Your maternal grandparents and your mother have gone overseas to find those foreign devils. If your father divorces me, who’s going to cook for you two? Without anyone looking after you, are you going to eat popsicles all day long? If your father agrees, I’ll go get the divorce papers with him tomorrow.”
Chen Xiaofei opened and closed his mouth, only to realize he had no answer.
No wonder his father hated the bad woman but still kept her in the house.
Seeing that the little brat was actually capable of listening to reason, Zhao Xiaomian thought to herself that perhaps he hadn’t been spoiled beyond saving by the original owner after all.
She had no idea how long she would have to stay in this little family. If she didn’t want to spend every day fighting hand-to-hand with these two little terrors, she needed to change their impression of her while she had the chance.
Zhao Xiaomian asked again, “Your aunt says I’m a bad person. If she’s so wonderful, why doesn’t she come over and cook for you?”
Chen Xiaofei replied, “I… My aunt has to work.”
“So, in your aunt’s eyes, her job and the money she earns are more important than you?”
Zhao Xiaomian leaned against the wall to catch her breath.
“I’m the one who’s been cooking and washing your clothes these past few days.”
She turned toward the younger little terror.
“Chen Xiaodan, I’m the one who bathes you and washes your hair. Your aunt is such a wonderful person, and I’m the one doing all these things for you. Do either of you have brains? You’re both old enough to know better. How can you believe everything people tell you?”
Chen Xiaofei instinctively objected.
“That’s not true!”
Then he suddenly realized something.
“What you’re saying is wrong! You only treat us well because you’re afraid Dad will divorce you!”
“Good grief, are you really that dense?”
Zhao Xiaomian poked him on the forehead.
“Your mother left. Your father needs me to look after you. He’s the one who’s afraid I’ll divorce him!”
The two little terrors blinked.
That actually made sense.
Zhao Xiaomian gave a disdainful snort.
“Your aunt is twisting the truth!”
Chen Xiaofei shook his head.
“My aunt isn’t a bad person. She buys us delicious things. If you say bad things about my aunt again, you’re a bad woman!”
“So your aunt is a good person just because she says bad things about me?”
Chen Xiaofei had no answer.
Zhao Xiaomian hadn’t expected a child who had only just finished kindergarten to come up with a convincing argument anyway.
“Your aunt is prejudiced against me!”
Chen Xiaofei looked unconvinced.
“Prejudiced about what?”
Zhao Xiaomian answered with a mixture of truth and fabrication.
“She says your father is highly educated, your grandfather is a senior government official, and your family is well-off. She thinks your mother wasn’t good enough for your father, and neither am I. According to her, your father might as well have been a swan falling into a cesspit when he married me.”
Chen Xiaofei’s eyes widened in shock.
Zhao Xiaomian’s brows furrowed slightly.
Had Chen Jianye’s sister really said something like that?
“Well, aren’t you?” Chen Xiaofei asked, looking her up and down.
Zhao Xiaomian shot back, “If I’m a cesspit, then what does that make your mother? An outhouse?”
“Your mother is the—”
Zhao Xiaomian glared at him.
Chen Xiaofei swallowed the rest of his sentence and changed his question.
“You’re not a bad woman?”
“Have you ever seen a bad woman like me? Looks like I’ve been far too kind to you two these past few months. You can’t even tell right from wrong anymore. Starting today, I’ll show you exactly how bad I can be!”
Zhao Xiaomian was reaching her limit.
“Chen Xiaodan!”
The little terror jumped in fright and immediately hid behind her brother.
Zhao Xiaomian said, “I’m not going to hit you. Go get me another bottle of Huoxiang Zhengqi Oral Liquid. Chen Xiaofei, move the dining table aside and put the bamboo mat under the fan!”
The two children had never experienced Zhao Xiaomian’s methods before.
When she had just lifted one of them in each hand, they had been terrified.
Besides, without Zhao Xiaomian around, they would either have to follow their father to the construction site or go to their grandparents’ offices.
There, they weren’t allowed to run around or make loud noises. It was enough to drive anyone crazy.
After weighing their options, Chen Xiaofei decided that a wise man knew when to give in.
He would let the bad woman have her way just this once.
I’ll get my revenge in ten years!
The brother and sister worked together to spread out the bamboo mat.
Leaning against the wall, Zhao Xiaomian switched on the electric fan. Without paying attention to the settings, she turned it up to the highest speed.
The things on the table were nearly blown away, so she hurriedly turned it down to the middle setting.
Zhao Xiaomian collapsed onto the mat, too exhausted to care how filthy the two little terrors were.
“You two, lie down, too!”
Chen Xiaofei protested, “What about my popsicle?”
“You’re not eating it!”
Zhao Xiaomian closed her eyes and slowly explained.
Previously, she had thought her cousin wouldn’t be coming back, and the two children were rather pitiful. Although she knew that eating too much candy was bad for their teeth, she hadn’t had the heart to stop them.
But look how they’d turned out. They became more unruly with each passing day.
Zhao Xiaomian opened her eyes and glanced at the siblings sitting beside the bamboo mat.
“Your good days are over.”
Chen Xiaofei had completely forgotten about the money in his hand.
“What did you say? My mother isn’t coming back?”
Chen Jianye hated the original owner. There was no way he didn’t also hate the ex-wife who had schemed against him.
Zhao Xiaomian refused to believe Chen Jianye had never told the children.
“Didn’t your father tell you?”
Chen Xiaofei replied, “He did. But Mom said she’d come back in a couple of years.”
Zhao Xiaomian didn’t want to spend her days being compared to this child’s mother.
Even if she only stayed with this family until the summer vacation ended, she wanted nothing to do with the original owner’s cousin!
She spoke bluntly.
“She lied to you! If your mother really planned to come back in a few years, why would she have your father marry me? Your father earns money at work. He could easily hire a nanny for a year or two. He doesn’t like me, yet he still married me because he needs someone to look after you until you get into college. You learned addition and subtraction in kindergarten. Figure out for yourself how many years you’ll need me to take care of you.”
Chen Xiaofei began counting on his fingers.
Including his little sister, he would need her for a full eleven years!
Zhao Xiaomian kindly added, “There are 365 days in a year.”
Chen Xiaofei held up his fingers and tried to calculate.
But he couldn’t work it out.
Suddenly, he burst into tears.
Zhao Xiaomian opened her eyes to see Chen Xiaofei sobbing uncontrollably, as though his mother had really died.
Chen Xiaodan had understood that her mother wasn’t coming back, but her little head hadn’t quite grasped what that meant.
When she saw her brother crying so hard he could barely catch his breath, she finally understood that something terrible had happened.
She joined him in crying over their heartless mother.
It was only natural for children to love and miss their mother. Zhao Xiaomian decided she could afford to be considerate for once, so she let them cry as much as they wanted.
At least if they cried themselves out, they would stay inside instead of going out and causing trouble for her.
However, before the two little terrors could finish crying, Zhao Xiaomian had already fallen asleep.
When she eventually opened her eyes in a daze, the two little brats were sleeping soundly beside her, one near her head and the other near her feet.
Tears still clung to their eyelashes, and tear tracks remained on their cheeks. Their already dirty little faces looked even worse now.
Zhao Xiaomian felt anxious and her stomach hurt. She suspected the original owner hadn’t eaten much that morning.
Faced with the choice of waking the children or making something to eat first, Zhao Xiaomian decisively chose the latter.
She picked up the enamel mug on the table. She vaguely remembered that it belonged to Chen Jianye. The water inside had been boiled that morning.
Too thirsty to be picky, Zhao Xiaomian gulped down half the mug in one go.
Only then did her stomach begin to feel better.
She was alive again.
Zhao Xiaomian suddenly stiffened.
Wait. Why had she come back to life?
Clang!
The sudden noise startled her.
She turned toward the eastern wall, where a dark reddish-brown wooden chiming clock hung. The time was clearly visible.
Eleven thirty.
Before falling asleep, she had glanced at the clock. She hadn’t had the strength to look closely, but she vaguely remembered it being nine.
More than two hours had passed?
Her body must be starting to stink by now.
Zhao Xiaomian sighed and told herself to stop messing around.
If she died here without returning to her old world, wouldn’t she become a wandering ghost?
Better to live a miserable life than die.
Fine. She would just have to make the best of it.
Zhao Xiaomian put down the enamel mug, which bore the words “Serve the People,” and went outside to open the stove.
After searching through the original owner’s memories, she returned inside and pulled a small basket of fruits and vegetables from beneath the chopping board.
She looked at the eggplants and long beans. Having cooked countless meals in her previous life, she immediately knew what to do with them.
She decided to go downstairs to wash the vegetables.
The building had originally belonged to the municipal government. Strictly speaking, it shouldn’t have been assigned to Chen Jianye.
In August of the previous year, the Municipal Engineering Construction Office had recruited personnel from various work units across the city to participate in a river management project.
Chen Jianye was among the youngest and most highly educated recruits. The leaders at the construction office were eager to keep him, so they immediately arranged housing for him.
Because housing was in short supply, they needed to find somewhere close to his workplace that also met the official housing allocation requirements.
This tenement building was practically their only option.
There were no water taps, toilets, or bathrooms upstairs.
The building had a large courtyard, where all these facilities were located.
The water taps were outside the ground-floor veranda. Ten taps stood in a neat row, and the thirty households living upstairs and downstairs shared the water bill.
The bathrooms and toilets were communal, too.
Zhao Xiaomian had lived in a school dormitory since middle school in her previous life, so she was accustomed to sharing bathrooms, toilets, and water taps.
She had no qualms about carrying the basin of vegetables downstairs.
But when she looked at the two little terrors, who were so filthy they barely looked like children, she found them more and more irritating.
“Chen Xiaofei! Chen Xiaodan! Get up!”