When Wen Xiannan heard her mother say to start cooking, her little face flushed with anger. “Big sister-in-law is too much! Just because of a girl, she dares talk back to you? And now she won’t even make dinner? When Big Brother comes home, you have to teach her a lesson. If we keep spoiling her like this, she’ll be riding over us soon enough!”
Ye Wen frowned.
Ever since she woke up, this little girl had repeatedly tried to provoke her eldest brother into punishing Jiang Lian. For such a young age, her thoughts were surprisingly malicious. If not corrected properly, what would she become in the future?
This girl, though cruel at heart, couldn’t hide anything. No wonder in the original storyline, she got disciplined by the matriarch soon after entering the household.
Ye Wen carefully reviewed Wen Xiannan’s plotline in her mind.
Fortunately, she was still young, and this annoying behavior could still be corrected. There was no need to rush.
She wanted to tell the child that domestic violence was wrong, but the words died on her lips. After all, her current identity was a cruel matriarch; sudden moralizing would only raise suspicion.
After thinking for a moment, she said lightly, “Forget her. Let’s get some food first.” Her voice hadn’t fallen before she noticed the second daughter-in-law, Tian Chunhua, leaning lazily against the wall. Her expression darkened immediately.
“Second daughter-in-law, today you’re cooking.”
Tian Chunhua was shocked. Her mother-in-law had actually singled her out to cook. Her eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.
She wondered if Ye Wen was joking, but then the elderly lady continued: “Make some flatbreads and cook a pot of vegetable soup. It’s harvest season; the eldest and second sons need solid food. Otherwise, they’ll get exhausted, and how will this family survive?”
Tian Chunhua groaned inwardly. She had just been asked to heat water and hadn’t even rested yet, and now she was being told to work again.
But she wasn’t foolish. She knew her mother-in-law’s ways. She wouldn’t do anything stupid like arguing openly.
Her eyes rolled, and she quickly said, “Oh, Mother, I think I hear Yaozu crying. I’ll go check on him!”
With that, she hurried to the west wing.
Seeing her go, Wen Xiannan pouted and muttered, “Mother, you’re still injured. Why cook? Let Big Sister-in-law do it. She only gave birth to a girl, and she’s not some fancy lady. She doesn’t need to stay in confinement anyway.”
Inside the room, Jiang Lian heard her younger sister-in-law’s words and silently laid the swaddled baby on the bed. She whispered to her eldest daughter, “Xiaocao, help your mother watch your sister for a bit.”
Then she got out of bed to put on her shoes, ready to go to the kitchen to start dinner.
Ye Wen immediately understood. This foolish daughter-in-law had heard Wen Xiannan’s nonsense and really intended to drag her weakened postpartum body to cook.
Even Ye Wen, who didn’t claim to be a perfect leader, couldn’t let a woman in postpartum weakness work that day!
To maintain her persona, Ye Wen scolded roughly: “Who told you to get up? Look at you, all weak and sickly. Don’t ruin my food! Go back to bed!”
Jiang Lian froze, lowered her head obediently, and replied softly, “Yes,” then quietly went back to bed.
Ye Wen only breathed a sigh of relief once she saw her obey.
Now she had time to carefully examine this “cheap” daughter-in-law.
Jiang Lian had simply tied up her hair. Though her complexion was still pale, her delicate features couldn’t be hidden. Her skin was like snow, and her brows and eyes were perfectly shaped—a rare beauty in the making.
In contrast, the second daughter-in-law, Tian Chunhua, was just an ordinary village girl: rough skin, average looks. No wonder she always picked on her sister-in-law. It was probably jealousy of her beauty.
Even more surprising, Jiang Lian’s reform progress bar was at 80!
This discovery immediately made Ye Wen like her eldest daughter-in-law more. After all, who wouldn’t like a beautiful and obedient girl?
“Xiannan, come help Mother.” Ye Wen walked toward the kitchen, giving instructions. “Close your big sister-in-law’s room door. If the wind comes in, she’ll catch a cold, and I’ll have to waste medicine!”
“Hmph! Big sister-in-law, just wait!” Wen Xiannan shouted fiercely toward the room. “When Big Brother comes back, I’ll tell him! How dare you make Mother cook herself! You’ll regret it!”
Then she slammed the door with a bang.
Jiang Lian stared blankly at the doorway.
Her mother-in-law’s behavior was strange; she had completely changed. In the past, with her temper, she would never have let someone who hurt her go unpunished, and she certainly wouldn’t have stopped the younger sister-in-law from complaining. Most puzzling of all, when seeing Xiaocao, her mother-in-law didn’t scold her.
In the past, Xiaocao would be scolded or even beaten just for appearing in front of her grandmother. Her fear of her grandmother was ingrained in her bones.
When Xiaocao was born, Jiang Lian hadn’t even completed her confinement period before being forced to work. Yet today, her mother-in-law aggressively… sent her back to rest? And even made the younger sister-in-law close the door?
Though the tone was still sharp, Jiang Lian could sense her mother-in-law’s core had changed.
Jiang Lian, always observant, noticed even small changes. But thinking about the younger sister-in-law threatening to tattle, the little warmth she felt quickly faded.
If her husband returned and supported the idea of drowning the second daughter—
No, impossible. In this household, the three women were dispensable. At worst, she would die with her two children.
A cold, desperate light flashed in Jiang Lian’s eyes. Looking at the babbling Xiaocao and the clueless second daughter in her arms, a crazier thought grew in her mind.
If her husband still favored her mother-in-law… then the whole family would pay with their lives for what they had done to her children.
Earlier, she had thought of dying alone with her children—but why? This whole family had been mistreating the three of them. If she died, they should all die with her!
Ye Wen had no idea that her carefully built persona had already shown cracks on the first day. She couldn’t have guessed that her once-obedient eldest daughter-in-law was now plotting to make the whole family pay with blood.
When Ye Wen held her daughter and passed the west wing, she stopped and knocked on the window.
“Second daughter-in-law, come help once the child is settled.”
The room went silent at first, then a child’s heart-wrenching cry erupted.
“Mother, Yaozu is acting up again. You and little sister go ahead and work; I’ll come as soon as he calms down,” Tian Chunhua’s voice came through the papered window.
Ye Wen’s expression immediately darkened.
She had clearly heard the child playing happily just a moment ago. How had it suddenly turned into a wail?
In modern times, she had been a “senior nanny” helping her sister raise two nephews. She knew children’s habits very well.
Sudden crying usually meant discomfort—or someone had hurt them.
Tian Chunhua had actually harmed her own child just to avoid work?
Ye Wen’s chest tightened. She suppressed her anger and headed for the kitchen. If Tian Chunhua refused her orders, she’d have plenty of chances to deal with her later!
In the center of the kitchen was a clay stove with two iron pots set into it. To the left, a hearth held several iron cans with boiling water. She took a key from her waist and, from memory, opened the wall cupboard containing the family’s grain.
The original owner, Ye Wen, had always locked the grain tightly, only letting someone cook at meal times—and that person had always been Jiang Lian.
Inside the cupboard were half bags of flour and millet, a large bag of rice, and a big jar of lard. It looked like a lot, but for such a large family, it wouldn’t last half a month.
She scooped two bowls of flour into a basin. The flour wasn’t like modern white flour; it was grayish with impurities and even some bran.
Ye Wen knew this was because production was low—they couldn’t afford to sift flour thoroughly. Grain yield was scarce, so leaving in a bit of bran meant there would be enough food for everyone, even in hard times.
“Xiannan, go pick some vegetables from the backyard,” she said without looking up.
Just kneading the flour was hard enough; she couldn’t spare a hand for vegetables.
Yet Wen Xiannan pouted and complained: “Mother, how can you make me do such rough work?”
“I’m going to marry a wealthy man and be a concubine! Didn’t you say if I do rough work, my hands won’t be delicate, and the wealthy man won’t like me!”
Ye Wen’s hands froze in the flour, sending up a cloud of dust.
Good grief! This little girl’s mind was already full of thoughts about becoming a concubine—and it was all taught by the original owner? What kind of twisted education was this?