The Shen family looked down on their daughter for being “shameless,” yet at the same time accepted a hefty bride price from the marriage, thoroughly breaking Shen Daniu’s heart. Aside from holidays and festivals, she rarely returned to her parents’ home.
But according to the neighbors, Shen Daniu’s life was actually quite good now.
Her husband was older, and he already had a ten-year-old son from his previous marriage, but after Shen Daniu married into the family, she gave birth to a daughter the very next year. The older boy adored his little sister.
As a result, he also treated Shen Daniu, his stepmother, much better.
Nowadays, whenever the family of four went out together, countless people envied them.
Although Li Huaihua always claimed daughters were inferior to sons—
Zhang Yunqing felt that Shen Daniu was actually the truly smart one: someone daring, decisive, and capable of making choices.
She knew what she wanted and, within her limited circumstances, fought for a better life for herself without hurting anyone else.
Unlike Shen Changlin, who wanted everything at once and used the original owner’s sincere feelings for his own benefit.
Over the past few days, Zhang Yunqing had been busy both with work and with keeping an eye on the ridiculous stunts Zhang Hongwei was pulling in preparation for his marriage.
She had practically forgotten about Shen Changlin.
Since he had jumped out on his own to make his presence known again—
Naturally, Zhang Yunqing had to prepare a “big gift” for him.
She deliberately blocked Li Huaihua on her way to fetch water and vaguely described the harsh living conditions in the countryside, especially emphasizing how popular well-off male educated youths were among rural girls.
In Li Huaihua’s eyes, Shen Changlin was perfect in every way. She probably thought even a mayor’s daughter would be worthy of him.
Without Zhang Yunqing needing to say much more, Li Huaihua had already imagined countless country girls throwing themselves at her son.
As a “noble” city dweller, she absolutely could not tolerate her son marrying some village girl.
Zhang Yunqing then kindly offered her advice:
“Don’t let Shen Changlin take any money or ration coupons with him. Once those girls see he has no money, they’ll naturally lose interest in clinging to him.”
“Later, once things settle down, you can mail the money and coupons to him.”
Li Huaihua found the idea extremely reasonable. She even believed Zhang Yunqing cared so much because she still couldn’t let go of Shen Changlin, trusting her words completely.
Zhang Yunqing didn’t bother explaining herself. She only said Shen Changlin was too simple-minded and warned Li Huaihua not to tell him about the plan, in case his poor acting gave something away and people figured it out.
Li Huaihua naturally agreed immediately.
Zhang Yunqing had to struggle not to burst out laughing.
By the time Shen Changlin traveled thousands of miles to the Great Northwest, exhausted from the journey and barely able to catch his breath, only to discover all the money and ration coupons his mother had supposedly prepared were gone—
He probably wouldn’t even dare open his mouth to cry.
After all, the Great Northwest was famous for its sandstorms.
In this lifetime, without the original owner acting as his little servant and without money or ration coupons, Shen Changlin probably wouldn’t have such an easy time developing feelings with the novel’s female lead—the spoiled daughter of a capitalist family.
Zhang Yunqing waved her sleeve and quietly concealed her achievement and fame.
It was just a pity she wouldn’t get to witness it in person.
One problem solved, another appeared.
Zhang Yunqing felt like a farmer harvesting leeks—troublemakers kept sprouting up endlessly like weeds.
These past few days, every time Zhang Hongwei saw her, he wore a miserable expression, sighing repeatedly and acting like he wanted to say something but held back.
Clearly waiting for her to ask so he could launch into his speech.
Zhang Yunqing simply watched him perform, curious how much longer he could hold out.
On the fourth evening, Zhang Hongwei finally reached his limit.
Thinking about Li Jinfeng’s tears, he brought up the topic at the dinner table.
“Yunqing, working at the printing factory must be tiring, right?”
Here it comes.
The thought flashed through Zhang Yunqing’s mind.
“Not tiring.”
Two stiff words immediately blocked him.
“Uh…” Zhang Hongwei clearly hadn’t expected that answer and nearly forgot his lines.
“You’re still young. The printing factory work is heavy. I’m just worried you won’t be able to handle it.”
He frowned. If one didn’t know his true intentions, he almost looked like a caring older brother.
“If you were really concerned, you’d know the plate-making workshop is technical work. It’s not heavy labor.”
Zhang Yunqing mocked him directly.
“Ahem. Why are you talking like I’m your enemy? I’m your brother.”
Zhang Hongwei genuinely couldn’t understand what had happened to Zhang Yunqing.
For every sentence he spoke, she had ten waiting in return.
Thinking of his real purpose, he suppressed his anger.
“Your future sister-in-law is about to join the family. I want you to switch jobs with her. You can go work as a temporary worker at the textile factory.”
“Second Brother, is there something wrong with your brain?”
Hearing this, Zhang Hongbing thought he must still be dreaming. Otherwise, how could he possibly hear such nonsense from his second brother?
Even he, an actual blood-related younger brother, had been too embarrassed to ask his third sister for her job.
How did Li Jinfeng, an outsider who hadn’t even married into the family yet, have the nerve?
“No.”
Zhang Yunqing remained perfectly calm.
“I already discussed it with Mom and Dad.”
Zhang Hongwei immediately pulled out his trump card. He knew Zhang Yunqing had always listened to their parents the most.
“Really?”
Zhang Yunqing replied casually, her gaze landing on Zhang Junzhong and Zhao Pinglan, who had both been keeping their heads down and silently eating since the conversation began.
After two seconds of silence, Zhang Junzhong spoke.
“It’s your decision. If you don’t want to switch, then don’t.”
“Dad!”
Zhang Hongwei shouted, becoming flustered and angry.
“Mom, say something!”
Zhao Pinglan had stayed silent earlier because she knew she was in the wrong.
But that guilt was toward her youngest daughter. The real culprit still daring to act so arrogantly was another matter entirely.
She reached out and twisted Zhang Hongwei’s ear hard.
“What are you yelling for? You think you’re in the right here?”
“Ow! Mom, that’s not what I meant! Isn’t this all for the Zhang family?”
Zhang Hongwei’s face twisted in pain.
Zhang Yunqing watched with great interest, making absolutely no effort to stop it.
As for Zhang Hongbing, he practically wished he were the one twisting Zhang Hongwei’s ear. Even his fingers tensed along with Zhao Pinglan’s force. There was no way he would try to mediate.
Only after giving Zhang Hongwei’s ear two more vicious twists did Zhao Pinglan finally calm down and let go.
She dropped heavily into her chair and looked deeply at Zhang Yunqing.
Faced with her unmarried daughter, she still found the matter difficult to say outright, so she spoke vaguely.
“Your brother, this fool, did something shameless before marriage. Now we have to clean up his mess and get them married quickly.”
“Then let them marry,” Zhang Hongbing said, confused. “What does that have to do with taking my sister’s job?”
“Why do you care so much?”
Zhao Pinglan snapped.
She didn’t know how to explain it. Seeing Zhang Yunqing stay silent, she assumed her daughter still hadn’t understood.
After thinking for a moment, she finally made herself clearer.
“It means… you two might soon become an aunt and an uncle.”
“Huh?” Zhang Hongbing’s mouth fell open in shock.
He looked at Zhao Pinglan, then at Zhang Hongwei, and sincerely exclaimed in admiration:
“Second Brother… you’re really something.”
Shameless.
He wasn’t stupid. This matter had clearly gone beyond the limits of where he could insert himself. He shot Zhang Yunqing an apologetic look and quietly shrank to the side.
Zhang Yunqing’s expression remained unchanged.
“Still not switching.”
Zhang Hongwei’s eyes widened.
“You’re going to be an aunt! How can you be this selfish?”
He himself knew the pregnancy was fake, but Zhang Yunqing shouldn’t know that. Yet even after things had reached this point, she was still so cold-hearted.
For the first time, Zhang Hongwei felt like he was truly seeing this younger sister clearly.