Chen Yuan’s voice grew louder and louder, quickly drawing the attention of the people nearby. In the end, even Old Madam Sun from next door, despite her bad legs, came out to watch the commotion.
The neighbours gathered together, whispering among themselves and looking at the scene strangely. They all lived in the same family residential compound, so of course they knew about Shen eldest’s situation. Those three children had always looked pitiful. Their father was gone, their mother wouldn’t raise them, and now they had been handed over to a step-grandmother. No one had expected something like this to happen.
Besides, Zhang Guilan usually looked so kind and gentle. Who knew what the real situation was? In the end, they weren’t her biological grandchildren, so there was bound to be a big difference.
Zhang Guilan’s expression turned ugly. “Don’t make false accusations! A woman from some small place really has no manners at all. I’m still your elder. Is this how you speak to an elder?”
Chen Yuan did not fall for moral blackmail. “An elder should act like an elder. You’re so harsh to these three pitiful children. If their father knew from the afterlife, how could he rest in peace?”
At this point, Zhang Guilan was no longer as confident as before. Her mouth opened, but for a long while she couldn’t refute anything. Hearing the mention of Shen eldest knowing from the underworld made her panic a little, and she was just about to explain when, coincidentally, Father Shen got off work.
Seeing a crowd gathered in front of his house and hearing people discussing things like “step-grandmother,” “black-hearted ghost,” and “when there’s a stepmother, there’s a stepfather,” his face immediately turned livid.
As he came in, he happened to hear Chen Yuan’s final sentence.
“I believe the masses have sharp eyes, and time will witness the truth. Sooner or later, justice will be returned to these children. If everyone doesn’t believe me, I’ll find a tape recorder, install a loudspeaker on the roof, and play every word I just said on repeat twenty-four hours a day so that all the neighbours can hear it. I believe Shen eldest’s spirit in heaven will understand me.”
What?
Use a loudspeaker and play it on repeat?
And let all the neighbours hear?
When Shen Changan heard this from behind the crowd, he was horrified. How would he continue living in this neighbourhood? After all, he was still a minor leader at the tax bureau. If this really happened, wouldn’t everyone know about his family’s dirty laundry? He would have no face left at work.
His gaze sharpened. He had no time to care about Chen Yuan’s matter and directly glared at Zhang Guilan, shouting, “Haven’t you embarrassed yourself enough? Hurry up and go back inside!”
Zhang Guilan was so angry she almost ground her teeth to pieces. She glared viciously at Chen Yuan, her eyes full of rage, wishing she could tear Chen Yuan’s mouth apart. But she also knew her old man cared most about face—more than his own life.
Now that the neighbours were already talking, if this continued, there would be no way to end it. She thought she would wait until everyone dispersed before coming back to deal with those little bastards.
Shen Changan and Zhang Guilan slunk back inside.
Chen Yuan’s words were not a joke. She really was capable of doing it. With energy, she feared nothing. As an all-purpose domestic system, her greatest weakness was not shame, morality, or reputation. It was lack of energy. Energy was her lifeline, a matter of life and death, so she would not yield an inch.
After Zhang Guilan and Shen Changan hid inside and shut the door tightly, they began discussing what had happened today.
Zhang Guilan looked wronged and furious. “Huai’s new wife is far too savage. Without saying a word, she moved all those things away. Isn’t this directly slapping us elders in the face? No matter what, those things must be taken back, otherwise where will our dignity go?”
After saying this, she looked at Shen Changan, hoping he would stand up for her. After all, Chen Yuan had offended him today too, and Old Shen cared most about face. He definitely shouldn’t be able to tolerate such provocation. Surely he would think of a way to discipline that young wife.
But she never expected to hear Shen Changan say angrily, “Take them back? Take what back? Don’t you think this matter is embarrassing enough already? Will you only be happy once everyone knows?”
Zhang Guilan’s face changed. She hadn’t expected Old Shen to think this way. Yesterday, she had been afraid of attracting attention, so she had only taken one piece of pork to her daughter. The rest of the things hadn’t even been sent out yet. How could she let all of it benefit those three little brats?
“If we don’t take them back, can you swallow this anger? Go and look for yourself. Not a single thing Shen Huai’s comrade sent back is left. Are we just going to endure this?”
Shen Changan felt that if this matter spread, the one losing face would still be him.
Besides, those things had originally been sent by his second son for his own nephews and niece. He had also read the letter that came back with them. Every word and sentence showed concern for those three children, while not a single line mentioned his parents.
And Shen Huai had quietly gotten married outside without telling the family or asking for his father’s opinion. That was what Shen Changan was angry about, which was why he disliked the new daughter-in-law.
But family shame should not be aired in public.
Seeing how much Zhang Guilan cared about the food and supplies, anger rose in his heart.
“Every time you mention dividing things, don’t think I don’t know your selfish thoughts. You just want to swallow everything yourself and not give anything to Eldest’s three children. If you hadn’t gone too far, would any of this have happened today? Behave yourself from now on. I don’t want to hear any more rumours about this.”
After being exposed, Zhang Guilan looked a little flustered. She had always been careful in what she did. On the surface, she treated everyone fairly. Otherwise, after so many years as Shen Huai and the others’ stepmother, no one would have said a bad word about her.
She hadn’t expected Old Shen to already know everything in his heart. But wasn’t it because he never opposed it that she dared go this far?
When it came to those children, did he have any right to call her unfair?
It was Shen Changan’s inaction that had led to today’s situation. Zhang Guilan admitted to herself that she preferred taking care of her biological daughter and the child she was carrying. From the bottom of her heart, she did not want to care for those little bastards.
But if she lost the job of looking after them, it would be a pity to lose the 40 yuan Shen Huai gave her every month, along with the school fees and food expenses. Every month, there was plenty left over. Just thinking that she might not get that money anymore made Zhang Guilan’s heart ache.
How could that frail-looking new wife possibly be so dedicated to raising someone else’s children?
Right now, she was full of righteousness and morality, saying how pitiful those three little bastards were. From the looks of it, she wanted to take them from Zhang Guilan and care for them herself.
Pretending to be so virtuous—she would probably only last a few days. Once time passed and she became pregnant with her own child, she would find Dabao and Erbao unbearable no matter how she looked at them. When that time came, wouldn’t she quickly send them back to Zhang Guilan?
Thinking this, Zhang Guilan was certain the other woman wouldn’t be able to persist for long. Wouldn’t the labour fee return to her eventually?
Besides, with this new wife pretending so hard, it would be easy for her to end up lifting a stone only to drop it on her own foot. Establishing a reputation for virtue was not that easy. When she couldn’t keep it up, Zhang Guilan would simply wait to watch the joke.
—
Dabao, Erbao, and Niuniu had gone through a false alarm. The three children’s palms were sweaty. Just now, they had nearly thought the things would be snatched away and that they would be beaten.
Although being beaten and scolded was common for them, no one was born wanting to be hit.
Even though the matter had settled down, Chen Yuan checked and found that the children’s happiness indices had balanced out. The progress bars had risen, but after the scare, they had dropped again. In the end, the energy she could absorb was only 2 points.
That night, Dabao and Erbao began doing their homework. After eating her fill, Niuniu lay on the bed and unknowingly fell asleep.
Chen Yuan saw that it had turned dark outside and that the light in the room was very dim, so she got up and switched on the lamp.
A weak glow shone from an old lightbulb that might not even have been 10 watts. Someone with slightly poor eyesight probably wouldn’t be able to see the words in their notebook at all. Chen Yuan suspected that this bulb’s yearly electricity usage could not compare to what she used in a single day.
When Dabao and Erbao saw the sudden light, their writing speed increased. Soon, only the sound of pencil tips scratching against paper remained.
Chen Yuan felt that the light was too dim. If children read and wrote under this kind of light for a long time, they could easily become near-sighted. This era also had no environmentally friendly eye-protection lamps, and if they became near-sighted, there was no laser eye surgery either. Since there was still time, prevention had to come first. She would buy a bigger ceiling light, and since reading and writing also required a dedicated desk lamp, she would go to the department store tomorrow to see if there was anything suitable.
Not long after, Dabao and Erbao finished today’s homework.
The first thing they did after finishing was turn off the living room light, leaving only the lamp in the small bedroom. Then they put away their books and came over to Chen Yuan.
“Second Aunt, we’re going out to read for a while. We’ll come back soon.”
“Going out to read? It’s so late. Where are you going?”
Chen Yuan now counted as the only guardian of the three children. Going out this late was unsafe. And secondly, she didn’t understand why they needed to go outside to read. Was the light too dim? But outside seemed even darker. She truly couldn’t figure it out.
Dabao said, “Because Grandma said electricity costs money, so she told us to go outside to read. The streetlights outside are bright. She said we should use public electricity since it’s free.”
Erbao also added, “Grandma said electricity bills are too expensive and told us to save. The ceiling light used to be a big one, but later she thought it used too much electricity and changed it to a small bulb.”
“…”
How much electricity could one lightbulb possibly use?
And using such a small bulb hurt their eyes. Compared to wasting a little electricity money, wasn’t protecting their eyesight more important?
Besides, Shen Huai’s house had quite a few appliances: a black-and-white television, a small washing machine, and a radio. When she was cleaning, she had seen seals stuck on them saying they were not to be used. Dabao and Erbao said Zhang Guilan had put them there, supposedly because she feared wasting electricity.
Chen Yuan cursed Zhang Guilan’s stinginess inwardly once more. She switched the living room light back on and told Dabao and Erbao not to worry about the lighting and to continue reading.
Then she rummaged through boxes and cabinets until she found a rusty flashlight. It was old and had no batteries. She took the batteries from the back of the radio and put them in, finally making it usable.
With the help of the flashlight, Dabao and Erbao could read much more easily. The two seemed never to have concentrated so hard before. Without outside disturbance, they felt much more focused.
The next day, because Erbao’s lunchbox had been smashed by that boy Gao Wen, leaving a large crack that made it unusable, Chen Yuan wrapped two shredded-potato flatbread rolls in oiled paper for the boys to take to school.
The contents of the rolls were very simple: two of the few fried eggs taken from the Shen family storeroom, vegetable leaves, a plain sauce made from soy sauce, and golden, glossy stir-fried shredded potatoes. The outside was a chewy white-flour flatbread. Each portion was large and definitely enough to fill them up.
Although Chen Yuan considered this a very simple meal set, the children were overjoyed. They had never eaten anything so delicious in their lives.
When people lacked food, they did not care whether it tasted good or not. As long as they ate enough to avoid starving, that was enough.
In the past, Dabao, Erbao, and Niuniu had lived with the goal of filling their stomachs, struggling each day on the edge of hunger. But after eating food made by Second Aunt, they suddenly discovered that food could be delicious to this extent.
It was completely different from what they had believed before. After eating it, they suddenly felt as if the meaning of being alive had changed.
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