The Country Maiden: Fields and Leisure
Chapter 136 Stepmother

Chapter 136: Chapter 136 Stepmother

If Eldest Brother says that disagreeing with the marriage is harming him, then so be it, agree to the marriage. Then it’s not harming him anymore, is it? He says I don’t care for him, fine, after the marriage, the bride can learn the rules under my watch and earn her keep! He accuses me of favoring my younger siblings, alright then! I’ll treat all my sons equally and act as if I never raised such ingrates; I’ll just pour my affection onto my daughter.

After all, most of the sons were almost raised by their grandmother and have limited affection for me.

They say I treat my sons like long-term laborers, that I want them to earn money, to drain their blood to support my natal family and my daughter. Well then, I brought them into this world, having them earn money to support me in old age and repay the debt of life is only fair!

Since the mother-son relationship has come to this, I no longer care.

My condition is this: after the marriage, Lady Lin must not take charge of the household without my approval!

The Eldest Son is young and doesn’t understand the importance of the right to manage a household for the eldest son’s wife. He agreed.

I then made Eldest Brother swear an oath that, if I agreed to his marriage with Lady Lin, he must be filial and kind to me for life, and cherish his little sister without any selfish thoughts, otherwise, even if he is married, he will end up with his wife and children scattered and not meet a good end.

Though the Eldest Brother felt wronged, though he was angry, I never relented. In the end, he reluctantly swore the oath, and I duly arranged the marriage for him.

After the marriage, however I was treated by my mother-in-law in the past, I treated Lady Lin the same way. Even with Old Granny Zhang protecting her, as a mother-in-law myself, there were countless ways to deal with a daughter-in-law.

When Old Granny Zhang sought justice for Lady Lin, I simply said with indifference that I had been a daughter-in-law in the Wang Family just like that, so why couldn’t Lady Lin endure as well? At least I didn’t make her play the role of a stepmother as soon as she crossed our threshold, did I?

Old Granny Zhang was so furious that she fainted on the spot.

But I didn’t care at all; I had been harsh on myself for decades, and now that I’ve reached this age, even my sons are drifting away from me, so I might as well be ruthless to others!

Then I discovered, the harder and harsher my heart became, the more comfortable my life was.

Especially when Old Granny Zhang fell ill, giving me an excuse to tend to her, I found ways to make Lady Lin’s life miserable and even made this honest son feel somewhat guilty towards me.

Especially after the second son became a Scholar and our lands were exempt from taxes, our status in the village rose too. Everyone praised the Wang Family for raising a Scholar. Those who used to look down on us flocked to curry favor with the Wang Family.

The brides chosen for my younger sons were all better matches than that of the Eldest Son. Those gossips in the village claimed it was the old grandmother who, in order to provide for her natal relatives, sold off her eldest grandson cheaply to the Lin Family. Now that a Scholar had emerged from the Wang Family, it was inconvenient that the eldest son’s wife came from such a poorly regarded natal family.

Some of the Eldest Son’s good friends also often expressed their pity to him, and only then did Eldest Son gradually realize that my opposition to his marriage with Lady Lin wasn’t really about using him to marry a wealthy bride to plunder her dowry for the sake of the younger brother.

Once, the Eldest Son secretly visited me behind Lady Lin’s back, stammering for a long time, saying he was sorry and shouldn’t have mistrusted me.

What a pity, it was already too late for him; what were these superficial apologies good for? Could they make my life comfortable, allow me to have the final say in the Wang Family?

After the death of Old Granny Zhang, my heart grew even harsher. I held all the food and money in my hands, sternly forbade my sons from keeping private funds, and demanded all their earnings to be handed over for me to manage.

With control over these, I controlled their lifelines.

Moreover, the Eldest Son, out of his guilt towards me, his mother, became even more obedient.

I treated all my sons equally; besides giving the second son extra for his studies, when he was at home, what everyone else ate, he ate, when others worked, he worked, showing to everyone that I aimed to treat them all equitably.

With such methods, the sons all became obedient, and without Old Granny Zhang to back her up, Lady Lin dared not act up anymore.

It was only after Lady Lin bore three sons that she slowly began to regain some backbone.

However, after my training, Lady Lin had come to understand the unreliability of her grandmother-in-law and that in this house, I was the one who ruled. She had to stay in line and humble herself for me to tolerate her.

Now, looking back, it’s clear that Lady Lin must have been spewing poison in Eldest Brother’s ear all this time; I had underestimated her.

But it’s just as well. The already weak bond between mother and son, with today’s incident, made me realize that Eldest Brother has always harbored resentment towards me and has never forgiven me!

Since Eldest Brother didn’t regard himself as her true son and thought she was just a stepmother, she was indeed going to let them know what it was like to have a stepmother!

Wang Yongzhu had no idea that today’s commotion had caused Old Granny Zhang to completely withdraw the little bit of tenderness she still had for her son.

She felt that after taking the Power Pill, although it had only been one day, this time climbing the mountain trails was much easier than the last.

This rushing back and forth, and upon returning home, she was surprisingly not even short of breath.

Upon arrival, the family came out to greet her, especially Jindou and Jinhoo, who were always worried about their parents. When they saw their grandmother and aunt return, they hurried forward, "Grandma, Aunt, you’re back? Is Dad doing any better today?"

As soon as Wang Yongfu was mentioned, the faces of Wang Yongzhu and Old Granny Zhang immediately darkened.

This made the hearts of Jindou and Jinhoo jump to their throats, and even Wang Laozhu looked over anxiously.

Old Granny Zhang scoffed coldly, "Your dad is doing very well—" Saying this, she stormed into the house.

Everyone sensed something was wrong with those words. What had happened?

All eyes turned to Wang Yongzhu.

Wang Yongzhu gave Jindou and Jinhoo a meaningful look and asked, "Where is Jinguan? Do you know where he went?"

Jindou and Jinhoo exchanged glances, feeling that there was something odd about their aunt’s question. They hesitated before replying, "We haven’t seen him since early this morning; he’s probably run off to play somewhere. Aunt, what’s really going on with Dad? Is he not doing well? Does he want to see the three of us brothers?" Jindou’s voice began to tremble at the end.

Wang Yongzhu also sneered coldly, "Jinguan has gone off to play. He ran to the town to play with your parents! He had a grand time, complaining to them about how we abuse him at home, bully him, and don’t give him meat or food to eat—"

Upon hearing this, the faces of Jindou and Jinhoo turned pale.

Jindou felt like he wanted to fly to the town immediately and drag his careless younger brother back for a good beating.

The little incident from yesterday, they, as brothers, had witnessed with their own eyes before they got drunk.

Maybe because of their different perspectives, in the past, they simply thought of Jinguan as somewhat clever, with a boldness that outshone their cousins from the third household – he seemed so sharp.

But yesterday, sitting at the table and witnessing Jinguan’s behavior, they felt embarrassed.

Who at the table didn’t see it? They just pretended not to notice.

A father sparing some meat for his son is one thing that no one would comment on, but while discussing matters at the table, for a nephew to have the audacity to ask for meat from an uncle, it looked shameless no matter how you saw it.

It would be no surprise if people started saying behind their backs that the Wang Family lacked proper upbringing to have raised such a child.

The brothers had planned to find time to discuss this issue with their parents and Jinguan, urging them not to spoil Jinguan anymore because it was too shameful.

Who would have thought, for just a piece of meat, that rascal actually ran off to the town to tattle!

Was he spoiled into stupidity by their parents?

Not to mention that there was no such bullying at home, even if there were, now was the time for the main household to behave humbly. The Silver Coin was flowing like water for the household’s expenses; anyone with a bit of sense would know to keep a low profile at this time and not provoke Grandma and Grandpa, or else the Silver Coin for Dad’s treatment might run out.

The two of them, as older brothers, were groveling in front of Grandma and Grandpa—well, not exactly groveling, since they were legitimately their grandchildren, careful not to utter a wrong word that might upset Grandma.

Yet that brat, without a care in the world, had punched a hole in the sky, instantly offending the two big figures in the family you just couldn’t mess with.