The Stepmother’s Counterattack: Raising a Child in a Bygone Era
Chapter 142: Set Up Your Own Factory

Chapter 142: Chapter 142: Set Up Your Own Factory

"Shen Mingzhu, you’ve been seeing other men behind Pei Yang’s back?!"

Suddenly, Shen Baolan blurted out such a sentence, and the surrounding mothers immediately fell silent, all eyes fixed on Shen Mingzhu.

Although they had been insinuating and mocking Shen Mingzhu’s lack of propriety, they had never been so blunt.

Shen Mingzhu glared coldly at Shen Baolan, "Shen Baolan, it seems like your butt has grown onto your face, spewing crap as soon as you open your mouth."

Shen Baolan pursed her lips, "You leave your son at home in the middle of the night and run out to date men. You’re the one doing such shameless acts, yet you won’t allow others to speak of it?"

"Gossipmonger."

Pei Ziheng suddenly uttered a word, his dark eyes ominously focusing on Shen Baolan, and his words were even more chilling to hear.

"In idle chatter, spreading rumors, framing others, slander, inciting discord—such a person will be cast into the Tongue-Ripping Hell after death. There demons will pry open her mouth, grasp her tongue with iron tongs, and cut it off with scissors, never to be reborn for all eternity."

After finishing, Pei Ziheng turned to look at Jiang Jing, "Mom always tells me that trouble comes from the mouth, and some people simply can’t control their words. They recklessly spread baseless gossip, sooner or later they’ll face divine retribution."

Though Pei Ziheng was young, the words he spoke were logical and irrefutable.

For a moment, everyone’s gaze shifted from Shen Mingzhu to Jiang Jing.

The incident of Shen Mingzhu being sent home by a man’s car last night was all spread by Jiang Jing—they hadn’t seen it themselves.

Jiang Jing, both angry and embarrassed, explained with a flushed face, "I wasn’t the only one who saw it."

"So, what exactly did you see?" Shen Mingzhu coldly questioned her.

"You came down from a car, and afterwards another man came down from that car. You were talking to each other."

"So what? Just because I caught a ride with a friend and had a chat, you started spreading that I’m promiscuous and meeting with men in secret?"

Jiang Jing: "I didn’t say that."

"Then what did you say? Come on, tell me in front of everyone. If I misunderstood you, I’ll apologize to you. But if you’ve been spreading rumors and slandering my reputation, you must apologize to me in front of everyone. Otherwise, I might just learn from you and start spreading that you have an affair with any man you talk to or stand with alone."

Feeling everyone’s gaze on her, Jiang Jing’s face turned from red to white.

A mother spoke up to diffuse the situation, "Let’s just let it go, Ziheng’s mom. It’s all just talk in jest, why take it so seriously?"

Shen Mingzhu looked at the woman with a feigned realization, "Oh, it’s you. I recognize you. Just the other day, you were smooching with a man in the alley behind the residential complex’s back door."

The person became furiously angry, "You’re talking rubbish!"

"Just a joke, why are you so upset? You’re taking it too seriously."

That person’s complexion instantly turned as ugly as if they had eaten dung, but knowing Shen Mingzhu was not someone to be trifled with, they didn’t dare say more.

After confronting that person, Shen Mingzhu turned her attention to Jiang Jing, "Whether as a person or a mother, you’re quite a failure. When you have time, you might want to ask Zhou Hao and the others what they usually call your daughter Wa Shiting."

Jiang Jing immediately looked at her daughter, "Shiting, have Zhou Hao and the others been bullying you?"

Wa Shiting, feeling everyone’s gaze on her, wasn’t sure if she felt embarrassed or wronged, but her mouth opened and she burst into tears, "Zhou Hao calls me Wa Big Mouth..."

Hearing that her daughter had been given such an unpleasant nickname, Jiang Jing was furious and went straight to Shen Baolan to argue the matter.

Shen Baolan, no pushover herself, stood with her arms akimbo and bickered with Jiang Jing.

While everyone was engrossed in the spectacle, Shen Mingzhu took Pei Ziheng’s hand and, without a cloud in the sky, walked away.

Upon reaching the entrance of the kindergarten.

"Mom, goodbye."

"Hmm, listen to the teacher, don’t be picky with food."

Pei Ziheng obliged, turned around obediently, and entered the kindergarten.

Shen Mingzhu watched him enter the kindergarten’s gate and turned to go home.

However, just as she turned around, Pei Ziheng also turned back and, after watching her walk away, scampered out of the kindergarten on his little legs.

——

A gossip was suppressed by Shen Mingzhu, yet countless others stood up.

That day, the residential compound’s gossip focused on Shen Mingzhu.

"Can’t blame her, her man is no good in bed, she’s been living like a widow for so long, why wouldn’t she go out and find some fun to relieve herself?"

"Right, who knows, when Pei Yang comes back he might even be celebrating being a dad?"

That comment sparked a round of raucous laughter.

Shen Baolan sat on the side, outwardly enjoying the jokes about Shen Mingzhu, but inwardly feeling unbearably sour.

She had thought that once Pei Yang died, Shen Mingzhu would become a widow with a burden like Pei Ziheng, doomed to live a hard life, eating chaff and swallowing vegetables.

Who knew that Shen Mingzhu had found herself a new man so quickly.

And it was a wealthy man with a car.

He must be quite old, at least forty years old, otherwise who would fancy someone like Shen Mingzhu.

But even if it was an old man, by marrying him, Shen Mingzhu could live a good life with a car and a big house.

Just thinking about it made Shen Baolan feel so upset she lost her appetite even at lunch.

Seeing her eat so listlessly, Ma Sufen squinted her old eyes, "You’re not pregnant, are you?"

Shen Baolan denied it with her mouth, but inwardly she felt as bitter as if she had swallowed a piece of coptis.

Ever since she got pregnant, and up until now, more than half a year had passed, and Zhou Shuhuan had never shared a room with her.

Pregnant my ass!

——

The weather was hot, and a little movement would leave one drenched in sweat, so when Shen Mingzhu got home she removed her foundation and then returned to her bedroom to write the business plan in front of a fan.

Last night’s incident was a wake-up call.

She had been too presumptuous and had aimed too high, thinking that having the advantage of time-travel she could reach the sky in one step.

She was in a harsh and realistic society, just an ordinary person among many.

It’s better to rely on oneself than on others, so she decided to start her own factory.

To be precise, first a small private workshop, and later when she had developed her own brand, she would expand the scale.

One step at a time, with feet firmly on the ground, she didn’t believe she couldn’t make this business work.

——

In front of a grocery store.

A sneaky-looking young man, while the store owner was turned away organizing shelves, grabbed a pack of almond biscuits and crammed it into his clothes, then turned to run, only to see a few steps away a delicate and pretty child standing there, watching him with big, round eyes, evidently having seen his act of theft.

The young man panicked for a moment and then walked up fiercely, threatening in a low voice, "Don’t you dare yell, or I’ll kill you."

He expected the child to start crying, but instead, the little one tilted his head and looked innocently naive.

"Can you make a phone call for me?"

The young man was about to curse when he saw the child open his little pale palm, on which lay a five-yuan note.

The young man’s eyes lit up instantly.

Pei Ziheng, "If you make a call for me, I’ll give you this fifty cents."

Upon hearing this, the young man was ecstatic, thinking where did this little fool come from, confusing five yuan with fifty cents, practically giving away money for him to spend, and he agreed to it immediately.