Huang Meili had always been the type to make a scene over anything, but she was afraid of Zhou Zhijun.
So when she acted this way today, everyone watching was stunned. For a moment, not a sound could be heard.
“Meili, what are you doing?” Zhou Zhimin was the first to recover. He hurried forward and reached for her arm.
“Let go of me, you good-for-nothing!” Huang Meili flung his hand away and shouted at the top of her lungs, “Our whole family has been bullied, and you just stand there doing nothing! Are you blind?”
The sisters, Zhou Xiaomei and Zhou Xiaoying, immediately seemed to find themselves a powerful ally. They scrambled over to hide behind Huang Meili, clutching the hem of her clothes and peeking out timidly.
“I’ve held my tongue and given way time and time again, but what did that get me? It only made people more greedy! I’m not putting up with it anymore. Today, I’m going to make everything clear!”
Zhou Zhimin was about to step forward and try to persuade her again when Zhou Zhijun spoke coldly.
“Let her talk. I’d like to hear what she has to say.”
“I’m going to make it clear in front of everyone!”
Huang Meili stuck out her chin. “The old man and old woman have three sons. The family’s land and property should be divided equally among the three of them. Why does everything have to go to Lao Er?”
As soon as she finished speaking, Aunt Zhou shoved her way through the crowd, furious. She pushed into the middle of the gathering and pointed at Huang Meili’s nose.
“Huang Meili, I’m not dead yet, and you’re already rushing to divide up my land?”
“That’s because you’re so biased! You let Lao Er farm all the land and give him every advantage. And that ancestral jade bracelet—you secretly gave it to Li Chun Tao. Don’t think I don’t know!” Huang Meili’s eyes were bloodshot.
“The land belongs to me and my husband. The bracelet is my private possession too. I can let whoever I want farm the land, and give the bracelet to whoever I please. It’s none of your business!” Aunt Zhou refused to back down, her voice hard as stone.
“Fine! Since you’re so biased, then just pretend Zhou Zhimin was never your son! From now on, we won’t support you while you’re alive, and we won’t bury you when you die!”
The moment those words left her mouth, the villagers’ murmurs grew louder.
For Huang Meili to say something like that was an outrageous act of disrespect.
Zhou Zhimin’s face flushed crimson. He raised his hand and slapped Huang Meili hard across the face.
“Huang Meili, what kind of nonsense are you spouting?”
The couple bickered all the time, but Zhou Zhimin had never hit her before. Now, having struck her in front of so many people, he left Huang Meili completely stunned. She stood there blankly for several seconds.
When she finally came to her senses, she immediately began making a scene, reaching out to claw at Zhou Zhimin’s face.
She cried and screamed, “So you’re in league with outsiders to bully me too, Zhou Zhimin! We can’t go on like this! I want a divorce! I’m getting a divorce from you!”
“Fine! We’ll go register it right now!” Zhou Zhimin usually gave in to her, but at that moment he was even more afraid of being branded an unfilial son. In the heat of the moment, he grabbed Huang Meili by the arm and dragged her toward the gate.
“Go on, then! You think I’m afraid of you?” Huang Meili wailed at the top of her voice.
The two of them tugged and struggled toward the courtyard entrance, while several aunts and older women from the same clan hurried over to pull them apart and persuade them.
In truth, both of them knew perfectly well that they were only trying to frighten each other. Neither of them really wanted a divorce.
“Zhou Zhimin, if it weren’t for Third Child, I would’ve left you long ago…”
Huang Meili collapsed onto the ground, slapped her thighs, and burst into loud sobs. As she cried, she complained about how biased Aunt Zhou was and how much suffering she had endured in the Zhou family all these years.
Zhou Xiaomei and Zhou Xiaoying squatted down beside her and began to cry as well, clutching Huang Meili’s clothes and wiping their tears. The three of them looked like a mother and daughters who had been terribly mistreated.
Aunt Zhou was so furious that her chest felt tight. She knew very well that Huang Meili’s resentment toward Chuntao ultimately came from her hatred of Aunt Zhou’s favoritism toward her second son’s family.
Of course, every parent wanted to treat all their children equally—but that also depended on whether a daughter-in-law was worth cherishing.
Someone like Huang Meili, with a belly full of wicked schemes, who even taught her two daughters to steal and harm others—Aunt Zhou simply couldn’t bring herself to love her.
Aunt Zhou’s face turned cold. She stared sharply at Huang Meili.
“Huang Meili, stop pretending to be pitiful! Who in the village doesn’t know about all the despicable things you and your daughters have done? You still have the nerve to stand here complaining?
“As a mother, you do nothing worthwhile all day. Your head is filled with crooked schemes, and you even teach your two daughters to hurt people. With conduct like yours, no one will welcome you wherever you go!
“You said you wouldn’t support me while I’m alive or bury me when I die? Fine, I accept that. After all, I didn’t give birth to you or raise you. But Zhou Zhimin is my own son. I raised him from the moment he was born, and it’s only right that he supports me in my old age and arranges my funeral. No one can change that!”
“Ma, she was only saying it in anger. Please don’t take it to heart. Don’t lower yourself to her level!” Zhou Zhimin hurried over and apologized to Aunt Zhou.
Aunt Zhou turned to him, her tone softening somewhat.
“Your father and I are going to live with Lao Er, so naturally the family land will be his to farm.
“If you want to farm it, that’s fine too. But every grain you harvest must be handed over to us. We still have to eat.”
Huang Meili wanted to farm the land simply to earn more food. If they had to hand all the grain over anyway, there was no point in farming it.
“Ma, let Second Brother keep farming the land. He’s good at it, and his harvests are reliable.”
Aunt Zhou shot him a fierce look and warned him coldly, “What happened with Nuannuan being frightened by your daughter is the first time—and it had better be the last!”
Zhou Zhijun, who had been standing to the side with a grim expression, added, “If you fail to keep your wife and daughters in line again, and they dare to come up with another scheme to hurt someone, I won’t be so lenient.”
“Ma, Second Brother, don’t worry. I’ll discipline them properly. It won’t happen again!” Zhou Zhimin hurriedly promised.
Zhou Zhijun’s cold gaze swept across the faces of Zhou Zhimin’s entire family. Then he turned and helped Aunt Zhou back home.
The moment he returned home and saw his wife and children, the expression on his face softened.
He scooped Nuannuan into his arms, his eyes full of tenderness and concern.
“Good girl, Nuannuan. If anyone dares bully you in the future, tell your pa. I’ll stand up for you, and I won’t let them off!”
Nuannuan blinked her round, bright eyes, her long lashes fluttering lightly as she gazed at Zhou Zhijun. Her obedient little face was utterly adorable.
Zhou Zhijun couldn’t resist lowering his head and kissing her soft, plump forehead.
Little Jianshe clutched a freshly steamed white-flour bun in his hands. He toddled over to Zhou Zhijun with quick little steps, rose onto his tiptoes, and tried to stuff the bun into Nuannuan’s hands.
“Just look at my little grandson!” Aunt Zhou said, standing nearby with a face full of delighted affection. “He’s so young, yet he already knows how to care for his big sister!”
“My Little Nuannuan is truly blessed. Her older brothers and younger brother all dote on her. Life will surely treat her well in the years to come.”
Chuntao sat quietly to one side, knitting a little sweater. She looked up at the man and the children, her peach-blossom eyes curving into crescent moons.
Meanwhile, after Aunt Zhou and Zhou Zhijun left, the villagers who had gathered to watch gradually dispersed. Only a few older children remained, still lingering to see what would happen.
Once Huang Meili saw that everyone was gone, she quickly scrambled to her feet and grabbed Zhou Zhimin by the clothes, yanking and tearing at him.
“Zhou Zhimin, are you even a man? You teamed up with outsiders to bully me! I really can’t live with you anymore!”
That slap Zhou Zhimin had given her earlier had only been for show in front of the others. But now that Huang Meili was clawing and scratching at him, his own anger began to flare.
“If you don’t want to live with me, then don’t! Either of us can get along just fine without the other!”
Huang Meili immediately let go of her hands and rushed into the room, rummaging through the cabinets and trunks. She hastily threw together a bundle, pretending that she was about to leave home.
Seeing right through her little act, Zhou Zhimin made no move to stop her. Only his two daughters clung to her, refusing to let her go.
“If I don’t leave now, this whole family is going to bully me to death! Let go of me—let me leave! Even begging in the streets would be better than suffering here!”
With the bundle on her back, Huang Meili charged out of the inner room.
Squatting by the doorway, Zhou Zhimin puffed away at his dry tobacco. “Huang Meili, stop making a scene, will you?”
Taking advantage of the opening, Huang Meili yanked the bundle off her back and hurled it viciously at Zhou Zhimin.
Then she turned and went back into the inner room. She flopped onto the bed and began cursing at the top of her lungs, railing against Aunt Zhou for playing favorites and calling Zhou Zhimin a spineless coward.
Zhou Zhimin felt that they had humiliated him completely. He was furious and mortified.
He immediately gave Zhou Xiaomei a harsh scolding. Zhou Xiaoying and Zhou Xiaohai were dragged into it as well and got reprimanded along with her.
Even after he finished yelling, his anger had not subsided. He ordered all three siblings to kneel on the floor and reflect on their mistakes.
Huang Meili was too consumed by her own anger to pay the children any attention.
The three of them stared at the whip clutched in Zhou Zhimin’s hand, too frightened to make a sound. They obediently knelt there for a full two hours.
And that still wasn’t enough. Zhou Zhimin then forced Zhou Xiaomei and her sister to write statements promising that they would never do anything harmful to anyone again.
Lying on the bed, Huang Meili’s heart was filled with resentment.
The old woman’s favoritism, Lao Er’s arrogance, and Zhou Zhimin’s spinelessness—sooner or later, she would settle the score for all of it!
