Ignoring the shouting behind him, Lin Dequan slammed the door shut with a bang.
"Hey! Dad! Open the door!"
Thump, thump, thump—she kept knocking, one blow after another. Just as she was getting into it, someone grabbed her arm.
Her sister-in-law, Jiang Li, looked around and hissed, "Come with me. I have something big to tell you." She pulled Li Jianguo by the arm and headed toward the inner room.
Ke Xiaohong had just been about to stand up, but hearing movement inside, she hurriedly crouched back down to continue eavesdropping.
"Is the door shut tight?" Jiang Li asked.
Li Jianguo turned around and nodded, looking at his wife, whose smile stretched all the way to her ears, with a puzzled expression. "What’s with all the mystery? Did you find a fortune? You look so happy."
"Let me tell you, we’ve hit the jackpot! You asked Dad what was in that black bag earlier, right? Well, I know!"
Upon hearing that his wife knew, Li Jianguo immediately pulled her down to sit, his face full of excitement. "Is it money? How much did he give?"
"I don’t know the exact amount, but it was a thick stack—definitely at least several thousand. Don’t forget, they say Uncle Jiang is a high-ranking official; he’s got plenty of money. But the best part is, he also offered a job: a permanent position at the textile mill."
As soon as Jiang Li finished speaking, Li Jianguo sprang up from his chair. He paced back and forth, his face flushed with agitation.
"Really? You didn’t hear wrong?" Li Jianguo pressed his hands on Jiang Li’s shoulders and asked loudly.
"I heard it clearly," Jiang Li replied. "But Uncle Jiang said the job was for the second daughter-in-law. Do you think we should…?" She made a throat-slitting gesture.
"No, no! That’s too dangerous. We’d get caught easily." Li Jianguo immediately shot down Jiang Li’s nasty idea.
"Then how about we just chase her out? She’s a widow now, and her residency isn't even in the city. As long as we keep it from Dad and get Mom to play along, I guarantee she won't be able to make a move," Jiang Li said viciously.
Li Jianguo pondered for a moment and decided it was a brilliant plan. His mother hated that second daughter-in-law anyway. As long as they kept it from his father, there would be no one to champion her cause; she wouldn't be able to stir up any trouble.
"Let’s do it. Once the second brother is buried, I’ll find a way to trick Dad into going out. You and Mom can work together to drive her out. Better yet, notify her family, too," Li Jianguo said, his face full of excitement, as if the job and the money were already in his hands.
Indeed, in her previous life, after Ke Xiaohong was driven out, her father-in-law, Lin Dequan, returned to find his daughter-in-law gone and flew into a rage. He rushed over to Ke Xiaohong’s parents' home, only to find she had already remarried; he left a hundred yuan for her family and returned. Later, worn down by his son’s incessant pestering, he gave the job to his eldest daughter-in-law and used the money from his second son’s "sale" to buy a storefront for his eldest son to run a business. Word was that the business did very well, and he even became a local celebrity—Xiaohong had once seen an interview with him on the county television station. In her previous life, the Li family had been sailing smoothly.
"Good," Jiang Li agreed, unable to contain her excitement.
Just then, "thump, thump, thump" knocking sounded outside.
"Jianguo! Are you in there? Hurry up, your mother fell and her leg is swollen as high as a mountain. Get on your bike and take her to the hospital!" Uncle Jiang shouted from outside.
The two inside looked at each other, their expressions sharpening. They opened the door and followed Uncle Jiang to the front courtyard.
Because of the thick fog, Uncle Jiang had dug up some ginger from the fields, planning to boil a pot of ginger water for everyone after the funeral to ward off the cold; otherwise, he was sure everyone would fall ill. If he didn't bring it, that stingy sister-in-law of the eldest son's family probably wouldn't even bother boiling water.
He was so focused on walking into the house that he didn't notice the person on the threshold. He stepped down hard. "Ah! Ah!" The person instantly let out a shrill scream like a slaughtered pig.
Uncle Jiang was terrified. He dropped the ginger and scrambled to help the person up.
"Sister-in-law! Why are you lying on the threshold? You scared the life out of me!"
The sister-in-law was sprawled across the courtyard threshold. The fog had blurred her vision, and he had stepped right on her injured foot, causing injury upon injury. Her ankle instantly swelled up.
Mother-in-law Jiang Hongdou winced in pain. "Li Youcai, are you blind? Ouch! Ouch! You’re killing me! Just you wait, I’ll make you regret this. Ouch! Ouch! It hurts so much!"
Seeing Li Youcai doing nothing, she roared, "What are you standing there like a fool for? Hurry up and take me to the hospital!"
Li Youcai seemed startled; he jumped up and bolted toward the house like a spring.
"Hey! No—Li Youcai! Li Youcai! Where are you running to?"
Ignoring the shouting behind him, he just kept running into the house. He wasn't stupid. Looking at how his sister-in-law was acting, it was clear she had tripped on her own somewhere else. Who knew if she had other injuries? She just wanted him to take her to the hospital so she could extort medical fees from him—not a chance.
"Oh my, if it isn't my dear sister-in-law? What happened to you? Is there money on the ground? Why are you sitting on the floor instead of a perfectly good chair? Do you have some kind of weird hobby?"
A mocking voice drifted over from a distance. It was her arch-nemesis, Li Youfeng, Lin Dequan’s own sister. While her parents-in-law were still alive, her sister-in-law hadn't missed a chance to report her to her mother-in-law and make things difficult. Over the years, she had suffered plenty at her hands.
"Li Youfeng, did you eat sh*t? Your mouth is full of filth. No wonder you can't give birth to a son. With a heart as venomous as yours, you’re just a vessel of poison—what son would dare come into your womb?" Jiang Hongdou retorted without hesitation. Her parents-in-law had passed away last year. With Li Youfeng’s biggest support gone, she didn't fear her one bit.
"I’ll tear your mouth off! Let's see you try saying that about my son again!"
At the beginning of the year, the factory and the neighborhood committee had started promoting family planning. Li Youfeng had heard the news; although the official document wasn't out yet, the signs were there. She had just discovered she was pregnant, and the whole family was placing huge importance on this "son," not allowing a single mistake. She hadn't wanted to come today, but she was afraid that if she didn't, her relatives and friends would get suspicious and report her. She was still in the early months, so it didn't show much yet.
But she hadn't expected that the moment she walked in, her sister-in-law would curse her for being unable to have a son. It was like digging into her heart. She lunged forward, taking two steps in one, and slapped her sister-in-law across the face three times.
Stunned for a second, Jiang Hongdou let out an "Ah," seized the moment, and grabbed a fistful of Li Youfeng’s hair.
Unable to pull her hair free, Li Youfeng started kicking wildly at her sister-in-law’s chest, stomach, and thighs. Every kick was meant to be lethal. Jiang Hongdou winced in pain, but her heart hardened; enduring the agony, she kicked her sister-in-law in the knee. Li Youfeng lost her balance and fell to the ground, and Jiang Hongdou took the opportunity to climb on top of her.
The two wrestled together, trading blows and aiming for each other's weak spots.
Lin Dequan, the brother-in-law who had arrived a step behind and finished parking his bicycle, saw the scene before him and felt his world go black.