Zhao Hongmei, who was sitting anxiously at the table waiting for Lin Ran to return, immediately stood up when she heard her darling daughter's voice. "What's wrong, my precious? Why are you back so late?"
"Wooooo, Mother, I met that coward Zhai Tianming on the way, and he tried to bully me." Lin Ran said with a face full of grievance. "Fortunately, I met a kind person, otherwise I would have suffered."
Hearing this, Zhao Hongmei's heart ached. She hugged Lin Ran, calling her her precious darling, wishing she could go and slap that wicked woman Li Cuifen on the spot. Lin Xiaoquan also stood behind the two women with a frown.
Lin Man and Lin Feng exchanged a look, a flash of ruthlessness in their eyes. Only Lin Zhi, who had been cooking in the kitchen and hadn't heard the whole conversation, only catching the words "Zhai Tianming bullied me," suppressed the excitement in her eyes and ran out to ask, "What? Ranran, you were bullied by Zhai Tianming?"
"So what are you going to do? Do you have to marry him?" Everyone was stunned by this remark and then looked at Lin Zhi with strange expressions.
Zhao Hongmei's eyes widened even further, staring intently at Lin Zhi. The next moment, Lin Ran cried tragically in Zhao Hongmei's arms, "Mother~ why does Third Sister hate me so much?" "Zhai Tianming was told by Third Sister that I'd been coming home late, wuwuwu."
Hearing this, Lin Zhi felt a chill all over her body. "Ranran, I didn't." Seeing her pale face, Lin Ran continued to cry, "She said Mother is unfair, so I accepted it when Mother gave you my job.
I've been working hard to find a job myself, and I never thought of getting the job back. "I even thought that if I couldn't find a job in the end, I would go to the countryside and marry a good-for-nothing like Zhai Tianming, but I never wanted my sister's job back. "But Sister, what have you been doing all this time?"
Zhao Hongmei erupted the moment Lin Ran's voice fell, slapping Lin Zhi twice. Seemingly not satisfied, she got up and punched her several more times. Lin Zhi looked at Lin Xiaoquan's disappointed gaze and Zhao Hongmei's desire to beat her to death.
As if plunged into ten-thousand-year-old ice, these were her parents, parents who only had eyes for Lin Ran. Lin Zhi seemed to feel no physical pain as she shrieked sharply, "Why are you always so biased?" "Why are all the good food kept for her, and why are you so mean to me?"
"Why can she do no work at all since childhood, while I have to cook, wash dishes, and wash all the family's clothes every day?" Lin Zhi's eyes were red as she questioned Zhao Hongmei time and again, "Mother, why is this?" "Clearly we are both your daughters, why are you nice to her and not to me?"
Zhao Hongmei looked at Lin Zhi, filled with hatred, as if she had never known her before. She never knew Lin Zhi harbored such deep hatred in her heart. Zhao Hongmei always believed she had never mistreated Lin Zhi, providing her with food and clothing, and even supporting her through high school.
In this era, how many families, without being wealthy, would send their daughters to study for so long? She used to think Lin Zhi was just a bit selfish, but now she realized Lin Zhi was utterly heartless. Zhao Hongmei's eyes also welled up.
She looked at Lin Zhi, as if trying to see through her, then turned to look at Lin Man and Lin Feng. "Do you also think I'm biased towards Ranran like her?" "No."
Lin Man, being older, remembered some things from her childhood. "She's the youngest, so it's only right to give her the good food in the family, isn't it?" Besides, she was so thin and small when she was little, and looked so pitiful when she cried, Lin Feng muttered to himself.
Lin Zhi stared intently at Lin Man and Lin Feng, her eyes full of madness, "What are you pretending to be good people for? How could you not hate her?" Lin Man frowned at this, "Lin Zhi, don't think of others as stupid, poisonous, and selfish as you are."
Zhao Hongmei looked at the frantic Lin Zhi, her gaze gradually turning cold, "Lin Zhi, don't you want to know why I've been biased towards Ranran since childhood?" "I'll tell you now." "When I was pregnant with Ranran, you weren't weaned yet.
At that time, your grandmother told me not to spoil you, but you cried all night long whenever you couldn't get milk. I felt soft-hearted and couldn't harden my heart. By the time Ranran was born, you still hadn't been weaned.
But how could one person's milk feed two children? You drank more, so Ranran naturally didn't get enough. Ranran was so thin then, like a little kitten.
It was only when your grandmother couldn't stand it anymore that she took Ranran to raise her herself." Zhao Hongmei closed her eyes at this point. She should have listened to her mother-in-law.
Lin Zhi had been cold-blooded since she was little, always using sympathy to get what she wanted. "When Ranran was seven months old, there was heavy snow one time. While the adults weren't paying attention, you secretly ran out to play in the snow.
That night, you developed a high fever. Your father was working overtime at the factory, so I carried you to the hospital for an IV drip in the middle of the night. The snow was so heavy that day.
When I carried you back, it was already past three in the morning. You were asleep, and I was exhausted. I didn't notice that the coal stove was faulty until later when your grandmother came to check on us and found that both of us had carbon monoxide poisoning and were unconscious."
Zhao Hongmei looked steadily at Lin Zhi at this point, "Later, your grandmother told me that it was Ranran crying continuously in the middle of the night that night, no matter how much she was coaxed, that made her think of checking on us. Otherwise, we would have already been buried in the ground and turned to ashes. Ranran was such a well-behaved child.
Even though she was starving because you took her share of the milk, she didn't cry or fuss. But that day, she cried for a full three hours, her voice hoarse, and couldn't be comforted. It was only after your grandmother dragged me and you out of the house and took us to the hospital that she fell into a deep sleep.
So, both your life and mine were saved by her. This family didn't fall apart because of her, and you all didn't lose your mother because of her." "Lin Zhi, no one in this family has the right to say I'm biased towards her, especially you."
Knowing the truth, Lin Zhi roared inwardly: Because of this, I have to sacrifice my whole life to repay her? So I deserve to die miserably in the countryside like in my dream? Simply because she happened to cry a few times when I was in danger?
But I was also young, and I didn't know anything! It was clearly you who didn't take good care of me, causing me to get sick, and it was also you who didn't watch the stove. Why do you blame everything on me?
At this moment, Lin Zhi's resentment towards Zhao Hongmei grew even stronger. The anger in her heart surged like a flood. She wanted to retort, but when she looked up and saw Zhao Hongmei's cold gaze, and saw the disapproval in everyone else's eyes, she could only suppress her rage.