Chapter 5: Infamous Reputation

Chen Shuilian snapped out of her thoughts and couldn’t help but rub her sore, swollen head. It was better to think about the future and what steps she should take next.

She had been reborn, but there had been no preparation. She needed some quiet time to organize her thoughts alone.

Cough! Chen Shuilian coughed and signaled, “Second son, take them out for now. I need some rest.”

“Alright, alright,” Zhao Maizhou quickly nodded.

Li Xiaoxing also stepped forward to tuck the blanket around Chen Shuilian’s side, then hurriedly nudged her sister-in-law, who was still in a daze.

But the sister-in-law didn’t respond, so she stepped out cautiously, smiling and saying, “Then, mother, we’ll step out for now. Please rest well. If you need anything, just call. We’ll be outside sorting the wild vegetables we picked today. Unfortunately, it didn’t go well.”

“Go ahead,” Chen Shuilian replied.

Hearing this, Li Xiaoxing immediately grabbed her sister-in-law and hurried out the door.

Chen Shuilian watched her daughter-in-law rush off like a scared rabbit, and she couldn’t help but sigh inwardly.

Once everyone had left, Chen Shuilian lay back on the bed and carefully thought about what path she should take from here.

First, the eldest son, that ungrateful child, must be kicked out of the house. She had already suffered once in her previous life and couldn’t allow the same thing to happen again.

Thinking about the past infuriated her.

Zhao Jiagu was her and Zhao Yunhu’s first child, so naturally, she favored him a bit more.

Especially when Zhao Yunhu went off to join the army at the age of twelve. Having a son who looked eight parts like him became her spiritual support.

This made Zhao Jiagu’s position in the family even more dominant.

Whenever she saw that face, it reminded her of her reckless late husband.

She didn’t know if Yunhu was eating well, sleeping warmly, or if he had been hurt on the border.

So, Chen Shuilian had always been tolerant of Zhao Jiagu. She put the family’s focus entirely on him—anything he wanted, she would fulfill.

It wasn’t like the village hadn’t been gossiping, saying that her love for him had become excessive.

After all, it was clear to everyone. She didn’t appreciate her two diligent children, but instead, she placed all her attention on the son who was sneaky and lazy, as though he were her only child.

But so what?

This was her spiritual support at the time.

When Zhao Yunhu first went to the battlefield, she couldn’t sleep at night, fearing he might leave the house in good health, but all she would receive in return was a handful of yellow earth.

At least at that time, she still had this son.

Zhao Jiagu noticed her melancholy and always tried to please her, which only made her love him more.

Who could blame her? The eldest son wasn’t like the second, who was a blockhead, silent and hardworking. Nor was he like the third, young and naïve, unable to see her distress.

As a result, the family’s balance gradually shifted towards the eldest, which emboldened his lazy and cunning ways.

Even with two capable younger brothers, he became more and more brazen in shirking his responsibilities, and yet Chen Shuilian never scolded him.

Honest and kind Zhao Maizhou and Zhao Fengtian never minded these things, as they were all part of the family. Who wasn’t working hard on the land? They just kept their heads down and worked.

Chen Shuilian suddenly slapped herself, realizing that in the end, the fault was entirely hers.

It was all her fault for not properly educating her children, letting him grow up with this kind of character. In the end, the punishment fell on her, and she deserved it.

When Zhao Jiagu was fifteen, the thing Chen Shuilian feared most happened.

She received the news that Zhao Yunhu had died in battle. In that moment, she felt like the entire world had changed, everything became dull and colorless.

This made her character even more twisted and stubborn. With a “If I can’t be happy, no one can,” mentality, in those years, she would curse even a dog passing by her door, let alone people.

She offended nearly everyone in the village; it would not be an exaggeration to say that she was unbeatable when it came to making enemies.

When others learned that her husband had passed, they assumed that it was because of this grief that she had lost her mind, so even if they were cursed, they didn’t dare to provoke her.

Arguing with a madwoman would only end badly. Their lives were fragile; who knew whether she might suddenly snap and hurt them?

So, Chen Shuilian’s reputation in the village spread far and wide.

Of course, it was also infamously bad.

If you ask Chen Shuilian if she regrets offending everyone in the village, now she doesn’t regret it much. After all, she was only thirty years old when she got the news of her husband’s death.

A thirty-year-old widow, especially one with an attractive appearance, if she had a soft temperament, her door would be filled with trouble.

Even though she had three sons, it wouldn’t help.

For instance, if she spoke to a man today or if a man helped her with work in the fields tomorrow, these small things would be nothing in the past. But with the label of a widow, she couldn’t imagine how these trivial matters would be twisted by the first person to gossip, and by the end of the day, they would spread in the village and turn into something absurd.

Not to mention that there were always some good-for-nothing men who couldn’t find wives and liked to make trouble by sneaking around widows’ houses, trying to stir up some drama.

But fortunately, her mad temper hid her beautiful face, so even if some men had ill intentions, they didn’t have the guts to bother her.

This allowed her world to be much quieter.

Thinking this way, Chen Shuilian didn’t regret it at all.

The villagers dared not provoke her, and her sons were even less likely to, not even her eldest and second sons’ wives, who were kept in line by her and didn’t dare speak out.

Of course, as always, there were exceptions, and there was no need to think too much—this exception was undoubtedly Zhao Jiagu, who held an exceptional position.

When she learned that Zhao Yunhu had died, Chen Shuilian treated Zhao Jiagu like her precious gem, afraid that something would happen to him and she wouldn’t be able to see the last trace of Yunhu in him.

How deep did this doting go?

Even when the family couldn’t scrape together a bowl of rice, if Zhao Jiagu said, “Mother, I want to eat meat,” Chen Shuilian would pawn the last bit of the family’s property just to buy him half a jin of meat, ensuring he could eat it that day, never letting him wait until the next.

Zhao Jiagu was no good either. Upon realizing the treatment he was getting, he became even more entitled and bossed around everyone in the family.

Even his own wife didn’t receive any special treatment.

Under Chen Shuilian’s cursing, his wife had to serve him obediently. The whole family’s resources went toward him enjoying a life of comfort.

This made life even harder for his two younger brothers.