Chapter 38: She Came for Zhang Tingyuan

Unexpectedly, the outcome was like this.

Zhou Shufen quickly calculated the gains and losses in her mind.

Since her brother-in-law was married, this plan was definitely not going to work, and she couldn’t admit that they disliked her.

So Zhou Shufen immediately changed her tone, saying, “Mom, younger brother, sister-in-law, you’ve misunderstood; that’s not what I meant. I’m saying that as the elder sister-in-law, I didn’t even know such a big thing as your marriage.”

Her forced explanation was truly ridiculous; she clearly meant exactly that.

However, if the news got out that Zhou Shufen wanted to marry Zhang Tingyuan after Zhang Tingyi’s death, it would be disgraceful and would also make Jianguo a target of ridicule.

Since she denied it and provided them a way out, they followed her lead.

Lin Bingwei said, “You ran away; we couldn’t contact you to tell you about our marriage, as if we were deliberately keeping it from you.”

Zhou Shufen was momentarily speechless.

Zhang Tingyuan looked at her coldly, “So, what do you want now that you’re back?”

Zhou Shufen’s gaze shifted to Zhang Jianguo.

Zhang Tingyuan continued, “We won’t give Jianguo to you; don’t forget that you chose to abandon him.”

Upon hearing this, Zhou Shufen cried again, wiping her tears as she said, “It’s not that I don’t want him; I’ve said I have my reasons. I got married and my husband died within a year. Do you think I’m not sad? Oh, why is my life so hard…”

She directly sat on the ground and began to cry loudly.

Zhang Jianguo, hiding behind them, looked at her in confusion and a bit of fear.

Lin Bingwei patted his head, softly comforting him.

She thought about how this woman’s antics might cause great psychological harm to the child.

Li Yurong sighed deeply and said, “Shufen, actually we’ve discussed this privately. Once Jianguo is weaned, we’ll talk to you about your plans. If you’re willing to stay in the Zhang family to take care of Jianguo, our whole family would be grateful to you and treat you like a daughter. We absolutely won’t mistreat you.

If you want to leave, whether or not you take Jianguo with you, we’ll agree and even give you some money as compensation. No matter what choice you make, you won’t be at a loss. But we didn’t expect you to run away when Jianguo was only three months old. You took the money, and we don’t blame you for that; we had already planned to give you some money if you wanted to leave. But Jianguo is only three months old! Without milk, he cries out in hunger, and in the end, he can only eat rice porridge.”

Li Yurong was speaking the truth; in the original story, after Zhang Tingyuan died, they encouraged the original protagonist to remarry and used Zhang Tingyuan’s death compensation as her dowry.

That was quite a sum of money.

If Lin Bingwei, who hadn’t given birth to a child, could do this, how much more so for Zhou Shufen, who was leaving a child for the Zhang family.

Unfortunately, Zhou Shufen didn’t believe her. “What use is it for you to say these things now? Why didn’t you say this back then?”

It was truly speechless; even after explaining the reasoning clearly, she still pretended to be confused.

Li Yurong said, “Didn’t I say that I wanted to wait until Jianguo was weaned to talk to you?”

“I don’t believe you; you’re just saying this to make me regret it.”

“…”

Zhang Tingyuan coldly pulled Li Yurong behind him. “Mom, why are you wasting words with her? People like this will never admit they did anything wrong.”

After saying that, he turned to Zhou Shufen and asked, “Since you stole money from the house and ran away, why are you back?”

“I…” Faced with Zhang Tingyuan, she wilted again, her voice much smaller, “I just wanted to see Jianguo; I came back to check on him.”

“Now you’ve seen him; why don’t you leave quickly?”

Seeing their family’s attitude, Zhou Shufen was very angry. She glanced at Zhang Jianguo and said, “No matter what, Jianguo is my son, and I will take him away.”

If she wanted to take Zhang Jianguo away, it would mean taking Li Yurong’s life, and Li Yurong’s face immediately changed.

Zhang Tingyuan shouted, “You wish! Let me tell you, Jianguo is a child of the Zhang family. You’ve already abandoned him, so don’t even think about taking him away.”

Zhou Shufen was frightened by his shout, and seeing the angry expressions on their faces, she didn’t linger and got up to leave.

However, as she left, she said, “You’re all just angry right now. I’ll come back in a few days.”

Zhang Tingyuan remained with a dark expression.

Li Yurong was so angry that it felt like her heart was aching.

“My poor grandson, how did he end up with such a mother?”

Lin Bingwei helped her into the house, while Zhang Tingyuan held onto Zhang Jianguo.

Now, Zhang Jianguo was no longer so afraid of Zhang Tingyuan; he treated him just like he did his grandparents and aunt.

The two of them could still play together.

Sitting on a stool in the room, Li Yurong couldn’t stop sighing, “Did you hear that? She said she wants to take Jianguo away, and she’s going to come back. Sigh!”

Zhang Tingyuan said, “If she comes back, don’t let her in.”

“But what if she blocks the door? What if she keeps coming back to pester us?”

Zhang Tingyuan replied, “Pester? Didn’t she choose to leave? What does she have to pester us about?”

Li Yurong looked up at Zhang Tingyuan, her eyes filled with frustration, “What else could she pester about? You poor fool, can’t you see she wants to cling to you?”

Zhang Tingyuan was momentarily speechless, “Weiwei, you have to believe me.”

Seeing his anxious expression, Lin Bingwei said, “I believe you, but she might not think that way.”

Zhang Tingyuan stammered, unable to find the right words. At one moment, he was worried Lin Bingwei would misunderstand, and at another, he looked fierce, clenching his fists as if he wanted to hit someone.

Lin Bingwei said, “Of course, what I’m really worried about is her trying to take Jianguo’s custody.”

At that time, people didn’t have much of a concept of custody. In their minds, since Zhou Shufen had abandoned the child three years ago, she naturally no longer had the right to raise him.

The Zhang family was relatively reasonable. Unlike other families in the village, they didn’t believe the child belonged to the woman; they thought whoever’s blood it was belonged to them.

So when Lin Bingwei raised this issue, Li Yurong was bewildered.

“That can’t be right. Jianguo definitely belongs to our family. We won’t give him to her; she can’t just take him by force.”

Li Yurong, being a traditional woman from the old society, didn’t understand the laws of the new era very well.

Lin Bingwei said, “But legally, she is Jianguo’s guardian.”

“But she left Jianguo three years ago; doesn’t the law care about that?”

“Didn’t she say she went out to work to earn money to support the child? So it’s hard to convict her of abandonment.”

Li Yurong was momentarily speechless, holding Zhang Jianguo tightly.

She had raised him; she definitely wouldn’t want to give him to a woman like Zhou Shufen.

Zhang Tingyuan said, “Don’t worry. If she dares to come for Jianguo, we’ll accuse her of stealing money. Sixteen hundred yuan is enough to get her locked up.”

Zhang Tingyuan had a fierce look on his face, feeling that even if Zhou Shufen didn’t come to take Jianguo, he still wanted to see her behind bars.

“Right, we have leverage against her.”

At this point, Li Yurong finally relaxed and said, “Let’s not talk about her anymore; it’s not worth getting angry over. Come on, let’s go eat.”